What do Hurricanes Ike, Hanna, Gustav and Faye Have in Common?

There are times I feel very lucky to been in a country as relatively well off as Nicaragua (no extremely catastrophic natural disasters to affect every corner of the country in almost 10 years!).

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

The Dominican Republic isn't far behind.

They both occupy the island of Hispaniola and they both have been hit by successive hurricanes Faye, Gustav, Hanna and Ike in the space of a few weeks.


They also both have NPH homes for orphaned and abandoned children and those homes are struggling to meet the needs of the children and their surrounding communities in the wake of such disaster.

For more information and ways you can help, go to www.nph.org. Following is a letter about the desperate situation from Father Rick in Haiti.

The NPH truck of water and supplies.

"Hello to all,

With much difficulty and facing raging nature in the form of winds and rains and flash floods we were able to get to Gonaives to help the sisters of Mother Teresa who are friends of ours as of 20 years they have sent many children to our orphanage over the years and we have helped them with many medical cases.

Some of their patients drowned in their house and the sisters were on the roof for 3 days unable to come down.

In any case we made it to Gonaives with 5 truckloads of help.

(We supplied) Mostly drinking water which is rare we went with 21,000 servings of water it is prepared like a glass of water in a small plastic bag.


We brought a ton of food and dry clothes and a pump, generator and gas to pump the water out of the compound.


We left last night but got caught between 2 raging rivers and spent the night in the trucks wondering what would happen to us and how we would cross but we fought our way through mud and waters today and made it to Port-au-Prince where all the bridges around our hospital are destroyed and there is massive flooding in parts of Port-au-Prince, and cabaret it is a very tragic situation.

As you know our orphanage had extensive damage but no one was harmed we will be without electricity for a few months I am sure.

As you know we had the effects of hurricane Ike last night so even though we left Gonaives it is flooded again to 3 meters as i write and by cell phone we know the sisters are back on the roof.

Tropical storms Faye, Gustav, Hanna and Hurricane Ike have displaced about 1,000,000 people in Haiti due to floods from a government source I heard today.

Best regards your prayers are appreciated.

fr rick"

Hot Day

It's so hot today not even the kittens can stand it when one body part touches another.

A Staple of Beans

Dried Beanstalk

Beans and rice (called Gallo Pinto here in Nicaragua) are at least one meal a day, if not two for pretty much everyone. The kids at the orphanage don't feel like they've eaten adequately during the day if they don't have it.

On the new property where we're making the new home for the Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos orphanage, we're also using the property for agriculture, including watermelon, squash and beans!

The rainy season is June through October and everything is growing like crazy. A group of teenage boys living on the property during their year of service harvested these beanstalks from the fields and after drying them on black sheets of plastic, set about to beat the beans out of their pods.

NPH teenagers who are currently living on the farm hit the piles with sticks.

It's a time and labor intensive process, but for the beans grown, sold and consumed here in Nicaragua, it's how it's done because of cheap labor.

Once the beans pods are thoroughly smashed, the bits of stalk and pod have to be cleaned out by hand. Another time intensive step.

Cleaned Beans

It sounds like a long and boring process and it generally is, but the fact is that in poor agricultural areas, these people aren't watching TV, or listening to music, or reading books. This is what they do, day in day out, all day.

Cooking beans over an open fire (but closed kitchen)

Fun with Photo Editing!

Can you tell which one is real a real Nicaraguan fruit?

Where in the World is Singapore (Seriously!)

So I know what you need now that you're back at work after a long weekend! A new addictive game (if you're nerdy like me that is). Unfortunately I can't embed it directly in the blog because my column width is too small, but if you're interested in the world in general, click through!

I eventually made it to level 12, but I don't think it counts when the only reason I know where Brunei is now, is because I've played this game!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Banana Dulce de Leche Eclairs

Mmmmmm... bananas, chocolate, dulce de leche. All ingredients raised and made within the borders of Nicaragua. How can you go wrong?

While I better not make this a habit, one decadent dessert after another, this Daring Bakers Challenge was worth it.

The original recipe is Chocolate Éclairs from Pierre Hermes' Chocolate Desserts. The choux pastry I made was from this recipe, while the filling was a very banana-y pastry cream from Cupcake Bakeshop.

Dulce de leche is easily bought in a cream cheese like tub at the grocery store, although it is called 'leche de cajeta' or cream of candy, a pretty fitting title.

This isn't by any means a traditional dessert in Nicaragua (although sometimes I'm surprised, I know French pastries have a historical home in Vietnam due to colonialism). But it is better suited to the climate than, say, a danish braid!

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the
boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium
and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very
quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You
need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough
will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your
handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,
beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.
You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do
not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you
have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it
should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:
1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking
sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the
piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Banana Pastry Cream

2 cups Whole milk
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg yolks
¼ cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter
2 bananas, medium sized

1. Heat milk, ¼ cup of the sugar, the vanilla, and salt in a pan over medium until it reaches a simmer,
2. Whisk egg yolks, cornstarch, and remaining ¼ cup sugar in a medium sized bowl until combined.
3. Slowly add ½ cup of the hot milk mixture to the egg mixture, whisking continuously.
4. Add remaining milk mixture slowly while whisking.
5. Transfer back into the pan and heat over medium-high heat, whisking constantly until it thickens. It will thicken all of a sudden, give it a good whisk then take it off the heat.
6. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer, add the butter, and with a paddle attachment beat on medium speed for 3 minutes.
7. Transfer to a bowl, cover will plastic wrap touching the cream, and refrigerate until cool, hour or so. This can be made a day in advance.
8. Chop two fresh bananas into small chunks and fold into the pastry cream before using.