Photo taken on a little trip in October
One week to go, are you ready?
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
When Life Hands You Limes
Make Limonada! Seriously! It sounds cheesy, but sooooo good.
Just grab a bunch of limes from your tree.
Peel them (it makes the juice less bitter).
For every 1/2 cup lime juice, add: 1/8 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water.
Notes: squeeze through a sieve or cheesecloth to keep seeds out.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Rainy rainy rainy season. Today we've got the tail of a tropical depression swinging through and so everything gets soaked: the ground, the plants, the dogs, you, the roof (which then starts to leak for the first time ever).
It's this time of year, these last few months, that everything grows like crazy preparing for the months of hot and humid air.
Gunther fights his way through the baby-elephant-eye-high grasses that have grown up covering a dirt road in the last six months.
This leads to pruning season, it is generally any time before the end of the rainy season. Pruning here, I think, would generally be considered something along the lines of chopping in less fruitful climes.
Here, it's just getting things a little under control, because soon, they'll be back with a vengeance!
Chop, chop, chop!
Friday, September 12, 2008
What do Hurricanes Ike, Hanna, Gustav and Faye Have in Common?
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"
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
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)
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