The Mess

The mess that is now considered my room.

I  have been here for three nights, haven't slept in it once..

One can only unpack so much, without needing to stop for the little things in life-picking pretty flowers.

You built me a shelf for My side of the bed. 

So I snagged a photo when you weren't looking.

Enough said.

No Sugar Vegan Fruit Jambalaya ('Tart')

I absolutely love birthdays, and it is sort of a thing that I must bake something for someone if it is their special day. I thought it would be fun to make a fruit tart, trying to think of something that didn't use  any sugar (the person could not have sugar in their diet) so I came up with this. 

When I actually made it, I soon learned that this is nothing what a fruit tart is, so instead I call it 'Fruit Jambalaya', and I think it came out quite smashing.

The directions (loosely) are the following:

A Present to My Route

Part One

Part Two

Ezra is so big now.

Nevil Longbottom-you are so much cuter as Mathew Lewis.

Language Barriers.

The best part about working with campesinos is the feedback.

I was doing the participatory evaluations for community close-outs and my oh my, I think I would spend hour trying to ask one single question. Finally, towards the end of the evaluation (I did all of mine as one-on-one interviews) I would ask, and do you have any specific recommendations, suggestions or concerns for potential future years?

The answer:

• I think that they had a really hard time communicating. 
• I had a lot of trouble understanding them, more often than not, I had absolutely no idea what they were trying to tell me. 
• I think that in future years their Spanish should be better,               the students would just stare at them.
• They should teach us English, and we will teach them Spanish.

During Debriefing we were in Peña Blancas, and well there was this guy running down the road and Kyla (another Project Supervisor) and I both looked at each other, 'I wonder why he is in such a hurry'. Within a second later, I get bumped into again, this time it was a Police Man chasing him! Yikes, if I had moved one inch to the left I could have been shot..I forgot to mention that both of them had guns. 

The end.

Origami Orange Cake

                                                              This recipe comes from one of my vols. (Lauren). One week, she asked if I would bring cake mix..yes, cake mix to the campo. So being more than curious, I did-on the condition that she had to make the concoction when I was on Route (yes, I couldn't help but food blog, even while abroad.)                                                                                                                                                   She got the idea when she was a Girl-Scout, and it may just be the cutest thing ever. Although the recipe has some altering to do, (a lot) this is the simple way to say the least..

• You take a dozen or so oranges, cut the tops off (1/4) and scoop out the insides with a spoon. 
• Add a few drops of the orange juice into the batter for an extra kick.
• Add, eggs, and canola oil and mix the cake mix (so easy, my gosh..)
• Spoon the batter into the orange 'cups' (only partially, it will still rise)
• Wrap the orange in tin foil and pop into the fire. 

The more coals you have the better, but this can be done at a bon fire, in Honduras, or on the grill! 

Ours turned out a bit bitter, but in the campo it was gold.

Dear Diary,

I think I re-fell in love about three times yesterday, is this possible?

A wise man in the Campo once said, 

"No pongase triste, ni importa si el verano esta terminando-su experiencia esta en su mente y nunca va a terminar hasta que se muere." (ish)

a.k.a. "your summer may be ending, but your experience lives until you die." 

I just remembered, the other day there was this bird eating a small intestine.
It was quite disgusting.

see you soon.

good-bye my sweet ones, yr faces were perhaps the best to wake up to. but alas, it is time to say our good-byes. meaning that you can no longer give me scabies, we can no longer fight for a shower on a water day, and we can’t vent to each other about silly things like not having  the yummy coffee cookies, which we all love so much.

it has been fun, these past ten weeks or so, there are many fond memories that i probs. won’t forget: Eliza’s awkward dancing, King’s Cup with Emergen-C, the mouse crawling over Klya in her sleep, the dead one we found behind the vols.’ things, and of course Florian in his itsy-bitsy underwear for dinner.

i hope that we do meet up, and that we do have a chance to teach the beloved grandma Marissa, what exactly ‘the Lil’ Wayne’ is.

anyone down for bungee-jumping in Canada? It’s free if you go naked…

Los Resultos

¿Hay algo que los voluntarios pueden hacer mejor?

No. Creo que hicieron todo lo mejor posible para realizar el proyecto y brindar las charlas a los alumnos.

¿Colmos, aspectos positivos, ocurrencias favoritas (Ej. Momentos específicos, éxitos, relaciones formados, etc.)?

> Al momento de pintar el monograma, observaban como se constrúyale andamio para pintar en la parte alta de la pared, y se decía: es peligroso, yo no subo allí…pero al final, fue superado y lo que parecía difícil fue logrado.

Todo lo puedo en Cristo que me fortalece (Filipense 4:13)

> Mi ocurrencia: durante la elaboración del monograma tuvimos una confusión con Hanna y Laurena, ya que no lográbamos comunicarnos por nuestras idiomas, y tuvimos que llamar a Alejandra para lograr entendernos, luego esto nos causo mucha risa.

¿Comentarios más?

> Nos gustaba el plegado del día viernes y jugábamos con ellos gracias por enseñarnos.

> Jugar y platicar de las plantas y nos gusto mucho de los árboles me gusto mucho.

> Los voluntarios son muy amable y les ensañó al los niños por eso los niños aprendieron en las clases. 

Word of the Day

holus-bolus \HOH-luhs-BOH-luhs\, verb:

To cleanse.

We spent perhaps way too much time together, and now we have withdrawal. To the panqueques, the Hondo Hipsters and Florian's Farts:
Our Baleada Bunch Blog.


Comprised of Bachata dancing, scabies ridden, bacterially infected and hemorrhoided hotties, the Baleada Bunch got it's name from stuffing their faces with quite a few too many Baleadas per day. Now we can only dream of the damn things-

I hate airplanes, wow-forgot how much.

But on my last plane, the one where they had us wait for an hour before we could take off, and to comfort us they told us that there were 'mechanical difficulties' the person next to me disappeared. Normally, I would be nervous or scared for person X's safety-but for me this meant an extra seat and sleep!

I suppose sleep is the reward for having to travel so long and having your plane delayed three hours and gate changed four.

The end.

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ....into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films.....

= 

a trip of a lifetime.

move, eat, learn

Rick Mereki : Director, producer, additional camera and editing
Tim White : DOP, producer, primary editing, sound
Andrew Lees : Actor, mover, groover

"Hola Tamale"

I just got back from Close-Outs, where I stayed over at my favorite host family’s house..I heard many stories as they missed the lil’ vol. possibly too much. The funniest being when they introduced him to tamales…I suppose this non-West Coast kid was just in such shock as to what they were..when he got them he said hello. “Hola Tamale” The family thought it was perhaps the funniest thing in the world. 

Dear Diary,

I leave tomorrow, and frankly-I am not sure if I am ready to go.
See you soon, I'm off to find you some presents and do some interviews.

Wish me luck-

Té de Canela

Té de canela para bajar colesterol y triglicéridos :: Why are so you so fricken' tasty? 


Slash, you lower cholesterol too? Added bonus.

Dear Diary, 

Yes, please.

Encurtido

Gracias a Doña Constantina.


Hecha unas gotas de limón.

Unas cucharas de sal (al gusto.)

Poco azúcar.

Hierva todo, y de allí coloca lo que le gustaría: cebolla, chile picante, coliflor, pimienta, etc. Se pasa todo de eso por agua hervida, y ya.

 

To the left, everyone in a box to the left.

hemorrhoid |ˈhem(ə)ˌroid| ( Brit. haemorrhoid)

noun (usu. hemorrhoids)

a swollen vein or group of veins in the region of the anus. Also (collectively) called piles .

DERIVATIVES

hemorrhoidal |ˌhem(ə)ˈroidl| adjective

ORIGIN late Middle English : via Old French and Latin from Greek haimorrhoides (phlebes) ‘bleeding (veins),’ from haima ‘blood’ + an element related to rhein ‘to flow.’

Let us just say that this was a fun exam to have in Dr. Rigo’s office—it was genuinely one of my fondest memories here in Honduras. 

The highlight from this lil’ visit? 

I don’t think I can say-somewhere between the medication prescribed is: a butt cream, a poop blander, and amoeba fighting agents and the exam itself…perhaps it is just too close to even judge.

A Conversation Between Me & You

Me: What is track 12 of “DJu Wan?”

You: You make no sense.

Me: The CD you made me two years ago.

You: The DJ may be Morgan Page? Sorry, in Redwood City getting ___.

Me: Can I come with you next time?!

You:                             (no response)

Me: Please.

You: (changing the subject) Btw…Little _____ito has been testing me all the way from Middle America.

Me: Oh __________ito, if only u knew. Yr tactics stand no chance..or do they? Has my Lil’ Birdwatcher gone coocoo for someone else’s eggs? Keep in mind that u can get them for far less than what this may cost u. Slash Middle America, its awfully subsidized to seem to like quality market goods and services.

Debriefing Funk.

I can’t help but be a lil’ let down with Debriefing. There was a lot of energy floating around, and too many things to tend to-but when it came to good-byes, I had to use pats on the backs, equivocating to real ones. Poor me, the bus stop came out of nowhere, literally, it was actually just an arbitrarily chosen stretch of the land.  An added plus, the lil’ ones thought it would be fun to have a DP on the last night, full of candy, cookies and really loud song lyrics. The best part (on our end) was that these lil’ ones drew all over their faces, and due to our planning, still have marker all over their face during Immigration and Customs! Your welcs. But, looky-aren't they darn cute?!

Mommy Dearest,

When I get home can we please go and get yummy bagels..you know, just the way that I like them: sesame, slightly toasted with tomato and a chocolate milk..with a straw.

Thanks, slash I can't wait to give you a big hug too.

Six months is a bit too long for me, don't know about you..
Plus then we can stay up late at night and tell each other stories and laugh until our tummies hurt.

Ate mãezinha, diga oi á meus avos. 

Dear Diary,

I just got the lamest email ever. Pretty much it says that I will not be seeing someone special for an additional nine days after I get back. Is it entirely selfish of me to be tremendously bummed? I leave him for nine weeks, and he is goes for nine days. Any-who, got me some Stevie Wonder to brighten things up..