Our week at a glance: PART 2

Here are photos from Thursday.  I told you we had a busy week.

I finished reading through Acts and Ecclesiastes this week.  I feel Ecclesiastes really is applicable in our stage of life right now.

So I promised you pictures of the tree nursery project and here they are!  There are 1,064 bags in total.  I'm so excited for the end result.

Thursday we visited El Alto and did some light weeding so the weeds don't hurt the seed.

There were a lot of bags to weed through.

Ready to be Caoba trees

The one's we planted most recently are on the left and the one's that have been growing for a while are on the right.  Soon our seeds will look like baby trees!

Brennan climbing trees in order to pick me some mamones.

We came out to work in the tree nursery, but somehow I ended up putting relaxer in Rudith's hair.  The instructions were only in English so she needed some help so good thing we showed up.  She had more hair on her head then I've ever seen on any woman.  It only took me an hour:)  This was the first time I met her and yes my first time every using relaxer.  I sure hope it turns out okay!  

Rudith then guided us to a near by waterfall.  It's supposedly really clean once the rain comes and people swim in it all the time.  I guess I'll believe it when I see it.

These mamones (don't know the English word for them) have to be one of my new favorite fruits.

The mamon reminds me a lot of lychee.  It has a soft sweet pulp that you eat and a large yellow seed in the middle.  Great for an afternoon snack.

Little Nelson is like our shadow these days.  He's somehow always right behind you when you least expect it.  

On a side note Brennan found out the hard way that he had an allergic reaction to cement.  After working the day away with Francisco laying down a cement floor on Monday he discovered a really itchy red spot on his arm and red bumps and blisters on his face.  It's called cement burn and it's definitely not comfortable. The rashes seem to be spreading, but he just visited the clinic in Santiago today so hopefully the antibiotics will help.  We'll keep you posted.  


More photos of our week to come!

Our week at a glance: PART 1

We've had a lot going on this week so in order not to overwhelm you with a million pictures in one blog post I'll spread them out over a couple posts.  Here is our week at a glance starting from Sunday through Tuesday.

You may not be able to tell but this car is packed with 19 passengers for a 15 passenger van.  Brennan and I were squeezed into the back seats between two men.  Let's just say it was a cramped and sweaty hour and fifteen minutes back to Calobre.

Can't get enough of the mangos.  Plus it's kind of fun peeling them with a knife.

Sunday soccer game.  Not completely impressed, but still fun to watch.

Thanks to my wonderful mother I can now enjoy my chai tea every morning.  She's the best.

Baby Liz is always so content, especially with her abuela.

Or with her hermano

She's a chunk and we love her.

Playing dominoes our new favorite game with Francisco.

Somehow Francisco always wins.

Monday morning woke up at 4 am to bake some bread with Zoila.  Francisco made me a makeshift apron. Yes that's a jump rope holding it all together.

Completed the bread and satisfied with a job well done.

Tuesday Brennan had a meeting in Santiago with MEDUCA so we grabbed some of our favorite food for lunch.  Brennan of course went for the piled high plate of rice, beans, salad, and chicken at Tropicalismo.

I on the other hand opted for some Philly salmon sushi rolls from Cheesecake +.  Can that place get any better, they serve two of my favorite things cheesecake and sushi in the same place.  It just warms my heart.

Mango season

It's Mango season here and they are EVERYWHERE. More importantly, they are delicious! Lacey and I didn't care much for mango's in the states, I mean they made for a great chutney and all, but we've never really craved plain-old raw mango's until now. We also have yet to pay for a mango. Similar to blackberries in the Northwest all you need to do is go far a walk, spot some ripe ones, gather, and eat your fill.   


We didn't know how to cut a mango until just a week ago.  For those of you who are in the dark like we were here is a little tutorial:

1) Cut both sides of the mango separating the flesh from the flat oblong pit in the center.  You should end up with three pieces- two halves and the middle section that includes the pit.
2) Take mango half and take a sharp knife to cut lengthwise and crosswise without cutting through the peel.
3) Invert the peel so the cubed pieces are popping out.  Either peel the cubed pieces right from the peel or use a knife to cut the pieces away from the peel
4) There may be some extra flesh on the center piece that includes the pit.  Take your knife and shave away slices until you hit the pit.
5) Enjoy!

They're everywhere

We like our mango's a bit harder in texture and not as soft

Cut and enjoy!

To fry or not to fry

After living in Panama for 3 months now I can officially say with confidence that Panamanians love their fried food!  Eggs.........fried, bread...........fried, chicken...........fried, fish...........fried, plantains..............also fried.  Basically my fried food intake has increased 99% since being in Panama.  Now I wouldn't consider myself a  health nut or anything, but I rarely ate fried food in the States.  Brennan and I were fairly health conscious of what we put in our bodies and where our food came from.  We haven't completely lost our food values since being in Panama, but it's just much harder to practice healthy eating habits when the options are limited. 


We've been living with a host family who owns a restaurant and doesn't have a kitchen in their house so we eat all of our meals at their restaurant.  Since there isn't a refrigerator in the house we can't store any of our own food to eat, for example if I just wanted a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast or to store some jelly for a sandwich.  This makes our ability to choose healthy options vs fried options close to impossible.  In a small way I can relate to the guy from Super Size Me.  We've gone from rarely eating  fried food to the complete opposite extreme of eating it everyday for every meal.  

Breakfast

Lunch option #1

Lunch option #2

Dinner option #1 (we got a special surprise of salad and avocado this night!)

Dinner option #2 (non fried out of the ordinary)

Now let me make it clear that our host family is so generous with feeding us and the food is generally really good (which makes it harder not to eat) and we feel very blessed to be well feed. Though we miss the luxury of endless food options in the States,  Brennan and I are extremely grateful for our families hospitality and generosity.  That said, I do want people to know how every aspect of our experience is affecting us and that includes food. It's been a month and a half now with our host family and this eating style is affecting me.  My energy level has been low, my body never feels great after the meals, and lets just say my pants are tighter than when I first arrived in Panama (Brennan has probably put on some pounds too but he's not complaining). Anyway, my dilemma is that I don't want to offend my host family with always turning down meals, but on the other hand I'm a little paranoid about my health.  Where do you draw the line when it comes to your health?


As for now all I can do is to continue to be grateful that we are being fed while dreaming of what we'll eat once we move into our own place and have our own kitchen (which is in June!).  


Some of the first things I'm going to make are: 
Breakfast: oatmeal, chai tea, hard boiled egg, french toast, granola and yogurt
Lunch: gigantic salad, fruit salad (there are so many yummy fruits to choose  
from), banana bread
Dinner: steamed veggies, fish tacos, baked chicken, quinoa (if I am lucky enough 
to find it in the grocery store)


If any of you have great healthy recipes (with basic ingredients because I have no idea what I'll be able to find in the grocery stores) please send them my way!

Spanish

I think I'm just one of those people that second languages don't come easy for.  Before coming to Panama the last time I spoke Spanish was in high school 7 years ago.  I feel like I lost so much in those 7 years and I'm practically back to the basics.  It's been difficult building deeper relationships with people when all the topics you converse about it are weather, their job, or fruits every time you see them. I think Brennan and I have it even tougher as a married couple because we use English with each other on a regular basis.  For those volunteers alone in their site they don't have the luxury of using English and are forced to live outside their comfort zone in order to communicate.  Those other volunteers will probably see faster results than we will since our Spanish frequency isn't as consistent.  However, I have tried to be diligent this past week and review a book our friend Alberto gave us.  The book is title English and it's meant for beginning Spanish speakers who want to learn English, but I'm cheating and using it for the reverse.  It goes over everything from past, present, future tenses to verbs that are commonly used in all those tenses.  I don't care if it's meant for kids I love it!  I feel like I'm learning things I should have learned years ago in Spanish class but happened to miss.  So even though the Spanish is going slow at least I have some help to get me though it:)

Notice the pronunciation in the middle.  I think it's hilarious trying to sound it out to make English sentences.

When I copy things down I tend to remember them better.

Answer to prayers

Some of you may know that lately I've been kind of discouraged in my job.  It's hard entering an entirely new community, knowing no one, and preforming a job you don't exactly know how to do.  I'm sure there are a lot of other volunteers who have felt the same way I do.  This has been weighing heavy on my heart lately and to be completely honest getting me down.  However I'm learning that the Lord is so faithful and answers prayers when you most need it.  Today was my answer to prayer.


Brennan and I had scheduled to meet with ANAM (an environmental agency I partner with) to go out to visit a group they are working with.  ANAM works with tons of different groups, but for some reason I assumed (never assume) it was the same women's group I had met the other day that did a lot of farming work.  I'm definitely not against learning about farming, but I certainly don't have any knowledge to impart on these hard working ladies.  I felt more useless than anything and was feeling a little unmotivated to participate a second day.  But for some reason God had a different plan and ANAM actually ended up taking us to another project they are heading up with a different group in the same location.  This project deals with "viveros" which means tree nurseries.  For some odd reason I had really been wanting to take part in a reforestation project (even though I know nothing about them) and I completely counted it an answer to prayer when we showed up at the site.  When we arrived  little black bags were already filled with the special soil (mixed with compost and healthier than the dirt from the ground) so our first job was to dig little holes into each bag of soil and plant the tree seeds.  By the end Brennan and I planted 1,064 Caoba seeds and can I tell you our legs and backs were feeling it from all the squatting we did (approximately 3 hours)!  We then transferred every single bag by wheelbarrow to a marked off location under a special tarp in order to keep the seeds from harm from intense sun or rain.  While transferring the bags I also did a little weeding to eliminate any weeds that might cause harm to the seed.  Then a little watering and now we watch them grow.  It will take about 15 days for the seeds to germinate and in the mean time Javier who lives next to the nursery will water the seeds twice a day and do daily weeding.  Brennan and I will check up with him in one week to see how the process is going.  Eventually, I believe in one or two months, we will create organic compost to put around the baby trees to help  nourishment them.  The end goal is to transplant the trees into an area that will replace the trees that have been cut down.  Some benefits to planting trees are the increase of availability of products like firewood, fruits, etc.  Also trees help provide wind breaks, help ensure quality air and water through natural methods, and improve the environment by preventing soil erosion and increasing soil fertility.  If you want to learn more about tree nurseries and the benefits to reforestation check out this link: http://www.ecologic.org/en/reforestation


Anyways the whole point of today's blog is to say God answers prayers.  Brennan and I had a blast learning this new process and contributing to something that can make a great environmental impact.  I needed a day like today to lift my spirits and get me excited about my program.  He is always so faithful and has the perfect timing.  I'm really excited to be working with the vivero and I'll fill you in on how it's coming along in the coming months.  Sorry no pictures today because my camera was out of battery, but I'll snag some next week when we go back to the site.


Oh I forgot to mention I met a new friend named Bella through the women's group and she invited us over for lunch today.  She made us toasted rice (different from the normal white rice), chicken and pasta.  We had a great time chatting with her and she gave us tons of mango to take home (my new favorite fruit!).  Working with the tree nursery and having lunch with the nicest lady just made for a wonderful uplifting day.  Thanks to everyone that has been keeping us in your prayers!

Date Night

Brennan and I were in serious need for a date night.  Living in a house of 7 people leaves little to no privacy.  So we decided to take a little overnight trip to Santiago this Sunday.  Little did we know that Panamanians really take Sunday as their Sabbath.  Barely any of the stores were open by the time we made it to the city. We made the few errand stops that we could and relaxed in the hotel before we made our way to Hotel Galleria for some delicious food.  I satisfied my soup craving with creme of asparagus and a side order of garlic bread and boiled veggies.  Brennan ordered stuffed chicken croquette's and a plate containing a mountain of arroz con pollo.  Of course we had to top the night off with cheesecake and lemon meringue pie which made for the perfect bedside dessert.  Nothing beats lazy Sunday's in your air conditioned hotel room with Seinfeld playing on your TV in English!  Did I mention there was hot water for showers.  Hallelujah!

Hotel Gran David (air conditioning and hot showers!)

Taking a stroll through the hotel garden

Brennan chose the beer

and of course I chose the white wine

Creme of asparagus soup, garlic bread, and boiled veggies

Lemon meringue pie and strawberry cheesecake in bed

Being lazy