Blog for Lea

Pics of Jenny and Patty's visit to be posted soon....I need to be sent them, especially the sweet Charco jumping shots.


Thank you again for the birthday wishes and mail box loving!
Love,
Sarah

Picture update

Bluegrass night at Mica's. Patty and Jenny visita!!! I totally didn't pull my camera out enough Jenny and Patty - please send me some of your fotos.














Sweet Jams














Eva's new spice rack! This was my women's day workshop combined with little photo frames. This is seriously easy to make and is great if you like organizing your campo kitchen.














Eva's girls playing the parts of famous Dominican women.















Bija looking friendly. Or not.














Redix, Estephanie, and Brenda.














Vale's birthday with cake and entertainment from my kids. Ali 1 is the one in the front with big ears and missing teeth.



















Un tomate, I had a pretty good tomato harvest. Fresh tomato salsa is good.


















Trying to figure out if this is a vanilla orchid. The pods looked like it but I now have my doubts. It sure is pretty though.


















Bobo - Hispanolan Lizard Cuckoo I think it's called in English. My kids and I have been drawing birds to learn about their parts, their songs, the reason why they are important, and start developing the love for them. Then we practice with the Binoculars to spot real birds and also hide our drawing in the cacao to develop birder instincts hopefully to replace slingshot ones. These guys are actually fairly large and really cool.
















Here's my neighbor Eva! This is a beeswax candle we made. We have a list of things to do before she leaves and this was a checkmark. We are thinking about starting a small business....or maybe just save a bit of money on all the candles we use :)

Hope all is well!
Love,
Sarah

Not enough time to really write

Hey All!

Not enough time to really update at the moment but here are some pics I stole from Ben. Here is an actual whale we saw. Just to clarify I didn´t take that previous picture....but I did see that breachin´action happening!

Just finished up yesterday with a WONDERFUL WEEKEND of visits and International Women´s Day Celebration that Eva and I planned for our surrounding communities that was hosted in Rincon Hondo. I think it turned out really well and am really happy I could be a part of it!

Eva did a wonderful job of preparing her charlas and also decorating the club and being incargada (Big boss lady). She did talks on AIDS and women´s history of the DR with her girls doing little skits. Tamara came up and talked about domestic violence and equality in the household so super big thanks to her. She also caught me up on the office and Pam and Jim´s wedding which was pretty much amazing haha. Ben came up and helped me prep for my carpentry workshop which although might have seemed chaotic to most people ... I personally thought turned out quite well. I showed them how to make a spice rack with wood that the ferreteria was throwing away and then had teams of people build little photo frames. Eva is an artist and was going to have a little lesson on how to paint them but we ran out of time because with Dominican time...everything always starts at least an hour late. I also wrote a little song that went well trying to incorporate self esteem into my talk. It´s cute and cheesy ie Dominicans dig it. You´ll have to visit me to hear it! (I am so excited for Jenny and Patty!!!)

Yo soy Mujer

Yo soy el aire y la tierra
Yo soy la sangre y el corazon
Yo soy la fuerza y la belleza
Yo soy mujer, yo soy mujer

Yo soy la mente y el coraje
Tengo la gracia en mis pasos
Yo soy hermosa y poderosa
Yo soy mujer yo soy mujer

Coro:
Yo puedo hacer cualquiere cosa
Solo necesito tener la fe en mi misma

Yo soy las aves Yo soy las flores
Yo soy la luna Yo soy el sol
Yo soy la madre Yo soy la hija
Y tu amiga. Yo soy Mujer!
Coro

I tried to get my reading group to come up and help me sing and do the little motions with the song but there were quite a few people and I was even feeling a little timida at one point.

I don´t have my chord to plug in my camera at the moment but will post pics soon of the event. A huge thank you to the volunteers that helped out. If Gango, Eva´s carpentry guy, had internet and read my blog I´d send him the biggest thanks. I hugged him instead because he helped me so much hand cutting the picture frame pieces. We set them at 45 degree angles so they actually look cool.

Other than that all is well on my end. We had a fabulous weekend of cooking - Lemon Pesto Chicken on Penne, Lentil Soup, Oatmeal bread, Mozerrella CHEESE which is so cool by the way, peanut butter brownies, and pizza with everything from scratch topped with tomato and basil from the garden. I´ve been wanting to do that basically my whole life. It was a wonderful feeling. It was a wonderful weekend :)

Hope all is well!
Love,
Sarah