Working hard

Just in case you all thought we were lying on the beach drinking pina coladas, we're not.
The homes we're building are made of concrete block and yesterday, I had the task of priming the walls with a runny mixture of concrete and water. The bricklayer called it "soupa." One person would throw a cup of the mixture on the wall and then I would brush it with a broom. It is, I beleive, the messiest job I have ever done in my life. The shower felt mighty good.

El Salvador 2

It was only 6 days ago that we left Manitoba for Central America. Right now, I'm sitting beside the pool, enjoying the 30 C (that's PLUS 30 for all you Northerners), weather in Usulutan province, El Salvador. We are staying close to the hotel because today is election day in El Salvador and the people here take their elections very seriously. Nobody is expecting anything to happen but there may be some unhappy people driving about and we are told that we best stay away from town.

It's very common for men to walk around with machetes and almost every store has a security guard with a rifle so we don't want to take any chances. We also have a guard here at the hotel with a rifle that he carries lovingly around with him at all times. We are especially friendly towards him! I feel very safe here and the local Habitat office is doing a good job of taking care of us.

We were in town this morning though to watch some of the festivities. All the kiosks you see in the picture are voting booths. Over 80 percent of Slavadorans vote. Once they are finished voting, they must ink their thumb so as to keep anyone from voting more than once.

There is not much tourism here so we 12 Canadians turn heads wherever we go. People are very friendly, always smiling when we pass them on the street. I find the fact that I do not know Spanish to be a definite disadvantage and I vow to learn basic Spanish at the very least for the next time I come here. And I do plan to come back to Central America.

We started working on our Habitat house on Wednesday. Carlos and Miguel, the bricklayers on our house, are letting us do just about every job that needs to be done. On some sites, the volunteers don't get to do as much as we do. All the homes must be able to withstand an earthquake. There are minor earthquakes every day in this country although we haven't noticed any.

I missed Thursday at the work site as I developed some gastro intestinal thing, a common occurence when travelling. There have been 6 of the 12 of us who were down for the count, as it were which apparently is a pretty high percentage for Habitat. I guess it's part of the whole experience.

I am holding a Coke bottle, full of gasoline. Nowhere in Canada would anyone let you do this! Carlos, our bricklayer was mixing gas with paint for priming steel beams while smoking a cigarette. I made sure I stayed far away!
A fairly typical home in El Salvador

The market. Oh the beautiful fruits, vegetables and food that was being prepared! I loved the market and would have loved to buy food from there but my stomach is still not back to normal and I wouldn't want another bout of what I had last week!

El Salvador

After a loooong day of travel, we are finally in El Salvador. It is amazing to me that only 2 days ago I could hardly stand the cold and today, the heat is really getting to me. It doesn't take long to change from one extreme to the other.

Yesterday we had an 8 hour layover in Los Angeles and one of the airline employees suggested we go to Santa Monica Third Street Promenade. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon and evening. We dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean, window shopped on the promenade and ate sushi on a patio while we watched the sun set.

At midnight we boarded a plane for the red eye flight to El Salvador where we landed at 5:15 AM. We got to the hotel and met most of our Habitat home building team. There are 12 of us, ranging in age from 20 something to a couple in their 60's. After a power nap, we spent the day travelling around to some ruins, and a lake that was formed from the crater of a volcano. Tomorrow, we travel to Usulutan, a small rural community, where we plan to build 2 houses.

I had planned to upload some pictures but blogger doesn't seem to be cooperating. We will not have internet access at Usulutan so this may be the last you hear of me for a while.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

Gave a kiss to our most beautiful granddaughter who will be soooo different when we get back.

Tomorrow we leave for El Salvador for 2 weeks. With all the busyness of packing, moving and talking about renovations, I haven't given much thought to our trip to Central America. I am getting excited now that the suitcases are packed up. It will be a great trip I'm sure. We'll be building houses for Habitat for Humanity and also spending several days of R&R at what looks like a lovely resort.

Hopefully we will have computer access in El Salvador so I will try to post from there.

The Newest Member of our Family

I usually hate those middle of the night phone calls because most often, they bring bad news. Not this one though. We learned of baby's imminent arrival around 2:30 AM and by 3:35, she was here. In my very unbiased opinion, she's gorgeous.

The first family portrait Aryana Faith
The proud papa

Kristen's Bedroom

Plans are coming along nicely for our new/old home.

Last week I painted the bedroom in the basement which will be Kristen's. I made a quilt for her and we needed to find something that would match the bright colours that we chose.Thank goodness for the internet. I was able to send her pictures of the wall colour for her approval before I proceeded.

Complaints

Every year, around this time, I complain about the weather. It is friggin' cold here and I'm sick of it! Why did I choose to live in a northern climate? Why oh why?

The Dogs Welcome Yvonne

Happy Birthday Michele!

First we toasted to your health.

And we baked a cake

Fianlly, the happy birthday song as only we can sing it in 12 part harmony.

Poor Jed

A few days ago I was thinking that Jed was looking a little skinnier than usual so when Yvonne said the same thing, I thought that I'd better check it out. Dixie's collar seemed to be kind of loose too.

Turns out that the food that we're feeding the dogs is "lite." Poor things.

Now they're getting more food and I'm starting to add some yummy used canola oil to their kibbles. Problem with the additional food is that the amount of poop they produce has increased exponentially. Bleah.

I wish I could loose weight as easily as dogs. But I would not want to poop as much as dogs. Bleah.

Dinner at DeLuca's

For dinner last night, Anna cooked.
Pizza with Ricotta cheese and Cacciatore sausage; bruschetta with Sundried tomatoes. "You gotta hava da sundried tomatoes becausa dey da beste."Pasta with Tuna Sauce. "Ya gotta usa de tuna ina oil becausa de flavour isa mucha better."This is not a very good picture of the delicious Veal with Mushroom and Pepper sauce and Potatoes with Herbs, Parmesan and Caciocavallo.I'm sure that I took a picture of the Tiramasu for dessert but I don't know what happened to it. You'll have to take my word for it that it was both beautiful and delicious.

Random Bits and Pieces

Went to church yesterday morning. I don't like religion, but I love going to church. The music, the videos, the sharing and the chatting afterwards is like balm to my soul. What a great community of people we have.

In the afternoon, there was an adults against the teens hockey game. The weather was gorgeous, the ice smooth and there were a lot of people out. There were a few guys, not part of our "group" who joined us. They had a blast too. Wes' glasses were the only casualty.

People are asking me if I've started packing yet. Truth is, I haven't. There really isn't much to do. We got rid of a lot of stuff when we first put the house on the market and the rest of the stuff is what we use.

Carolyn is doing great. As a matter of fact there is a good chance that she will acually go to full term! That is great news, especially considering that we thought this baby could very well have been born as early as Christmas. Carolyn has been taking great care of this baby. She'll be a good mom.

We are going to El Salvador in March for 2 weeeks with Habitat for Humanity. Should be a great time. Except if Carolyn goes overdue, this baby might be born while we're away! I hope she comes before we leave. It will be hard to be so far away with all the excitement and wonder of a new baby in the family.

I chatted for the first time in my life on facebook with Kristen last week. She's having a marvellous time in South Africa. What an experience for her!

I chatted on the phone with Michele last week too. It sounds like they are also having the time of their lives.

Tonight was Monday night dinner. Our numbers are dwindling with several family members out of the country and a couple away at school. The food and conversation is still good though.

I don't know how to end this dull, boring post so I'll just stop.

We've been talking lots about our move from this old house, to our new old house. While I'm excited and happy that we are finally getting on with our lives the change of leaving this place and moving into something else can be a little overwhelming.

Our plan is to share a house with my sister Michele and her husband Rob and their 2 sons. Rob and Michele already own the house and we plan to change it into 2 separate condos. This will require extensive renovations, while we live there. That's the overwhelming part. What do we take with us and what do we store? Where will we all live when Rob and Michele get back from their trip? I find that I worry more than I ever used to. I know that worrying about all of this will not help but it's hard for me not to obsess about this stuff. I used to be so easy going! I thrived on chaos. No more! Now I worry.

I know it will all work out and I can envision the time when I will be relaxing in my new home, acknowledging that it was all worth it and grateful for such a peaceful, beautiful home.

I'm also looking forward to living so close to my sister that all I need to do is walk up the stairs to borrow a cup of sugar, curry paste or some quinoa. She's got a lot of interesting stuff in her pantry.

Yes, it will all be good. I've survived some pretty chaotic times in my life and I know I'll survive this one too. Actually, I want more than to survive. I want to enjoy this time.

It's all in the attitude, isn't it?

Cooking Class

For Christmas, I got a gift certificate for cooking classes at DeLuca's, an Italian grocery/bakery/wine store in Winnipeg. Last night, Wes and I went to our first class. Mmmmm.

It was all pretty authentic Italian food. Most of the products they used had been shipped from Italy. And chef Anna was pretty adamant about what to use.

"You must use Italian anise seed. It's much better."
"Parmeggiana Reggiano is the best."
"Don't use half and half."

The Tortellini Bolognese Style soup was absolutely delicious. I think my favourite course was "Farfalle with Cream and Mushroom sauce." Ingredients are whipping cream, butter, mushrooms, garlic, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

There was no calorie or fat information with these recipes although all the fat was skimmed off of the broth for the soup. Good thing.

We are signed up for 3 more classes this month. Yum, yum.

Sold

What are we toasting you ask?

THE SALE OF OUR HOUSE!

Yvonne's been busy

Once everything is in place, I'll let you know what she's going to do with all these sweet things!

Black wool with penny buttonsOut of Africa

Vintage Quilt

Michele's Curtain

Chelsea' Idea

Wool with penny buttons

i just watched the inaugural address.

Wow.

Barak Obama's speech was one of incredible hope. I was inspired as were millions of Americans, I'm sure. He has a huge job ahead of him and people will begin to criticize him as soon as he opens his mouth on his official first day. But today, there is hope.

The benediction was also inspiring. The man who spoke it (I didn't catch his name) had such a vision for the world and for peace. If there were more Christians like him, this world would be a much better place.

The best part of the whole thing? After the speech, he turned to his family and Malia, his eldest daughter nodded her head and told him that it was a pretty good speech. I don't read lips but I could swear she said, "You rock dad."

Finally!

This past weekend, we accepted an offer on our house. It was a good offer and we are confident that the condition that is on the offer will be met before too long.

The people who bought our house fell in love with it as soon as they came through the front door. We saw them twice this weekend (!) because they wanted to show it to their daughters and then they wanted to be here while the home inspection was taking place. It is obvious that they love this place.

They need to sell their house before February 22 but we are confident that will not be a problem. It is a sellable house and the Winnipeg real estate market is still going strong. Not as hot as it was a year ago, but strong nevertheless. My gut tells me that even if their house does not sell, they will still go ahead with the purchase of this house.

Hurray! Eight months and almost 50 showings. Sleepless nights and then trying to remain optimistic. It's finally happening. We need to be out by March 29.

Many people have asked what our plans are for our next place. Michele owns a big, rambling old home in St. Boniface and we are splitting that house into 2 condos. Wes and I will own the main floor and basement, Rob and Michele will own the second and third floors.

After all the major renovations are finished, it will be a great place for us. In the meantime, I expect that there will be a fair bit of chaos in our lives for the next six months or so. Stay tuned for updates!

How cold, you ask?

Colder than the North Pole (-27C) and the South Pole (-26C).

The headlines in the local paper claim that the Arctic blast can't defeat Winnipeggers. Well, I'm pretty close to defeated, let me tell you.


Brrrr.

Adventure of a Lifetime

Kristen left yesterday for South Africa and things are mighty quiet around here.


The bedroom's a little too neat.

The Blackberry's been turned off for a much needed rest.

The schedule.