We had a great time with family at a Yankees Game on Sunday! Our family (my husband's side) had an entire suite to ourselves. It was a wonderful arrangement, especially for my nieces and nephews who have small children.
I believe this is Derek Jeeter up to bat. He hit a home run!
we all had a wonderful time and will cherish the memories.
Thanks to a friend who let me borrow her sewing machine, Alicia and I were able to complete our sewing project. Alicia made the bathrobe that the middle doll is wearing. She did an excellent job! I sewed the one on the right as an example. I also sewed the one on the left...just because I couldn't resist! Click on picture to see more detail.
Alicia decided that she would like to learn how to sew. I am quite delighted by this since I enjoy sewing (most of the time). We went to JoAnne's to find a simple pattern for a skirt or something she might wear, but Alicia found something that she'd rather sew. New clothes for her American Girl dolls (she has 6 of them...and no we did not buy them all).
So here is Alicia working on a bath robe for her doll. Yes, I realize that I have a quaint old sewing machine, but I love it. I inherited it from Jamie's grandmother when she passed away. It is a 1950 model Featherweight sewing machine. It has sewn countless articles for me since about 1993 when I became its proud owner. Unfortunately last night while I was sewing, something went wrong with it. It stopped working and there is a strange sound coming from the motor. This morning I called my sewing machine service and repair people. It is a business run by a Mennonite family in Penn Yan. I explained the problem to a woman named Rachel who answered the phone. She told me they probably can fix it because they have many old black singer machines up in their barn for parts. I just don't know when I can get it there since it is a hike for me.
Anyway, here is a finished bathrobe that I sewed in order to make sure I knew all the ins and outs of sewing this project before getting Alicia started on it. The first lesson? Make sure that if you have directional fabric, that you place the pattern pieces on accordingly. For now we have upside-down kisses! Oops!
Went hiking just over a week ago to Panther Pond in Adirondack Park just outside of Lowville. We were on our way to pick up our son from camp. It is a beautiful and absolutely peaceful place. Wish I was there now.
How do you solve a problem like a game piece being stuck in a very high tree during a family picnic?
It takes team-work and...
a very brave soul.
This is not my father's grave, but it is my mother's father's grave. His grave is just three down from my father's grave. I showed this one to Alicia too. I have no picture of my father's grave. Perhaps Martha has one, but not one on her blog that I can borrow.
Afterward we swung over to Webster for a bit to eat. We drove by the Dayton Corners School house on the corner of Creek and Plank and I decided to pull in and show Alicia the initials that her great grandfather carved into the post running up the outside. (This time my Father's father)
This of course is not Alicia pointing to her grandfather's initials, but it is my niece, Hannah in 2004. Grandpa P was born in 1904 and attended the school house when he was a boy. I'm guessing that these initials were carved in or around the year 1917. No one knows for sure though. Grandpa lived down the street in a big farmhouse. He was one of 6 children and the family owned quite a bit of land on Creek Street. The farmhouse is still there...right near a street called Royal View Drive on the opposite side of Creek Street. I drove down past it and pointed it out to Alicia. The house sits on an average sized lot and the barn is gone. All the farmland has long ago been parceled up into sections for more houses and neighborhoods.
Somehow I managed to not mention that I got a real librarian job for the summer. I will be the librarian for the Western Wayne County Summer School that runs from July 6-August 19. Here's the story of how it happened. The application deadline came and went for the position of which I was completely ignorant. Then my dear friend and mentor, Jacquie contacted me and said, "They still haven't found a librarian for the summer school. If you are interested I'll get the information to you." Was I?!!? She got the information to me on a Saturday and I hand delivered the completed application on Monday. A few days later I got a phone call from a Mr. C-the assistant principal of the summer school. He said, "So are you interested in the job?" I said, "Yes." and was expecting him to tell me to come in and talk with him. Instead he said, "Okay, our first staff meeting is on June 29th at 8:00." I was a bit taken back by this. Wow! Talk about being in the right time and place. I will say that Mr. C already knew me because I had been the library intern at his school this past fall.
I wanted something beautiful to look at when I opened my blog page. (Not me...but the scenery) Here I am with my Spanish tutor, Franklin in Ecuador. We are sitting in front of el Lago de Papallacta. I am up and awake at 2:30 AM and thinking about Spanish and how I have not really spoken it since Ecuador. How am I ever to become fluent without practice?
This is what my flowers looked like earlier in the week...but alas they have faded and the petals have fallen.
Do you remember those furry little pets called guinea pigs that either you or your friends had growing up? Forget that image and enter the world of fine dining in Ecuador. Cuy! (There are plenty of images to browse on google of this fine feast) Above is my friend, Patty. She and I got into a discussion about these little animals after I saw a pen of them in the yard of a home in Paluga. She was surprised and amused to find out that in America we keep these animals as pets. They are commonly kept in pens in the yards of many homes in South America...just like you might find a pen of chickens in some yards in America. We don't think anything of someone going out and getting a chicken to make into a feast, do we? The same is true for the cuy in Ecuador. They are not named, talked to or cuddled. They are simply fed and eaten when the time is right. This has been going on in Ecuador for thousands of years. The Incas ate cuy. When the Spaniards conquered them in the 1500's, the tradition of fine dining didn't end there. Many of the indigenous people were converted to Catholicism. Early traditions die hard as shown in a painting of the last supper in a cathedral in Cuzco.
Nothing but the best for Jesus and his disciples at this last supper. It is interesting to note that there are other items at this feast that are native to the Andes Region of South America.
I'm really in no position to say whether or not the education system in Ecuador is good or not, but I did notice some major differences between the schools that we saw there and the schools here. We take books and supplies for granted, and clean and well equipped school buildings with the latest technological resources. We also take the very clothing we wear for granted. I saw very few school supplies and almost no books at all at two of the schools we visited. We brought up pencils, crayons and some folders to give away to some of the students we met.
I took this picture while casually walking past the classroom. I didn't want to be a disturbance, but I forgot to turn off the flash and there was a collective reaction from them after I took it. (oops) I think it was a math class. Basically the classrooms are bare bones. Four walls, a write and wipe board, and rows of desks.
A window outside the classroom at the high school. Notice the pane of broken glass. I don't know how long it has been broken, but I doubt that it is a high priority to have it fixed.
The school was able to put together a computer lab using old donated parts of computers. They are very proud of their computer lab...and yes, they are wired to the internet. They are definitely very resourceful with what they have. Here in the states, we would probably dump most of these in a landfill. I do not recall seeing any textbooks at this school. I wish that I had asked one of the students there if they had any.
By contrast, the one room school house at el Tambo had quite a few textbooks and other shelves of resources. I am sure that the American couple that started the school has contacts of people in the states that make that possible.
Math work sheets at el Tambo school.
One preschool-kindergarten school we visited seemed to have a number of books too...I did not look closely, but at a glance I could tell that many were in poor shape and/or very old.
The students at Peniel Christian School line up at the school gate to say goodbye to us on our last day. School uniforms in Ecuador are a must and are not free. They must be paid for by the family. For some families this is very difficult. Sometimes this is made possible through child sponsorship.
Another special person I met in Ecuador was Franklin! He was my Spanish tutor during my trip. Franklin would sit with me and purposely initiate conversations with me in Spanish in order to help me practice. He was very patient with me and I was able to have several meaningful conversations with him in Spanish. On my last day in Ecuador, I had a conversation with him about my parents. I told him my father lives in heaven with God (I didn't know how to say that he had died). I also told him that my mother struggles with some health issues and lives with my sister. I told him that my mother cannot always think clearly anymore and that it is difficult for us to see her aging. Franklin was very encouraging and reminded me that "La cuerpa is de la tierra." This entire conversation took place in Spanish and I found it very comforting.
As I said in an earlier post: going to Ecuador was really about the people. I met some amazing brothers and sisters in Christ. One of the sisters I met was Martha. Martha will be turning 80 this year, still rides her bike through the village of Pifo, and is a somewhat of a legend in the area.
Martha came to Ecuador in the late 1950's to work for HCJB radio as a nurse in Quito. A few years later she moved to a small clinic in Pifo where she was the only nurse between Quito and the Amazon jungle. During the course of her work, she ended up adopting 20 children who were left parentless for one reason or another. Many of these children were half of a set of twins. Twins were considered to be a curse by the indigenous people because there was no way to keep both babies alive. A mother could not nurse two babies because of lack of nutrients. Many times a mother would choose one baby to keep alive and would leave the other to die. Martha ended up keeping these babies. I had the privilege to meet 6 of Martha's children and a few of her grandchildren.
Here is Ruth,
Anita,
Carola and a grandaughter,
and here I am with Patty. I did not get pictures of either Nancy or Rosa.
A house in Pifo, Ecuador.
A house in another small village that we visited outside of Pifo. I cannot recall the name and cannot find it on a map.
A house along the highway in the Andes Mountains. Notice the thatched roof. I thought this one seemed nice in comparison to many houses I saw. I liked the roof.
A home that I saw while walking to the school in El Tambo.
A house in Palugo, Ecuador. All the kids in the picture, including the boy coming out of the house came to our VBS program in the village.
A woman doing her laundry in Palugo, Ecuador. I took this out the bus window. I didn't really want her to know I was taking her picture. The little girls in the picture came to a VBS we ran in the village.
At the school we gave each child a knitted hat that some ladies at our church had made. We also did a craft with them. They gave a performance for us...which I have videoed part of to share with you. Enjoy!
We visited a more remote school in the Andes mountains in a settlement called El Tambo. It is hardly what I would call a village. It is more of a scattering of homes across a mountain side. It is named for the Rio Tambo which runs through it. We had to park the bus just off the main road. The children were expecting our visit, so they ran to the bus to greet us.
And then we started the trek on foot to the schoolhouse. It is about a half mile trek on a trail that winds uphill.
There were friends along the way. There were llamas, cows, goats and a dog. I was also told by Frank that one year he was chased by a bull. Luckily we did not see a bull on the morning we visited.
The story behind the school is that in the 1990s, a woman and her husband from the USA settled into a house nearby. The woman made friends with some of the children in the area. When she asked them about school, she discovered that they did not go to school because there wasn't any. So she set out to do something about it. With the help of people from the US, she had a school house built. Now she and her daughter teach some 40+ students. She also has a couple of former students who also help teach.
Here is the back porch of the school house. The trails on the way up to the school are usually muddy, so the children stop on the porch and change out of boots into their inside shoes.
Here is a picture of inside the school house with their teacher standing in front. Instruction includes English and Bible. Many of these children are very poor. The mission team that I went to Ecuador with has been visiting this school for nine years now. The backpacks, clothing and shoes that the children wear are largely thanks to team members. A couple of days ago I mentioned buying shoes with another woman using my Spanish skills. These shoes were for some students here in El Tambo.
It is cool in the Andes Mountains. Luckily there is a nice big wood stove in the school.
