Alma de Color

In the early afternoon hours of Friday the 16th, five young adults bounced down a bumpy, lumpy road on their way to an adventure. They bought their ferry tickets in La Ceiba and set off for the tropical island of Roatan, feeling giddy with excitement and expectancy for the weekend activities. The waves were calm, so the ride was tranquil, and the sea spray tickled their faces and spiced their inhalations. And so began our weekend with my cousin Brandi and her husband Yourgin. They made dinner for us the first night, which was absolutely delicious! Beans, rice, chicken, tortillas...does it really get much better than that? I'm STILL not tired of beans and rice! We turned in for the evening pretty early so we could get up and go the following morning. Morning arrived the crack of dawn with Christine bumping about the room at 5:30 AM because she couldn't sleep. I slept a bit more after that, but the quality of it had declined severally. When we all were fairly functi...

About a week into Naomi 's stay here in La Quinta, Colón, Honduras, Norma approached me and asked me if I might be interested in translating for a visiting doctor for whom no translator had hitherto been procured . And thus it was that two weeks ago , I wandered into the hospital labyrinth to seek out Dr . Hans de Bruyn from Calgary , Canada . Several of the missionary families and docs are in the States for the summer , so Hans came down to help for three weeks since we were down to only two docs for most of the summer . I have REALLY enjoyed translating ! I certainly lacked ( and still lack ) many words and phrases in my standard classroom knowledge , like the word for " hemorrhoids ", " lymph nodes ", and " you have a chronic condition of such and such a type of arthritis , as well as leftover tissue from having part of your varicose vein r...

Who 'da thunk I'd ever end up on the Cayman Islands ? Certainly not me! I had priced plane tickets all over , and the one to Cayman was the most economical , though the lodging was not . I stayed at a little guesthouse called Eldemire 's. I wandered the streets a bit on Thursday night to find some groceries , and then on Friday to see Smith 's Cove and a bit of 7- Mile Beach . My first impression was that of distaste and also of claustrophobia . there are very few sidewalks , private property lines the majority of the beach , adn all the attractions are based on purchasing something . So I didn 't get to swim with a horse in the Caribbean , ( though that would be rockin '!), or visit the turtle farm , or go snorkling , but I did finish some work I was trying to get done before I got sick the week before my trip . I walked for three hours on Sa...

Today marks the end of May, which means that I am just short of being halfway through my committment here. That also means I need to take stock of what I've accomplished, what my vision for the rest of my time here is, and how to go about it. As I predicted, since I will be staying here for the summer, the opportunities to serve in many/or all capacities are leaping around me, urgently begging me to pick them up. But this year is different than any other in my life. I refuse to become overbooked and inefficient. One nice thing about having so much need all around, I can more easily see that life goes on with or without certain needs being filled immediately. The first couple weeks of this month, we at El Camino School were finishing up final research papers and powerpoint presentations on Ancient Rome. One of the computers had been stolen from the school, and then Louis' laptop keyboard pretty much died, so we were down to trying to get everyone to work on their stuff o...

Our study began in Matthew 5:3-12. Dr. Jeff began by giving us some background of how this section of the Bible led to his own decision to follow Christ. We talked about the conflict that arises from so many interpetations and ideas about it, and how we wanted to not just skip over the difficulties, but address them head-on. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We talked about the meaning of the word “poor”, as well as what we thought the “kingdom of heaven” referred to. The consensus was that in the first step to becoming a Christ-follower is to recognize a poverty of spirit, the great lack in our lives of the ability to make things right by ourselves. We need to recognize our need for God before we can truly move on to understanding any of the rest of the relationship. We can then hope in the kingdom to come, and it seems that we will somehow have positions/jobs in the kingdom. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” ...

I have been experimenting with pizza crust. For Fellowship the other night, I used a basic recipe from someone else down here...and I decided to keep looking. I've found one right now that I'm needed to experiment with a bit more...but I'm liking it at the moment! I've also decided I enjoy trying out nontraditional toppings. Like I made this white sauce from ranch, onions, jalapeños, Pace Picante tomato salsa, garlic, spices, and milk. And then I covered it with Colby Jack and Parmesan. It was very different, and it all disappeared. Tonight, I made cheese pizza on a crust that I made several days ago and stored in the freezer. I am contemplating the crust. I think I like this one, but I will first have to take another bite... For my update on April, I will just copy my newsletter here. I know. I'm being lazy. But I want to catch up enough to be able to blog more frequently about not just newsletter stuff. So here's an attempt to catch up: I think I ...