More kid pictures

I'm enjoying so much the funny things they say! Since forever Valerie's been pronouncing "each other" rather oddly and I finally figured out that all along she's been saying "you 'chother." And Gabriel says it the same way! Right now they are really starting to talk in Spanish a lot - especially on school days. They sing "arroz con salchicha" (it's supposed to be "arroz con leche") :-)

I might update this as I remember more things...

Dissertation week

This week has been fun for me because I took the whole week to sit around drinking green smoothies and working on my dissertation! I hope to do this about once a month so that there could actually be a chance of finishing someday... Thanks Terry for covering at the office!

Kids update

It's been a while since I've given a good kid update here - not sure how far I'll get today but I'll see what I can get down.

They are growing so fast...

They ask so many questions these days! This has led into protracted ongoing discussions about death, God, marriage, and tear gas (among many other topics). Sometimes it's fun to try to answer their questions and sometimes it's baffling. Sometimes I make up something that's complete nonsense, at least when it seems like they're asking just to ask and not really out of a desire to know.

Valerie in particular is very into story-telling at the moment; she asks us for endless tales of our growing up years (genres include "a time when you got hurt," "a time when you lost something," "a time when it was no fun", etc.) and she also makes up hilarious stories of her own. Sometimes Gabe will just sit and listen to her while she spins a yarn about My Little Ponies and bulldozers (invariably either the pony or the bulldozer dies, then God heals it, and the others come and get it off the clouds).

It's been really fantastic lately watching them learn to play together well. The other day they invented a game of throwing little green balls from a plant down the stairs, and if the ball stopped on a crack in the tiles it was a score, but not if it landed in the middle of the tile. One of the teachers at school told me, "they adore each other." They also fight like banshees, but they really do love each other as well. 

Last week they also both made a big leap in terms of using Spanish. Songs have been the best way by far for them to learn words and phrases. Their babysitter, Luz, sings with them a lot, and they've been learning a lot of songs at school too.

Fooooooooood.....

Right now I'm drinking a delicious smoothie made up of apple, plum, banana, cucumber, avocado, almonds, and fresh ginger root. Oh, and peach yoghurt. Next time I'll make sure to add in some dark leafy greens.

But I don't have a photo of that right now :-)

Instead, I give you Three Roots of Life Tomato Sauce (see previous post):

And a salt-free bean dish I made another day:

I am LOVING my new salt-free diet. I am feeling so, so much better - and at my last check-up, my blood pressure was 110/80! The doctor did a little jig and shook my hand.

Resilience

Last month, we traveled as a family to Guatemala City for a week of meetings with other MCC reps from the Latin American and Caribbean region. Despite being sick most of the time, and despite the kids eating next to nothing, it was a really good time. Aside from regular business, we also had a series of workshops on the theme of resilience.

It was a great theme. We talked about self-care, about work/life balance, about reframing how we think about things to maintain long-term perspective. We talked about the importance of spirituality and strong social support.

I keep thinking how since moving here I feel like I'm in "survival mode" much of the time. One of the things that has taken bottom-level priority has been cooking. We eat out for lunch every day (fixed-menu restaurants for about $3), then the other two meals I'm mostly thinking about what the kids are going to eat, and I eat the leftovers or something. We get take-out rotisserie chicken or order in pizza because it's fast and easy. We've been getting cold after cold, and I've been thinking that if we ate better (which we did to a certain extent when the two pairs of grandparents were here helping out!) we wouldn't get sick so much.
 
Anyway, we got back and I went to the doctor and confirmed that I had bronchitis. Just when I was finishing up my antibiotic treatment and beginning to feel a little better, I developed a crippling headache that didn't quit. Terry was traveling with some visiting project funders, and I was solo parenting and covering for both of us at the office. At the end of the second day, when sleep and Advil did absolutely nothing to touch the headache, I asked a couple team members to watch the kids for me and went to a walk-in clinic where I learned that my blood pressure was 170/120.

So now I'm on a beta blocker and no-sodium diet, and I feel soooooooo much better! It took about 12 hours before the headache abated, and my BP is still around 140/110, but I have my energy and happiness back. I've had to be creative figuring what to eat that has no salt in it. I'm not even supposed to have bread. This morning Terry made me pancakes with no salt and they tasted great! I don't really mind the taste aspect of it, it's the work of preparing food that is a little daunting. But yesterday afternoon I was home with the kids and enjoyed cooking some dishes I used to make before Valerie was born, just without adding salt!

Three Roots of Life Tomato Sauce

- Chop up a large onion and sautee in olive oil with cumin to taste

- as it browns, add chopped up garlic (to taste) and about 1/4 cup grated carrot

- add 3 big chopped up tomatoes

- and diced fresh ginger root and simmer until the tomatoes are soft

- pile on spinach leaves torn into small pieces

- when spinach is wilted, EAT!

I'm gathering a cornucopia of fresh produce into the house. Change is coming.

5 * Cinco * Five!!!

Zero...

One...

Two...

Three...

Four...

FIVE!!!!!

Happy birthday, my beautiful girl! You are creative, smart, funny, athletic, and brave. 

Love you so, so much.

peace pearls

Some people in MCC like to call the following "Peace Pearls" (instead of bullet points...) (fwiw)

• These photos don't really do justice to the loveliness of the Catholic retreat center where we spent our week of meetings. 
• Two days before our trip to Guatemala I started to get a sore throat. Two days after coming back I had a diagnosis of bronchitis.
• Gabriel had a fever 4 nights and 3 days while we were there.
• I discovered exactly how little food our kids can get by on when away from home
• Terry is now out of town for 10 days taking some of our funders around to see different food security projects in the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts.
• I started to feel better around midnight last night.
• Today I enjoyed a perfect avocado, a perfect cup of coffee, and two hours of sunshine with the kids in the park! Lovely Saturday.

Photo Phriday

 I'm only including this picture so you can see how long Gabriel's hair was - I had cut it in the back a few weeks ago, but not the sides.

 Looking at this photo I can believe she's almost 5!

After the haircut:

Reading with Tia Rosanne:

Happy sister and brother on Montserrate:

I just hope Gabriel and Valerie appreciate each other someday as much as these two do now!

Travel and More Travel

I spent the first half of this week traveling along the northern coast to Cartagena, with a student group from EMU who spent the semester in Guatemala and the last three weeks with us in Colombia. (Terry and I took a group through this same program in the spring of 2002; things look very different as hosts rather than group leaders...!). Fun detail from the trip: on my way to the airport this morning, the hotel owner picked a bunch of fresh oregano from her patio pot so I could take it home and make a healing soup for my coughing kids. It smells so good!

Next week the whole family is going to Guatemala for a week of MCC country representative meetings. I'm hoping we have a little time to walk around Antigua and shop a little!

The Jantzi Grands are leaving Saturday night after a month of cooking, cleaning, and child care. I'm sure they are looking forward to a little rest! It's been great having them here though.

Surprise!

Rosanne is here!
We pulled off a successful surprise visit, the first time the Jantzi 4 plus me and the kids have been under the same roof since right before we went to Albania, in September 2010. Gabriel was only 2 months old!

I'll post photos once I get them onto the computer.

March for Peace

This happened last Tuesday:

Giant Foods and Social Development

 A couple months ago we took the kids to the Bogotá Children's Museum. The highlight of the visit was the Giant Foods room, with giant sculpted fruits and vegetable arranged as slides and little rooms (if you look closely you can see Valerie at the top under the papaya).

This room was so fun.
Overall, the Children's Museum here was really different from the ones we've been to in the US, and it made me reflect on different cultural patterns that teach and emphasize different priorities to children.

In the US, there are a plethora of "stations" or activity centers designed to be highly interactive and hands-on, with all kinds of different themes. Some emphasize careers, others arts, others nature and life sciences. Kids are supposed to have an adult around keeping track of them (you don't just drop them off and leave), but within the four walls of the museum they are free to explore, to choose the activities that most interest them, and to rotate from one activity to the next as the spirit moves them.

The one in Harrisonburg is fantastic, with loads of different things to do that fascinate the kids, and with a local focus that highlights Valley industries and interests.

The Children's Museum in Bogota seems to have a similar range of activities, but the structure was totally different. Children are sent through in groups, with a guide, on a schedule, to pre-determined activity sites. They are geared to specific age ranges and the guides do a lot of play-work with the kids. When we went, our group was "los Delfines" - the Dolphins. Adults accompanying the kids went along and participated as well.

We were a little late so we missed the first activity, but the second one was in a room shaped like a giant mouth and we learned about brushing and flossing teeth. This made a big impact on my kids and they still talk about the video they saw there in which a boy gets cavities and cries because his teeth hurt. (Last night Gabriel stuck a finger in his mouth, looked at me mischievously, and said "I touched the yucky germs!")

As we walked through the enormous building, the guide led the kids in little games, cheers, and fun activities. To get to the giant foods room, we went through a "space ship" with black light and everything.

 (Here you can see just the corner of the giant cheese block to the right of the milk, and the edge of the giant hollow fish that was another little room to run around in. That's Valerie on the slide.)

The guide had a pretty hard time in this room keeping the kids focused as he talked about good nutrition - it wasn't long until they were running around going down the slides and exploring the giant fish. But our kids led the charge, used as they are to a more independent style of playing. 

And that's what got me thinking. The Colombian approach is consistent with what I've seen throughout Latin America - placing higher value on being part of a group, participating in activities together that build a sense of group identity and cohesion, and using that as a platform for learning, in contrast to the US style of fostering independence and rewarding curious exploring. The Colombian approach also integrated generations together more closely, as parents and grandparents were recruited and included in the activities and conversations. 

It made me very curious to see how schooling in Colombia will shape my kids' social orientations and preferences. 

Kids, again!

Partner

So I decided to update the blog I made for Terry a long time ago, with a post about his trip to Afghanista.n last month. I took excerpts from one of his e-mails and a few iPod photos together. There's more where that came from so I will probably do another one at some point.

Enjoy!

Granja (Farm)

The kids' school owns a farm some ways outside the city (I believe I have mentioned this before...!) and a few Saturdays ago they had Parents' Day there. Just parents, no kids, so not everybody was able to come due to work or not having other child care. Terry stayed with the kids and I joined the van caravan out of the city.

This area is just gorgeous.

 They have a llama! Named Pepe!

And a dog! Named Luki!

 Poultry!

 After touring the property, we were put to work in small groups - two groups built foot-bridges to go over this small creek running through the property, two groups planted heliconias (aka false bird-of-paradise), one group created a tile mosaic, one group tied up bean plants, and another painted signs to label different kinds of compost and plants. (I painted signs)

 The kids have a field trip to the farm about every two weeks throughout the school year, except when it's very rainy - then they take them places in the city. But the school really invests a lot in the farm, with gardening and reforestation projects. I'm guessing it's around 40 hectares? of reclaimed pasture (although some of it is still kept as pasture for the two cows and llama).

It's so nice for the kids to have this quiet, fresh, green place to spend time. At the same time it was really strange to me to be there with this group of city people - they were so enraptured with every green leaf it was almost comical. If you've spent any time around farms and farmers, you tend to lose that romanticized notion pretty quickly (am I right, Vince?). It was also strange to be in this group of upper-middle-class parents who are so insulated by their wealth from the violence and displacements going on in this country, the fierce battles over land... one couple casually took down a phone number listed on a "for sale" sign for the adjacent property, talking about how they'd like to build a weekend/vacation home outside the city. So separate from the people that we support through our programs here, yet it's all connected.

I think it's incredibly valuable for our kids to learn about where food comes from, to interact with the "natural" world, soak in these quiet green spaces. The air was so fresh and clean. I'm glad I got to see it so I can ask them better questions about what they do and see there. About all I got before was that there's a rooster that goes "Kok! Kok!" In September there will be a family day for us to go with the kids, too. I'm really looking forward to that!

Retiro en la Costa - Retreat on the Coast

We just got back from our team retreat on the Caribbean Coast - so nice! Hot, but nice. (In unrelated news, I just got my birthday camera - thanks Dad! This is almost the last batch of photos with that ugly black corner.) We flew 1 hour to Monteria, then took a van about 2 hours to Coveñas. These kids are getting to be very seasoned travelers!

It was kind of nice that Valerie insisted on wearing long sleeves, long pants, and socks the whole time, as that helped limit her sun and mosquito exposure. Nonetheless, she got 17 mosquito bites on one hand alone (not to mention 7 on her face and several on the other hand).

It was very hot. The hotel pool was so nice. We had a mix of work, relaxation, and worship (on Palm Sunday).

Monday was a quiet day spent re-acclimating to Bogota (Valerie said "I'm so happy to be back in Colombia!") and receiving the Jantzi grandparents, who arrived here a few hours after we did Sunday night!

Unfortunately Valerie woke up sick today and has been throwing up and shivering. Right now she is sleeping, thankfully. Gabriel is fine, full of energy, and Terry has gone to the office to do a little work while the grandparents putter around helping me do small tasks at the house. I'm so glad it's holy week so we can rest up a bit.

Wow

A lot has happened since I last posted! I keep hoping that I will get back into the swing of things here on my blog, but somehow it's not happening. I'm glad to know though that people are still reading :-)

A few updates:

• Terry went to Afghanistan for 2 weeks, to do a training for World Vision. Although he was gone for 16 days, he was only in-country for 10 days because the trip is so long! He brought back lots of fascinating stories and photos, and a beautiful hand-woven rug he bought from a women's cooperative. I'll post some photos ans stories once I get that organized and cleared for public consumption.
• Meanwhile, at home in Colombia, Gabriel learned to use the potty!!!!! We had tried about a month ago during a long weekend, but he just wasn't cooperative. Then the aide at his preschool asked me to bring her some extra pants and underwear because she thought he was willing to try, based on how he watched the other boys go. Luz, our afternoon babysitter, was really excited about this and jumped on board quickly in support of the process. By day 3 I was coming home in the evening to find him in the same dry pants and underwear I'd dressed him in the morning! There are still accidents, and he's still wearing a diaper at night, but I'm very proud of our little dude for mastering this skill, and grateful to our child care providers for taking the initiative to work with him and actually do most of the work for me!
• I turned FORTY. Happily, Terry was back in time for my birthday. Unhappily, I got sick that day with an evil sore throat that felt like knives every time I swallowed. I took a sick day on Wednesday, and today I feel pretty good. My energy is back just in time for some friends from work and church to take me out!
• We also hosted our first "learning tour" delegation, a group of Mennonite Brethren pastors seeking to connect with and learn from Colombian MBs about how their faith shapes their responses to the armed conflict in this country. You can find their reflections here.