avoiding the fishbowl

Fish!

2011-06-30T11:53:00.008-05:00

Hi everyone,

As most of you who are reading this already know, I live in the jungle in Panama with an indigenous community called the Embera. We have been trying to implement new ideas and projects to try and improve the quality of life and business in the village along with furthering education opportunities among the youth.

Our current project(among others) that we're focusing on is the construction of a fish tank to grow Tilapia. The main source of income among the people is through tourism, and part of the package is us feeding the guest fresh fried Tilapia and Patacones. This is where the tank comes in. We get up to 140 tourist a day during the high season which is a lot of people to feed. There are not enough adults living in the village to both fish for the food we give tourist as well as keep food in their own homes for their families. In turn we often buy the Tilapia from the fishermen on the lake, causing profits to decrease since the money is taken out of the tourism payment.

After a training course where a guest PCV came to teach the community how to build and maintain a fish tank, myself along with the rest of the village came together to implement what we see as a very beneficial project. After digging the 3 tanks to appropriately breed, grow and maintain mature Tilapia, we assessed that the project could be drastically improved if we were to add a few advancements. This includes a pump that requires no motor or gas to pump water from the river to the flow into the tanks, extra tubing to attach to the pump along with a few "llaves" to open and close the water spouts connecting the 3 tanks.

We´re in the process of covering the cost and installing all of the advancements, and I'll update everyone with a post once this is complete and we have little fishies growing.

Thanks everyone for reading!

The group almost done digging!

The chief pick axing away. The back of his shirt says "life is not a spectator sport." awesome.

Installing a drainage tube.

There's a mystery hen laying her mystery eggs...

2011-03-22T07:05:00.002-05:00

About a month ago my good friend in the community, Juan Carlos(or Juanca for short) bestowed upon me my first ever very own baby chickens! The original plan was for just 2 chicks, but at the last minute he added a third younger chick from an entirely different group just for good measure. I was feeling pretty enthusiastic about the prospect of fresh eggs from my own crop, despite the fact I still have a few months to go until they start poppin' 'em out, and so I immediately began building their future egg laying house. The fence to the house came later, and so for about a week or so the nesting boxes were open to any hen that chose to make it her egg laying hideout. Day 2 of the boxes being around, there appeared an egg, but no hen. Day 4, there was a second egg, no hen to be seen. Day 6, egg number 3 appeared. Because there are around 20 hens that frequent the area beneath my house it was impossible to decide who was the mystery hen(or hens) laying their mystery eggs. I also was not sure if the eggs were technically mine or not. On the one hand, they DID lay their eggs in my house, but on the other hand, they were not my hens. What a conundrum. Anyways, two eggs ended up disappearing on their own, and the third i dropped off in a random hens roost at a neighbors house. The area is fenced in and no new eggs will appear until my little ladies are ready.

The roof is on fire!

2011-02-17T06:00:00.006-06:00

Literally. I got a new roof(or at least, 1/2 of a new roof) last week and the only thing to do with the remains of my old one was to set it on fire! A few weeks back some neighbors of mine and myself stood around contemplating how many leaves it would take to replace my entire roof. It's been leaking in around 14 different areas throughout the entire thing, and it seemed like the best time to take care of a problem that mother nature was only going to make worse. At first, they said, "400! that'll do the job for sure!" Then after a few minutes, they went up to 450 leaves, and by the end we settles on 500 just to be extra safe. The type of leave I bought is called Wagara and is given the title of best leaf available out of the 3 they use to make roofs.

So, my 500 leaves of Wagara come piling in one day and suddenly all the men are standing around a little nervous saying, "ohhhh....that might not be enough." A week goes by and finally, when we're half way done with putting up my class A roof, we run out. Go figure, HALF WAY. Oh well, at least we didn't tear the whole thing down but instead went little by little sort of knowing in the back of our minds it wouldn't last to the end. To finish the thing I need another 400 leaves, and I'm just not sure that's going to happen. The rain is back and the dry summer is saying goodbye. I'm also not super wealthy, and Wagara is not super cheap. I have about another week to decide for sure if I'm gonna go for it, so may the roof gods smile upon me and grant me some grand roof discount. In the mean time, enjoy my fire and leaf photos.

Boating in the 4,000 or so leaves ordered in the bunch between community members. Also, in case you were wondering, yes, they all ran out early too.

Lying in oja heaven.

Emiliano wanted me to take his photo in front of the fire with his youngest Liliana.

Sara's Ark

2011-01-12T07:22:00.006-06:00

A lot has happened in the last month, but I don't think anyone would have the patience to actually read all that there is write so I'll limit it to one story. Here goes...

The main even that took place was the flooding of my community during record setting rains on Mothers Day. The river rose around 35 feet or so in a 36 hour period, but it was a combined effort of past rain saturating the soil and extreme rain in the last hours leading up to the water invasion. I had made it back to site the night of the 7th in possibly a questionable trip across the lake and up the river to find that the water level was already high enough to be lapping at the post of my neighbors house. I changed into warm clothes and went to bed thinking that all the water would subside by morning....and then 5am came along. I woke up to voices speaking in the Embera dialect and got up knowing there would be only one reason for this kind of stirring. The water had rose all the way up to my post and had entered the house of my neighbors, Poliester and Dina. Around 8 people were busy evacuating both the people from the flooding house as well as all of the belongings possible. Around 7am it looked like the water was going back down, so I went back to bed to grab another couple of hours of sleep. Wrong, I woke up an hour later to voices ycalling my name telling me to get up because my house was going to go under. So I got up to find that the water was only around 2 feet under my floor and it was still raining like mad with little likelihood of clearing up. I grabbed the most important things I had and stuffed them in a backpack and with my cat under one arm I jumped out of my house into almost waist high water to get to dryer ground. Within an hour it became clear that the water was going to enter my house and it only took one exchanged glance with my main counterpart for him to yell out "La casa de sara! Vamos! Vamos!" This meant that we got into a canoe and boated over to my place to evacuate my belongings. If my house was going to flood and possibly get swept away by the river, no one wanted to see my stuff go with it.

After all was cleared out an on higher ground, a couple of us stayed in the house to make sure the floor did not float away. Luckily by 2pm or so the water level began to drop and by 5pm the river had lowered out of all houses and left them relatively in tact as well. I was a little hesitant to move back into my abode, but with the rain only at a heavy drizzle it looked clear. I lost some food and a few books and such, but all of the important stuff was safe and just a little moist(or in some cases soaking, dripping wet). I can't say I slept well for the days or weeks following due to more incessant rain, but I think it won't come back like it did on Mother's Day.

An interesting fact is that the Canal closed down due to rainfall for the first time since it opened 100 years ago. That is a lot of rain.

A view of Chevo and Liseth's house from my house.
Diego, Zuleica, Lucho and myself holding the floor down.

This is my closest neighbor. Luckily their house is not floating away as it looks.

Here we have my neighbor's house being evacuated, that of Emiliano and Diana.

2010-12-07T12:14:00.003-06:00

So the longer I'm here the more normal my life seems to become. And by that i mean the less strange things feel. When people ask me what's new, I have no more good stories to tell. Maybe its just not weird anymore to wake up and find an egg under my hammock. I mean, a chickens gotta lay the thing somewhere after all. Or how about the other day when I fell asleep against a convenient store wall laying on my bag and an old man came over and poked me and told me I wasn't allowed to sleep there, it wasn't out of the ordinary. And what's strange about a 5 year old kid climbing to the top of a 6 story tall tree and jumping into the river below,which is only about 10 feet deep. I was a little surprised the other day though when I got some spaghetti and they didn't serve it on top of a huge plate of rice! I was just getting used to that too...oh well.

Life is very good here. My community is just completing it's first project which is a water en-catchment system as well as a kitchen for the school. After being approved for a grant(thanks again Michael!!!) my people were given much more motivation to donate their labor in order to get this project completed by mothers day, which here in Panama is on December 8th. As usual, the gift we are giving the moms is one that helps them work for us even easier. I will be making a post upon the completion of the project, including a video hopefully, so stay tuned!

Also included here is a photo that was taken by some guys who showed up randomly one day in a helicopter! They took a lot of pictures then sent them to Anne, one of our tour guides, who then sent them to me.

street meat. it's so freakin' delicious.

2010-11-20T07:22:00.003-06:00

Now for more on Panamanian fun. The newest hippest style shirt to wear these days in Panama is the extreme graphic tee. The formula for a good graphic tee is Human Skull + Angel Wings + Obscure Words in English. My latest fave? It included the required skull and angel wings, but the words were what really moved me. It went like this, sorta like a grocery list:

Trinity

Animals

Earth

Blood

Pretty solid if you ask me.

2010-11-10T11:51:00.002-06:00

Bad news, my external hard drive and my camera memory card have a virus. No new pictures for a while, even though I have some good ones if I can salvage the infected files.

Good news? My mom comes today! Also, pumpkin pie and turkey in 2 weeks!

And for all those who are big time Diablo Rojo fans like myself, here's what it said on the rearview mirror of my bus this morning:

"You sleep with him, but you dream about me."

More bloggin' to come at a later date.

water

2010-10-07T11:31:00.003-05:00

More people

2010-10-07T11:26:00.001-05:00

2010-10-07T11:16:00.000-05:00

People

2010-10-07T11:12:00.001-05:00

Nice little joy ride in the canoe

2010-10-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

2010-09-27T20:42:00.008-05:00

Well, my old camera kicked the bucket, so I got a new one yesterday. I'm real excited, and that's all I'm gonna say. Also, the other night I was roaming around near my house and I heard the sound of a dear little frog. I'm not entirely sure what class of frog it is, but it's green and layed eggs in a little pool next to my pad. Then I proceeded to take them in as my own personal pets and have been monitering their safety for over a week now. One way I've possible ensured their survival(or made them weaker, who knows), is I've been adding water to their pool. It hasn't rained in over a week(I mean, I live in the middle of the rain forest in the damn rainy season, where is all this rain I was promised??), so their pool keeps becoming this sad little mud spot on the ground. So I grab my 5 gallon bucket and add around 12 gallons of water to their little ecosystem. Good fun really, don't tell mother nature.

Hi Carmen!

The style of hammock I so desire to obtain(but are not made here).

Maw.

The kids. (By the way that is a cacao fruit in the water there. You know, where chocolate comes from.)
Adolescents.

2010-09-17T11:42:00.002-05:00

So the first photo is just a pretty picture of the sun coming up during the boat ride. The second photo contains excactly what every person between the ages of 3-11, as well as perhaps most rural Peace Corps Volunteers dream about: a suspended toilet. That's right, it's almost like doing your #1 business on a swing. Also, I dare any of you guys to guess which bucket holds my linens and which contains my #2 business.

La Reinando

2010-09-12T11:52:00.005-05:00

Around 2 weeks ago we had the 'Crowning' of the queen of all of Rio San Juan Piquini. There were 5 contestants and a girl from my village won! The way they win is they fundraise for the school, and whoever makes the most money gets the title. Then, we have a big party and the queen and all the runner ups have to dance with a fine young gentleman of their choice(pre-picked, of course). Anywho, here are 3 of the 10 videos I took that day. One is of the queen dancing with her fella(who is actually in fact her older brother), another is the kiddies having a very nice time with all of the toys the adults provided and the last is the Embera girls from my village dancing and singing. You can't really hear them singing over the crowd, and we ran out of light...but hopefully you all enjoy.

Behold!

2010-09-11T23:48:00.003-05:00

May I please present to my vast internet audience the Elementary School of Emberá Puru del Río San Juan Piquiní, along with it's 28 or so students(2 are lefties)grades 1-6 all in one classroom and the lovely Profesora Anayanci!

Here's the not so bad view from the steps of the school at around 6:45am, which is what time I arrive to teach class. Coffee in hand, I await the struggled arrival of the students along with the inevitable 'crema' the PTO moms are cooking up (which I dream about nightly, salivating slightly all over my pillow).

2010-09-01T10:51:00.007-05:00

Well I've been up river for a few weeks now and I decided it was time to come back into town to check off some errands and buy food. I'm moving into my third and last host family house before I get to live alone in my own pad(finally). Things are going really well in site so far, and work is starting to come along. I started my first classes teaching English to the kids in the school around 3 weeks ago, and last week I began my adult basic English class twice a week. I also offer a class for the more advanced students once a week in order to have exposure the more complex themes of the English language that they normally would not get. I'm learning a lot as I go, but teaching can actually be pretty fun.

Besides that I've spoken with much of my community about various projects and the importance of each. They seem pretty excited about building a water-catch system for the school. Currently the closest running water is around 200 yards downhill, which means in order for the moms who cook the food for the kids to retrieve water to cook with or wash the kids dishes, they have to either haul 5 gallon buckets uphill or take everything down to the spicket and then back up to the school. Also the kids currently do not have any drinking water nor a place to wash their hands. This seems like a good project for lots of reasons. Hopefully while this project is going on we will build a rancho area to make into the kitchen next to the school for the moms to cook at, as well as a place for all of the plates, cups, silverware and food to be stored.

There is a long list of other projects as well that we will be trying to get going, but I need to make sure I don't try and look ahead farther than I can work with right now.
My new paint job! Still missing a few spots...but I'll work up the courage pretty soon.
The back.

My view in the morning from my last host house.

Pretty awesome. The government makes cookies for the kiddies to eat in the school! Yum!

A few weeks back after our Agency Tour in Colon we went and stayed the night in Portobelo. Love that place.

Gettin´that gold!

2010-07-29T13:53:00.002-05:00

During off season my community pans for gold.
Me! Panning for gold!

Little guy

Passion flower growing off my dugout canoe garden

2010-07-29T13:44:00.004-05:00

My host mom for the month of July chats about...primarily me. Her name is Zuleica and she´s a little hard to hear, plus she´s only speaking in spanish, but enjoy!

The ladies in my village practicing a dance around dusk...a little dark

2010-07-29T13:33:00.004-05:00

Whew! What a month!

2010-07-23T11:56:00.004-05:00

These days I spend a fair amount of time thinking about all of the awesome things going on in site that I would love to tell other people about. I'm not so great at paragraph writing, so I think I'll make a list, as I am so fond of doing in all areas of my life.

1) I was sitting with a young woman in her hut the other day while she was rocking her one year old in the hammock, when the baby suddenly started to pee. The pee of course went straight through the cloth of the hammock and due to the heavy swinging motion she proceeded to draw a straight line around 1 2/2 meters long on the ground...with her urine of course.

2) The little boy who lives across from my house seems to pride himself in finding places that I will least expect him and then trying to get my attention. He is 3, and typically all that he wears is a string tied around his waist where there is sometimes attached a loin cloth. Once he gets my attention, he becomes so overwhelmed that he has trouble breathing a little bit and sort of makes these half laugh, half gasping noises as he climbs the ladder back up into his house, turning his head to look at me again about every 2 steps just to make sure I'm still watching.

3) I was asked the other day if I knew what an airplane was.

4) I was lucky enough to get to watch Lionheart staring Jean-Claude Van Damme 3 days in a row. Possibly the best of the 3 times was on the third day when we merely fastforwarded through the entire thing, but in the slowest setting possible, which condensed it down to around 15 minutes.

Last night...we watched Torneo de la Muerte, which I believe was filmed in 1964.

I think that's about all I'll say for now.

Part of my village on a cloudy morning.

Standing in the tourist house looking out at the river during heavy rain.

This is one of the lessons in the book the children in my school are given to learn english...awesome.

2010-07-13T09:02:00.002-05:00

Frog in the water

Boat ride out of my site early in the A.M.

Swear in!

2010-06-26T12:34:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was our official swearing ceremony in the house of the U.S. ambassador. The vice-president of Panama was present, as well as the first lady of Panama and the ambassador to the United States. Afterwards many of us went out to Casco Viejo to celebrate the day many of us have been waiting for for almost 2 years.

Boat access only

2010-06-21T11:43:00.004-05:00

I made it out! The jungle is nice, refreshing and dense. I have a feeling that Colyn and my mom are the only two people that will see these videos or read this, so this one's for you guys. A couple things to note from the trip:

1)The average spider is the size of my entire hand

2)Sloths!

3)I bath in a river, and a beautiful one at that.

4)My floor is made of treebark

5)I'm painted and look like i have tatoos now

6)rice, rice, rice and fried plantains. my belly is taking a toll....

Culture day!

2010-06-13T11:11:00.003-05:00

This last Friday we had a big culture day in the Congo. This included native dress, music, dancing and best of all...FOOD! For future reference, the skirt I am wearing here is a traditional Emberà skirt that all the women will be wearing in my site(except they won't be wearing tops, we'll see whether i decide to or not). By the way everyone, I'm gonna be living in a National Park for the next 2 years! Pretty sweet, eh?

2010-06-04T11:59:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately, we were not in town for the Strippers Mixto...

For the record there is a message painted on the rearview mirror. Or perhaps rather, a question: ¨Tell me how your heart feels, baby.¨

Good thing I was raised Catholic?

2010-05-26T10:17:00.002-05:00

This morning I tought two Panamanian classes in a local school, and at the beginning of the Second Grade class the teacher had me stand up and recite the Our Father in English for the class to repeat...uhh....

2010-05-18T18:34:00.001-05:00

This morning was excellent! I woke up around 5:45am and headed up to the fútbol field to play some sunrise Ultimate. Chris and I drew out in the dirt a small field to play 3’s seeing as there were only 6 of us(though not a bad turnout for 6am in a small pueblo in Panamá). It felt great to run around and get my blood going early, not to mention the delight that it could be done while playing with a disc. I was very pleasantly surprised to find out after a few points that most of the people who came out had a pretty good grasp on a few more technical rules than I had anticipated(insert me sort of looking like an ass a few times for attempting to explain what many of them already knew). At the end they were all excited to come back and do it again, so with any luck this will become a trend.

Aside from the Ultimate, I have been having a very nice time down here. I know it seems from previous post that perhaps all I do is await dusk to watch lizards eat bugs, but I promise that it is only a minor past time. Around 12 days ago a fellow trainee and I headed out to the Camarca to visit a volunteer living on a beautiful beach in the Bocas del Toro area. It required first a 6 hour bus ride, then a 2 hour chiva ride over the mountains, and finally a 2 hour or so boat ride across the Bocas Lagoon over to a little peninsula. The boat ride was beautiful and along the way we were even accompanied by a dolphin swimming and jumping with us only 20 feet from the boat. The other trainee and I spent around 3 days out there before enjoying a little bit of the David life where we ate pizza, used the internet and watched a Clash of the Titans in a movie theatre for $2.00. It was a good weekend.

I’ve been updating my smugmug frequently with photos, so if you have an interest to see what any of these experiences look like feel free to visit me there. www.tease.smugmug.com

Later dudes!

Nom Nom Nom! Lizard dinner!

2010-05-14T16:52:00.005-05:00

73 bugs. one gecko. one mission.

2010-04-30T17:53:00.001-05:00

Panama!

2010-04-24T21:12:00.004-05:00

Here's a little boy hanging from a vine in a cave in panama. Today was pretty rad, if I may say so myself.

Eye of the Needle round 2!

2010-04-16T15:48:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Brandon and I headed back over to Indian Creek in order to visit the Eye of the Needle, a hike that seemed very appropriate for several reasons. One, the "eye" was the very first location we ever went on as the worlds #1 hiking team ever. And two, we visited this location exactly one year and six months ago almost to the day, making our two experiences coincide on almost exact opposite days of the year. It was beautiful out there, and to see more photos of this experience visit HERE where they begin.

I prefer life at a very close range.

2010-04-14T00:00:00.009-05:00

Here is a photo that I came across last night while browsing through my pictures trying to decide which ones to take with me to Panama seeing as typically host families in foreign countries enjoy seeing a representation of "life back home." Although i don't believe i will be taking this one with me, I none the less still very much enjoy it and decided it merited a post. I took this around mid October last year on a cool morning right before Brandon, Ben and I headed out for one of our best hikes of last year.

The second image here is the original photo. The first photo, clearly, is zoomed in around the middle.

Square dancing is maaaarvelous

2010-04-09T14:28:00.003-05:00

The following photos represent a beautiful April evening on the rooftop deck of a Fayetteville resident where we Square Danced the night away to live fiddle music. I really enjoy the first photo for the quality that we look like ghost square dancers. Included also in this post is a video from the night where you can see that we range from first time dancers to those who have squared for years. A very nice time indeed!

I have to apologize for not getting the entire video of that particular square, they do tend to be pretty long though.

2010-03-16T14:52:00.006-05:00

Hello All!

Well I am finally going to be doing something with my time besides sitting on my couch, waiting tables and commuting between the diamond state and Chicago. I'm going to PANAMA for the Peace Corps!! Woo-Hoo!!

I leave April 19th so look for updates on my new Latina life in the coming years. For constant photo updates visit my smugmug at www.tease.smugmug.com

Hasta luego!!!

Thank you Tanner

2010-02-25T00:39:00.000-06:00

Laugh! Laugh! Laugh! Laugh!

Lake Wilson

2010-02-19T09:52:00.004-06:00

Lake Wilson can be a very relaxing place indeed.

A night at the Starlight Skatium

2010-02-17T00:26:00.002-06:00

Fayetteville's newest Roller Skating Rink! See more here.

Sledding, round 3!

2010-02-11T14:51:00.002-06:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know I'm slow, but it's scary out there on that big fun steep long hill!

XNA-Sleepover edition

2010-01-29T19:57:00.006-06:00

Welcome to XNA! I think besides the fact that I have to wait an extra 12 hours to arrive at ORD, the only thing I'm really unhappy about is that the airport bar O'Laughlin's is closed. Don't worry, I entertained myself in one of the other airport shops(there are 4 vendors total in the place including O'Laughlin's) by reading up on the only material provided: how to be skinny without trying and how to communicate with non-christians. Hhhmm....where am I again?

The snow outside
The ice on the window

My sandwich doing it's best to keep cold by the window and watching out for the snow plow man just below.

Heeeeeello Ice and Snow Storm of 2010

2010-01-29T19:40:00.003-06:00

Look! It's a dead mouse!

2010-01-29T19:37:00.002-06:00

Gracias a Suelo, El Gato Diablo.

Ode to Sara, by KCK and Leflar

2010-01-14T08:25:00.002-06:00

There was a young waitress named Tease

With pizza and pitchers she'd please

If she was nervous

When she came to serve us

Then her breast she would squeeze

Hahaha...Thanks Robert for the link

2010-01-04T18:16:00.000-06:00

Colyn Buicking ice

2010-01-01T11:22:00.001-06:00

It's a white Christmas!!

2009-12-25T14:04:00.002-06:00

So naturally mom and I broke out the sleds! What a blast! (R.I.P. the tiny green sled from our childhood with both Jack and I painted on the handle)

Goin' fast!

Mum and I ready to go.
Takes me back.
Thumbs up from mom
How dangerous of me! Taking photos while at max speed! (Just kidding, I was barely at a crawl)

I WON THE LOTTERY!

2009-12-23T01:11:00.001-06:00

I get an entire dollar!

Winter winter

2009-12-17T14:22:00.000-06:00

Colyn Sabering a Champagne bottle

2009-12-14T13:23:00.005-06:00

To see in full screen go here.

Does anyone know who this little guy is?

2009-12-11T15:18:00.003-06:00

I'm thinking Green Stink Bug... but I'm no expert.

Shower time!

2009-12-09T15:28:00.002-06:00

Today while showering(I know! I never do that!) I noticed that the water droplets on my shower-curtain were looking particularly interesting in regard to how the light was arranging their shape and color. So, like anyone else, I took photos of them. I went ahead and edited the last picture for fun just because I like super strong contrast, so that ones edited for all to know.

mmmmm....Arkansas

2009-11-30T11:40:00.007-06:00

More Terrapin Branch and Boen Gulf stuffz. To see the lot of photos visit HERE!where they start.

Can anyone tell me what this is???

2009-11-18T11:04:00.003-06:00

If anyone is interested in knowing what tapeworm looks like, here it is! My dog Sally had it, but don't worry, not me. What curious and disgusting shapeshifting little creatures.

Another Successful hike: last week in Terrapin Branch

2009-11-13T09:46:00.002-06:00

More photos here if you'd like to look.

2009-11-10T14:15:00.004-06:00

I found my way up to Chicago again this last weekend for a beautiful weekend of weather and possibly a penumbral eclipse. While driving past lake Michigan on Saturday night I noticed a red object on the horizon, not even realizing that it was the moon for several moments. Once we figured out that it was a "harvest moon" or penumbral eclipse I believe, we turned around and headed down a dock to get a better glance. Unfortunately I was unable to take any photo that even remotely displayed what we saw, but I did manage to get a reasonable shot of the city.

Déjà vu

2009-10-30T08:49:00.003-05:00

Similarly to two years ago on New Years, I am once again stuck in the snowy blizzard that is Colorado in the winter. In an effort to make it home a day early for Harvest Moon BWB and I left Denver at 7am yesterday, but only made it 88 miles east to Limon before the roads were closed due to "Adverse Conditions." To be honest the snow cops were right to close it down because the winds were gusting up to 43mph with whiteout conditions. But now, the roads are clear! The sun is out! The wind has stopped! But we are still stuck here in Limon with the threat of several more hours before roads are supposed to open. Puleeeeez.

2009-10-18T14:33:00.004-05:00

On Wednesdays I tutor a 14 year old boy that some might say I have about as much in common with as a flower pot. Until now. After explaining that he couldn't have a job yet because he was too young, he went on to mention this:

"If I had any money anyhow, I would just spend it all on fireworks. I love fireworks. $3,000? I'd spend it on fireworks."
-Dillon

I. Love. Arkansas.

2009-10-16T08:01:00.009-05:00

Yesterday Brandon, Ben and I went for a nice day hike out and around Bowers Hallow Waterfall(pictured below). The day was a cloudy gorgeous 58 degrees or so, making for perfect hiking conditions and excellent lighting for photo taking. I would recommend checking out more of the photos from the trip here.

From the archives

2009-10-14T11:04:00.003-05:00

This made me laugh because if you're a catholic or used to be a catholic you know it's true. The situation is Holden Caulfield is talking to some nuns.

"I'd have enjoyed it more though, I think, if I hadn't been sort of afraid, the whole time I was talking to them, that they'd all of the sudden try to find out if I was a Catholic. Catholics are always trying to find out if you're a Catholic."

-J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

I guess I can't stop myself, here I am blogging again.

2009-10-06T12:50:00.003-05:00

This is simply a quote I liked from a book I read quite a while back that I have even posted about previously.

"That was the funny thing about a dictatorship: it was great for culture. If there was one sure way Pinochet could support poetry, it was by staging a military coup, shooting a bunch of people, or tossing some tear gas around once in a while. Literature became not a pointless abstraction, but a pointed one. The history books were empty but the poets spoke volumes."

-Patrick Symmes from Chasing Che

This one's for my lava lamp(and Rbill)

2009-10-05T14:30:00.005-05:00

On Saturday morning as I was heading out the door for work, I noticed a chill in the air and so grabbed a jacket from my coat rack. This would have been nothing to note had I then not heard a rather loud thump followed by a heavy glug glug glug. Yes, the jacket I grabbed caught hold of my lava lamp sitting on the desk below it and pulled the ancient artifact onto the floor. The cap had somehow lost it's top in the oddest of ways and the innards began pouring out. So, with 2 minutes at my disposal to leave the house before I would be late for work, I hurriedly soaked up two old t-shirts worth of the dull blue yet somehow glowing liquid, set a fan in front of it and made sure my pets were outside before jetting off. Seeing as I received this blue lava lamp with a gold base for my 8th birthday, the thing was only 14 days shy of seeing it's own 16th birthday. Now all that's left of this childhood favorite toy is a very large and very odd blue stain in the guest bedroom.

2009-09-22T11:12:00.002-05:00

I'm quite certain that anyone who is actually still checking this blog has realized my postings have all transfered to my smugmug where I keep my photos. I started this blog in order to have an online record of some of the photos I took that were most memorable to me and also to have a place to keep family and friends up-to-date on my travels in Latin America. Seeing as both of those have been cancelled out for now I have little reason to continue posting. Besides that I am a terrible writer, so I'm basically going elsewhere in order to avoid embarrassing myself by confining my post to a somewhat text free website.

If you'd like please check back around May 2010 when I will hopefully be moving to Eastern Europe for 27 months! I was recently accepted into the Peace Corps and am waiting for them to inform me which country I will be going to. Although I am not certain, it is likely I will be sent to a location that in general lacks broad internet access, meaning wordy post will be more relevant seeing as people back home just might wanna know again what's happening with me far far away.

Thanks again everyone for checking up on me, and enjoy the archives!

SaraT

Ahhhh

2009-07-29T19:45:00.008-05:00

Between the temperature, the flowers, the bugs, the woods and the awesome woodchopping session I had just about an hour ago, I finally feel at home

Back to the ol' CR (and not the colorado rockies)

2009-06-08T07:27:00.006-05:00

Well I'm back in Costa Rica for 6 weeks or so, though I guess it's down to 5 weeks given that I got here last tuesday. I don't suppose I've done much more than wander from café to café drinking coffee, reading and eating delicious bread items from bakeries. I don't really feel too bad about this though seeing as it is my vacation and all I was really wanting to do anyway was lay around beaches in the first place. So I spent this last weekend in Jacó, which is a small beach pueblo on the Pacific side. It's typically a bit more of a party destination than I prefer(seeing as I'm traveling solo), but after my first night I stayed around 2km outside the center of town and felt much more relaxed. Mom arrives today and tomorrow we will begin a slow meander on down to Panamá where we will meet up with Jack, Sendy and Sophia. I'm posting all of my photos pretty much here for June and here for July because it is much easier to upload and sort through when in a larger program meant for photography. A warning though, I am not picking and choosing which photos I post there due to the fact that I forgot to bring very much extra memory with me, and so have to delete photos weekly.

In following the last post about moving, here is an example of what it looks like to live out of a bag for 6 weeks...

This is what it looks like to move.

2009-05-27T18:13:00.002-05:00

Though it turns out I've always really liked sleeping on the floor.

Keepin' it Classy

2009-04-20T17:33:00.004-05:00

What a nice family! More photos here of the 2nd Annual Brosh Farm Hat Tournament.

Battle for the Chastity Belt, 2009

2009-03-30T00:46:00.007-05:00

This year the Fayetteville women's team won the tournament and brought home the chastity belt, woo-hoo! Since I upload all my photos elsewhere these days, I thought I show off my favorite photo that I took this weekend and add a link as to where you can see more if you'd like.

p.s. the fayetteville men's team won their division as well. http://tease.smugmug.com/gallery/7527420_6LzAG#501575913_rkBHE

Yesterday

2009-03-06T14:16:00.006-06:00

So I went hiking yesterday with my friends Brandon and Ben at a location that I am not so sure of. I took a few too many photos to really post here, so I'm gonna direct anyone who's interested to my online photo gallery of this trek.

Here's the link

If that's what you're into

2009-02-19T15:59:00.006-06:00

Normally I dislike making post based on things I've read or done or think, but prefer to keep this blog simply photo oriented. I mean, who really wants to read a bunch of stuff other normal people do or have opinions on to a certain extent anyways?(sike!) That being said, I really liked this passage from a book I read a few months ago called "Chasing Che" by Patrick Symmes. From his original diary from his motorcycle trip way back when, Guevara says:

"So the coin was tossed, turned somersaults; sometimes coming up heads, sometimes tails. Man, the measure of all things, speaks through my mouth and recounts in my own words what my eyes saw. Out of ten possible heads I may have only seen one tail, or vice versa: there are no excuses; my mouth says what my eyes told it. Was our view too narrow, too biased, too hasty, were our conclusions too rigid? Maybe so..."

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to most people.

C'mon hogs

2009-02-05T16:29:00.004-06:00

Ahhhhh the heartbreak! In the last 5 seconds we missed 2 layup shots more or less, failing to tie the game.

I really like our new coach.

Not a great photo, but here is Sanches pictured on an invisible persons shoulders being lifted to the goal.

We are so close!

During half time, rather than a performance from the Dancing squad, Quick change entertained us. We were all sitting in our seats, jesting about the coming quick changers-that is until they blew our minds and left us speechless. Great performance, majic is the best!!

ice-tastic!

2009-01-30T14:14:00.009-06:00

So in case anyone hasn't heard, there was a pretty good little ice storm that came through Northwest Arkansas and hit Fayetteville pretty bad. For a reference, today is the first time I've had power since Monday, and I am just one of 100,000 who lost power due to the storm. Also, the University of Arkansas has been closed for 4 days straight now which hasn't happened since 1917 or something. Needless to say it was on one side very beautiful, but on the other extremely damaging. Here are a few photos that don't even begin to explain or capture what everything looked like in actuality.

There were downed power lines everywhere. I feel fairly certain that every street in fayetteville had a power line or two on the ground.

Wilson Park.

Upon opening up my front door.

2009-01-10T15:24:00.004-06:00

Suelo is a full time window watcher. He's also pretty cute. Am I turning into the cat lady? I think I have around 80% too many photos of my feline.

Messing with changing the focus.

What exactly is it about cats and boxes?

2009-01-08T15:16:00.003-06:00

I got a new camera yesterday

2009-01-03T10:26:00.003-06:00

So here are a few simple photos of things I took last night/yesterday afternoon. Also, I am usually a die hard Nikon person, but I mixed it up this time.
There is a super macro feature that allows me to be within one centimeter of stuff and it turns out clear. Pretty cool, eh? It's what really sold me, expect many bugs on plants post in the future!
Eye out window.
Dark rooms.
Stamps!

2009-01-02T15:02:00.000-06:00

I thought the reflection my cats water bowl made was a little cool....

This is what I like out of my fog:

2008-12-28T10:23:00.003-06:00

Density.But on a more murderous note, I ran into a stuffed bobcat with the later half of a squirrel protruding from it's mouth Christmas eve. Apparently the host was hunting one day, noticed a bobcat running by and then shot it with a bow. The bobcat was indeed in the middle of eating this squirrel just as pictured here. Hhhmmmm.....Also to note were the 3 deer heads mounted in the living room. Very nice folks though. Chevy people, they'll have nothing to do with Fords.

animals can be cute

2008-12-27T01:41:00.002-06:00

Old garlic?

2008-12-15T13:41:00.000-06:00

Day on the town

2008-11-26T14:40:00.002-06:00

Bowling, Ice skating and 3 hours of Wii, all in all a very good day.I bowled a 120, wooo!
The place was pretty packed for noon on a tuesday. There were also around 20 shirts that said "Elkins class of 2013"....
Is it just me or does this photo make the place look like a midget bowling alley.

The view is nice

2008-10-29T11:21:00.004-05:00

Which might be one of the reason's I'm always home so much.

day trip

2008-10-18T11:31:00.008-05:00

On Wednesday my friend Brandon and I went for a day hike out in Newton county down Indian Creek. Our goal was to reach and see the "Eye of the Needle," which is pictured below. October is my favorite month which was proved reasonable by the beautiful scenery we came across as we trekked up and down boulders for 6 miles more or less.I'm really glad I decided to go ahead and put new batteries in my camera at this point of the hike or I would have missed this photo above.

Seeing as I was walking behind Brandon most of the day, he is pictured in a lot of photos.

From the other side of the "Eye of the Needle."

Am I a Sarah bandit?

2008-10-13T13:59:00.003-05:00

Some say that this young lady and I look alike, but when Sarah Hughes and I stand side by side I'm fairly certain that we just look like plausible sisters. In the past bartenders have asked, "Sarah, would you like a drink?" And when I respond yes and they give me a drink and say it's on the house, I always wonder if they think they have just given a drink to Sara Taylor or Sarah Hughes the local folk singer. I would have to make an educated guess that around once a week at the least someone tells me they really enjoyed my show the other night, and around once a month I get a big hug from someone asking what I am doing in town, since Miss Hughes recently moved to Austin. It's not really a hard life being a faux Sarah, so maybe I'll just grab a guitar and milk it for all the sweet beer I can drink.

I love weapons

2008-10-06T22:10:00.005-05:00

It turns out light sabors are really fun to play with, especially when you can use the iPhone light sabor simulator at the same time. And yes mom, this is in fact what I do all day long.

Rookie Ride was fun this year

2008-09-29T17:33:00.004-05:00

Mushrooms

2008-09-22T13:33:00.002-05:00

In my backyard there are hundreds of these guys hanging out, growing and dying. Pretty cool lookin' if you ask me.

2008-09-18T10:20:00.001-05:00

So the Razorback game was pretty fun.

Jesse and Clara got married at the Aquarium! Whoah cool!

2008-08-24T15:43:00.006-05:00

Although the Smiths were legally married 1 and 1/2 years ago, they publicly tied the knot last night at the Aquarium in Tulsa, OK. I don't know about you guys, but I have for sure never been to a wedding in front of a shark tank before now and it was sweet! Several of us were sort of secretly hoping that they would be IN the tank and float down in scuba gear. I think I would have been just a little bit blown away and labeled this the "Most Satisfying Wedding EVER." But the food was good and the bride and her dress were gorgeous.
Shark tank is behind them.
View from the tunnel inside the tank.
These turtles were stacked. Hmmm...
Kissing the bride.
Upon entering the shark tank tunnel there was a bit of fear that had to be overcome.
My heels sitting on the wall, they were about a 1/2 size too small.
Clown fish I believe.
Blow fish.

Electric eel! (I think)
Jelly fish.
The cake!
Beautiful roses.
Oh yeah, and we drank a little wine.

Tim's Vinegar and Oil.

2008-08-05T11:35:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Chester, AR

2008-07-26T16:24:00.003-05:00

My Grandma Cronin and Aunt Connie came into town from California yesterday and so we all went out to lunch today. And where else in the entire state of Arkansas would my step-dad choose to eat but in Chester, Ar. So after 45 minutes of driving on the Pig Trail and nearly loosing my appetite due to motion sickness(I know, a little pathetic) we arrived at our destination. Here are some highlights. The waitress mentioned that "Bill had an old car he was tryin' to fix up so they could have their very own cop car in town."
Cat right outside the bathroom.
I'm not sure I even know what this means, but so far the town has 3 churches and no cop car.
The antique store did have several very cool old cameras though.

In the city

2008-07-17T00:31:00.003-05:00

This post is a little late, but here is a taste of the time I spent in Seattle post-Potlatch.
Vikki and I perused Pike market for 3-4 hours.
Elevator? Nope, just a one-seater bathroom.
"First" starbucks.

Vikki, Joel, Karl and I did a little sea-kayaking the day before leaving.

Yet another giant post, Seattle edition

2008-07-13T15:41:00.007-05:00

Last weekend I ended up in Seattle somehow for a tournament called Potlatch that was pretty danged sweet. I played with a team out of Oklahoma called shortbus and 6 of us Arkansans joined them. We played Friday, Saturday and Sunday so by the time the weekend was over I was quite spent, but managed to have a great time for the next 3 days playing around in the city. Here is just a huge post about the tournament, Seattle photos are to come soon.
"No child left behind" team riding the Shortbus.
Joy and Painter doin' that disc.

Redhook Brewing Co. where the party was held Saturday night.
Nice D Steven.
Players waiting in line for their share of 1000 pounds of Salmon.
The "Ambush" position.
During the All-Star game.
Nice.

We were a little rough with the hoola-hoop and so when it broke we got creative and made it into a sweet beer bong.
Stevie and I wrestled, Sumo style.

The team! minus karl, I might photo shop him in soon though.

Spider pig, spider pig.

The sky was awfully pretty as was the weather all week.

My fearless guard frog

2008-06-24T09:47:00.002-05:00

That frog will mess you up. You should see his power stance.

Tim's boredom part II

2008-06-17T08:00:00.004-05:00

Have you ever wondered what kind of stimulants an everyday Tim's waitress experiences behind the scenes? Well, due to the fact I did not receive a single table for 3 hours on sunday, I was able to document just such a thing for you all.

This is the old oven.

Here's the very very old dough maker that was old when Tim's Pizza obtained it some 20 years ago...I think....it was either 20 or 13, one of the two. I promise it's not dirty, the lighting is just not in it's favor.
Circles.
We carry coke products, sorry if you like pepsi, we don't.

Giant California trip post

2008-06-02T17:52:00.006-05:00

A few days after I graduated several weeks ago, my friend Ryan and I took a little drive on out to California to see our high school friend Ellen graduate from Occidental University in L.A. Ryan only had one request for the entire trip, which was to see the Grand Canyon, so we made a stop by there on our way which proved to be quite entertaining. Other places we went were to my dad's in Coto de Caza and then to Venice Beach where we stayed for 3 days with the Bogarts. The weather was amazing the entire time and everything went great, except for the part where I missed out on Vegas, Zion Park and Joshua Tree park because I had to fly home. Oh well, another day.
The amphitheater where graduation was held.
Ellen being handed her degree, the whole reason we went.
The Bogarts!
Ryan checking out his nails.
The sign coming in said "No smoking and NO BALLOONS allowed" These guys are way out of line, that balloon needs to go.
Sara, Ellen and I, three high school buds re-united in SoCal.
Venice Beach.
Claire.

Ryans first view of the Grand Canyon, just look at that smile!
Rediculous.

Our last piece of wood. We were trying to resolve other ways to obtain more, but there were so many park codes we had to start getting creative. We didn't end up with any more wood.
The squirrels didn't like people at all. Just look at this guy, he's mad.
Best Ludicrous Speed representation ever. Who says I don't have any love for our men's team?

Note Ryan ever so safely perched on out on that rock.

Me and my trusty bandana. I like to hold on to something when I hike, and the handlebars were perfect.

Man vs. cliff round 1
Man vs. Cliff round 2...to be continued.

8 am! Ready to go!
Ryan thinks he knows how to put up a tent, and somehow claims bragging rights to setting up his faster than mine. But I had already set mine up and almost finished cooking my dinner by the time he was done.
By the way, Rbill forgot to bring food, so he went to the Grand Canyon Store and got some chips and salsa. Smooth move.

Lifeguards/Baywatch?

2008-05-25T16:12:00.004-05:00

So this weekend marked my 3rd year playing Ultimate, and my 4th time attending the memorial tournament Dan Gabor. Our team started out with the theme "Lifeguards," but by the time I got to the fields on Saturday it had transformed into "Baywatch." A great time over all and here are the few photos that were taken to record the event.
Kiddie pool filled with ice, beer, gin, tonic, limes, water, watermelon and pineapple=best idea ever.

I think I should be drinking out of this disc instead of apparently trying to eat it.
Well prepared.
Still the best idea ever.

Mid trip

2008-05-21T08:53:00.003-05:00

This past week Rbill and I took a little driving trip on over to SoCal on occasion of Ellen's College Graduation from Occidental. On Friday I got to see my dad for the first time in a long time and realized we may look alike. Not a bad visit.

2008-05-11T13:23:00.003-05:00

On my last day babysitting I took Ben gator golfing which proved quite relaxing. It was a beautiful day and we both totally made the hole in one on the 18th hole, resulting in a free game the next time we come. We're pretty bad ass at gator golf.
Ben running up to play.

We Graduated!

2008-05-11T13:10:00.008-05:00

Pretty exciting, eh? But now what? Stevie and I, ready to chow down on some BBQing.
Will and I waiting to march into the Auditorium for commencement.
Where I spent the majority of my last semester studying, Arsaga's on Gregg.
And on my way out of Arsaga's one day, I came accross this hay spreader or something that spread hay evenly over grass seed. I mean, seeing as hay spreading is such a physically straining task, surely no man has that kind of ability and we needed to invent one of these guys.....

I feel a bit out of place

2008-05-04T11:43:00.005-05:00

So this is the first weekend I've spent in Fayetteville in 7 weeks, and I must admit that it feels rather strange. And really the only reason I stayed here was because I had a final on Saturday at 1pm, otherwise I would have been gone again.

2008-05-04T01:30:00.000-05:00

So two weekends ago Justin Leflar and I trucked it on up to Kansas City to enjoy a seder with the Kleinhenz/Meltzer's. It was a very educational experience and it was great to see Casey and Andrea again since I haven't seen them since they moved way away to Eugene. Highlight of the weekend just might have been the Boulevard Brewing Co. tour we took...I love beer.

Yum!

Casey and Justin.