Hola! I made it to Nicaragua safely with my 7 traveling companions. I´m leading a work trip and we are here to build houses and work on a water project. We traveled Saturday to Managua, the capital, and yesterday took a microbus to our project site in Jinotega. I´ve been here six times now with this NGO and still fall head over heels in love with this sleepy little Latin town. I swear Jinotega, with its high, lush green jungle mountains, water falls, fields of calla lillies and hydrangeas and geraniums, was exactly what Gabriel Garcia Marquez had in mind when he wrote his ¨Love in the Time of Cholera¨and“One Hundred Years of Solitude.“
The people are equally remarkable. Nicaraguans are just kind to their very core. They are welcoming, generous and sweet people. I feel safe here, and there is nothing better when traveling with a random group of very foreign Americans.
My group is basically entirely strangers. The eight of us include 5 folk I´d never met before our flight to Houson. Thankfully, we seem to be melding well. These are donors who have decided to spend their summer vacations working hard labor in the humid heat. Color me impressed with their dedication to improve the world. I get paid for this. I don´t necessarily know that I´d want to spend my vacation working as hard as we did today.
It is 6 pm and the group is finally rousing from their naps. We are about to head out the door to a small sandwich shop for dinner. We spent the morning and most of the afternoon working on the housing project with the most rudimentary of tools. My work team includes and engineer from Chicago, a former professional football player from California and a man who owns a construction company in Phoenix. Needless to say, I spent a good bit of time today soothing ruffled feathers that there simply isn´t any other way to get this work done. No, in fact, we cannot rent a tractor. No, there aren´t any other tools. No, I can´t do anything abou the giant puddles we are trucking through — it rained all afternoon.
So, we are dirty and tired and slowly making progress on these houses. It is a great project and I´m happy to be a part of it. I´ll post photos soon — when I briefly return home to Phoenix on Sunday — and in the meantime post travel details as I can.
The shirts haven´t yet been distributed. We will go to the orphanage to work on Friday and surprise the kids with goodies then. Thank you again for your kindess and well wishes.

Cheers,
Kelli

p.s. foreign keyboard = wonky punctuation.

p.p.s. One thing I love about this country — they don´t wake you up with calls to your room. Instead a hotel worker comes and gently taps on the door and wishes you a good morning. It is so much more peaceful than a phone ringing off the hook next to your head, don´t you think?

You may have heard of the Farm Bill; it’s been in the American news a bunch lately. Last week the Senate approved it by a large margin. The House passed it a day earlier. Today it is supposed to reach President Bush’s desk, where it is anticipated he will use his trusty veto. Thankfully, it seems Congress has enough votes to overturn his veto if that occurs.
I won’t get into the specifics of the politics behind keeping or vetoing this bill from the President’s perspective (or reported perspective), but I will say that as a relatively new advocate in the food banking community, I am so relieved this bill has finally made its way through Congress and will be soon funded. It is controversial. There are subsidies for the farming industry that don’t make sense, but there is a silver lining that does.

In a nutshell, this legislation influences every single American’s life. It addresses food prices (expected to jump 5% this year) by increasing nutritional programs by more than $10 billion. This helps get more food in food pantries and more people who qualify for food stamps enrolled. This isn’t socialism by any means; if there is anyone who advocates for the community — not the government — to be responsible for helping the needy, it’s me. However, there are gaps in that philosophy that I’m not solving anytime soon and this funding will help in the meantime.

It also helps make sure that senior citizens — many of whom are homebound — get fresh fruits and vegetables. The majority of those Arizonans (80,000) who go hungry each day are children and the elderly. That makes me a bit sick to my stomach.

This morning I volunteered to take photos of a gleaning project in the far West Valley. Talk about collaboration — prisoners from the nearby facility are used as volunteers to pick crops from fields donated by a local farm. Duncan Farms has certain fields it plants and then sets aside for food banks state-wide. Today these ladies picked cabbage, which will be sent to food banks this afternoon and hopefully placed in food boxes for anyone in need tonight. My favorite part about this gleaning system is that there is little waste. A lot of the produce within this program would otherwise end up in a landfill and there is nothing more disgusting to me than the fattest nation in the world throwing away food. As one of my colleagues said yesterday, “Hunger in America isn’t a supply issue; it is a distribution issue.”

If you want to reduce the food waste in your community, check out this blog. And if you’d like to see what the average American family throws away each month, take a deep breath and then click here.

If you are interested in helping your local food pantry, the best items to donate are: canned meat, canned fruits and veggies, peanut butter and juice in containers that won’t break.

On a side note, if you are ever feeling a bit unfeminine, spend your morning with a bunch of female inmates in a sweaty, dirty, hot, farm field. You’ll skip away feeling like the most delicate, fragile ballerina to ever get her slippers dusty.

~K

Yesterday we celebrated Mini’s 30th with an afternoon party at Rebecca and Matt’s house. The food was entirely appetizers — a collection of Mini’s favorites, including bean dip, pesto, sushi, hummus, cake, cupcakes, bean dip and did I mention the bean dip? There was also a margarita machine and about 10,000 types of wine. It was a fun, gluttonous afternoon but the hands down favorite of the buffet table were the red velvet cupcakes from Sugar Blossom. Have you had one of Melati’s creations yet? If not, splurge. You won’t regret it. Everyone raved how good they were and I had to answer roughly 500 times that no, in fact I did not bake them. I bought them. See how smart I am!

The party also provided the perfect opportunity for a new pattern review. Amy Butler’s birdie sling is cut and dry. The directions are clear and I like the construction, especially the handle.

However, the next time I make this I will forgo the double-sided pockets and the interfacing. I get better results with canvas. I’ll also do one less pleat on either side. I would like the opening to be a bit wider. I plan on sewing two more of these this week, including a fun summer bag for moi — to hold my cupcakes, of course.
Happy Monday Peeps,
K

Last night was the final community dinner of the Spring season. I hope to resume in the Fall when I’m in a new, larger house where half the crowd doesn’t have to sit outside on the patio furniture.

We had my mom’s Mexican meatloaf. I added a layer of Hatch chiles through the center and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thrilled to have leftovers for this weekend. A cold meatloaf sandwich is pretty close culinary heaven in my book, and no I do not have a mullet.

We also had buttermilk biscuits (which I added way too much baking powder to on accident. Woopsie. Baking power does not equal baking soda), steamed veggies, salad, strawberry pie and chocolate chip cookies.

Spence entertains the crowd. This summer will be his 30th trip to Africa.
There was a steady flow of beer and wine and Spence — my friend from Colorado who is also my Africa travel saint for this summer — brought his iPod with a pretty incredible collection of jazz. It was a lovely night!

~K

P.S. If you have t-shirts you’d like to mail for the Peace t-shirt project, please do! There is still plenty of room. Thanks again!

Just for a second, I wish I could turn of my conscience. I’m not talking about the Holy Spirit or my mother’s voice — which schizophrenically I also hear on occasion. Or even my internal critic who has been piping up way to often lately. (As Annie Lamott would say, it is time stop listening to KFUCKED and turn on something more pleasant, such as KROCKS.)
If I could just temporarily walk away from what is right and wrong for a second, do you know what I’d let myself do? Steal this shirt.

Meegan sent it as part of the Peace T-Shirt project and it is handmade, includes fabric that looks quite African, is soft and I’m pretty sure would fit me perfectly. It is wrong to steal and quadruply wrong to do so when charity is involved. So, I won’t steal, but I will covet. I will hand it out in Nicaragua or Mozambique with a smile and meekly remember I have an entire closet of clothes and I shouldn’t be such a selfish little t-shirt grub.

On a more positive note: my goodness, the t-shirts are rolling in. Stacks of them are arriving at my mailbox and the mailman has joked with me more than once that I certainly receive a suspicious amount of foreign mail. Hopefully he doesn’t have a Bat phone to this crazy administration we are under or you never know — I could be locked up Rovian-style without any rights. Then again, you know what would look pretty appropriate behind bars? This cute stripy t-shirt.

Thanks to all who are sending in shirts. I’m going to have more than I can take, more than likely. It is certainly one of those weeks where I pinch myself because I’m blessed beyond belief.

Peace. Love. Pink onsies. Theft. Hmm…

~K

I’m swimming in work this week and not spending much time behind the Singer or skillet, so I thought I’d instead share a few new environmental resources for Arizonans who may be interested.

- For those on SRP time of use plan, May 1 was the kickoff for the new “on peak” energy hours. I’ve used this plan for quite a while and it saves me boatloads of money, especially in the summer with air conditioning bills. For example, my May bill is less than $35. Granted, my home is tiny, but incorporating a few of their energy saving tips has saved me green.

- SRP is also offering a new tree planting program. For $3 a month you can plant 72 Ponderosa pines in Arizona. Your donation is matched by SRP and the trees will be planted to offset our carbon use. The 72 trees are equivalent to the offsetting of 26 typical households. Giddyup.

- Urban gardeners, there is a fantastic new resource I’m just learning about. Have you heard of this guy? How about his classes? This week’s include raising city chickens (on my agenda soon enough) and using minimal water for vegetable gardening.

Rad! Soon enough I’m going to have my own raised beds full of veggies. Until then, I’ll just keep taking these community lessons and creating the best plan.

FYI — no community dinner this week, peeps. I’m in Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon tomorrow. I’ve got a feast planned for next Thursday. Save the date.

Cheers,
K

Come to find out, you guys read a ton. We read a lot of the same authors (Kingsolver, Lamott, Coehlo) and you had some mighty suggestions. For anyone interested in a recommended summer reading guide, here is what you’ve suggested in comments that I have not read:
(I copied these directly from comments, forgive the lack of editing style. Some are authors, other book titles.)

Beatrix Potter
Corrie Ten Boom
Jane Austen
Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
Come Back, by Claire and Mia Fontaine
Lucky by Alice Sebold
The Golden Compass
Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story by Ann Kirschner
Pride and Prejudice
In Lucia’s Eyes
The Historian
The Book Thief
The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show
Janet Evanovich’s number series
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinkski
The Devil in the White City by Erick Larson
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Necessary Madness by Jenn Crowell
You’re Not You by Michele Wildgen
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Jane Eyre
Dr. Oz’s book How to Keep Young
PS I love you
March by Geraldine Brooks
The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Last Summer of You and Me
Hypocrisy of Disco
See You In A Hundred Years
Highest Tide
The God of Animals
Lullabies for Little Criminals
The Solace of Open Spaces
Haven Kimmel
Ron Carlson’s Five Skies
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth
Gaia Girls
Wee Free Men
The Birth House
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe by Douglas Adams
Mezzanine Nicholson Baker
A Woman in Berlin
Persepolis

And these I have read and have provided a brief review:
{On a banana scale, Summer Sisters by Judy Blume is a 1 (horrific!) while A Hundred Years of Solitude, The Power of One, The Poisonwood Bible, are all 5 bananas, absoloodle. Fives changed my way of looking at the world. Ones make me want to burn the pages for kindling.}

The Poisonwood Bible — 5 bananas
My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult — 3 bananas
Kite Runner — 4 bananas
Tom Robbins — 4 as a general rule, always entertaining
Eat, Pray Love — 4, loved it, love Elizabeth Gilbert more in person
Hemingway — 3. I realize he’s a classic, but not my favorite.
Blink — 3. Liked the topic but was bored by the end.
Freakonomics — 3. See above.
Sue Grafton — 2. Summer mind candy, good for the occasional craving.
White Oleander — 4, great read, descriptive writing
Water for Elephants — 3, candy.
The Namesake — 5, love Jhumpa Lahiri
The Alchemist — 5, one of my faves of all time. Coelho is gold.
Secret Life of Bees — 3, enjoyed the story
The Red Tent — 4, great imagination, loved the Biblical references
Life of Pi — 4, great story telling, great for discussion afterward
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver — 3, good summer read
Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld –2, couldn’t identify with the main character

Now, what to read next…
~K

Cheap red wine + two liters of Sprite Zero + sliced citrus + lots of ice = Sangria!

Community dinner has been on a hiatus for the last couple of weeks and will more than likely go into hibernation again soon; summer is arriving and everyone is getting busy — including this wanderer. I thought last night’s dinner would be canceled, but last minute I received several RSVPs. As a hungry reader of Andy’s Diner, I shot Andy an email and asked if he had any quick go-to Cuban recipes he thought would work.

Ay caray! He was the man to ask. I made Cuban black beans (substituting turkey bacon for pancetta) and stewed chicken with white rice. We had sangria and coconut-pineapple sugar cookies too. It was a feast and everyone went home with perrito-bags. And I may have wolfed down black beans with my eggs this morning.

Thanks Andy! Great suggestion.

I hope you are having a happy week. I am very much looking forward to this weekend; one of my best friends is coming into town and we plan on painting it red. Or rojo, as one with another round of sangria up her sleeve might say.

Hasta luego,
Kellita

Survived the bus commute today in honor of Earth Day. The daily ride pass costs $2.50, not $1.25 as I thought. This left me scrambling at the front of the bus for change for a $10 after I had already put in all the quarters in my wallet (5, as planned). It was like being at Rhodes Junior High School for the first day of 7th grade all over again. There I am fiddling with my bottom row locker when all the freshman are spinning through their combos with ease, hovering above and snickering at the green new kids. Thanks to the kind wave of the bus driver, I took my seat without ever finding the right change.

It was the right change to my routine. The brief experience threw me into a new mix of folk who I otherwise wouldn’t spend an hour with socially. I like these sorts of social situations where you feel completely uncomfortable because the universe is shaking you down and trying to teach you something about yourself. There were high school students from the technical school speaking Spanish and playing with their long, shiny brown hair. There was an African immigrant in a pressed white shirt that was so thin I could see his bus card clearly through his front pocket. A man with a hearing aid slowly rocked back and forth, flicking his long fingernails and never looking up from the black plastic flooring. I smiled, thumbed through my book mindlessly and people-watched with hunger. Bus riding is good for a writer’s soul.

The commute was easy. It took an hour, including about a mile walk — which I thoroughly enjoyed knowing we are full well climbing back in the oven known as the Phoenix summer soon enough. The bus was comfortable, the company eclectic and I didn’t have any road rage while reading and day dreaming. Imagine that.
I may have to give this public transport thing a fair shake, although it means I’d miss my morning coffee stops on the way into work. You know your life problems are insignificant when it all comes down to caffeine.

~K

Inspiration: my eBay Timbuk2 bag I purchased a couple years ago and use daily for work.

Recreation: the Chevroleg Bag — for a cyclist friend who needed a messenger bag.

I used Ikea fabrics left over from my holiday man-bag project. I am considering adding grommets to the strap so it can be shorted by using a carabiner. Perhaps for round two, although I’m also considering using Ikea material for that one too — one of those giant blue heavy plastic shopping bags that cost $1.

~k

p.s. I need to use my flash.