Bread

Monday Feb. 18 - Friday Feb. 22, 2013

Bread bread is good for your heart, the more you eat it, the more you......get sick of it! There is a good reason I am only making 1 blog this week. It is because bread is the only thing that I am doing. For me, it is simply bread week.

We found out recently that Cuyana is ready for Steve. Cuyana is another mission that is close to La Paz that Steve was initially supposed to go to. However, because their bakery was not ready, Steve got rerouted to us. But they have recently contacted us and have said that they are ready for him to come. So knowing that his time here is running short. He wanted to have a full week of one on one baking time with me. This has made this week brutally long. Nothing but dough everywhere! I have mixed so much dough that I think it has seaped through my pores into my bloodstream. It has been nice having a refresher week with bread, but it has also brought about a lot of stress, especially when every day that we bake bread, it is is 12 hour process. The breads we have made this week are kinoa with flax, plain bread, cornbread, potato and onion, and a loaded focaccia with peppers, tomatoes, and onions.

As I said I have not had too many other experiences this week to note. However, Juan and I were able to fix the lawnmower! I am so excited to work with Juan on a regular basis and learn a lot of practical things. It was very exciting to install the new blades onto the lawnmower, change 2 belts, put the unit back onto the mower, then jump it. However, the day after we fixed it, I took it out to one of the soccer fields and I got 2 length's done before it sputtered out. Everything that we fixed was working perfectly, so it turns out that there is yet another problem that we still need to fix. So stay tuned with that.

Last things to note, the new volunteers are pretty cool, especially the guys. The other volunteers have unfortunately left. It was so great to have them and they were such a blessing. The only one that stayed behind was little Warren. He is the son of the new director and is the one making the other promo video that I will be in. The new volunteers have been working just as hard as the other volunteers. The kitchen in the big house has been totally cleaned and redone and looks amazing, the thick grass is almost all gone, trash is being burned, beds are being put together, and they are working on installing electricity! Familia Feliz is continuing on the path to becoming more organized and Eric and I are really liking the changes. There are a few hiccups that we are not the biggest fans of, but overall, we are super excited.

P.S. My new day off is now on Sundays instead of Mondays. So keep in touch, and be on the lookout for my blogs now on Sundays.

Friday Feb. 22, 2013

Today yet again we made more bread. But we were able to rush through it pretty good and move quickly. It ONLY took us 9.5 hours! Blah. Good news is that atleast i'm getting pretty good at these breads and these days, I'm pretty much doing all of it on my own.

However, something extremely exciting happened today. Little Warren, who is 19, has had braces for over a year and was just ready to get rid of them. As he heard that I am a predent major, he figured that I could do it and save him some time and money. I told him that I was totally game! But as soon as I got my tools, I started to actually get a little nervous. If I messed up his teeth, I would have felt awful. Not to mention, his dad is my boss! But surprisingly, his parents were on board with it too.

When I went back to my room to get my pliars and a couple dentistry tools, I decided that if I was going to walk the walk, I needed to look the part. So I changed into my scrub shirt. I then walked back to the big house and had him lie down on a bench while I pulled up a chair behind him and had him open wide. The first one hurt him a little, but not too bad. But the rest of them I dominated! I started just clicking them off one after another. Then I got mack to his molars where there were some backets and I got a little nervous. But you can never show your patient even if you are unsure about something. That is just unprofessional! haha. So I didn't say anything and I just went in and got them off with no problem.

Tabitha who had just gotten back today with her husband and is just stopping by for the weekend before they go back to Santa Cruz was standing right there watching the whole thing. She asked me if I was supposed to give him anestesia or something before I started. I just kind of smiled and said no, not for something like this. She was a little nervous. But everything went great! He was so happy to have them off and was ready to eat.

The other thing that happened today was that I forgot to mention something that happened on Tuesday. So I shall talk about it now. While making the fire in the oven to bake bread, I had to uncover a bunch of coals and stir them up. But while doing so, I happened to place a couple on my foot. I jumped so high! I didn't know if i was getting bit by a snake or spider or what was happening. But after I looked down, my big toe had already started to blister. I really wish I could see my parents faces as they read this right now. But yes, from that point on, I kept my foot submerged in cool water for the next several hours. Everytime I took it out of the water, I got a shooting pain. So I had to sit there doing nothing for hours! It would have been quicker if we had ice, but all we have is creek water. Good thing is, my foot is fine, I didn't need all 5 toes anyway....

Sunday Feb. 24, 2013

We had a little bit of a change of pace today. Apparently this rice farm is ready and all the rice needs to picked immediately. There is only about a week's time for us to go through and harvest the entire field by hand. This alone is going to take us at least a week's worth of time especially since the government will not allow us to cancle a day of school. So the verdict was, all of the volunteers days off were postponed. It's truly unfortunate, but necessary. But after talking to Warren, I will be able to come in Monday. Unlike me, Eric has to wait until next week until he can have a day off because he is a teacher and needs to be here every day.

So the day we had in the field harvesting, I think was a success. The day could not have been more perfect. For the majority of the day, we had excellent cloud cover and didn't die of heat. We were also able to use every single person at Familia Feliz to help. This was great as it is an extremely big task. Never having harvested rice before, I wasn't sure exactly how long or hard this was going to be. As it turns out, it is fairly easy, however, I think I could walk to Hawaii and back before we will finish this. And yes, I said WALK to Hawaii...... How you do it, is each person gets a pocket knife and has to walk through the field and go to each individual stem and cut off the tip (where the rice is) and put it in a bag.

Due to the enormity of this job, every day this week for the work program, the kids and adults will be harvesting rice for 2-4 hours each day. I probably won't be doing TOO much bread making this coming week. So hopefully I don't forget everything that I "just" learned! Hope all is well with you all!

PS. Sorry again for the lack of pictures..... the internet here kills me

You Stay Civilized......Planet Earth!!!!