Happy Holidays To All!

We are spending Christmas this year in Panama City, miles away from any of our biological family, but close by to many of our new “family” in so many of the countries we have blessed to have been able to travel to and get to know the people. If in your corner of the world it is white and snowy, send some of that down to us!

In the meanwhile, we got a wonderful Christmas present just a few days ago- an update from La Florida where we did one of our favorite projects with some of the most wonderful people that you could hope to work with. The perfect situation of a community that works together and is striving to better their lives, but just needed a little helping hand. The biggest part of our nutrition project there was an aquaculture pond for raising tilapia, and their update was that the fish have grown so big they are ready to harvest! I think they’re going to sell some and eat some- increasing nutrition through added protein and getting money for other projects and to pay the teacher at the school and buy the next round of fish fry to rear. We’re happy to have been able to give a “gift that keeps on giving” and look forward to more projects like this that we can look back on and realize just why it is we do the work we do. And for anyone that has donated to The GROW Initiative, it’s also what you have given that is keeping on giving.

Santa Rita, where everybody knows your name

When we rolled back into Santa Rita the welcome back we received warmed our hearts and helped remind us why we do the work we do. Our last two days with the community were filled with visits and when it came time to say goodbye, we faced one of the saddest times of our trip. But one great thing about our grand journey is as we make friends in nearly every corner of the globe, and we always have our new “families” to go back to visit!

Everyone in Santa Rita was wonderful. Invitations were always coming to try this special Tica dish at my house, or come and visit my farm, or just kids coming over to play. As for our host “family” we couldn’t have dreamed of people we got along with better, from late night draft games to dance lessons in the living room to learning to cook the local favorites. When it came to teaching in the school or working with the women’s group on their recycling program it fit perfectly with the goals of GROW and we were happy to be able to help.

Our projects there turned out great as the people of the community took charge of all the work with us just giving the helping hand of funds and making sure they had thought everything through. They had to submit a proposal and do all the leg work themselves. Sadly because of our time frame this meant that we were gone before the recycling centers were actually built, but it is much more sustainable for community to do the work themselves giving them a sense of pride and responsibility to keep the program running. We’re just excited to get back and see it all. In the meanwhile, they’ll be updating us and we’ll be updating our website. We did other work in Santa Rita as well, and you can read about it all on the GROW website.

Buena Suerte!

So after finishing a great project in Costa Rica, getting a great update from our first project in Guatemala, traveling through some of the most beautiful country on our trip as we made our way down to Panama, another good project with a great Peace Corps volunteer in an awesome community, we decided we are going to write about of course….. Gambling! Panama City 2009! WHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

News on our other adventures is soon to come but unfortunately it takes thought. What doesn’t is a quick recap of a fun night. As Brooke and I were returning to our hostel after a tasty little veggie dinner in our newest location, Panama City, we decided to take a look inside a building named Fiesta. Surprised to find a casino inside we thought to ourselves, this is weird, let’s take a walk around. Even weirder was when we found a bowl full of quarters (a whole $4.25) sitting abandoned by a slot machine. After pulling off the nonchalant look around, sure that we were being set up for a developing countries first “Caught on tape” reality show, we played one quarter in the slot machine and headed for the roulette table. Too small of an amount to bet on red or black we laid down our money on a few different numbers and wouldn’t you know it, red 16 hit.

Were in the Money! Were in the Money! Well Ok, $12 is not so much of a retirement fund, but it did allow us to sit on the black jack tables for a good hour or so, slurp down a few free drinks (including one of the most delicious blended drinks, complete with an umbrella, I have ever had), and pretend just for a moment we are not living off of a combined $10 a day. But unfortunately, even in developing countries the house still has the odds and we were sad to see our money begin to leave just a fast as it came. So down to our last $3 we laid it on the black jack table and got ourselves ready to call it a night when an ace and a ten came calling us back in. We took our big win and decided to let it ride on the roulette table on red. After some confusion we actually put it on black and hit again. Whoooo Hhoooooo!

Amazing how excited two people can get over 14 dollars. And really, we don’t care that our big winnings will pretty much pay for a trip to the local grocery for a carton of free range eggs and small square of cheese back in the States, because tonight luck is with us and life is good. Hope everyone is having as lucky of a holiday season as we are. We love and miss you all

El Día de Gracias, a time for family

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for, and that list should start off this year with THANK YOU GINGER AND JON FOR COMING TO VISIT US! After 11 months without seeing anyone in my family, the sight of Ginger showing up at the airport in San Jose for a visit was wonderful! And so our Thanksgiving blog is a little late in coming, since the past 9 days they have been keeping us busy running all over Costa Rica and then we've been in the middle of nowhere without electricity for a few days. But in no particular order, here’s a thanks list that I’m sure is not even close complete as we are some very fortunate people.

Our families; their loving support and for just being amazing people.
Our friends, also wonderful and supportive.
The fact that our camera lasted as long as it did (it just died)
The incredible projects we have found to do in different countries during our travels.
Our health (One entire month without runny belly!)
That we still find so much pleasure in the little things nature has to show us, no matter how many times we see the shy ferns or the leaf cutter ants, we always stop to marvel.
The automatic friends we have just by the fact we, too, were PCVs.
That we have the means to be living out our dreams and be helping others.
The hospitality of strangers. (Our new host families including those in Couch Surfing that open up their homes and their lives to us with no expectations in return, the people that pick up the funny looking Gringos with the huge backpacks on the side of the road and often go out of their way to get us where we are going, new community members that invite us over and cook us dinner, people that go above and beyond to give us directions, people we have amazing conversations with in the strangest of places, fellow volunteers, fellow backpackers, kind hearts and old souls)