Sept 25/07

The 2-3 hours each evening that I used to spend in front of the TV with cross stitch hoop in hand have been curtailed severely. Last night, I had had ENOUGH of topics on globalization (I have an exam on the 1st) so I said, "Screw it!" and stitched to my heart's content! Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff I am reading and writing, but I just need a few more hours in the day to nourish my soul by stitching and exercising.

Speaking of exercising, thank heavens that I gave up pop and chips at the same time as my exercise routine took a nose dive or I would be growing exponentially. My strategy is that I have to donate $5 to charity for every bag of chips or serving of pop that I ingest. For someone who had one of each every day at work, this is a major step. To help me through, I drink lots of water at work and make sure that I take lots of fruit to munch on instead of reaching for the chips. I am admittedly a scale-a-holic and step on it numerous times a day which is not healthy, but I can only break one habit at a time, okay?! The scale is telling me though that this cut back in empty calories is nudging my weight down despite little or no walking or running as a concerted exercise effort. Who knew? Well, yeah, I did know, but it was so much easier to grab a bag of chips than it was to remember to buy enough fruit to last until my next trip to the grocery store and to pack enough in my lunch bag each day.

Well, back to the academic grind!

Sept 16/07

I am avoiding reading an account of colonialization in South East Asia so I am here at the computer attending to some very important things!!LOL!!

Actually, I do have a stitching anecdote that I forgot to share the other day. I mentioned that I was at the closest cross stitch shop to me with a friend who is looking for some hobbies. As part of explaining my fascination/addiction, I mentioned that I follow blogs about stitching. Her jaw literally dropped as she asked me if I was joking. She was absolutely blown away by this whole subculture that she had never even heard of before. She was amazed that there was a whole shop devoted to cross stitch and that people would blog about their stitching. I will have to show her my craft supply collection as proof of my addiction because she could just not picture having shelves full of all the stuff that she saw at the store the other day.

Okay, fun time is over. Back to reading about the British, the Dutch and the French and their colonization of SEA.

Sept 15/07

Here is an update on the wreath! I was at Because you Count the other day with a friend who had expressed an interest about cross stitch. While we were looking around, I told her about this piece and one of the shop owners came running over. Apparently, just that morning, someone had been talking with her about trying to find this particular pattern. The lady's phone number is beside me here on the desk to remind me to call her sometime soon.

My stitching progress will probably slow to a crawl after this weekend as I go back to work and get slogging away at my school work. Eating and sleeping may be optional as well!

If anybody in the general vicinity of Moncton is interested, there is an event going on at Because You Count (164 Collishaw) on September 25th between 11:30am and 2pm. Sue Hillis of Sue Hillis Designs will be there. Plus, the shop is having a 16% off everything except floss during the week of Sept. 24-29th. Just thought you might like to know!

Sept 10/07

Here is an update on the wreath project. I am on holidays this week so I have been spending 3-4 hours an evening on this to get as much done as possible before school starts drowning me in paper.

So far, my holidays have been lovely and relaxing and I plan to spend the rest of the week in the same mode. Feesh and kids came down from Moncton on Saturday and we attended the first annual Roots Festival in Bloomfield. We sat out in a hayfield by the bridges and listened to local entertainers while eating the most awesome home made ice cream sandwiches. Then, they came over here for pizza out on the deck. Sunday started with babysitting my nephew while Thor ran the Hampton 5-miler. We had a blast cheering on Daddy and all of the other runners. The rest of the day was spent at the library, then on my bed reading the stuff I photocopied at the library before napping and going to watch Jove play softball.

Today, I am going to do yard work as soon as I quit playing around with the Internet and go to 2 Rotary meetings this evening. My bedding is going through the wash while I type this. I am in puttering mode which is one of my most productive modes because I start out with a vague purpose and do what ever catches my attention about needing to get done. At the end of the day, I invariably sit back in awe at everything I have completed while puttering.

Sept 6/07

Here is my August ornie which I actually completed in September! It is called "Christmas Tree 2007" by Jeannette Douglas and is in the October 2007 JCS. I stitched it on a mystery cloth that I pulled out of my stash. The cloth felt kind of interesting, perhaps it has wool in it??


This is a Dimensions kit called "Wreath of All Seasons" that I am stitching for a fundraiser for my Curl for Cancer team. Now that classes have started, I am not sure if it will be completed in time, but I am stitching for dear life at the moment to get as much done as possible ASAP before I get buried in readings and papers.

Sept 5/07

No stitching pictures today, mostly because I am too lazy to photograph the ornie that I stitched from the latest JCS. Instead, I am going to crow about the comments I received from my professor who read my papers for his globalization class. Keep in mind that I was extremely nervous about writing papers because I was not an arts major at Dal so I only ever wrote one paper during my 4 years there although I can do a nice job on a lab report! Plus, I could choose my own topics and that took me forever to decide because what the hell do I know about globalization and what kind of stuff this prof likes. The first paper on biofuel production and the increase in food costs took me over a week to write because I struggled with trying to actually write the darn thing in the first place. A friend who is working towards her PhD reviewed it for me and gave the thumbs up so I went on to write about the global clothing market. The second paper was much less painful to write. The bibliographies were a lesson or two learned as well so a little prayer was said before I emailed the essays to the prof last Friday.

His response came back on Sunday and I cried triumphant tears as I read that he thought I had done an excellent job!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!! I feel so much more confident as I head to the university tomorrow to start my class in the Politics of Prostitution. My other classes this term are the Politics of Asia and Global Issues. My class selection is a bit schizophrenic, but it was more about trying to fit the classes around my work schedule than trying to build a strong CV for my Masters application. My advisor is teaching two of those classes. She recommended that I worry more about writing good papers for the courses than the actual course content because the goal is to show St Mary's that I am so brilliant that they would be fools to not accept me into the IDS program.

There is so much to this university thing that I have had to re-learn like where to get a parking pass (I did not need one the last go round at uni.), how to get a student card, what to take to class to take notes, where to find my classes, figuring out the university web site (ahem, we did not have the internet back in my Dal gal days) and so on. So, tomorrow, I will be the old girl in the back of the class trying to figger all of this out! Wish me luck!

August 28/07

I finished the puzzle biscornu last night. The freebie came form this site which took me a while to figure out because I do not read German at all, but the biscornu patterns motivated me to figure out how to get the patterns!!

This one is stitched again with mystery threads on a 28 count Monaco (I think, I chucked the tag out!). I did one side in green and the other side in blue to give a little contrast. I have done a couple of other variations that still need to have the final finish, but this was my favourite variation.

Aug 19/07

Another small finish. I think that I am addicted to smalls at the moment because I do not have to wait six months to see the finished result and I see definite shrinkage of the stash! This one is "Renaissance Bookmark" by Teresa Wentzler. The design was a freebie from her site. I do forget what I stitched it on, but I think that it is a 28 count lugana. ETA: I have just realized that this picture does absolutely nothing to show how beautiful the design truly is so I will have to try again to get a better photo.

Some sad news. I just heard on Friday that my LNS has closed. Admittedly, I have not been there in a while since the motherlode of a stash that I have has had everything I have needed for any of my recent projects. Now, the closest NS is over 100km away in Moncton.

This weekend has been rather busy, kicking off with a wedding shower on Thursday, moving books on Friday night for the Rotary club, a birthday party and a wedding reception on Saturday and I am off to my mom's here in a minute for a lunch with my sister and her boyfriend who are here from Halifax. Then, I need to mow the lawn and research a topic for my course on globalization for the second essay of the course. Thank heavens that Monday is a vacation day for me because I sure need it!

My heart sank this morning as I was waking up to the newscast. Another Canadian soldier has died in Afghanistan. Knowing that my brother is on-call on the notification team at CFB Gagetown this week made the news even more sad although fortunately (poor choice of words in the circumstances, for sure), the soldier was based at CFB Valcartier so my brother does not have to tell a family that their loved one has died. War sucks.

Aug 15/07

Here is the ornie I stitched for the July ornie SAL. He is called "Stuffed Snowman" from Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cross Stitch 1996. He is stitched on mystery fabric with mystery threads from my mystery thread box and his arms are twigs from the yard instead of wire as in the pattern. His scarf is braided from the mystery threads because I have little or no cotton cloth in my craft room.

Aug 10/07

No stitching pictures, but I was playing around with my new camera yesterday and took some pictures as proof of my stitching addiction! May I introduce you to my stash (the shelves on the right contain my recycling centre):

and my pattern collection:

The thread drawers really make my stash look way worse than it is! Several years ago, my boss helped out a friend who was closing a craft store and sold off her inventory in our store. One day, I was in the stockroom and saw all of the DMC floss that was sitting out there so I offered to buy it up! I have long lost the total, but I got the floss for about 20 cents a skein and should have enough to do me for at least 10 or 15 years of stitching!

I am currently working on a freebie bookmark that I found on Teresa Wentzler's site. My stitching has been slowed a bit by a mega migraine that hit me on Saturday and lingered for 4 days as a nagging soreness on the side of my head. Stress and allergies are so not my friend!

Life has an interesting way of coming full circle sometimes. Last night, I had a couple over for dinner. Shawn is the brother of Matt Kidner who was here in 2001 as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. I visited with their family in Australia in 2004 when I was there on the Rotary Group Study Exchange. Shawn and his girlfriend Steph are here in Canada this year on a working holiday visa and are in this region for a month or two. It was so cool to be sitting out on my deck last night and talking about all of the people and places that we have in common.

July 30/07

May I introduce the first of the stockings that I am cross stitching for my family? My intention had been to do my mom's first, but there was a huge delay in getting the fabric because the order was lost in the mail from the supplier, but my LNS has yet to call me 4 months later to let me know if it has come in so I ordered it from eBay. The result is that my stocking is now stitched instead.

EDITED TO ADD: The stocking is a Dimensions kit called "Holiday Harmony".

July 26/07

Hold onto your hats, folks! I finally have some stitching pictures to post! These are my first biscornus and while I am proud of them, please do not look too closely at how badly I negotiated the corners when stitching them together!

The one on the left is one that I designed with my cross stitch pattern maker one night and the other is Protection from Lady Periphaeria (see the blog for Peri on the right). As part of playing around with my design, I stitched it using pink (DMC 223) on one side and a brown from my mystery threads container. I stitched Peri's with another thread from my mystery collection called Coron #222. The beads are Mill Hill.


I have made some headway in my christmas stocking. The backstitching is almost done and then it is on to stitching my name before attempting to assemble it.

July 23/07

Here is a photo of my brother and his son with his university diploma. When I was about to take the photo, his son pointed to the diploma and asked, "What's that?". I replied, "One of the two things in the world your daddy is most proud of."


Me and my nephew, or The Helmetheads as my mom called us that afternoon!


The most use my exercise mat has seen in a while!

July 19/07

The biopsy procedure went well yesterday and now we just have to wait for the results to come back in the next two weeks. Both of the doctors involved are on holidays over the next two weeks so we have no choice, but to be patient. The patient is in a little bit of discomfort, but I knew that things would be fine when the second thing she said to me was, "Can we stop at Tim Hortons on the way home?". Canuck, through and through.

The daughter(me), on the other hand, is exhausted. I went into work at 3pm instead of my usual 1pm for an evening shift because I just could NOT get it together and get out the door. The stress of the past week or so caught up with me and floored me. I still do not feel great, but hopefully another good night's rest will help because I begin my weekend shift tomorrow! Work sucks and will continue to suck hard for a while yet. The new pharmacist is supposedly starting at the end of July, but she is unavailable for most of the month of August so guess who might get one day of vacation during the month of August to squeeze something that might look like a long weekend. I have not taken any vacation time since last November and have only been away from work for more than 2 days once in that time period because the schedule has rotated in such a way that my weekends to work have fallen on 3 of the 4 Canadian summer long weekends. Something is going to break sooner or later and I suspect that my sanity will the thing to break. Stress is not my friend and my anxiety and upset about all of the recent bad news that keeps making itself known to me has me feeling really fragile. Oh well, the more I dwell on it, the worse it gets so maybe I should just go to bed.

Tomorrow, I am going to pick up my brother's engineering diploma that I had framed for him as a graduation gift. I am very excited about it because he has worked so hard to get this degree and I am very, very, very, very proud of him!! I am also dropping off two boxes of materials left over from my renovations to the ReStore which is on Rothesay Ave in Saint John for anyone reading this who has materials that they no longer need. The store will be opening as soon as they have an adequate inventory.

July 14/07

I am in a slightly better head space today. Funny what a good dose of sunshine and a good night's sleep will do. As soon as I turn off the computer, I am going outside to work on staining my decks and weeding my flower beds. My shed also needs a little attention as everything is just haphazardly thrown in there and there are some things in there that can go to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. For instance, there is a bag of nails leftover from when the shed is built and several bits of lumber that I will never use, but maybe someone else can use them.

I put some stitches last night into the biscornu that I designed so hopefully within the next week I will have finished pictures of the biscornu that Peri designed and the one that I attempted.

The website that holds my UNB course on globalization is down this morning so I could not get any reading done there despite my best intentions. My original goal had been to finish it in July, but here we are mid-month and I am nowhere near being done. The thought of writing papers has been somewhat paralyzing to me, but the thought of the $500+ tuition that I paid for the course keeps me slogging away at it.

July 13/07

So, this week has kind of sucked. On Tuesday, my boss finally told my co-workers that he has prostate cancer. Four of us were told a month and a half ago, but we were not to tell anyone else until he had several tests to determine exactly what he was facing. On Wednesday, my mom called me at work to ask me what I had been diagnosed with last year when the lymph nodes on the right side of my neck swelled last May. She had just come from an appointment with a surgeon about the swollen lymph node in her armpit and he used the phrase "It looks like a lymphoma" when he examined her. She is having it removed on Wednesday morning at 8am so I hope that everyone reading this sends out a little hope and love on behalf of my mom. This all on top of the death of the wife of my town's mayor. She was a friend and the mother of a guy I grew up with. She will be greatly missed.

Needless to say, not much stitching or course work has been done this week because I can barely get home from work and eat before taking a nap just to stay awake until bedtime. Stress is so not my friend.

July 5/07

The rain today put a little dent into my plan to stain my deck and stoop today. The sinus headache that went migraine-like also put a dent into my plans today. The only reason why I crawled out of the house at 9am was because I had to meet up with a fellow Rotarian so that I could get a plaque that needs to be engraved. I am sure that I looked so graceful and beautiful when I had to pull over to throw up on the side of the road. Needless to say, it was back to bed for me until the meds could kick in and the sinuses could unblock. I began my day for the second time at noon.

Not much stitching in the past few days because I have been busy reading through my online course notes for a course on globalization. Today's reading included the transcript from a speech that US President Wilson gave in 1918 where he outlined his Fourteen Points to create international stability. He concentrated mostly on problem spots in Europe, but it struck me as ironic because his 14 points are still very valid today if we just substitute Middle Eastern countries for the European ones he used. Plus ca change, plus ca reste le meme.

Things I am up to this week: Strawberry Festival at the Bloomfield Hall (good food + old friends and neighbours = good times), getting my brother's engineering degree framed for his graduation gift, helping out at a Habitat for Humanity site on Saturday(my friends' house is being torn down and HfH is salvaging whatever they can sell in their ReStore) and having some co-workers over for a BBQ on Sunday.

July 2/07

Life has been busy with work and family so not much stitching although I am working on my first biscornu called Protection from Periphaeria Designs. Stitching over one thread has been a challenge and is slowing me down because I am having to adjust where I place my needle and how far to swing my hand as I stitch. The end result will be cool, I am sure!

My El Salvador trip has been confirmed for March 1-9, 2008 and I have a trip code which has not yet been posted on the Habitat site to accept donations. Now, I just have to finish building the team!

Yesterday was Canada Day here in Canada so I went to watch the town fireworks last night with my family. My nephew managed to stay awake until the end, but I would bet that he is rather bear-like this morning! He loved the little Army helmet that I bought for him at the Citadel in Quebec City because now he looks "just like Daddy!".

June 24/07

For the ornie SAL. I found this Scandinavian-inspired motif in a book called "Traditional Needle Arts Cross Stitch" by Katrin Cargill and decided to "finish" it by gluing it onto some card stock that I had left over from the cards I made for Christmas 2006. The motif is stitched on a mystery piece of 14 count Aida with DMC 304.

June 18/07

Not much to report from the stitching end of things because I have been working and then I drove off to spend 4 days in Old Quebec City in an attempt to see more of my country. Plus, it adds another UNESCO site to my life list. I had a great chat with my advisor at UNBSJ the other day as I plan out the courses that I want to take this coming year to get ready to apply for the Masters in International Development Studies. Afterwards, I was a bit dazed at all the potential jobs I could be involved in after the Masters program. Dr. Jeffrey is so enthusiastic and helpful and she just loves the fact that I have a pharmacy degree. She was sympathetic to my worries about writing papers (I only ever wrote one paper at Dal), but she has made suggestions about how to get on with that.

In lieu of stitching photos, here are some photos from my yard that I took last week:
Lilacs:

Lupins:

My yard is bursting into bloom! Yay!

June 11/07

Better late than never:


A Debbie Mumm kit for Dimensions called Christmas Adornments.

June 3/07

I did alot of stitching on my ornaments yesterday while at the symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension in Moncton. I figured that it would keep me awake since I never stay awake during seminars. The symposium and the NB Pulmonary Hypertension Society are the brain child of my friend, Jennifer Gendron whose son has been diagnosed with the condition. The group's website can be found here. No piccies yet because the camera is still at Mom's although I could shove the ornaments in the scanner, I suppose. The skin on the tip of the middle finger on my right hand got worn off during all of that stitching so I will have to wear a bandage if I want to do any stitching tonight.

After the symposium, I realized that I was just a few blocks away from a cross stitch store that I had heard about, but never knew how to get where it is situated. Yes, maps are good things, but that would be too organized and efficient for me. The store does not have a website so I can not give a link to check it out. I am now a huge fan of the store because it was so cool to see all of the leaflets from all of the designers that all of the other cross stitchers have been talking about in their blogs that I read. So, if you are in the Moncton area, I would recommend that you check out Because You Count at 164 Collishaw Street in Moncton, New Brunswick.

I managed to restrain myself while there and only came out with 3 patterns: Lizzie Kate's "Love Crazy", Teresa Wentzler's "Knotwork Bookmarks I" and the 2006 JCS Christmas Ornaments edition which I was too slow to purchase when the two copies were quickly sold off the magazine rack where I work. Lest you think that I have great strength in not going crazy with pattern buying, I have just purchased 10 patterns from one of my favourite eBay sellers who is closing her shop.....Looks like she has closed her shop as the link is no longer working. Plus, I also gave up waiting for the LNS to find its wayward order from Wichelt so I found some pieces on eBay that may just do the trick and I am waiting for those to arrive in my mailbox along with the exotic and endangered animal booklets that I ordered from that vendor.

Well, I should finish the laundry and then sun myself on the deck for a few minutes before heading to my Mom's with the outside planters that she wants. More clutter going out the door! Yay! The birdfeeders also need to be refilled. I have debated with myself about having birdfeeders and letting my cats outside, but the bird population seems to be reviving and my cats are so lazy that they rarely do further than the edge of the deck.

May 28/07

Just waiting for my soup to heat up so I thought that I would post. I heard some distressing news on Saturday night when I was at a fundraiser for a women's shelter. Apparently, the women's shelter in Saint John, Hestia House, is closing. I do not know the details, but I assume that it is a funding issue. Um, it is not like the need has disappeared. Our provincial government can find the money to give million dollar tax breaks to corporations who make quicksand promises about creating jobs in our province, but the government can not find the money to adequately fund things like women's shelters. Let me see, the government will give a 3 million dollar tax break to a company who promises to create say 100 jobs in a call centre. More times than not, those jobs fall through in a few years. Would it not be more cost effective to properly fund women's shelters in the province so that those several hundred women and children who find themselves in them annually could get back on their feet and get ahead?

I did put a few stitches into my Christmas ornament, but I will wait until later this week when I get the camera back from Mom to post a picture. The weather was gorgeous here this weekend so I spent my time working around the outside of the shack.

Oh yeah! One of the entertainers from Saturday night made a joke that I must share. He said, "I am about to sing our new national anthem" and then he proceeded to sing "Alberta Bound".

May 26/07

Not much to report on the stitching front except to say that I am busy doing the back stitching on my stocking and filling in those little pesky cross stitches that I missed the first time around. This weekend is Christmas ornament SAL so I will do that on Sunday since today is busy with running 6km, dyeing my hair, a fundraiser concert for the Sussex women's shelter and a birthday party for a friend. I need to weed a flower bed and wash both the car and my Adirondack chairs at some point this weekend.

I think that I have figured out how to do an indoor vermiculture compost bin with minimal fuss and muss. Ever since my little rat invasion 2 years ago, I have stopped putting any food into my home compost bins out behind the shed and send all the food bits off to the landfill composting facility. Rats horrify me! I have been trying to figure out how to do the vermiculture thing because it seems counter-productive to the whole environment thing to ship the compostable materials away by gas-driven truck to save space in the landfill. I have the bin and the compostable material, so now all I need to do is collect some wrigglers after the next big rainfall. My brother referred to me as the "Recycling Nazi" when he lived with me a few years ago so maybe I will not mention this little venture to him any time soon! Heck after 30+ years, he should be used to my kookiness by now!

My decluttering efforts are teetering along. One brother got rid of 4 boxes of junk at a fleamarket at the curling club and made enough money to take his girlfriend and Mom out to lunch at Holly's that day. The other brother took a garbage bag full of household items and 6 sets of blinds to use in his new place at CFB Gagetown. Then, on the other hand, I have bought several new items of clothing as I update my summer wardrobe, but I am enforcing the "1 item in, 1 item out" rule as I keep adding to the donation pile.

Well, I should get to my other environmental cause of running! My thought is that by losing weight (or 60 lbs or so!), then I decrease the gas consumption of my car and wear smaller clothes, using up less resources! Plus, it makes me a healthy being because my stress levels drop as I clear my mind and my body gets stronger.

May 18/07

Not much stitching to report as I was in Toronto last weekend and then been working in between sleeping since I have come home. I had planned to stitch alot today, but my allergies played havoc with that. The sinuses on the right side of my face were so full that I was dizzy and nauseated when I woke up this morning so I spent a good part of the day asleep since even reading in bed was a challenge. So much for tackling all of the stuff I had planned today like paperwork and errands. Oh well, it is a cold and overcast day so at least I do not feel like I lost a nice day to boot. I hope to get the last of the cross-stitching done on my stocking so that I can switch to the back and half stitching soon.

The Habitat for Humanity seminar was really interesting. The people and the topics were very interesting. I did learn something about myself-----I am terrible at navigating despite maps and explicit directions! Oh well, if we had not missed a turn or two, Jay and I would not have ended up having supper at a great pub in Bolton ON before heading back to where we were supposed to be! In my defence though, I did manage to find my way downtown with minimal "being lost time" after discovering that the 401 off-ramp I needed was closed for construction for this past weekend only.

May 11/07

I almost forgot to post my April ornament. I found it on the Michaels website.

May 10/07

I am online because I am avoiding packing tonight since the last bit involves ironing now that I have decided on the clothes. My flight leaves at 11:30am so I have lots of time yet to get around to shoving things into the suitcase. The reason for the trip is the Habitat for Humanity leadership training in a town called Nobelton, ON which is conveniently just past Vaughn where an IKEA lives! Well, I may not get to IKEA because I am travelling with Jay and she may have other ideas about where she might like to shop tomorrow before we have to be in Nobelton.

Did anyone else not know that the Canadian Charter of Human Rights does not apply to the native reservations? A recent article on the front page of the newspaper absolutely shocked me when I read that the reservations and their councils had asked to be exempt when the Charter was brought into effect and fight to keep it that way despite the efforts of some of the native womens organizations. Maybe I am just blind to these things, but how can the Charter not be a good thing when it guarantees equality for all genders, races and ethnicities, etc.?

Grumble, grumble, off I go to pack my mini bottles of shampoo and other necessary items and maybe dig out the iron to take out some of the wrinkles before the airline re-creases my clothes.

April 28/07

No ornament to show so I thought that I should post a WIP on my first of the family heirloom stockings!

April 24/07

My fingers have been flying on my first Christmas stocking (only 6 to do in total!) and I will post a WIP sometime this week. I am getting a little impatient that the order my LNS is waiting for is still AWOL in the postal system. I did not expect to have almost completed the stocking I am making for myself before even starting the one for my mom. My wish is to finish my mom's first because that just seems like the most respectful order to do them in. My mom should be the first person to receive one. Anyhoo, not every variable can be easily controlled in life, can it?!

The Christmas ornament SAL weekend is fast approaching. My schedule will probably not allow me to get much done because I am scheduled to work, there is a farewell dinner for a co-worker on Sunday, one of my El Salvador trip mates is in town to visit his grandkids, and my Rotary club has a major fundraiser next week that sucks up alot of my time during the week of. Plus, there is a doctor's appointment in there and I have to go to Moncton on May 5th for a Rotary youth exchange seminar. Oh well! Once I get to the 6th, life goes back to normal....Hang on! I was wrong about that since I fly to Toronto on the 11th for a Habitat for Humanity leader training weekend and then another pharmacist at work is away to England for 2 weeks so I will be working lots of hours so once I make it to May 28th, life goes back to normal. Yeah, so what is normal?!

The weather forecast just said showers for the rest of the day so I guess that I will not bike to work today. Besides, I skinned my knee when I missed the bottom step at my trainers home gym today so perhaps I should give my knee a rest. Gas prices are up to $1.08/litre which is considered expensive here in Canada, plus I cringe when I turn on the car because I always think of the pollution and I need the exercise so I am starting to bike more now. My plan is to lead by example since over the years, at least one other co-worker started biking as well in the summer. The guy across the street bikes into town year round because he does not have a car and I give him alot of credit because this little wimp with a car would not bike on a snowy road in -30C! There is only so much that I will do for environmental sustainability!

Speaking of which, it was quite discouraging to look in the brook to see what garbage has grown there as a result of the flooding last week. Once the water levels go down low enough for me to walk through the brook, I will be back down there to pick out more garbage.

On Saturday, I cleaned up my flower beds and made plans to plant more bird and bee friendly flowers. There have been news reports recently about the decimation of commercial hives because of a syndrome called "Hive collapse" and something to do with a mite so I figure that it can not hurt to plant some more bee balm and echinacea in the yard. I had a thought about planting some out on my property in Bloomfield to encourage the bees to establish themselves around my apple orchard. I have some awesome photos of butterflies on my garden flowers from last summer and I really enjoyed all of the hummingbirds who buzzed around my yard last year. Note to the wasps: you are not welcome to nest in my shed this year. It bloody well hurt when you stung me on the end of my nose last summer so please find another place to build your nest.

April 19/07

A first! I followed the directions for finishing an ornament that I found while reading through Anne's (Featherstitching) blog and TA!DA!
The saying is one that a friend of mine came out with during a discussion on an internet forum that I frequent and I just had to stitch it up for her. It was stitched on a 28 count Monaco (I think! I lost the tag!) and some scrap threads left over from kits. The hanger is a braid of the 3 colours that I used to stitch the main design.

April 17/07

THUD!.....
That is the sound of me falling off the 50 challenge band wagon. There was a cross stitch magazine on the rack at work that I just had to have, the resistance was low and here I am. Oh well, some of the stash was reduced and I now also have a better handle on just what is stashed on my shelves. Good luck to the rest of you who are still hanging in.

April 13/07

I squeezed a half hour of stitching this morning after cleaning the house and before going to work. As I stitched, I mused about how I love to start with a plain piece of cloth and watching as the piece slowly comes alive with every stitch that is completed. My least favourite time is at the beginning when it seems to take forever for the small blob of colour to begin to look like something, but once I reach that point, I get a little buzz about the unfolding or revealing of the piece. I spend alot of time admiring my pieces as I stitch away which probably accounts for my slowness, but I have done that for almost 20 years now so I suspect that perhaps it is now habit! :-) It always amazes me how a plain piece of cloth can end up being a gorgeous piece of cross stitch or embroidery whether it be a simple ornament or book mark or a huge piece that looks like a painting. There is just such a joy for me in creating something out of relatively nothing, a mere collection of fabric and skeins of floss and a piece of paper covered in symbols.

Okay, maybe I am more lightheaded than I thought after being on the treadmill, but surely I can not be the only one who feels that way because I have seen ALOT of blogs out there and I know that I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg! Speaking of blogs, I have updated my sidebar list, but perhaps someone could explain the blogroll/bloglines thing to me because I am having difficulty understanding how to install and use it. Thanks!

April 12/07

The news just came on a few minutes ago and it was announced that 2 more Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan. Five of the 8 soldiers who were killed there this week are from New Brunswick. Maritimers make up about 25% of the Canadian Armed Forces while we only make up about 10% of the general Canadian population. NB only has a population of around 749 000 people (it fluctuates depending on how many people have left for Alberta each month!) compared to the general Canadian population of almost 32 000 000 people. The numbers just seem so skewed to me from this little corner of the world, especially when I can name 4 military personnel of my own age group from this town of 5 000 who are currently serving in Afghanistan.

I dunno. It hurts too much to think about it. Thank heavens that my brother is on a training course at CFB Kingston.

April 5/07

Here is a stitching update to take a break from saving the world's problems! LOL!

The fabric order is still AWOL at my LNS so I can not get started on my mom's Christmas stocking although I did kit up the threads so that I can start it as soon as the fabric order arrives. Here is the progress on my stocking:


For the Christmas ornie SAL, here are my March efforts. They still need the french knots, backstitching and the cutting out from the plastic canvas.....


Some things I have been up to:
1. I was shaking my head at the news the other night that the government is dragging its feet on apologizing to people who were forced into the aboriginal residential schools so I wrote an e-mail to Prime Minister Harper to tell him that I find that appalling. Mom has her certificate of apology for the internment of Japanese-Canadians from the federal government hanging in her living room so I am well aware of the power of an apology.

2. Checked out Amnesty International Canada and the Greenpeace websites just to see what campaigns and issues they are all about. I joined the Amnesty 10 000 Voices campaign against the violence against women.

What I should be doing at the moment: hurrying my butt out the door to get to work on my Rotary club's fundraiser tonight.

Mar 30/07

The folks at the Rotarian, the monthly Rotary magazine must have seen that I would be thinking alot about world issues because this month's issue focuses on environmental projects around the world. I read the issue from cover to cover this evening before I went out to clean out the garbage in a ditch in my sub-division. Now that the snow has melted away and the greenery is still dormant, the garbage is in plain sight. I felt like a dork down in the ditch with my grocery bags, picking out the garbage while my neighbours drove by, but then I decided that I may look like a dork, but I am making our neighbourhood a better place if it means that the leachate from the degrading plastic does not make its way into the water system.

Earlier this week, I read Herizons, a feminist magazine published in Winnipeg. I had been wavering on whether I would continue my subscription, but my personal campaign over the UN Millenium goals convinced to continue on because the magazine has opened my eyes to women's issues that do not get covered in the mainstream media. Plus, it is a women's initiative that promotes women's issues. I do not always agree with the opinions and politics and shake my head at least once per issue, but it gets me thinking!

Yesterday, I e-mailed my Member of Parliament to ask him what specifically the federal government is doing to achieve the UN Millenium goals. I figure that if I do not ask, then who else will? We have to hold our government accountable if we are going to sign onto these agreements.

My cross stitching is barely creeping along because I have been gripped by an exhaustion that I can not explain. I am hoping that the iron supplements I bought today will do the trick because everything is a HUGE effort these days.

Mar 25/07

So, this is what I am thinking about today as I digest the birthday lunch that my brother and I had for my mom. Last night, I stumbled across this site about the UN Millenium goals.
What a wonderful world it would be if the UN could meet these goals:
1. eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. achieve universal primary education
3. promote gender equality and empower women
4. reduce child mortality
5. improve maternal health
6. combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. ensure environmental sustainability
8. develop a global partnership for development

After reading the goals that the UN has set to be achieved by 2015, I started to think about what I am doing as an individual to help the world achieve those goals. One change I made today was to start hanging out my laundry earlier in the year so that I did not have to run the dryer today. Yesterday, I did a thorough walk through of the 10 acre property I purchased a few years to see what was there before the undergrowth springs to life and makes it impassable. The woodland supports quite a healthy group of deer and squirrels and is a rather mature stand of hardwoods which was a pleasure to walk through. For now, I am going to leave it alone until I decide to build either a summer or permanent home there. Next up will be to see what I can do about some of the other issues.

After reading through the UN site, I clicked on a blog that I have been reading written by Janet Scott and her husband. They are working with NGOs in Ghana and I was nicely surprised to see that Mark mentions the UN Millenium goals in his post that I have tagged. It is interesting to see what these goals mean at ground level.

Mar 18/07

Tonight, I talked with the board of directors of one of the local service groups and they have committed $1 000 towards my El Salvador project! To say that I am a little excited is an understatement because I was initially quite worried about how I was going to fundraise $5 000 so that I would not take away from any of the worthy commitments that my Rotary club already has on the books. My fundraising campaign so far has consisted of talking to anyone that will listen and so far it is paying off as I have an invitation to speak to one of the local Lions clubs as well. This club often partners with my Rotary club on projects so the house in ES may be the next one in our partnership.

You know, working away at this and spreading the word about El Salvador has kept me motivated in moments when I can feel quite defeated. For example, right now I am staring at 2 property tax bills, a car insurance bill, a VISA bill, my line of credit and a ticket for an expired inspection sticker. There is definitely more month at the end of the money as I balance the payments going out and the pay cheques coming in. Just when I think that a lottery winning may be in order, I remind myself that these things will sort themselves out in good time and that I have the good fortune to own 2 properties and a car. Even though my family was poor, I could still get a university education. Being born in Canada has sure made me a winner in the geographic department and thinking about the shanty town in Panchimalco and all of the people who touched my life there has made me appreciate the life I have.

Mar 10/07

So, here I sit waiting for a snowstorm or whatever is supposed to heading our way. A fitting way to end a week that found me speaking at a Rotary club about my El Salvador trip, getting a ticket because my car inspection sticker expired in MAY 2006, my curling teams won on Thursday and Friday night (if you have ever seen me curl, you would understand why that is noteworthy) and my brother is coming home for a break during his course at CFB Kingston. There is a special talent to living my life and by golly, I would love to master it!

The Christmas stocking project is slowly making progress. The needle that came with this kit wore 2 holes in the end of my middle finger on my right hand so I had to switch to the larger needle that I usually use to cross stitch because using a thimble was slowing me down too much. Here is an update:

March 1/07

Ok. So it has been a while since I have posted some new pics. The digital camera was at my Mom's house so I could not post anything that I have been working on. These towels were completed about 3 weeks ago. The pattern comes from a Leisure Arts leaflet called "More Christmas Fingertips" and they are stitched on towels from a shop in Norway called Christiana GlasMagasinet. The towels are regular kitchen towels, but there is a bit that is a lovely evenweave of something like 32 count. I bought a bagful of them because they were only 24.50KR (about $4-5 Canadian).

Once the towels were completed, I moved onto this pattern that I found on the Christmas ornie SAL. I decided to play around with different whites and sparkly threads to see what effects I could come up with. They are stitched on light blue 14 ct. Fiddlers Cloth. This first one photographs the best. I stitched it with DMC white:

The second one was stitched with one thread each of B5200 and E5200. The contrast between the fabric and the threads is not all that great so it it difficult to see in the photo:

The third one is done with one thread each of DMC white and a DMC silver metallic that was flaoting around in my thread box. Unfortunately, I ran out of the silver and had to finish with a DMC antique silver. The results are probably not so visible in this photo, but I am not excited about how this one finished up.

Here is my WIP of the moment. I have started a very ambitious project of cross stitching a Christmas stocking for every member of my immediate family (6 people!). It has been fun hunting down patterns and kits that suit each person, but now the real work begins.....for the next few years!

<

Projects 33-37.

Feb 25/07

Just a little update on the El Salvador Habitat trip. I will be flying to Toronto in May to do the Habitat for Humanity leadership training so that I will have a clue as to what I am supposed to do. Rotary-wise, a committee is going to be struck at the next Rotary club executive meeting and I am going to speak to a neighbouring Rotary club on Mar. 5/07 to tell them my story and to encourage them to become involved. My boss approached me the other day and told me that he wants to make a contribution to this project. My article in the NB Pharmacists Association newsletter has been read by my colleagues around the province as evidenced by the comments I have received when chitchatting with them. My approach is to create awareness and hope that the money and materiel will follow.

Buenas dias!

Feb 8/07

These cute little snowmen are from "The Cross Stitcher" December 2004. Four of them are stitched on 14 count cornflower blue Aida and 2 are stitched on 14 count Delft blue Aida. I did not have enough fabric to stitch them all on one and the intention is to give them away as Christmas gifts so I was okay with them not all being on the same colour. The only things I changed are the colour of the berries on the wreath which were supposed to be lemon yellow (DMC 307), but that did not appeal to me so I switched them to DMC E321 and I added snowflakes to all of them. The original pattern only called for the snowflake to be stitched in DMC 932 on the snowman in the middle of the top row, but it snowed here last weekend while I was backstitching these cuties and I decided to stitch snowflakes on all of them with DMC E3747 to give the snowflakes some shine.

There is a funny back story to this set of ornaments. Two weeks ago, I was almost done all of the cross stitching when I ran out of one of the colours and could not figure out a way to substitute anything on hand without ruining the final snowman. Being sick with a sinusitis infection and bronchitis at the same time and having to work overtime because all 3 of us pharmacists at the shop were sick, I could not find the time or the energy to drive even a half hour away to pick up the floss. My youngest (6 foot 2, 280 lbs) brother lives a few blocks away from my LNS so I asked him to go pick up the floss and bring it out to Mom's for Sunday dinner. He called me from the store saying that the colour did not exist (he had written down 392 instead of 932) and I could hear the 2 shopowners twittering in the background so I figure that it is a rare occasion to see a hockey bruiser in the shop! :-) Then, he proceeded to forget two weeks in a row to bring it out to Mom's so I went to work on the previously posted project until I picked up the floss from his apartment last night when I was in the city for my Spanish class. The upside is that I got the floss for free because he felt like such a dork for forgetting it twice when he is usually quite conscientious when it comes to his older sister!

Projects #27-32/50

Oh yeah. I forgot that I must admit a mea culpa about the challenge. In my defence, I did hold out until I was at least half way through the challenge and I have gone a whole 4 months without buying ANY patterns. Well, my friend and moneysucker eBay had Teresa Wentzler's Four Seasons Fairies and I am a sucker for TW designs so somehow the bid button was clicked and the pattern just fell into my mailbox. Please let me be strong enough to regroup and not falter again!

Feb 5/07

As I was going through my boxes and baskets of patterns this past weekend, I came across this one that I purchased in a shop in Robinvale, VIC, Australia. The company is called Red Brolly and the pattern is "Christmas" designed by Bronwyn Hayes. It is stitched on a piece of muslin that I found in my fabric stash. The whole thing took about 7 hours to trace and stitch, mostly because my concentration on cross-stitching has made my embroidery stitching skills a bit rusty!

Project #26/50.

Jan 24/07

The colour is very off in these bear photos! They are stitched on a Charles Craft (very white!) afghan for the newborn baby of a co-worker. I found the bears on http://www.dmc-usa.com/. The bows are pink and blue because I did not know the sex of the baby when I started stitching this! I actually finished this project about 4-5 days ago, but it has taken me a few days to find the time to post the photos.

This is the completed afghan about 20 minutes before the mom and baby showed up to my house for the work baby shower. The bear in the middle is actually on a bib that I stitched ages ago!

The afghan makes project # 25/50.

Jan 19/07

These ornaments were inspired by a photo I saw in the 2003 BHG special publication called "Cross Stitch Christmas". I say inspired because they were in the shopping section so I had to design them myself. I used 14 count red Aida, a silvery DMC floss (I lost the tag ages ago), a red, white and silver ribbon from Michaels and some plain white buttons. The words: faith, hope, glory, love, peace and joy were designed using a lettering section in another BHG publication.

So, that makes projects #19-24 out of 50.

Jan 8/07

My day could not have been any better. One of my colleagues is out sick for 2 weeks as the doctors struggle to figure out what is going on with her. Fortunately, we had a storm today so a normally hectic day was a decent pace instead since we were short staffed. A bullet dodged, for today anyway!

My mail box revealed a parcel from an eBayer that contained DMC holiday light effects and the DMC 100th anniversary floss pack! Yay! I can not wait to try out the holiday light effects on some of the Christmas ornaments that I am planning to make. I can not say enough about the deals I get through eBay on my cross stitch supplies. So far, they are the only things I feel confident about buying on eBay because they are about the only things I know what price I will and will not pay for them!

At the monthly Rotary club executive meeting this evening, I made my pitch for having the club sponsor a house in El Salvador, partnering with Habitat for Humanity. The executive gave me the go-ahead to propose it to the club at the general meeting which immediately followed the executive meeting. The club is informally good to go on the project and is waiting for my formal motion once I get all of the ducks in order in terms of the exact dollar amount, when we will do the build and who will be traveling to ES to do the build. I have 2 other Rotarians on board for the build for sure and another one asked alot of money questions so I know that he is thinking about budgeting and how long he can afford to be away from his business. As a stroke of good luck, there is a meeting on Wednesday night of the club presidents for the 4 clubs in this region. The host of that meeting, the regional assistant deputy governor, just happened to stop into our club meeting tonight so I am on the agenda to pitch it to the other clubs!

The funny thing for me is that I can not believe that I convinced them to do this! I know that they keep telling me that my enthusiasm and passion is infectious, but "l'il ole me" is firing up the club to do this. It's kind of freaky. When did I become this person who is grown up, qualified and knowledgeable about something like this? Where did I get the ability to touch people's lives and convince them to follow me on such a project? I had the answers regarding the sustainability of this type of project (employment spin offs, dignity through adequate shelter), one of the other club members actually quoted some of the numbers from my Dec 18th presentation to the club, I covered all of the bases from fundraising to logistics and they said yes! One member has already written out and given the club treasurer a cheque for $200 US to start the fundraising. **happy dance**

Jan 5/07

Here are a couple of recent finishes since the New Year. Sorry for the lateness, but I have to borrow a digital camera to get the images and then post them!

My apologies. I can not find the pattern for this one at the moment to cite its source, but I can tell you that it is stitched on 28 count Monaco and that I used buttons that have collected in my notions box!

"Maple Leaves", a kit from Foxberry Cottage crafts.

(Edited to add that this makes projects # 17 and 18 out of 50.)

Dec 26/06

Happy Holidays to everyone as they digest the food extravaganza of the past few days and groan at the thought of how much weight they have gained!

We had a nice, quiet holiday at my Mom's. Well, as quiet as it can be with a 3.5 year old who was wired for sound. My brother employed all kinds of techniques to keep the screaming mimi under control and less over-stimulated. My favourite gift was the blender which will be used to crush ice for strawberry daiquiris! My old blender was used by my mother to puree baby food for me so it was less than impressive at its ice crushing!

I made a surprise find in my cross stitch stash last night. I knew that I had a bag of 14 count Aida that I dislike because the fabric is very stiff and difficult to work with even after it has been washed. While moving things around in an attempt to find something else, I found about a metre of 14 count white Aida that is not stiff and awful. The fabric would not be my first choice because I almost never use 14 count or Aida anymore, but the possibilities are endless! Actually, my goal is to make Christmas ornaments as gifts for 2007 since I will be a poor student (!!) and the talk in other blogs about starting ornies now instead of waiting until close to Christmas has inspired me to think about digging out my Christmas patterns so I can really make a dent in my stash since I do not have to buy stitching fabric now. Plus, the 50 project challenge looms over me to complete before I get mired down in my Masters program in a year or so!

This photo amuses me so I thought that I would post it while my cat is not looking!

Dec 20/06

Whoo! I took a deep breath and told my boss about my school plans. I really dreaded telling him because I did not want him to feel disappointed in me for leaving the pharmacy in the relatively near future. What a relief to hear him say that he was really happy for me that I was excited about this undertaking and he thought that I would be excellent at International Development type stuff. He is open to my changing and scaling back my work schedule as needed to accommodate my school schedule, if necessary. I had wanted to wait until after Christmas to talk with him about it because he did not need that headache, but I had a list of things to run by him this afternoon so I added that onto the list. He appreciated me telling him now so that he would have time to digest the news!

Tomorrow night is the El Salvador work crew Christmas party! It will be great to hang out with the old bucket mates again! I am meeting with the executive of my Rotary club on Jan 8/07 to chit chat about sponsorship of more houses in ES and how to finance the project. Sometimes, I feel like I am caught in a vortex of activity when I look at all of the projects I am into and other times, I realize that I would not be happy if I was not volunteering for several things at the same time!

Tonight, I am finishing off 6 Christmas cards so I may be back later to post the pictures of my stitching!

Updated to add:

Projects 11-16/50.

Dec 13/06

This week has been a whirlwind. I spoke to my Rotary Club on Monday about my trip to El Salvador and now there are some plans underway for my next trip to El Salvador in 2007 as 4 Rotarians stepped forward after the meeting to ask that I take them with me on my next trip. My mom came to hear my talk which was great because she is always a great supporter of my travels even though sometimes I really have to convince her that is a great idea for me to backpack around New Zealand on my own or to go to El Salvador to build houses. Mom has had quite a week, too, as my sister graduated from her course last week and one of my brothers is now sporting his iron engineering ring. Go team!

In between emailing everyone that I can think of to set in motion a team of Rotarians for El Salvador and sponsorships for some houses there, I am also stitching like mad because I have realized that I am 2 Christmas cards short for gift giving. My eyes are about to fall out of my head since I am splitting my spare time between stitching and writing up Christmas cards which will be arriving a little late this year or early in 2007! Somehow I doubt that Canada Post will be able to get a Christmas card from here to North Queensland in 7 business days, but if it does occur, I will be buying a lotto ticket!

Well, words are starting to fail me at this late hour so off to bed I go.

Dec 8/06

I was reading through another stitcher's blog and I realized that I should declare my one exemption for the 50 Project Challenge. I have decided to stitch Christmas stockings for my immediate family to replace the ratty ones we are still using. My exemption is any Christmas stocking pattern that I think will be loved and cherished by my family members. (Just thought that I would declare that before I paid for the 2 I have won on eBay!).

Dec. 3/06

This one is a bit of a cheat because it has been stitched for ages, but I just had it framed so that my Curl for Cancer team (Feb 3/07) can sell tickets on it to raise money. Not the greatest photo, but in my defence, this is the first time that I have tried to take a digital photo of my cross stitch pieces! The piece is a Paula Vaughn. It was stitched so long ago that I have forgotten the name of it and I am too cold and lazy to go dig out my patterns!

That takes my count to 10/50.

Dec.2 /06

Images like this one remind me that I have made the right decision. I have been in contact with UNBSJ and SMU about doing a Masters program in International Development Studies, specializing in Central America. Can you picture a Dal and a SMU diploma side-by-side?! The head of the IDS program in Saint John specializes in El Salvador and one of the most popular Spanish teachers at UNBSJ is from.....wait for it.....El Salvador. Does anyone else see a trend?

Anyhow, 2 years ago, I would not have imagined that I would ever be in El Salvador in the first place so who knows where I will be in 2 years from now, but it will not be behind a pharmacy counter unless I need some change to pay the rent. Life has led me in some unexpected directions and I suspect that there will be many more twists in the path.

My mom had a good laugh at supper tonight as she tried to picture her granola, oldest daughter and gun-toting army dude son out to change the world in their own ways. If she did not see us come out of her body at birth, she would find it hard to believe that we truly are blood siblings!

Nov. 14/06

So, now the question "What does it all mean?" is rolling around in my head. It is not the most profound question in the world, but I almost feel like an TV evangelist when I am telling people about my experiences in El Salvador.

For the moment, it means that I have stopped my mass consumption tendencies in their tracks. My house is about 1700 square feet and the place is rather full of things. It is nothing for me to pick up this knickknack or that cute, but useless little thing when I am at work or out and about. I found 3 wax potpourri burners the other day when I was moving stuff in my kitchen (and some of you have seen how small that room is!)! I also discovered that I have 10 kitchen towels crammed into a drawer which is about 9 too many for the amount of dishes that I actually wash! My rough figures tell me that I might have a fighting chance at saving up tuition for a masters program next September if I sell off the extra junk (or donate it to the Salvation Army) and do not buy any more.

There is a great deal on socks at work at the moment and before, I would have scooped up all kinds of pairs because it is a deal. Tonight, I very politely admired everyone else's finds and walked away. I also put away a cross stitch magazine that I had been coveting and hoping to get for Christmas, but I do not need more patterns.

The other thing that has struck me as well is my renewed faith in humanity. I am a lapsed church goer, but I definitely felt moved in a small "c" christian way when I encountered the generousity, love and friendship shown to me by everyone involved in this trip. We can accomplish so much by dropping egos, accepting people for who they are and reaching out with friendship. Too often we let prejudice, stereotype, gender, language, culture and money form a barrier that we do not allow ourselves to see past. The reality is that a mother in China wants the best for her child, just like a mother in Canada, or El Salvador or Papua New Guinea. My hope is that I continue to carry with me the joys of reaching across those barriers with a smile and a handshake to make a new friend and to have my life touch that of another.

Freddy, Guillermo and Guillermo Jr., masons extraordinaire!


Me with the ninos!


The goodbye party.


Joanna with the ninos!

Our first day on site in Panchimalco with Frankie and Guillermo.

Thanks to John for allowing me to download these photos from his public album.

Nov. 12/06

Well, it really is hard to know where to begin because there were so many experiences crammed into those 2 weeks. I was really fortunate that I was travelling with some really fantastic people because we all supported each other and cared for each other as we went through all of this.

The first thing that we had to get used to, besides the heat and humidity, was the barbed and razor wire that was everywhere, including all around the convent where we staying. Then, it was the men with guns who also seemed to be everywhere. I was a little unsettled at one of the Mayan ruins when one of the security guards kept catching my eye and saying "Buenas" to me. There is something off putting about a man carrying a rifle or semi-automatic even if he is gorgeous! The traffic was something else as well, but I quickly learned to look out the side window if I thought that our driver was about to pass someone!

We went to see the tomb of Oscar Romero on our first day there. I had heard a few things about him and his role in the civil war in El Salvador and I felt very moved as I watched people pray to him. I had a similar feeling when we went to the Mayan ruins in Cihuatan. Standing out in the middle of the ball court, I felt dizzy at the thought that there was a magnificent civilization there a few thousand years ago.

The building of the houses was an experience that I have great difficulty in describing and I am so glad that there were others there with me because they know without me having to say how moving it was for me. We tried to leave our Canadian sensibilities behind as we walked into the barrio/shantytown, but it was hard to see people living in corrugated huts and outdoor latrines. Everything was walled in and behind barbed wire. As the week went on and we learned more about our masons who were supervising the build, we were amazed that these guys only make $6 a day for working from sun-up to sundown. Habitat for Humanity generally uses the same masons time after time unless the men move onto other jobs. The masons come from all around the country and HfH houses them wherever the building is being done. My chief mason had one of his sons working as his assistant and another son was chief mason at a neighbouring home. Guillermo, our mason, was awesome. It was not long before we were all laughing and having a great time despite our HUGE language barrier. HfH did provide us a translator so the question periods had to wait until Kendall made her way to our site.

One by one, the children slowly joined in. In my pidgin Spanish with my phrase book, I introduced myself to them all and learned alot of Spanish from them. It is not usual for women to do outside work at the home so the teenage girls were the last to join in after a few days of quietly and shyly watching us. The kids made alot of the work easier. When we had to move bricks, we all formed a line and passed the bricks along instead of having to carry them through the (hazardous and cramped) work site. It seemed like the smaller the kid, the more eager they were. The kids ranged in aged from 2-16 and they all chipped in. I know that alot of it was related to the novelty of having the 3 gringos around at their house.

For me, my relationship with the children is what truly makes the whole experience so special. I am a great believer in the importance of children and their role in the future so I worked hard to include the children by getting to know their names as soon as possible and using my phrase book to communicate with them. I had extra work gloves so the kids were always wearing the extras as they worked alongside us. One boy named Frankie was exceptional. He worked the hardest out of all of them and we were most amazed watching this 11 year old boy shovel concrete like a man. My hope for him is that he can afford to go onto university and that he escapes the drunkeness and joblessness that we saw amongst so many young men in that town because he is such a bright and compassionate boy.

OK, I will stop here for now so that I do not start crying (again) before I have to leave for work this morning. Yup! No rest for the weary. My co-workers have been working straight out while I was away so they are enjoying some days off now that I am back in town.

Nov. 11/06

I returned home from El Salvador on one of the most important days of the year in my life. I hope that all the Canadians reading this took a moment to remember those who have served in the name of our country.

In the past 2 weeks, I have added 3 more countries to my list: El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. And what an amazing 2 weeks! The team of Beth, Russ, Jay, Bobbi-Jean, Al, Ed, Joanna and me flew out of Moncton on Oct. 28/06 and met up with John and Elaine in Houston to fly onto San Salvador. We met up with a team of Rotarians (Bruce, Ann, Caroline, Craig and Suzie) from Yakima WA USA who were also in El Salvador to build 2 homes sponsored by their Rotary club.

There is nothing like bonding over a pile of chispa (concrete) being mixed by hand while the hot Salvadoran sun is beating down on you causing you to sweat more than possible. My Spanish was non-existent before arriving at the work site in Panchimalco, but through a combination of gestures, some phrases from my handy pocket phrase book plus some French that slipped out on occasion, we developed some hybrid pidgin language that allowed us to communicate with the masons and the families. The neighbourhood we were working in could be described as a shanty town with many of the buildings being made out of corrugated tin and having outdoor toilets. Stray dogs and chickens were everywhere!

We worked hard all week. I am sure that I lost at least 10 pounds that week between sweating like a firehose in the heat, sun and humidity (Whine! Whine! I am a Canuck after all and we think it is hot if the temp goes above 20C)and carrying more buckets of chispa and moving more bricks than I care to think about! The children were amazing as they worked as hard, if not harder than we did. One little boy named Frankie jumped right in a few minutes after we arrived and he worked alongside us all week. Not too many 11 year-old kids here in Canada are keen to shovel dirt all day or carry bricks and soil around and to do it with great pride in their work. The house was being built for his aunt and soon we had all kinds of kids ranging from 2-16 years old working alongside us. I quickly learned the Spanish words for brother, sister, cousin, aunt, uncle and neighbour! Our mason, Guillermo, and his son Guillermo Jr. had the patience of Job and a great sense of humour! Their work probably would have progressed much faster if they did not have to trip over and supervise the 3 gringos!

There were a lot of fantastic and touching moments. Every morning I waved hello to a family who lived up the hill from where we building. They would sit out and watch us all day, every day. The mother always called out "Buenas Dias!" to us and gave a big wave. I was so surprised to see her at the goodbye party and she came running up to me to give me a hug. One of my workmates got quite ill one day and it was so touching to watch Frankie take her by the hand to lead her inside so that she could lay down. Watching the kids pose for photographs and then to go running to see the digital images of themselves. Seeing the community mark the Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and taking in the atmosphere of the street festival. Being blindfolded to hit the pinata (my years of tennis and softball came in handy there!) and breaking eggshells full of confetti over people's heads at the goodbye party (it took days to get that stuff out of my hair and clothes!).

Despite their troubled history and economic woes, the Salvadorans that we met are a wonderful people. I learned from them that life is not about the stuff that one owns, but how one uses and shares that stuff with friends and family. The love and affection that I saw and felt amongst them is more valuable than all of my assets combined. Suzie said it best at the goodbye party when she said to the Salvadorans, "You may think that we came here to help you, but you have helped us more."