The Brazilian Invasion (Wednesday Files)

Beans are on the stove cooking right now.  The smell is good... very good.  And it always makes me feel a little more in touch with the Brazilian side of our life.  Because when beans come, so does the rice, the salada, the Portuguese.

I was just scrolling through some pictures from this summer... not the ones from my crazy 24 day whirlwind on the East Coast, but from the other whirlwind that came through: The Brazilian Invasion.

Not only did we have seven people live with us this summer for a whole month (people as in family and friends), but we embarked on a ten-day road trip with them all.  Two cars, fifteen hundred miles, plenty of pit stops.  Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles... with a visit to Mickey in there, of course.  Too bad I forgot my camera that day.

Venice Beach is always interesting, and this time proved to be no different.

Hollywood?  The stars are still there in the sidewalk, right where I left them last time I visited.  But San Diego?  San Diego always impresses me.

Of course, our favorite moments were not caught on film.  Unexpected street fairs.  Finding ice cream in unlikely places, like the Los Angeles Union Station.  A good game of soccer in the middle of a parking lot while we wait for traffic to subside...

But some great things were captured.  Like this shot.  I guess this shows how kids really feel about Las Vegas ;)

Apparently, though, it wasn't all bad, as we can see below.  And the car ride?  Not so bad either.  Lots of singing, plenty of jokes, some napping... not a single DVD or iPad in sight.  For hours upon hours.  Because when the Brazilians invade, they make the most of it.  And I am grateful to have been along for the ride.

(A 'Wednesday Files' post)

Food Truck Fabulous! {Plouf Plouf}

Yesterday I finally got to cross something off of my food-bucket-list.  Visiting a gourmet food truck!

My blog has been empty for awhile, yes.  That is because I have been here, there, and everywhere.  Shoot -- I still am.  And so the cooking has been kicked to the curb.  It is pretty hard to cook when you don't have a kitchen...

But this no-kitchen thing has allowed me to find food sources in other places.  Restaurants primarily.  Until yesterday when a friend I stumbled upon this food truck.  Which looked FABULOUS.

We had already had a big meal that day, but hand-cut frites with parmesan, parsley, and truffle oil?  Yeah, we couldn't pass that up.

A spot on a park bench was found, green all around with beautiful brick buildings popping up here and there... no, this was not a California taco truck experience.  This was the real deal.  And now I am hooked.  Any food truck I find like this must be visited.  It is decided.

Visit the Plouf Plouf Gastronomie page here and then let me know about YOUR experiences with food trucks :)

Tacos, ATV's, and Some Pina Coladas (Ensenada Birthday Weekend)

Remember when I said I was happy with my little shindig at my house for my birthday?

Well, I lied.

Not totally and completely.  I was happy with that totally chill and relaxed party.  But I also knew that I had a bigger thing coming.

You only turn 30 once!

For me, turning 30 meant making up for all those years of January-suck-birthdays.  And what a better way to do it than hop on a big boat bound for Mexico with your favorite people???

Note to the world: we don't do vacations the way many Americans do.  No tour busses for us, no itinerary mapped out.  Nope nope nope.  Instead, we find a local person and say, "If you had one day in this city, what would YOU do?"

And in this case, it led us to fab fish tacos (3 for $2) off the beaten path, some five-dolla bling, and ATVing our way through Ensenada and the local country side.  All in all, $33 per person.  For a day of fun in the sun.  And food to boot.

That's how we do vacations in this family.

And then we hopped back on the cruise ship, lived/laughed/partied it up, and generally had an all around PERFECT time.

One of the best weekends of my life.  Hands down.

If this is any indicator of how the thirties are going to be, I am predicting a great decade.  Cheers!

A little goes a long way. (Help for Peleliu)

I thought I had left the classroom child-free and lights-off. In fact, I KNEW I had done that. Yet, there they were, four kids, in the classroom during lunch time. "What are you guys doing in here?" I asked. Quickly hands got shoved behind their backs and giggles ensued.

"Don't worry, Mrs. D.," one little boy said to me. "We aren't doing anything bad, promise." And even though this behavior usually calls for the opposite, I decided to trust them. I headed to my desk and got to work, wondering what they could be up to, but letting them do what they wanted to do, knowing they would tell me when they were ready.

And they did. In only a few minutes they came to my desk, handmade paper envelope in their hands, stuffed full of something, and handed it to me. "We didn't get rootbeer floats today. Here." On the outside on the envelope were the words in third-grade handwriting, "For Friends in Palau". And in the inside was over $13 dollars, mostly in coins.

They had given up their treats, without being prompted, to help people they had never met. All they knew was these people on the other side of the world needed their help, and they took it upon themselves to do something about it.

Yes, I teach these kids. But I also am taught by them.

And so, in the spirit of my third and fourth graders, we are doing something. Working with Surangel's store in Koror (capital of Palau), we have a way to get supplies into the hands of people of Peleliu. An account has been set up for the State of Peleliu to get materials as they need, as much as funds will allow. Please consider giving something, anything, and spread the word. The first $13 has already been given, counted out in quarters and pennies.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: 

1) DONATE! (Click to be taken to the page.)

2) SHARE!  I am just a little, small time blogger.  And you may be, too.  But the more we spread the word, the more help we can get out to people who are very near and dear to me -- that most of the world does not even know exists.

From my heart, Mesulang. My dear friends on Peleliu would say thank you as well, if they had a way to communicate with the outside world.

** The island of Peleliu is currently without power or phone lines, and will be so for weeks, if not months.  Please send positive thoughts/prayers their way.

Waiting to Exhale (Typhoon Bopha)

It can all change in a blink of an eye. 

Or in the eye of a storm.  A typhoon to be exact.

These pictures were taken a week ago, out on a little tiny island named Peleliu.  You might know this name from the Battle of Peleliu (the bloodiest battle in the Pacific during WWII), but I know this name because my heart lives here.

See, this little island with its just-a-few-hundred inhabitants and I have a deep love history -- one that started ten years ago on a service trip and has developed over the years with me actually getting the chance to live and teach on a nearby island.  Sure, I taught and lived and laughed and loved in Koror, but my heart lived in Peleliu.  During that year I visited about every three weekends. And after I moved back home I have been blessed with the chance to return several times.

This island has seen Christmas presents exchanged, piggy backs given, me attempting to eat the head of a fish (and failing miserably)... I have shared "my" island with friends from here in the States by bringing them out with me on service trips, and most recently (last week), I shared this island with my husband.

Like I said, we have a deep love history.

And the people?  They aren't just friends.  They are family.

So imagine my terror upon hearing last night that a typhoon -- no, wait -- a SUPER typhoon was heading to Palau, aimed straight at Peleliu.  

Quickly I googled, just to confirm that they had evacuated the island.

They had not.  

In the past, typhoons have come close, but usually just went around the country of Palau, so really, why did they have any reason to believe this was going to be any different?

But when your houses are clapboard and tin, and your elevation is an average of 10, you have a serious reason to be concerned in the face of a hurricane.

So I waited for news.  A Palauan friend added me to a group where updates were being shared on Facebook.  Some good news came in: several of my friends had left the island.  But not everybody.  The rest were holed up in old WWII bunkers, left behind by the Japanese.

So I waited some more.  And then I went to sleep.  Because really, besides pray and worry, worry and pray, what more could I do?

I woke up early this morning to hear the next set of news: most of the houses had been damaged or destroyed.  

But no word about the people yet.  

Nobody knew.

Instantly the tears started coming.  And then my body began to shake.  Uncontrollably.  The last time I had something like that happen was the day I found out my mother had passed away.  "You don't know yet," I kept telling myself, "they are probably OK.  No news is good news." The tears slowed, but I could not stop shaking.

How could I have just been there last week, and everything was fine?  When my husband and I got in the boat to leave, my friend was crying.  "Stop crying," I pleaded with her.  "This isn't goodbye, promise!"  But as the boat pulled away and our friends couldn't see us anymore, my tears started to come.  We knew it would be years before seeing each other again, and so much can happen in years.  We just didn't expect so much to happen in days.

In 2003

News was slow to come, and so I waited.  And I prayed.  And I tried reaching out on Twitter, Facebook, anywhere...

The problem with having an island so tiny that it can be "your" island is that new sources don't seem to care/know what is going on there.

Finally, a friend that I had tasked with letting me know the moment any news came in sent me a message: tons of damage, no deaths.  

Oh!  The relief that washed over me.  The tears came a little again, but this time with jumping -- and no shaking.

I still have not heard what all the damage is.  I still don't know who was present on-island and who made it off before hand.  I have no idea what they went through nor what they will go through to rebuild.  But I do know this: as of right now, everything points to LIFE. 

Houses can be rebuilt.  Schools will be repaired.  These are important things, YES, but they are not the MOST important thing.  So although there is still a lot to be done, and a long road ahead for our family out there, they are alive to walk that road.  Amen!

(A glimpse of the damage from Bopha, in Koror.  Still no pictures/official word from Peleliu.)

//source//

The Rainbow's End (Palau)

No internet or cell phones.  T.V. and radio, nope.  Shoot -- for several days we didn't even have a watch with us.  What time is it?  Well, the sun is up, guess it is day time...

That's how we spent the past ten days.  Well, that and swimming with stinger-less jellyfish.

Yeah, I'm kinda obsessed with the jellies.

I am also kinda obsessed with Palau in general.

This little island nation captured my heart for the first time in 2002 when I went on a mission trip during college.  We laid a waterline for an outer island village, population 300 or so.  It was hot and sticky and I thought surely Hell could not even compare with the heat, but that did not keep me from falling in love -- with the beauty and more so, with the people.

So a year and a half later I packed my suitcases and moved out there to teach 4th grade.  And it was the most amazing experience.

I have had the chance to go back to visit a couple of times since then, but this time was different.  This time I was taking my man with me.

Palau could no longer be "my" place, but it was time to become "our" place.

Days were filled with trekking to waterfalls in the jungle, surfing, snorkeling...

... and eating fish.

Lots and lots of fish.

And then we kept eating fish.  For breakfast, for lunch, for dinner.  Cooked fish, raw fish, fish eyeballs.

Yes, you read that correctly.

What can I say?  When in Rome...

The scenery was beautiful.  There is a reason Palau is called 'The Rainbow's End', right?

But you know what is better than these serene blue waters and vibrant rock islands?  The people.

They may live a simple life by our standards, but their lives are FULL.  Full of love, full of joy, full of compassion.  They share like no other people group I have encountered, even though they do not have much.  It is a rare to find a place where there are no orphanages, nobody living on the streets, no old-age homes.  Like I said, rare.  But it exists.  I have seen the proof.

Really, I have nothing more that I can say about Palau.  Not because there is nothing more to share, but because there is nothing more that mere words typed on a screen can do justice.

All I can say is this: my heart is full.