After the holiday...

The past two days I have had off because I finished my research report and all my schoolwork... finally!

Yesterday I watched a movie on the all-new Samadhi Theater, a.k.a. a laptop on a box with speakers around the bed.

Today I started out making homemade strawberry yogurt and it really tastes like strawberry yogurt, even though I only started out with the normal, unflavored stuff.

The rest of the day has been a lot of work: hanging up all of this laundry, driving the dinghy back and forth from the dock, putting up more laundry, getting gas for the dinghy, and taking down the laundry. And that was just me alone. The jobs involving laundry were pretty boring, but using the dinghy alone was definitely an adventure!

Done with our first year of Calvert!

Today is a great day. It marks the end of our first school year in Calvert School. Yay!

Nicholas and Alexander submitted all of their exams the Friday before last. Alexander still had some work on his research report to go though, so he kept at it while Nicholas worked on penmanship and fishing.

After weeks of diligent work, Alexander put the finishing touches on his report today, outline, bibliography, and all. His paper is unbelievably well thought out and well organized. I doubt I could have even come close at his age.

Not only that, but he was able to get interviews with five of the leading researchers in the field thanks to the magic of technology. Something like that would have taken months when I was a kid, if I'd even been able to find out their names at all.

We really can't begin to say how grateful we are to everyone at Calvert who helped us. We couldn't have done it without the amazing staff there like Cecilia and Maggie. Most of all we are indebted to the unwavering support of the boys teachers, Jean Soyke and Shannon Frederick. They have been an amazing resource for us. I can only hope we are so lucky again next year!

The hailer works.

When we had the mast off of Samadhi V, we installed new wiring for a loud hailer. The hailer is made up of a marine grade P.A. horn speaker located on the mast about 27 feet above the deck, and a 35-watt amplifier built into our VHF radio. Unfortunately, we lacked a proprietary connector for the radio to hook up the loud hailer speaker, apparently lost during the radio install. Since we didn't have the proper cable, the hailer was left disconnected.

Imagine my surprise while cleaning out a wire raceway when I found the special connector! I don't know how the connector ended up in there, but no matter, I was very happy to have finally found it. I grabbed the heat shrink tubing and soldering equipment. In five minutes, the loud hailer wire was connected.

The next step in the process was a test of the loud hailer... Just how loud is it? Well, before I answer that, let me state that today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. So I hit the "Hail" button on the radio, keyed the mic, and proceeded to let loose a slew of pirate "Aaaarrgh"s, "matey"s, and other various silly sayings. I couldn't hear much and I wasn't sure that the hailer was working, so I hit the mic button again and announced to the world that "Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, AAAaaarrrggghhhh!!!" (emphasis on the arrgghh). Once again I heard very little from above decks, so I sent Kelly to the kids cabin (under the loudspeaker) to see if she could hear. I made a brief click in mic, and Kelly reported back that the speaker was "really REALLY loud!!".

Oops.

Then the VHF came to life. It was Alexander, calling in from his study location in the computer center. Alexander was studying more than 1 mile from us, inside of a concrete building with the A/C going next to him. Alexander reported that he had "heard some sort of pirate speak, probably coming from the pool area". He called on the radio since he thought the pirate speak might have been me calling him on the radio. Kelly and I were rolling on the floor with laughter. It was hard to stop laughing long enough to respond to Alexander.

The hailer works.

The hailer is LOUD.

Remember, it's important to test your safety equipment.

fresh, dried herbs?

fresh, dried herbs?

Just a brief aside about how amazing the food is here.

Semiweekly, a bus from Barillas takes a gaggle of us into Usulután for shopping and various business like haircuts and doctor visits. The main place for grocery shopping is a sprawling open air market in the streets to the east of the town center. Vendors clog both sides selling everything from jocote, pineapple, and green coffee to technicolor chicks, rat poison, and bootleg flicks.

One of my favorite stalls is the herb lady or, as Phillip calls her, the witch doctor. Women, often with their families, come to her in a constant stream asking how to cure a headache or cramps or heatstroke. She puts together a large bag of herbs and explains how to prepare them for treatment. It's remarkable to watch. One morning while waiting to buy some culinary herbs, I spent about 15 minutes translating for the boys. It's really a different world.

The herbs you buy from her are completely different from the sawdust that you buy in the little vials in the supermarket. These are large leaves, still attached to the stalk or stem. To use them in food, I need to get rid of the woody bits and mince them by hand. (We got rid of our spice mill before embarking.) Like many things here, it's a lot more time-consuming than I'm used to from my Silicon Valley life, but the results are worth it. The oregano is so flavorful. I use about a quarter of what I normally would to the same effect. This is the norm, not the exception.

No doubt, there are things we miss, like dry-aged beef, but cooking here is a delightful adventure. If we ever go back, I'm going to be sad to leave it behind.

El Salvadorean Pizza: Exactly What You Get At Costco

Well, we finally found pizza in El Salvador, and it was at the best place in the country to eat it: Pricesmart. Nicholas complained that I hadn't split the third piece in half, but when I was finished with both pieces he still hadn't finished his first. Then Daddy came over just as Nicholas started to get mad and stopped the fight before it began. "If Alexander hadn't eaten it," he stated humorously, "We would've probably had to throw half a slice of pizza away."

A Little Catch

There are tons of lizards in Barillas, and some run on two legs. I happened to run into one of these two-legged speed-demons which was about two inches long. I decided to uselessly cup my hands around his body to see if I could catch Mr. Mini Speed-Racer. There was wriggling inside my hands so I figured that I had done the impossible. I picked up the tired and striped body of the lizard that had escaped from danger so many times. After I showed it to Alexander, we both set it free into the dangerous world. It ran away faster than a tuna could swim. I hope to find it again someday.

Bye, bye Mom!

bye, bye mom!

Kathy left this morning, and just like that, the boys are back doing Calvert. Oddly enough, today after a week of rain, rain, and more rain, we're back to our normal sunny weather pattern. I'm so sorry that Mom only got to experience the tropical rain!

Mom's flight is scheduled to leave in about an hour. Have a safe flight home. We miss you already!

Hi Mom!

Kathy Arrives in El Salvador

Sunday before last, while I was chatting with Mom using Skype-to-landline, she asked me to hold for a second. Daddy wanted to talk to her. When she came back on the line she said, "Looks like James can take the trip this week. I can be there on Tuesday!"

Whoo!

After the initial surprise and postponing her arrival by a day, we got things in motion for a whirlwind tour of Guatemala, Honduras (Copán, really), and El Salvador. What an adventure it's been! (Thanks Jorge!)

We're putting photos up in a Flickr group. Please join us!