Come see!

Good evening (: It has been a week full of newness, rain, floorboards, friends, work, play, adventure, profound statements (by Jacinta, of course), and good food. Matt perhaps wins the prize of diverse activity this week. Each morning before the rain he put in a few good hours laboring on the floorboards which are all laid down now, some still needing nailing. By 3pm he was off to clean machinery at Macnuts and then home by 6 for dinner. Some days he spent time preparing his census papers and the last few days he walked around Macksville passing out the lengthy booklets. I think he even worked one day at the bank counting money. That’s work in a small town, well, as we know it. You’ve gotta do a little bit of everything until you find your niche. Another iron Matt has in the fire is teaching, he has just received his state permission to substitute teach. That will make his weeks even more interesting, teenagers! We do miss them, it’s the only age bracket we’re lacking here. Jacinta feels a strong lure to Emma, our friend Michelle’s teenage daughter, our one teenage connection. She must remember the kids from Matt’s youth group in Michigan and realize how much fun they were.

So what’s new here? I have my first Australian driver’s license! They didn’t even check if I could drive on their side of the road, just red tape, paperwork, mailings from Michigan, time and money et voila! I’m legal to drive on the “wrong side of the road,” hee hee! It has been nine months now and at times, I still have to ask myself if I’m on the correct side of the road by saying, “Does this feel wrong?” If the answer is yes, then I’m safe. On another front, a new bird in my vocabulary, the Regent Bower Bird flew into one of our trees in plain sight for Jess and I to gaze upon. He is black and brilliant yellow, almost as large as a crow, and majestic. On yet another front, we had a few good days of potty training. Is this new, well, after a long spell of toilet rejection, yes, it’s new again. Brought on by a rash that needed airing out, Jess had two full days of using the potty. The smile on her face when she actually pees on the toilet is just awesome. To hear the little drops fall and tip the little pot into the big toilet is reward enough for Jess, for now. After one wee she gets so excited about the whole experience that she asks, “Two wees on the potty?” She then sits down again and tries for a few more minutes. We’ll see if we can keep up the energy this time.

“Come and see!” Jess called out to our friend Trish who stopped by. It’s great to hear her put words together for the first time. See what? Keith built Jess a new “cubby house” (play house) outside by the water tank. In sight from the building site, the veranda, even the terrace garden, the chook pen, and what will be my kitchen window is now a spacious wooden house with a porch made especially for Jess. All week long Keith has been working on the floor, and “her garden.” Just today it became more elaborate than I’d ever imagined…a large circular raised-bed garden out front with steps leading up to a sandbox in the middle. .  Any time Keith works on it she joins in and helps. As you can guess, Jacinta’s thrilled and spends hours running in and out of the house, closing the door, sweeping the floor, working on her table, drawing on the walls, and keeping the dogs and the chickens out. I just marvel at the pride in her newfound independence from having her own house, she walks very tall these days. “Self” is still her favorite word. We sometimes refer to her as “self.”

Life on the land is lovely, full of big green leafy vegetables in the garden yet no grass to mow because it doesn’t grow much in the winter. The comfrey tea made the top terrace grow over 5 inches in a week, perhaps though, the rain did a bit of work too. It is so full of Chinese vegetables, spinach, broccoli, peas, and lettuces all twining together that some plants go to see quickly because they have given up fighting for space and sunlight. Perhaps 6 weeks ago I fixed up the house garden and then abandoned it for lack of sunlight in the winter. Today Jess and I had a look and found red cherry tomatoes, a head of lettuce and 25 huge pea pods! There are a few trees in bloom perhaps sensing the end of winter on its way.

The animals are also keeping us on our toes. Daisy the goat escaped once this week and was brought back by a kind lady who happened to be driving by. The chickens have been making life entertaining with a concerted effort to hide their eggs from us humans. It doesn’t help any that “New Dog,” Keith’s newest animal friend, finds some of the eggs before we do, carries them off in his teeth without breaking them, digs holes and hides them!!! We caught him twice with an egg in his mouth. Iris, the only remaining “baby” from our chicks last December is about to become a “mum” herself. She has found a nest to sit on her fertilized eggs in a very well hidden spot. How can we know this? No chicken wants to leave the coop and risk its life with the fox unless she is protecting babies and she has been missing at night for over a week. Like roadrunner, she speeds off of her nest for a short while each morning to devour some seed and when we look away, returns to her secret nest. As for edible eggs, non-fertilized eggs, the rest of the hens are finding new laying “boxes” every time we discover one. Last week it was between the old chick pen and a pile of garbage and this week underneath the underused mulcher and its tarp. Just yesterday one of the new bantams started laying in a pile of hay in the chook pen, fancy that! This egg was the cutest tiniest thing I’ve ever seen, perhaps one inch long, Jess loves the little ones too. We found one random egg in the woods above our building site and know we’ll find dozens in the barna grass next door someday.

In addition to giving us another element of surprise in life, the chickens also manage to give us a few eggs. Keith, Jess and I love eating them, but recently Matt has developed a distaste for them, a new difficulty for cooking dinner. Mary is allergic to them, so I don’t make many quiches these days. My dream would be to cook for a family of vegetarians who loved every vegetable, legume, all nuts, eggs and dairy. Dream on! I’ve got meat lovers, egg allergies, a nut hater, complaints about how much beans make you fart and mostly picky veggie eaters. Cooking for Jess is mostly easy, but she’s a baby, slightly picky and doesn’t eat much. Cooking for my friends is perhaps the most gratifying. Though, given my passion for food, I still try to stick loosely to my cooking ethics. Most of my dishes dangle loosely on the outside of their comfort zone and usually work out okay. So when they truly like something I’ve made, it is very gratifying. One of my problems is that I never do the same thing twice and wonder what to cook each night. This week I made one of my best Argentine spinach pies: a thin whole-wheat double crust filled with Swiss cheese (a rare commodity here), spinach, egg (or without egg), cream, onion, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Jess has a new cooking spot on the counter now. She proudly stands on the other side on her highchair (no longer needed at the table), at the ready for her next task or taste. She makes cooking even more fun for me. With her help, I made a couple loaves of my notoriously flat bread, this time with macadamia nuts. Flat yes, but good too.

Speaking of food, Jess and I went out last night to see a documentary called the “Future of Food,” put on by the Nambucca Valley Conservation Group. It was all about the huge nasty scary conglomerate Monsanto which sells pesticides and now seeds, who has bought out all the seed companies and monopolized farmers choice in the US. I’ve known about this for a few years and this partly explains my passion for growing food and seed saving, but shown in this film, it was just scary for the world. It is the onslaught of Genetically Modified crops and Biotechnology’s hopes for reducing the variety of vegetables down to one per vegetable so they can sell it as they own the patent, not just for the US but for the world which scares me. It is the US government’s nasty connection to this industry and Monsanto’s huge political donations that also scare me. It is the history of this company and where widespread pesticide use came from: war. It is the fact that Monsanto has sued farmers in the Midwestern US for having their patented earth defacing GM seeds accidentally sowed on their land due to cross pollination from neighbor’s canola crops. These seeds come, “Round-up ready,” meaning their genes have been toyed with so that when Round Up is sprayed overhead to kill all things green, it won’t kill the canola crop. There is much controversy, but in my opinion the goal in GM foods is not to feed the poor or add nutrients, it is to own the earth’s diversity, halt seed saving, lengthen vegetables and fruit’s lives on trucks and supermarket shelves and patent life. Starvation comes not from a lack of food world-wide, it is access to food which is the problem. Since when have governments and huge corporations acted purely in the interest of the people? Frog genes in our tomatoes, caterpillar death growing in our corn…was creation inadequate without human intellect added to the mix? I live in the Nambucca Valley and I’ve just found out that this group is educating and campaigning to make our valley and its farmers a GM free zone. Perhaps it’s far off, but it’s the little people working together and I’m pretty excited about the prospect.

I’ll probably spend a lot more time working on the house though, to be honest. Just today I actually worked for a few hours on my own, and later with Michelle and Keith’s help nailing down floorboards while Matt did census work. It was lovely, listening to the birds, watching the chickens and the children play while Keith worked on Jess’ garden. One day this week we had an ideal work day, Michelle, Emma and Rory turned up to work and later on our friend Justin came to drop off our bulk grains and stayed to help pry the floorboards in. It’s so much more fun working en masse and we finished the whole kitchen floor. Now that the floor is covered the children can be with us on the work site. Jess runs around and dances in circles. She knows which spot will be her room and dances more often there. She brings us nails, often too many but revels in the process. I too enjoy the process, but can’t lie. I’d rather just wake up tomorrow and walk into our new house and furnish it (:

I’ll close with some thoughts spoken by Jess. Starting off with the less profound, tonight after a rough night (fruit overdose) of throwing up at the food movie and sleeping it off, Jess woke for an hour to eat rice, drink mint tea and listen to stories. Matt came in and out of the bedroom bringing us things and Jess commented on his absence. “No Daddy in woom…Daddy watching football on TV. No mo’ wice. Daddy bwing wice….MATTTT!” I shush her and tell her that it’s late and grandma is sleeping. “MATT! WICE!” she yells. Eventually I fetched her second bowl of rice and all was well. Moving on…Jacinta has come to an understanding that our beloved family in America is accessible only by airplane. A few weeks ago en route to a friend’s farm, I was wrapping presents for Mom and George in the car to be sent to America. All the while Jess thought we were driving to their house, “Yay! Dja Dja and Grandma!” Sadly I had to explain to her that this was not the case. A few weeks later she asked to see baby Kai, Eesha (Lecia, my sister) and Unka Ben. I had to explain the situation again. Now as we’re driving from time to time, she tells me the story, as if answering her own question, “Can we go visit baby Kai?”  She rattles on, “See baby Kai….airplane! Eesha, Unka Ben, faaaar away…airplane…Amewica.” Sometimes I think she’s asking if we can go…now, and I have to tell her that we must wait a while. I just received a picture of two of my best friends in Michigan who are standing together, pregnant and gorgeous, full of life and bursting with more. It tears at my heart being so far away, but yet so happy here. I’m sure Jess would say to you all, “come see!” if she liked talking on the phone. But she doesn’t, so I’ll say it, “Come see!”

Love y’all.

Buzzy Bees and Babies

Good evening (: As my Senegalese friends often open their letters, I too hope this letter finds you all in good health, happiness and spirit. I am feeling peaceful, slow and a bit uninspired to analyze life today. That is not to say life is not interesting, just that it is passing nicely and without much need for comment. If I was living among you, there would be no need for explanation. We could just “be” and be together. But as I am not, I will dig up a few words to bring you here across the ocean for a few minutes today.

It rained off and on this week, but not enough to fill the tank up to where we need it. So we bought water again, town water. It’s not as lovely as pure rain water but it is still a blessing for which we are grateful. The water man is very kind, especially for his willingness to back his enormous truck down the hill maneuvering around the many stacks of floorboards blocking his path. The piddly little rain showers usually amounted to about 10 or 20 drops of rain and made for difficult line drying. I spent Friday running in and out of the house grabbing the laundry from the line and hanging it out again. Normal people would just use the dryer, which we do have. I am stubborn and sometimes naively hopeful. I successfully dried one load in the sun/rain, but ended up giving in to the drier for the other load.

We managed to put on a few more floorboards but it is still slow going. I actually hammered a few nails in straight and held the pry bar as firm as my weight can bear while Matt and or Michelle hammered the boards down. It is humorous how little Michelle and I actually help after all of the lead up that “we are going to build today!”
We try but often run to the children if they are in need or spend more time gearing up for lunch, eating it and cleaning it all up. I suppose it’s humorous in that I know I am capable of hard labor because I used to stick to tasks and actually accomplish them before I became a mom and also fell in love with food. We’re realizing we need a church work crew like those we used to take to Kentucky and Mexico (: In lieu of that dream, the building will just progress nice and slow and that’s alright. This week Matt worked a few days at the bank in addition to his afternoons at the nut factory. Next week he’ll add census distribution to the mix!

Jess and I went to both choirs this week. This was her first chance to come along to the “Drongos,” the larger and more serious of the two. Although it means a late bedtime as it ends at 8:30, drags until 8:40 followed by a 45 minute drive home on which she refuses to fall asleep, the beautiful music entering her ears, body and soul is worth every lost minute of sleep. At one point she was holding my hands, climbing up my knees, and found herself upside down hearing the sound, “Wah!” repeated over and over. Naturally, she joined in and yelled, “Wah” at full volume when the choir was silent for once second. Laughter took over and we had to repeat the section. Jacinta is learning Wolof (national language of Senegal) through a song we are singing and calls out words like Damay and Mel ni singing along with us. She kept her silence again for the first hour but then comes out of herself and joins in. Two late nights out each week is a bit much so we have found a kind neighbor to bridge the one hour gap between my departure and Matt’s return home from the factory. Melissa is in Year 6 at school and lives next door. She came over to “play” with Jess for the first time this week while I did chores in the house. They played with play dough for almost an hour and then helped me make cookies. By chance, Melissa loves cooking also. Tomorrow night will be the first time Jacinta goes to Melissa’s all by herself. She is already talking about what she will take along with her in her backpack (:

On the land, well, the land is working as I am not doing much! Some lettuces are 2 ½ feet tall almost in flower, while others are just ready to eat. The Bok Choy flowers have brought “buzzy bees” to one end of the garden. The kiwi vines are finally starting to show some life after their transplant months ago. There is one full cauliflower head almost ready to eat that I somehow missed until now, and a few tiny ones. There are about 40 broccoli plants showing the beginning of a broccoli head on each. Spinach, Chinese vegetables, peas, lettuces and broccoli are all fighting for space. The potatoes are suffering for some reason, the upper leaves are wilting, some browning. It could be frost, water logging, bad mulch, I don’t know. There are little carrot and beet patches everywhere and new potatoes springing up daily. The garlic looks the same from week to week, the real changes are happening below hidden from our eyes. The only work I did this week was planting 3 pine nut seeds, yes, I’m trying to grow pine nuts, my weakness. It will take 15-20 years before the pine tree fruits, wow, that’s a long time. Michelle watered some comfrey tea into one terrace that needed fertilizer. Jess, Keith and I have been trying to track down the laying patterns of the new chickens. They change locations every time we discover an egg. Jess and Keith found one hidden nest this week so we had a few eggs to eat. Jess loves to eat the “baby eggs.”

Speaking of babies, we found out that some friends from Holland, Michigan had a baby girl on July 9. We had been waiting to hear, and in that touchy time of leaving expectant or new parents alone, we worried that there was a problem. So Matt searched on the net and found a reference made by a sibling of the couple to the new Jillian Clare! Nothing like modern technology. Congratulations to Adriann and Jason!
Jess has become a dolly lover. Starting with the bunny, she moved onto a purple cotton Waldorfy doll. This week she received two newborn-size dolls in the mail from a good friend in America. This must be the time toddlers like pretending to be parents or caretakers because Jess was ready! They are her babies, she calls them Kai and JD, one wearing pink and the other blue. She swaps who’s who and throws in the name, “Sally” now and then with no regard for who’s wearing pink (:We actually wore them on our backs tied on African style for over an hour while cooking dinner and picking vegetables from the garden one evening. She puts them to bed in a basket. We rode our bike to playgroup (first having to dodge the water truck and clean the chicken poop off the seat) and she asked to bring along a baby. She’s learning that the “babies” mostly live at home.

It is still winter here, quite inoffensive though. I love the fact that veggies are flourishing and that it is mandarin season. All citrus is in season, but Jess and I have found a particular love for mandarins and we can get local organic mandarins for almost nothing. Some Aussies, having originated from colder climates, long for Christmas in the cold weather. Hence, the existence of Christmas in July celebrations.
Matt, Jess and I drove 6 hours to Sydney on Saturday to celebrate with friends. There was abundant food and drinks, even some Christmas music, Karaoke??? and one Santa hat. For any of you that have heard me mock Karaoke, I must admit I tried one song and it was terrible! It is an art, albeit one that I don’t want to practice, but I respect anyone that can do it sober and still feel like a respectable human following. I was sober, thus my disgust with the whole thing. The babies wore red and green, but no one else did. There were some old friends that Matt had not seen in about 10 years, so that made it even better. It seems like complete insanity to drive 12 hours in 2 days with a two year old, but Jess was a trooper, Matt’s a devoted driver and I must brag, I packed well for entertainment and nourishment. Jess happily stayed up until 11:30, munching on fruit, cheese and spinach dip all night long, enchanting the adult guests and making us laugh and smile. She got to see and hold the real baby JD. Although I changed her poopy diaper four times in the seven hours there thanks to the fruit plate, I enjoyed watching her shine and make people happy.  Matt asks her each night before bed, “Who Loves You?” She answers, “Daddy.” “Who else?” he goes on and on. She names off as many people as she can think of that love her, she knows she’s loved. I suppose that makes it easier for her to give off so much love and light.

Shine on y’all and know you’re loved. Have a good week!

Pictures for the week

Yeah, Like I post pictures on anything like a consistent schedule...
Here's some evidence of work on the house. Look how straight thise bits of timber are!


This is Daisy the goat. Well, it's her butt, anyway. Jess just loves her.
First ponytail! Pretty excited.
Showing her friends Zac and Caitlin around...

Peace, all.

Floorboards and paper bags

Hi there everybody!
This is the first occasion that I am writing while Jacinta lies in bed awake, mind you, it is 10:30pm. She had been trying to fall asleep for a while and I gave up waiting. Now she is listening while I type, and continues to come up with numerous reasons to call me over.  At first I snuck out of bed believing she was asleep and she caught me two feet away, yelling out in full voice, “Mom?” So I then tucked her in again and told her I’d be close by working on the computer. Surprisingly, she smiled and laid back down. Fifteen minutes later, believing she was well and truly passed out, she calls out, “Mom? Baby blanket!” She no longer wants to lie under the big blankets but wants to change positions and be covered by a baby blanket. Smiles and kisses and another “goodnight.” A while later she calls out, “Mom? Pee pee in my nappy...” She happily goes through a nappy change and we have more smiles and kisses and another “goodnight.” Ten minutes later she proclaims, “lellow pillow…mommy’s spot.” She wants to move to my spot, take the coveted yellow pillow (all three of us sneakily rearrange the pillows to have this one) with her, along with her baby blankets and sleep there. Again, there were more smiles and kisses and another “goodnight” to follow. It has been about twenty minutes since that exchange so I dare say she has finally let go of the waking world for the evening. Sweet little Jacinta Grace, she seems to love life so much she can’t let it go, but alas, she is asleep.

It has been an energetic week, filled with lots of cooking, children’s voices and the company of friends. I always relish the chance to share the garden with visitors: munching on peas, grabbing herbs and greens for meals and just gazing at it. We played outside quite a bit, feeding and checking on the animals, scrubbing floorboards, and just wandering aimlessly. While Mat was off being trained to be a census collector, Jess and I went to the beach with our friends, moseying along the boardwalk looking at all of the interestingly decorated boulders painted by people on vacation who wanted to leave their mark. This was true moseying; we spent over an hour walking a length that could be walked in 10 minutes. The kids climbed the painted rocks, watched fishermen and women, watched schools of fish swarming around the deep crystal clear water, and ran to and fro. Zach and Jacinta were sometimes holding hands but more often Jess ripped her hand away saying, “self!” leaving Zach feeling sad and rejected. Eventually we reached the beach where the kids played in the sand and in the water. It is winter and the sun is actually warm enough to make swimming at the beach somewhat possible, up to your knees only though. Surfers go year round here, mocking the silly summer surfers, of which I am neither. Surfing doesn’t interest me even slightly, I wonder why, seriously.

House building, now that is interesting when you want a house! This week Matt finished off the last few tasks needing to be complete before the pest man came and sprayed for termite prevention. The big day was Thursday, spray, then put on the floor, sounds easy aye? Well the spray is supposed to last 5-8 years so the level of toxicity has gotta be pretty high. The smell is horrendous, and still lingers now, 3 days later. Thus the moms’ job was to keep the children at a distance, bummer. We had all wanted to work on the floor, but happily distanced ourselves from the nasty odor. Matt and Tim joked about their life spans rapidly diminishing while they put on a few floor boards. Those of you who know Matt’s history of injuring himself, well, he did it here, with a hammer. Just a few boards into the job Matt mysteriously disappeared from the work site and came back with ice on his blue thumb. No moaning or cursing, just acknowledgement of normality. It has been raining now for a few days and Matt has taken on 3 hour afternoon shifts at the Macadamia Nut factory Monday through Friday. Thus, we have 6 floor boards, a huge truck tarp, and aluminum roofing covering our “floor” at the moment. I think I may get my wish to help with the floor. The smell might be gone soon, perhaps sooner than the much needed rain.

The world situation is terribly depressing right now, as it would be constantly if I were always aware of all I could know about the state of the world. I am coming to an understanding of why many of us are so complacent in politics amidst all of the suffering. Why doesn’t the US see the injustice Israel deals out? Amidst a myriad of reasons, the US deals out the same cards to many countries, presently Afghanistan and Iraq, as Russia deals with the Chechans. In a major newspaper here the Israeli foreign minister was quoted justifying the overwhelming Israeli response of force in Beirut giving the US and Russia as examples of normal procedure responding to “terrorism.” What can we do with this knowledge? Is being aware of the situation calling us to action? Well, if powerlessness, sadness, sympathy and anger lead to action, then we would benefit from the awareness. If we understood more of the situation, perhaps real empathy, feeling with the afflicted, would get us up off our chairs. But does the corporate-sponsored media get paid to rile us up? Not likely, and what are those of us who act like we really understand the problem doing? Not much, just being aware and being sad, that’s me at least.

The only way to get off that nasty thought is to write about Jess and her antics this week. Reading has become so much fun before nap and bedtimes. Jess enjoyed story time with Zach and Caitlin immensely this week, especially tickles and jumping on the bed before story time. She listens intently, commenting on what she sees or knows about the story and often points at something asking, “What’s this?” She knows the names of her favorite books from afar by the colors on the cover. In one of her recent favorites, the Runaway Bunny, she decided one day that the parental figure was a Daddy. I have followed suit ever since. Besides, too many books honor the mother-child relationship and leave the father out completely. It’s humorous though when we get to the pages when the “daddy” bunny follows baby to the circus and wears a tutu while walking a tightrope and the next page when “daddy” bunny is wearing a dress while holding bunny on his lap. Jess cracks up each time I read the last page when the baby bunny says, “Shucks, I might as well stay home and be your little bunny.” I don’t know why exactly, perhaps it’s just the sound of the word but she’ll repeat it to herself at random points in the day. “Shucks bunny! Hee hee hee hee,” she’ll chuckle, over and over.

Today Jacinta and I went out to the Bellingen markets in search of wool, soap, fruit and little pony tail holders. Yep, she wore her first silly looking ponytail this week and loved it! In preparation to leave I asked her if she wanted to pack her back pack and for the first time she said, “no.” I didn’t know why, but packed a few things for her just in case. She sat in her seat the whole ride with her water bottle, eventually pretending that it was her baby. The baby changed identities once in a while, from Kai to JD, back to Kai and ending on JD. She strapped him in her belt with her, dressed him up, changed his nappy when he pooped, and brushed his hair. When she returned home she asked to see pictures of Kai as she had already seen pictures of JD this morning. The wool lady was not at the market so we went to the Steiner shop and bought wool there instead. The brown bag in which the wool was taken home and the few little balls of wool I bought entertained Jacinta for over hours this evening. It was a hat, a shaker, a musical instrument, a dance partner and a good way to carry things around. We all know kids like these things the best, but yet I still coveted so many cool wooden toys in that shop for Jess. I laughed knowing that I almost refused the beloved bag in the shop because I had a few bags with me. It’s just awesome what an imagination can do with simple things if we allow it to run free and play along from time to time.  

As my eyelids fall droopy watching the clock tick past midnight, my imagination tells me it’s a gorgeous summer Saturday morning for you all right now. I’ll leave you to a relaxing summer day and go dream about actually spending it with you. Good night (:

Winter Vacation

As I sit here typing away on a Tuesday afternoon, behind me lie two sweet tired out little girls sleeping in our “big bed.” Matt has just gone off to try out work at the macadamia nut factory with Keith for a few hours. Off in the distance I can hear the moaning of little Zach, whose mum is kindly trying to dig out the few splinters he got while helping to clean the dirt off of our floor boards this afternoon. Tim, dad and friend to us from Sydney, is out finishing off the cleaning of the floorboard pile, removing all dirt and sun-dried mold from the tongues and grooves of the boards. After lying in a moist pile for over six months, they were transported to the building site, laid out to dry and will be laid down as our floor this week. It’s not forced labor induced upon our guests, it’s voluntary, I swear (: The roosters are crowing, the goat is bleating and all of the animals are getting ready to retire as the sun begins to set.

This week ends the two week-long winter holidays from school, thus the visit from friends and the camping excursion with friends who have children in school. I suppose school holidays here will not mean anything for us for another 3 years or so, other than choir and play group being cancelled. In America Matt and I both worked around the academic calendar so it is strange to be unaware that children are on vacation. Poor Zach, the splinters must still be in his hand…

This weekend we spent in the mountains, in the New England National Park at Point Lookout. I can’t tell you how high up we were, just that it took almost 3 hours to get 55 kilometers from our home because it was up and down and around mountains. We shared a very tiny cabin with our friends, mostly keeping warm and entertaining ourselves inside, sheltered from the wind and cold. We hiked a few trails and found that Jess is a great little mountain climber, fearless, yet reckless. She was determined to climb the mountains herself, but luckily was convinced to ride on Matt’s back in the carrier for a good portion of our longest hike. We saw no frozen waterfalls, but saw Weeping Rock which dripped water out of its pores. Parts of the park were lush rainforest and others classic Australian bush land. We saw lyre birds, gazed out at the mountains and stood in awe beneath great cliffs. Jess played hard with the other children and we all had a chance to catch up, play some music, cook hearty meals and play board games.

I knew nothing about where we were going or what it would be like. One thing Matt and I both found was reduced enthusiasm for hiking new paths to discover beauty. We haven’t even had enough time to truly explore the other side of the property we live on. Thus driving 3 hours to explore another spot seemed a bit strange at this busy time of building, yet it was gorgeous and we had a nice time. The uncomfortable truth of the history of this beautiful mountain stung the whole experience. Back in the beginning of the white man’s occupation of Australia there was a white woman and her child murdered near on this mountain. The killer was unknown, but assumed to be Aboriginal so all of the local Aboriginal people were rounded up and pushed off of Point Lookout, to crash down below and die. They all died with the exception of one baby who was cradled so strongly in the arms of his mother that he survived. The tribe at the base of the mountain brought up the child. It was hard to look out at the beauty with fresh and delighted eyes.



Drastically changing the subject, the World Cup Soccer Tournament is over, Italy won. Thus ends the crazy waking hours to watch mostly well paid men kicking around a ball. Matt is sad, for multiple reasons, but will probably sleep better. I’ve been curious…who pays the soccer players of poor countries like Togo? Is it their governments, advertisers, or who?  And is it just enough to feed their families or more? Is it the quality of the coach they can afford that determines how far they make it in the World Cup or is it truly a level playing field for nations to meet at the international level? Just seeking insight from anyone who may know (:

On the land…the garden grows on without much intervention. I don’t believe there is much new to eat: still peas, arugula, little bok choys, some spinach here and there, slightly bitter lettuce (it’s going to seed), and tiny beets if we’re desperate. I actually got around to fertilizing a few fruit trees that I don’t know much about, the kiwis needed cow manure and the pomegranate needed green manure so I used some lovely smelling (rotting) comfrey tea. This kind of work gets left undone mostly because of the reading involved in learning how to care for individual trees. The only reason I had time this week was thanks to Jess’ first nap in the hammock down in the garden shed. This same day a large cow challenged Jedda, the small dog, to a game and pursued her for about thirty minutes, this immense beast playfully jumping back and forth, making great holes in the grass while Jedda whined and hid inside the garden fence. Ever since that day I’ve looked at the thin chicken wire as less of a real barrier to anything.

Each night a new chicken joins the flock and roosts with the others, 14 chooks now roost together while 5 still perch in the trees. But with all the chickens, the eggs are not coming! We’re sure they must be laying in hidden locations. The goat is loving life here, we think, and Jess is loving Daisy. Today we took Daisy on a walk around the dam on her lead with our friends and the kids had a short turn in holding the lead. Jess loves feeding her, and always asks to lead her around, but Daisy is too strong.
Matt worked four days at the bank last week so not much changed on the house front, he fit little bits in here and there though. Preparing the floor boards to be laid was the major task, and also securing the last joists. Matt does most of the work on the building site, as he’s learning on the job and can’t answer many questions because he is either contemplating what needs to be done or just needs to do it himself. Keith, Michelle, and I (and any lucky visitors) do the brainless labor, which suits me. Jess and Rory make us laugh, bake us cookies, make us take breaks and keep us on our toes. You can see the outline of the entire addition now, so it’s becoming more real each day. Soon we’ll be able to walk on the floor.

Jess knows that this will be her room, and now that we are getting ready to build “Jess’s floor.” She doesn’t let anything slip by her, even lengthy conversations about people that we don’t really want her to repeat. She is learning little routines each day and although it is sometimes hard to follow instructions, after a bit of whining she’ll eventually comply. One example would be after meal time when she instantly stands up in her high chair when she wants to get down and is told repeatedly, “Bum down! You may not get down until you sit down on your bum. Tell me that you are finished and ask politely to come down.”  So then after a while she gives up, finally sits down and says, “All done. Help down, please?” I’ll then carry her down but Matt usually asks for better English (:

Today we were on a walk with Daisy the goat, and our friends from Sydney moseying around the dam checking out the flora and fauna. We stopped and sat on a log and took a few pictures and then moved on. As we moved ahead following the anxious goat, Jacinta stayed behind. A few minutes later I looked back to find her down on her knees inspecting the log, quiet, alone and content. I watched for a while and then asked her what she was doing. “Playing with bark,” she replied, and continued. We chatted for a few minutes and played with the goat and then asked her if she would join us. She kindly obliged.  

There are so many examples of Jacinta’s verbal life that I just have to share a few. She has just learned how to ask that burning question she’s had for her entire short life, “What’s this?” She’ll comment on where she is like today at lunch while we were picnicking by the dam, “Sitting next to Daddy…” Matt has been teaching her right and left feet, you’d think it was a bit fast. He’s just trying to avoid her learning as late in life as I did. She talks about her “right foot and left foot” every time a shoe goes on. This week she had her first nasty splinter and bravely got through the needle digging it out, crying “booboo…hurt…finger…splinta…bandaid?” Poor dear. She’s become vocal about what she likes. “I like this!” she’ll comment, or less correctly, “Me no like this,” not having been asked. She actually liked zucchini this week, but now knows the words, “raw and cooked,” as she told me she did not like raw zucchini but only cooked zucchini. She requests two different “fishy songs” but one is “Daddy’s” (The Starfish song Matt wrote) and the other is “Mommy’s” (the French one with motions). She is quite insistent upon hearing certain songs but I have to temper her by refusing from time to time (:  

Right now Jacinta is in heaven as she has two friends here, ages 2 ½ and 5 who love to play, draw and read stories as much as she does. Everything is twice as exciting, she has friends with whom she can share her experience with the animals and the land. She falls asleep and rises mumbling about the fun she has had with Zach and Caitlin. Matt is happy to have friends here, happy to have a few little jobs, happy to play with Jess and I, and eager to put down a floor. I am slightly tired, but enchanted thinking about life here and how much smaller the world seems today. I received a package from America containing homemade Lavender shortbread cookies by my friends the Eddy’s also including a bunch of lavender flowers from Barbara’s garden. Not many people would bother paying the postage, let alone think customs would allow it in. But somehow they missed this package and we are eating cookies made just a week ago by dear friends in Michigan.

Happy summer! Eat some local produce, make some cookies, maybe build a house (: and think of us on the other side of this small world.

How cold could it be?

Good morning!
We’re just leaving for a weekend of camping in the cold! We'll be staying with friends in a cabin in Dorrigo. We have been warned to pack very warm clothes. There is supposedly a frozen waterfall, but I am doubtful. I'll be sure to tell you about it when we return on Monday (: Have a nice warm summer weekend!
LOve,
Shana

One last soccer complaint

So Australia was totally ripped off by a bunch of crybaby Italians and an incompetent referee. I'm done grieving now, but not complaining.

For those unaware, the crybaby in blue (above) dived over the top of my boy Lucas, here, getting a penalty, more-or-less a gift goal, with 8 seconds remaining in the game. Australia is eliminated, Italy advances...

But we will remember.

Back to normal life in a few days....

Merci!

Good evening loved ones. The seasonal difference between you and I is hitting home now that you all have summer and we don’t! Hearing about backyard barbeques, gardens, fresh organic CSA produce, and festivals makes me homesick for good American summers. Summer here seems to last forever so it can’t be as lovely and hard-earned as a Mid-Western summer, which only lasts for a quarter of the year. We can still eat breakfast and lunch out on our veranda in winter, so don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It is citrus time right now, though not in our backyard. Our trees will take a few years before they can produce. Both Mary and Keith weekly bring home sacks full of mandarins, lemons, oranges, passion fruit, grapefruits, and limes given to them by co-workers. Just today I squeezed 25 lemons, and to be honest by the last 10 lemons, my hands weren’t capable of getting out all of the juice. Then I looked at the 4 cups of lemon juice and wondered, “what the heck am I going to do with all of this?” Typically one needs loads of sugar to use that much lemon juice. I’m open to suggestions…any ideas? Unfortunately no one ever brings in sacks of bananas to give away. After the cyclone, prices went up legitimately to 10$ a kilogram (about 5$ a pound), after all, we live on the Banana Coast and the banana crop was destroyed. I don’t know how long it will take until they are once again affordable. Our oatmeal is a bit lack luster without the bananas these days. Jacinta somehow even knows what a treat it is to have bananas now. She saw a bunch on the counter today and exclaimed, “Mommy bought malohs??!!”

Jacinta’s language is coming along quite nicely. We are all amazed at how clearly she is speaking, though some phrases are still only discernible by me, her translator. I just love hearing her pick up grammatical concepts, like the past tense. I recall spending years learning the past tense consciously and arduously in French class, granted the French past tense is much more difficult than adding “ed” to verbs as we do in English. She found herself counting to five this week, silently counting alone.
After much thought and yearning, I’ve decided that it’s time to start speaking a little more French to Jacinta. Just yesterday I was a fruit shop chatting with the only French woman I know in Australia. Jess sat politely on the counter and listened. As we were saying our goodbyes, she called out to Edith, “Merci!” Although she can’t possibly understand what all of these French words mean, or that we were speaking a language which originates from far away, she must have sensed that “Merci” was a word that fit in that conversation. She’s been hearing French lullabies at night, French music on the cd player and mom speaking French to others since she was born. We sing a French blessing at meals holding hands saying “Merci, Merci pour le pain d’aujourd’hui.” She recognizes the song instantly and reaches her hands out to be held even if I’m just singing it while cooking. She playfully says “Merci” (thank you) or “Bonne nuit” (good night) or “bisou” (kiss) to family members and close friends. I worried a little that she would start using French with people who do not speak it and who may be intimidated by others using language they do not understand, but as time goes by she is starting to realize that she can only use it with me. Matt would understand too, but she hasn’t yet tried!

Jess is starting to link the French words together, she can hear their similarity. Toddlers’ imitation skills are awesome, if I say “oiseau,” talking about a bird in a story book, uninvited, she instantly repeats the word “oiseau,” giggles, and says “bisou???” asking for a kiss. She picks out words from songs, “Nagez, tip tip tip, zip zip zip, boum boum boum, Clic clac! c’est beau!” and repeats them to herself while playing and of course this makes me smile. Sometimes in her routine of repeating my name over and over, a call and response assurance, she says “mommy? Yes?” and moves on to, “Maman?” I respond, “Oui?” and it goes on and on. Tonight I called out to her and she replied, “Oui?” This takes adolescents years to master the pronunciation of most foreign language vocabulary words. I am no longer worried that it will affect her English skills. Given the amount of time in the day we have to converse, and the recurrent occasions for a toddler to repeat the same conversations, she’ll hopefully be a confident little bilingual girl someday. Too bad she’ll have no one to speak French with on a daily basis but her mother! Some day we’ll visit our French and Senegalese friends and she’ll be able to play with the children and understand them. That will be a true celebration and an “ah hah” moment for her after years of playing in a language that no one else understands here.

Our celebration this week was Keith’s (pop) birthday. Another birthday cake, and a request for a chocolate cake with cream in the middle, this was a good challenge for me and a fun mess for Jess. We woke up in the morning and made a birthday card (a new favorite pass time), gave Keith his new Ugg boots, helped him lug firewood, then with Rory and Michelle, we frosted the cake. I must brag that Jacinta’s willpower to not lick the frosting was very strong even after Rory broke down and took a lick. It wasn’t until I walked away that she snuck in a finger (: Once finally decorated with flowers, the children almost hyperventilating, we had rich, sugary chocolate cake, right before lunch, and it was good. It gave us the energy to garden for over an hour before lunch time. It was a lovely day and ever since Jess has been making birthday cards. It’s a good thing because there are a lot of family birthdays in the summer! She even made one for Matt today, but his birthday was back in February. She wants to give people cakes for their birthdays, after all that’s what birthdays are: cake and cards. Since Dja Dja lives in America and his birthday is a few days away, she’s learning to draw cakes on her cards since she can not send them in the mail.

Speaking of food, it was an inspired cooking week. I’m finding myself cooking for hours each day and loving it. I even took Jess to a fish shop on the river and bought a few little fish to try. I’m discovering her love for fish, she even likes to hold them and pretend they are swimming before we cook them. I found a fennel bulb in a fruit shop so I made tomato fennel soup. I was trying to relive an awesome dining experience with my friend Judy a few years ago, but sadly, my soup wasn’t near as good, perhaps lacking basil, but it warmed me up and reminded me of Judy so that was good enough. I made cough syrup for Jacinta, potato leek soup, Thai coconut fish soup, hummus, bread, lots of salads and a few less inspired meals. One evening I ran into an old friend of Matt’s from Sydney who happened to be passing through on his way up North to do some business. I bumped into him at the gas station, 5 hours from his home and 5 minutes from ours! So he came to dinner the next night and I made a nice deep dish pizza. I’ve realized that I need more than a smile and busy mouths at dinner to know that the love I’ve put into the food was appreciated. Some people are less vocal about food, but I grew up with my father who LOVES food and raves about it throughout the meal, that is, if it is good. I owe my food love largely to my dad, thanks daddy! I’m working on noticing the more subtle forms of appreciation, but still sometimes have to ask in the silence when I’ve prepared a meat dish, “Is it good?” How pathetic! I guess it detracts from the gratitude when Jacinta begs at the table for the French fries or white bread that other family members may be eating when we cook separate meals. She would rather have that than the healthy soup and brown rice in front of her! Can you blame her? I’m on a soup kick and unfortunately, Jess isn’t. Oh well.

On the land this week we worked all over the place. Matt put in a three more piers on the small side of our addition (the future kitchen), tore off part of the veranda, and with some help, hauled over the bearers and joists for this section. Michelle and I dug around, leveling things out on the building site. Keith and I worked on transplanting useful plants from the building site. Jess did some cooking and played with worms, while Rory “worked” with the children’s tools trying very hard (while picking up Matt’s hammer) to grasp the fact that he is not allowed to touch any of the adult tools.

Keith revamped the chicken pen again in an effort to get the hens laying and chopped a lot of fire wood. We took Daisy the goat around with us, tethering her to a nearby tree wherever we worked. She bleats when left alone, and loves our company. We also kept an eye out for the new chickens and their whereabouts. Mona Lisa, a tiny little chicken who came to us with an injured foot, has refused to join the flock due to the two roosters efforts to win her affection (: She hid out on top of a shed for a few days, until Jess found her calling out, “Mum! Loot!” She was lucky to have not been eaten by the fox, and now sleeps in her own shed, where my bike lives. The five new bantam chooks sleep in the chook forest in the trees and never leave the pen, fearful of the old chooks and their pecking order.

Inspired by some nice dirt in from our travails on the building site, Michelle and I cleared another section in our terrace garden and found a way to use the soil. While Jess was out at “morning tea” with Mary this morning, Keith and I (Keith with the chainsaw) did some garden detail and child proofing on the terraces, making steps, handrails, and a two-seater chair out of a stump. The potatoes need continual mulching as they seem to grow an inch a day. The peas are outgrowing their stakes, the bok choy has gone to flower, but more are coming up anyway. The lettuces are on their way to seed, but more are coming up too. Carrots and beets are coming up slowly. There are a few which we are letting go to seed, and it takes a lot of will power to leave them in the ground. The herbs are finally done this season and advised by a friend, I have given them a haircut so they will come back soon. In Michigan this was simple, cut at the end of the summer or fall, and they come back in spring. Here, they come and go all year long. Not bad, aye? I’ll figure it all out in a few years.

So, on another subject, Australia got knocked out of the World Cup by Italy. The referee made a controversial call right at the end, so their loss seemed unfair. The country, and yes, Matt are in mourning. Matt will Blog about it once he can speak of it (: He is now in Sydney watching a Swans football game with his sister Allison and will return on the train tomorrow. Allison is Matt’s last remaining family member in the city where he grew up. Soon she will move to Canberra, where their other sister lives, to take on a new position working in the government. She’ll be working for the party which is not in power, the Labor Party, and is very excited about the opportunity to try and bring down the party in power with John Howard as the prime minister. One of Howard’s major faults is that he, like Tony Blair, is a puppy to George Bush and the US war on Iraq and on the poor people of the world. Many Aussies dislike him for this fact but have to wait until he calls an election to vote him out. Australia, like the US, is having difficulty coming up with a strong opposition with real differences in policy. Right now almost everyone has money as their god and thus, allow business to run governments. War happens to make money for some, so we keep on warring. How can I close on that? I’m not even feeling negative today! I’ll come up with a better ending…

Having met a few tiny babies in the past months, Jess knows that babies live in bellies for a while and then come out into the world. We can discuss it at length, each and every time she brings it up. “Baby Kai? Teeny weeny weeny baby.” “Yes, he’s small, but he is growing,” I reply. “Bigga Bigga Bigga, Baby Kai is growing.” “Baby JD…teeny weeny weeny.” “Yes, did you get to hold him?” I ask. “Yep, like that,” she imitates the handhold. A few minutes later she inquires, “Baby Kai….in Lecia’s belly?” I agree. “Mommy’s belly, baby Jess?” “Yes, you were in my belly too!” She giggles. We go on to talk about my friends who have babies in their bellies. “Tiny baby in Lauren’s belly? Carrie’s belly? Adriann’s belly?” she inquires. “Yes, soon they’ll come out and keep on growing,” I go on. “Yep,” she happily assures herself. Conversations with a two year old are much nicer than those about government, war and politics.

Goodnight y’all. Excuse the length (:
Happy 4th of July, have fun eating and spending time with loved ones!