Jesus Was Not a Republican

Mildly Entertaining

2008-07-08T22:33:00.004-05:00

Kind of a funny meme, self-explanatory...

1. Type in “[your name] needs” in the Google search:
Erin needs a drink (I agree. Too bad I don't drink.)

2: Type in “[your name] looks like” in Google search:
Erin looks like Harry Potter on drugs (Maybe just a little bit)

3: Type in “[your name] does” in Google search:
Erin does not live here anymore (Probably spray-painted on the front of our house in TN)

4: Type in “[your name] hates” in Google search:
Erin hates whores named Chad (Well that is very specific.)

5: Type in “[your name] goes to” in Google search:
Erin goes blue (like Tobias in Arrested Development?)

6: Type in “[your name] loves” in Google search:
Erin loves to be tickle tortured. (Umm, no.)

7: Type in “[your name] eats” in Google search:
Erin eats Emos. (It took me a minute to realize that's the plural of emo, and not some weird name similar to Amos).

8: Type in “[your name] has” in Google search:
Erin has a secret on flickr (Not unless it's a secret that I sew)

9: Type in “[your name] will” in Google search:
Erin will vote 4 the Constitution (Is that one of our choices this year? Hallelujah!)

Fern Update

2008-07-05T12:05:00.002-05:00

I believe we've found a new home for Fern, with a woman who has a small bird sanctuary in Alabama. I've struggled a lot with this decision and felt a great deal of guilt about it, but knowing that Fern is going to a woman who knows and loves this particular breed of parrot - and will stay with her for life - is a comfort. I'm happy that Fern will no longer be in a quiet house by herself.

Fern

2008-07-03T15:11:00.004-05:00

Fern is my little green parrot (age 10) back home. Our wonderful next-door neighbor, B, has been looking after her the whole time we've been in Guatemala, going over each day to top up her food and water and talk to her. However, B's brother recently had complications following surgery, so she will be out of town for quite awhile and unable to continue caring for Fern. Right now two of our friends are rotating going over every couple days to feed her.

I feel terribly guilty about this, having been raised to believe that pets are for life; they are not disposed of when they become inconvenient. We have an obligation to our pets to provide the food, medicine, and attention they need.

However, I don't know that we have other options right now, and it's not a happy environment for a bird to be all alone in a house that much. She's next to a window, but that's not sufficient. Therefore I think I am going to have to place her with a group that finds new homes for previously owned birds.

Do any of you in blogland have any recommendations for bird rescue groups that operate in the southeast US? I'm going to be googling for information, but I wanted to see if anyone out there has personal experience with any avian rescue organizations. I would be willing to drive her several hundred miles if necessary.

Poor Fern :(

Officially Two!

2008-07-01T14:29:00.002-05:00

Azucen@, you are funny, observant, and absolutely adorable. Happy Birthday to the cutest kid I've ever seen; we love you so much.

Party!

2008-06-30T12:38:00.005-05:00

Azucen@'s monkey birthday party was a success. Her foster family came to celebrate with us, as well as our friend Y and three adoptive families. Azucen@ liked the singing and blowing out the candles. (As we sang "Feliz cumpleanos a ti" she would sing along loudly with "tiiiiiiiiiiii".) The kids all seemed to enjoy their sugar high; even after copious amounts of cake and fruit, Azucen@ kept climbing onto a chair to sneak more cookies off the table. She crashed early and slept for 12 1/2 hours last night!

Trip #2 to the Finca

2008-06-27T10:21:00.001-05:00

Blogland friends Julia and Bryan arrived in Antigua yesterday with a big ol' bag of things for the people at the finca. The three of us went shopping for more medicine and a huge amount of food. They purchased the remainder of the anti-parasite medicines and vitamins, and I spent $492 of your donations.

Twenty families each received:

basket
large bag of rice
large bag of black beans
bag of salt
4 packets of spices
4 packets of instant soup
2 bags of powdered milk
pair of adult underwear and socks
toothbrushes and toothpaste
1 month's worth of vitamins for each child
dose of anti-parasite for each child and adult (except pregnant or lactating women)
bottle of water with which to take the anti-parasite medicine
1 month's worth of vitamins for pregnant or lactating women
their choice of toiletry item, like a bar of soap, a brush, baby wipes, or tissues
packet of cookies for a treat

We also gave some anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and anti-itch creams, with instructions to share with their neighbors, because we didn't have many boxes.

There were about 45 people at the finca, and I recognized about three of the families from our previous visit. Last time I let Y do all the talking, but I guess I've become more confident in my Spanish, because yesterday I was addressing the crowd as much as she was. We explained to everyone how to use the vitamins and medicines (with Y also translating into Kakchiquel as necessary). I'd purchased single-dose anti-parasite medicines so that there would be no confusion later about how much to take and when - We had them take it right away with the bottled water. The people there weren't familiar with vitamins, so I had to explain the basics: like not to take it on an empty stomach, and that even though the kids' vitamins taste good, not to give them more than one a day, because they're not candy. So I hope they accepted and understood all that (Y wrote it down on each bag, too, but I'm sure some of them can't read.)

Things got a little hectic when we brought out the anti-fungal and anti-bacterial creams, since we didn't have enough for every family, only about 10 tubes. We explained to everyone that we had very little of the medicine for skin, and we talked about when to use what kind. Then we implored them to share with their neighbors, that the medicine didn't belong to any one person. If I had to do it again I'd just make sure we had purchased enough to put small tubes of each in every family's basket, because there was a bit of chaos over who was going to take possession of them. It really is better to have pretty much the same thing for every family, because people get very anxious when they think they're going to be left out. I don't blame them, though; they're desperate for food and other necessities.

What surprised me again on this visit was how small and child-like the young men looked... another effect of malnutrition. To make sure we had enough of the anti-parasite medication for the kids under 12, we first gave doses to all the younger children. After they received the medicine, I asked who was between 12-14. I expected half of these boys to raise their hands, and only one or two did. I kept counting upwards in age, and couldn't believe when these boys didn't raise their hands til I called for 17, 18, and 19. They really looked about 12 or 13 years old, hardly into puberty.

One of the things that gave me a little triumphant feeling was being able to make some people laugh with a little joke in Spanish. Humor is one of the hardest things to do in another language, because it relies on subtleties, but I managed to make a group of the men laugh once and then some of the teenagers. I'm not exactly planning my Spanish stand-up career, but getting a chuckle made me happy :)

Julia and Bryan's reactions to the finca reminded me of my own after my first visit there. I felt in a daze after that too, in utter disbelief at the conditions people were living in. This time around, I didn't have that sensation of shock, I guess because I'd seen it once before. Still, I wondered whether I was becoming desensitized already.

Here is a link to photos.

Medicina

2008-06-25T19:01:00.002-05:00

We hope to go to the finca tomorrow (depends on, among other things, whether the roads are passable... They've been flooded recently). Today I bought some medicines for the people, based on the recommendations of an American doctor who recently visited Guatemala.

So with about $140 of your donations, I got:

30 doses of anti-parasite for kids
20 doses of anti-parasite for adults
11 bottles of liquid vitamins for kids
teaspoons to go with the liquid vitamins (can't take for granted that the people at the finca have teaspoons)
2 boxes of ziplock bags to divide up the chewable vitamins that the doctor donated

I'm going to get some more things tomorrow - I would have bought more but I ran out of cash. I plan to get adult vitamins and more doses of the adult anti-parasite medicine.

Families to Keep in Your Thoughts

2008-06-24T20:59:00.004-05:00

Two families - both of whom have been waiting longer than we have in this adoption process - have received bad news recently about their cases. One has had a nightmare with the US Embassy, and the other just got a PGN previo.

Please think of M and 2-year-old M, and K with 2-year-old L, and send good thoughts their way. They deserve better than this.

Anybody Coming to Guatemala?

2008-06-24T00:21:00.002-05:00

If you or any of your friends are coming to Guatemala in July and would be willing to carry back packages of my craft items and take them to the post office (sealed and addressed, you just need to get the postage attached), please leave a comment with a way to reach you. I will be happy to compensate you for your time (as well as the postage, of course)!

Thank you!

Not a Dry Towel in the House

2008-06-22T15:03:00.002-05:00

Anyone who's been to Guatemala during rainy season knows it's pretty darn wet. So wet that it's pointless to expect a towel to dry without the aid of a machine. When you turn off the shower in the morning and reach for your towel, it's so damp that you wonder if you have amnesia and just took a shower an hour before. And of course, with the dampness comes mildew, so not only is your towel wet, but it smells moldy, too. Mmmm, good morning!

Therefore: Item #1 I can't wait to get back to the States for (or at least to dry season if we're still here), is a toasty warm towel!

Just One More Piece of Evidence

2008-06-18T22:54:00.007-05:00

... that it's a really bad idea to torture people and deny them basic rights. You know what else is a bad idea? To turn around and place those people in a confined area with those eager to recruit them into terrorism against the very country that tortured them and denied them basic rights.

Yes, folks, yet another set of Bush Administration policies that made a situation worse.

Militants found recruits among Guantanamo's wrongly detained

[...] A McClatchy investigation found that instead of confining terrorists, Guantanamo often produced more of them by rounding up common criminals, conscripts, low-level foot soldiers and men with no allegiance to radical Islam - thus inspiring a deep hatred of the United States in them - and then housing them in cells next to radical Islamists.

The radicals were quick to exploit the flaws in the U.S. detention system.

Soldiers, guards or interrogators at the U.S. bases at Bagram or Kandahar in Afghanistan had abused many of the detainees, and they arrived at Guantanamo enraged at America.

The Taliban and al Qaida leaders in the cells around them were ready to preach their firebrand interpretation of Islam and the need to wage jihad, Islamic holy war, against the West. Guantanamo became a school for jihad, complete with a council of elders who issued fatwas, binding religious instructions, to the other detainees. [...]

Now I Know My ABN's

2008-06-18T10:43:00.006-05:00

That is Azucen@'s version of the alphabet. Whenever she sees letters, she points to them and says, "Ayyyy..... Beeee.... Ennnn". She can't make the "sss" sound yet, so she skips as far past "C" as she can.

Our roommate's daughter, L, does something that cracks me up every single time she does it. When she counts (the girls are big into Hide and Seek right now, even though they don't quite get it), she covers her eyes and says "Uno! Cinco! Oso! Diez!" which, translated to English, is "One! Five! Bear! Ten!"

The Girl Likes to Eat

2008-06-16T12:42:00.003-05:00

Azucen@ has always been a good eater. We're very lucky in that regard; we just put food in front of her and she gobbles it up (unless it's one of several vegetables). Yesterday for breakfast she ate some Cheerios, 2 1/2 eggs, a piece of toast, and two glasses of juice (heavily watered down). Then, just a few hours later, she had a lunch of chicken nuggets, a large banana, grapes, and milk.

She's grown six centimeters and gained two pounds in the last five months, so I guess it's going to good use!

Recently she's become slightly obsessed with chicken (pollo in Spanish). The night before last, John and I went to sleep at about midnight. As I was crawling into bed, I heard her shuffle around in her crib, and I thought she was waking up. But no, she just yelled out "POLLO!" and turned over and slept the rest of the night.

Two Giveaways!

2008-06-14T12:46:00.003-05:00

Today is the last day for the giveaway of one of my pieces at Adoption Under One Roof. All you have to do is leave a comment saying how adoption or fostering has changed your life.

I'm also doing a giveaway on my crafts blog! Simply leave a comment on this post and you'll be entered to win. Easy!

If There Was Ever Any Doubt

2008-06-12T13:56:00.004-05:00

... that Fox News is nothing more than the propaganda wing of the Republican party, I think this puts those doubts to rest:

This is beyond outrageous. Obama's "baby mama"? Otherwise known as his WIFE? It would never even occur to them to use this term for a white candidate. Can you imagine them referring to Laura Bush as George W's baby mama?

Barack and Michelle Obama's children were born in wedlock, which is what conservatives profess to want for everyone. They can't find anything to fault him with in this regard, so they play with words to sully his name. This "headline" is nothing more than a racist attempt to link Obama's name to the stereotype of an irresponsible, low-class African-American.

Next on Fox: Obama likes watermelon and fried chicken, and he's afraid of dogs.

UK PSA

2008-06-10T22:52:00.002-05:00

This is not directed at anyone in particular; I've just encountered a lot of confusion surrounding English vs. British, UK vs. Great Britain, etc. So here's a little cheat sheet!

Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland, and Wales.
The full name of the United Kingdom is "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". So the UK is made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The Republic of Ireland (southern Ireland) is a separate country.
People from England are both English and British.
People from Scotland are both Scottish and British.
People from Wales are both Welsh and British.
People from Northern Ireland are both Northern Irish and British. (But there are many people in Northern Ireland who do NOT consider themselves British, only Irish. There is, of course, a long history of conflict there.)
People in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all speak English (with varied dialects and accents). Some also speak Scots Gaelic, Welsh, or Irish Gaelic.

So to answer a common question: You can refer to John as British, just don't call him English :)

Didn't Want to Leave You Guys Hanging

2008-06-06T11:37:00.005-05:00

... but there is no update. Our facilitator still is not answering her calls.

I made a little outfit for the Josefina doll (took in a really small huipil and made it smaller, made a little skirt from corte material, and added a belt I cut from a strip of huipil fabric). I still need some safety pins though! I made the skirt like they wear them here, which means they're folded and held up by the belt, which is also just tucked around itself to close. But that doesn't stand up so well to a not-quite-two-year-old playing with it! It kept falling off.

I let Azucen@ play with the doll for a little while after I made the outfit, then put it away for her birthday.

And here she is with an adorable doll sent to us by blogland friend J.

Oh No

2008-06-03T14:16:00.002-05:00

Yet more drama has popped up on our case. I can't discuss it here, but please cross your fingers that this works itself out.

Cute Accessories

2008-06-01T17:52:00.005-05:00

I was in a great shop yesterday and saw some cute little items that I thought would be the right scale for Azucen@'s Josefina doll. The real Americ@n Girl accessories are so expensive! They had wooden cherries in different colors, so I trimmed the stems to turn them into red apples, green apples, and oranges. I also got a little clay dove and jar, and a basket hand-woven from pine needles. Ta-da! A bargain.

These will be put away til the day she stops putting everything in her mouth :)

P.S. I also purchased a cute Guatemalan paper doll/activity book and bought extra copies to sell on my crafts blog!

Finca Update

2008-05-30T20:08:00.003-05:00

Thanks for the offers to get some fleece for me, but I'm happy to say John completed Operation Fabric Store successfully! (I think. I haven't seen what he bought yet ;) )

*******

We were all lined up to have an American doctor (who was in Guatemala for two weeks) visit the finca to evaluate the children and provide some basic care. Unfortunately, the owner of the finca told Y and her classmates that the migrant families that we saw earlier this month left this week, and a new group of workers and families will not arrive til next week. So having the doctor go to the finca didn't work out.

However, she did give me several big bottles of children's vitamins and tubes of hydrocortisone, anti-fungal, and antibacterial creams. She also provided advice about the most practical medical assistance we could provide, suggesting that I buy a particular anti-parasite pill for each person as well as vitamins for everyone. This made a lot of sense, as these families must have a terrible time getting enough nutrition without a parasite making the situation even worse. So before we go to the finca next time (probably next month), I'll be using your donations to buy these items.

You Can Do It, John!

2008-05-28T11:19:00.003-05:00

I need more fleece for my craft projects, so I asked John (who's in the US right now) to go to the fabric store and get me some more. He was very hesitant, and I assured him I'd give him the list of colors and amounts so he wouldn't have to do too much guesswork.

He plucked up his courage and drove over on Monday. Which was Memorial Day. Which means when he walked in the door, he was faced with a horde of middle-aged women all there for a big sale, and all the salespeople were busy. So you know what he did? Walked right back out the door! Ha!

After running some errands, he went back for Attempt #2. The same scene awaited him, and as he told me later: "Ah cannae haundle this!"

Come on, Big Brave Man, I know you can do it. The future of my crafting depends on you!

Cursing Abounded

2008-05-25T17:43:00.005-05:00

The little bastards next door who throw loud, late-night parties every couple months had another one this weekend. They arrived at about 6:30 and played loud music til 10:00, when presumably they went out to a club. Then they returned at 12:30 and turned the music back on full blast and were yelling and carrying on in their courtyard (with which we share a wall, and from which we can hear everything even with our bedroom doors shut). Y and K each went over to ask them to quiet down, but it didn't make any difference, then I went over and it didn't make any difference either. The guy who came to the door when I knocked was pretending he couldn't understand my Spanish, the prick. I went over again and yelled at him, but still nothing changed.

I stood on a patio chair and yelled over the wall to "Muevanse adentro ahorita" (Go inside right now!) y "Callense, putas borrachas" (Shut up, you drunk whores!) and some a$$hole laughed and replied, "I no speak English". After they'd been at it for an hour and a half, the guard finally agreed to go over, and then the jerks did go inside. I f*cking hate them and felt like throwing eggs at their house, but I knew some poor cleaning lady would be the one stuck with the mess.

John's idea is to buy one of those mixer/sprayer attachments for the hose, and instead of filling it with fertilizer, fill it with the contents of a dirty diaper. Then the next time they refuse to shut up at 2:00 in the morning, soak the jerks down. Ah, that sounds good!

New Huipil Craft Site

2008-05-23T16:03:00.005-05:00

My craft sales have slowed down in recent weeks, so I wanted to try expanding my audience. Therefore I recently opened a shop on etsy: http://lachapina.etsy.com. I'm continuing to put posts on my crafts blog about every day/every other day and can take orders from there as well.

If you refer someone to my Etsy shop or my blog and they make a purchase between now and 6/1, have them tell me your name, and I will give you $10 off your next order!

Ridiculously Excited

2008-05-21T12:42:00.002-05:00

...over a doll.

I was looking for a Latina doll to give Azucen@ for her upcoming birthday, and I came across the Americ@n Girl doll Josefina, whose character is Mexican-American living in New Mexico in 1824. I know these are meant for much older girls*, but this doll and her clothes/accessories are so cute and in many ways remind of Guatemala.

However, Americ@n Girl stuff is EXPENSIVE. So I hit eB@y. Even used, however, these dolls were generally going for $55-$75, which is a. waaaay too expensive for our limited birthday budget, and b. waaaaay too much to spend on a doll for a two-year-old who was going to be dropping it, chewing it, and spilling food on it.

But, believing in the "you can't get if you don't ask" philosophy, I emailed some of the sellers who had dolls with imperfections and who hadn't received any bids yet, and asked if they would consider doing a low buy-it-now price since I didn't care about the flaws and wanted this lovely doll for my toddler's birthday. One of the sellers, who had a doll with some pen marks on the underside of one foot, agreed to my offer of $30 and asked that I send her a photo of Azucen@ with her doll! I was SO excited!

"Is this for you or for her?" asked John.

"Ummm, both?" I answered.

I'm going to make some Guatemalan clothes for her, since she is coming with some plain doll clothes (not the pretty Mexican outfit in the photo below). And if Azucen@ isn't interested in it? Well, I know a 31-year-old who will be!

*I will be removing any parts that could pose a choking hazard.

Our Sweet and Tender Hooligan

2008-05-19T11:11:00.005-05:00

[S]he was a sweet and tender hooligan, hooligan
And [s]he said that [s]he'd never, never do it again.
--The Smiths

John, Azucen@, and I were in a local shop this weekend and Azucen@ was enjoying trying on the bracelets, playing with the balls, and holding the stuffed animals. When we got home and were changing her diaper, a bracelet fell out of the front pocket of her overalls!

Now when she sees it sitting on the dining room table she points to it and says "Uh oh". We're going back today to return it :)