Easiest Spanish breakfast

Yesterday I had the day off, so I took some time to make one of Isma's favorite breakfast foods. Here's how it goes.

1. Take some tomatoes.



2. Peel them.
3. Put them in the blender.
4. Spread on toast and eat with a little olive oil and salt if desired.



Mmmm.

Conclusion

Last entry I told you about one of my friends who was trying to raise money to get music stands for class...well, he reached the goal and the stands will be shortly on the way. I'm surprised but happy that he was able to raise the money so quickly, that people responded so well to the school's need. Congratulations Matthew and all of your students! Here's his thank-you letter:

Dear All,

I can't thank you enough for how much you all have reached out with such amazing generosity so quickly. I was able to get my project fully funded in a week, and that is a testament to the compassion of so many great people who care so much about music, especially in my community. When I asked for your help, you all gave so quickly that I didn't even have time to reach out to all possible donors--you beat them to the punch! This is benevolence at its best: people practically competing to see who can do the most good the fastest. My students will also be incredibly grateful. This is a need that the band has that would not have been met if not for your compassion, and it will meet the needs of future students for several years. This outpouring of support for the importance of music in our schools, especially here, will be an incredible encouragement to students showing how much they and their pursuits concern others; this is exactly the kind of support students need at this age.


I am privileged to know many of you already and regretful for those whom I don't.
With gratitude,
Mr. C

Needed: Music Stands

Back in college I had the rare privilege of having many music major friends. And while some of those interesting friends graduated to become starving artists (though if you ask for a name, I could not help you), quite a larger number grew up to be starving band teachers. Starving may be an exaggeration, but it will do for my post today.

I want to highlight what one of my friends, Matthew Carnagua, is trying to do for his band class. Due to budget cuts, the school can't afford new music stands to have enough for all of the students, so he's decided to raise money himself for the class. He explains the circumstances much better in his page on DonorChoose.org. Go check it out and help their music class!

Here is a link to Matthew's page on DonorChoose.org...click here to see more information.

Honeymoon Pictures

Honeymoon in Alaska

Enjoy!

Back from Egypt

No, I haven't been to Egypt. Angelita's granddaughter just got married to an Egyptian, and she brought back some traditional garb. One, a blue dress, was a gift from the groom's mother and sister. The other was also a gift. That is, if you call a gift something a street vendor gives you and then forces you to pay for it. At least she only had to pay one euro for the headdress. We just had to try them out:

I realize that it is a strange outfit, being that the dress is for a woman (and HUGE on me) and the headdress for a man. It just makes things more interesting!

La India

This summer, the youth from the federation of churches to which my church belongs will be going to Chennai, India to participate in some ministries begun by the local church there. This weekend there was a youth conference here in Madrid and I got to be involved in the stand (along with many others from the youth group) at the conference to inform about the trip and the materials they are bringing for the school kids at the children's home. Here's what we sold:

Along with the clothes (they will use the money to buy the clothes in India), we put together bookpacks with school supplies to take, and raised money to buy chairs for the church as well. I wish I had a picture of the stand, but I was horrible at taking pictures this weekend. Overall, youth at the conference donated some 4,000 euros!

The conference was wonderful, though tiring. It's the first time I've gone to a camp/conference as one of the leaders of a youth group. Nothing like having to scold for sleeping during messages, go look for straggling youth, and take care of those that aren't feeling that great. On the other hand, it was great to see the steps they are taking in their faith...moving closer and closer every day to God. And now, since I think I've gotten about 5 hours of sleep for the last few days, I am going to turn the lights off, pull down the blinds, put the earplugs in, and say goodbye to the world for at least 10 hours. Good night!!

Tamy's Birthday

Tamy's 27th Birthday

We celebrated the passage of another year in the life of Tamy with lots of homemade pizza, carrot cake, and plenty of giggling at nonsense. Happy Birthday!

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Are You My Mother?

This month I've been taking a course to teach Spanish children reading in English through phonics and vocabulary teaching...making "reading natives" in the sense that every single word they read is a word they already understand orally. It is interesting, a combination of review and new concepts. For the end of the month long course we have to represent a story for the class like we might do with the children and present a song and phonics plan to use with the book. Here are some props I've made. It's been a fun day.

Apart from doing kid things and cleaning, I've also looked at more wedding dresses. Pretty!

Countries Rise

I'm sure you all have read, listened to, or seen the news about the uproar in the MidEast. Egypt peacefully protested and succeeded in removing their dictator of so many years. Libya´s people are painfully revolting. Morocco, Spain's neighbor to the south, is beginning to awake as well. I've been so near and yet so far from it all.

A young woman close to my friends has been living in Egypt for better half of the last year, engaged to be married to an Egyptian. When the protests and revolt began, her grandmother and friends called and called, worrying about her safety, what would happen. Thank God there was no need for evacuation of Spanish citizens, so she is still safe there and will be married this spring surrounded by family from Spain and friends.

Can you imagine living in such history-making circumstances? Living in such nerve-wracking and yet exciting times? What would you do: stay at home nursing the pager given to you by the embassy, sneak a peek out the window of the protests, catch the next plane home, join the protests? Or if it happened in your own state? It's beyond my imagination. So close and yet so far away.