Heathers book, "mementos of divide" now available for purchase!

My book "mementos of divide" is now available for purchase.

This book is the a photographic documentary about illegal immigration and the border reality. The book is available for print cost only. No profits will be made from the sale of this book in any way shape or form. I began this endeavor to share the reality of those who cross the border with people in united states. It is but my humble opinion.

You should know that the print quality is quite substandard, but being that we are leaving in 8 days I do not have time to work with another publisher. When I come back, I hope to have copies available that are of greater print quality. In the mean time, I have worked very hard to make this book available before we leave. I will not have a chance to get a second proof, so if you notice anything wrong with the printing of the book, please let me know. Well, with great pleasure, I present to you:

mementos of divide,
by heather mckinnon, 2007

http://www.lulu.com/content/1448113

(or go to lulu.com and search for "mementos of divide")

More information about Nicaragua, in case you care...

So friends, there are a scant 11 days left until we depart. Christmas is now over and we can concentrate on leaving. We still have our green civic left to sell which is very sad, but we just did a preliminary tax evaluation and found that we will not owe money this year which is a huge relief. The passport situation is still not sorted out all the way. Today (wednesday) I was supposed to find out, but we never got a call back. Maybe tomorrow. BUT, we are moving on with plans.. as if we could hold off anyway with 11 days left. I think we have everything we need now, except a travel iron (lightweight), we have sold lots of things and farmed others out for babysitting.. (we are keeping a list so dont try to sell our stuff on ebay while we are gone). We kindof want to have an open house on saturday the 5th, but we are unsure of the details since our house will be empty.

Anyway, I thought I would post some more information we have learned about peace corps in Nicaragua. you can read through if you have time, its pretty much the information we have been given. I know this will entertain only a few people. Here is a link

http://www.peacecorps.gov/welcomebooks/niwb524.pdf

Also, some facts we wanted to share with people that we have recently learned of:
-Nicaragua is the the 2nd poorest country in this hemisphere (Haiti 1st).
-Nicaragua has the least people per square mile out of all the countries in Central America at 35 people per square mile. El Salvador has the highest at 288 ppsm.
-Nicaragua was also ranked the safest country in Central America. El Salvador (again its opposite) came in first because of all the gang problems.
-Peace Corps has had volunteers back in Nicaragua since 1991. They do not place volunteers in countries that have political unrest.

Well. Thats all for today. We had a very fruitful day and so we are off to celebrate. (Which means watch a movie probably.)

Gingerbread

Well, the holiday season is upon us, even if we are unable to fully celebrate in lou of leaving on January 6th. However we did find time to make some fabulous gingerbread houses;


This one is my rendition of our low impact woodland home made with straw bale construction and and earthen roof.


Korys version of the gingerbread is reminiscent of an island painting made by a famous artist who likes mizgigs and trambleshoots in his whimsical drawings




Jessica, Jason, Brooke, Matt, Kory and Heather wish you all a merry Christmas!


Kory and I at the Hospice For Utah Christmas party


Julia and Enoch making candy. Looks delish doesn't it?


This is the terrifying drive coming down from Snowbird in the civic. It was a beautiful site even though we had to drive in first gear all the way!


And finally, we build our yearly, abstract snow sculptures.... they later had to be torn down to preserve the innocence of the gramercy dwellers after taking on a more ..."riske" shape.


Well, ya'll we hope you have a merry Christmas. It is the last time we will see snow for a couple of years.. I will try not to be broken up about this. I say this in sarcasm, but we probably will miss it. It can be lovely. We will be packing for a few more weeks. We have 17 days left to go!

As for those who are curious about heathers passport situation, it is still shite. But, It just might happen. Keep praying!

Changes. Help needed.....

Since we last blogged we have had some changes. We now have to report to Washington D.C. for "staging" on January 7th, instead of on January 10 as previously thought.

Also they have denied Heathers application for a government passport because they had already issued me one when I went to Honduras and cannot find it. What does this mean you might ask? Well, it could mean that they will not let us go to Nicaragua on the assigned date. It could mean that it takes them another little while to figure out and we would have to hang around the country almost jobless, careless and live in someones basement for another 3-6 months until we can get another assignment. That is the worst case scenario. Having said that.. we need all of your prayers and/or positive thoughts and energy towards the government issuing Heather another passport as soon as possible, that we can continue to make plans to leave.

Also, we need support in selling our car since this is a difficult time of year to sell. If you know of ANYONE who might be interested please let us know. Here are the specs:


Green 1998 Honda Civic EX (Power locks, sunroof)
$4700

-Manual Transmission
-166,000
-FABULOUS CONDITION!!!
-body is in great shape
-Paint is in great shape
-has a custom CD player
-Has also had the oil changed religiously every 3000 miles
(don't misinterpret the reflection of the snow in this image for side paint or damage)