Nicaragua!!!!

Well, the long anticipated Peace Corps assignment has arrived and it is decreed that we will be moving to Nicaragua on January 10, 2007. We will be in training in Managua for 11 weeks, then we will be moving to our site. This could be any number of small villages in the country, but we will not find out until our training is over. When we arrive at our "post" we will be Community Health Care Promoters. Here the three major roles our job will encompass (as laid out in out manual):

1. direct education to community members (such as mother's groups, adolescent groups, and school children) about preventative health practices;
2. facilitate and organize health groups to facilitate (our) role in the training of health promoters (for example, health advisory committees, community health assesment teams, women's groups, mothers' groups, community-based birthing homes, and adolescent groups); and
3. training of youth, volunteer community health promoters, and midwives in non-formal education techniques directed towards the reduction of unwanted pregnancies, healthy sexual practices, and improved maternal and child health.

Of course that is only a loose overview. Our actual work will entail many diferent projects, some including gardening, (yeah).
Here is a link to some information on Nicaragua: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua

The above picture is of the Corn Islands where pirates used to hang out and where we will go when people come to visit us (hint hint). And here is a map of Nicaragua. The count-down is on so you all better get as much Heather and Kory as you can handle in the next month and a half!!!

spider down

These videos are pretty much self explanatory. "Shelob" came down on November 2(ish). She served us well and sparked the interest of strangers all over ogden. We are still hearing stories! That makes us feel very proud.

Cooking Adventures

Kory and I were reminiscing about all the things we have cooked this summer and fall, and we were pretty darn proud of how crafty we have been. Plus, the spider is all we talk about and I thought we could change things up a bit. But really, this is the extent of our excitement now. ... well, It kind of is exciting to us.

It all started with making yogurt. I loved it! So easy and creamy and delicious!
Then we decided to make yogurt cheese, which is similar to goat or cream cheese and we added all kinds of delicious things like, kalamata olives, fresh basil and garlic.


Then.. we decided we could try making real CHEESE! (there are few things we regard with such reverence as cheese) So we made a Parmesan Reggiano cheese, which we havn't yet tasted because it takes five months to age, and a Gouda, which was lovely but a tad flat in taste and not as firm as we hoped. (The Parmesan is shown in a later picture).

Then we tried making different breads to go with our cheeses and balsamic vinegar. My brother is a pro and showed us how to make Cibatta bread which is very hard to make and takes a very long long time (like the entire day, especially if you mess up and measure the flour in cups when it tells you to weigh it.

We also made butter! Which was terribly easy.

Then this fall we began harvesting all kinds of things from our garden, like tomatoes and sunflower seeds, cucumbers, basil, beats and carrots. So we decided to make pickles! We made dill and they were delicious! We harvested our sunflower seeds, soaked them in brine, then baked them up!

This is a picture of our Parmesan, sunflower seeds, pickles and tomatoes.

Next we found out how much we love real grape juice, so we got some grapes from our neighbor and becky and made 18 quarts of grape juice.... we have already drank 1/3 of it!


Also since our trip to Italy, Kory has been perfecting his Foccacia bread recipe and making pretzels.. which have nothing to do with italy, BUT... He made these fantastic little fellows: (picture wont post.. sorry)
Snake pretzels for our upcoming halloween parties!
We also got a whole bunch of apples from our neighbor and we have been drying apples, but not faster than we can eat them. We made sugar free applesauce with the skins on and its pretty darn good too.

Well, I think that about does er.

Amazing Halloween Spider

Well, she is finished! We have finally erected our giant spider. So come and see her! Worship her! Offer her sacrifices! and say hi to us too.

well, no word yet

Welcome to our first entry of our first blog! This is exciting! We created this place for those of you who are curious about our adventures in the peace corps and like to stay posted on the different illnesses we may get and chicken bus happonings. This may be easier for us than emailing everybody, so if you have comments, please post them we will want to hear from you!

kory and I have all of our paperwork in the peace corps. every t crossed and i dotted. so we are just waiting to hear from them. Until we get our assignment letter, we do not know exactly which country in central america we are going to, or exactly when we are leaving. So, we are waiting for that very important letter in the mail!

well. its only september. So while we are in the US, you may be interested in our stellar halloween goings on, which is what occupies our current time. Drive by and see our house after the 29th!