The Dogs

LUCY - The old woman

SALLY - The adventurer of the crew

MOLLY - She's got the game of 'catch' down to an art

MADDOCK - The Grandpa of the group (aside from the fact that he is quite a young chap

BRIA - Don't let the size of her fool you. She owns the place.

MAY - The sweet one. She has awesome eyes too! One's brown and the other, blue.

MAGGIE - The twin

MORGAN - The other twin

JOEY - The newest addition and he is afraid of everything.

A Summary

We ended our first day in Ireland going to a pub with our newfound friend, Francy. Her homeland being Germany, she was off on a two month adventure in Ireland by herself. Ireland is pretty safe to travel by oneself, but traveling alone could be quite lonely - in my opinion. We listened to live traditional Irish music while chatting with a couple from Chicago.

The next day, we found ourselves waiting at the Cahersiveen bus station and in anticipation... we were excited to have so many questions answered.

1. Was Bobbi a man or woman?
2. Were the rescue dogs doing the rescuing or were they being rescued by us (possibly having three legs and one eye)?
3. Where were we living?
4. Were there other WOOFERS at the Knightstown Cafe?

Bobbie Zeff is a lovely woman of about fifty years from California, who fell in love with the Island of Valentia. She started the Knightstown Cafe about thirteen years ago with her two sons- one son fell in love with an Irish lady and now lives here. Through the past few years she has acquired nine dogs... who neither rescue nor are missing any limbs. She has taken in these dogs who have crazy stories of being locked up, about to be shot, and generally terribly abused. I’ll have pictures and names of all nine soon! Bobbi is quite nice and always laughing - some have called her woof site a refuge. She took Hillary, Jeanne and I to the supermarket and said, “Get whatever you want. The only thing I don’t pay for is alcohol and cigarettes.” We might have gone wild with food...

The place we are living in is huge! It is 10,000 square feet with three floors and holds the cafe, bookstore, kitchen, woofer rooms, and some random other rooms for storage. Then there is a lovely garden on the side of it and Bobbi’s house in the back. Her property runs from the main street in Knightstown to the water. Hillary and I were placed on the second floor in the pink room - holy cow it’s pink! My bed is surrounded by mirrors.

As far as other woofers - we came the same day that Jeanne came. She is a french girl who has been hitchhiking around Ireland for the past five months. She is also a chef! And then there is Xeno and Kristianna. A couple from Switzerland who are in the middle of a six month trip around Ireland, but they left this morning. There is also a sweet German girl, Sophie, and Susannah from Slovakia.

Our first day on the Island didn’t start out too well. Both Hillary and I slept terribly. We got up to start work and couldn’t find anyone! We wandered aimlessly for an hour until we discovered that everyone was down at the beach hauling rocks. We helped for about two minutes, and then they were done. How embarrassing...

We’ve found out that Bobbi takes naps every afternoon - this leisure time for us has been spent, so far, going on walks or reading books. I think Hillary and I read pretty much all day yesterday. I actually finished a book - Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. Our first day we took a walk with Jeanne - a swan almost took her finger off. This morning the three of us took a walk with eight out of the nine dogs along the beach because it was low tide - two of the dogs (one who can barely walk!) went on ahead of us and we lost them, whoops! They were found later roaming around a neighboring field.

The only other work we’ve done so far is: gardening one morning (Hill and I planted Daffodil bulbs), taking stickers off of journals with goo gone, and randomly hauling books up and down the stairs to different rooms.

Last night was quite exciting. Jeanne got bored and decided to make four of us a gourmet dinner - it was so good that she has possibly changed my mind about mushrooms! We also played spoons and I tried some guiness. I don’t like it, but it wasn’t terrible.

All in all, it’s been good and I'm excited to see what other odd jobs we do. Hillary and I have a goal: to be invited to tea by a lovely Irish lady. We'll see if this happens.

There's No Place Like Home

Yes, I said it. There is no place like home! As Hillary and I wereawaiting our drive to the airport on Monday morning, we were told, at a local coffeeshop in Charlotte, NC, that there was a tornado watch going on. We very calmly asked what we were supposed to do if a tornado came our way - the owner said that the bank had a "shelter" (he actually did air quotes ... that's very reassuring...) Hillary told me later that day, "You know, I'm okay with taking a bit more rain up in the Northwest - I'd rather have rain than tornadoes." - Yes please.

Turns out, the only thing we met was a big thunderstorm --- in the air. The turbulence of the flight from Charlotte to Philadelphia was unreal! Hillary is gripping my leg, there is a man across the aisle from me doing sudoku (how he could write is beyond me) and a women a row in front of us sharing the love of Jesus to a Canadian college kid ---needless to say, I was giggling at all the absurdity. And praying.

A few randoms at the airport: Hill and I splurged on some chips and salsa - who knows when the next time will be?, we chuckled with a TSA employee about how it was so hot in the airport because the people hadn't turned it down from the past week of cold, and Hill and I ended up running to our gate in Philly -- turns out that was a ridiculous move on our part. I think I lost a lung there...

The flight to Ireland was only five and a half hours to my surprise. Both Hill and I didn't sleep, so we've been up for days! We traveled to Killarney today by double decker city bus and train. Ireland is very beautiful - very scenic. Also, the people have been so nice - especially the old men. So many of them have helped us out today!

The dreaded "W" word was mentioned on accident at customs in the airport ... the man was hesitant to let us in the country, but then changed his mind. He said, "I don't want to spoil your ladies' holiday." And when he found out we worked in Alaska in the summers he said, "Well, I'll come over there when they start paying us proper wages here!".

When we arrived in Killarney, we were so tired and laughing about everything ... stumbling around the streets with laughter. This elderly man looked at me and I said, "We're having too much fun!" And he said, "That's what life is for!" Then another elderly man saw that we were trying to figure out where to go, and said he could help us - he walked us all the way to our hostel and told us a bit about the town and his life along the way. It's just been lovely.

Hillary and I just ate a delicious and cheap meal of chicken and fries. We just finished a LONG walk to Ross Castle in the National Park here. It is beautiful and on a lake. Hopefully I can post a picture...

Last... and perhaps least, you choose. Remember that one time Hillary and I took awhile getting through customs in Ireland? Well, while we were chatting with the nice official there, there was another official in the same boxed room chatting with a guy on the otherside. I looked at him through the windows - only took notice that he was quite a short guy. My height, maybe. Before we left, our official dude asked us if we knew who Bruno Mars was - we replied with a yes - and he said, "Well he was just right there a minute ago, apparently." WHAT?! ...Crazy! (Mom, Bruno Mars is a famous pop singer).

Anyways, keep you updated!

Going to the South! ...and then on to a great land

Well, when hillary and I set out to make our plans for Ireland, we weren't aware that it only cost twenty extra bucks to swoop by the southern state of North Carolina. Good thing we found it! We decided to stop by because we have a good friend, Kate, here - we met her in Honduras. Before I go into NC, I have to tell about our hilarious ride on the shuttle to the Seattle airport. Our driver, and Englishman, was so funny and nice - saying things like, "You're going to Ireland? Girls, let me tell you something - Don't fall for the accents!.. My wife did, haha." Come to find out, we graduated with his daughter ... we got to the airport (despite snow storm scares) safe and with laughter.

The flight to N. Carolina? One word - Agony.

Aside from the rough start, being in Charlotte has been great. We had a fun time with Kate - laughing and playing games. We also went to a museum that was showing 'Race'. It was very educational and interesting.

The rough start I mentioned involved a trip to the Emergency Room and an Orthopedic Doctor. I was told to get a cast on my arm because I had two fractures in my wrist. The E-room refused to cast it, and the orthopedic Doctor said I didn't need it, and if I had it how could I impress the Irishmen? I agreed with him. All in all, it was cool to see the locals of Charlotte and chat with some nice southern ladies (who really do have a sweet southern drawl that makes you feel so good about life).

Tomorrow Hillary and I are off to --- IRELAND! We'll arrive in Dublin on Tuesday morning and head off to Killarney for a night. And then we'll head to a little town called Knightstown on the Island of Valentia.

Knightstown: An Island of 174 people + 2 woofers (Hillary and I)

Woofers: Worldwide Opportunities On Organic Farms (Woof), a host welcomes people who work for their room and board, the work mostly having to do with organic farming

Our Job: Weeding the organic ornamental rose garden, organizing the bookstore within the cafe, and walking rescue dogs

We will be staying above the cafe and taking care the rescue dogs ... which, we haven't quite figured out which side of the fence the rescuing is taking place. I thought that the dogs were doing the rescuing and Hillary thought that we were rescuing the dogs ... haha! So we'll see... Maybe I really will need a cast later...ha, just jokes mom!

Almost Done

Well Folks --
The past few weeks has been a rush. First of all - Molly, Fie and I finished our futbol tournament and it was awesome. The kids just loved it. The winners got Championship T-shirts and all the players in the final got coke and chips. A ton of kids and staff came to watch the two final games as well, even the "Mommi and Poppi" of the Orphanage came to cheer on the kids.
Right after the tourney, myself and three other volunteers went to Copan Ruinas for a little fun and relaxation. We went ziplining, swam in a river/waterfall situation, went to a coffee plantation, and saw some ancient Maya Ruins. It was crazy to actually see the ruins in person after having seen pictures of them in history books for so many years.
Since coming back from Copan it has been a mad rush to do as many things as possible with the kids. It was a little rough at first because we had a bit of a flu epidemic here at the Orphanage... at one point 25 big boys came to the Clinic. It was nuts. We think we've conquered it mostly, which is great because we celebrate Christmas tomorrow! We don't want anyone to miss the fun.

The past two and a half days we have been sorting presents for 500 kids - and they all get at least two. Some get more depending on their sponsors. First we had to unload all the presents from the pallets, separate boys and girls, place them in alphabetic order, count how many presents each kid got, make presents for those lacking presents for multiple reasons (we have a lot of new kids which means they don't have sponsors yet), and then placed all the gifts "under the tree" in piles. It's a really cool picture to see so many presents around the tree. Apparently tomorrow we are all going to be in the church and volunteers will hand out all the gifts to the kids. They all have to wait until everyone has their gifts - I've heard it takes up to two hours! The anticipation is going to kill them! It already is because they keep asking me how many presents they have. I can't wait to see all of them open all their "regalos".

All of us volunteers decided to spread some Christmas cheer and bring a piece of home to the Orphanage (it really doesn't feel like Christmas - it's 80+ degrees most days) by doing some christmas caroling. So, the other night we started to carol at the small boys house, then onto the medium boys (they loved it and sang along) ... we pretty much sang to everyone at the Orphanage including the staff. It was pleasant - we even got some chocolate and hot chocolate from some of our audience.

A few nights ago was possibly my favourite moments yet here. Molly, Lindsay, Kate and I really wanted to have a big bonfire with ALL of the medium boys. Now, this is a big deal and really hard to get permission from staff to do something with so many kids. But, the Lord is cool. We asked and it wasn't a problem at all. We had about 70 boys ranging from 9 to 14 years old around a big bonfire (made by yours truly) - there was hot chocolate, which they never get, cookies, crackers, and peanuts. It was just a grand time for the boys. They were able to just relax and be boys - throwing stuff in the fire, running around, taking pictures, etc. Heaps of fun!

Well, I am off to play games with the team that is here for Christmas. I have four more days in this country and I plan to live it up. Thanks everyone and have a blessed Christmas with your families. And when you are with your families, if you could remember the kids here at Emmanuel, that would be amazing. I would love it if you could pray for a few things: that the staff with just be encouraged in a big way this next month, the kids would stay healthy, that the kids with come closer to the Lord, for safety for those of us volunteers that are coming and going within the next few weeks, for my hand/wrist (i may or may not have broken something), and most importantly - pray that the Lord will provide these kids with opportunities to better their country; physically, economically, spiritually, and through education.

Feliz Navidad!