Final Days in Vermont

Vermont

November 12, 2009

Ian and I leave on Monday for Lima, Peru. We are using these last few days in Vermont to close up the house, walk the woods, and say good-bye to people, places and things. We purchased a garden shed this past month and Ian created a writing space for me in one of the front corners. The window, the view and the quiet create a perfect space for me to get away to think, pray and write. Thank you Ian!

Missionary Training in Colorado

Our classroom at MTI (Missionary Training Institute) in Colorado Springs

After the first week of class at the Institute, Ian and I drove to the Garden of the Gods and explored the trails and enjoyed the rock formations. Later we took a trail ride along some of the paths and rocked atop the old horses provided by the riding stable.

In the classroom we listen to lectures on cross cultural issues, conflict management and how God works in us and through us--if we let him! Humor is vital! The days pass quickly as we talk in small groups, have worship times and listen to lectures on key issues in the missionary life. The group is bright, articulate and energizing--and young. None of the dowdy, pedantic, rigid types I feared!

Besides the day-long class time, I am loving the time to hike, study Spanish and get up early to read and pray. I have found the coffee making supplies, the china mugs (not the plastic ones!) and a carafe so that my early morning ritual is well equipped. I sneak down each morning in my bathrobe before anyone else is around! It works. I was surprised this morning to find Ian had done the very same thing--beat me to it, so the coffee was ready for me. A treat. Our time together is good, too.

We are one of three older couples and love being with the 20/30 somethings. Many of the young couples have children aged 9 months - 11 years. One couple will be taking their 5 to Slovakia. I am amazed.

We head into our second week now after a weekend of hiking in the outdoors on a sunny, warm Saturday and cozying up to the fire on a blustery Sunday. We all had an assignment to talk with three important people in our lives about our style of handling conflict. Very revealing. This next week we will learn how to handle conflict in better ways. Apparently this is a key make or break issue out there in the field. Here goes....

A New Garden Shed

We tore down the "tin foil" shed and had a new garden shed delivered. Ian leveled it and added a stoop for sitting upon.

Here I stand in the doorway after we gave the new stoop its first coat of paint. After the second coat, it matched the shed and the nearby wood shed.

I have been closing up the Vermont house in preparation for our November move to Peru. As I hike up the hillside or head into the shady woods, I bid goodbye to familiar trees, boulders and mounds of moss. I will miss this place, and the contrast of the Peruvian desert will be stark. The nearby Pacific Ocean will assuage my need of nature.

Family Visits to Vermont

The Joy of Family Visits!

Katherine planting Echinacea and Russian Sage above the stone wall.

Sam and Katherine, Joe and Virginia after dinner on the porch.

Joe and Polly looking at photos with the Northern Leopard Frog watching from the rim of his terrarium. Nearby, a black swallowtail caterpillar munches dill inside its jar.

Hugs in the woods are good! Jon and Andrew rest after hiking up and down rocky ledges.

Katherine reconnects with Andrew after a year.


Rebecca and Andrew after a mile ride to the covered bridge.



Ian and I have enjoyed having family visit us here in Vermont this past month. The siblings and cousins get to see each other and the boyfriend and girlfriend get to know us all a little better. Nature is a wonderful hostess providing entertainment, beauty and surprises along the way

We spent time biking with young Andrew, Jon and Rebecca and exploring the woods together.

The new front porch was a great place for meals and WI-FI. Early morning tea or late night s'mores are all more special outside. Occasionally we'll see deer or wild turkeys in the meadow. Several chipmunks enjoy climbing up to the bird feeders and taking the food off to their holes in the ground. The goldfinches return and don't seem to mind sharing.

We always have projects underway and this summer's theme was stone walls. Joe helped Ian build the wall and Katherine helped me landscape with Russian sage, echinacea, and various sedums. Mulch makes everything look good and keeps the weeds at bay.

A family photo is always a must, so we take any opportunity to get one in during visits. Nowadays it is not often that we are all four together. We treasure these times!

Fall is approaching with cooler weather and shorter days, and Ian and I begin to plan for Peru. We leave in November, having enjoyed the color of fall in Vermont and anticipating the new adventure ahead.

Chester Music Series

Ian and I, along with Joe and Virginia, went into Chester last night to hear a blues singer named Chris Kleeman. The music was foot tappin' good and our picnic of taboule, hummus, and pita bread was delicious. We brought along a bar of dark chocolate from Burdicks in Walpole to round it off. It was a clear blue-sky night, so we came home and built an outdoor fire to sit by and enjoy the stars.

Life in a small town is comfortable for us. We know a few people now that we have been here for 4 summers and a bit of last winter. It is nice to be able to go into the local bank and have the tellers know your name. The local bookstore owners recently hosted a poetry night with poems and potluck. The entrance ticket was a poem on the theme of "debt." Ian and I dutifully brought our poems, our dessert, and read aloud our tributes to the theme. What a great way to meet a group of creative and fun people!

We have met the local traffic cop and paid our dues (I have...) for speeding into town on a rainy night. The hardware store folks greet us eagerly on our frequent visits to buy materials to fix up or repair our house and gardens.

We love the little Episcopal church, St. Lukes, and the people who attend. Tomorrow night is the church supper. I have a turkey in the oven right now, preparing for the buffet of cold meats and salads. Saturday morning I will join the "chop and chew" group to help prepare the last minute dishes. Saturday night will be another opportunity to meet new friends, listen to their stories, and share about our call to Peru.

This area is filled with people who have been all over the world and people who have lived in Vermont their whole lives. It is an interesting mix which we enjoy.

Fun with Food

While in Peru we enjoyed delicious meals prepared in restaurants and homes. Since our apartment only had a hotplate, we did not try out many recipes. Our plan was to try them out this summer. Not always sure how fresh the fish is here in Vermont, we will not try our favorite: Ceviche.

We brought home a cookbook with most of our favorites dishes described and illustrated, The Art of Peruvian Cuisine by Tony Custer. So far, the Causa a la Limena, Pisco Sours and a Quinoa Tabouleh have turned out well.

I used quinoa instead of bulgar for the taboule and lime juice instead of lemon juice. The other ingredients were the same: parsley, mint, olive oil, chopped green onion, chopped red pepper and feta cheese. We took a container of taboule with us for our picnic last night in Chester where we listened to blues singer Chris Kleeman.

Causa is a cold dish made with mashed potato flavored with lime juice, ground yellow ahi pepper, oil and seasonings. I had brought the ahi pepper paste with me, but you could blend up yellow pepper and some jalapeno to get the color and the heat. The potato is then layered with a choice of ingredients. I used tuna and mayonaise and egg salad mixed with some tomato and herbs. I recommend sliced avocado and chicken salad, too.
It is pressed into an oiled mold so that it can be turned out and sliced.

The Pisco Sours are made with a Peruvian brandy called Pisco. The fresh lime juice is important to the flavor, but the sugar syrup is a standard. We blended the mixture with ice cubes and an egg white until it was white and fluffy. We topped it off with a drop of Angostura Bitters and then gathered around with our son Joe and his girlfriend Virginia to toast the stormy evening outside our cozy house.

Building a Wall with Local Stone

We have needed to tidy up the entrance to our property, and a stone wall provides that definition. Here in Vermont stone walls snake through property and along the roads. The walls on our property provide the boundary lines and evidence of a former road. Large rocks protrude from the cleared fields and along paths in the woods. With so much rain this year, many are covered with moss. They look like someone's craft project: rocks felted in green wool.

For our flower bed along the front we ordered a pallet of local wall stone. Composed of granite, marble and mica, the pieces were manageable so we could lift them to transport and arrange. I loaded and pulled the wagon and offered advice while Ian designed the wall using a visual spatial skill I've always admired.


When that wall was finished, we used the rest to line the driveway. We needed to augment the supply with "found" rocks from the property and former projects. Our son Joe was on hand for more artistic input and muscle to lift some very large flat rocks.


The wall is still in process, and we are deciding whether to order more rocks or glean from the streams and hillsides nearby.

More Fun in July

We visited Christ the King Healing Center in Greenwich, N.Y. these past two weeks and found a lively worshiping community. We also connected with friends from the past. Ian built a stone wall and I enjoyed cooking local produce flavored with our own herbs. We are blessed with friends, freedom to worship, a lovely home and great food!

July in Vermont

The time is speeding by this summer as Ian and I work on the house here in Chester, Vermont, visit churches and friends and work on our Spanish via Rosetta Stone. I have made two trips to Ohio to visit my mother and my brother and his family.

I am enjoying the return to gardening and cooking. The farmers markets and our own garden are supplying wonderful fruits, vegetables and herbs. Ian and I are fly fishing, too, but that has not provided dinner--yet! This is a wonderful respite and God has blessed us so abundantly!

A Respite at the Ocean with Friends

Ian and I enjoyed driving to the Atlantic Coast to visit Brad, Barb and Emily Lauderdale. The Nonquitt compound was lovely and we enjoyed the beach, the views and the gardens. It was wonderful to be back with friends from Neenah, WI. We have traveled to Africa together, and now we have met in Massachusetts to spend some time. Maybe we will next meet in Peru!

Final Day in Lima, June 2nd

On our last day in Lima, Ian and I looked out our apartment window at the streets below and then wandered over to a favorite restaurant for a final cup of excellent coffee and some croissants. We had cleaned the apartment, picked up the clean linens and thanked the doorman for his many kindnesses. We had lunch with some dear friends, checked our e-mail, watched some re-runs on TV, handed in our keys to our lovely landlady and then hoisted our luggage into the taxi. Our trip to the airport went smoothly, and we got there with plenty of time before our midnight flight to Newark, New Jersey. The flight was full, but we still managed to get up and walk the aisle a few times before landing around 8 in the morning. After checking through customs, we boarded our plane to Hartford, CT, where we were picked up by another dear friend who escorted us to our home in sunny, green, Chester, VT. It was good to be home in the green hills of Vermont.

More Fun Peruvian Food

After Spanish class we have cultural events once a week. During a past week we learned how to make Papa a la Huancaina. This yellow sauce is made from hot yellow peppers (ahi), onion, olive oil, milk, soft cheese and some crackers. The ingredients are blended until smooth and then poured over cold, sliced boiled potatoes. The garnish is olives and cilantro or parsley. It is a good summer time dish.

The other dish pictured above is Rocoto Relleno, a stuffed hot red pepper.It sits on a cheesey potatoe mixture. This one is one of my favorites! I am sure you can find the recipe on the web; the rocoto peppers, though, are particular to Peru.

Visiting Churches in Peru

After working on our Spanish studies during the week, Ian and I visit the Anglican churches around Lima each Sunday. The Church of the Good Shepherd is the cathedral in Miraflores and it has services in English and Spanish. The picture above was taken at yesterday's ordination of two to the priesthood and one to the diaconate. The traditional organ music is lovely at the English service, and the guitar music at the Spanish service is lively and energizing. We have attended both and enjoy each for its special attributes. For me, it is sometimes easier to enter into worship in my mother tongue because I don't have to concentrate so hard on understanding the words of songs and text. At other times, I just let the music and words in the Spanish service float over me and I pretend it's Pentecost!

Church of the Ascension is another church in nearby Surco. That service is in Spanish with contemporary guitar music and lots of praise and worship time. The priest is building a lively family church in the midst of a suburban community. Pictures of this parish appear in a previous blog.

Last week we went up to St.Andres church on the outskirts of Lima, an area called the pueblos jovenes. We climbed the hillside up to where they have built a church. It was a steep climb past doorways to homes, local dogs and friendly residents. About 30 children attend the church and about ten of them were awarded prizes that day for memorizing Bible verses. I felt privileged to be the one handing out the colorful books to them. They were patient with my Spanish and loved saying "Good-bye" to me in English. Their mothers were so proud of them, and their joy was contagious.