Another Great Seafood place!

This summer has really found us out and about a lot, and sampling a lot of seafood places just as much. Tonight, on the recommendation of a friend, we stopped in Cap Pele again, but at another take out.

The Bel-Air was surprisingly large inside for a take out, and the service fast and friendly. Having not had anything to eat for hours, we tried the 5 piece fish and chips (two of them) and the large fried clam platter. Onion rings were a free substitution, and we jumped at the offer.

We found the food excellent, and well worth the value. 





In fact, after eating all we could, we were still left with enough for a doggy bag. And no, a doggy will not be getting this meal! We ate it later and it was still delicious!

Another thing I liked was that they offered two kinds of vinegar. White and malt. I just happen to be a fan of malt, so that's what I chose.
And I can't finish this recommendation without saying that the flowers outside were just lovely. 

Well done, Bel-Air!

Wrapping it up

This morning came really early for me. Rhonda and Joan were stirring so I got up to start my day and asked what time it was. They said, "2:30." I let out a squeal and jumped back into bed. But thanks to the cold, I could not sleep. By the time that 3:30 rolled around, Allan had the coffee on. And I had a couple of cups with some dry cereal, and it wasn't long before the bus arrived.

A different bus than the old jalopy we traveled here in, this one was a 15 passenger van. And I want to add 15 small passengers. And yet we got 17 of those in there, secured the luggage on the roof and pulled away. To my horror, Tessa informed me that Junior was sitting on the roof! When a piece of luggage worked its way loose, we stopped and we discovered that not only Junior was on the roof, but a friend of his, too!

Yes, you heard right! Two people clinging to the roof rack for an hour and a half! 

In good time, we arrived at the airport, only to be swamped by porters and men selling paintings, but we had no money. Sharon had been traveling with a small plastic jar of bubbles, and finally had it confiscated, even though she traveled with it through Canada and the United States. The female inspector had never seen a jar of bubbles before.

The airport is crowded with so many missionaries, as well as one young couple with their newly adopted Haitian son. I wonder at all the work we're doing in Haiti, and yet the country is so dirt poor. There is no infrastructure and children are always demanding money. Some Haitians say this enough food for everyone, and that it's getting better slowly, but in my short experience I can't fully appreciate that. In the market we visited, I saw plenty of used clothing being sold, and people call it Kennedy Clothing because it arrived during the Kennedy administration.

So what do these people need? I keep running that question over and over in my mind, and there is no pat answer that I can come up with. Charles Spurgeon once said, if you're going to hand a man a tract, you better put it in the sandwich. So are we to do good work only ? Humanitarian efforts are good, excellent even, but change must come within the Haitians themselves.

It's not until I return home and speak with another woman who also just returned from Haiti, that I really get a sense of what the Haitians need, from words spoken by a Haitian woman. Haiti needs lives transformed by Christ. You may not believe that, but it's true. Secular humanitarian efforts can fill a belly, but even an atheist must admit there is a spirit within each of us that needs to be filled, too. A life truly and honestly transformed by God can do powerful things.

It's been over a week since I returned, and finally I'm feeling more comfortable with my thoughts. I still don't know if I would return to Haiti, but I've come away with so much more than I gave, so who knows, maybe I will return to try to give that little bit more, and help in the transformation of the country.

I hope you enjoyed this little series and even got a better sense of the difficulties missionaries face. Take a moment if you will and comment with your thoughts. Thank you!

A Glimpse in Haiti - Part 5

As usual, the day (day 4) began early. Joan saw a cockroach in our bathroom and a lizard on the wall. I slept well, probably due to utter fatigue. It was dark when we begin breakfast, which was a very spicy spaghetti. I think it had some meat in it, but Tessa didn't complain, as she's not a complainer at all. Like me, Rhonda has been bitten by some insect. And horribly, we ran out of Coffeemate, and had to borrow some skim milk powder for one of our Dallas friends.

This morning, instead of going to the jobsite, we walked down to the river, guided by a young Haitian woman whose name is Teeteet. She showed us where to pickax and apparently our job today is to pile sandy gravel.The garbage here is incredible, worst than in Bolivia.   

It was hard work, and we were little disorganized at first. I tossed a rock from the pile to another pile and I hit Joan's leg. Then someone hit me. We eventually found a rhythm. Then one of those motorcycles turned into a small pickup showed up with some water. In this dry riverbed, we have a good view of both the ocean and the mountains, and at the mouth of the river.

Shortly after, we walked toward the beach. The beat-up truck came and we loaded sand from another pile to be taken to yet another jobsite. It's starting to look like we won't get back today to where we were working before, and I'm a little disappointed at that.

The second time the truck came back, I went with it, and saw some finished rubble homes. A man named Pastor did the driving and we met his grandfather, as well as passed Grand Goave's town hall. As we drove down Rue Constitution, we saw the group coming back. We picked up Sharon and Rhonda, while Jackie and Joan and I walked with Junior, all the while snapping a few pics.

Lunch was rice with bean paste, and the fish brought yesterday in an onion and butter sauce. It was very tasty. I wish we had more food, but we still have tortillas and peanut butter and cold pop. After, everyone scattered for naps while I was off to put my feet up.

After we returned to the riverbed. We loaded up the truck, which I've discovered is a quarter ton Mitsubishi 4 x 4, with a couple of loads of sand. Naturally, children gravitated toward us. Two little girls in just underwear and one little naked boy played nearby. For their dignity's sake, I didn't take a close up picture.

They said that they were hungry and wanted me to look in the knapsacks for food. I felt bad because I had nothing to give them. We're all bothered by the children we see. The very skinny and some their bellies and belly buttons stick way out. They say all the time that they're thirsty. At the end when we were leaving, Junior told me to dump out the water and one boy drank some before I did. 

A short distance away, there was a single tomato plant growing in the middle of the riverbed, and it had some green fruit on it. An odd bit of life in the middle of stones. On the way to the next rubble home, we saw a crazy guy dressed in heavy black clothes, screaming at everyone. We passed Seeds of Hope, a Canadian mission, and they'd even brought in an ambulance from the Peterborough EMS.

Jackie was kind enough to purchase two small cans of evaporated milk for one American dollar. I think that's expensive and I am sure they don't charge that to the locals. We only did two runs of sand this afternoon before returning to the compound. It gets incredibly hot, and our shirts are soaked and even stained with salt, so we all piled into that motorcycle-come-pickup for the drive home.

Tessa and Amanda are having cornrows done, and with Sharon's phone, I texted my kids. Right then Faucher brought me, Sharon, Jackie and Joan into the kitchen. He showed us supper, which is vegetable rice. The veggies are beets, carrots, cabbage, watercress, bok choy, and cans of peas. Bob has a cold, and Faucher suggested taking some watercress and garlic chopping it up fine and adding a bit of vinegar and taking it in the morning. Last night he gave Bob hibiscus flower tea for his cold, and he actually sounds better today. With the dappled sunshine and the gravel and picnic tables and the smell of charcoal cooking.It's like we're camping.

A very skinny cat has come for a visit. I put my feet up on the bench and he crawled over and lay on me until he heard some birds and decided to investigate. The rest of our crew is playing a new card game called Phase 10. They're all talking about the women that we saw bathing in the water where the river met the ocean, and of course the men swear they didn't see anything inappropriate. Of course, they didn't. 

I spoke to one of the Haitians named Alex on the phone. He said he was in Port-au-Prince, getting the mesh wire wouldn't be back until tomorrow. I realized then we would probably not be going back to our house that we're building again.

It's after supper now. Sharon felt that I took too much rice. I was very hungry, and there are never any leftovers. We all need a little extra in the way of peanut butter tortillas and crackers. Thankfully, Sharon brought out some smoked cheese and cookies. All of my Nutribars have disappeared, so I'm not the only one who's hungry. I had put them out by the kitchen, and I think some people needed the extra calories, too. This is certainly a test for me. I'm a big eater used to as much food as I want. Now I must force myself to eat less. Rhonda also needs to snack periodically. Jackie went to the small store across the street, but she said there wasn't anything in the way of cookies there. This island has good fruit and vegetables, but no place to grow grains, so there's little flour and very little bread.

But to complain about our meals makes me feel guilty. Those children don't have very much to eat, but we're told not to feed them. So I feel a tension back and forth within me. I can't help these poor children, and oddly, the young boy we saw today had a bag of raspberry candy. Someone had the money to buy that for him and yet, he looked like he was starving.

There are so many relief organizations here, each specializing in something, but does this aid the expectation of handouts? Our driver today said this a drug problem here, and they all need hope. I brought this up at our devotional.  Junior said that when the children say they're hungry, they're only practicing their English and Jackie said that they're just saying words. Ricardo said in Mexico, children are taught to beg. Sharon hugged me and apologized for what she'd said. It's disconcerting to sort out all my feelings about the poor. I've asked God to make me more compassionate, and now it hurts.

We could smell marijuana tonight. Some people disagreed on it was, as it wasn't strong, but it sure smelled like that to me.

Some of us are frustrated by what appears to be the lack of progress in our house because Alex is having trouble getting the wire in Port-au-Prince. Joan reminded us that on Saturday, she asked who brought our house's rubble and sand to our worksite, so it must've been a previous group delivering it when they couldn't work on their house. Our pastor had reminded us before we left that the work is ongoing and we're just going to be part of the process.

Many of us are tired tonight, although Bob and Tessa went for smoothies with the Dallas group, and I wonder if they're still hungry after supper. The young boy, Chris, said he was missing his family and friends back home. Some of our group are playing Phase 10, but I'm going to bed.

If we ever come back here, I'm going to bring more dessert-like foods, more Coffeemate, and my Samsung tablet, though I don't miss the Internet, but I'd love to connect with my kids.

I did another devotional but it's hard to see because of the energy efficient lights, which wink off often, so it's off to sleep now. It's been a hard day.

A Power Bar that's not just for weightlifters!

In keeping with the Olympic theme, I want to introduce to you another food. A couple of posts ago, I gave you the recipe for stuffed grape vine leaves, to help get into the spirit of the Olympics. Now we're going to get into the feel of the athletes.

So, introducing, (drum roll and and national anthem, please, after all this is a gold medal recipe!) Yum Bars! The ultimate Power Bar!

It's an amazingly easy recipe to create, but you have to be a little particular about the wet versus dry ingredients.

If you find the mixture to be a little wet, simply add a little more flaked quinoa. If you find the mixture to be a little dry, at a little bit more agave syrup. If you don't have any flaked quinoa, try finely milled or instant oatmeal. Just keep the ingredients as natural as possible. If you don't have any agave syrup, try a brown rice syrup or maple syrup. Again while trying to keep the ingredients as natural as possible, I would avoid things like corn syrup. Agave syrup is far sweeter, so you don't need much.

And don't forget to use parchment paper to line the loaf pan because it makes cleanup and removal of the bars that much easier.

Yum Bars

3 dried figs, finely chopped

3 seeded prunes, finely chopped

3/4 cup finely chopped dates

1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons agave syrup

1/2 cup hulled pumpkin seeds, unsalted

1 cup hulled sunflower seeds, unsalted

1/2 cup flaked quinoa

1/2 cup dried blueberries, or other dried small fruit

1/2 cup hulled hemp seeds

1/2 cup medium unsweetened flaked coconut

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Put the first five ingredients in a small pot and bring to a boil. Simmer until soft. Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Firmly press the mixture into a parchment paper-lined loaf pan. This is where little bit of practice comes in handy. If the mixture feels quite soft, try adding a little bit more quinoa. If it seems to be a bit crumbly, mix in about a tablespoon of agave syrup.

Chill in the refrigerator until cool and firm. If you don't notice the texture isn't quite right until after it comes out of the refrigerator, simply warm it up in the microwave for about 30 seconds and correct it again. Once you're happy with consistency, cut them into small bars wrap them in plastic and keep them in the freezer, for a quick snack that drives off hunger for a long time.

Food is often featured prominently in my books. While some authors barely mention it and their characters work through the story without even taking a bite, (gasp!) my characters, like me, stop and eat. A lot. In my book, Hard Target, because it is set in Bolivia, there's lots of coca tea drunk, and the strong coffee is served in teapots that have no lids! But considering they're all served with delicious alfajores and other warm pastries, my characters, like me when I went there, never bothered to ask.

In my book, Deadly Trust, my hero eats mostly fast food in his car. My heroine generally eats only gourmet food, but by chapter 2, she has an irresistible craving for hot french fries. (I wonder why?)  So food is important. it connects people, feeding not only the body, but the soul, too.

And I hope you'll try these power bars, and find them worthy of your Olympic athlete in training, (you, that is!) and you enjoy them as much as I do.

My First Conference! Blog 3 of 5

CAUTION! Pictures of many romance-loving ladies ahead. All men should be prepared to be overwhelmed.




I’d registered, slipped the conference lanyard around my neck, and toured the Goodie Room, a place where promo items are given away. A gal can’t have too many bookmarks, right? My conference tote was designed by Harlequin, and featured an old Harlequin, back when men wrote the adventure stories of that time. The cover featured boasted a scintillating title. “You never know with women.”
How true. And this being my first conference, well, I didn’t know. Women of all shape and size were there, all styles, and all talent. And I learned you can fit 2500 romance writers in a basement loading area of the Marriott.



I did learn something else pretty quick. The more famous you are, the thinner you are. Nora Roberts is a size double zero, I figure. If she sells another book, she’ll disappear. Me? I’m a size fourteen, so I have a lot more books to sell, I see.
I wanted to go to the Newbie’s meeting, (or Newb’s meeting, as my teen son would have called it) but was told I wasn’t a newbie, that I knew the ropes, so I took their word for it. And, surprisingly, I did know more than I thought. Not being a shy person, I simply walked up, sat down beside and met many people just by shoving out my hand and introducing myself.
And I discovered that many people know me. Mostly editors, which begs the question on how they know me. Hmm. My brilliant, clear, concise prose?
Or my obsessive nervousness that pretty much seeps into my emails and phone calls? I guess I’ll never know.
My roomies were impressed, saying it was my writing. As I was up for a Daphne award, we went to the Death by Chocolate party. Okay, everyone. I like chocolate as much as the next person, but to be frank, am I supposed to eat that much? I am a little out of practice, here. But the stalwart soldier that I am, I gave it the old college try. I didn’t win a Daphne, but met an agent to whom I had spoke years ago. I joked about a bomb back then, and she remembered me. (Remember my roomie poking me when I shoved my foot into my mouth? She was at another table.)
Well, I didn’t win the award for which I had been nominated. But I eat a ton of fresh fruit, including black raspberries the size of large strawberries, and little cheesecakes drizzled in chocolate. I couldn’t leave without smothering my sorrows in sugar. Okay, there wasn’t any sorrow, but I gave it the old college try, remember?
The next day there was a breakfast, and I learned that you have to get to the food before all the other starving artists got there. Coffee is exceptionally valuable. I’d brought my own meal replacement bars, but with a complimentary continental breakfast, which included cheese and those giant raspberries again, those bars got shoved into my suitcase.
And I was discovering something else. My tummy isn’t used to rich food. It better adjust quickly, though. I’d paid for three more rich meals.
Well, it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to…

Tune in tomorrow for the next installment!

Danger Danger!

There’s a new technology out and it’s not the Iphone. It’s a refrigerator that will order your groceries for you.
Okay, I’m a bit skeptical here. How does it know what you’re eating? I’m betting you have to tell it.
That’s all okay if you like the extra work, but what it should be doing is scanning you to see what exactly you’re eating. I mean, I have a teenaged boy. With lots of friends. I rarely have enough milk in the house and sugary cereals are an endangered species here. And I know my son. He’ll be opening this new fridge door and saying to it, "I’m taking a carrot now. We have only three left."
Meanwhile, he’s helping himself to the last half of pie. And I mean a whole half. That's good writing, isn't it?) I’d be inundated with carrots before the week’s out, if this fridge believes my son and calls in an order of carrots to the local Co-op. Talk about naive.
What the refrigerator should do is scan the kid using one of those beams we see on Star Trek and then yell out in a loud voice, or better still, announce it on an in-house PA, "You are not taking a carrot. You are eating all the pie. Back away from the refrigerator. I say again, back away from the refrigerator."
Or wave its arms around yelling, "Danger, Will Robinson, danger! All the pie is being eaten! Danger! Danger!" Then grab the offending teenaged boy (because it’s not necessarily going to be my own), and hold on until an adult can come and pry the pie out of his hands.
You know, this could work for dieters, too. You simply program into the fridge what you should eat and it simply won’t let you reach for pie, but rather grab you with those flex hose pipe arms and not let go. Why, you could work up a nice cardio routine fighting it off, and speed and agility too, trying to get the pie out of the fridge before it grabbed you.
Of course, your teenaged boy and his friends would consider the whole food grab a challenge. They do, after all, have a computer game experience, like one of those death matches with the evil minions of planet Thrombosis.
Or they could just reprogram the fridge.
You’d catch on pretty quickly though, when you opened the fridge for supper’s nutritious salad and it said something cheeky to you like, "Enter password within five seconds or this refrigerator will self-destruct."
Oh, yes, self-replenishing refrigerators are fine, but those scientists should be working on getting teenagers to eat three meals a day, all nutritious, with no snacking. Now, that’s technology worth buying.