When the Almond Tree Blooms

As I spend a quiet Saturday reading, writing and cooking beans, my mind drifts back to the month I spent in Nicaragua. I've lost track of how much time it's been since I returned from Central America, but I know I've been back for well over a month. At work, people are counting down the weeks before our spring break--four more to go. I am thinking ahead of projects to do in the school garden where I work once spring arrives, which here in the Bay Area will be soon. I am also thinking of another school garden project--the one in Lagartillo, the community in Nicaragua where I spent a month studying Spanish this past winter vacation. When I was in Lagartillo, some of the community elders spoke of starting a garden project at the school. A nonprofit organization that supports initiatives for women and children in Nicaragua, Project Sonrisas (http://www.projectsonrisas.org/) is working with the community in Lagartillo to help make the project a reality. To quote the Pro...

I have laryngitis and can't talk today. I had to take a sick day since if I can't talk, I can't teach, especially to large groups of sixth graders. Which is disappointing, since I really did want to work today... Since I can't talk, I figure I can write. It's been a while since I've posted anything on this blog. It's been a few weeks since I returned from Nicaragua and I've slid back into my routine here: work, King's Boxing Gym, cooking, hanging out. After a January that was more like April in terms of weather, winter is back, and I'm feeling the cold here in my drafty, unheated house on 27th Avenue. We're getting rain though, so I can't really complain, and the plants are happy. The news here is of recession, of course, and it's usually not positive. I think we would all like it if things were easier. But here we are, and perhaps we can find something good in all this. Hard times inevitably draw people together, with less, ...