The Barrio

Last Wednesday, June 28 was an exciting day for us. First, even though this isn't really related to our trip, I must share that I am an aunt! My sister-in-law, Stephanie, gave birth to my new niece early Wednesday morning. Addison Leigh Shipley was born weighing only 5 lbs. 14 oz. and measuring 19 inches. She is precious and so tiny. I can't wait to meet her but already love her. And, my brother, Josh, and Stephanie are really enjoying her as well. I have posted a few pictures here so you too can see how cute she is.

The other thing that happened Wednesday is that we officially started working. We had been around the office familiarizing ourselves with things a few times and had also slept there, but we weren't officially introduced to the program until Wednesday. Anielka, the Nicaraguan Program Director, took us into the barrio to show us around that morning. We met several of the kids and basically just got a feel for why we are here. It was a very humbling experience.

The barrio is basically one long dirt road on the outskirts of Granada. There is no reason to go there unless you call the place home, especially because the road is often difficult to travel. Large puddles of water cover entire sections of the road in places, and where there is not water, there are huge ruts and trash. The houses that line the long dirt road are made from all sorts of scrap materials - anything from scrap metal to old wood, usually with dirt floors. It is a miracle that these structures stand at all. Many of them look like they would collapse if a strong wind blew by or someone leaned too hard on one of the walls. Most of them are about the size of the bedrooms we are used to in the States, and some of them are even smaller than the large bathrooms many people are fortunate enough to have back home. What is even more amazing than the size of the houses is that often times, they hold families as large as ten. It is difficult to imagine, as we walk by the houses, how ten people could have enough room to lay down side by side inside of them.

In addition to the houses, most families have an open courtyard or "lawn" area enclosed by a rickety fence, often times made from barbed wire. The courtyards are just large dirt areas as well. The families seem to spend most of their time in this space. This is where they cook, eat, sit, study, shower, and go to the bathroom. Some houses have outhouses while others merely have holes in the ground to capture their waste water. While the bathroom and shower are separated from the cooking area, many families share their courtyard with pigs, chickens, hens, dogs, and the occasional cat.

The worst part about the barrio, in my opinion, is the clothing factory that is only a few hundred yards from the center of the barrio. The factory employs people from many of the families in the barrio and is basically a sweatshop. The people who work their work at all hours of the day, usually for 12 hours per day, 6 days per week. And, these people get paid only about $360 per year, according to Anielka, which by my rough math averages to a little more than $.10/hour. Kathy, the Executive Director of EI, tells me that she has also heard that the factory fires people to avoid paying benefits and possibly pregnant woman as well. While all of this is just rumors, this is not the worst part about the place. The factory in addition to everything else, is polluting the barrio. It lets its runoff run right through a ditch through the middle of the barrio. The stench is horrible. Anielka said it often makes the children sick, and one time the ditch got so full that it completely flooded two of the houses in the barrio. Patrick and I are working to figure out who runs this factory and for what company they make clothing. We will keep you updated on anything we find out.

But, now, I want to tell you about the kids in the barrio. The children run around from house to house and play together in the streets with whatever they can find. We saw a couple of boys having a great time trying to keep the outer part of a bike tire rolling down the road in a straight line. Most of the kids run around without shoes on, and some of them pass their time in even fewer clothes - often times missing pants, a shirt, or both. If the children do have clothes, they are usually full of holes and covered in dirt and mud, as are most of the kids. Amidst all this poverty, the kids all seem happy even if they are busy doing chores (washing clothes, cooking lunch, or sweeping the courtyard). They smile and often wave as we pass by them. Some hide behind their mother's legs. A few of the older kids pass by on their way to work - pushing carts of fruits and vegetables to sell at the market or driving horse-drawn trailers with their fathers. But, all seem to have smiles on their faces.

Empowerment International began working with the families in the barrio because many of the parents did not understand the value of an education. Most of them dropped out of school at a very young age; so, very few of them can read, and most work manual labor jobs or sale things they grow or make. They figure that they have done okay without school; so, they see no reason to send their children. Yet, they struggle through life in the barrio, scraping by on next to nothing. Life their seems to age people much more quickly than anywhere else I have been. Anielka introduced us to one woman who can't be more than 35 but is missing all but two teeth. We met another woman in her 20s who more like she is in her 40s. It is very evident that these women have worked hard every day of their lives caring for their families. I can't imagine the type of trials and tribulations they have experienced.

Yet, the barrio seems in some ways doomed to repeat this cycle. EI definitely has its hands full. Change, like everything else in Nicaragua, happens slow in the barrio. Anielka tells us that the program has a difficult time keeping the older girls in school. Many of them drop out at age 14, 15, or 16 because they fall in love or become pregnant. These young couples end up setting up a house of their own in the barrio or moving in with their parents to get by. The girls rely on their boyfriends to provide for them. It is difficult to understand why these girls are so willing to give up the amazing opportunity to attend school and eventually college free of charge through Empowerment International (EI). It makes me wonder if they doubt their ability to succeed at anything greater, or maybe they are just content with life in the barrio. All of this is difficult to swallow.

I guess part of what makes it so difficult is that the Nicaraguan government offers free birth control to all of its citizens (which is a bit strange, as abortions, even in cases where the mother's life is in danger, are illegal here. But that is a subject for another day). Yet, the women refuse to take the birth control. I am not yet sure why this is, but I don't think it is because they want to have lots of kids. Anielka told us she often has to coach the mothers in caring for their children. She tells them to pick them up, hold them, and hug them. This is not something that comes naturally for a lot of these women.

As we continued on our tour, we met one young girl who is about 14. She lives with her stepfather and has had to take on the role of caretaker for her five younger siblings even while attending school, as her mother is in jail. Apparently, two years ago, the child's mother was having an affair with another man. One night after the stepfather went to work around midnight, the other man snuck into the house and raped the little girl - who was then only 12. He left immediately and has not been caught, but the mother went to jail because it is not clear whether she knew what was happening with her boyfriend and daughter. Stories like this do not appear rare for these families.

Despite all the sadness and poverty we see, there is hope. Empowerment International works with more than 200 children in the barrio. Two of the kids from the program graduated from high school last year and are now interning with the program so that they can attend college free of charge. Margarita and Lizbeth are both very sweet, intelligent, driven girls. Also, during our first tour, we met a girl who couldn't be more than 14 who took second place in the math olympics this past year for all of the children in Granada, and soon, she will compete in the Spanish-language olympics. She is very intelligent but also works very hard. Every time we see her, she flashes us a huge smile, made brighter by her two silver-capped front teeth. There is hope, and we are happy to be a part of the hope and the change for this community. I just pray that we can actually do something to help and make a difference for these children in the short time that we are down here.

Sorry for the lack of pictures of the barrio. We haven't yet taken a camera with us, as we want to get to know the families a bit better before we start snapping photos of them. But, we will post some soon.

Melissa

The Joys of Living in the Tropics

As all of you know, life in the tropics is much different than life in Colorado. This has taken some getting used to for Patrick and I. We have experienced many of the joys the tropics have to offer in our first week here.

Our first exciting experience came this past Saturday night. We were out until about 9 p.m. that night, and when we came home, I saw what looked like a wad of black electrical tape lying in the middle of the living room floor. I thought this was strange, as we don't even own electrical tape. So, I began to walk right up to. But as I neared, I decided given the circumstances of being in a strange place, it was probably best not to lean down and grab it. That was perhaps the best thinking I have done in quite some time, as when I got close enough to distinguish what I was looking at, I realized it was a bat! Now, I have mentioned this to a few people already, and they have sort of shrugged it off, which I clearly don't understand. People, I feel this may warrant repeating - IT WAS A BAT! Luckily it was lying on its back not moving. This did not make me feel any better though because everyone knows that bats sleep upside down. So, I ran back to Patrick for help. While he was deciding what to do, he went into the kitchen. I am not sure why he felt the need to go into the kitchen at a time of such high alert so I must assume it was to wash his hands, which has became a rather frequent occurrence for my germ-a-phobe husband. Anyhow, while in there, he saw what is definitely either the largest or second largest cockroach I have seen in my life. The only one that might beat it is the one that led me to lock myself in my bedroom in my Senora's house in Spain. The difference between this one and that one is that this one was insanely fast! Luckily, Patrick managed to conquer that obstacle after whacking the thing with a newspaper about five times. Then, it was time to deal with the bat. Patrick, in all his brilliance, decided to use the trash can to trap the creature and scoot it across the floor so that he could fling it outside. Luckily, the bat turned out to be dead, or so we think, as it did not move at all during the whole experience (though, I must mention that, strangely, the bat was not outside the next morning. Talk about a heavy sleeper). And, thus, we survived our first major encounter with the joys of the tropics.

Unfortunately, later that night, we were confronted with the next experience. Patrick became violently ill and couldn't keep anything in his system for the next three days. He was running a horrible fever, which I really struggled to keep down, as the heat here is so intense, and we did not have a functioning air conditioning unit at the time. Luckily, he is finally beginning to feel normal again today. But, through the whole experience, we figure he lost about 15 pounds!

The next great adventure came with finding out that the Nicaraguans were not messing around when they named this season the "rainy season". As we have mentioned, we have a beautiful open-aired garden in the middle of our house. What we may not have mentioned is that the garden is surrounded by a roof that slants toward it from every direction. Fortunately, there is a gutter surrounding all of this roof, but unfortunately, we had a leak from the day we moved in. At first, we didn't think much of this leak as the rain had never lasted for more than 5 minutes at a time, and the rental company had conveniently placed a 10-gallon bucket under the leak for those times when it did rain. But, a few days ago, we had some pretty serious downpours. It usually never rains for long here, but when it does rain, it comes down pretty hard. We got caught in the rain and had waited the worst of it out under a building overhang in town only to come home to find our entire kitchen, dining room, and living room flooded! Since Patrick was sick, I set about sweeping what I could of the water into the drain, which is conveniently placed uphill from everything else in the house. But, no sooner did I get it cleaned up when it flooded again. This battle continued for the next few days until we finally got the rental company to send someone over to fix it. Good thing too, as today, we were hit by Hurricane Alma!

Yes, this is probably what I would call our next adventure, though it hasn't been too bad for us. We are without running water, but other than that the only problem we are experiencing is that the moisture has really brought out the mosquitoes. They are everywhere, which doesn't make me too happy, as they have a tendency to feast on me before anyone else. I have not been without at least 15 bug bites at all times since we have been down here. But, as I said, this is really a pretty minor result of the hurricane. I am actually really more worried about the kids and families in the barrio, as they have nowhere to go to get out of the rain, and their streets have to be flooded, which means that the sewer water they keep trapped in holes in the ground is also flooding their streets and homes. But, we will write more about the barrio in our next post.

For now, I just wanted to update you on the trials and tribulations of life in the tropics. Other fun experiences include lack of running water randomly almost every day, no hot water, and power outages at least once per day. But, it is all part of the adventure. We usually just smile and take it all in stride.

Melissa

Next Stop, Granada

After the long and wild ride from Managua, we arrived in Granada. We soon realized that the bus driver was not just going to stop at the bus station, but rather, we had to tell him where we were going. Given that we didn't know where we were going, this proved to be a difficult task. Wanting to be helpful, the bus driver pulled over so that he could attempt to interpret our broken Spanish. That is when we were fortunate enough to witness a street fight, courtesy of our bus driver's assistant, Franky. Apparently, Franky had an issue with a guy walking down the street. Luckily, Franky was totally crazy and went Kimbo Slice on the guy. It turns out that Franky was defending three girls who had just walked by. What a gentleman!

Our first attempt at communicating in Spanish in Granada proved to be somewhat unsuccessful, landing us in a Internet Cafe. Fortunately, we were able to look up the Program Director's phone number on our email and get her on the phone. Anielka came and met us at the Internet Cafe. We loaded up our 140 lbs of regret and began the one-mile trek to the office. About 1/2 mile into the walk, we both hated ourselves even more for the excess luggage. Have we mentioned that we plan to pack lighter for the second part of the trip??

Finally arriving at the office, I was so tired from the long trip and the walk that as soon as Anielka showed us the bedroom (our new home), I haphazardly dropped my bag on the bed nearest the window, shattering four window panes. Nice move!

Anielka proceeded to give us a tour of the office, which appeared very secure with no fewer than six locks and metal fencing over the open garden. The garden is a typical feature in Colonial houses in Nicaragua and is usually positioned in the middle of the home. The intense security coupled with the "guard" dog, who did not stop barking or growling for more than 30 minutes at a time, and the loud booms we heard all night kept both of us up. I didn't get more than two hours of sleep, which was difficult given my extreme exhaustion from the four-day trip. So that none of you worry to much, I have to tell you that we have since learned that the people of Granada love a celebration and celebrate something at least every day. The loud booms are the M80-style fireworks they set off in their excitement. So what is just excessive partying sounded like gun shots, which left us both without much sleep.

To top things off, the next day we awoke to take a much needed shower only to find that there was no running water and that a giant centipede had taken over the shower. Needless to say, we decided the office wasn't for us. After taking cold showers using the water from our Nalgene bottles we headed out to look for houses.

We finally settled on the second house we looked at. Somehow, we charmed the real estate lady into giving us the place for 60% off its normal price; so, we couldn't pass it up. It is a great house with a very nice and functional kitchen, an indoor garden, and a great view of the volcano from the second floor loft.

Now that we had our place the next thing to do was shop. One of our big goals while we are down here is to eat at home to save money for the next part of the trip. We asked around and found out that the one place to shop was a place on the other side of town called Pati. We now know that the only grocery store in Granada is much like Sears back home: it has a lot of stuff you don't need but nothing you do (Sorry for those of you who like Sears. I can just never find anything there that I need). We have also found that the local market is the best place to buy fruits and vegetables and many other random odds and ends, and we have really enjoyed venturing through the crowded streets on a few occasions. For those people who don't wish to go all the way down to Pati, pretty much everything that you find there can be found in the many side stores scattered around town.

We have also really come to like the scenery in Granada. Everywhere you look there is a picture waiting to be taken. The houses are all painted bright colors and have red-tiled rooftops. It is very common for people to sit on their side walk with their doors open and watch the people and traffic. Many of the buildings are a little dilapidated and some of them even have soot from when William Walker set fire to the city, but it all just adds character to the surroundings. The streets are often lined with brightly decorated horse-drawn carriages, though the horses are some of the most underfed horses we have ever seen. You can usually see their ribs and hips. One block from our house, there is a street that many call the "restaurant street". It is tree-lined and is home to several restaurants with food ranging from Nicaraguan to Italian and everything in between. All of the restaurants we have tried, we have found to be very good. However, my favorite thing about Granada and the Nicaraguan culture is their affinity toward baseball. There are often kids playing in the streets, and the city boasts a professional team. Also, it doesn't hurt that they all love the Yankees! No Boston fans down here, Dustin.

Patrick

The Great Bus Adventure

We boarded our first bus for our great trip across central America in Tulum, Mexico on Saturday, May 17. The bus ride was pretty uneventful. We arrived in Cancun about 2.5 hours later. We had planned to take a bus from Cancun to Tapachula, Mexico, which we knew pretty much nothing about other than that it is a plantation town and that the Tica Bus departs out of there for Nicaragua. We had done our research on the buses and knew when they departed and how much they cost, but we weren't sure how long the bus ride was supposed to be. I had guessed that it would be about 3-4 hours, and Patrick was thinking about 8. Big mistake! The ticket lady proceeded to tell us it was a 24-hour trip. Since our Spanish is pretty rusty, we both thought we just heard her incorrectly. So, we asked again; nope, our Spanish (in this case at least) was just fine. That threw a wrench in the system for us. But, the price was right; so, we decided to buy the tickets. That is when we found out we had made another mistake and had incorrectly calculated the exchange rate (dropping off two zeros instead of one).

So, we decided to fly. Long story short, we messed around at the airport for too long only to find out that plane tickets had gone up in price and that all of the flights to Nicaragua and Costa Rica were booked for at least a week. So, we went back to plan A and the bus, but we had missed the 2:30 bus. There was a bus departing at 8 p.m., but that one wasn´t as nice, cost the same price, and took an extra 2 hours to get to Tapachula, which would have put us in some foreign city at 10 p.m. at night without a place to stay and no idea if there were many hotels there. So, we stayed in Cancun for the night. Somehow, I don't doubt that this is the first of many travel road blocks we will experience. It is all part of the adventure!

After lugging our bags around Cancun looking for a hotel or hostel for about 30 minutes, we finally settled into a roach hotel. Have I mentioned that we are going to pack lighter for the second part of our trip yet? Good thing we packed the travel sheets, shower shoes, and bottled water. The night was pretty uneventful, other than the fact that we stumbled upon a Mexican cultural exhibition with some great costumes, interesting dancing, and a little girl who looked about 9 but had the vocal abilities of a trained adult.

The next day we boarded the bus for the 24-hour trip to Tapachula. The bus ride actually went by pretty quickly. We slept a lot, tried to brush up on our Spanish, and watched a few English movies dubbed over in Spanish. At one point we got a little bored and decided to watch one movie as a silent film, adding our own plot. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. I still don´t know what Absolute Zero is actually about, but in our version, some guy makes the stupid mistake of falling through some ice in Antartica, which causes the entire world to freeze. Luckily, a middle-school aged girl (okay, she looked about the same age as me; so, maybe she was a bit older) predicted the world´s demise and was able to save about five other people. Truly a masterpiece. Also, if you haven´t seen this movie, I must note here that the special effects are absolutely remarkable, and you should definitely add this to your NetFlix order ASAP.

In all honesty, the highlight was actually the scenery. The mountains, rollings tree-covered hills, and lakes in Southern Mexico are beautiful and definitely rate up there with some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever had a pleasure of viewing. I have added a few pictures here, but I must add the disclaimer that they were taken with our point-and-shoot camera through a dirty bus window on a speeding bus.

Tapachula turned out to be a pretty large city, but not a very nice one at all. The entire city looked like a barrio, and the poverty was very evident. We stuck out like sore thumbs. So, given that our bus actually got in about 3.5 hours late, we didn´t do much that night except sample the local cuisine. I had spaghetti, or at least the Mexican version of spaghetti, which is more like shrimp, hot sauce, and ketchup mixed with a little water over pasta. And, Patrick had the most tasteless fajitas I have ever tasted. Not only was there no spice added, but it seemed like the flavor of the peppers and onions had been sucked out somehow. Truly an art!

The Tica Bus departed Tapachula the next morning at 7 a.m. for the two-day ride across Central America. While boarding the bus, we met a nice guy from Switzerland, named Simon, who was also backpacking. We hung out with him quite a bit on the trip and learned all about sports in Switzerland. We also were lucky enough to watch a Jim Carrey marathon dubbed over in Spanish, which we must say was truly entertaining. If there is anyone who cannot be duplicated and dubbed well, it is Jim Carrey. But, they either love him in Central America or the bus line didn't have any other DVDs. We saw no fewer than six Jim Carrey movies on the bus ride down, and we were lucky enough to watch the Truman Show three times!

The scenary continued to be amazing, especially in Guatemala, but the poverty was also overwhelming at points. We saw people living in nothing but tin shacks and eating food out of the trash. We also saw trash everywhere. Throwing trash out your window or pretty much wherever you want appears to be second nature in much of Central America.

The border crossings were also quite an experience. The bus drops you off and you must travel by foot across each border and pay taxes on both sides, usually while being harrassed by no less than 30 to 40 guys wanting to change your money and waving around massive wads of cash and at least 3-4 other guys begging for money.

We got to San Salvadore, El Salvadore at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20. We found San Salvadore to be a much-less impoverished, cleaner city. And, the people were some of the most friendly we have encountered thus far. Strangely, though, there are still security guards armed with shotguns, automatic rifles, and beating sticks in front of almost every storefront and many of the houses. Our night in El Salvadore was nice. We hung out with our friend Simon, ate some pizza from Pizza Hut (we know, we know, but we were dying for a normal meal with some semblance of taste).

And, then, the next morning we boarded our final bus at 5 a.m., headed for Nicaragua. This was probably the most uneventful of the trips. We arrived in Managua at 3:30 (early, for once), and began trying to figure out how to get to Granada. We hopped in a taxi and were taken to another "bus station" in town. I suppose you can call a bus parked under a tin roof a "bus station". We were hurried onto the bus, which turned out to be more like a large van with no fewer than 30 people in it at all times. There were people sitting on people, and the bus driver didn´t even come to a full stop before people were hopping on or off the bus. He would simply honk the horn several times and slow to about 5 miles per hour before speeding off again. We rode with the side door open the entire way to Granada.

But, we soon saw that we were actually traveling in luxury when we passed by several "chicken buses", which are basically old school buses that have been converted to general transportation vehicles with bright colored murals on the sides. They are called chicken buses because passengers often transport their chickens with them, right on their laps. These buses were so packed full of people that sometimes people were standing three abreast in the aisles - bent over in strange positions so as to pack as many people on the bus as possible. Others were hanging out of the back emergency exit, and at one point we saw one slow down to about 10 or 15 miles per hour while 4 teen-aged boys grabbed onto the back ladder. A few of them climbed up on the roof, and the others merely hung off the ladder. We still aren't really sure whether this is a normal method of transportation, or if the overcrowded buses are in part a result of the huge transportation strike going on in Nicaragua right now. We will keep you posted on that.

Alright, sorry about the long post. They will get shorter with time. We will try to update you all on what is happening in Granada soon.

Melissa

Topes y Mas in Tulum, Mexico

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. Since our last posting we have entered and exited five countries, but we will talk more about that in our last post. For now, we would like to update you on our adventures in Tulum. As we said last time, we started the trip in Tulum to see Patrick´s father. Patrick´s uncle, dad, and stepmom where all there. We spent most of the time sitting around and relaxing and taking trips to the beach. We were in need of a little relaxation after the craziness of getting ready for the trip; so it was really nice. The beaches of Tulum are some of the most beautiful untouched beaches we have ever seen. You rarely see more than six or so other people while relaxing in the sun (and if you do, they are either topless if female or bottomless if male). Also, we really enjoyed spending time with Patrick´s family and enjoying some really great meals from Bob´s Kitchen (as usual). Bob and Lisa also introduced us to the chilata, which is basically a beer on ice with a lot of lime juice in it and salt around the rim. It is delightful, and the two of us consumed countless amounts of them while in Tulum (Now, we are trying our best to find room for them in our meager budget.). We also got a personalized tour of a few of the local restaurants. But mostly, we just laid by the pool and relaxed and sat around and chatted, which was just what the doctor ordered.

Unfortunately, Melissa got a little sick while there (just a nasty cold), but after about six days she was still feeling ill so we decided that we would take Patrick´s parents to the airport and stay a few days longer so she could rest up for the bus rides. We dropped them off on Wednesday, May 14, and officially began our journey alone. As Patrick put it, "No more gravy train."

We left Bob, Lisa, and Jerry at the airport and traveled back to Tulum, stopping off at Playa del Carmen to get some food and see what time some of the movies played. After leaving Playa del Carmen, we were officially introduced to the moving tope. Patrick´s dad had warned us about the VW Bug-sized speed bumps (called topes) that randomly pop up in the middle of town roads and major highways, but up until this night our experiences with these mountain-sized lumps of asphalt had been pretty uneventful. Usually, they are accompanied by signs. But, Patrick's dad had said that the police and construction workers sometimes move them in the night and then don't put any sort of sign next to them just to watch you destroy your car and laugh. We thought that Bob was just exaggerating the truth, but we would soon find out that was not the case. Patrick was traveling down the road at about 100 km/hour (60 miles/hour for those of you who are kilometer illiterate, like us), when what pops up but a tope. Mind you there was no sign nor even a street light. Melissa braced herself and closed her eyes. Luckily, the Toyota Camry proved to have some amazing brakes, and Patrick was able to slow his roll down to about 30 miles per hour. We were only air born briefly before the Camry returned us safely to the asphalt. Close call! But now, Patrick, like Bob, who supposedly took on a tope on at 50 miles per hour, sees topes in his sleep.

After the great tope adventure, we took a few more days to relax and check out the Mayan ruins in Tulum and of course take another trip to the beach and down some more chilatas, before boarding the first of four buses we would take to get to Granada . . .

Test

This is just a test to see if the subscriber service works.
Melissa

Bon Voyage!

I know that you all thought we should have left a long time ago, but we have been very busy preparing.  However, it is time.  We are set to leave my mom's house in Bailey, Colorado in about an hour in a half to head for the airport. There is nothing like staying up all night before a long drive and flight.  We still aren't bound for Nicaragua quite yet, though.  We will be visiting Patrick's dad and stepmom in Tulum, Mexico for a little R&R before our six month vacation.  I know, we have a rough life.  I swear we will be working very hard volunteering, though.

Our bags are packed, but they are a little big.  I almost toppled over backwards when I first put mine on.  It weighs about 1/3 of my body weight, and Patrick's is weighing in at a solid 50 pounds, not including his 20-pound carry on.  As you can see from the photo Dustin shot of us on his iPhone, he's hoping it will be a soccer player.  I am hoping he doesn't add anything last minute or else he will have to pull his little foot-under-the-bag trick at the airport to save us the overweight fee.  

Stay tuned for our next update.  We will try to keep things interesting and as humorous as possible, and please post comments at the bottom of the page. Until next time . . .