The McAllisters in El Salvador: September 2011

Since no one has really written in a while, I thought I would put finger to keyboard and get some words out there. First off, I just came back a couple weeks ago from Canada, where I went to suprise my Dad for his 60th birthday. It was also a suprise for his wife Shelley and my sister Sarah and her fiance who were visiting from England. They all cried!! While I was there, my sister in law Teresa and my brother Daniel had their baby and I was honored to be in the birthing and delivery room as Teresa's coach. The week was amazing ending with selling our t-shirts for the Got Goat program. I sold almost every shirt we made and we are now able to buy 13 goats for families in need of milk for their anemic children. Check out our little trailer to see what we have been up to.

http://vimeo.com/25538595

Here is a picture of the goat shirts. We will be ordering more for the middle of October, so if you are interested please let us know and we will order you one in any size you want. (they fit small) They are $20 and with every 6 we sell we can buy a goat.

A few days after I got back, we were doing a key ceremony for two houses that the guys built while I was away. These houses were in San Felipe. The town where the 4 men that work with Stu and Trent are from. We were invited to Noe's house for lunch and then afterward to Robertos house for Atol, tortaitas and corn. We went out at 11 am and didn't return home until 7:30 pm. It was a long day, but I loved hanging out with our new friends and seeing what their family life is like.

At Noe's house we had beef asada and rice and salad. It always amazes me how people that barely ever eat beef or any meat for that matter want to use their last dime to buy us a nice meal. Sometimes it seems backwards to me. Especially having to feed all 12 of us. 13 when you count Carlos.

We are blown away by the peoples generosity here towards us. I think that people see us as the face for all of you; that have given of your time, energy, resources and prayers, and boy are they ever thankful. Every other day someone is giving us something, from all sorts of fruit, to cream and cheese. Last week a women who the team from Bethany built a house for came up to us and said she wanted to give us a live chicken. Well sure enough, yesterday Trent came home with a live chicken to keep in the garage until it could be "taken care of" for supper. Today a friend of ours that knows her way around here told us the chicken needed to gain some weight, so she took it to her house to feed and care for it. Phew...

Back to San Felipe, after a humongous lunch, we went over to Roberto's house. Roberto's wife Isabelle makes this sweet quick bread called quesadilla. She wakes up at 3am 4 times a week to bake it in her forno oven that Roberto built for here. This oven could rival any high priced forno oven in Canada. The bread is the best I have ever tasted. We may commission her to make it for all the Canadians that come out here. We told Isabel that the next get together we are going to bring pizza dough and all the toppings to have a pizza party in her oven.

She also showed us how to make "queso fresco" (fresh cheese).

Right now it is harvest time. Corn harvest.. that means that every other day we get corn dropped off at our house. It is a lot of work to do anything with the corn. You can make the following. Crazy Corn, which sound weird, but is really delicious. It is corn on the cob with a mustard mayonnaise mix, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and a parmigiana like cheese. You can make elote tamales and a fried tamale like dish called tortitas that you eat with cream and salt.

Luckily corn season will soon be over because corn here does not have the same sweet taste as corn in Canada. Do not get me wrong, I am not complaining I love that the people here want to thank us with whatever they can, even though we don't need it!

On to another topic, we have been trying to start up this sewing program. We were able to purchase 5 industrial machines to start and are working on getting 5 home machines that the Sarnia, Ontario team will bring in October. So far I have taught Pimpa how to quilt and we have completed our first rag quilt using cut up second hand jeans. Kerrie and I taught about a dozen ladies to cut using rulers and rotary cutters and we are on our way. Starting tomorrow we will have a location to put the machines that is not my house, and will be able to teach that many more!

Once again, thank you so much for all your ongoing support, we couldn't do any of this without you! If you are interested in more information about any of these projects, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. csmcalli@gmail.com

hello again. Jake Fluker's niece is going to raise some money for our goat project as her dad and uncle come down to build homes. she has written a letter to send out to classmates at her school. i read it and thought, "i should pass on these words". it was a good reminder for me of what i am doing here and thought i'd try to share that encouragement to a few others. i just hope that being here is helping 'how people feel' down here. i hope they feel like someone cares.

she starts off with some facts about the houses and goats, etc. then ends with this...
trent

"...But here’s the part of why were sending money for goats not polar bears were or lions. Goats provide milk, meat or livelihood and there super easy to raise. So close your eyes and imagine living in a shack made of card board or metal sheets, the floor is dirt and the one meal you look forward to is most likely rice and beans. When it rains your roof leaks and when the wind blows your walls rattle. Sometimes the truck that brings the food to your village doesn’t come how do you feel? Imagine that some guys show up and replace your shack with a sturdy steel frame and a concrete floor and sometimes they even put new mattresses in your bedroom and put new pots and pans in your kitchen and there’s a goat in your yard. How do feel now? Will you help me make that kind of difference in the life if 20 families."

(thanks abby)

-a few pictures from recent days-