I now have three calendars for 2014, and they are on heavy cardstock with beautiful full color.  You can read about them here... I am taking orders but the shipment is not due in until the second week in December, at which point i will be shipping and delivering calendars like crazy!  Click on the photo to learn the details and see more photos

I finally finished making my 2014 calendar of images mostly around the Columbia Gorge out to Mount Adams and Mount Hood. You can see the full gallery of images as well as information on ordering the calendar on this page on my primary website.
http://starlisablackphotography.com/books-and-calendars/2014-calendar/

Journey to Nicaragua, and what is True Wealth

Camping with Daddy ;-)

Many years ago I was in a mountain village in Nicaragua with a 14 person work party from Port Townsend, Washington; installing a water system for the village of Teotecacinte'  where children were dying of dysentery.  While working there for 2 weeks we stayed with host families, and my family lived in a small home with open windows (no glass) , a large adobe style wood stove for cooking built into the corner of the small kitchen, and dirt floors. Those dirt floors were ideal for the tiny fire often burning for light while we sat in the evening shucking corn after working hard all day.
     The family I stayed with owned very very little, and I felt like I brought more in my old back pack than most people there even owned.  The children in Teotecacinte worked hard to help their family from the time they could swing a machete or carry a load on their little heads.  These youngsters outworked us big Americans carrying pipes out to lay in the ditches we dug,  or gathering rocks and sand from the Rio Limon' for the concrete that we mixed by hand in a large mound.
     The family I stayed with wanted to send their young daughter back to the US with me to give her a chance in life and we struggled with my broken Spanish to have conversations about the difference in our lives.  To their mind I was obviously rich, after all I had a car and a house.  I tried to explain about things like old cars, rent, electricity bills, car payments, insurance, phone bills, etc , but that was incomprehensible. They no doubt thought I was crazy when I told them having so many things becomes like a chain around our necks weighing us down, with ever increasing debts.
     Yes, their homes and lives were simple, and even a pocket knife I took for granted or a hair clip became valuable gifts to someone with so little.  On the other hand,  I saw their simple lifestyle as a refreshing tranquil life compared to the rat race here.  With no TV or computer they did not have to worry so much about losing power, and were not overwhelmed with tv commercials showing them all the things they could not afford. There were no power saws, or blenders, or electric mixers!
      The electricity  was out several days every week in the village from the weight of Epiphytes (air plants) growing on all the power lines coming to the village from Jalapa.  The weight of the plants would literally pull the wires down on a regular basis.  Cars were seldom seen, people walked everywhere.  The little girls in mi'  casa carried buckets of water from the springs half a mile away home on their heads before school.  As we walked around town people would nod their heads and say "Adio" both coming and going, and reply "Tranquilo" when asked how they were doing.
      All things are relative to where we are and how we see it I guess. The only reason I was able to go with that work party to Nicaragua was with the financial help of other people who paid for my plane ticket.  I grew up in "poverty" according to the Government but my parents taught me I was a princess as a child of God, so I never felt poor with my hand me downs and home made clothes. We headed for the hills a lot, and I felt that my home was a Cathedral of tall trees,  and that we were  pretty rich! We had deer meat and fish, huckleberries and mushrooms, and gardens with canned food, and it was good. Seems like we traded for fresh raw cow's milk from neighbors and it was so delicious and healthy.  Life was not all about making money or accumulating possessions.
      I still am on that low end of things financially, and in reality I don't think much about what others have that I don't, rather I am full of gratitude for the roof over my head thanks to my sister, and for the fact someone gave me a camera and I am able to capture the beauty around me and share it, and even sell some of my photography to supplement my $600 a month income and help pay for my photo addiction.. That is not a large income by U.S. standards, but it allows me to stay home with my sis and take care of her part time. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have enough money to go to a dentist or other basic things, but then I realize the true riches I have and am grateful.
       A story going around about the distribution of wealth in the United States (with the gap between middle class and poor increasingly broad) brought about many conversations and thoughts from many angles on this subject.  It is fascinating that posting these facts causes many of us to at least contemplate this inequality, with many taking the mindset that things are getting so bad we are heading eventually toward a revolution.  Others point out that even the poorest 10%  of the American population is probably better off than the average person in many other countries, such as Nicaragua., and through hard work a person can still improve their lot in life and at least have enough food  for their families and gas for their cars.  Perhaps they can accumulate even a great deal more, for movies and dinners out, great unimaginable luxuries to so many in the world.
       I prefer to be grateful for what I have rather than jealous of the wealth others have.  Also I will say that my level of "poverty by choice" (which I do not consider to be true poverty at all) allows me the freedom to do things that are more important to me than money, as it did my Father and Mother.   Dad retired from being a mechanic around age 62 and we spent summers traveling to see family or camping in the hills. Like them, I highly value time in the forest and with family and loved ones over the accumulation of more material possessions.  This  allows me to follow the light on occasion, chasing clouds and rainbows, capturing photos that have even begun to bring some money back into the equation as well as bringing peace to myself and to others.  Priceless!!!  Just like my friends in Nicaragua who had to work hard to survive yet were surrounded by tranquility and beauty.  Oh, I should also add, many of the essential items I took with me in my backpack to Nicaragua stayed with my family in Teotecacinte. I also had some of the most fun ever wandering the village like a pied piper blowing bubbles that had all the children following me all the way home, and then they would not leave!  Mama' had to chase them away.
Someday I am going to find the pictures I have from there and scan them.  Then I can tell even more of this old wonderful story and refresh the joy in my heart from meeting these lovely kind hearted tranquil people of the village of Teotecacinte.

Here are a couple links to photos of Teotecacinte I found on Panoramia.com
 Photos by Donatan of the small town of Teotecacinte looks much like it did back in 1989.

Photos by Pablo Sánchez A. includes this great photo of Teotecacinte

Hurray for Family!
Camping with my Daughter