Aquaponics and the Cafeteria

On the campus, there is an aquaponics environment growing tilapia and vegetables.

Fish eat food that contains nitrogen. They excrete ammonia and ammonia is also added from decomposing material. Nitrosomas Bacteria convert the ammonia to Nitrites, and then Nitrobactor Bacteria convert Nitrites to Nitrates. Plants use Nitrates as fertilizer.

Some of the plants that were growing in the greenhouse during the tour...

They are doing a test on growing duckweed as a source of food for the fish (tilapia).

Currently the tilapia are fed externally acquired food, but they would like to make it more of a closed-loop system, and duckweed might provide a solution to that.

As I understand it, one of the goals of the study of aquaponics here is to see what could be done to alleviate "food deserts", city areas where grocery stores have closed down leaving no food stores available other than possibly convenience stores such as 7-11 -- which aren't known for providing fresh fruits and vegetables. I think that Mark (our guide) told us that the space where two cars could park in a driveway could house an aquaponics system that could provide one meal a day for 3-4 families (or, it could provide all the meals for one family as long as they could get used to eating tilapia for 3 meals a day).

http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/usda-defines-food-deserts

For us on campus, we get to have tilapia and fresh veggies in the cafeteria -- Yum!!!

An additional note about the cafeteria - I am learning the tasks to be able to back up the lady who creates the display of the menu on the screens in the cafeteria, so I was typing in the menu for this coming week... check out what's going to be available on Tuesday....

Uhm, Fried Things?

Our cook, Lety, always makes delicious meals, so I'm sure the Fried Things will be good! Maybe it is a way to get rid of an assortment of things? Or maybe a nod to the Texas State Fairs variety of fried goods each fall? Unfortunately, I will be at the food pantry on Tuesday, so I won't get to sample! I will need to get someone to take a picture so I can report back...

You may note languages listed under the day names - each day of the week, there are options to sit at a table where the folks there will be speaking a foreign language - a way to get conversational practice on a language you're learning, or to connect with other native speakers at lunchtime.

For your beach-going pleasure....

I heard about this item available from Amazon (actually, I heard about the reviews...):

What fun, right?

12 foot pole-to-pole? Uhm, ok?

Well, maybe not!

More reviews:

Link on Amazon

English is an interesting language...

I think I am glad that I have not had to learn English as a second language...

This both has one of the many violations of the "i before e except after c" rule, as well as multiple ways to pronounce the letters "ought"....

Influences

Some interesting information which I have seen recently....

This was presented in the Explore Bible Translation class back in May...

I saw this in one of the hallways on campus...

The Ghanaian Proverb is posted next to this fabric art on the wall.

I found it interesting to see the impacts of education of women to their families and communities.

The industrious spiders

As I prepared to leave Miss Doozie this morning, I noticed that an industrious spider had created a web that covered most of the window of the exit door:

It isn't as pretty in the picture as it was in real life!

As I walked to work, I saw two other large beautiful webs - maybe it was a good non-windy night for web weaving!

Directions

There is a family that has moved into the RV park here that has 3 children... they play well together, riding their bikes around the outside of the building that is in the midst of the RV park.

Today, one of the children must have been giving directions to another one...

Eli has a choice of which direction...

Only one choice, straight ahead!

3 choices at this point!

It is fun to see the games they come up with! They do a lot of artwork with chalk!

Dvu Story

This is one of the stories which was shared during my Explore Bible Translation class... it is probably my favorite of all the stories I heard:

Translation advisor Lee Bramlett was confident that God had left His mark on the Hdi culture somewhere, but though he searched, he could not find it. Where was the footprint of God in the history or daily life of these Cameroonian people? What clue had He planted to let the Hdi know who He is and how He wants to relate to them?

Then one night in a dream, God prompted Lee to look again at the Hdi word for love. Lee and his wife, Tammi, had learned that verbs in Hdi consistently end in one of three vowels. For almost every verb, they could find forms ending in i, a, and u. But when it came to the word for love, they could only find i and a. Why no u? Lee asked the translation committee, including the most influential leaders in the community, "Could you 'dvi' your wife?"

"Yes," they said. That would mean that the wife had been loved but the love was gone.

"Could you 'dva' your wife?" Lee asked.

"Yes," they said. That kind of love depended on the wife's actions. She would be loved as long as she remained faithful and cared for her husband well.

"Could you 'dvu' your wife?" Lee asked. Everyone laughed.

"Of course not!" they said. "If you said that, you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never got you water, never made you meals. Even if she committed adultery, you would be compelled to just keep on loving her. No, we would never say 'dvu'. It just doesn't exist."

Lee sat quietly for a while, thinking about John 3:16, and then he asked, "Could God 'dvu' people?"

There was complete silence for three or four minutes; then tears started to trickle down the weathered faces of these elderly men. Finally they responded.

"Do you know what this would mean?" they asked. "This would mean that God kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected His great love. He is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people."

One simple vowel, and the meaning was changed from "I love you based on what you do and who you are," to "I love you based on who I am. I love you because of Me and not because of you."

God 'dvu' you...

A house moved into the RV park!

I had heard that it was coming, and in the past few days, it arrived! A tiny house has moved into the RV park!

Driving into the RV park

Ready to back into its site

In place!

Open house

Lots of folks came out to walk through during the open house. It is quite spacious! In Texas, a dwelling less than 400 square feet is considered an RV, so, since it is 399 square feet, it is located in the RV park on campus. They are considering getting some larger ones (about 600 square feet) to replace some of the older mobile homes on campus.

A memorial brick

One of the tasks that I was able to help with in the weeks since I've been here is getting a memorial brick carved. One of the folks who has volunteered here for many years passed away earlier this year. A couple who had been volunteers with the man who passed away and his wife wanted to provide a memorial for him, and thought that a memorial brick in the area of the RV park would be a good idea. Helen had looked into different options and wasn't finding exactly what already existed. I had worked with an engraving company in the area for the name/date plaque for Dwayne's crematory niche, so I contacted them... they indicated that they didn't engrave bricks (the surface is too rough for their stencils to stay in place for the carving), but recommended another company - that company didn't do it either, but they recommended a memorial monument company (the folks who engrave tombstones). That was the right type of company for us to find.

They engraved the brick, and then Helen arranged with the grounds folks to put it into the brick patio area at the RV park.

The newly carved brick was cleaned before carving, so right now, it looks a little different, but I think it will "weather" into a similar look.

The little patio area is pretty and shady.

I'm thankful that we could recognize their participation on the campus in this way!

Participants and Facillitators

A couple of pictures of folks in the Explore Bible Translation class that I attended in May...

The youngest participant, Penny, got cuddled and cared for by most everyone in class...

Our "thank y'all" to the teachers and facilitators of the class, with them in the picture with it!

I enjoyed being able to participate in this class and all that I learned in it!

A reminder from the past...

Facebook reminded me of a post that I made 4 years ago, on June 19, 2015. This would have been in the time period after we had decided that we wanted to go fulltime in the RV, we had sold our first rig, Miss Daisy, and had selected Miss Doozie, but didn't own it yet. I was sorting through decades of "stuff" that was in our house to prepare it to sell, and I posted this:

I'm going through papers that my mom had saved. One is an article in The Mechanicsville Local on 10/9/2002, about Dan Murphy, a former Assistant Principal and Athletic Director at Lee-Davis High School. He was dealing with Parkinson's disease, and a couple of quotes really spoke to me: "Life is like a book. God is the author. My present circumstances are the chapter I'm in. And, the end will be good because God is the author." And, another: "Trials are not the enemy of faith, but are an opportunity to be faithful to God."

Those quotes still speak to me, probably a bit different than they did back in 2015...

Dinner with a friend!

I met former co-worker, JoAnn, for dinner this evening - she is in town for work and contacted me to let me know!

We enjoyed dinner and catching up...

We met at "Gas Monkey Bar & Grill"....

Evidently there is a TV show of the name "Gas Monkey"? There was a gift shop in the restaurant, but we didn't visit it...

It was so nice to get to meet up with JoAnn and to spend some time talking. Hearing about IBM made me happy to be retired!!! Getting to meet up with former co-workers gives me what I loved about IBM (the people) without the other "stuff"!

Class this week

I am attending another course that is being offered on campus here this week. The good news is, it doesn't have as long hours as the Explore Bible Translation class (which ran 7:15am-8 or 8:30pm) -- this one is 8:30am - 4:30pm. The bad news (maybe also good news) is: it is a very emotion filled course: Bible Based Trauma Healing Workshop.
A link to the course

About the Program ModelThis proven model of the Trauma Healing Institute uses applied Scripture and mental health principles to address spiritual and emotional wounds caused by the trauma of war, violence, natural disasters, and abuse. The book Healing the Wounds of Trauma: How the Church Can Help has been translated and taught in over 100 countries with more than 194 language groups in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Americas.

About the SessionAt this initial equipping session, participants learn basic biblical and mental health principles related to trauma care; explore if they themselves are carrying any wounds of trauma or loss and bring those to Christ for healing; learn how to lead groups in a participatory way; learn the program model; and develop plans for using what they have learned in their community.

 Trauma healing facilitators aim to “do no harm” to those they help. To this end, participants are evaluated during the equipping session. A simple test measures mastery of content. Short practice facilitation exercises include feedback on facilitator strengths and suggestions to address areas needing improvement.

I am wondering whether I'm in good shape for attending this... I don't think I am to get the most out of it to help others in the future, but maybe it is good timing for me to attend for my own healing. While Dwayne's death is not really "trauma" in my life, I'm still well ensconced in my own grieving, and not really at a point where I can be objective and outgoing about helping others heal. But, this is the time scheduled for the class here on campus, and I wasn't sure when it would be scheduled again, so I decided to take advantage of it.

Based on the course schedule, I'm hoping I'll be able to post to this blog, but... if I go silent, you'll know why!

GriefShare

The GriefShare class that I took in Lewisville ended in May (and I have since started one near the campus in south Dallas).

On the last night of class, our facilitator provided balloons for us to write our loved one's name and release them into the air. You can see the group of balloons heading into the air - one got caught in the air currents near the building and went up a little separately.

A welcome

While Miss Doozie was in the shop, a lady in the community across the street from campus offered to let Miss Kitty and I stay with her, such a blessing!

In the guest room, she had this framed as a welcome!

Doubting God's Goodness

I am signed up to get daily emails for a year from GriefShare. One this week was particularly on target for me...

Doubting God’s Goodness
Day 100

Is God truly good? What does it mean to you personally that God is good?
Dr. Larry Crabb says, “When you see a child suffer, when the doctor says certain things to you, you really wonder if God is good.
”‘God, where are You? If You’re good, then it seems to me that things should work out like this-,’ and I impose my definition of good on God. And I say, ‘This is what the word good means: It means that I won’t get cancer again. It means my wife won’t die prematurely. It means my kids will be healthy and make enough money to pay the bills.’
“When I look at God and say, ‘You’re not cooperating with my definition of good, the natural consequence is not trust, not worship. It’s idolatry. I’m going to find some other god that agrees with my definition of good. Satan comes along and basically says, 'I’ll arrange for what you want.’ And you’ll have certain pleasures for a season, and then it’ll be awful.”
It is not God’s intention to give us everything we want. Getting what we want is not the key to happiness, peace, or contentment. Since we cannot see the full picture and do not have all the facts, our judgment is skewed. God would not be God if He could not see all things and judge all situations for the ultimate good.
God’s Word is absolute truth; don’t let your doubts get in the way of His perfect plan.
“You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10).
Most Holy God, my limited view is getting in the way of truth. Even when I don’t feel it, help me to know without a doubt Your goodness and faithfulness to me. Amen.

---

The things that get donated...

At the food pantry, various grocery stores donate food that is just at its "best by" (or "best buy", or "best buy by"?) date. I was surprised to see....

Ukrops White House Rolls!

These were a special treat when I would go home to Virginia - who knew that they were available in Texas too?!?!

According to the website http://whitehouserolls.com/ they are available in 30 states now. The website also has "Forty-Five Ways to Enjoy"  -- on their list is #9, Country ham, which is closest to my favorite - with another Virginia classic, Smithfield Ham!

From Wikipedia:

The Commonwealth of Virginia first regulated usage of the term "Smithfield Ham" in a 1926 Statute passed by its General Assembly stating:

Genuine Smithfield hams [are those] cut from the carcasses of peanut-fed hogs, raised in the peanut-belt of the Commonwealth of Virginia or the State of North Carolina, and which are cured, treated, smoked, and processed in the town of Smithfield, in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The "peanut fed" and "peanut belt" stipulations were removed in 1966. The present statute reads:

...Genuine Smithfield hams are hereby defined to be hams processed, treated, smoked, aged, cured by the long-cure, dry salt method of cure; and, aged for a minimum period of six months; such six-month period to commence when the green pork cut is first introduced to dry salt, all such salting, processing, treating, smoking, curing, and aging to be done within the corporate limits of the town of Smithfield, Virginia

While it is unclear whether the green pork (the raw product of the cured ham) may come from hogs raised and slaughtered in other than Smithfield, Virginia; the statute's stipulation that the six-month (minimum duration) curing clock is to begin when the green pork is "introduced to dry salt"; and, that through the entire duration of the process, the ham and its processing must occur within Smithfield, Virginia. The statute also commands, that any richer, or more intense cure, obtained from an aging, that is in excess of six months, must also be done within Smithfield, Virginia.

Smithfield ham is a very salty ham. As I remember it, Mom used to say that it should be carved so thin that you could read a newspaper through the slice of ham!

Escapees RV Club RVer Census

As you may already know, I am a "data girl", aka "Data Princess". I got this information from one of the RV groups that we have belonged to, and I thought it was interesting, and thought you might find it interesting too!

For more information: https://www.escapees.com/census-results-are-in-who-are-rvers/?mc_cid=e4fd349edf&mc_eid=9893187a91

An Exotic Speech Sound

I blogged about the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) yesterday. It identifies not only what the sound "sounds" like but also how it is made. A story related to that:

Years ago when Chuck Walton first lived in the Philippines, he visited a language community in the far north of the country. When he told them that he was interested in collecting some samples of their language, they told him that it was too difficult for a foreigner to pronounce. And also impossible to write. Though they had many sound differences from most Philippine languages, one sound in particular was regarded as too difficult for anyone but a native to pronounce.

Knowing that the study of phonetics had prepared him to observe carefully how the speaker's mouth moved, so as to see what speech mechanisms were used to produce the sound, he would have a good chance of using the same mechanisms to attempt to reproduce the difficult sound. It came time for the challenge. His new native friend said the word for 'blood.' Chuck noticed that his friend's tongue protruded from his mouth and the blade of his tongue seemed to go up against his upper teeth. So, he tried doing the same when he repeated the word. The crowd who were watching roared with approval indicating that he had indeed reproduced the sound close to their satisfaction.

International Phonetic Alphabet

Any ideas what this might represent?

As a hint, it is spelled using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) - here are front and back pictures of the card I was given in the Explore Bible Translation class:

To see the characters and sound them out, check out: http://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/

Here is additional information about IPA from Wikipedia:

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language. The IPA is used by lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, linguists, speech-language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators and translators.

As you may be able to tell, the alphabet identifies how the sound is made... here's some more information from Wikipedia:

A pulmonic consonant is a consonant made by obstructing the glottis (the space between the vocal cords) or oral cavity (the mouth) and either simultaneously or subsequently letting out air from the lungs. Pulmonic consonants make up the majority of consonants in the IPA, as well as in human language. All consonants in the English language fall into this category.

The pulmonic consonant table, which includes most consonants, is arranged in rows that designate manner of articulation, meaning how the consonant is produced, and columns that designate place of articulation, meaning where in the vocal tract the consonant is produced. The main chart includes only consonants with a single place of articulation.

Have you figured out what the letters in the picture at the beginning of this post are spelling??

Maybe this will help:

It is my name spelled with IPA!

Questions

A friend of mine sent me this set of questions....

Inquiring minds want to know:

1. If poison expires, is it more poisonous or no longer poisonous at all?

2. Which letter is silent in the word "Scent," the S or the C?

3. Do twins ever realize that one of them is unplanned?

4. Why is the letter W, in English, called double U instead of double V?

5. Is oxygen just killing us slowly by taking 75-100 years to fully work?

6. Is it possible to clean something without making something else dirty?

7. Who decided that the word "swims" upside-down would still be "swims"?

8. Why is it that 100 years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars but today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses?

9. If people evolved from monkeys, why are monkeys still around?

10. Why is there a 'D' in fridge, but not in refrigerator?

11.  Who knew what time it was when the first clock was made?

12. Ever wonder why the word funeral starts with FUN?

13. Why isn't a Fireman called a Water-man?

14. How come Lipstick doesn't do what it says?

15. How do you get off a non-stop Flight?

16. Why do we put cups in the dishwasher and the dishes in the Cupboard?

17. Do you realize replacing "W" with "T" in "What, Where and When" will give you the answers?

Larry the Cat

How have I never heard of Larry the Cat before? He is the resident mouser at #10 Downing Street.
https://www.vox.com/2019/6/4/18651958/larry-cat-uk-trump-limo-may

Of course, he is getting press now because of his impact on Trump's visit...
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/06/04/downing-street-larry-cat-photobombs-trump-photo-op-london-moos-pkg-ebof-vpx.cnn

A Visit!

On Thursday afternoon, one of my co-workers, Sylvia, and I visited Linda's mom (Linda is another co-worker - she and her husband are spending the summer in their RV in Colorado - *smart* people that they are to be away from Texas in the summer!). Sylvia and I had offered to be "substitute daughters" and to enjoy the company of Linda's mom while Linda is away, so Thursday, we visited her together!

Linda's mom and Sylvia

We had such a nice visit with Linda's mom! She has a beautiful apartment in a lovely community. I'm looking forward to being able to visit with her this summer!

Some news from Papua New Guinea

I was blessed to hear Marsha Relyea Miles speak several years ago in our Perspectives class. She and her first husband, John Relyea, were instrumental in the New Testament translation for the Aruamu people in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Watch this video of the celebration when the New Testament was brought:
https://pioneerbible.org/videos/the-aruamu-transformed-by-gods-word


Pioneer Bible Translators is one of the groups that are also on/near the campus where I am staying. Two of the fellows from PNG, David and Martin, are here on the Dallas campus as they are working on exegetical checking of the Old Testament.

They saw me with Miss Doozie when I returned to the campground from the RV Service Center a couple of weeks ago and were very impressed with me driving my "house" along the road.

Yesterday, when I was serving lunch, when David and Martin came through the line, we celebrated as they had completed their exegetical checking on the last remaining chapter in the Old Testament on Tuesday!!!

Check out Marsha's May, 2019 prayer letter here with how God was blessing the translators / checkers with greater knowledge of Him even during the checking work.

And, this was just recently published, "When the Unreached Become Missionaries" - also about PNG and Pioneer Bible Translators' work there.

Lessons from the Master Farmer

I got this link today from Amazima Ministries and I thought that some of my blog readers might enjoy seeing this video:
https://amazima.org/blog/lessons-from-the-master-farmer/

It reminded me of things I learned in the Crown Financial Ministries study - it isn't ultimately about farming, or finances, but, rather, it is about recognizing the Lordship of God.

Miss Doozie's stayin' dry!

Miss Doozie is stayin' dry - on the inside at least!

We've had a couple of showers, and a really gully-washer this evening, and the places where she used to leak have stayed dry! I am SOOOOOO thankful!!!

Evening prayer

It has been a long time since I worshipped in a church that commonly used hymnals. The devotions that I attend on campus on weekday mornings use hymnals, and I am enjoying the hymns and other items that are in the hymnals.

One morning, I noticed this evening prayer and thought it was a wonderful prayer to contemplate and to offer up.

Another "funny" call at the Welcome Desk

Friday afternoons are "interesting" - often very quiet, but then multiple things happening at once....

There was a couple at the desk needing a parking pass, and the phone rang. The lady on the other end said, "This is Susan <somebody>, calling from Guam. I need to speak with Nancy."
Hmmm, I can't think of a "Nancy" off the top of my head, and if this person is calling in from Guam, it is long distance... let's move this along! So I asked, "Could I get the last name?"
She gave me her own last name again...
"No, I need Nancy's last name."
"Oh, I don't think I know her last name. She is Dr Cheng's assistant."
I start looking up Cheng... I find a few in our directory... Thinking that this is taking too long, I decide to punt it over to Mary... Put the caller on hold... Ask Mary if she knows a "Nancy" who is Dr Cheng's assistant.
Mary gives me a mirror image of the blank look that I know is on my own face....
I go back to the caller and say, "Are you sure that Nancy works at the International Linguistics Center?"
Caller: "What?!?!?"
Patti: "The International Linguistics Center"
Caller: "Is that who I called?"
Patti: "Yes..."
Caller: "Is the number?: 971-nnn..."
Patti: "No, our number starts with 972..."
Caller: "Oh, okay."   Click...

Another satisfied customer on the phone lines!  Ha!

Finally I got back to the couple needing the parking pass!