Yea! Aleene is back

I don't want to pre-empt her epistle to family and friends which she is composing, but I do need to comment on what I observed when I picked her and her fellow workers up at GRR.
They were on time after a long trip from Managua. They were all speaking to teach other and seemed to enjoy each other's company. We took two of them home.
Once we got home the stories started. She unpacked her backpack which was loaded with little trinkets and momentoes...including a bottle of Grand Mariner, my favorite after dinner drink. She got this duty free at the Managua airport. I got hooked on that stuff back in the Navy when I fronted for a married shipmate and got him three gallons of the stuff (my allotment; he got three gallosns of Cherry Herring) forty years ago. He had a party at his house and invited all of us over to sample his wares....I was smitten. So when we travel out of the country we always check the price to be sure it it is a buy. Of course you can buy it here, but it is so expensive.
She had pottery and leather, and wood things. I think the cutest was a little miniature male sheep her "boss" gave her. She said something like: we thought Aleene was a lamb when we started out and we soon discovered she works like a RAM. Yep, that's my girl all right.
They worked on brick houses that contained three rooms. There was no indoor plumbing or electricity...
She came back thinking that we Americans have too much and challenged me to with her again next year. She is not changed...but she is more determined to scale back our living and do something for others who are less fortunate.
It is sure nice to have her home...