The Spot Magazine

THE SPOT MAGAZINE - MARCH 2012

AUTHOR

[FEATURE]


AUTHOR

[FEATURE]


INSIDE ISSUE 28

COMIC PAGE 6SEXTROLOGY BY JYOTI PAGE 8BRINGING IT BACK - 2000 PAGE 12A SPOT FOR POETRY PAGE 15MOVIE THROWBACK PAGE 17KEEPING UP WITH SUSTAINABLE ROOTS PAGE 34

MONTHLY SUBMISSIONSDISCORDIAN - PILOT PAGE 26THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER PAGE 30

FEATUREGO INSIDE THE MIND

OF PRODUCERJAZZB

PAGE 22

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[FEATURE]


AUTHOR

[MONTHLY]

sextrology by Jyoti

Aries- March 21- April 19- Some-one new has caught your eye! There is every potential for things to become as hot and heavy as you desire. Be mindful of a tendency on their part to be possessive. You may find yourself bending happily to another’s wishes.

Taurus-April20-May21- Some-one may be really pushing a certain relationship issue with you at this time. Don’t stress. Choose to participate in what is actually in front of you, only. Be bold when expressing your desires and concerns with another.

Gemini-May21-June20- With the full moon energy this month, you may be experiencing some seri-ous hot stuff with someone extra spicy! You feel as though your head is in the clouds, enjoy. Is this love? Is this a love interest? Are you falling in love?

Cancer-June21-July22- Let that someone know exactly how you really feel. You are glowing with excitement about this partnership. Stay grounded with regular outside activity, such as hiking. This is the kind of love that poets write about!

Leo July23-August22- This month be-gins with feelings of romantic love like in the movies. Is it a dream come true? You have a natural tendency to become possessive with partners, curb it! A secret getting out could potentially kill the sexy mood.

Virgo August23-September22- Is this a new romantic twist to an existing affair? You are falling into bliss month and a question-ing public will certainly demand details. Things could get crazy. Expect the unexpected and an end of the month gift!


JYOTI

Libra September23-October22- Now is a time of a spiritual cross-roads for Libra. You feel your mind opening up to different do-mestic possibilities. Sexual energy is raging high this month. Expect and plan on a big conversation with your someone.

Scorpio October23-November21- A new love interest for you? This will be very erotic and exciting while it lasts, but not a deeply bonded connection. Your natural, playful nature will be alluring to this person, but you feel almost instant feelings of entrapment.

SagittariusNovember22-De-cember21- This month finds you wanting to stick close to home. You’ve been longing for some private time recently. You spend quality time nurturing a current relationship. The end of the month will simmer with sensuality.

CapricornDecember22-Jan-uary19- An existing business friendship is about to get per-sonal. An intense conversation around the 8th changes your whole world perspective. This is exciting and sexy. Sexual ten-sion builds as tempers flare over heated discussion. Enjoy.

Aquarius January20-February18- A tempting love interest from the past will reappear. You are a smooth talker and will quickly win this person over. They may be too possessive for you. If you feel stifled, you are over it.

Pisces February19-March20- An old love affair may present itself with new flames! Be cautious! There is a tendency towards possessiveness that you don’t seem to mind. Could this be the “one”? Enjoy this person’s company. The end of the month will bring peaceful resolve about where this is going.

[FEATURE]


AUTHOR

[MONTHLY]

Bringing it Back 20002000

Leap Year2000th year of the Common Era

Last year of the 20th Century Last year of the 2nd millennium

1st year of the 21st century 1st year of the 3rd millennium

Top events of 2000American Online Purchases Time Warner for $162 Billion (the largest corporate merger ever.)

Playstation 2 is released becoming the best selling video game console of all time9 people die at the Roskilde Festival in Demark while Pearl Jam performs

Top 10 Grossing Films of 2000Mission Impossible II

Gladiator

Cast Away

What Women WantDinosaur How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Meet the Parents

The Perfect Storm

X-Men

What Lies Beneath


Top 10 selling Albums of 2000 by Soundstream

‘N Sync – No Strings Attached

Eminem – The Marshall Mather’s LP

Britney Spears - Oops I Did It Again

Creed – Human Clay

Santana – Supernatural

The Beatles – 1

Nelly – Country Grammar

Backstreet Boys – Black& Blue

Dr. Dre – The Chronic 2001

Destiny’s Child – The Writing’s on the Wall

[FEATURE]


SUZANNE BRONSON

A SPOT FOR POETRY

The Name Spoken But then she said your name.Calling your image,She brought your presence to her;An embrace of textThat fell around her like a blanket.Her voice brought whatHer heart had seen.And that name falling from her lips –Soothing, strengthening –I saw you standing next to her.

Heaven

Nobody sees that the camera made youWith a power to reach

And how much this imageCaptivates like new religion.

You can sell heavenIn just one smile.

[FEATURE]


AUTHOR

Movie ThrowbackMovie: Die Hard

Year: 1988

Directed By: John McTiernan

Written By: Jeb Stuart based on a novel by Roderick Thorp.

Staring: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, and Alan Rickman

Die Hard, the introduction to one of the greatest action hero’s; John McClane. On his visit to Los Angeles this NYPD officer finds himself trying to save his wife’s life in a brand new skyscraper that has been taken over by Russian terrosist’s McClane fights his way through the whole movie without shoes. This was the first of four Die Hards with yet another in production. Many action movies since have bitten the innovation in filming that came about with Die Hard. So go dig through you old VHS tapes or log into your Netflix account and watch this timeless action movie.

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AUTHOR

[FEATURE]


AUTHOR

[FEATURE]

INSIDE THE MIND OF...

JazzB


By: Tyler Malnerich

When you ask JazzB, where he’s from, he would tell you the planet Chromitron by way of universal portals at the stop of three and one four.This thirty- year old music producer has a style unique as he is. JazzB started producing music at the end of 1996 when he released his first album “While You Where Sleeping”. “I really got into making mu-sic in 2001 when I got a good studio mic and really started to understand the dynamics of production.” “ I use a lot of older production equip-ment because I think there is an eclectic value to it. But just like any musician if I had the dough I would buy better stuff.” JazzB says the difference be-tween his first album “While You Were Sleeping” and his latest release “Mirror Rules” was “With the first album the beats were loops, samples, and lots of Sequencing. As with the new album there is a lot more live sampling with live instru-ments and getting a lot more involved in the making of the album.”I asked the producer what is favorite part of making mu-sic was. He told me “It’s that momentary lapse of time and space that happens in your mind when you are feeling you own music. That is it. That is why I keep doing it. It’s not the mastering of the album or

the performing.”JazzB says that there is no real message embedded in his mu-sic and if there were it would to try and find something new in a sound. “If someone were to find my music post apoca-lypse, they would probably think a computer ate a bunch of hot tamales and had some kind of explosion.” When talking to JazzB, I found myself wondering what kind of music that he listed on his average day, and what he did when he was not making mu-sic. He told me that Jazz, hip-hop, and rap the most. “I don’t listen to as much rock and roll as I used to. My favorite things to do are hang out with my son and play Minecraft.” I then asked him where he saw his music five years from now? His answer was kind of inter-esting, “I don’t know, I don’t know where it is now. I’m not looking for anything so I don’t know what to expect.” There is a full other side to JazzB; the man has an eleven-year-old son, Nickolas. I as ked him what is was like be-ing a father in today’s world. “It’s scary man, I think about what my son is going to see in the future. He is very intel-ligent and knows a lot about computers and technology but I don’t know how much of that will be around in the future. The way the world is going he will probable need to

learn how to fish and hunt. Al-though the future could hold a lot of fun fro him. JazzB gave me his advise to the world, “The most important thing is human life, Period. If you can carry that with you I think that a lot of things start to make more sense. If you realize how much each life is important man, woman, and child, especially children. Children are being mistreated and I don’t like that. Treat people like you treat yourself unless you treat yourself like shit. That would be my advise to the worldIf you would like to find any of JazzB’s music most of it can be found on itunes or amazon.com. Take a listen for your-self and explore a whole new galaxy when it comes to elec-tronic production. JazzB will be releasing Zombots Volume 2 this summer. Zombots Vol-ume 2 is a mixtape made for The Spot Magazine that made its’s debut at the Desert Rocks Music Festival last year and looks to be at the same venue this year.

[FEATURE]


AUTHOR

[SUBMISSION]

DiscordianPilot a Script by: Nathan Herald

Opening:

Image: devil’s advocate spinning onto screen, ricocheting around screen; as it resolves itself: fade in: where have all the [jesters/pranksters/goof balls] gone?

Music: something cacophonous or discordant.Fade out

Scene One:

Image: Video of monkey sticking finger in butt and sniffing it.VO: it’s hard to believe that modern man is related to this creature, but it is true. Just take a look at this

video of a normal man, in the throes of indecision.Image: Video of man sticking finger in butt and sniffing it.

VO: that is why we have chosen you, the chosen one, to bear witness to this choice bit of chosen infor-mation, that if you chose so, will help you chose the choice of your choosing from the choices offered to

be chosen from.

Scene Two:Image: Old b&w video from 50’s movie of a kid.

Kid: well, jeez mister, what does that mean?Image: Video clip of nuclear bomb explosion.

VO: Sorry Jimmy, but you were not chosen for the choice bits to be chosen from. Now do you un-derstand why you were chosen for this? (two second pause) Good. Now open your books to page pi

squared and read a letter to the editor from Fnord.

Scene Three:Image: Video of an open bible.

VO: And thus did the all knowing, all hearing, all seeing comprehend everything. And in its compre-hension, understood that it could not understand. Perplexed and confused by this anomalous paradox, it did what any omniscient, omnipresent being would do. It went to the local bar, got drunk and picked

a fight with another all knowing, all being, etc, etc, being – the ensuing –Second Voice: (echoing) ensuing, ensuing, ensuing…

VO: (to second voice) Knock it off.Second voice: I don’t think it’s a word.

VO: what? Ensuing?Second Voice: yeah, just listen to it… ensuing… it just doesn’t sound like a word.

VO: (irritated) The Ensuing fracas created the universe, made of broken teeth, blood, spit, and various expletives.

Second Voice: I don’t think that fracas is a word either.Sound Effect: Gunshot.

Second Voice: Dude, you missed.


NATHAN HERALD

Scene Four:Title: How I found the Goddess and what I did with her when I found her

Image: Old year book photo, with mouth edited to speak.Photo: I first discovered the goddess after I received a telegram for my roommate at college. It was ad-dressed to him, but he wasn’t in at the time, and I was pissed that he had drank the rest of the Moose

Drool and fucked my girlfriend. I opened it up and read his mail.

Cut to: hands opening a telegram.

Image: Close up of telegram

VO: To: Jehova Yahweh, Care of: Celestial Hotel (Suite #666), Presidential Tier, Paradise (clears throat), Dear God; This is to inform you that your current position as deity is herewith terminated due to gross incompetence STOP Your check will be mailed STOP Please do not use me for a reference. (beat) Re-

spectfully, Malaclypse the Younger/Omnibenevolent Polyfather, POEE High Priest.

Photo: After I read the letter, I figured I should get the hell out of there. Once he got wind of the fact that he had been fired from his job, I knew he would go on one of his (mocking) ‘Oh I must smite thee’ kicks and start blasting people into the hereafter. As far as I was concerned, he could have all my stuff, as well

as my girlfriend.d Pilot

Scene Five:VO: Already too much has been revealed. If you are not worthy, keep watching this space for updates. If you are worthy, you already know what needs to be done. When in doubt, Consult your pineal gland –

barring that, wave your genitals at nuns.Fade out

Fade inImage: A poorly scrawled message on a bit of cardboard.

Message: The ancient Greeks were not influenced by the ancient Greeks.Image: sign flipped over, completely black background filling the entire screen, white even lettering:

Message: DO NOT CIRCULATE!Fade out

Copyleft 2012 The Mewniphisent El Lurkr de Lank, POEE, ATM, STD, BMF, XYZPDQ, Pope at large for the smaller greater Western Slope Region of a 1000 sq. ft block of CMU.

[FEATURE]


AUTHOR

[SUBMISSION]

The Life and Times of a First Person ShooterBlue sparks jump all around me. Regeneration energy swirls about my body like a cosmic dance as I awaken in an environment that is totally unfamiliar. It’s a grey room. Barely a second passes to take in my surrounding before my bio-radar posts an ‘enemy life sign’ alert on the corner of my helmet’s scanner screen.Hostile approaching from the right. A quick turn and a few taps on the trigger sends a barrage of bul-lets splaying toward some kind of abomination, which until recently was running full-speed in my direc-tion. After flying across the room, it snarls and snaps; writhing hid-eously in its death throes. Looking at the lifeless thing, I could almost believe that it was once human. But the blood stains on its long claws and fangs, tell me that it hasn’t been human for some time. The story I’ve heard is that these creatures supposedly occupy the next evolutionary rung, which means that after some intense genetic therapy they’ve stopped being homo-sapiens and prefer to eat them instead. That’s something for all of us to look forward to, but the next metamorphosis is what I’ve been waiting for. This next evolutionary metamor-phosis is what I’ve been waiting for and looking forward to.

Slowly, the thing begins to dissolve before my very eyes. As its corpse slowly fades from existence, a small amount of money suddenly appears where its body used to be. I run over to collect it. This creature was bigger than the ones in the last bunker. If there are more like this sucker, then gonna definitely need more fire-power.

I listen to my player with servile devotion; very rarely had he led me astray. So I unerringly follow his will. My combat rifle flips into a pistol, into a sniper rifle, into a shotgun. Yeah that’s what I need: fully automatic six chamber repeat-ing shotgun. It feels right. Who knows what’ll be coming at me in this maze. As I begin to move, the bar-rel of the shotgun stays just within my eye line, gently bouncing with my footsteps. Be careful going around the corner. While bringing my gun to ready, I scan the corridor: all clear. The hallway is long so I begin to run. To do this I have to lower my gun. Still, I can feel the godlike compulsion of my player. Caution is prudent, look around. No enemies here, so do a quick sup-ply recon. There, behind that torn medieval tapestry.Out of the corner of my eye I catch a familiar green light marking an unopened supply case. I have to do little more than point my gun at the case and it opens with a hy-draulic hiss. Let’s see what’s in here that I need. Rifle ammo (clips full), grenades (take one: now full up), a land mine (these are never any use) and night-vision goggles (take ‘em). Those are new. I grab what I think I either need, or can sell later, before I head back down the hallway. This bunker seems omi-nous, like some mad Nazi-scientist’s nightmare. Though this cramped passage is almost at an end and I can tell that there is an open cham-ber ahead of me. The deeper I get into this place, the stronger my apprehension grows. As I walk into the open space, I check out my new surroundings. No hostiles. Still, survey everything. Miss nothing.

The first thing I notice is a stained rug, covering the center of the floor. Beyond that, a small set of steps lead down to three different exits. In the middle of the far wall an iron portcullis blocks huge wooden dou-ble doors. Situated on either side of the foreboding passage are smaller, less imposing portals. On the side walls hang some long red banners. The vibrant red threads and the ab-stract cross-like insignia in the mid-dle of them, tell me that the vicious sect of monster-making fascists that I’ve been trying to destroy (x), hung these banners next to the?. For as long as I can remember, I have been led by a fanatical improvidence to take up arms against them. (x) In the first place. Look behind you!Shit! My mind was drifting. I almost missed the bogey coming up on my six. He’s identical to the one I blew away a few seconds before. He gets a swipe on me, doing mid-level dam-age to my iconic resonance shields, but two face shots with my shotgun quickly take him down before he can inflict any more carnage. In-stantly my shields begin to regener-ate as its body disappears. This one didn’t leave us spoils, but what’s that in the corner of your vision?Damn. What do ya know? I almost missed something in this room. The doors on the far wall can wait. Before I head down the steps, I do a one-eighty. Above the entryway is a small ledge, holding a money pouch similar to those I have found lying around in other areas of this castle. This one, however, is too high for me to grab. Equip adhesion gloves.Right, this is a good time to use the glove device that I found after that battle where I destroyed that gigantic zombie-like snake crea-


Douglas Morgan Sumner

ture. While the gloves usually allow me to latch onto certain off-color sections of the walls, they also have another use. As my shotgun disap-pears, my hands rise into my vision wearing the gloves. Their gravi-tational force which occasionally helps me cling to precarious ledges, actually distorts the space directly in front of my eyes. Pointing the gloves towards the money pouch and activating their forces has the desired effect: the pouch is pulled from the ledge directly into my hands. The digital money meter in my helmet appears in the top right corner and registers fifty more dol-lars in my wallet.Continue the quick sweep. Ok, looks good. Nothing else seems to be here. Be back in a second.Wait, what just happened? It’s as if my legs are completely frozen. I want to move but can’t. The doors in front of me mockingly taunt my explorative nature. Thank goodness my bio-scanner tells me that there are no enemies around. I know I’m alright to be here, but the desire, yet inability, to move forward is excru-ciating. This waiting accomplishes nothing. It is more than a little disconcerting that the ability to do anything has been taken from me. This is not the first time I’ve been similarly paralyzed. In the past, in other dungeons and bunkers, I’ve experienced this same phenom-enon. After enough time has passed all I have the ability to do is say one of my catchphrases. It’s not much but at least I can exert some kind of will. Such a time is approaching. Four…three…two… one…“I’m startin’ to feel as old as your granny.” Weird!!!While I can talk, I still don’t know who I’m talking to. Whose granny? Sometimes a simple phrase gets me going again. This time it seems

I still have to wait. But who am I waiting for. After a few minutes I’m coming up with another phrase. Five…four…three… but I don’t get the chance. Suddenly my ability to move re-turns and I’m on the go again. Go toward the doors. I check the big door first: the port-cullis blocks its use. That’s prob-ably where I eventually need to go. Somewhere around here there has to be a key to raising that iron barrier. I better try one of the other doors; the key’s probably there. I move near the door on the left and it automatically opens inward. Im-mediately my bio-sensors go crazy. MUTANTS! FIRE AND KILL!My instincts are screaming, so I open up a splay barrage. There are three mutants there. They try to overwhelm me in this small space, but I have already taken one out with three blasts of my shotgun. I get the second with two headshots, but the third is tricky. The last mu-tant has maneuvered into position, before I can get the last shot off. Shit, out of shells!Its claws and teeth start tearing at me. Within a second my energy shields are depleted, and now I’m taking serious damage. Damn shotguns are always so slow to reload. An eternity of seconds passes while I place more shells in the chambers. There, reloaded and cocked. Turning around, I notice that this mutant has only half its life-meter filled. One shot to the face and the bastard drops (x) where it stands. Money and ammo appear on the ground. It dropped assault rifle clips. Can’t pick ‘em up: inventory’s full up on rifle clips. While my energy shield rebuilds,

I take all the cash but leave the ammo. Looking around the room, I’m a bit disappointed. There’s not even a supply box, only a pulsat-ing, glowing lever on the back wall which I go ahead and pull. The sound of scraping metal tells me that the portcullis in the main chamber has been raised. My guess is that the big doors are now un-locked but I haven’t fully explored the whole area yet. As nothing else is in this side passage, I decide go back out to the other small door on the far side of the antechamber. I always like to clear one level before I advance to another. This one opens right away, leaving me staring into the abyss of what looks like another long hallway, but this time there are no lights to illuminate the passage. Flip guns again. Combat rifle becomes modified pistol. If it had a caliber, my guess would be some-thing outrageous like .541. All I really know is that the bullets are big and I only need to use one hand for this gun. That gives me options. My free hand can hold a spare torch that I’ve picked up for situ-ations like this. Having a torch in one hand and a gun in the other is a good technique that’s helped me in the past. The torch only illuminates a few feet in front of me, so I begin to inch forward slowly. I’m only a little ways down the hallway when growls and roars from various creatures tell me that things have become FU-Bared. A little too late, my sensors go crazy.FUCK! FUCK! MUTANTS ALL AROUND!!!I try to hit their heads to invoke critical shot damage, but this gun isn’t able to reduce the amount of hit-points I need for each shot to eliminate (?).

[SUBMISSION]

Ditch the torch, get a bigger gun. Flip gun. Darkness envelops me and I don’t even know what weapon I’m holding, but according to my count I should be on sniper rifle. Flip gun. I should be back on shot-gun. FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!Six rounds, I’m out. Reload. I’m taking on more damage since I can’t see where my enemies are. I’m only getting a glimpse of them through the flash of my gunfire. Reloaded! GO! I fire again and again. With each flash of light more and more mu-tants appear. Reload dammit! It’s too much! I’m going down. Shit, so this is how my life ends!Game Over. Would you like to try again?Yes.Blue sparks swirl around me once more and I wake up in the same hallway as last time. Like a violent messiah I have been resurrected to right the wrongs of the previous situation. Already I have a different strat-egy. First, check inventory. Okay. Money and ammo from the last monsters are still there. So are the night-vision goggles. Let’s go ahead and equip those, and flip the gun back to sniper rifle. Through my new eyewear, the world has turned a digital green and the damage counter I had on my last goggles has disappeared from my view. The few torches in this hallway don’t seem to glare that badly, so I’ll just keep the goggles equipped for now.I run back down the hallway to the three doors. The left door has re-mained open and clear of enemies, but the right door is closed again. I go over to open it once more.

With my night-vision, I can see down the whole corridor. There at the end are about twenty mutants, the like of which I’ve never seen. They look like a mix between dogs, lions, and porcupines. They haven’t noticed me yet. Crouch, sniper sight up. Center the head of one of the beasts. Careful not to drift too far and…FIRE! The bullet hits the thing straight in the skull. It goes down. I under-stand how to beat these things now. Their bodies are protected by some kind of shell so I have to make head shots.The other mutants have noticed me, so a few begin to charge. Next round loaded, exhale, FIRE! Another of the beasts drops. It’s a long hallway which works in my favor. I get three more of the mon-sters before the sixth animal reaches me. Flip gun, flip gun, flip gun…Finally!…Assault Rifle. Now let it rip!The night vision makes it easy to target the head. The animal falls dead. The remaining four try to flank and surround me, but I’m shooting like a madman. One by one, I drop them. When I drop the last one, more ammo appears but there’s no money on these things. Oh well, restock what you can.Crossing over all the dead bodies, I make my way to the end of the hall. There’s another lever, so I pull it. I hear another click and then the sound of a door opening. The wall to my right looks funny. I shoot it revealing a hidden supply case. There’s a permanent shield-booster in this one. Take that for sure. Other than that, this hallway is a dead end. Instead of rushing back to the main door, which is undoubtedly un-locked, I take a few moments to let

my shield and health regenerate. One more second. Ready to go.That ought to do it. Health restored, shields full. Fully-automatic assault rifle is good. Ammo good. I’m al-most ready. Back down the hallway I can see the light from the other chamber so I unequip my night-vision gear and put back on my other eyewear. My damage counter appears again, and this model helps to increase my accuracy stats. Back down the hallway, I come to the big doors. Here goes. I open the now unlocked door and there be-fore me is a laboratory coated with blood and guts of unlucky victims. Slowly I enter. After a few steps I’m frozen. Reality (x) comes like a hyper-attentive charade as the scene (x) animatic begins. I’m outside myself watching a monster drop(x) from the ceiling and to show me its big teeth and tentacles. It looks like something you would get if a hu-man and squid could mate Be thankful they can’t. The abomination thrusts the tenta-cles into the ground, which instant-ly appear beneath me and toss me high into the air. Fortunately, I land on my feet.The cut-scene ends. When the game resumes I have movement again and the boss fight begins. FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!Round after round hits the target and already I am doing damage to the monster. Tentacles shoot up from the ground and almost grab me. Dodging to the left, I retaliate with a full clip. “ARRGH!” The mutant yells in pain.I smile in anticipation of a righteous battle! If I know anything about myself and my player, then I know this ugly squid-lookin’ son-of-a-bitch is going down.


AUTHOR

[MONTHLY] Sara Witsken

KEEPING UP WITH SUSTAINABLE ROOTS

Every volunteer that has worked for Sustainable Roots can tell you that the work isn’t easy. Talya Dewey is in the throws of discovering just what it takes to keep the Ecuadorian portion of the work moving. She arrived in Cosanga mid January and began the task of wading through a new culture a new language and a new job. Megan Mcgrath and Joslyn Funez joined her in mid February. These three amazing young women are carry-ing out all of the on the ground operations in Ecuador.

Four days a week they teach two English classes a day in the primary school, and the kids really are starting to grasp the new language. Walking through Cosanga one can hear bits of English vocabulary coming out of kids mouths “One dog”, says Julie, one of our second grade students. Five days a week they teach English to the high-school students in town, we now have around 20 students in regular attendance to this voluntary after school class. Three days a week they teach an adult English class, so far with two fateful attendees. And on Sundays they work on building Sustainable Roots second greenhouse.

Building the second greenhouse has been an immense challenge and great learning experience. We have had to rip up the structure of the greenhouse in order to move it to a better location. Then we had to move it again because we measured wrong. We have had mis-communication, missed mingas, and frustration galore with this project, but perseverance is winning out. We are two work days away from completing the structure

and beginning the process of working the soil. After a year of struggle we should be planting vegies by the end of April.

Toni Walter’s life is somewhat of a whirlwind. She left Ecuador February 8th knowing that she would have to return in under 30 days to keep her visa paperwork cur-rent. She flys out again March 6th and plans on facili-tating a short trip to the Amazon basin with the high school students helping expose them to the beauty of their own country. There are many fundraisers up and coming to help keep up the progress, so keep your eyes open for them!

Sara Witsken has been working with the high school students in in Grand Junction at R5. For the entire year so far, the afternoon class was really just time for her to sit alone in a classroom until she finally realized that no one was going to show. In this last month, however, the afternoon class has been more involved than the morn-ing classes. In this month alone they have learned how to play go fish in wonderfully timid Spanish, say nearly every number in between one and one hundred, and have learned how to say if they are happy, sad, confused, or angry. It was a wonderful moment when she asked the students if they remembered anything from the pre-vious classes, and in one breath a student said “Yo estoy feliz, y yo tengo un dos” which means “I am happy and I have a two.”


[FEATURE]


AUTHOR

[FEATURE]


AUTHOR

[FEATURE]

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