Leave a Little Room Foundation

Audacious Audiopuzzles Book #1

2007-08-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated this blog in quite a while. We've been busy with a variety of activities since the last update. For example, we all enjoyed our annual Winter Coats distribution at the Samaritan House in November 2006. In the spring, Jessica and I taught a mini-electronics workshop for the 3rd Grade class at Loyola Catholic School in Denver. A collective of folks have started working on the eBooks initiative, which we plan to test next year in Ethiopia and Tanzania. I'll post a separate summary of that project as soon as I have a spare minute.

But today I just want to post an intro to Audacious Audiopuzzles Book #1. This has been one of the most fun projects we've worked on in our studio. It is an audiobook of 40 brainteasers, logic puzzles, and lateral thinking puzzles, all presented in the medium of sound. Karen Richards wrote the puzzles. Richard Holmes narrated. Mike, Nathan, Jason, and other folks contributed their talents too. We released the audiobook on July 13th, with its own website (www.audiopuzzles.com), and we are getting a lot of good feedback. I'm particularly delighted at the reception by communities of visually-impaired people. Audiobooks are popular in those communities, but there are not many puzzle-related audiobooks to be found. So we are receiving emails from teachers, librarians, parents, and young people who are visually-impaired and want to know more about Audacious Audiopuzzles.

I am learning about making our website more accessible for website visitors who use screen readers and other assistive devices. You'll see improvements soon in that direction.

Peace,
Donna Auguste

Tijuana Pediatric Clinic Project, Part 10

2006-08-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

Everyone was delighted with the finished project -- the folks from Hospital Infantil de las Californias, the local staff at the clinic, parents, kids, and folks from the adjacent elementary school. We were delighted too. God blessed us abundantly with a joyful outcome.

Giving all glory and honor to God,
Donna Auguste
www.LeaveaLittleRoom.org

Tijuana Pediatric Clinic Project, Part 9

2006-08-25T22:21:00.000-07:00

Eventually, it all started coming together. The sala with new benches, the roof complete with trim, the new steps with new paint, the whole exterior painted, leak stains on the ceiling handled, toilet was flushing (with some ongoing work with the septic tank), fence was painted and new locks were welded, door adjusted and painted ... wow, we were getting close to being done!

Peace,

Donna Auguste
www.LeaveaLittleRoom.org

Tijuana Pediatric Clinic Project, Part 8

2006-08-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

... and we worked and we worked and we worked...

Do you get the impression that we did some work? :-)

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.LeaveaLittleRoom.org

Tijuana Pediatric Clinic Project, Part 7

2006-08-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

We worked, we worked, we worked. Scraping, nailing, priming, caulking, and eventually painting. Day after day, with progress in small steps, we worked and we worked...

Peace,
Donna Auguste

www.leavealittleroom.org

Tijuana Pediatric Clinic Project, Part 6

2006-08-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

We had fun interacting with our neighbors in Nido de las Aguilas. Various kids came to help us with the work. Here are photos of some of the kids.

And the adults who helped us were invaluable. Sr Juan Carlos and Sr Alberto Beto were instrumental in helping us with the project:

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Tijuana Pediatric Clinic Project, Part 5

2006-08-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

After the first four posts about the project, I received lots of email questions. Many were about our day-to-day experiences. Here are some photos that show some of the day-to-day life that we observed or experienced.

The toilet that Sr Beto helped us to install receives water from a cistern. The cistern is filled by a water truck that drives through the neighborhood periodically. About 30 pesos to fill it up.

The market for buying fruit and other things ...

It's hard to describe the roads in the colonias. Some are paved and some are not. Further into the colonias area, the roads are very narrow. This photo gives you one perspective. The best description is that, when we share the road with another truck or bus, we pull in our side mirrors in order to pass by.

The baby chicks...

And the grapes for sale...

More to come in the next post...

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Tijuana Pediatric Clinic Project, Part 4

2006-08-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

Cobby and Ronnie headed for home, and our team of four tackled the roof. Stripping off the old roof took about a day. Brad trained us on how to work with tar. We put down felt and tar for the new roof so that it would be watertight over night, then went back to the hotel to collapse. Mucho trabajo!

Next day, we put on the new roof. Grateful that we had made the partial roof watertight the previous day, we worked in the rain for the first half of this day. Tarring, stapling, nailing ... We kept going; eventually the sun came out. Again, we were appreciating God keeping us safe as we worked on the roof in the rain. We were all careful and there were no mishaps. The new roof is excellent.

Peace,
Donna Auguste

www.leavealittleroom.org

Tijuana Pediatric Clinic Project, Part 3

2006-08-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

For our second full week of work, we were joined by three more volunteers from Denver: Brad Elbert (of Elbert Construction), Julie Cobb, and Julie's friend Ronnie.

Again, it rained unexpectedly, so three of us moved to some of the indoor tasks while the other three took the long trek to Home Depot. We rebuilt torn window screens, fixed cabinet doors, and attempted to mop the tons of mud we tracked into the trailer.

With Brad's expertise, lumber from Home Depot, and everyone's willing labor, we were able to construct a plywood awning over the waiting area outside of the trailer. It turned out awesome!

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Tijuana Pediatric Clinic Project, Part 2

2006-08-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

During our first full week of work, our focus was on repairing the iron fence and preparing it for new paint. The fence was very rusted and it was bent in a few places. Terry, definitely the strongest person on our team, bent parts of the fence and used a grinder to remove small pieces to bring it back into alignment. All of us, along with helpers from the community, used grinders to remove the rust and old paint. David joined us for the weekend, so we had about 8 people working simultaneously.

All of this was happening in 90+ degree heat and very high humidity, so if we look sweaty in these photos, well, we were!
Watermelon in the park helped to cool us down at the end of the day.

Rain came unexpectedly and we watched our beautiful iron fence oxidizing before our very eyes. Oh, no! We re-sanded to remove the new rust and quickly moved forward with primer to protect the iron fence until we are ready to paint in a few weeks.

During our first week, we asked one of the local handymen to help us with removal of the old, non-functional toilet, and installation of a new, working toilet. Sr Beto is his name, and he was a terrific help! He listened patiently to my broken Spanish and understood what we needed. He helped us to buy parts from a local hardware store, reducing our trips to Home Depot (45-minute drive from the worksite), and he got the new toilet installed. We greatly appreciate having a working toilet on-site.

Peace,
Donna Auguste

www.leavealittleroom.org

Tijuana Pediatric Clinic Project, Part 1

2006-08-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, July 19, 2006, a Global Outreach team of 3 people left Denver, driving the LLR Van and the LLR Truck, heading for Tijuana -- Donna, Terry, Natasha.

We drove for about 8 hours per day, enjoyed a brief stop at the Grand Canyon, and arrived in Tijuana on Friday at 6pm. We appreciate the prayers of our community and God looking after us for safe travel from Denver to TJ.

Saturday morning, we set out to purchase our initial supplies from Home Depot and setup our worksite at Nido de las Aguilas (Eagle's Nest), a hillside area of the impoverished colonias east of Tijuana. We had some difficulty finding our worksite because of the twists and turns of the roads. We found the area, but could not find our worksite. On Sunday, after mass at the local St Ignatius Loyola parish, we set out again, with our GPS into which I had previously loaded all the waypoints for the route, and we went directly there. Thank God for good technology tools!

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

2006-08-06T10:40:00.001-07:00

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2006-08-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

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2006-08-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

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More Engineers & Scientists

2006-02-14T07:58:00.000-08:00

While traveling and working in East Africa, I have often driven my fellow travelers crazy with my ramblings about ideas to stimulate the local economies. From online translation services that leverage the fact that many people in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda have wonderful multi-lingual skills, to "eBay" type supply chains to move produce from villages to urban areas, to tree farms for lumber industries.

I am watching, with great interest, how the mTurk model is emerging from Amazon.com, bringing together workers and work tasks across the internet.

http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome

In the past week, I read a book called "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. It's one of several readings for an upcoming reunion I have with my class from the Henry Crown Fellowship Program /Aspen Institute. Friedman provides an indepth, sometimes controversial, analysis of globalization, outsourcing, commerce connections between countries and continents, and emerging models of industry.

Friedman touches on a topic that is of personal interest to me -- the decline in US college enrollment for study in Engineering and Science fields. At least, the decline among American students. International students are flocking to US colleges and filling the gap. My background is Electrical Engineering and Computer Scientist. I spend a fair bit of time these days trying to encourage youngsters to consider careers in engineering and science, and I see the phenomenon that Friedman discusses: a lot of our kids don't want to study math, science, engineering, or technology. Even the kids who have the skills and have no other concrete career plan just kick the engineering suggestion to the curb, "Nah, too much work."

I had the benefit of a wonderful program called MESA when I was in high school -- Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement. Through the MESA program and its mentors, we were introduced to careers that could leverage our enthusiasm for math and science.

There are also efforts such as the FIRST international robotics competition that give kids an opportunity to apply their technology interests. Magnet schools that focus on science and technology are another way to encourage kids with this interest.

But, the numbers are still declining.

Friedman mentions the work of Dr Shirley Ann Jackson, a renown physicist and now president of RPI. I met Dr Jackson many years ago when I was a college student at UC Berkeley and had the opportunity to spend a summer at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ. Dr Jackson has a very interesting presentation on the RPI.edu website about "The Quiet Crisis -- Falling Short in Producing American Scientific and Technical Talent " -- http://www.rpi.edu/homepage/quietcrisis/

So I decided to start a discussion here on the LLR website about the topic of encouraging more youth to enroll in Engineering and Science college study. I have a few ideas and would like to brainstorm those and other ideas with everyone who shares this interest. Please invite your friends and colleagues to the discussion.

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Winter Coats 2005

2005-12-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

It's December 4th and time for our annual distribution of warm winter coats at The Samaritan House homeless shelter in downtown Denver. We have lots of volunteers from Cure d'Ars Catholic Church Global Outreach Ministry, Youth Group, In Praise Choir, and other folks who came down to the shelter to lend a helping hand. As we assist individuals and families to find just the right coat size and color, we know that we're blessed by the fellowship of meeting and chatting with all of these people who present to us the face of Jesus. Just a few weeks ago we all reviewed and prayed about the readings from Matthew 25 -- " Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, when you did it for one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it for Me.' " Jesus tells us to reach out to our brothers and sisters who are in need, and we do ... we are His hands.

And a special thank you, this year, to the folks who helped us provide little baby-size snow suits for the youngest of our homeless neighbors. One who you see photographed here with her father is not quite 3 weeks old.

Peace,

Donna Auguste

www.LeaveaLittleRoom.org

Global Outreach team of 100 builds 5 houses in Ensenada

2005-12-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

Our terrific team of 100 volunteers built 5 houses in Ensenada the weekend of November 11-13th. If you're wondering how that can be done in just a couple of days, here are some photos that will show you the tasks of painting, framing, roofing, installing windows, etc. But even more than the construction process is the wonderful fellowship that emerges as the volunteer Global Outreach teams come together with the Mexican families to build a home that transforms family life. God makes it all possible for amazing things to happen. We are His hands.

After a community blessing to send us forth from Cure d'Ars Catholic Church in Denver, Colorado, we meet our extended team at the San Diego airport. They come from California, Texas, Oklahoma, and Washington. We define five teams and give each team member a toolbelt with their "team color". At the work site, we define initial tasks, such as framing or painting. Then we get busy building a home.

We may look a little ragged when we're all finished building the house, but we are incredibly happy!

Peace,

Donna Auguste

www.LeaveaLittleRoom.org

Teaching kids about electronics and robotics

2005-10-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

Each year in March, Brother Gary Sawyer invites me to Loyola Catholic School (http://www.archden.org/schools/list/loyola.htm) to teach his third grade class about electronics and robotics. In fact, in February when I visit the school for their Annual Science Fair, the third graders are already asking me, "When are you coming for the electronics workshop?", having heard about it from the fourth graders.

We start out learning some vocabulary ...

Then we design a couple of basic circuits using batteries, wire, alligator clips, light bulbs and buzzers... Then we build our circuits. The buzzers are the most popular indicator of a successfully-built circuit!

We talk about college, engineering, inventing, and patents. We talk about faith, God, and prayer -- I usually give examples of how prayer has helped me keep going when the going gets tough.

Then we assemble and play with a Sony robot who knows how to dance!

It's always lots of fun. And, maybe some of these children will become engineers or scientists!

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

About Plumpy'Nut

2005-10-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

Several people have asked me for more information about the Plumpy'Nut product that we are using for famine relief in Uganda. I'll post a little bit of information here at this time, and add more information (e.g., details about packaging, ingredient quantities, and mitigating aflatoxin) later when I have more time available.

Plumpy'Nut is produced by a company called Nutriset, located in France. The website for Nutriset is http://www.nutriset.fr/en_index.php . There is an area of the website specifically for information about local production of Plumpy'Nut: http://www.nutriset.fr/news/index.php?nw=40&lg=2&lk=1

Plumpy'Nut is produced and commercially packaged at the Nutriset facility in Malaunay, France. The product is used in developing countries where famine and malnutrition are taking lives of young children, so Nutriset ships product to those countries. But the Nutriset staff also encourage communities in those developing countries to produce the product locally, close to where it is needed and at much lower cost than importing the product from France.

Most of the ingredients needed are found in local markets: Peanuts, powdered milk, sugar, and vegetable oil. The added ingredient comes from Nutriset -- a highly-concentrated nutrient mix in powdered form, comes in a can for making 50kg of Plumpy'Nut, which is over 1500 servings for the children.

The Leave a Little Room team decided to learn how to do this. One of our team members, Elizabeth Phillips, went to Malaunay, France so that the Nutriset team could teach her the production process. She then returned to Denver, gathered the production items that we needed, and taught a team of six LLR members to produce Plumpy'Nut in a local setting.

Then our team of six headed to Entebbe, Uganda to teach about 30 health care professionals in Gulu how to make this therapeutic baby food for the malnourished babies of that region.

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

2005-10-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Entebbe, we went to the customs staff to take delivery of 3 pallets of Plumpy'Nut baby food that we had arranged to ship from Paris to Entebbe. The customs staff had a problem with our paperwork, however, resulting in significant delays. Some of our team members stayed in the Kampala/Entebbe area to sort out the paperwork. The other team members went north to Gulu to prepare for and teach the training classes so that Plumpy'Nut could be produced and used locally.

In the market, we purchased the basic ingredients: raw peanuts, powdered milk, sugar, and vegetable oil. The only ingredient to be imported on an ongoing basis is a pre-mix additive from Nutriset. Combined, the basic ingredients and the pre-mix additive make 500kcal servings of a delicious baby food.

We sorted the raw peanuts to remove those that might have mold and aflatoxins under the skin of the peanut.

We roasted the peanuts -- a smokey task!

We took the peanuts to a grinder to make peanut paste... somewhat like peanut butter.

Then we gathered our eager students and went through the process to make several batches of Plumpy'nut.

The doctors and nurses in our training group took the fresh Plumpy'Nut back to the hospitals and showed the mothers how to feed it to the babies. The babies like the taste and gulped it down -- We were delighted because 500 good kilocalories just went into those little tummies!

Two days before our departure, our team in Entebbe gained release of our pallets of pre-made Plumpy'Nut from customs, and trucked it to Gulu. This amount will allow the hospitals and clinics to use Plumpy'Nut in their malnutrition treatment right away, while our new trainees ramp up production on a weekly basis.

We learned a tremendous amount each day -- sharing our cultures, thoughts, ideas, insights, faith, problems, and solutions. The fellowship was wonderful; we all went home tired and happy.

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Global Outreach Ministry in Uganda

2005-10-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

Partnering once again, Leave a Little Room and Cure d'Ars Catholic Community prepared to respond to a specific need in northern Uganda. The area of Gulu, Uganda has been ravaged by civil conflict for about 20 years. That situation has completely disrupted a generation of the previously-thriving agricultural lifestyle of the people of the region, resulting in starvation for the first time in the collective memory of the elders of that region.

Babies, under the age of five, are dying from starvation. That is the need we were called to see. Having learned about a new and innovative therapeautic baby food mixture called Plumpy'Nut, developed by a French company called Nutriset (www.nutriset.fr), our team traveled to Uganda to teach local health care providers how to produce this food using local ingredients. I'll post a series of blog entries about this project.

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Denver Catholic Register Article about Global Outreach Ministry

2005-10-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Wayne and Dede Laugeson for bringing their son's boy scout troop to help our Global Outreach team load one of the semi trucks for hurricane relief in Mississippi! Wayne then wrote an article about the Cure d'Ars Global Outreach Ministry for the Denver Catholic Register:

http://www.archden.org/dcr/news.php?e=149&s=4&a=3408

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

Welcome Gulf Coast Guests to Denver!

2005-10-04T15:40:00.000-07:00

How excited we were to learn that about 2000 people from the New Orleans area would be evacuated to Denver. After all they'd been through, and after helping them to get settled into temporary housing, wouldn't a picnic be fun to lift us all up a bit? Cure d'Ars Global Outreach grabbed the idea and ran with it.

With help from some NFL football players, our Knights and Ladies of Peter Claver at Cure d'Ars Catholic Church, and a multitude of volunteers from the church community, we had a great picnic. And, by the grace of God, we had the most beautiful weather anyone would ever hope for at the end of September in Denver, Colorado.

Bronco's fans start early in Denver ...

The football players taught the youngsters a few plays ...

Face-painting is popular ...

Food is always always popular...

The New Orleans Domino champs had a fun match with the Denver Domino champs ....

Checkers, art, and just running all around...

We thank God for all the wonderful fellowship!

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org

2005-10-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

When Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita swept through the Gulf Coast in September 2005, lives were turned upside down along with the buildings and cars. Cure d'Ars Catholic Church in Denver, Colorado has an active Global Outreach Ministry that immediately moved to respond to the people who were in need. We have served and shared fellowship with people in Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia -- now came the moment to serve and share fellowship with people in the Gulf Coast, USA.

Once we were able to establish communication with specific communities in Louisiana and Mississippi, we asked and listened to learn of the specific needs. We learned about houses gone and people sleeping in abandoned cars. We learned about churches demolished and folks celebrating mass outdoors. We learned about schools wiped away and teachers trying to restart classes in whatever building they could find, but with no textbooks. Ah, we can do something about this, instead of just watching the sad news unfolding on TV and weeping with concern! Like Nehemiah in the bible, we can pray and we can take action. So we did!

Putting the word out among friends, family, and co-workers, our Cure d'Ars community gathered donated clothing and shoes. Our folks went to local Denver stores and negotiated bargains for new items, such as toiletries, underwear, and medical supplies. Our folks sorted, boxed, labeled, and loaded several 18-wheeler semi trucks and sent those trucks directly into rural communities with great need, particularly in the area of Pascagoula and Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Young and older, each did what he or she could.

One 5-year-old tied shoelaces together so the pairs of used shoes would not get separated during transit. One elder in our community directed traffic as we sorted hundreds of boxes of clothing by size and gender. Those with strong backs lifted boxes. Those with vehicles provided transportation.

Everyone pitched in and made a difference to the recovery process for our brothers and sisters whose lives had been turned upside down by the hurricanes.

That, to me, is LOVE.

Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org