Tag Archives: Karia’s Path

Family, rice and beans

23 Dec

With friends and family, even the simplest meal can be a joy, Karia believes. I think that’s clear in this passage from The Hall of the Prophetess:

This left Karia to eat alone again. Up until she was fifteen, she seldom did anything alone. She was always with family or Nana, or with Timbal and Narek – though she later learned they were family too. Since then she had learned to do many things alone. But of all those things, her least favorite thing to do alone was eat.

With friends and family, any meal can be a celebration, and even the most mundane meal is delightful when the conversation is good. Alone, a meal becomes simply an opportunity to satisfy hunger. And to Karia, that made even the most elaborate meal mundane.

She picked at a very tasty dish of noodles in a red sauce containing finely chopped but unfamiliar vegetables and herbs. She tapped her hard roll against her plate. She sipped her wine. It was a very good white wine, served in a crystal goblet. But she barely tasted it, and the flowery bouquet went mostly unnoticed. The plate was covered with gold filigree, as were the utensils. But she would have gladly traded it all for a wooden spoon and a wooden bowl full of hinarka and kariki with her mom and dad. Or even just her mom.

She sat back and pushed the plate away.

Will you help us provide rice and beans so needy families in Nicaragua can sit down together for a simple meal?

In December, for every book sold in the series, The Day Magic Died, $1 goes to the Rice & Beans Foundation. Rice & Beans Foundation will use 100 percent of the funds they receive to buy rice and beans (what else did you expect?) for needy families in Nicaragua.

That $1 buys a family’s meals for a day.

So you can, quite literally, enjoy the journey and feed a family.

Can you spread the word, so we can feed many, many families?

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What if all you had was rice and beans?

21 Dec

If you’ve read Karia’s Path, the second book in the series The Day Magic Died, you might remember this passage:

As the afternoon drew to a close and the sun sank toward the horizon, the trees began to thin again. The swamp became shallower, and there were more and more open patches with reeds. When they came upon a relatively dry patch of ground about an hour before sunset, they decided to make camp. Happily, this dry patch had a few trees, so that meant a place for the hammock and dry sticks scattered around on the ground for a fire.

Since it was still light, they got a fire going and she cooked some hinarka and kariki the way Karia’s mom cooked it for her dad. She was very pleased when Gerik liked it, and she realized this was the first time she had cooked for him. This was not exactly the dish she would have chosen, or the place, but it still seemed rather romantic.

Rice and beans – or in this case, hinarka and kariki – was all Karia had to cook.

That’s how it is for many poor people in Nicaragua. Living on $2 a day doesn’t provide for much more than what is absolutely necessary. So receiving $1 worth of rice and beans is a big deal for them – a big help with their daily costs of living.

This month, $1 from the sale of each book in my series, The Day Magic Died, will go to Rice & Beans Foundation. They’ll use 100 percent of those funds to provide rice and beans to needy families in Nicaragua.

Tell your family. Tell your friends. Tell complete strangers.

Enjoy the journey and feed a family.

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Ten families fed, thanks to you

17 Dec
Thanks!

Thank you!

You are already feeding ten families for a week!

That’s the amount of rice and beans that Rice & Beans Foundation will be able to purchase because you’ve chosen to enjoy the journey this month. In December, $1 from each purchase of any book in my series, The Day Magic Died, is going to feed needy people in Nicaragua. Each dollar provides enough to feed a family for a day.

Think about that for a moment. Already you’ve provided the equivalent of enough rice and beans to feed ten families, not for a day, but for a week each.

We’re past the middle of the month, so I think we’re on track to perhaps feed 15 families for a week by the time we’re done. This is great. Thank you for working together to help others.

But do you think maybe we can push together to feed 20 families?

Would you invite your friends to enjoy the journey and feed a family? Will you encourage them to buy a book this month? Or will you buy a book for them as a gift?

Each purchase in December feeds a family for a day. Please share the journey, and feed lots of families!

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How many families can we feed?

9 Dec

I hope you’re enjoying the journey, because we’re already feeding families.

Thanks to all of you who have helped by purchasing books this month. Every book sold is generating $1 so Rice & Beans Foundation can buy rice and beans for needy families in Nicaragua.

And your response has me wondering (in a good way) … how many families can we feed?

Lots – if we help our friends take the journey too.

In fact, that’s the key.

See, I can’t imagine many people buying more than a couple of books this month, for themselves or as gifts. That’s great, but it could be just a start.

You have friends. And if you’re enjoying the journey, you’ll want to take your friends along. I’d like to think that Karia’s world is so compelling that you’ll want to share it with your friends.

Think of it this way:

Want to feed a family for a week? You can, if you and six of your friends each buy a book.

And maybe if enough of us do this, we can feed 100 families for a week.

Want to feed a family for a month? You can, if you and nine of your friends each buy a set of the books.

And maybe if enough of us do this, we could feed 100 families for a month.

There’s a limit to how much each one of us can do. But, if we take the journey together, there are no limits. With a little work, and a little encouragement to your friends, together we can make a huge difference in the lives of needy people in Nicaragua.

So share the journey, and feed lots of families!

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Enjoy the journey, and feed a family

2 Dec

What can I give you for Christmas that’s better than a free book?

An opportunity to make a difference.

In December, when you journey into Karia’s world and her quest by purchasing one of my books, you’ll be feeding a family.

Here’s how it works:

For each book in the series The Day Magic Died that is sold in December, I will give $1 to Rice & Beans Foundation of Phoenix, Arizona.

Rice & Beans Foundation will use the money to buy – what else? – rice and beans for needy families in Nicaragua, where $1 will provide enough food for a family for a day.

Why rice and beans?

Well, besides being a nutritious, filling meal, and a staple in Latin America, it’s also a staple for Karia and her family. Remember this from the first book, The House in the Old Wood?

Oh, and there in the back she found jiki, tiny red beans, and kariki, the larger dark red beans her dad liked. …

She remembered all the times he would push back from the table when times were tough and they were eating their tenth or eleventh or even twentieth meal in a row of boiled hinarka and kariki. He’d smile and say, “Failean, if all I have for the rest of my life is hinarka and kariki and you and Karia, I’ll be a happy man.”

And her mom would always reply, “Well, Reva, one day Karia is going to have a family of her own, and you’re going to eat up all the hinarka and kariki, so I hope you’ll be OK with just me!”

She laughed out loud at the memory of them smiling and kissing, then drawing her into their embrace. She wished it was all so simple again.

I think that to Karia, rice and beans – or hinarka and kariki, if you prefer – sort of means family. And the whole concept of making a difference is a big deal to the entire series. That’s why Karia chose to fight back, instead of just giving in to magic. What a great fit.

So this month, buy a book and feed a family:

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