Fun with the Ekstroms
“Mom?” Matthew called out to me a few weeks ago—I forget which state we were in at the time. “Yes,” I replied. “Will we be home in time for Halloween?” “No, we're going to extend our trip by a couple more weeks, remember?” “Then I just want you to know that I will be all out of candy,” he solemnly informed me. Holiday candy is a serious affair at our house. Halloween candy lasts until Easter and April's Easter & birthday candy lasts until Halloween.
Well, this year Matthew got to go trick-or-treating in Phoenix, dressed as a jedi knight, complete with light sabre. How cool is that! 
We went to Phoenix to see Ken & Mary Ann Ekstrom and their two sons. Ken and Young-il were roommates at Caltech and best men in each other's weddings. Ken is one of those geniuses who could have easily gone on for a Ph.D. at Caltech but, instead, chose to go into international development work. After 5 years in Guatemala, he spent 16 years working with Food for the Hungry, based in Phoenix. Young-il and I visited them in Nicaragua in '96 when they were setting up Food for the Hungry's work there. We were struck by the overall poverty of the country and the success of the project's program to improve villagers' diet, economy, and self-sufficiency by introducing basic appropriate-technology gardening through local village leaders. Once F/H's program was in place and under Nicaraguan leadership, Ken and Mary Ann returned to Phoenix and Ken entered the private sector (but we expect it won't be long before they'll be back with Food for the Hungry once again). 
It was wonderful to see them after all these years and to meet each others' kids. Young-il and Ken fell into Tech-speak. I plied Ken's encyclopedic knowledge for information about native American tribes in Arizona (Ken's parents wrote primers for the Hopi language and translated the New Testament into Hopi). And Mary Ann and I talked about homeschooling. We all played some family games. And Matthew got to go trick-or-treating in Michael's old jedi knight costume. We had a lovely time with some dear friends!
--Cindy
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