8/19/2012
no pain no gain
Photo taken in a nearby town to us. Fun school motto, sure to attract flocks of students.
8/16/2012
Worst Dad Ever
aka, Epic Dad Fail
So today is a big day in our family. Sports day happens once a year and
this is our last sports day at the primary campus. Also it's our
daughter's 13th birthday party. Our house has been a flurry of
activity. My wife has been cooking up a storm for this party/sleepover
of 11 teenage girls. Making everything from scratch, and I mean
everything! So this means that our daughter will be getting a ton of
attention. So dad, needs to be sure to spend a lot of attention on our
son too, since it's his last sports day.
"Dad if you can only attend 2 events it should be the sprint and the tug
of war, I'm anchor."
Typically I show up to sports day for an hour and go back to work, but
today, I put on the red t-shirt I bought on furlough, and showed up to
support the Red team my son was on. The kids here still have activities
and fun. Sports day is all about building character in the kids as well
as giving equal time to kids who may excel in sports but not in
academics. Of course some kids excel in both. The school is a very
academically tough school, so it's important to create opportunities to
let kids shine in whatever area they can. Sports day is hugely about
encouraging others, people cheer just as loudly for last place as well
as for first. I'm not one who thinks every participant deserves a
prize, but I do believe that sports day is a great opportunity to help
kids apply some of the stuff they've learned about how to treat others.
The boys had to do a 3 lap race, and my son had to pull out his inhaler
during it, and finished last, but he had a great attitude, was
participating and adults were coming up to me and saying 'your son has a
great attitude!' They were inspired by his well documented breathing
problems and yet his desire to participate.
By the time tug of war came around, he had three first place ribbons for
team sports, and 1 second place ribbon. This was the final and big event.
I stood by to capture it on video and to coach him, we practiced, he was
getting ready.
But then, according to him, the opposing team began pulling before the
whistle was blown. It caught a lot of boys in back of guard and they
went down quick, and were dragged.
Here's where I get the worst dad award.
I video'd the whole thing, and was laughing, hard, because... it was
funny. I thought my son was smiling and having fun, but a few moments
in I heard him screaming in pain. Apparently he was rope burned
everywhere, his pride was hurt, and his sense of 'rules' was really
offended. He was mad... and I calmed him down enough to rejoin the group.
He walked away with the sportsmanship award for the 6th grade boys. I
told him "son, this is the hardest and most rare award to win, I'm proud
of you." It's true, people can go their whole lives never really
learning sportsmanship....how to maintain a good attitude even when life
serves you rotten apples.
My son has gotten a few rotten apples this year, but he's a trooper and
his attitude inspires others.
Here's the video, I promise not to think ill of you if you laugh.
So today is a big day in our family. Sports day happens once a year and
this is our last sports day at the primary campus. Also it's our
daughter's 13th birthday party. Our house has been a flurry of
activity. My wife has been cooking up a storm for this party/sleepover
of 11 teenage girls. Making everything from scratch, and I mean
everything! So this means that our daughter will be getting a ton of
attention. So dad, needs to be sure to spend a lot of attention on our
son too, since it's his last sports day.
"Dad if you can only attend 2 events it should be the sprint and the tug
of war, I'm anchor."
Typically I show up to sports day for an hour and go back to work, but
today, I put on the red t-shirt I bought on furlough, and showed up to
support the Red team my son was on. The kids here still have activities
and fun. Sports day is all about building character in the kids as well
as giving equal time to kids who may excel in sports but not in
academics. Of course some kids excel in both. The school is a very
academically tough school, so it's important to create opportunities to
let kids shine in whatever area they can. Sports day is hugely about
encouraging others, people cheer just as loudly for last place as well
as for first. I'm not one who thinks every participant deserves a
prize, but I do believe that sports day is a great opportunity to help
kids apply some of the stuff they've learned about how to treat others.
The boys had to do a 3 lap race, and my son had to pull out his inhaler
during it, and finished last, but he had a great attitude, was
participating and adults were coming up to me and saying 'your son has a
great attitude!' They were inspired by his well documented breathing
problems and yet his desire to participate.
By the time tug of war came around, he had three first place ribbons for
team sports, and 1 second place ribbon. This was the final and big event.
I stood by to capture it on video and to coach him, we practiced, he was
getting ready.
But then, according to him, the opposing team began pulling before the
whistle was blown. It caught a lot of boys in back of guard and they
went down quick, and were dragged.
Here's where I get the worst dad award.
I video'd the whole thing, and was laughing, hard, because... it was
funny. I thought my son was smiling and having fun, but a few moments
in I heard him screaming in pain. Apparently he was rope burned
everywhere, his pride was hurt, and his sense of 'rules' was really
offended. He was mad... and I calmed him down enough to rejoin the group.
He walked away with the sportsmanship award for the 6th grade boys. I
told him "son, this is the hardest and most rare award to win, I'm proud
of you." It's true, people can go their whole lives never really
learning sportsmanship....how to maintain a good attitude even when life
serves you rotten apples.
My son has gotten a few rotten apples this year, but he's a trooper and
his attitude inspires others.
Here's the video, I promise not to think ill of you if you laugh.
8/14/2012
Herding Bees
Herding Bees
We had a bee infestation in our woodshed. I covered myself in denim and made a mask consisting of my jackaroo leather hat, and some fly wire (screen). I then sprayed the area with poison and the bees died. The next week I had an infestation under my house. Did the same thing, this time threw some mothballs around the location as well and calked up the hole. (mothballs are poison to bees). They died.
Then the next week I had an infestation in another area outside my house. Rinse, repeat. The bees seemed to enjoy moving between four locations. 3 of them on my property and one on my neighbors who did not at all enjoy having a nest of bees to contend with . So, I repeated until finally the bees decided to settle in a location on my property that wasn't as dangerous as the others, and there they lie.
So, if you want your bees moved, I'm sort of the pied piper of bees now. Only instead of playing a pipe, I spray poison.
We had a bee infestation in our woodshed. I covered myself in denim and made a mask consisting of my jackaroo leather hat, and some fly wire (screen). I then sprayed the area with poison and the bees died. The next week I had an infestation under my house. Did the same thing, this time threw some mothballs around the location as well and calked up the hole. (mothballs are poison to bees). They died.
Then the next week I had an infestation in another area outside my house. Rinse, repeat. The bees seemed to enjoy moving between four locations. 3 of them on my property and one on my neighbors who did not at all enjoy having a nest of bees to contend with . So, I repeated until finally the bees decided to settle in a location on my property that wasn't as dangerous as the others, and there they lie.
So, if you want your bees moved, I'm sort of the pied piper of bees now. Only instead of playing a pipe, I spray poison.
I smell ants
It's not as catchy of a line as 'I see dead people', but my life isn't a
movie. Maybe it should be, who would star as me?
Last night around midnight, I woke up, it was dark in the house and as I
headed to the bathroom I smelled a familiar smell and said out loud "I
smell ants."
My wife must have thought I was crazy, but she didn't. She said
'Where?'. I replied, "you don't think what I just said sounds crazy?"
She got up turned on the light and we looked, and sure enough, there
were a hundred or so ants crawling along the wall into a hole.
"No, you're not crazy, those black ants have a very definite smell", and
she pulled the covers back over her head.
Well, chalk that one up to "skills gained by adapting to your environment."
I can smell ants, at least this type. They tend to come in the house
when it's raining outside. I thought I was wrong, I thought I was just
associating the smell of ant poison with these ants, but my wife's
distinct lack of calling me crazy was all the proof I need that I
wasn't. She's usually the first to let me know when I'm being nuts.
I can also apparently herd bees. But that's.... a different story.
8/13/2012
Greek to me
This morning one of the legs of the network went out. (a UPS went bad,
so I had to replace it). The network closet is in the back of a class
room, in retrospect, not the best place to put it because we end up
having to wait for classes to be over. Today, it was a Hebrew class. I
stood outside the door as expats were teaching Papua New Guineans,
Hebrew. They were singing the alphabet in Hebrew.
It was interesting and odd. But the usefulness of it strikes me as two
purpose. There are artifacts all over the room and they were working on
their vocabulary, and as they were doing so... I observed in only 3
minutes what I see as two very useful reasons for such training. I'm
sure the instructors have many more uses.
1 - it teaches them how to do language learning via a process... a skill
vital to Bible translation....,ironically most of the people in this
course are already multi-lingual.
2 - it teaches them Hebrew, knowing source Hebrew is also vital in
translating the Bible.
so I had to replace it). The network closet is in the back of a class
room, in retrospect, not the best place to put it because we end up
having to wait for classes to be over. Today, it was a Hebrew class. I
stood outside the door as expats were teaching Papua New Guineans,
Hebrew. They were singing the alphabet in Hebrew.
It was interesting and odd. But the usefulness of it strikes me as two
purpose. There are artifacts all over the room and they were working on
their vocabulary, and as they were doing so... I observed in only 3
minutes what I see as two very useful reasons for such training. I'm
sure the instructors have many more uses.
1 - it teaches them how to do language learning via a process... a skill
vital to Bible translation....,ironically most of the people in this
course are already multi-lingual.
2 - it teaches them Hebrew, knowing source Hebrew is also vital in
translating the Bible.
8/08/2012
Marik
MORE than three thousand people in the Transgogol area of Madang District who speak the Marik language will now be able to read the New Testament Bible in their own language. This follows about thirty six years of hard work by bible translators from the PNG Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). The New Testament translation in the Marik language was launched over the weekend and marked by cultural singing and dancing and choirs by the local people at Gonoa Village. The translator Hyun Mo Sung who hails from Korea said soon after the launch that it had been a huge challenge trying to translate the New Testament. He attributed the success to God, as well as the passion in him that had pushed him to complete the translation.
Mr Sung said he and his wife would be leaving the country in two weeks time back to the United States of America where they have recently become citizens. Pictured here are the Sungs enjoying the festivities to mark the launching of the New Testament in the Marik Language.
Mr Sung said he and his wife would be leaving the country in two weeks time back to the United States of America where they have recently become citizens. Pictured here are the Sungs enjoying the festivities to mark the launching of the New Testament in the Marik Language.
burning
The folks didn't really like the results of the elections around here, so they burned down one of the few restaurants in town, and they burned down the equivalent of a DMV about 20 minutes down the road. I got my license renewed here last month. Sometimes this culture is so self-destructive. You put a lot of time into helping people, but inevitably something like this happens and you wonder to yourself who exactly is being punished? The nearby prison was full of people, they screamed but thankfully didn't burn.
8/07/2012
Anticipate I.T.
A huge part of doing I.T. in the middle of nowhere is being to
anticipate equipment failure.
In the Silicon Valley, if an important hard drive died, and I didn't
have a spare, it would take me twenty minutes to rush to a store, buy
it, and return with it. If I had to do that it meant my support
contracts weren't great because usually I had someone show up in under
an hour with a replacement part.
But in the middle of nowhere, in a country without electronic stores,
being able to anticipate failure is important.
Hard drives are easy, they WILL fail, so you keep a stock of spares.
Spare RAM too. If you can standardize on equipment it makes keeping
track of it easier.
It takes about 2 months to get a replacement part here. So, that's a
VERY long time to be without something like, the Internet.
Today our internet went down for the first time in a year. It was down
for 12 hours, (from 9pm to 9am).
Thankfully a year or so ago, we got DATA plans on the nearby cell
service and sometimes it's up. So, I used my phone, launched 'myWi'
connected with my laptop and sent off an email to our provider in
Singapore who called after a fashion.
They asked me 'do you have alternate internet?'
ALTERNATE INTERNET... what a concept for a place lucky to have internet
in any fashion. But, as a matter of fact, YES WE DID, because we
thought ahead of time, ordered a HUWAEI CDMS usb modem from the U.S. and
purchased a SIM card for it, which we configured to be the only POST
paid card around. (Pre paid cards expire here after 90 days).
So I grabbed a laptop, headed to the VSAT dish and the nearby modem,
(it's down the road a bit), connected via a console cable, plugged in my
USB CDMA modem, and used TeamViewer for the tech to see what was wrong.
I was sitting there thinking 'wow, this is awesome! What if we didn't
have this usb modem? This wouldn't be possible, we'd have to talk it
out... how? Over the cellular phone I have that didn't work 2 years ago.'
Technology is awesome, and the funny thing is, to us all of this is new,
but in the U.S. it's been around forever. Still, being able to
anticipate problems, and having equipment on hand here, means we don't
have to have an outage for 2 months.
If you're a praying person, pray that we can always have spares at hand
when they're most needed.
I'm sad we were down for 12 hours. The really puts a dent in my five
9's... drops us down to 4. But hopefully it will remind the community
that we still live in a third world country and to be thankful for what
we do have.
anticipate equipment failure.
In the Silicon Valley, if an important hard drive died, and I didn't
have a spare, it would take me twenty minutes to rush to a store, buy
it, and return with it. If I had to do that it meant my support
contracts weren't great because usually I had someone show up in under
an hour with a replacement part.
But in the middle of nowhere, in a country without electronic stores,
being able to anticipate failure is important.
Hard drives are easy, they WILL fail, so you keep a stock of spares.
Spare RAM too. If you can standardize on equipment it makes keeping
track of it easier.
It takes about 2 months to get a replacement part here. So, that's a
VERY long time to be without something like, the Internet.
Today our internet went down for the first time in a year. It was down
for 12 hours, (from 9pm to 9am).
Thankfully a year or so ago, we got DATA plans on the nearby cell
service and sometimes it's up. So, I used my phone, launched 'myWi'
connected with my laptop and sent off an email to our provider in
Singapore who called after a fashion.
They asked me 'do you have alternate internet?'
ALTERNATE INTERNET... what a concept for a place lucky to have internet
in any fashion. But, as a matter of fact, YES WE DID, because we
thought ahead of time, ordered a HUWAEI CDMS usb modem from the U.S. and
purchased a SIM card for it, which we configured to be the only POST
paid card around. (Pre paid cards expire here after 90 days).
So I grabbed a laptop, headed to the VSAT dish and the nearby modem,
(it's down the road a bit), connected via a console cable, plugged in my
USB CDMA modem, and used TeamViewer for the tech to see what was wrong.
I was sitting there thinking 'wow, this is awesome! What if we didn't
have this usb modem? This wouldn't be possible, we'd have to talk it
out... how? Over the cellular phone I have that didn't work 2 years ago.'
Technology is awesome, and the funny thing is, to us all of this is new,
but in the U.S. it's been around forever. Still, being able to
anticipate problems, and having equipment on hand here, means we don't
have to have an outage for 2 months.
If you're a praying person, pray that we can always have spares at hand
when they're most needed.
I'm sad we were down for 12 hours. The really puts a dent in my five
9's... drops us down to 4. But hopefully it will remind the community
that we still live in a third world country and to be thankful for what
we do have.
8/03/2012
Have Laptop, Will Travel
Today it rained. I was called around 3pm because the nearby clinic had installed a new X-ray machine that produces digital images. It was a network box, and they needed me to check it out and tell them how to accomplish what they wanted as far as file sharing. So, I dawned my poncho, hopped on my ATV and drove to the clinic.
Who knew I'd be working on X-Ray machines when I woke up this morning? Raise your hand... come on.. what no one?
Who knew they'd be basing it on Windows XP??!?!?!!?!! And... check this... the interface to the scanner, is FIREWIRE. Finally, an in production windows machine running firewire, I never thought I'd see THAT.
fun thing if I understand the tech, exposing a plate is pretty standard, but the film inside is mylar with a phosphorous base, that can be reused 30,000 times. This solution apparently is popular in humanitarian clinics all over the world. The electrician that installed it, said his last one was in Ethopia. I meant to snap a picture of me working on it, but was to surrounded by people with questions, that I didn't.
Who knew I'd be working on X-Ray machines when I woke up this morning? Raise your hand... come on.. what no one?
Who knew they'd be basing it on Windows XP??!?!?!!?!! And... check this... the interface to the scanner, is FIREWIRE. Finally, an in production windows machine running firewire, I never thought I'd see THAT.
fun thing if I understand the tech, exposing a plate is pretty standard, but the film inside is mylar with a phosphorous base, that can be reused 30,000 times. This solution apparently is popular in humanitarian clinics all over the world. The electrician that installed it, said his last one was in Ethopia. I meant to snap a picture of me working on it, but was to surrounded by people with questions, that I didn't.
8/01/2012
Jesus Film
In concept you've probably heard of the Jesus film. The idea of this somewhat aged, movie of Jesus' life being dubbed into a local language and then shown. One of my earliest experiences in this country was trekking up a dangerous muddy road to show the movie to a village. Raised with such films, I had never truly seen the impact that video has on people when they see and hear the story for the first time. There were people openly weeping during this movie. It has a huge impact, especially on those who can not read or have not read the Gospel before.
Today I had the incredible and AWESOME opportunity to sit in on a recording session for the Agarabi language. It sparked all of my old juices from when I went to Biola. I instantly understood the equipment. He was using an Intel laptop running Adobe Audition to cue up the video track and then dub new audio. There were two technicians, a friend and his wife, she was managing the edit list, there were two voice talents pictured in the booth there. There was a voice coach (to my right) and there was a translator linguist coach.
So a scene was cued up, (everything was run from the laptop, via a usb interface so dual monitors, 1 mic, with a talk back mic)... we played it once in Aramaic, the voice talent listened... then he read his lines and did his thing. If it needed some coaching, then the man on my right here would take the English instruction from the technician at the laptop, then speak into the talkback mic so the voice actor in the room heard it. Then if there was something wrong with the line, the linguist would assist us in translation.
It was remarkable. You had audio recording, and editing all happening right there with translation, 3 languages flying back and forth (english, tok pisin, agarabi), it was an energetic mixture of translation, production and some post-production all going on at the same time.
I was REALLY excited by this. It's been 16 years since I've had my hands on this level of equipment, and while I'm a hobbiest, seeing the templates and editing lists and all of it made me feel as if this production was at a much higher level of professionalism than I was expecting. I was very impressed with the proceeding and I sat there enthralled and excited and... to use a word I haven't used in a long while.. 'like totally stoked!'
Today I had the incredible and AWESOME opportunity to sit in on a recording session for the Agarabi language. It sparked all of my old juices from when I went to Biola. I instantly understood the equipment. He was using an Intel laptop running Adobe Audition to cue up the video track and then dub new audio. There were two technicians, a friend and his wife, she was managing the edit list, there were two voice talents pictured in the booth there. There was a voice coach (to my right) and there was a translator linguist coach.
So a scene was cued up, (everything was run from the laptop, via a usb interface so dual monitors, 1 mic, with a talk back mic)... we played it once in Aramaic, the voice talent listened... then he read his lines and did his thing. If it needed some coaching, then the man on my right here would take the English instruction from the technician at the laptop, then speak into the talkback mic so the voice actor in the room heard it. Then if there was something wrong with the line, the linguist would assist us in translation.
It was remarkable. You had audio recording, and editing all happening right there with translation, 3 languages flying back and forth (english, tok pisin, agarabi), it was an energetic mixture of translation, production and some post-production all going on at the same time.
I was REALLY excited by this. It's been 16 years since I've had my hands on this level of equipment, and while I'm a hobbiest, seeing the templates and editing lists and all of it made me feel as if this production was at a much higher level of professionalism than I was expecting. I was very impressed with the proceeding and I sat there enthralled and excited and... to use a word I haven't used in a long while.. 'like totally stoked!'
7/31/2012
Taco Tuesday
On Tuesdays we buy a dozen home made tortillas (not tortilla option here other than home made) which are made by our friend Rose (pictured here). Then we make taco meat (our special Dr. Pepper beef recipe is an extra treat when beef is affordable AND Dr. Pepper is available in the store), and serve it up with home made sour-cream (you have to make yogurt from scratch and turn it into sour cream, so that too, is a special treat). Last night, we had sour cream, but no Dr. Pepper beef. Cheese is a regular option when it's available, and tomatoes, cilantro and lettuce from our garden.
So on Taco Tuesday you know it's almost dinner time when you hear "Sydney, go grab a handful of cilantro from the garden please!"
7/30/2012
Fun Quote
Kurt Vonnegut wrote in 'Cat's Cradle' something I thought was rather
apropos to IT work or any technical field:
referring to some scientific processes he was showing to a stenographer:
"They're designed so as to NOT be mystifying. They're the very
antithesis of magic."
"The very what of magic?"
"The exact opposite of magic."
"You couldn't prove it by me."
"Dr. Breed looked just a little peeved. "Well," he said, "we don't WANT
to mystify. At least give us credit for that."
apropos to IT work or any technical field:
referring to some scientific processes he was showing to a stenographer:
"They're designed so as to NOT be mystifying. They're the very
antithesis of magic."
"The very what of magic?"
"The exact opposite of magic."
"You couldn't prove it by me."
"Dr. Breed looked just a little peeved. "Well," he said, "we don't WANT
to mystify. At least give us credit for that."
15%
wow 15% seems to be the magic number by which to increase things this year.
Medical premiums went up 15% for us.... did they for you, I'm thinking they did.
School fees went up 15% for us....
Food costs, prescription drugs, all went up 15% this year.
WOW...
that's like, 45% increase!
I'm guessing you folks in the U.S. are feeling the same crunch. All these notices and realizations that things are increasing in cost around you.
Our population here is shrinking a bit, the school lost 20 students, which increases the cost to each child still going, across the board, expenses are going up, and shared across fewer people. So the overall financial impact can have an emotional impact as well. People start to worry more... sometimes going into debt in order to remain on the field. You know, that finances can be an overwhelming burden for many families, and it starts to become what is on the forefront of your mind.
I wanted to take this opportunity to say, that we appreciate your support.
I think that by being linked to you in this way, we share a close common bond. Our livelihood is directly tied to yours, and both of us rely on God to provide it. Because of that, we pray for you daily asking God to bless your family and keep your family financially stable, keep you employed, protect you from increases in costs that you can't afford.
Our motto is "let God take care of the things we can't, and we'll keep focusing on the task at hand."
Today, keeping God on the forefront of my mind, not the finances. But if you would like to know, email me and I can give a full account. Currently we're at 96% of where we need to be, which is a healthy situation to be in, because it is keeping us from going into debt. And your financial support this year has been overwhelmingly encouraging to us, as these one time gifts come in to sustain us.
THANK YOU!
Medical premiums went up 15% for us.... did they for you, I'm thinking they did.
School fees went up 15% for us....
Food costs, prescription drugs, all went up 15% this year.
WOW...
that's like, 45% increase!
I'm guessing you folks in the U.S. are feeling the same crunch. All these notices and realizations that things are increasing in cost around you.
Our population here is shrinking a bit, the school lost 20 students, which increases the cost to each child still going, across the board, expenses are going up, and shared across fewer people. So the overall financial impact can have an emotional impact as well. People start to worry more... sometimes going into debt in order to remain on the field. You know, that finances can be an overwhelming burden for many families, and it starts to become what is on the forefront of your mind.
I wanted to take this opportunity to say, that we appreciate your support.
I think that by being linked to you in this way, we share a close common bond. Our livelihood is directly tied to yours, and both of us rely on God to provide it. Because of that, we pray for you daily asking God to bless your family and keep your family financially stable, keep you employed, protect you from increases in costs that you can't afford.
Our motto is "let God take care of the things we can't, and we'll keep focusing on the task at hand."
Isaiah 41:10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Today, keeping God on the forefront of my mind, not the finances. But if you would like to know, email me and I can give a full account. Currently we're at 96% of where we need to be, which is a healthy situation to be in, because it is keeping us from going into debt. And your financial support this year has been overwhelmingly encouraging to us, as these one time gifts come in to sustain us.
THANK YOU!
7/27/2012
Reciprocal Encouragement
We are so encouraged by the people who support us to be here financially and through prayer.
Right now I'm having a bit of hay-fever and so if my thoughts come out muddled, know that it's because of that. I struggle against bad allergies here (well in the U.S. I did too, so there's not much difference, except here the only cure I've found is to wrap a bandana around my nose and take a nap. Which is alright until your daughter snaps a photo of you to show her friends... because to be honest a bandana around your nose looks pretty silly)
but I digest.
(yes I know I said that wrong, but it's true, I digest, I had a cookie about 5 minute ago, and you should be thankful because taking a cookie break is what encouraged me to sit down and type this blog entry.... come to think of it, you might come down on the other side of gratitude... in that case, blame the cookie (-; )
Where was I?
Oh yes.
A few days ago on a Saturday, I had finished all my chores and was at a point of either relaxing and taking a nap, or doing something fun. I chose to do something fun. So I grabbed my video camera, and headed over to the local gathering of what I've dubbed 'the quilting mafia.'
They're technically called 'piecemakers' which is a clever name. My wife is a newbie quilter and has really enjoyed this group of women that gather together periodically to share company and a common hobby.
I thought it might be fun to make a video of them, and show some of the quilts, and decided to hammer out something rather quickly (I was finished in the same day I shot it, so you know it was a quick job).
As I did it, I saw all the happy faces in the video and realized that this was actually an important ministry, not just fun, but a therapeutic gathering of incredible women gathered here in this country to serve God.
It turns out that the video itself was an encouragement and that plus a little email I sent turned out to encourage people who had been struggling lately. I honestly had no idea that little bit of fun I put together would mean so much to people. Another side result is someone asked me to help them make a Bible dedication video.
The point is, by using some of my side talents, and hobby, I was able to encourage some people who needed encouraging. Which helps them to do better at their jobs, and to possibly stay here just that much longer.
And I wanted to let you know this, because sometimes being here, is itself a ministry outside of the job we do. And I wanted to thank you each for your encouragement to US, that enables us to encourage others.
By giving to us financially and praying for us, you help alleviate burdens that would otherwise distract us from serving others. You lighten our load, and you join us in purpose, and for that, we thank you.
if you would like to see the video it is here:
Right now I'm having a bit of hay-fever and so if my thoughts come out muddled, know that it's because of that. I struggle against bad allergies here (well in the U.S. I did too, so there's not much difference, except here the only cure I've found is to wrap a bandana around my nose and take a nap. Which is alright until your daughter snaps a photo of you to show her friends... because to be honest a bandana around your nose looks pretty silly)
but I digest.
(yes I know I said that wrong, but it's true, I digest, I had a cookie about 5 minute ago, and you should be thankful because taking a cookie break is what encouraged me to sit down and type this blog entry.... come to think of it, you might come down on the other side of gratitude... in that case, blame the cookie (-; )
Where was I?
Oh yes.
A few days ago on a Saturday, I had finished all my chores and was at a point of either relaxing and taking a nap, or doing something fun. I chose to do something fun. So I grabbed my video camera, and headed over to the local gathering of what I've dubbed 'the quilting mafia.'
They're technically called 'piecemakers' which is a clever name. My wife is a newbie quilter and has really enjoyed this group of women that gather together periodically to share company and a common hobby.
I thought it might be fun to make a video of them, and show some of the quilts, and decided to hammer out something rather quickly (I was finished in the same day I shot it, so you know it was a quick job).
As I did it, I saw all the happy faces in the video and realized that this was actually an important ministry, not just fun, but a therapeutic gathering of incredible women gathered here in this country to serve God.
It turns out that the video itself was an encouragement and that plus a little email I sent turned out to encourage people who had been struggling lately. I honestly had no idea that little bit of fun I put together would mean so much to people. Another side result is someone asked me to help them make a Bible dedication video.
The point is, by using some of my side talents, and hobby, I was able to encourage some people who needed encouraging. Which helps them to do better at their jobs, and to possibly stay here just that much longer.
And I wanted to let you know this, because sometimes being here, is itself a ministry outside of the job we do. And I wanted to thank you each for your encouragement to US, that enables us to encourage others.
By giving to us financially and praying for us, you help alleviate burdens that would otherwise distract us from serving others. You lighten our load, and you join us in purpose, and for that, we thank you.
if you would like to see the video it is here:
7/20/2012
Jury Rig #392
I used long lengths of firewood. Here the way to cut firewood is in long 4 foot wedges. So one four foot tree trunk, can make 4 wedges. The reason for this is they don't cook indoors, the nationals cook in a 'haus kuk' and the way they make a fire is a small round pit, they light one end of a piece of wood and as it burns off, they scoot it in more. Wasting very little wood, and making a tiny little fire for cooking over.
So, what I have to do when I want to fit it into my little fire stove is cut it into 12" segments. But again, I don't own a chainsaw.
But I own a saws-all!
My family was confused when I asked for a saws all many years ago, but I'm really glad I have it now, as it comes in handy when I need to make cuts from wood.
But what's not handy is when your blade snaps and the nearest home depot is 6000 miles away.
It takes 2 months to get new items from the U.S. here. I had spare blades, but none as long as the one that snapped on me today, right before I was almost done.
So... what to do?
Well.. you can take out your vice grips, and clamp the broken off piece to the blade, then take out an angle grinder and grind the blade down to create an identical end so it fits back into your saw.
That's the idea I had anyway.
7/16/2012
Small World
Last night I was in a multi-cultural workshop and happened to be next to someone I didn't know, so I introduced myself. Her name was Elaine and she had been here for only a week so far. Having travelled here alone. She asked me 'Do you keep a blog?' ... I slowly responded 'yeeessss.'
"and, did you recently blog about your wife's adventure in travelling?"
and I replied "yesss."
and she started to tear up, and told me,
"I want to tell you I found so much courage from her and her troubles travelling alone." She could barely get the story out. "I was stuck in California trying to get here, travelling alone and I took encouragement and thought if she can do it, so can I."
The rest of the story was unspoken, but it seems she was asked to come out here for a short while to help fill a much needed job. To do so she had to leave in a bit of a hurry, and all by herself, and she did it, thanks to the courage my wife had, that I blogged about.
It's a small world sometimes. And I'm honestly surprised and encouraged to find people actually read what I write here.
I asked her "how did you know it was me keeping the blog?"
and she said "I was reading a lot of blogs before my trip, and...well, you wrote you wouldn't say where you were, or what organization you were with, or where you lived, but you said your name was Chad.... I took a guess."
Good guess.
7/12/2012
bridge fixed
See the huge hole? See the broken beam that collapsed under it's own weight being pulled out? The bridge is repaired and crossable now! YAY!!!
7/11/2012
cross cultural texting
I don't text often, so when I got this text this morning, it took me a while to understand it.
It involves 2 languages, tok pisin and English, and 2 cultures. I had no idea who had sent it, but I figured it out after thinking.
Translation:
----
Manager Chad, the ballot officials cancelled voting for the town of Kainantu yesterday and voting will be held today. I'm going to vote and I will return before 1pm.
---
anyway, I got a kick out if, I don't often get texts. Voting in this country happens every 5 years. IT's a huge thing as a lot of violence erupts around the ballot boxes. Soldiers in hueys come to escort the ballot boxes around the country. People have been shot and died. So 'going to vote' means 'I'm waiting for public transport, risking my life over a bad bridge, trying to avoid catching a stray bullet, ignoring the intense social pressure to vote for the same people my family is voting for, and I should be back to work by 1." It can get pretty hairy, so we (my family) remain totally neutral, and avoid areas that have voting going on. If you've never seen a huey land and ak47 armed soldiers in camo jump out by the dozen.... it's pretty cool.
Having lived here, and seen the violence and the campaigning (which amount to people singing a lot and driving around with music blaring to grab attention...bullhorns are involved).... I better understand what the news means when they say 'voting is going on in NAMEYOURCITY today.'
7/09/2012
4th of July
(my son flinging steel wool)
Our 4th of July celebration was the other day. This is when a lot of the American ex-pats gather for a picnic on a lawn, show the flag, sing the National Anthem, and generally enjoy being together. A few years back at our very FIRST of these annual gatherings, we found that it really gave us a huge sense of community, even though it was mostly with the Americans, even our British friends and Canadian friends sometimes attended. One of the traditions is to light and spin steel wool, as a firework. Sometimes we fire off expired safety flares for a nice 'rocket's red glare' effect.
The overall sense of 'these are the people I serve with' fills your heart as it does with any large community event.
Given that the smaller kids like to run towards the burning steel wool, (pictured above), Kendal and I had the idea to provide the younger kids who didn't get to 'fling wool', glow sticks. So we started a tradition years ago of doing this. After everyone has eaten and the kids want to run around, right before the sun sets, we pull out the glow sticks, snap them and put them around the younger children's wrists.
This is an idea we got from my uncle Randy and aunt Rene many years ago, as they did this with their nieces and nephews camping. It brings an extra element of fun to camping... to have a 'glow night'.
This year, we had our stash we had squirreled away from the U.S. and we used it for a youth event. Having written about the youth event, some good friends of ours realized we were short of glow sticks and sent a huge bunch of them our way!
Just the other day we employed them. Suddenly feeling like the uncle and aunt we rarely get to be, we noticed there were a LOT of younger kids. Many more than last year. HOW AWESOME is that? New families had arrived this year. And just like us over 5 years ago, this was their first 'Ukarumpa 4th of July Celebration'.
They were amazed and encouraged. See, when you get here, you've left family and community and are still trying to become part of this community. An event such as this, warms your heart, and confirms that you're not alone.
And when we're able to give the young kids, these glow bracelets, it tells the families that even their little ones are cared for.
That's a huge encouragement to a family who may have a large fear of what moving here may mean to their child's future.
Just to know, that people care.
And so we're encouraged too that some friends cared enough to send us glow sticks, so that we could encourage others in this way.
7/06/2012
apples
today for lunch, it was such a nice thing to bite into a granny smith apple.
nice!
we don't get apples here all the time. From time to time you find
yourself enjoying something and half way through you realize 'oh, I'm
enjoying this because I haven't enjoyed this in a while'. There is much
to be said for delayed gratification.
nice!
we don't get apples here all the time. From time to time you find
yourself enjoying something and half way through you realize 'oh, I'm
enjoying this because I haven't enjoyed this in a while'. There is much
to be said for delayed gratification.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)