View from the Terraza

2011 Regata de Globos

2011-09-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

September is Independence month and every year they have the hot air balloon festival in our village of Ajijic. However, the hot air balloons are tissue paper with burning kerosene soaked rags providing the lift. This gives for great entertainment. Here are some photos and videos to give a feel for this. The photos can be viewed here. Here is a video clip of a successful preparation for launch and actual flight. Here is an example of a failure. To add ambiance we always have the proverbial Mexican band. They can be seen on this video clip. This year we even had hula dancers as shown in this video clip, in Mexico? Whatever, it is all part of the festivities.

Brazil - July 2011

2011-07-17T15:05:00.001-07:00

We just returned from another fantastic trip with GMP, but this time in Brazil. Rather than a narrative blog, the captions on the pictures speak for themselves. The slideshow of our pictures, in chronological order, can be found at here.

Passion Play, Ajijic, Mexico

2011-04-24T13:02:00.001-07:00

Our little village of Ajijic has only about 15,000 people (in high season) but each year, as in many villages, they have the Passion Play. We finally got to go this year and were amazed at the quality of the production. All actors are amateurs. However, the Passion Play is only one part of the entire Easter celebration. Go to this website to get the full set of activities. They reenact many parts of the Easter story over the course of the week. We figure in the next few years we will go to some of the other activities, like following Jesus up the mountain, as he carries the cross on His back to be crucified. We should point out also that in the scenes in Pilate's palace, the golden statues are actors painted gold who then stand in the heat for the duration. By the way, it was amazing to watch how they changed the sets between scenes, a very interesting production.

We found the Passion Play (in Spanish of course) to be very realistic and served as an excellent reminder of God's great gift to mankind, that of stepping on Earth as the man Jesus and then dying on the cross as payment for our sins and then rising again the third day victorious over death and the grave. When we saw the actor being flogged by the Romans we were reminded of something a local pastor said, "only an arrogant fool would reject the great gift of love from God". Sobering thought.

We recorded most of the passion play, and the following links will take you through them. The first video is just a quick view of the stage and the crowd gathering in front of the village church. The Passion Play begins with the Jews bringing Jesus before Pilate as shown in this video clip. The scene then moves on to Jesus brought before Herod. When Jesus stood without saying a word to Herod it was like He was thinking "Would you hurry, I am about My Father's Business and about to launch the most important event in all of history!" In the next scene Jesus is brought before Pilate once more. Now, in the next scene, Jesus is mocked and flogged in front of all the Jews. Apparently there have been times when there was real blood from the flogging as the actors doing the flogging got carried away. This is very realistic! The scene changes again to Pilate's palace where Pilate washes his hands of this whole incident, hands Jesus over to the Jews and Jesus begins the procession to be crucified. Note that the actor is really dragging a very heavy cross. He will go up the main street of Ajijic and up the mountain where there are twelve stations of the cross. He only gets relief when Simon the Cyrene takes the cross from Jesus. This actor then drags it the rest of the way up the mountain. Here is the crowd that followed Jesus on their way to main street Ajijic and up the mountain. Just as an aside, one of these characters is an effigy of Judas Iscariot that is to be burned later on.

Next year, hopefully, we will get more of the other events taking place.

Israel 2011 Praise Orchestra Trip

2011-03-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

This was our second trip to Israel. All the orchestra members were new to us with half being students at the North Greenville University. Many of the sites we visited were different from our last trip so it was another exciting adventure. The blog on our first trip can be found here: Israel Praise Orchestra Trip. What we plan to do here is interweave HD video with the slides. However, either we haven't figured how to use it correctly or Picasa has a few bugs to fix, so it isn't as smooth as we would have liked. The caption from the slide previous to the video persists, so ignore it, and the slideshow must be advanced when the video is complete. We will go through the trip day-by-day.

Sunday

We actually arrived Saturday at 4 in the afternoon. We first checked in to Christ Church Guest House in the old city of Jerusalem, and after dinner and meeting most of the team we had our one and only rehearsal. Then on Sunday morning we had our first concert at Jerusalem Baptist Church. In the afternoon we went to the Prayer House, which we had seen on our first trip. Pictures of that are in the 2010 Israel trip blog. Prior to the Prayer House we did make a quick trip to Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity. (It is in Palestine, and necessitates going through checkpoints, but it is very close to Jerusalem.) Again, there are many more pictures on our earlier Israel blog. While we were driving around we took some videos and a few more pictures. Remember, the videos are HD and, depending on your download speed, may not download in real time. These are shown here.

Monday

Monday we spent the day touring the area in and around Old Jerusalem. Our guide grew up in the old city, and was very familiar with the maze of little alleys. We saw the City of David outside the Southern Wall of the city, a house excavated that was burned during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the Western Wall and the Temple Institute. The City of David has ruins that are believed to be part of King David's Palace. The Burnt House is reasonably intact but has ashes all over the floor from the burned roof. We were not allowed to take pictures in the Temple Institute, which was one of the highlights of the whole tour. The Bible states that the temple is to be rebuilt before Jesus Christ returns. The Jewish people of the Temple Institute are constructing all the elements defined in the Book of Exodus. The clothing, musical instruments, the lampstand, the washing bowls, the showbread racks, to name a few items. Although we couldn't take photos of the elements they can be seen here. We actually saw all of these items, behind locked glass doors. Our lead trumpet player had the privilege of playing one of the actual silver trumpets. The Jews are getting ready for the return of their Messiah, still believing in a political Messiah, and have all these items waiting. When the time is right they plan to rebuild the temple, for the third time in history. But their Spiritual Messiah has already come, as believed by many Messianic Christians, Jews that have understood the coming of Jeshua, Who will be returning again shortly. The reason that this was so exciting it is just another Bible Prophecy relative to the second coming of Christ that is being fulfilled. We ended the day by giving a concert at the Yuval School of Music and the Arts. The photos and videos we took on Monday are shown here.

Tuesday

We began the day by going up the Mount of Olives and then drove down to the Garden of Gethsemane. These were sites that we saw last time and only took some additional photos and videos of Old Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. We then went to the Garden Tomb and again, had communion there. There are many more pictures here. Then we spent a good bit of time at the Davidson Center and the Ha'Ofel Archeological Gardens. These centers concentrate on the South and Western walls of the Temple Mount. These excavations were very interesting as they still clearly show the impact of the Roman siege of the Temple Mount. We ended the day by leaving Jerusalem and giving a concert at the Israel College of the Bible. We were running kind of late so weren't able to get any photos. Leaving Jerusalem may have been timely because they were predicting the potential of snow in Jerusalem on Wednesday due to a large storm coming in off the Mediterranean. The other photos and videos we took this day are shown here. On the last half of the Southwestern Corner of Temple Mount video you can hear the Muslim call to prayer emanating from the El Aqsa Mosque minaret.

Wednesday

Wednesday was highlighted by the fact that the big storm hit and it was extremely windy, cold and wet. But we braved the weather and went out and enjoyed ourselves. First was Caesarea. We were there last time but this time saw more new interesting features like the Roman Aqueduct supplying water to Caesarea. We had fun watching the large waves hit and go over the sea wall. After Caesarea we went Nazareth and spent time in Nazareth Village, an actual rebuild of Nazareth in Jesus' time with craftsmen demonstrating crafts with the tools of the time. Then we went to the Sea of Galilee and took a ride on a boat on the sea. The highlight was listening to the crew singing worship songs in Hebrew and English. The pictures for this day are shown here.

Thursday

The day began with a concert at the Museum of the "Jesus Boat", a boat excavated from the Sea of Galilee and determined to be 2,000 years old. Last time we gave a concert outside but because of the rain, this time we gave the concert in a room open to the lobby of the museum. We then went to the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter, where tradition states that Jesus reaffirms Peter as chief of the apostles. Then we went to the ruins of Capernaum, again, a place we visited before. We then visited the Church of the Beatitudes where tradition says Jesus taught the crowd the beatitudes. We ended the day with a concert at a messianic church. The photos and videos for this day are shown here.

Friday

This was our last day and very interesting. It began with several of our team wanting to be baptized in the Jordan River. So we went to where tradition states that Jesus was baptized and they were baptized there. We then went to Mt. Tabor, where tradition says that Jesus was transfigured and ascended to heaven. The top of the mountain was in the clouds so it was very damp up there and too foggy to see much. After that we went to the tell at Megiddo. This was a very interesting end to our trip. The tell is an archeological dig made up of something like 27 layers, where each layer represents another time in history when the city of Megiddo was destroyed. It was strategically located at the juncture of primary trade routes and so as the Northern Kingdoms invaded they destroyed Megiddo and as the Southern Kingdoms invaded it was destroyed again. Megiddo has an amazing view of the Jezreel Valley, which is believed to be where the Battle of Armegeddon will be fought - the final battle talked about in the Bible, at the end times when Jesus returns. The valley could be the place that Revelations 14:20 says the blood will be up to the horses bridles. Viewing the valley one sees how immense it is and realizes how much bloodshed that really amounts to. The photos and videos are given here. We ended the tour by going back to the Roman Aqueduct since after the rain washes away a layer of sand, small archeological finds are often revealed. We managed to find quite a few pieces of pottery, and a couple of pieces of Roman glass to bring home.

Sights and Sounds of Thailand 2011

2011-02-13T13:17:00.000-08:00

We got a Flip mini HD video recorder and so took advantage to take a number of HD videos of our trip to Thailand this January so you can see and hear the sights and sounds of Chiang Mai, Thailand. We combined the clips into a number of general categories so that you can select the one you would like to see rather than one large video. Click on the title of each to see the video.

1. Adam, Cindy, Sean and Prang's Compound - Two large houses and a smaller one that we have the good fortune of staying in.

2. Grandkids at play - Adam and Cindy have four 4 year old boys and one five year old boy in addition to their baby and three older girls. A total of nine children, a real houseful. And Nana counts as an additional one on the slide.....Sean and Prang have 3 little ones as well as some older ones.

3. Feeding the 5,000 - When company comes for dinner the house is already full! They can seat about 12 around their big table, but when more people are there, the kids have their own table.

4. Feeding Anica - Everyone takes turns feeding her.

5. Anica dancing.

6. Anica Playing - Yeah, she was "almost" the star of our visit. She's at the stage where she imitates everything. It is fun to hear the little boys speaking Thai to each other.

7. House of Praise - Adam and Cindy's church taken on the day Adam played bass. Plus there is a little clip of their Australian pastor. It is an International church, with Thai, Burmese and English services. We do many of the same songs at our Mexican church (only in Spanish)

8. Miniature Golf - A real challenge with this plethora of little boys. We did not try to enforce the rules...

9. Sites Along Typical City Streets - A collection of video clips driving around Chiang Mai.

10. Old City Wall and Moat - The old city is surrounded by a wall and moat 1 Km square.

11. Mansions in World Club Muu Bahn (Development) where Adam and Cindy Live - Many judges, lawyers and wealthy Chinese.

12. Houses under construction in World Club - Similar construction as in Mexico. Note at the end the contractor and his family live on site in shacks until work is complete.

13. Gardens and Orchids in World Club Houses - Orchids on almost all the trees, beautiful.

14. One Room Shack with Garden and Tree House in World Club - Not all houses are mansions and no building code!

15. Carnival at Grace International, an English Speaking Christian School in World Club - The HS Seniors put on the carnival and some of the costumes are pretty elaborate. The theme, if you can't tell, was Disney.

16. Airport Shopping Plaza - Five floors of very modern shopping. Notice the motorbike parking lot, how do you find your bike?

17. Sunday Street Market in the Old City - Very colorful and picturesque. At 6pm precisely the Thai National Anthem is played and everyone comes to a stop. We love to eat our way through the market...

18. Ban Tawai - A village where Thai wooden furniture and goods are made and sold. Most places have posted "No Photos". So videos are limited.

19. Chiang Mai Night Safari - an interesting concept to see nocturnal animals, however, not good for photography. The highlight was we had a white tiger climb on our laps.

20. Goodbye for this year - Chiang Mai International Airport departure lounge, pretty modern.

New Happenings at Church and Boy's Home

2010-12-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

In addition to the travel and surgeries we have posted in our blog, we still have been very busy both in our little Mexican church in Ixtlahuacan and the boy's home, Hope House. We continue to play in the worship band at church and are helping out as much as possible to get a more permanent place for worship. On some of our previous blogs we showed photos of our church and how we meet under a tarp hung by rope between trees. This last rainy season it became rather dismal as each Sunday that we showed up to rehearse before the service, the rain and wind had blown the tarp down and we spent precious rehearsal time rebuilding our "church". The other alternative was to use the original terrace, which, because of church growth, has become too small for the number of people who now attend, so people would go home, not finding a seat. We approached the pastor and said something had to be done. The upshot was that we were able to help out in getting a massive steel structure built, with a new and very durable covering over it. People have been getting motivated to beautify the (rented) property, painting and pruning. As part of this we asked pastor if he would like to have a platform to get the band and the speaker off the muddy ground. So Walt and some of the men built a platform and now the place is beginning to look more like a church. There is a lot more room under this new tarp and we add more chairs every Sunday now. Here are before and after photos of the old and new tarps. The new tarp, framework and platform can all be moved to the other property when we are ready.

The workshop is now fully functional and in operation. We were concerned that the high-end level of the power tools were beyond the boy's abilities. However, they have proven us wrong as they work with every tool in the shop. Of course we are very conscious of safety! Work began with building simple Christmas items such as reindeer and snow flakes. These are items that have sold well and we are beginning to earn some money for the shop. The boys have progressed beyond the Christmas items and have helped build workbenches for the shop. Now that it is fully operational they have successfully built five bunk beds, in reality ten beds, for another orphanage in the area. Funds for the material were provided by the local Rotary Club and the boys donated their labor. They, in fact, with the help of four adults completed construction of all the beds in four days. These are not full days as they still have to attend school. Not only have they become proficient with the tools they are very careful about quality control. If something is not routered properly they will redo it until they are satisfied. Same with sanding prior to varnishing. Here are photos of the workshop and the boys at work. If you enjoy woodworking and have a little patience, we welcome you to come on down for a week or two!

Israel Praise Orchestra Trip

2010-11-18T08:06:00.000-08:00

God worked it out so that we both could be on this trip together. It was an incredible experience to have the opportunity to minister in the land where Jesus walked and talked. There will be very little narrative but plenty of pictures in this blog.

We arrived at Tel Aviv on 29 October and met the group, had dinner and then had our one and only rehearsal. Walt played bass and Nancy was the sound tech, a position sorely needed. Our first few days we stayed at Baptist Village, which was founded in 1952, just four years after the war of 1948. Many of the damaged Israeli Army vehicles still remain as monuments to that war along the road to Jerusalem. The first day, in addition to two concerts, we visited Caesaria Harbor, one of the many sites that King Herod was responsible for building. We know him as the king whose paranoia led him to kill all the firstborn babies in an attempt to kill Jesus. However, we saw a side of him we never knew, an incredible visionary genius who constructed many sites in and around Jerusalem. Here are pictures of arriving and our first day in Israel.

On Sunday we headed up to Jerusalem. It was much hillier than we had anticipated. Two concerts were held at the Baptist House in Jerusalem and the only tour this day was at the Prayer Center. The Prayer Center was a place to pray for the lost of this world. While in Jerusalem we stayed at Christ Church which is Old Jerusalem next to the Jaffa Gate. Here are pictures of our second day.

Monday was a strictly tour day and we got to see Masada, the Dead Sea and Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. Of course we got to see all of the territory between all of them. A trip to the Ahava factory, where they make products out of the Dead Sea water and mud, was included as well. Our tour guide was excellent at pointing out the various features as we past them. Here are the photos for Day Three of our trip. That evening we also got to see a fantastic light show on the walls of the King David Citadel. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs but it is something we would want to see again.

On the fourth day we drove to Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Field. Our tour guide, being a Christian, was quick to point out that this may not have been the actual location of the manger and so forth but it is representative of what it would have looked like. It is interesting to see how man would rather worship an icon or some site rather than the person of Jesus. An interesting fact about Bethlehem is it is in Palestine. At the security gate anyone is allowed into Bethlehem. However, on the way out they carefully check to see if there are any Palestinians on board your vehicle or if you are taking something out that someone may have given to you. This question is again asked by customs at the airport at departure from Israel. Apparently the Palestinians feel that since there grandparents lived on this land, it was rightfully theirs whereas the Jews believe that God promised them this land so it is rightfully theirs. So worshiping icons or sites or fighting over a piece of dirt does manifest the sinful nature of man. After Bethlehem we drove to the top of the Mount of Olives and walked down to the Garden of Gethsemane. Some of the olive trees there date back to that time. Late at night we took a walking tour of the Western Wall under the Old City. One of the stones in the Western Wall has been estimated to weigh approximately 600 tons. Question is, how did they get such a thing into place thousands of years ago? Here are the photos for this days tours.

The fifth day found us on a walking tour of Old Jerusalem. This was totally fascinating. It seems like every site that had some traditional meaning assigned to it has a church built on it. Not only one church but several churches, for example, Armenian, Roman Catholic, Ethiopian, you name it. Again it points out how man would rather worship an icon or "holy" site rather than the person of God Himself. The ultimate in our minds was the church on the site where Judas Iscariot was assumed to have hanged himself! However, as our guide pointed out, each site may not be the actual place but it is indicative of what it might have looked like. So it does give some added insight about the area as described in the Bible. So from that point of view it was very interesting. After our walking tour of Old Jerusalem we went to the Garden Tomb. Now understand that in Old Jerusalem there is a Church of the Holy Sepulchre and now we were on our way to the Garden Tomb - two potential sites for the place where Jesus was buried. But, we really got to appreciate the narrator at the Garden Tomb. He laid out how this tomb is more likely to be like the actual since it was outside of Jerusalem and the features were as those described in the Bible. The high point of his narrative was when he exclaimed, "Whether its this place or within the city what does it matter? The tomb is empty, He is risen, He is no longer here". And that is what really counts. Apparently the British have been responsible for the Garden Tomb since the late 1800's and have had the freedom to make this statement for all these years. What a testimony the British have at that location! A high point for us as an orchestra was to have communion there. Later that evening we gave an impromptu concert at Christ Church, which turned out to be very special. Here are photos of our fifth day in Israel.

Our sixth day had us working our way to the Sea of Galilee. So we drove back along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. The significance of this road is that it is the same valley that Jesus used in His illustration of the Good Samaritan. So we got to see what that area is like. Then we got to see the Sea of Galilee. Just like the Dead Sea, it is below sea level. The Sea of Galilee is fresh water because water enters and exits whereas the Dead Sea water only enters. One of the highlights was eating at a restaurant that served fish from the Sea of Galilee, probably very similar to the kind of fish the disciples caught in their time. We gave a concert outside the museum that contains the relic of a boat dated to the time that Jesus was in this area. The concert was special and then seeing the boat was fascinating. Later that evening we took a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. They had a band that played Jewish tunes and we danced to them. Then, as we docked, they put on Christian music and we all sang our hearts out. It was a very memorable moment to be singing with messianic Jews, Jews that have found the Messiah as we have, and praising God with one voice. That night we stayed at a very beautiful hotel in Tiberius. Here are the photos of this day. Someone also recorded several of the songs that we played in front of the museum of the "Jesus Boat".

Our final day of tour took us up to the Northern end of Israel to the Golan Heights where Israel borders on Syria and Lebanon. Here there were many signs of the struggles between these various countries. But we also got to see more excavations of interesting sites and some of the places that Jesus was, according to the New Testament. For example, the tour for this day included Capernaum where Jesus chose His first four disciples, James, John, Peter and Andrew. There are many references to Jesus' activities in Capernaum in the New Testament. So it was interesting to see the area that Jesus Himself saw. Of course, the Golan Heights is a tense area because of the neighboring countries and we saw the military presence, although things are peaceful right now. We also took a tour of ruins of the Temple of Pan, niches carved in the rocky cliffs, and of Agrippa's palace. The day ended with an exceptional meal in an Arabian restaurant. Some of us felt it was the best food yet. Here are photos of our last day of tour.

After this we left to go to the airport. Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv has got to be the most secure in the world. It took two hours to get through customs and security before even getting to the terminal. Everything was carefully checked and questions asked. We commented that Israel, that contains God's city Jerusalem, is the seemingly most dangerous we have been to. It's like the spiritual warfare is happening here. But satan has already lost that battle.

As usual this trip has been a real blessing to us and we have committed to take at least one trip a year of this nature. It is fun to use our old skills for His service.

Balloon Festival in Ajijic

2010-09-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

Years ago Walt went to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, and was in awe of the size and intricate design of many of the balloons. So when we moved to Ajijic 3 years ago we heard that the Saturday prior to Dia de Independencia, which is 16 September, they have a local balloon festival. So we had to go check it out and have tried to go every year since. We went this year again and thoroughly enjoyed it. Unlike the hot air balloons in Albuquerque, these balloons are totally different. They are not powered by propane gas, nor do they carry people. They range in size from a few feet across to over 20 feet. The biggest difference is they are not made of fabric but simply tissue paper. The source for the hot air is a wire ring wrapped in cloth that is soaked in kerosene and then lit. This actually works, and the balloons can attain a tremendous height, in fact, we have seen them go well above the mountains behind our house and these mountains are 3,500 feet above the lake. The greatest amount of excitement though is the fact that you have an open flame contained within a balloon made of tissue paper. You guessed it, a very flammable situation. Even though the balloons are made of tissue paper the designs rival those of Albuquerque and the size may not be as big but some do get as large as 20 or 25 feet in height or even diameter. So they are pretty awesome. It is a unique event to our village, and of course you can buy all kinds of food and drinks, cotton candy and palletas (fruit popsicles).

To give a flavor of this event we took a few photos and videos that we want to share. First of all, the event takes place in the soccer field about a quarter mile from our house towards the lake. If the wind is favorable, the balloons sometimes sail right over our home, but not this year. This year the wind sent most of them over the lake. We went to the soccer field not only to see the balloons but join in the festivities down there. There are typically around a dozen groups that bring their balloons and each group has a large number and variety of balloons. Here are photos of one of the groups and some of the activities taking place as they begin to launch. This was at the early part of the event so the soccer field didn't have too many people yet. A couple of hours later it was almost wall-to-wall people and people still streaming in. You can see the large number of balloons on the tarp for this group. Also in this series of photos you see some of the other groups beginning to launch their balloons. Many of the balloons are sponsored by local businesses, and have their name prominently displayed. One year when a balloon burned up a corn field this was a bit of a problem, as the farmer knew exactly who to speak to for restitution....

Getting set to launch the balloons can be rather exciting. Remember, there is this large tissue paper structure that requires hot air inside to make it float. Rather than lighting the kerosene some use a chimenea first and when the balloon gets partially full, then they will light the kerosene ring. Since some of the balloons are so large they use ladders or even scaffolding and then strings or long poles to hold the balloon away from the fire and vertical so that it doesn't catch on fire prior to launch. However, we saw our fair share of those burning before they even took off. Here are some photos of launch preparation.

One huge advantage of tissue paper balloons is the ease of repair. More tissue paper and packing style tape is all you need. Here is a photo of a balloon that had a hole in the top. After this photo was taken it unfortunately got another hole in top and they managed to get it down for repair. However, after that hole was filled the next thing we saw was this balloon go up in flames before it even got off the ground.

Watching balloons launch successfully is always a thrill and the crowd always cheers. Here are some photos of successful launches. Here is a video of a successful launch. Note the water bottle can be seen keeping the balloon from swaying and at the last part of the video the kerosene flame can be seen. The ballast has to be sufficient to keep the balloon from swaying but not so much as to keep the balloon from flying. The kerosene fire in the rocket, in this series of photos, burned out and the rocket landed intact and we saw it on our way home and took a photo of it that is shown at the end of this blog.

One of the most exciting things for the crowd, but not for the folks that spent untold hours making these balloons, is when they catch fire and crash. Some don't even get off the ground. Here are some photos of balloons that didn't make it. Here is a video of what most look like when they burst into flames after launch. Looking carefully the kerosene ring can be seen falling first. If this happens above the soccer field, the kids love to chase after them, with their parents hollering warnings to be careful. As can be seen at the end of the video, the burning remains often do fall into the local residential areas. Nothing fun in Mexico is without a certain amount of risk! There were a couple of spectacular disasters that we managed to catch in video. Here is a photo of a large Happy Face taking off and here is the video shortly after. Here is a photo of a rocket made up off three boosters. Here is the video shortly after. In the video it is clear that the green booster is the first to fail. The music, a Mexican Anthem in the background, appears to be very fitting.

So now the question is where do they land? In the earlier video clearly one was landing in a residential area. We saw one burning kerosene ring land on a roof and keep burning. But since everything is concrete and tile there is no danger of a house burning down. Here are two photos of balloons that have landed. The first landed in flames on the power lines. The second, landed intact in someones yard. This particular balloon was the large rocket that was in one of the earlier photos. It was interesting to watch because its kerosene fire went out and it just slowly drifted to earth intact and landed in this neighborhood.

Shoulder Replacement, Mexico Style

2010-07-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

Walt has had pain in both of his shoulders for many years, and gradually has lost the ability to lift his arms much. Well, a month ago Walt found out the reason was that he had no cartilage at all in his left shoulder and has very little in his right shoulder. Our doctor sent us to an orthopedic specialist who immediately recommended shoulder replacement surgery.

This is how the process went. We tried convincing our doctor in the US about Walt's shoulder pains. He was not terribly interested, and told him to take Ibuprofen. Then our doctor here in Mexico tried exercise and medication almost to no avail (although we have to say that the medications available here are often more effective than some in the US, thanks to the FDA). We were both in for a regular checkup one day and Nancy said to our doctor, "This is only as far as he can lift his arms". He immediately said to see an orthopedist. The orthopedist is one of the many specialists that come down to our local clinic from Guadalajara on different days of the week, so two days later, Walt was talking to the specialist. He asked about arm movement and the like, then said, "Lets go across the hall to get x-rays", looked at the right one and said, "You should think about replacement surgery" then saw the x-ray of the left one and said, "Right away". This was all in the same 20 minute appointment, not waiting weeks and weeks for x-rays or permission from insurance to see a specialist! We then sought council from our regular doctor, mainly to see if Walt was healthy enough and whether we should do it with our Mexican government insurance, IMSS, or not. He said if we can afford to pay for it ourselves we can control who does it and when. So we did our internet homework comparing Medicare costs, out-of-pocket cost and IMSS, which would be no cost, since we are now fully vested (although it would be put off for many months). Since we had the money we decided not to go through IMSS. Then we looked at the cost difference between out-of-pocket and Medicare - if we had even kept up the policy payments. The specialist here said it would cost around $10,000 USD and it actually came out to be $9450 USD. Finding what we could about Medicare allowable expenses, deductibles and then including payment of a Medicare Part B and supplemental policy, we figured we easily saved $10,000 to $20,000 USD. This is based on that we saw that shoulder surgery in the US can cost as high as $40,000 and it looks like Medicare may have taken care of around $10,000. Then, of course, you have to add in the $5,000 we would have spent on the cost of a policy and, just like with IMSS, you don't know who you would get or when it would be scheduled.

Now here is the beauty of the whole thing. We went back to the specialist on his next Friday visit to the clinic and he said, "How about scheduling it a week from this Monday?" What? Not 6 months from now? Then the following Friday he called us in the evening to say only one of the two prosthesis parts had come in (delayed from the US) and he didn't want to operate twice and didn't think we would want that either (that is a joke, btw). A few days later he called again to say the part was in and rescheduled us for a week later. It was the surgeon who called us personally at home to apologize for the delay and to reschedule the surgery. It was not the secretary of the assistant nurse to the specialist's assistant. It was the specialist himself.

So, one may ask, who is this specialist that can give you this kind of attention? After all you are way down in Mexico and they just are not qualified.... Here is his own personal home page, in English yet. His "Curriculum" page is the most interesting.

We went to Guadalajara Wednesday morning, had the surgery around 11:00 am and apparently the surgery was about an hour and a half long. The socket was replaced with a plastic one, and the shoulder ball was replaced with titanium. The doctor came in several times after the surgery to see how things were going. Nancy stayed overnight in the room (she had a nice couch to sleep on), which is the custom here. The surgeon returned Thursday morning with the anesthesiologist in tow. With Walt's three previous surgeries he never got to see the anesthesiologist. In fact, he had chatted with Walt a little bit before the surgery. Walt's last words to the anesthesiologist, surgeon and nurses before he dozed off were "Hasta luego" (See you later)- that got a good laugh.

The clinic we were in is only nine years old and very modern. It is really a tiny hospital more that what one would call a clinic. In fact, the operating room looked like it was some space age place. Here are pictures of the clinic and of Walt recovering.

Walt began physical therapy the day after surgery and, when he was at the specialist Friday here in town, got some more exercises to do. Next Friday the staples will come out and we should be on a full road to recovery. Already the fact that there is no pain whatsoever in the joint is huge! God is good!! Work with a physical therapist should hopefully improve mobility in the muscles that have atrophied over the years.

So this is proof that in places where malpractice suits do not exist, affordable quality health care does exist. The next surgery will be scheduled around our missions trip to Israel at the end of October, plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas and our yearly trek to Thailand, depending upon how fast the recovery process is. So it may be the beginning of November or as late as February of next year.

Brazil Praise Orchestra Trip

2010-06-20T14:21:00.001-07:00

From June 1 through June 12 Walt had the privilege of joining a group of some two dozen American Musicians on a trip to Brazil to give concerts and hold Masters Classes for the Brazilians. So this is Walt's personal blog on that trip.

First of all I feel honored and privileged to have joined this group of what I consider professional musicians under the able leadership of Camp Kirkland. Most of us met for the first time in Atlanta, GA for the final flight to Sao Paulo. Then, depending on where and when a concert was, Brazilian musicians would join us. I believe the largest orchestra may have been as large as 50 or 60 players and a couple of times we accompanied large choirs. So it was a real thrill, especially given that we don't have orchestras like that where we live.

We gave thirteen concerts, I believe (I actually lost count), in the nine days we were in Brazil and we toured the very last day. So all in all it was an excellent experience. Here are some photos beginning with our first rehearsal, first concert and going on through almost every concert. At the very first concert at a gated apartment complex my bass did something it never had done in all the years that I have played - it never kept its tune during the first two songs. I loved Nancy's response "The devil was in your bass so great things are going to happen." She was absolutely right as the trip was a total success for many reasons. To hear what we sound like here are some videos of concerts. This was "Jericho" at our first concert in Sao Paulo. Here is "Days of Elijah" in Brasilia and here is "Jericho" in Brasilia. You may want to use earphones or good speakers. My laptop speakers didn't do the songs justice (i.e., you couldn't hear the bass ;-)). You can hear that the Brazilians absolutely loved to join in singing.

One of the reasons the trip was successful is meeting new friends. This includes both people from the orchestra and Brazilians that we met. I was somewhat apprehensive at the thought of leading the rhythm class as we had no idea who or what to expect but we came prepared as much as possible. To me the greatest blessing that I received was a whole new set of rhythm player friends. Yes, I know, we are a strange lot! I am still receiving e-mails from the Brazilians thanking us for the pointers we gave. Here are photos of all my new friends.

However, not only did I teach Master's Classes in Rhythm, the Brazilians taught me to play some "interesting" rhythms. They actually allowed me to play in one of their worship sets. I mentioned this to Nancy as well and loved here response again, "So you are getting more out of this trip than you expected again?" Absolutely! Here is a video of just one of the worship songs they did. My new buddy Marcos is playing the bass in this particular song and my long time Brazilian buddy, CG, is playing drums.

One of the lesser reasons (right!) I enjoy going on these trips with Camp Kirkland is that he likes to eat like I do. I think we both might eat a little more than we ought to just by egging each other on. But it was well worth it. I only took a few photos of our eating sessions because I was more interested in eating then photographing. Here are the photos I took. For those of you who don't know what churrascaria is, you need to find out. They continue bringing different cuts of meat, mostly beef, on skewers or swords until you turn the little green tag to red. It always took me a long time to turn it red. Then I believe we had Brazilian pizza who knows how many times. The chief characteristics of Brazilian pizza are they use little, if any, sauce but substitute the sauce with "large" amounts of cheese. Also, when you have had your fill of pizza they bring dessert pizza - a delicacy to die for.

Our trip to Brazil this time included half the time in Sao Paulo and the other half in Brasilia. The only real touring we had a chance for in Sao Paulo was a special treat to the concert hall to hear Brazil's best symphony orchestra. That definitely was a highlight for all of us. Here are some of the pictures of Sao Paulo. Brasilia was a city planned in the 1950's to be the new capital of Brazil. The main part of Brasilia is very thoughtfully laid out. However, 50 years plus a large migration of people gravitating to the capital have changed the original main concepts, especially in the many towns now surrounding the main part of Brasilia. If you go to Google Earth, you will see that the plan form of the main part of Brasilia is an airplane. Here are photos of some of the highlights of this city.

One highlight while in Brasilia was to attend and observe a rehearsal of the Brazil National Symphony Orchestra. As musicians we really enjoyed this treat. Here are photos of that rehearsal.

As with all these trips, they too soon come to an end. Here are some photos of our departure back home. A video of one of the songs that the group did for us can be found here.

This is not the end yet of a rewarding trip of this nature. Nancy is going to join me in October as we do this in Israel again. This will be her first time and I know she will receive more out of it than she is expecting. For that trip we both would appreciate your prayers. Also at this point I need an additional $1,500 and Nancy needs and additional $2,000 as well. If you feel led to help go to this link.

California Visit

2010-06-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

At the end of May we visited San Diego for a few days. Adam, Cindy, Isaac and Anica came to CA to attend Cindy's sisters wedding so we felt it an excellent opportunity to see them and especially our new grand daughter who we had not seen in person yet as well as spend Kirstin's birthday with her. For the Thai and Mexico Heine's the temperature was quite cool.

We managed to do quite a bit while in San Diego. Here are some photos of Adam and Cindy reporting back to their church, Coast Vineyard, and of some of the fun we had relaxing at Kirsty and Will's house and at the park and some time we were able to have with Adam and Cindy's friends, the Wyatts, from Napa CA. We loved meeting and spending time with our new grand daughter, Anica. Here are some photos of her. Then we went to the beach with everyone. Isaac had already been at the beach in Thailand but probably too young to remember it. It was fun watching his and the dogs' reactions to the waves coming in. Here are photos of that day. Here is a video of Isaac challenging the mighty Pacific Ocean.

Fortunately our visit with Kirsty and Will coincided with Kirsty's birthday. Here are a couple of photos of her babies and the time we spent with them. The visit was entirely too short, but Nancy had already been away from home for over 2 weeks prior, visiting parents in Oregon and kids and friends in the Bay area....and Walt had a trip to Brazil in just a few days...More about that in the next blog.

Final Shore Excursion - Barcelona and Montserrat

2010-06-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

After twelve wonderful days we returned to Barcelona. Our ship arrived at 5:30 in the morning and our flight was not until 11 pm that night. So we decided we would take a different tour in the Barcelona area to use up most of the day. Still, we ended up spending nine hours in the airport. One thing we forgot to mention on our first stop in Barcelona was the fact that we felt, since have learned Spanish in Mexico, that we could converse with the locals. We soon discovered that all stores and restaurants were using a different language. Then we learned that Barcelona is in Catalonia and the language is Catalan, Spanish is second. And even that Spanish was noticeably different than Mexican Spanish. But we had no trouble with the cab driver - she spoke very little English and we carried on a conversation in Spanish and learned quite a bit about Barcelona.

Since this was a quick bus tour, for the most part, this blog will be shorter than the others. The main part of the tour consisted of visiting Montserrat, a mountain top monastery built more than a thousand years ago. It still is being used as a spiritual retreat for priests but more so as a retreat for young people involved in studying music, including a boys' choir.

The first set of photos are some more generic views of Barcelona. Since we were on our way to Montserrat we were driving through the suburbs of Barcelona, which are distinctly different than the old part that we visited at the beginning of our trip. The photos of some of the outskirts are shown here.

Most of the photos are of Montserrat. The surrounding area is very reminiscent of Yosemite because of the large granite cliffs, a favorite of rock climbers. The monastery is perched way up at almost a 4,000 foot elevation. The photos of the monastery and surrounding areas, including the drive up and down are shown here. A video of a service taking place in the main church is shown here.

We were overwhelmed by the size of the airport in Barcelona. So while we were killing time we took a couple of photos. These are shown here.

Hopefully you enjoyed our little travelogue. If nothing else, when we sit out on our terraza in 20 years we can bring out our computers and reminisce about an extremely enjoyable time in our lives together.

Seventh Shore Excursion - Malta

2010-05-31T13:01:00.000-07:00

After another day at sea after leaving Egypt we came to Malta. We really did not know what to expect as we thought it just an island out in the Mediterranean. It turns out it was very interesting and different than we had expected. Our first view was a harbor surrounded by impressive fortresses. They used the cliffs as part of the walls. In many cases there was a road outside the walls and running along the harbor. Here are views of the Port of Valletta as we entered it.

Once we entered the harbor, we left ship for our jeep safari. There were at least 20 jeeps and we all stuck together in one long line. So it was kind of fun. Unlike the jeep safari in Egypt, these drivers kept "pedal to the metal". The back roads are pretty rough so we had a blast. We went on the roads that the big tour buses can't go on.

Here are some generic views, primarily of Valletta, the main harbor we docked at. But there are some other interesting photos taken from the back of the jeep as we drove around.

The cities seemed to consist mostly of condos and apartments with a few single family homes sprinkled here and there. But the single family homes tended to be attached. The country side was what was really interesting with the many produce farms with stone walls seeming to meander all over the place. The farmers' homes tended to be very "square" and small. Here are views of the country side as we drove around.

As usual on all our ports of call were buildings that appeared interesting to us because we have never seen anything like them. Here are some of the interesting buildings we saw in Malta.

The most interesting site in Malta was the City of Mdina. It is an historic city perhaps dating from the Bronze age, although the cathedral was rebuilt by the Normans in 1090 AD, and is now predominantly a tourist site with little shops. The city is fortified by an extremely thick wall and is characterized by very narrow streets. After wandering down one of these streets we noticed doorbells on the doors. So we asked the proverbial why? The answer? People live here. In fact, approximately 350 people inhabit Mdina. We then asked how someone could buy a home. The answer was that there is no way as the homes are handed down generation to generation. If one did become available it would be very expensive and probably out of reach financially. Legend has it that Apostle Paul stayed in Mdina when he was shipwrecked on the Island of Malta. Here are views of the city of Mdina.

We didn't realize this but when they filmed Popeye starring Robin Williams, they built a special town on Malta as a set for the movie. Today it is just restaurants and shops - what else do you do with a cutesy movie set? Here are views of the set. The last picture captures the size of our jeep caravan.

We then left Malta for a last day at sea on our back to Barcelona. Here are views of the departure and what awaited us in our stateroom.

Next and final blog will be Barcelona but a different tour. Our final Barcelona tour was to Montserrat.

Sixth Shore Excursion - Alexandria

2010-05-13T18:27:00.001-07:00

On Monday, 5 April, we took a bus tour of Alexandria. It was mostly a bus tour with a few stops. As usual we were interested in typical scenes throughout the city. Here are some photos of various streets and buildings. As with the other cities that we toured it seems everyone lives in condos or apartments. There definitely is an absence of single family homes. Here are photos of the apartment buildings and condos. As we said in the last blog, we saw a lot of trash along the streets. Clearly one of the buildings seen all over the place are mosques. Here are photos of a couple of mosques, the one is the largest in Alexandria. Here are some photos of other interesting views in Alexandria.

There was one major stop that we made that was very interesting. However, we were not allowed to take pictures. These were the impressive catacombs of Kom el-Shuqafa, an enormous complex of underground burial chambers, was built by the Romans in the second century A.D. They consist of three levels cut in the rock to a depth of 100 ft., connected by staircases. At the highest level is a rotunda entrance with a well in the center covered by a type of kiosk. To get down to the catacombs was a winding staircase consisting of 96 steps surrounding the central shaft. The corpse was lowered to the burial chamber through this shaft and passed through an opening at the appropriate level in the catacombs. The rotunda opens into several rooms with rock-cut niches with false sarcophagi and bas-relief wall decorations in the Pharaonic style, showing ancient Egyptian deities. The heads of statues discovered in the complex are in the Greek style, while their garb is traditional Egyptian. The large room to the left of the entrance is the funereal triclinium, the banqueting hall, where relatives and friends of the deceased assembled for the funerary meal. Poorer family members were buried in corridors leading off the main chamber. Some rooms and corridors were added in later periods. The names and ages of the deceased were marked in red paint on the stone slabs which sealed the niches. The interesting thing is that the catacombs were discovered when someone's donkey stepped in a hole that turned out to be the entrance to the shaft.

An absolutely mind-blowing spot we had some time to see was the Alexandria Library. What amazed us was how modern the library is and the high level of technology available. Here is a link to their home page. It has two million volumes and growing. Everything can be accessed by computer and translated as necessary. There is even a book printing and binding system. Here are photos of this library. We were lucky, this was the day after Easter and a holiday. However, many of the workers chose to spend a few hours of their holiday to let us see the place. After seeing it, we were very grateful.

Montaza (Translated: "The Park") is a neighborhood in Alexandria, Egypt. It is distinguished by its beautiful gardens and royal palaces. It is often visited due to the beautiful sceneries that can be seen there and is considered one of the most beautiful places in Alexandria. Here are photos of the two largest palaces, one now a hotel, in this area. You can also see that the park surrounding the palaces are used by the public for family picnics and the like.

The park was rather full of families because it was Easter Monday and a holiday. So no one was working and everyone was out playing. You could see the many families spending the day around the palaces. Alexandria is right on the Mediterranean so many people were also spending the day at the beach. Here are photos of a resort hotel and then the many people we saw on the beaches. The beaches go the full length of Alexandria and so is very large and, as we saw, very full of people. There aren't any captions because they are just repeated views of the beaches. Note that people sit in plastic chairs under umbrellas, totally different than in the US.

A couple other items of interest were the various head coverings the women wore and the many men that sat outside stores and coffee shops smoking their hookahs, Arabic water pipes. We alluded to the head covering situation in Egypt in our last blog. Here are photos of the wide variety we saw. Notice that in most cases the head covering matches the outfit the lady is wearing - very stylish. As for the hookahs, we observed that there were many tables and chairs outside. Then we saw that this is where the men smoke their hookahs. Trying to take pictures while riding in the bus made it difficult but we managed to capture a few. Here they are in these photos. The hookahs are the large water pipes sitting on the ground and the gentleman is smoking it through a long hose.

Next port of call is Malta.

Fifth Port of Call - Alexandria and on to Cairo

2010-05-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, 4 April, we arrived in Alexandria. Here are some photos of our arrival into Alexandria and some first views of Alexandria itself. However, we didn't tour Alexandria until the next day and will have additional photos of that city on our next blog. On 4 April we took a three hour bus ride to Cairo to see Giza and the wonders of that place. As usual we took photos to give a feel of the country. Here are some photos that we took as we entered Alexandria and then on our drive to and from Cairo. Something we observed in the cities visited so far like Barcelona, Rome, Athens and Izmir, they were all very clean. However, our impression of Egypt was the exact opposite, lots of trash thrown out all over the place.

An interesting feature we saw repeatedly on our drive through the country side were pigeon houses. Apparently the Egyptians build these houses for pigeons so that they can retrieve the droppings as fertilizer. Talk about organic. Here are some photos of a variety that we saw. By the way, they are all over the place.

Another characteristic that our tour guide pointed out was the large disparity between rich and poor. She said that we would really notice it as we travel to Cairo. Sure enough, there would be a large elaborate mansion with a shack right next door. Obviously no zoning laws. But we have seen the lack of those kind of zoning laws in all the countries we have been to. Here are some photos demonstrating the economic disparity.

One final interesting characteristic which we observed in both Alexandria and Cairo, but most noticeably Cairo, since it is more rural, are the head coverings of the women. They varied from no covering whatsoever, as was the case with our tour guide to Cairo, to a scarf with a little bit of hair showing, as our tour guide in Alexandria wore, to a scarf that totally covered the hair and finally covering their face totally with a Niqāb, the traditional face covering with just a slit showing the eyes. The more traditional garb was seen more in Cairo than Alexandria. However, the head coverings in Alexandria tended to be very fancy. We will show more of those in our next blog. But here are the first of the head coverings we saw. There is an interesting story that goes with this. Because of the variations we saw, we asked our Alexandria tour guide, the one with partial hair showing, what the difference was. She said it had nothing to do with how "religious" you were. So the complete covering did not indicate being more devote than no covering. As for herself she said she likes to have a bit of style so wanted some of her hair showing. With regard to the women wearing Niqābs over their faces she said "that is purely a 'man' thing". The husband just wants to show his control over his wife. But it ended on a humorous note. Apparently when they buried the pharaohs they removed all the organs except the heart. They left the heart in the body because once the pharaoh crossed over to the other side, ie the afterlife, one of the Egyptian gods puts the heart on a scale with a feather on the opposite side as the balance. If the heart is lighter than the feather then they go to a good afterlife, designating a kind heart. But if the heart is heavier it goes to a bad afterlife. So I asked her, because she was showing part of her hair, how the balance would go for her. She said, "I hope my heart is lighter" and laughed.

After 3 hours of driving, we got to Cairo and then on to Giza to see the pyramids. Our original desire, when we were looking for a cruise, was to see the pyramids so this really represented the highlight of our cruise. The pictures of the Pyramids of Giza can be seen here. After walking around the pyramids we got on the bus for a short trip to the Great Sphinx. Here are pictures of the Sphinx. All we can say is that pictures do not do these marvels any justice. You have to stand beside them to appreciate where you are, what you are looking at and how old they are and the engineering that had to go into building them. Incredible is the only way you can describe it.

After the Giza attractions we went further South for our jeep and camel safari. We signed up for this shore excursion not only for the pyramids but the camel safari. We have ridden elephants in Thailand now it was time to experience another form of travel. Pictures of these two safaris are shown here. After the camel ride we had lunch and then headed, by bus, to Sakkara where the oldest known pyramid exists. This pyramid is called the "Step Pyramid". There were several interesting temples and other things to see, but again, because of time limitations we didn't spend much time at any one location. Here are photos of the Sakkara pyramids and temples.

Subsequent to this was the three hour bus ride back to the ship. It was dark when we got there but had an excellent dinner on board again.

The next day we toured Alexandria. This will be the subject of our next blog.

Fourth Port of Call - Izmir & Ephesus

2010-04-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

On Friday, 2 April, we arrived at Izmir, Turkey. We didn't need an At Sea day for this. Izmir is the modern name for the city of Smyrna, one of the seven churches listed in the Book of Revelations in the Bible. The first thing that struck us, and continued to impress us, was how clean and modern Turkey is. We expected it to be old, run down and dirty. However, we soon learned that Turkey has been busy rebuilding since the 1950's to recover from WWII. Living where we have, we have not experienced a requirement to rebuild of this nature. So most of what we saw is only a little more than 50 years old at the most. As usual we wanted to find out the price of gas. The service stations did not have gas prices so we asked. Apparently it is $9 per gallon. At one of our lunches we sat with a very proper couple from Norway. At the end of lunch he made a revealing comment. He said, "One thing that really bothers us about Americans is when they complain about their price of gas - they have nothing to whine about". After telling us the price of gas our tour guide went on to say that is why you don't see many cars more than 1.4L and if they are bigger they are only 1.6L. There always is a solution.

Here are some photos as we entered the Port of Izmir. As usual we took photos of typical scenes in the city.

Getting to Ephesus require a 45 minute bus ride but it did get us out into the countryside. Here are some photos of the typical Turkish countryside between Izmir and Ephesus.

At Ephesus we were welcomed by an incredible piece of history. Most of Ephesus has been buried under sediment for many centuries. It was discovered by chance in the late 1800's and excavation begun. It continues to this day. But it was a major Roman City for trade. Apostle Paul visited Ephesus and wrote the Book of Ephesians to the church there. Legend says that Mary, the mother of Jesus died here as well as Luke and John. The Island of Patmos, where John wrote the Book of Revelation is just off the coast. In fact, Ephesus was another of the seven churches that John wrote about in the Book or Revelations. Here are photos of Ephesus and they begin from entering the city on the East side and working down to what used to be the old harbor.

Our tour guide gave us several interesting insights into Turkey. Education, all the way through college is free and health care is free. Tourism is the second most important industry so tour guides have to get a bachelors degree, then three years of tour guide school and then they have to work as interns for six months in the area that they will be operating as tour guides. Since tourism is high and the fact that the government does not want to lose indigenous art skills, they operate Turkish rug making schools and facilities throughout the country. Turkish rugs are made of silk or cotton, both of which they claim are some of the strongest in the world. Silk on silk rugs are obviously the most expensive because they have the most knots per inch. The rugs are not woven but knotted and, with the most expensive, double-knotted. Here are some a few photos of the rug making facility we visited and the rug we purchased. As part of the tour of this facility we saw some of the most amazing and expensive rugs (like $40,000) you could imagine. Some of the designs are incredible.

Finally we had to say goodbye to Turkey. We were pleasantly surprised and pleased with our visit there. Here are a few photos as we left.

Next Port of Call is Egypt where we spent one day in Cairo and another day in Alexandria.

Third Port of Call - Athens

2010-04-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

After another "at Sea Day" we arrived at Piraeus, the port city associated with Athens. During our "at Sea Day" we transited the Messina Straits with Sicily on the right and Italy on the left. The straits are pretty narrow so we had to have a pilot come on board and steer us through them. Also, since there isn't much to do during an at sea day unless you like shopping, gambling or art auctions, Walt went up to the bridge viewing area to take photos of the bridge - kinda looks like the USS Enterprise. Photos of the Strait of Messina are shown here.

We talked to one of the ship's crew about how impressed we were with how they can maneuver these large cruise ships without help from tugs. He told as to watch for Piraeus, the port to Athens. He said it was an extremely busy port but were we in for a surprise. Not only is it very busy but we went deep inside the harbor. The captain then turned us on a dime to fit into a slip. We were sure there was not more than 50 feet between the stern and a dock on the other side of the harbor. But they did have tugs cruising around just in case. Photos really don't do justice to the maneuverability of these ships but here are some photos attempting to capture this.

Piraeus and Athens were pretty close together so we didn't get to see the countryside until after visiting Athens when we drove for about 45 minutes along the Greek Coast to the Temple of Poseidon located on the Cape of Sounion. We were in Athens on 1 April and it was our fourth day of the cruise.

As we did in each port, we took photos of what typical streets in the city looked like as well as some of the other interesting sites as we toured on the bus. Photos of Athens and some other interesting sites are given here. Note that the price of gas is higher than in Italy.

Of course, the main attraction in Athens is the Acropolis. We spent quite a bit of time here as there is so much to see. Some of the many photos we took are shown here. Many of the pieces of the ruins are lying on the ground, as you can see, waiting for proper cataloging and replacement during the restoration process. In some of the photos, if you look closely, you will see that some of the marble is much whiter than others. This is where they have taken new marble and carved it to fit perfectly in place of a missing piece.

After spending a good amount of time at the Acropolis we went out for authentic Greek food for lunch and then off to Cape Sounion that contains the Temple of Poseidon. This gave us an opportunity to see the countryside. Photos of Cape Sounion and some of the countryside are shown here.

Next Port of Call Izmir, the modern city of Smyrna, and Ephesus in Turkey.

Second Port of Call - Rome

2010-04-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

After an "at Sea Day" we arrived at Civitavecchia, the port city associated with Rome. So we had a nice ride through the countryside on our way to Rome. This was 30 March and our second day of the cruise. In all our port calls we tried to get a few photos of what the countryside was like and then what the cities themselves looked like by random views up side streets. Here are a few photos of "generic" Rome and vicinity. The other piece of info we liked finding out was the cost of gas in each country. It does vary quite a bit. In Italy it is like 1.28 euros/liter, or $3.65/gal.

First major stop was at the Vatican. One thing we found out was one day just does not do justice to Rome. Because of time constraints and the large number of tourists, even at the beginning of April, most time is spend in the bus or walking quickly around some highlight. For example, in the Vatican apparently 20,000 people pass through on an average each day and given we were coming up on Easter, it made it even worse. We walked through a part of the museum, through the Sistine Chapel, then the Basilica and finally St. Peter's Square. Photos could not be taken inside the Sistine Chapel and so it was a matter of trying to remember the incredible paintings of Michaelangelo, especially the scenes depicting the Creation and then the final judgement. Also, where you could take pictures it is difficult after the fact to recreate what objects were being photographed. One place that we were able to take photos, but not flash because of the sensitivity of the material, was the Gallery of Tapestries. Unfortunately the still photos came out very dark. However, video, without light, yielded excellent results. Here is a video of a tapestry depicting the ascension of Jesus. Here is another video of the ceiling of the Gallery of Tapestries. By the way, the ceiling is a painting and not a three dimensional relief as it appears to be. If you pause the video you can see the detail in the tapestries - totally incredible. By the way, with the sound on you will also get a glimpse of tour guides talking and how noisy it was. Even with all these limitations, it was an amazing experience. The photos we managed of the Vatican are given here. The impression we came away with was, this edifice is so grandiose, which is more important to God, the building and all its trappings and statues or what is in our hearts relative to worshiping Him?

Next was the Coliseum. The first impression was its immense size and the fact that it still survives after 2,000 years. Because of lack of time we couldn't participate in the tour of the interior of the Coliseum. Afterwards we found out that if we walked a little bit further we could have seen more of the Palatine Hill ruins but we didn't know they were there. A suggestion is to do a lot of homework before taking a tour. Our photos of the Coliseum are shown here.

The rest of the Roman ruins we saw were based on trying to snap photos from the tour bus while listening to the tour guide. Turns out to be quite a challenge. But here are the photos of some of the other ruins that we were able to get.

Next Port of Call, Athens, Greece.

Barcelona - Beginning of Cruise

2010-04-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

We were in Barcelona for a couple of days prior to the cruise and took a one day tour and also walked around on our own.

As in most of Europe, parts of the city are ancient, with layers of reconstruction after various natural disasters and wars. When we did our homework with Google Earth to see where our hotel was, and so on, we noticed a unique feature of the layout of Barcelona. In the mid-19th Century urban planning they used a strict grid pattern. In the photos you will see that all the blocks are square and the buildings at the intersections are cutoff at an angle. This intrigued us and as we got there not only did we notice the strict grid pattern but that all the buildings are the same height. These photos are shown here with other generic views around Barcelona. Another thing we noticed of Barcelona is its cleanliness. It turns out that prior to the 1992 Olympics all of these buildings, which were black and rusty, were cleaned up and now it looks immaculate. The other noteworthy side issue is the importance of Christopher Columbus to Barcelona. When he returned from his first voyage to America he returned to an island off the Atlantic Coast only to be told the King of Spain was in Barcelona. So Columbus took his boats and all the goods on the boats through the Straights of Gibraltar and into Barcelona where he managed to get funding for his next journey.

A place of particular interest to Nancy was the church Santa Maria del Mar, a church built by the Barcelona Mariners in honor of the Virgin Mary. It was close to our hotel so we walked down to see it. For Nancy it was fascinating because of a book she had read. Unfortunately Walt read the book during the cruise but still, seeing it now made the book very interesting. The book, entitled "Cathedral of the Sea" written by Ildefonso Falcones, gives a snapshot of the history of this area in the 14th Century and is an excellent read. Photos of Santa Maria del Mar can be seen here.

Our formal tour began with a walk through what is known as the Roman City since some of the structures date back to that period, but also includes a lot of Gothic structures of the 14th and 15th Centuries. Of interest here was the main Cathedral of Barcelona, the Jewish Quarters of the 14th and 15th Centuries and the King of Spain's residence where Christopher Columbus came to request additional funds. Photos of this area are shown here.

For the International Exposition of 1929, Barcelona constructed an entire village to show the different architectures throughout all parts of Spain. The village is all facades with empty buildings except for the first floors that have shops and restaurants. The village, Poble Espanyol, is on Montjuic which also is the location of the Stadiums of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Here are a couple of photos of the Poble Espanyol. By the way, our Spanish did little to help us in Barcelona; first of all, we speak Mexican Spanish, not Spain Spanish, and secondly, in Barcelona they speak Catalan. Barcelonians are very proud to point out that they are part of Catalonia. It took us a little while to figure out why we couldn't read the signs....

By far the most interesting aspect of Barcelona was Gaudi's architecture. Without question it is unique. One of his driving factors was to design everything as close to nature as possible, resulting in many interesting architectural features. There are several buildings throughout Barcelona that have his architectural stamp. But of high interest was his Park Güell. Here are various photos of some of Gaudi's work.

Although the buildings we have just shown are very interesting, the one outstanding architectural building associated with Gaudi is El Templo de Sagrada Familia or the Temple of the Sacred Family. Currently it is listed as a temple. Sometime this year the Pope is coming to bless it and it will become cathedral. It is a building dedicated to the Sacred Family, in other words, Jesus, His family and His disciples. Architectural drawings were started sometime prior to 1853. Because of some conflicts with the architect, Gaudi asked to take over the design in 1853. So the building has been under construction for some 125 years. The current architect continues to use some of Guadi's original drawings. It is being built totally through donations. Here are photos of some of the significant features. To show all the intricate details would require significantly more photos. Look on the internet if you are interested in more.

Our last day in Barcelona was Palm Sunday and we didn't need to board the ship until later in the afternoon. So we decided to take a walking tour of La Rambla , a wide avenue with pedestrian traffic in the middle and vehicle traffic in lateral lanes on either side. We didn't know what to expect but needless to say, it was interesting. First of all we witnessed a parade representing Jesus entering into Jerusalem. We were under the impression that this was a joyous occasion. However, here is a video of the parade showing how somber it was. But what was most fascinating in La Rambla were the living statues - people who used makeup and elaborate costume to appear like sculptures. They would sit or stand frozen all the time unless you put money in the buckets they had in front of them Then they would perform in some manner. Here are pictures we took as we strolled along La Rambla.

Finally we had to say goodbye to Barcelona but only for twelve days as we were returning again. Here are a couple of goodbye photos.

Next installment will be Rome.

Our New Grand Daughter

2010-03-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

We have a new grand daughter born in Thailand on 15 March. Here are photos of this new gorgeous little Heine.

Construction of Baños has Begun

2010-03-13T12:13:00.000-08:00

In our April 4, 2009 blog, seen here, we talked about a church project we wanted to help get going, and several of you generously responded. We received approximately half the funds we needed and they have now begun working on the much needed baños, so that we can meet at the new property. Today´s blog gives a glimpse of the building process as it is beginning. We are still about $12,000 short of the estimate but that doesn't prevent getting underway.

First a few pictures of the property as it is today. They have already built a nice brick entrance to the property. Also with heavy equipment coming in and out, the driveway on the property has become packed down firmly. Here are the pictures of the current property. In support of the work at the church property, a prayer meeting is scheduled every day except Wednesday and Sunday when other meetings are scheduled. Sunday dinner at church also continues each week to help raise funds.

Here are photos of the beginning steps of building the baños. It may not look like much but we are just excited about the fact that it is actually beginning. That is one thing we have learned down here with regard to many things - patience. Mañana does not mean tomorrow, it just means "not today".

During the last few months we ran into a hiccup with regard to the new church. In January, while we were in Thailand, a major windstorm came through the area here and did quite a bit of damage. The damage we sustained at the new church property was that the original (used) tarp was torn off and destroyed. Pictures before and after can be seen here. The cost of a new and more durable tarp is on the order of $2,500. If any group or individual would like to sponsor a nice little project, here you go!

Thailand 2010

2010-02-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

This blog will mostly consist of pictures of our annual trip to Thailand. This year we spent a whole three weeks there and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We did not take as many pictures as we would have liked but here are some to give a flavor of what we did.

The first Saturday that we were there was "kid's day" in Thailand. There are all sorts of festivities, free air shows, free rides at various places and many other things. When we arrived at the place where they had rides we not only enjoyed the rides but to see Thailand in true form again. Here are some pictures of what we saw. You will notice some of the things like plastic oil cans used for fuel for the various motors as well as electrical cords all over the place lying on the ground and no guard rails or fences anywhere. One picture we didn't take was of a redundant gas engine sitting next to the one being used just in case. However, the kids enjoyed all the rides and no one was hurt. Here is a video of Isaac "driving" the train. Notice he is steering, an engineer the whole way, must be in his genes. Here is another video but of him waving this time.

Talking about the Thai way of doing things, here is a picture of bamboo scaffolding lashed together with rope. This was a house being built in the development that Adam and Cindy live in.

Cindy has been running three dance classes per week, all different ages. A week after we got there Cindy had a recital for her students. Here are photos of the recital and her classes.

Emmett Blue, a friend of Adam and Cindy's from San Diego, was staying at their house while we were there. However, he was on his way to Africa so we went with the boys to see Emmett off on the train to Bangkok. For $15 USD he took the train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, an eight hour train ride. Here are photos of Emmett getting on the train and then his train leaving the station.

Our two little three year old grandsons are now attending preschool in a co-op. Here are photos of the school and the boys in the school. They absolutely love it. Speaking of school, Cindy home schools the boys and Sean and Prang's two year old daughter each day. Here is a video clip of Cindy teaching the kids.

One day we took the boys to the elephant farm to see the show and to ride elephants. Here are some photos of that adventure. Here is also a photo of a proud nana and her grandsons at Adam and Cindy's house. Here is a video of our boys feeding an elephant.

Adam and Cindy are in the process of trying adopt a new little girl. She is two years old and was born premature. As a result a couple of months ago she had just begun sitting up and apparently is blind because of being in an oxygen tent too long. Believe it or not, her Thai nickname is Pancake. Here are a couple of photos of Pancake. From watching her, we would say she can see something because she was reaching out directly and grabbing things and was not just responding to noise. She has started standing with help. Here is a video of her actually walking as she pushes a chair around.

One of the last nights that we were there, we went to the Christian Communications Institute, CCI. They had a display of various dances from Northern and Southern Thailand. Here is a video of part of the program. There is narration along with this video in English. It is about five minutes long but it is interesting to see the Thai culture through dance.

Remodeled kitchen

2009-12-30T13:38:00.000-08:00

The kitchen in the boy's home was designed to feed a family at the most of five or six. With twenty-five boys and six or seven staff it was barely functional for cooking or storing food. After speaking with the director as well as the ladies who do the cooking, Walt first built new bookshelves and a desk in the living room, which enabled them to move books from shelves in the eating area. This allowed the kitchen to expand into the old eating area, using the old library shelves as a new pantry and building a service counter, to separate it from the living room, and then moving one of the two refrigerators out from a small alcove and building additional shelves in that alcove for a new pantry. This whole remodel is shown, as best as possible, in these pictures. We were actually able to complete it all before Christmas. Now we need to purchase a new stove to go in the expanded kitchen area - next item on the remodel list. So we just keep on plugging away. In January we are going to Thailand again to visit the family there.

Amateur Carpenter's Dream

2009-12-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

We had a pleasant surprise this last month. We had heard that a donor was building a workshop for the boys at Casa Hogar "Mi Esperanza". When we saw a picture of the completed building we were amazed at the size. There is a large workshop on the first floor, and four small apartments above. So we went up to see it in person and found out that the Rotary Club of Langley, BC was donating funds for a new Toyota Commuter Van and for wood working tools for the workshop. Here is a photo of Rodney Dutro, Director of Casa Hogar, a part of Shepherd's Hearts Ministry - a local missions outreach, officially receiving the check for both the van and the tools, from David, president of Rotary Club Langley, BC. Since Walt was raised in Langley he had much to talk about with David. Here are photos of the van and some of the people associated with the project.

The amount set aside for the tools was $20,000 USD. Rodney had been serving as the sole leader of the workshop and since Walt has more carpentry experience, was this God saying that we should take a more substantial role? We thought yes, and so Walt helped list tools to be purchased - clearly all would be professional grade to come up to the amount. Nancy was not left out of this new call for us. She used to do wood carving, and half way looking through the empty shop and the prospects of the new tools, the thought of teaching the boys wood carving in conjunction with the woodworking projects came to her mind. She has ordered new wood carving tools for herself and for the boys. Are we ready to take on the responsibility of teaching carpentry and wood carving? We haven't heard "no" yet, and are looking forward to it. As far as the new shop tools, a week or two after specifying what would be desired, we received a call that the tools had arrived so we went and set them all up. A week later David, the Rotary Club of Langley president, showed up and was able to see them set up. They are shown in these photos. These are some serious tools! Each weighs from 235 kg to 365 kg, yeah that is like 500 to almost 800 pounds. The surfaces, legs and supports are all cast iron! We couldn't take them out of the crates, we had to de-construct the crates around the tools. Talk about drooling..... If anyone feels a twinge of jealousy because of all this cool equipment, we sure could use any help in planning an instruction program as well as putting such a program into effect.

When David explained how he found out about this project and it came to fruition, we just looked at each other and said, "God Thing". Apparently David came down to learn more about this area. He attended a week long series of seminars presented by Focus on Mexico, which we had also attended a couple of years ago. Another one of our local missionaries, Meme Thorpe, gives a presentation on local volunteer opportunities and as part of that talks about Casa Hogar. David heard the need and knew his local Rotary chapter had some funds. So he went back and presented it to the local district who said they would match his funds. Then it went up to the zone level and again was matched, resulting in a sizable final amount. So clearly God had big plans for the boy's home and we are excited to be a part of it.

As a quick update on another project that we have been working on, we sent out a request several months ago for donations to help build the bathrooms of our new church so that we could finally move services from the mud in the current place to a concrete floor - especially before the rains begin again next June. Well, we are about halfway to receiving all the funds needed. They announced in church last Sunday that they are planning to begin construction of the bathrooms this week. Of course room remains for additional support if anyone is feeling called!

A Way Late Update

2009-09-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

We have not posted anything for a couple of months as we have been continually on the move. Retirement, HA!, just a joke.

We have been to couple of interesting events since last time that we wanted to share to give you more of a flavor of Mexico. The first was we went to a Mexican rodeo with all the charros fully dressed in their large hats and special chaps. We had a special invitation by the owner of the ranch, and three large tour buses took the group from Ajijic to the rodeo. It was very fascinating to see the difference between rodeos here and in the States. There was horse roping, bull wrestling and the proverbial bull and wild mare riding. Since the event was sponsored by a tequila producer, for those who wanted, the tequila was flowing freely. However, we wanted to see the rodeo. Here are some pictures of the rodeo. We also took some videos to give a flavor of the rodeo activities. A video of charros riding formation in the arena. One video shows an event where the charros had to demonstrate horse control by how quickly they could stop the horse from a full gallop. Here are videos of a charro lassoing a horse, one lassoing while riding a horse and another from the ground - notice how the horse, as it is going down, drags the charro. Another video of a charro riding a bull and one more of riding a wild mare, notice the suede leather "horn gloves" on the bull. And a video of wrestling a bull to the ground by grabbing its tail and flipping it. After the rodeo we were guests at a very elaborate lunch with delicious authentic Mexican food. It was outdoors and decorated like a wedding. Here are some pictures of the special outdoor lunch.

A few weeks later we attended a wedding of some friends we met through JUCUM, which is the Mexican equivalent of YWAM. Dale is from the Bahamas and Lisette is from a village called Tapalpa in the mountains of Jalisco. Not only was the wedding of interest but the mountain village was absolutely beautiful and very interesting. The village is at an altitude of 7,000 feet and after a very windy road we got to a plateau on top that was reminiscent of the Route 120 access into Yosemite Valley including, of all things, the large pine trees. We thought we were back in the Sierra Nevada. Since there are a lot of trees, wood is used extensively in their buildings, as opposed to where we live, where little wood is used in building. The walls of the houses line the street right on the sidewalk and are all white with red trim and wood frames around doors and windows. We noticed that all the roofs are sloped, unlike in our area where they are flat, and the sidewalks were very high off the road. We found out why when during the wedding it poured like crazy, and the sloping roof allowed runoff and the streets became flooded. Here are pictures of Tapalpa. The wedding itself was interesting. They actually were married in the Bahamas a couple of weeks earlier and this was the brides wedding for her family in Mexico. The wedding included many Mexican traditions. The one we really liked is when the couple danced and people would break in to dance with them and then had to pin money on their clothes. Here are some pictures of the wedding.

Other happenings: Walt built a kitchen island for some friends. Karen bought some pasta machines for her husband's birthday; Bill is a fantastic cook. However, their kitchen counter made it difficult to clamp the machine down to work it. So the solution? They asked Walt if he would be willing to make them an island, complete with granite top. So with a few pictures and rough measurements Walt, the newly bona fide Mexican craftsman, designed and built the island. Then, true to Mexican fashion, payment was through the bartering system. For his efforts we got a pasta machine, pasta drying rack, pasta cook books and two free meals!! Here are pictures of this endeavor.

One morning last week we were surprised to see what looked like a twig off a pine tree stuck on the screen door. Closer inspection revealed this to be an interesting insect in disguise. Here is a picture of this guy. Note how the green and brown really do make it look like a pine twig, but what pine twig has four perfectly spaced needles?

We are heading to Oregon this week to see Nancy's parents, and then a long weekend in San Diego to visit Kirsty and Will, with a quick trip to Disneyland as well. Kirsty and Will celebrate their one year wedding anniversary on September 27 !

Of Projects and Jellyfish

2009-07-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

We have not posted a blog for two months because of all that is going on with projects, travel and the like.

In May Walt was busy making shelves and cabinets for the Boy's Home, Casa Hogar, and bookshelves for the language school we attended, Harvest Language School, a language school designed by missionaries for missionaries. Thanks to them we are beginning to feel quite comfortable with our Spanish. The bookshelves and cabinets are shown here.

At the beginning of June we went to California for Katie's, our boarder for the last two years before leaving California, wedding reception. While we were there we had six very full days. We got to see all of our family, except for our Thailand bunch, and through the auspices of Facebook got to see most of our friends that we have not seen since leaving. We spent the first day in Monterey with Eric and was the only place we managed to get pictures. The only picture we got of Eric was this one. The other pictures we got were videos of some interesting creatures at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Here is a video clip of a jelly fish moving through the water and here is a video clip of a luminescent jelly fish that we found very interesting. Then we couldn't help but be mesmerized by seahorses as shown in this video clip. Then we saw the most amazing seahorse that looks like vegetation moving through the water. You can see that here. We found out Saturday morning that in front of our hotel was the Sunnyvale Art and Wine Festival. Kirsty had flown up the evening before and instead of going to Andrew and Gretchens place as planned, we told them to meet us at the festival. Then we saw a bunch of our FBCLA friends at the reception Saturday night and our GBF friends on Sunday since that is where we attended church. Then Sunday afternoon Nancy had worked out via Facebook to have friends drop by at Red Rock Cafe. A friend saw this discussion on Facebook and told us that she was planning a surprise birthday party for her dad, a friend of more than 40 years, and invited us to come. So, to our pleasant surprise, we saw a host of old friends at that party.

When we returned to Mexico, Walt got busy building three cabinets that our pastor had asked for to store materials for the children's ministries. The added wrinkle was they wanted cabinets with locking doors. The cabinets are shown here.

June is also the beginning of our rain season. To show the difference a bit of rain makes we took pictures of the mountains behind our house a few weeeks before the rains and then a week or two after they began. The difference is clearly evident in these photos.

The rains also had a major impact on our church "under the tarps". Last Saturday night we had a major storm come through and when we showed up at church, the tarps were all down on the ground and because of the ropes holding the corners up, it looked like a huge above-ground swimming pool. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures but when we showed up Sunday morning for band rehearsal there was no way to get it repaired by the time church started. So we jammed everyone on a terrace. Good news is the new church facility is almost complete. Our little congregation, old church tarps and new facilities are shown in these photos.

While Walt was building the cabinets for church, Nancy was asked by the pastor to make some backdrops for some drama that they were going to do at the new facility. Nancy was responsible for painting a scene of the earth, Heaven's Gate and the door to hell. The earth scene, which because of last minute glitches, never got used, was essentially the view from our terrace. These backdrops are shown here. The interesting thing about this drama is that it was intended for outreach into the community. They had just got the roof of the new facility in place a week ago, had concrete floors, no walls and no electricity. But the idea is, "we have a facility, lets use it!" Electric installation was completed one hour before the beginning of the first service. There were three planned on 20, 21 and 22 July. Nancy's backdrops were key to the play and are shown in use, with views of the first meeting - pretty much packed out, here. The premise of the whole drama was whether we made the right decision on earth, the earth scenario, with regard to admittance to heaven, Heaven's Gate backdrop, or to be relegated to hell, doors of hell backdrop. On Tuesday night, 21 July, we had the worst storm we have seen here, incredible wind and hailstones the size of large peas. Two minutes after the service began the power went out and wind-blown rain began tearing some of the canvas walls down and flooding the concrete floor. But the tenacity of these folks was evident as we continued on and completed the entire service. For a while lights were run off a car battery until power was restored after the drama had begun. A real lesson for us, its the message and not the building that counts.

Speaking of the building, we can't begin Sunday morning services yet at the new site because there are no bathrooms. We are sure the pastor would be very appreciative if he had some additional funds available to build those so we can get on with it. Instructions for helping out in any way possible is in our April 4 blog. Just remember to designate "Church in Ixtlahuacan" on the tax deductible donation check.

Swine Flu and Other Misrepresentations

2009-05-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

For a while now we have had to respond to friends' concerns about the danger of Mexico for various reasons. Up until now it has been the banditos and gang related dangers. We see the news as well, but if you listen carefully they always end with "Reporting live from Tijuana" or "Reporting live from Juarez" or "Reporting live from Nuevo Laredo". When saying that these cities are representative of Mexico, our friends down here merely laugh. We are well over 1,000 to 3,000 miles away from these places, and a world of difference. Our friends in CA are much closer. So we don't see any of that here.

Now we are faced with the pandemic associated with swine flu. The first we heard about it was Sunday, 26 April after we came home from church. We noticed on the internet that the pandemic seemed to be going rampant throughout Mexico. There were 59 deaths attributed to swine flu in Mexico. Tuesday we went to Guadalajara and about one quarter of the people were wearing masks. By Thursday morning the deaths due to swine flu were changed to only 20 and by that afternoon it had been changed to only 7 or 8. Someone please help us, what are we missing? 7 deaths due to swine flu is a pandemic, the other 52 are due to regular flu and that is NOT a pandemic. Btw, the US has 38,000 to 40,000 deaths per year due to regular flu, again NOT a pandemic. However, by now the world has gone into a panic mode. Thanks to media hype Mexico might soon be off limits. We wonder with the media always crying "wolf" what will happen when a real wolf strikes. As an aside, some of the media has become rational again. Here is a direct quote -"One flu expert says there's no reason to believe the new virus is a more serious strain than seasonal flu. And a federal health official said the new flu virus doesn't appear to have genes that made the 1918 pandemic flu strain so deadly."

Today we went to church again and witnessed an interesting phenomenon. The Mexican government has suggested a number of safety measures. Schools have been closed for the past week. Businesses have been recommended to close for 5 days over the weekend (which conveniently includes 2 holidays). Avoid public gatherings. These are not mandates, only suggestions. But our church abode by them - the Friday and Saturday meetings were canceled, today at church, masks were made available (although using them has not been shown to be efficacious), chairs were spaced far apart, a sign asked people to refrain from hugging or kissing. One of the advantages with a church that meets outdoors is that, with sufficient land, the six foot space requirement was not difficult to meet. The no-hugging rule request was much more difficult! Here are some photos we took this morning of the impact of these measures. Are we in danger? The closest suspected case is hundreds of miles away, in another state. From what we can gather the pandemic is more media hype than real danger. We can't wait until it settles down again, and the parents of all the kids who are home from school probably feel the same.

However, this might be a good warning to think through some things. Maybe we should heed the Words of Jesus, "Then he added, “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and there will be famines and plagues in many lands" and "In the same way, when you see all these things taking place, you can know that the Kingdom of God is near." It is these Words of Jesus that give us comfort to know that He knew all about it 2,000 years ago and is still in control. We are definitely living in interesting and exciting times. Question is, are we ready?

Extreme Makeover - Mexican Church Edition

2009-04-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Currently our little church in Mexico meets under tarps come rain or shine. Fortunately it only rains at night but when it does, the church "floor" is solid mud. Here are photos of our church as it is now. We also included a photo of our pastor as we wanted to make a few comments about him. He has a full time job in Guadalajara, that is about 45 minutes away. He has a heart for our church since it is the only evangelical church in the village of Ixtlahuacan. He drives down for the Wednesday meeting and then returns on Friday for the Friday evening men's meeting and then stays through the weekend working with the youth and then church all day Sunday. They stay in a house on the property they are renting now for the church services. The house is falling apart, in fact, from their bedroom you can look through the crack and see the street. The pastor, his wife and three kids live in two rooms of this house all weekend. He apparently draws no salary from the church because he wants the money to go towards the church building. So his heart is in the right place.

Walt tries to go and help out but nothing seems to come of it. Although he has participated in some work, including with Scott Snyder from GBF as seen here, to dig stumps and drive a tractor to level ground, the status has only gotten to level ground for the building and piles of dirt. You can see the current status here. We have been wondering why nothing is moving and thinking it is maybe a language barrier on our part. However, we soon realized that this is standard building practice in developing countries where loans and credit are nonexistent. In a cash society, such as Mexico, you build when you have money and stop when the funds run out.

Currently one of the ways the church itself is helping the building program is to have special a church "family" lunch every Sunday after church. Different families will provide the food and we all "purchase" the food with the funds designated directly for the new building. We like it because we get to know more people at this time, learn more Spanish and get to try all sorts of different types of home-made Mexican dishes and "agua frescas" - flavored, sweetened cold water.

We spoke with the pastor today and he does have a building plan, but not according to American standards - there is no time associated with it. When asked what the timing might be he merely shrugged his shoulders and said when the funds are available. There is no stress to have it done at a certain time, they are happy with what they have and will be just as happy when they have what they are planning for. Here are photos of a baptism service that took place today showing that they are just happy to have an old jacuzzi to use in the rental property for baptism. The beauty of a cash only society is no stress about time, no debt and, since there is no debt, no stress about payback. We love it here!!

With this background, as we were watching another episode of "Extreme Makeover - Home Edition" the wild idea of "Extreme Makeover - Mexican Church Edition" came to mind. What if we could get a bunch of people together to make this thing happen?

Well, we sent out several inquiry type e-mails to friends and churches and received positive responses so we no longer thought it a wild idea. In fact, some folks have begun donations and some contractors are toying with the idea of coming down and pitching in for a week or so, helping to get this church built. We also contacted the pastor of a local English language church who says he has retirees with time on their hands that would also be willing to help out. So, what comes to mind is team of contractors from the North, a team of local retirees and of local Mexican contractors all working together to do something positive and needy. Now mind you, without a building schedule this will be a reasonably long term project so good planning can take place. Of course unless there is a rapid influx of large amounts of funding.

The more difficult task for us would be to coordinate people coming down for a week or so to make maximum use of their time. But that can be done. In addition to the labor to help construct the building is, of course, the need for materials. After our discussion with the pastor today, we have some idea of how many funds will be required and how many funds are available - currently there is a great disparity. There is a building plan so we can go from there to figure out cost phasing.

So the project is twofold: Come down and help build or donate for materials. Tax deductible donations can be made through the following 501(c)3 organization:

Shepherd's Heart Ministries, Inc.
135 Bill Cox Road
Jonesborough, TN 37659

and the check should designate: Church in Ixtlahuacan. It will then be set aside for that. This organization is a 100% pass through so every penny donated with this designation would go directly to the church.

We never intended our blog to be a fund raiser but we view this more as a long term opportunity to share with others who might want to be involved in a good cause.

Quinceañeros

2009-03-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

We have learned many new customs since coming to Mexico. One of the ones we really enjoy is the quinceañeros. At this fiesta a girl´s fifteenth birthday is celebrated. It is a very special time of recognition for the girl. We didn't realize how important until we attended one. This last Saturday there was a quinceañeros for one of the girls in our church.

Basically the quinceañeros begins with the girl walking in and being seated on a "throne". The whole area is decorated very beautifully, reminiscent of weddings in the US. The worship band then plays half a dozen or so songs. The girl in this quinceañeros is in the dance group in the church so she was featured with her whole dance group in the program. Then the father gives words of gratitude and encouragement. The girl then comes to where her father is speaking and it gets very tear jerky, even for a toughy like me. The pastor and his wife follow this by giving more words of encouragement to the girl and her mom and dad. Now comes the best part - a sit down Mexican meal - how good is that? Gifts are brought and placed on a table, again reminiscent of weddings in the US. There is even a blow-up slide for all the kids to have fun. It's like a huge family picnic!

Here are some photos captured with a phone camera. Doesn't really do it justice but you can get the idea. In the photos you will see guests from all over including CA. This really is a big deal as demonstrated by family flying in from all over just to celebrate a family member's quinceañeros.

¡Feliz quinceañeros Wendy!

Why we continue to love it here

2009-02-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

A common comment from US guests at Kirsty's and Will's wedding was "now we see why you moved down here". In actual fact it seems to get better all the time. We are being kept busy with regular personal stuff and little projects. It seems that no sooner are we unloading our musical instruments from the car Sunday afternoon when we are loading again on Saturday for rehearsal. We have no idea where we would have time for work. So we are kept very busy with service projects, projects around the house and other projects we just don't know where they come from.

However, we do find time to enjoy ourselves and relax. When Walt had a bit of time and a gallon of polyurethane from a previous mission project on his hand, he converted his workbench to what Nancy calls a piece of furniture, Walt just calls it a fancy workbench. You be the judge at this album link.

What we really enjoy is the lush vegetation in this area. Even though some areas of the US are still covered with snow, these pictures show what it is like here. These pictures were taken 28 February. We seem to have a continuous supply of papaya fruit. The flowers are incredible all year round. The lovely Jacaranda trees are in full bloom right now. The view is from the mirador on our house but we walk our dog among those trees and it is totally beautiful to walk under the gigantic Jacaranda trees when they are in full bloom. The bougainvillea seem to bloom continuously all year long.

But we like the most is our little oasis under the big ficus tree. We have a couple of lounges, sitting areas with wrought iron chairs and tables and a double hammock. It is totally cool under the tree and extremely peaceful. It is an excellent place to just lounge, read a book or nap. It is very therapeutic. Here are pictures of our little oasis and the house.

One thing that we have always enjoyed is the time around dusk and the setting sun. The view across the lake is very serene. This is especially true during cloudless days when the lake is still and everything is peaceful. Here are a couple of photos at this time of day. What is especially nice is that when we go to sleep with this peaceful setting that we will wake up with another full day in paradise just around the corner.

Another comment visitors made at Kirsty's and Will's wedding is that pictures do not do this area justice. If you want a taste of it we have plenty of extra beds.

Thailand 2009

2009-02-05T13:30:00.000-08:00

Just before going to Thailand we spent our first Christmas in Mexico. Our church in Ixtlahuacan had a fiesta on the Sunday evening prior to Christmas. We played a few songs with the worship band and then came one of the most amazing experiences. The pastor said everyone should hug someone else and what an experience to be hugged by upwards of 100 people. It truly was heartwarming. Then we had a great potluck dinner together. Here are some pictures of us eating under the tarp of what is usually our "auditorium" on Sunday mornings.

Then we were off to Thailand for a couple of weeks and Nancy's sister, Joy, came with us this time to experience life with Adam and Cindy. This was the first time we saw their completed "compound". It truly is that, in that there are three homes within the walls of the property. There are two large homes, Adam and Cindy's and then Sean and Prang's and then there is a smaller house that Cindy's mom has built as a guest house. That is where we stayed. The houses are situated on the property so that there is a large grass area for the children to play between the houses. All of this can be seen in these photos. Here is a video of the daily soccer game. They also have two garden areas that provide most of the produce they need, including a mushroom house that yields this delicacy for them. There is a long driveway that the kids can play on, a playground and then a large covered area for scooters and bicycles. Here is a video of the kids on a furniture dolly. In this video you have to excuse the dust from Nana sweeping up after one of the 3 dogs tried to dig up the lawn and plants. The whole compound is very well laid out for its' intended purpose - raising orphaned children. We can now clearly see how God has brought things together for Adam, Cindy and Sean in just four short years to where they now have their own facilities and are beginning to populate it more and more.

We took Joy to the elephant camp so that she could enjoy riding the elephants and seeing how they are trained. They play soccer, and actually paint pictures, too. Here are some pictures of us at the elephant camp. We also found the time for Joy to experience the large Sunday street market and the night bazaar. A place not to be missed is Ban Tuwai, the village where Thai furniture and carvings are made. It really is an amazing place. A trip to a Celedon plant was also included plus a silk farm. This is the first time we went to a silk farm. Here is a video of one of the ladies weaving Thai silk, clearly a tedious job. Walt took Joy up to Doi Suthep, the Buddhist temple on the mountain. A long arduous and winding drive but well worth it when you get to the top. Here are a couple of photos taken at the temple. Joy was also able to experience Thai BBQ where you cook your meal on a BBQ at your table. The BBQ has become a major event every time we go to Thailand and this time we had sixteen people joining us for dinner.

Before going to Thailand Adam had asked if we could build an entertainment center together - perfect dad/son bonding time. He sent the plans in advance so that Walt could connect with the plans. The big iffy item was the type of materials that were available in Thailand. Sean had or was able to borrow all the necessary equipment for this project. However, before going, Walt felt he had to retrain himself or rehone his woodworking skills. So he built himself a workbench that is shown in these pictures. While we were at Home Depot in Guadalajara we saw the coolest saw ever. It is a Makita "Flipper" that is a table saw that when flipped over becomes a chop saw. Searching for it on the internet we only found it in Germany and Denmark - not even on Makita's own webpage!! But two of them in Guadalajara - go figure. The entertainment center Walt and Adam built is mostly teak, four meters long and almost two and half meters high. The workshop in Sean's carport and the finished product are shown in these pictures.

The greatest event during our stay was a telephone call that Adam and Cindy received during the last week of our stay. They were informed of the availability of a two year orphan boy and through the network Adam and Cindy were contacted. Adam and Cindy were going to spend some time with this boy and then, when everyone felt comfortable, bring him to their home. However, within a few hours of visiting him they returned with Nathan, our newest and latest grandson. In the two or three days that we had to spend with him he appeared to be adjusting quite well. The other two year olds, Isaac and Abby, quickly played with him as only two year olds can. Here are a few photos of Nathan.

We returned last Friday with uneventful flights, healthy and safe and we thank God for that and were back playing in worship band on Sunday, slightly worn with jet lag but back in the saddle again.

November Fun

2008-11-28T16:32:00.000-08:00

Now that the wedding is behind us it was time to recover and then get back to our other projects. We definitely are not planning on slowing down any time soon.

We don't have pictures for this but our church is beginning to work on their new property. This required moving of a lot of dirt. In the true Mexican fashion, the plan was to move it all by shovel. Walt spent a Saturday afternoon with the pastor and they soon realized the impossibility of this task so rented a front-end loader. Walt went and helped the day the tractor was there and even wangled an opportunity to drive the tractor and move a lot of the earth himself. Since his farm days, he has dreamed of driving a tractor again so another dream has come true.

The following week more "cubbies" were required for the boy's home as they now have 18 boys living there. So Walt went back, bought more lumber and built the cubbies. You can see the new ones here. The neat part of this was Walt is beginning to replenish his tool supply and bought a brand new circular saw. As more projects come in he may get all his tools back again. Although he has found a Mexican who is related to seemingly everyone here and can get Walt into a fully tooled woodwork shop.

Nancy has not been idle. We thought it would be nice to invite one of our Spanish teachers and his family with their five kids for Thanksgiving. However, the response was that they always like to do something for students from the US that happen to be here so they are not alone at Thanksgiving. So Nancy said fine only to find out that there were eleven students with their families. So the total came to 25 people for dinner. Needless to say, Nancy went all out and did spent several days preparing. Photos of this event can be seen here. Again we learned that when you tell God you are available for service - look out!!!

We "think" it will be a quiet Christmas for just the two of us this year, but who knows what God has in store for us. In a week we are going to Laredo to send packages and, of course, shop. Then in January we are headed for Thailand again, this time with Nancy's sister Joy. Our project there will be to show spend time with our family, including extended members, show Joy around and build an entertainment center for Adam and Cindy's new house. Sean, who went over with Adam and Cindy, has already set up a workshop for Walt.

This week the locals are working up towards Sunday when they celebrate their Ajijic's patron saint, St. Andrew. So each day and night are filled with church bells ringing and rockets going off all the time. Each group, like construction workers, gardeners and so on, have their day to compete for the most rockets. We heard the gardeners have 1,000 rockets. The most we have heard is that in the past the construction workers had 7,000. As we are writing this post, we can hear the rockets continually exploding in the air. ¡Viva México!

The "Wedding"

2008-10-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

Well, the wedding has come and gone. We had been waiting for the official photos to arrive to put on our blog but except for a couple, they have not yet arrived. Depending on how much they differ from what we have here, we may put them on a later blog.

The photos that we do have are here*. The first photo is of our picture of Kirsty when she was two-and-a-half, our little baby. The wedding began with Will and Kirsty and Fossil, their dog, arriving the Saturday a week before the wedding. All kinds of small, last minute preparations were handled. Adam, Cindy and Isaac arrived from Thailand on Tuesday. (If you wonder what they are doing in Thailand you can see their blog.) Then the rest of the family arrived on Thursday. Even Nancy's folks came down from Oregon, both are 87 years old. But they came probably not only to attend their grand daughter's wedding but also to check on where Walt has taken their special little girl!!

We had our house full for two weeks with various family members staying here. During the weekend of the wedding we had eleven people sleeping in our house so it felt like there were beds all over the place. The beds are visible in the first set of photos. The rest of the visitors from the States stayed at Real de Chapala, a very beautiful hotel on the lake. Speaking of the lake, it gave our guests a special treat. It is the fullest it has been in over 30 years!! Here are some pictures of it at the lakeside park in our village of Ajijic.

The remainder of the photos give a glimpse of the wedding before, during and after. In a word it was "perfect". The tail end of rainy season took a break for the week, and we had perfect weather. The wedding itself was a pleasant blend of American and Mexican. The food was authentic Mexican prepared and catered by a local caterer. From the pictures you can see that there even was a Mariachi Band entertaining us as we ate. You can hear them here. Nancy made the dress and one of the cakes, and the girls made their own bouquets. Moisés, a pastor and one of our Spanish Class teachers, officiated. He gave an excellent reminder how as married couples whatever seeds we plant will dictate the harvest we will reap. So if we plant seeds of love, respect, affection, admiration and so forth, we will reap love, respect, affection and admiration from our partners. Good words to remember.

The day after the wedding, half of the family headed home. The last of our family left us on the Friday a week after the wedding. It is nice to have the ability to do what we want, when we want. But we sure miss all of our family. We are looking forward to when we can see them all again. It was especially nice to have Nancy's Mom, Dad, and sister from Oregon. It was quite an adventure for them, since Mexicana no longer offers non-stop flights from Portland.

* Just a note of a new feature of Picasa. If you go to the single image per page view, by double-clicking on a particular album photo, you can move your mouse across faces and identify individuals. This is not in the slideshow mode. Or, on the right panel of the album you see "People in this album" and if you "View All" you will see all the people and the number of photos they are in. Click "View All" for any one person and you will just see their photos. Kinda cool!

Independence Day

2008-09-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

Well, this certainly has been an exciting weekend for us. Today, dieciséis de septiembre, is Independence Day. However, the celebrations began on Saturday with la regata de globos - festival of balloons. It kind of reminded Walt of the balloon festival in Albuquerque with the exception that these balloons were made of tissue paper and the source of heat is a plastic ring wrapped with cloth and dipped in kerosene. So, needless to say, they were unmanned. They make the balloons in all kinds of shapes, and some are sponsored by local businesses. Here are some pictures of this event. They actually do fly very nicely as can be seen here. Everyone cheers when they launch. The ones that didn't burn up sailed right over our house. You can tell when one is in trouble when it begins swaying back and forth like a pendulum and then the flame touches the side, as seen here. Then they finally burn up totally with the only things falling being the ring and the counterweight (usually a soda bottle filled with water), the rest is simply ashes, as shown in this clip.

Sunday afternoon is bull riding and charro events in the old bull ring and then later there is the parade of the shawls in the plaza. This is where the women come out with fancy shawls and parade around the plaza stage. You can see some of the pictures here. Our friend Ana's mom was one of the ladies in the parade of shawls. Also note that all the villages are decorated for this event. To give a flavor of the mariachi music we have included a little clip.

Monday is rather quiet with the only real event is activity near the plaza ending with the mayor of the village doing the "grito", ¡VIVA MÉXICO! in honor of Father Hidalgo leading the fight for independance in 1817. It was raining and 11 is kinda late anyways so we just saw and heard some of the fireworks - rather subdued because of the rain.

Then it all started all over again today on Independence Day with a parade through the village. We watched the parade and here are a few pictures of this event. The plaza was overcrowded with the locals as they were all there watching the parade and enjoying the day. The parade is made up primarily of charros on their horses and, we think, every school in the neighborhood with all the kids in their uniforms. They all marched very energetically and it was fun to watch. There were the proverbial Mariachi Bands and some of the charros got their horses to dance to the music.

We have only highlighted the events that we managed to get to. There were more charro events, bull riding and roping, soccer tournaments, traditional folkloric dances and more. Maybe we will see more of these in future years. Suffice it to say, four days of celebration for a single Independence Day can keep anyone going a long time! We are sure there are some folks with headaches today....

We are enjoying all the new sights, sounds and experiences.

August 2008 Projects

2008-08-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

We have been very busy this past month, as seen in these pictures. We began with building "cubbies" or storage shelves for the boy's in their new home, Casa Hogar. These would provide a shelf for each boy that contains two baskets that are personally theirs. Walt took the design that Scott came up with when he was here as a starting point. Walt was assisted by a missions team that was here from South Carolina. Michael first helped cut and prepare the largest of the two shelf units. He has an interesting story. When asked where he is from, thinking he would mention a city in SC, he said, "Poland". So Poland is sending someone on a missions trip to the US who then connects with a team going to Mexico! Sounds like Poland sees a need in the US for something like this. Michael would like to come back next year with a full team. Brooks helped the next day to assemble the largest unit.

Nancy's creative mind came up with the idea of a painting of a tree, void of leaves, as a way to allow missions teams to record their stay. Each person places a leaf, in the form of a palm print, on the tree with a little note about themselves. This was such a popular idea that Nancy was asked to create a mural for the boys as a record of when they came to Casa Hogar and then if they leave. The Missions Team's tree currently has some three dozen names on it. The boys tree is in their new home. They moved in a few days ago.

We were asked by the staff at JUCUM (Juventud Con Una Misión), the local Youth With a Mission base, to be part of a worship team for students that came down for SST Phase III, basically a three week survival camp. The first week we played for worship both morning and evenings and then the second week only in the mornings. The third week they were busy doing outreach projects, working with local business people and the government. On their last day we invited them all up to our home for their final recap and for dinner. It reminded us so much of our Survival Camp experiences in CA because they presented skits and videos, plus we had to grill forty-one hamburgers on our BBQ. So the training of grilling twice as many hamburgers as a griddle will hold, learned at Survival Camp CA, paid off!

Just as an aside, Walt has also begun to teach bass lessons to an older Mexican gentleman from our church. Is there no end to all of this?

We have also thrown in a couple of pictures to give you a feel of life in Mexico. One day we were driving along the highway and traffic was stopped. A loaded dump truck was stuck in the ditch crossing the highway. Call a tow truck when you have a back hoe handy? They set the backhoe up and very quickly "pulled" the fully loaded truck out of the ditch! Only in Mexico! Also, our first rains hit mid-June. There is a picture showing the storm as it sat over the lake. We are rapidly approaching the yearly average rainfall. We have another 6 weeks to go and the lake is reasonably full. The good news is that the day time temperature dropped from the low 90's to mid-70's overnight. It is always good to get the first rains and, by the way, the rains really do occur at night. Most of the time.

Our First Missions Team

2008-07-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

Is it legitimate to call one person a team? If so,we had our first "team" come down to help out in some of the areas we are getting involved in. Three months ago, Scott, from Grace Bible Fellowship, our church plant in CA, felt led to come here and do "something". He came for nine working days at the beginning of July, and each one was filled with more than enough work. We did take a little time here and there just to chill out a bit, for example, on his last day we took a walk through our village of Ajijic.

We arranged for Scott to help out in clearing land for our new church building in Ixtlahuacan, to work in the boy's home, work in the "casita" for missions interns, work in our missionary friends' house and to visit inmates at a local prison. (Casita for "gringos" is a small house on the property of a larger house). The photos show the work that was being done. Obviously we couldn't take pictures inside the prison.

We began by visiting the property to be cleared for our new church building. There were some more membrillo tree stumps that needed to be dug out, which we did. In the mud. Then we went to the house that will be the new boy's home within the next month. Clearly this is the one God wants for them since it is ready for the boys to move in to, doesn't require renovation, and the boys have already been removed from the main orphanage so they NEED a place right now. Since the paperwork still needs to be completed for the acquisition of the property we couldn't work in the house itself. But we took measurements for storage units or "cubbies" for the boys, designed the cubbies and then purchased the materials to build them. We will build the cubbies at a later date once the paperwork is complete. There are some pictures of the new boy's home and one of us eating lunch with nine of the boys. "Mario" is a real sweetheart. Imagine him being out on the street because there is no home for him? After not seeing Nancy for over a week he remembered her name - how touching is that?

While we were at the Ixtlahuacan church property we learned of a new church starting, the first all-Spanish evangelical church in our village of Ajijic. The story surrounding the Mexican who is beginning this church is very interesting. The building is an old restaurant that sorely needed painting. So Scott and Walt went the next day to help our Mexican friend, Enrique, paint the church. It was quite a challenge but we completed the job.

Enrique also asked if Scott would mind coming to a local prison and speaking to inmates. Enrique said he would translate for Scott. About forty prisoners showed up, six of whom were women. Scott did a commendable job sharing his own life and testimony and the inmates really connected with him. It was very touching to have almost every male inmate give each of us a true Mexican hug as they were leaving. It was very moving to see them listen attentively to what was being said, and to see many of them using their Bibles.

The casita we worked on is on the property of a house our missionary friends are renting that is being used for short term missions teams coming to work this summer. The casita, which will house 2 interns, was basically a one room building with a bare and filthy concrete floor, a raw concrete kitchen counter with a dilapidated old sink, a rusted front door, rotting bathroom door frame, a rough wood bathroom door and a kitchen cabinet that was bare plywood that had turned black over the years. In other words, barely livable. It had been vacant for many years. We swept and power-washed it several weeks ago, but it still needed work. So Scott, a master tile layer, put in a mosaic kitchen counter and both Walt and Scott painted the floor, doors, door frames and kitchen cabinet. After completion they both said they could easily live in it. It now is a jewel of a place and the interns, two young ladies, moved right in and love it.

Our missionary friends are renting a house that, in true village style, has windows at the two ends of the house and none in between. So the house tends to be rather dark. This is compounded by the fact that the house interior was painted a dark green. For starters, Scott and Walt painted the ceiling white so that it would brighten the house up a bit. The walls will be painted a lighter color at a later date - Scott, are you coming back to help?

During Scott's stay we experienced the worst rain in our year here. It actually rained during the day! All the arroyos were running full tilt. When water rushes down the arroyos it brings a lot of debris and rocks with it. Anything that catches the debris creates a dam. We have one way to get out of our development and three arroyos merge at the entrance and go through a small gate that became a dam. As Scott and Walt were heading out to work they were stopped because of flooding. But that was soon taken care of the Mexican way - just rip out what is causing the problem. Instead of unlocking the gate and opening it, which they probably couldn't do, they merely drove up with the tractor and ripped the whole gate out. Problem solved!! This was all an exciting time and we had fun. Even with the gate removed, we couldn't walk out of our development for several days because of the water.

When the arroyos run full of water like they did, that means the waterfalls near to our home are running too. So we took an afternoon to go up to the falls to see what they looked like. The challenge was that the pathway and the main river coming down crossed many times. So we had to wade through thigh deep water several times. But when we got to the falls, it was more than worth it. So, while we weren't actually schlepping through the raging jungle rivers to reach people or our house, we were schlepping to see God's beautiful creation in the way of the waterfalls. Worth the whole schlepping experience.

While Scott was here we wanted him to experience a little more of our life in this area. When we went to Guadalajara to get the materials for the boy's home, we took him to Tonala, a special artisan village. We took him of a tour of our village, Ajijic, and on the day of the weekly street market let him experience that as well.

All in all, Scott had a well-rounded and busy time with us. If any one else feels "led" to do something useful for mankind and especially for God's Kingdom, drop us a line!! You will be working hard but be treated like royalty. If you ask Scott you will find that his time was extremely rewarding. He left here a happy camper. As we said after we dropped him off at the airport "he is hooked - hook, line and sinker".

Music in Mexico

2008-06-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

We knew that one of the things we were going to get involved in, once things settled down for us, was worship music at a church; after all, we did get a new Roland keyboard for Nancy before we moved. Well, we have accomplished that in our little Spanish church. There had been a worship leader from Guadalajara who had been "on loan" to the church until January of this year. When he left, the pastor and two of his kids, playing guitar, keyboard and drums, took over leading worship. On some Sundays, Pastor Samuel was alone on guitar trying to play and lead at the same time, as well as preaching the sermon. We met with Samuel one day to offer to help out with audio/visual. Then we heard him say, in Spanish to a team of people, "Nancy and Walter will play bass, play keyboard and sing". We know enough Spanish to say, "oh, oh," and within a week we were fully involved, just like old times. It has been a lot of fun, and we are thoroughly enjoying it, as are the other musicians and the people in the church. We usually have 6 singers and a group of worship dancers, as well as the "banda loca" (crazy band, as Pastor calls us)

Originally Nancy was going to play only when the pastor's daughter was not there to play keyboard and Walt was going to play somewhat more often. Well, that changed in a hurry and we are on every Sunday with the two keyboards complementing each other. Nancy enjoys singing again, all in Spanish. What Walt loves is that his Workingman 12 amp is at max gain and max volume, so he needs to get a new amplifier for his big Eden speaker. (Yes, Walt is getting a new toy this week.) He never played that loud even with the jazz bands he has been in. This really is paradise!

We captured part of this in a few pictures. Our church does meet outside under tarps! In the non-rainy season it is all dust and since the rain began three days ago, the dust has turned to gooey mud! But it is fun.

Retired? Hardly

2008-04-20T14:09:00.000-07:00

We have now been here for almost a year, and we really only changed occupations, not retired. There are so many opportunities for us to get involved in that we have to be careful which ones we choose. We just want to give you an update of where we are now. Sorry, no pictures this time.

First of all, we finished our four levels of Spanish School and are reasonably proficient. The biggest plus is that people notice we speak with hardly an accent. The biggest issues for us right now are remembering all the vocabulary and verb conjugations. But, "practicar, practicar, practicar", as they keep telling us. As we go through telling about the various things we are involved in you will see that we will get plenty of practice.

Speaking of the language school, in the process of helping them get 501(c)3 status, we have managed to get ourselves on the board of directors and are anxious to help in reformatting of the class materials, with a potential of placing it online, and in promoting the school. For people like us it is the best language training you can get since it is a Spanish language class designed by missionaries for missionaries. So we get a lot of practical application plus the fact that native Mexicans teach phonetics. For anyone wanting to work in a Spanish speaking country, this is the place to learn. The school is Harvest Language School. One of our proteges or "non-biological kids", Jarod Pace, did the website as part of his ministry. Networking with the right people does wonders.

We also teach a Bible Exploration class where we are comparing what the Bible and what New Age have to say. Since this is designed to enlighten New Agers on what the Bible has to say, we do have many energetic and challenging discussions. We are sure everyone comes away exhausted after an hour, but we all come back refreshed and ready for more the following week. This actually is the one English-only project we are involved with at this time.

We have been attending a little Mexican church in the neighboring village of Ixtlahuacan. We knew that eventually we might help out with the worship team in music and the audio/visual aspects of it. But with Spanish class taking up most of our time, we didn't offer to help. A couple of weeks ago we decided to dip our toes in the water and see what we could do. Here, two weeks later, we are fully involved playing bass and keyboard and Nancy singing on Sundays and even at special events! The cool thing is someone came up to Nancy and said that she sang Spanish without a detectable accent. The audio/visual equipment that they have is antiquated, and we have begun to help out getting all of the equipment and presentations and the like up to par. They will be building their own building within the next year and there is a good chance we may be providing inputs on the A/V setup for the new building.

Speaking about building a new church, one of our friends from our church plant in Mountain View sent an e-mail saying he has a "burning" desire to come and help out somehow. Since he is a building contractor in CA we put the word out here. Our task will be to identify the subset of projects that will maximize his stay. Once the church building gets started maybe we can convince him to come back and help there as well.

There is also building that will be taking place soon with a home for boys, Casa Hogar. It turns out that in the village of Chapala there is an orphanage, Love In Action, that is over-filled and the boys are sent back out into the street at age 10. So there is a plan to build a home for boys to alleviate this problem. Clearly there is a great potential for involvement here as well.

Some of you may remember that Walt went on a missions trip with a Christian Jazz Band to Brazil four years ago. Well, we connected with the musical director on, where else, Facebook. We are now in the process of trying to organize a music team of that nature to come down to Guadalajara sometime in the next year. As the host country we would be busy setting up a schedule, hotels, meals, transportation and the like. The beauty of this is that they will come down at no cost to the host country and the musicians are all professional quality wanting to return their talents for Kingdom Work.

Another potential ministry looming on the horizon is in working with a local youth camp. We had mentioned our involvement in the high school camp at our church in CA. Then a couple of weeks ago an e-mail came asking if we could possibly help. I guess 25 years of working at Survival camp and Walt being operations director for 10 years may have some value here.

The lesson we are learning is all those years of training in music, worship leading, Bible Study teaching, camp and all the other things we were involved with were really the training ground for work here in Mexico. So, yes, we have not retired, we have just changed occupations to do the things we were being trained for while we had other jobs. Go figure!!

More drama than I wanted

2008-03-22T06:59:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a trip to the US. Don't get me wrong, it was wonderful, it's just that there was way more drama than we are used to down here. Since moving to Mexico, our idea of drama is two hummingbirds getting into a spat, or the neighbor deciding to paint his house lime green with purple trim. But I did learn some important lessons for next time.

It started with a late night flight to Portland. There is only one direct flight to Portland daily, and it leaves at 8 pm. Walt dropped me off at the airport. We noticed on the way in that they were burning the grass around the airport. A common occurrence, but this fire was pretty cool as it was bigger than most. The immigration office at the airport was open so I got my FM3 stamped. A good start.

Sitting at the gate, we noticed that the flight board had a couple of cancellations, and other flight appeared to be delayed. My flight had no information at all. Hmmm. A half hour before the flight, the board changed, and all the flights were either canceled or delayed. When the Mexicana staff was asked, they admitted that the grass fire had gotten larger, and the airport was temporarily closed. Don't worry, everything would be normal soon. Stay around the gate. I went down to Starbucks and got on my computer. Walt had already turned his computer off, but I was able to send my sister in Oregon an email letting her know we might be late. She responded and said to call her when I got into Portland.

I went back to the gate and called Walt, and realized that the minutes on my phone had expired. No cell phone. I looked around to buy a new phone card, and realized that I had left home with no pesos. The store did not accept Visa. The only store that accepted Visa had no phone cards. I looked around at the pay phones, some of which only accepted Latadel cards, and some which took other calling cards. One phone took Visa, but I figured I wasn't that desperate. Then the flight board said that the plane would be 2 hours late taking off. Stay around the gate.

4 hours after we were supposed to take off, the airport reopened. Our plane had been diverted to Puerto Vallarta, so we would have to wait for it. Another hour. Stay around the gate. One o' clock in the morning, the plane came, and we started loading. Half the plane was loaded when word filtered down that Portland airport was not going to accept our plane. By the time we would arrive, their customs office would be closed. So we all got off the plane, and were told to stay around the gate. Or maybe we should go get our luggage, and then come back and stay around the gate. Maybe the flight would go in the early morning. At this point I decided that no one knew anything, and I was going to try to get the next day's flight, so I went down to luggage (the luggage had obviously been unloaded from the plane hours before), went to the ticket counter and cancelled my ticket and made a reservation for the next night. (Are you sure you don't want to wait? My supervisor says the flight may go soon, if you stay around the gate...)

Now to call Walt. I put my ATM card in the machine, and it decided that it had expired, and it kept it. OK, not panicking, no cell phone, no money, no ATM card. I still have Visa. Except that the pay phones only accept Latadel or International calling cards. I found one that would allow collect calls, and discovered that our Vonage phone would not accept collect calls. I was thinking at this point that I might cry...Considered IMing Adam in Thailand, and asking him to call Walt and tell him to come to the airport and pick me up, but decided that was ridiculous...Finally found a phone that took Visa, and made a credit card call to our Vonage phone. I had to call that phone because the Mexican phone was in another room, and Walt would not hear it. Praise God, Walt woke up before the answering machine kicked in. I said, "I'm still at the airport". He assumed I meant the Portland airport, and told me to call my sister. When he realized I was still in Guadalajara he raced to the airport (30 minutes from home)

The next night with pesos in my purse and minutes on my cell phone, I took the flight to Portland. The immigration office was closed, but my stamp was only a day off... got a first class seat, we arrived on time, no problems. Except that my luggage went to Oakland instead of Portland.

More drama to be continued...

More drama, Part 2

Because we had already missed a day with my parents, my sister and I drove straight to Sublimity. Got there at 2 am and went to bed. Of course, I had no luggage, so I slept in my underwear, with my contacts soaking in eyedrops. I'm sure the luggage will be delivered the next day.

Morning came, put on my same old clothes. It was wonderful to see my parents, it had been a year. Late in the morning, my dad came in and said he felt a tightness in his chest. My sister asked if he wanted to go to the hospital, and he said yes. (Dad will never voluntarily go to the doctor) Turns out Dad had a heart attack. Sublimity is a small town, and they wanted him to be under the care of a cardiologist, but the Salem cardiology section was full, so Dad was flown by helicopter to Portland. (He offered to fly it, but was politely turned down.) We followed in my sister's car. We got there about an hour later, and Dad had already had an angiogram, angioplasty, and had a stent put in. We visited with Dad for a few minutes, during which he said he never wanted another helicopter ride, that they were noisy and there was no reason they stayed in the air, and then we went to my sister's house, about 30 minutes away.

We stayed up near Portland for 4 more days while Dad recovered. I bought a few things at Target so I'd have something else to wear. After a couple of days, I could feel the lack of my meds, which were in my suitcases. But all things considered, who cared? My brother Jon came out from Colorado, and we 4 kids and Mom had a lot of fun catching up with each other. Finally Dad got to come home, and we drove him back to my parent's house. At the back door, wrapped in garbage bags, were my suitcases. Dad is getting stronger and feeling better every day. Life is good. Short, but good. The drama of the first part of the trip doesn't seem all that important.

After Oregon, I spent a few days in the Bay Area visiting friends and shopping, and then met Walt in So Cal where we spent time with the kids. We were very glad to get home to the spatting hummingbirds and the neighbor's lime green color swatches on his house. When people ask what we do, I say, we watch the sun come up. We play with the dog. We decide whether to cook or eat out. That's enough drama for a while.

Panoramic View from the Terraza

2008-03-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

We continue to enjoy the seasonal changes that occur here in our new home. At this time of year the Jacaranda trees are in bloom. You can see a panoramic and some closeup views here. The panoramic view is a visual of almost the whole "View from the Terraza". You will have to come and visit to see the entire panorama from our terraza.

Other changes? We graduated from Spanish school three weeks ago. The locals think we speak very well, but we beg to differ. There are constantly words we need to use, but don't know. We think it is the fact that the school stresses grammatics and pronunciation, among other things, and that impresses them. If you know of anyone that wants to learn Spanish quickly and to speak well, we highly recommend Harvest Language Center.

Update on Thailand

2008-02-10T07:14:00.000-08:00

This posting will be slightly different than the others, in that we just wanted to talk about Adam and Cindy in Thailand. All our postings to date have been primarily about what we have been up to. However, we saw what God was doing through Adam and Cindy with their work with orphans at Christmas and just wanted to share some of that with you because super things are happening there.

In our last post we showed some pictures of their houses that are being built for the orphans. Adam and Cindy currently have five, three girls and two boys, with differing stories about their backgrounds. Suffice it to say these five now have a loving and warm family environment in which they can grow to become model adults. Without this environment, who knows where they would end up. We have come to know and love these five kids in a very special way. In fact, we are "Opa" and "Nana" to them - how cool is that?

Since we were there, the walls have already gone up on the houses as you can see in these pictures. These pictures are several weeks old and probably by now the roofs are on. The work is progressing very rapidly, and it is anticipated that construction will be completed this summer. The plan is that each house, Adam and Cindy's as well as Sean and Prang's, will have five bedrooms with the idea of taking in ten orphans each. The houses are situated on approximately a half acre of land. We already know that there won't be a problem of filling the houses as Adam and Cindy already have five and live in a rented house! If you tell God you want to do something positive - look out!! Adam and Cindy have always impressed us by the fact that Adam gave up a lucrative computer scientist position in CA and Cindy a full-time teaching position in the San Diego school district to follow this call to Thailand.

At this point they have had the land for almost a year. House construction began last Fall by clearing and leveling the land and now building the houses. In a recent e-mail exchange with our kids in Thailand we found out that the land and houses have all, through God's providence, been paid for. However,the driveways, landscaping, including lawns, shrubbery and fencing, as well as necessary furnishing, appliances and garden tools are still needed. Adam and Cindy are like us, in that they love to give but hate to ask. Since we also don't like to ask we are simply saying that here is an opportunity to support an extremely worthwhile cause by helping out and providing the last items of the construction. If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, you can do so by following the instructions at this link.

The "Miracle" of Christmas in Thailand

2008-01-05T16:27:00.000-08:00

This posting will primarily consist of pictures. We say "miracle" because we could not have planned or pulled off something as perfect as this. It began with a thought last January, that with potential cheap airfares, we might have Christmas in Thailand with our whole family. First miracle was, after we laughed and figured it would never happen, we actually proceeded. Next miracle was Adam and Cindy said "sure", just before they got three new kids in the house. After this everyone adjusted their holiday schedules and said yes. This was followed by the airfare, because of Christmas, being double the "cheap" airfare but then God miraculously not only provided the additional amount but the entire airfare for ten of us round trip from LAX. Adam and Cindy then got three more kids but continued with "sure", stating that we could all stay in their house. The next miracle was that friends of Adam and Cindy's, Dave and Shirley, offered their house to provide some amount of relief by taking in Jason and Caryn and their two girls. These little miracles continued, but the final one was a real answer to prayer. For the last two months prior to leaving we had tried, in vain, to rent a Toyota Commuter van that would easily accommodate all eighteen of us plus some of our extended family in Thailand. All we could muster up was a minivan for seven people. When we got to the car rental place we only saw a Toyota Commuter van in the parking lot. Inside the gal said, "I am sorry, we have no minivans. All we have is the Commuter but we will let you have it at the price of the minivan". Was that a no-brainer or what? That was followed by the two most wonderful weeks together touring Chiang Mai together. And of course, the overarching miracle is that the whole Heine crowd from North America were able to see for themselves first hand what God is doing through Adam and Cindy on the other side of the world. A real education for them to see what it means to obey God and give up lucrative careers in CA and do what He has called them to do. How good is that? The God of miracles is alive and well and is still doing what He does best - taking care of His own!!

Here is the link to a small subset of the pictures we all took.

New addition and Christmas is coming!

2007-12-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

We have a new addition in our home. We just recently acquired a puppy. She is a Nordic Spitz and if you are like most people, it is a relatively unknown breed. However, we "just happen" to have a breeder here in our area. The dog, when full grown, will be medium size. They are often trained in search and rescue or conformation, and they are very smart. (Hopefully smart enough to figure out the housebreaking thing before we leave her with housesitters!) Our puppy's name is Hilde and we are enjoying her very much.

We also wanted to let you see what the beginning of December is like here in Ajijic so we have thrown in a couple of pictures of what is in our garden and how we are beginning to celebrate Christmas. Of course our Christmas this year will be with eighteen "Heine's" in Thailand. Ten of us are flying from Los Angeles and eight are already there. Everyone is really looking forward to it.

When Walt's sister, Margaret, and her husband Dan were here, all three hiked up to a shrine that has a beautiful view of "downtown" Ajijic, so we thought we would throw those in as well. The path up to the shrine has twelve stations of the cross and at Easter apparently they go up to the shrine with the person playing the role of Jesus carrying the cross up the hill to the station where Simon takes over. Apparently it is quite a ceremony that takes place the week before Easter and up through the resurrection. We are learning more about our new home each day.

You can find the pictures we are talking about here.

Our new home - before and after

2007-11-09T19:28:00.001-08:00

Last week essentially everything in the house, except some blinds we have been waiting for for over four months, was finally finished. Although our camera died, a friend was willing to offer theirs so we could get current pictures of our new home. But as we emptied the last of the boxes we found our old digital camera and were able to use it to get the "after" pictures to compare to the "before" pictures we took two years ago. Our new camera is in Illinois on its way via the "expatriate back door route" and will be here after Thanksgiving ready for our trip to Thailand. After having things in boxes for almost two years, it has been a little like Christmas and it feels good to have all the boxes gone. Here are our before and after pictures. Besides the painting, we had all the doors and cabinets stripped and restained, new granite counters installed in the kitchen and bathrooms (as well as some beautiful copper sinks), and full walls of floor-to-ceiling shelves built in the den and the music room. When Walt's sister Marg and her husband Dan were here, they said that pictures don't really do the house justice. So when are you coming to visit?

Little update

2007-11-05T07:10:00.000-08:00

A quick update on the last few weeks. Some people have noticed that we have not blogged for a while, and then Nancy's monkey question. We are still alive and totally enjoying life in Mexico. Here's a status update.

My sister, Margaret, and her husband, Dan, who live in Canada, visited us for a couple of weeks at the end of October. It was an absolutely wonderful time that we were able to spend with them. One unfortunate, or fortunate depending on your point of view, happened at the time they were here. The granite guy came and ripped out the granite, including kitchen sink, the day before they came and we didn't get our kitchen sink back the day after they left. So we had to eat out everyday - fortunate or unfortunate? We would have almost convinced them to move down except for their five kids and eleven grandkids in Canada.... guess we lost that one. We visited Tlaquepaque, an artisans section in Guadalajara. Here are a couple of pics.

We are also progressing well in our Spanish class. We just began Level 3 of the four level course. We will finish Level 3 before we leave for Thailand at Christmas and finish Level 4 in February. There are two other people in our class and then there was another level with four people in it. Our Mexican friends are amazed at how quickly we are learning Spanish and the fact that we speak with hardly an accent (that is assuming we remember the right vocabulary!). That is one of the things the language school stresses - phonetics and pronunciation. In fact the phonetics classes are taught by Mexicans, so I guess we will sound Guadalajaran. The other excellent thing about the school is that it was designed by missionaries for missionaries, so we are getting a lot of vocabulary that is not given in standard language schools. Here we are in class. There are many reasons we are taking Spanish, the primary being that we chose to live in Mexico and therefore it is incumbent on us to learn the language of our chosen country*. In our development you can get by without Spanish. As long as you only hire people who speak English, and never have to deal with the telephone or electric company! Down in the village, about 70% of the time you need Spanish. The villagers are generally pretty gracious about interpreting "granglish", the mangled gringo versions of Spanish. In Guadalajara, believe it or not, it is 100% Spanish, with not a whole lot of patience for those who don't speak it. We can understand the problem of not being able to learn a new language, but don't understand not bothering.....(*Coming from Cupertino, we have 32 years of experience with the flip-side of this issue)

Also in the last month we began our Bible exploration study. We know that this is one reason God brought us down here, to use the knowledge He has given us over the years to share with others. We are having a lot of fun and learning a lot ourselves. The folks in the class have very limited knowledge of what is in the Bible. So we are beginning with some very basic stuff and what we are learning is a lot of the things we take for granted as "common" knowledge. We are getting many challenging and thought provoking questions. So it is very exciting for all of us.

The house is "almost" done. (We hear that is a permanent condition) The only thing left are some roman shades that were promised to be installed at the end of July. (Turns out the order was never actually placed, but it is settled now, and we are hoping to have them next week) The cabinets and new granite were finished last week and they look gorgeous. We would have some pictures but our camera died a couple of weeks ago. It is in a camera shop in Guadalajara being checked out. And yes, "Habla inglés?" ' "¡No!". Like we said, Guadalajara is total Spanish. If they fix it we will take pictures and show the "before and after". If not, we will use the expatriot's approach to getting something down here - ship the item to someone in the US who is coming down here and have them bring it across the border. Until we get our camera back, you'll just need to imagine how the house looks. We are extremely pleased with all the work that was done.

Dream of Lifetime, or a Bad Idea?

2007-10-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

We have a dear friend whose brother owns a bed and breakfast in Tlaquepaque, an "old town" section of Guadalajara. We always take visitors there because he has a beautiful atrium filled with tiny monkeys, marmosets, to be specific. They are not more than 8 inches tall, with sideburns that stick out... Some of them are in cages either because they are blind, or because they have a tendency to pee on people, but most of them are just loose, climbing in the trees, and going in and out of the rooms. They never run away, because monkeys are not stupid, and they know they will get fed every day if they stick around, with an occasional marshmallow as a treat.
Those of you who know me at all, know I have a passion for monkeys, and have always talked (half jokingly) about getting one. I know all the reasons why this is a bad idea: monkeys smell, some get aggressive as they hit puberty, they bite, and in the US they are illegal to own. And yes, I have seen the killer monkey episode of "Dirty Jobs". Here in Mexico, you are "not supposed" to own them. More of a suggestion, like a one-way street sign....
Anyways, last week we went to visit the monkeys with Walt's sister Margaret and her husband Dan. The monkeys have never come too close to us before, but this time they crawled all over me. The babies were sure that my bracelet was good to eat, and they wanted to crawl into my purse. So I asked the young man who had just fed them, if they would sell one or two. He thought maybe, but said I'd need to ask the owner.
Yes, I did smell like monkey all day, and yes, one of them did get a little enthusiastic in tasting my shoulder. Still, my question is, is this possibly the dream of a lifetime, or just a very bad idea? I already know what Eddie would say....

Getting electricity to the work place

2007-09-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

We have mentioned several times the creative way electricity is obtained for the work place in Mexico. We have seen the techniques used in Thailand as well, clearly an international standard exists. We thought we would let you see how it is done. We tried not to get too close. (Survival Camp starts to look like an CAL-OSHA training facility.)

If you are at a construction site and there is no power? Easy, the first photo shows how you connect bare wires into your neighbor's junction box. The neighbors place will be too far away, so you will have to have extensions. Also easy. The second picture shows how - just twist the bare wire ends together to make the cord the length you need. Ok, so now you have power in the construction site. Well, you may need to have a splitter, to direct your power to various places. Very easy. A piece of wood with two nails and the wires twisted around them. In this case you want to have the splitter act as a switch, so just disconnect one of the wires, like the white one in the third photo. The black wires leave the "splitter" and go to an extension cord. Oh wait, the extension cord isn't long enough to reach to the splitter. Again, an easy task. Just remove the plug and twist the bare wires together again as shown in the fourth photo. The fifth photo shows that it is, in fact, an extension cord. Orange for safety. And speaking of safety, be careful not to overload your new set-up...nothing more than a light bulb.... guess again... Viva la México!

You can see all of this for yourself in the attached photos. Do not attempt this at home.

By the way, we have seen welders take bare wire ends and hang them on the public power lines to power their arc welder. We have seen another welder insert two bare wires into the hot contacts of our spa breaker box. That's when we back away slowly, and disconnect the TV for a while. Just in case...

The Arroyo

2007-09-08T09:55:00.000-07:00

There is an arroyo next to our house. Most of the time it is just a way for 4 Mexican families to get to their houses; a narrow track of dirt and rocks. Now with the rains we see its real purpose. It is a path for the water in the saturated mountains to flow down to the lake. It comes out of the mountain like a creek, being joined by other water flows, including one very large one from some nearby waterfalls. At the entrance to our development all the arroyos join and pour down next to a church, normally a shortcut to the village. Today anyone using the shortcut will need boots.

For us, on the dry side of the fence, it is charming. It sounds like Rocky Creek, a favorite camping spot of my childhood. It even smells like Rocky Creek did, along the California coast past Carmel.

It can't be all that charming for the four families that live there. I watched their kids play in the torrent in their yards like we used to play in the creek. Kids are always going to be kids. But the mothers are careful not to drop their laundry in the mud when they hang it out. Babies must be carried, the puddles are very deep. Keeping the dirt outside is not possible. If it didn't come in on its own, the dogs would bring it inside. There is no pavement on the arroyo, and as the water rushes down, it carries big rocks and brush with it, making deep trenches. The people who live in those four houses have no other way to get to school or to work - there is only one entrance to the street. The kids wade through the arroyo to get to school. The old cars, radios playing loudly, drive over the rocks and through the water. None of them are four-wheel drive. Sometimes I hear them take a few attempts to get around the narrow curves between walls. One night, someone got stuck. I lay in my dry warm bed listening as over the fence his neighbors came outside to help. At moments like that I feel very gringo.

You can get a glimpse of the arroyo in some of the pictures .

Exploring with Eric

2007-09-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

We had the fortune of having Eric and Kirsty visit us over Labor Day weekend. Kirsty was here for almost three days and Eric for almost five. Since Kirsty primarily wanted to check the place out for her wedding next year (September 27, 2008), we didn't spend much time exploring areas that we had not been to yet. However, her assessment was an emphatic "Yes" that our garden and the local area will be perfect for the wedding. And we found the most delicious cake for the wedding, and also had an open house, so our friends could meet the kids. (Nancy believes it to be the first party she has ever thrown for adults) We still have some work being done in the house, and will post pictures when it is all done. But the painters have finished, and we are totally impressed with their talents - we miss them already!

We took advantage of Eric being here a bit longer to explore some other areas and were pleasantly surprised by what we found. After dropping Kirsty off at the airport dad and Eric decided to hike up to a shrine in the mountains behind our house that has a fantastic view of the lake. Ten minutes walking distance from our house is the trail head to some local waterfalls but not to the shrine. It had rained most of the night before, and the road leading to the trail head for the falls was actually a river pouring all the way past the highway. We thought a water main had broken. But Eric and dad found out that it actually was that the waterfalls had overflowed. We took photos of the river running down the road and then the waterfalls. In these pictures you can see the "road river" and the three waterfalls we got to see. The climb up the trail from the trail head is only about half hour and not a very strenuous climb at all. The only problem was that the water crossed the path several times and it became tricky trying to "stone-step" across. Dad gave up first and just started wading through the water. The waterfalls are so close to our house and it is a very beautiful hike up to them. Now that the rain season is approaching its' end, you can see how sparkly blue the sky is becoming again.

Then the next day we decided to see what it was like on the other side of the lake. From our terrace it always reminds us of Kauai, our favorite family vacation spot and "almost" retirement spot. So we drove over to the other side and found, as we drove down the highway, it reminded us even more of Kauai. Now we have seen some of the other villages first hand. You can see a church from our terrace and in one of the pictures, you can see part of the church. We didn't actually go all that far around, the lake is much bigger than it seems. Plus we were hungry, and had a craving for real Angus hamburgers and rock and roll music, so we headed to "60's In Paradise" in Ajijic. As we continue our explorations of this incredible area we will keep you posted.

Other insights into Mexico

2007-08-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hola nuestros amigos. ¿Cómo están? Hacemos muy bien. La vida es mejor cada día. Nuestra casa está más a más como queremos. El trabajo será completo en una semana menos los gabinetes. El concreto está completo, el escritorio de Nancy está completo y media del cuartos son completo con pintura. Hablamos con los trabajadores sólo en español. Nuestro español está mejor poco a poco cada día.

Ok, back to English. This posting is a continuation of some our first hand impressions of Mexico.

One of the things we knew we would need is a "village car". Our Ford F-150 pickup is a real challenge to negotiate down extremely narrow cobblestone streets. Several times we have had to back up to get out of a tricky situation. So we've transfered the money, and it is in transit (yet another slow process) and checked out the local (and only) used car dealer. We would have gone earlier, but they were closed for a week's vacation. (Can you imagine a used car dealer shutting down to go on vacation? However, that is typical this time of year because it is the low season , so what better time than now?) He'll help us find the right little car, with good air conditioning and good suspension. Those are the priorities.

Since we can't be weaned from our US television shows, we have Dishnet. To get the standard network channels, we had to go through a somewhat "underground" fellow that has us registered with a New York address, so we are watching news from the Big Apple. We have a whole lot of channels, and we can watch Law and Order or CSI anytime of the day or night. We get a lot of movie channels that we didn't want, and don't pay for (because we didnt want them) However, one down side: every time a rain storm moves into the area we lose our signal . Luckily we brought our personal video store with us. And the rainy season will be over next month.

As most of you know, we are getting our house painted. The painter speaks excellent English because he lived in Santa Cruz for ten years. He learned painting in the Bay Area. Some of his clients included Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott. We are honored to have Joe's and Ronnie's painter painting our house. We are having many of the rooms painted with a special "faux finish" and his crew are real artists at this. (No, it is not like Trading Spaces) It is a wonderful thing to paint the house to make the art look good, especially since a lot of our art was done by the kids. So the walls now highlight the paintings and photographs we have hung there, as well as some cool architectural features. The process of adding wiring and preparing the walls for painting is very interesting, not to mention messy. The outside walls are about 14 inches thick, brick and concrete, and the inside walls are almost a foot thick, also of brick and concrete. So to run a wire for new lights you simply carve a trench in the concrete, place in the new wire and then cover with concrete to match the original. Some of the pictures show this process for lights we are adding in our bathroom.

I mentioned that we have had a number of severe lightening, thunder and rain storms but mostly at night. Well, yesterday when returning from our Spanish class at 5:00 pm, a hailstorm hit for about twenty minutes. We have never seen anything like it. Since our roofs are flat, the water runs out of spouts that dump water over the yard and the lawns. Yesterday this included hailstones dumping out on the lawn, so Walt made a "snowman". There is a picture of the snowman in the attached photo album.

As part of our Spanish class we have to ask local Mexicans questions so that we learn to listen and to speak to native speakers. One of the questions dealt with discipline and whether they spank their children in Mexico. Walt asked our maid the question since she is a mom and ought to know. She replied of course they do. I said that in the US you aren't allowed to any more. Her immediate response was, "Well, you will only end up with bad children". No, really????
We love it here.....

Learning to live in Mexico

2007-07-28T18:50:00.000-07:00

We have been here for two months now, and have learned a lot of the ropes of living here. Mind you, we are sure there will be many more lessons to be learned, but we thought we would chronicle them as we come across them.

One of the first lessons we learned was patience when dealing with people who you want to hire for various projects. Innumerable times we have heard that we would be called "tomorrow" or that someone would come to give an estimate, and several weeks later it may happen, or in one case it never did happen. This particular instance had us laughing. We wanted some wrought iron curtain rods, and went to a local fellow who was having a grand opening of a new shop. Let's call him R. R took Nancy's phone number and said he would call the next day. We heard nothing for a week. So Nancy called, and made an appointment for R to come out on "Monday at 3:15". He never came. We went to his store and spoke with him again. He wrote down what we were looking for , and the measurements, and said he would call the next day to give a price. He asked Nancy for her phone number. Nancy spotted her number on a list on his desk and said, "Use that number right there". So he laughed, and said he would, and we have not heard from him yet! The next day we went to a local ironworks and ordered the rods, and got them in two days. Probably the same place R would have gone to.

We had new awnings made to shield both sun and wind on our terrace. After taking measurements, the lady called to make sure she had the right phone number. So we asked when she would be coming up to install. She said, "next week". Four weeks later they came up and installed them! No phone call, they were just suddenly there. (the awnings are beautiful, tho)

Mind you, not all contractors are time-challenged like that. But we are learning that either no one comes, or everyone comes at the same time. Friday we had painters, concrete layers, the maid, and our friends the Almanzas, all at once!

There are a couple of things of note. The craftsmanship is absolutely of top quality. Many of the trades that you can get here are no longer available in the US or only at a very high cost. Because many of the conveniences available in the US are not available here, the craftsmen have talents that are essentially lost, or too costly in the US. For example, painters that can mix paint by eye and match precisely what you are looking for without the aid of a computerized machine. Or how about highly skilled masons and bricklayers, who mix their own cement, cut the stones to size or make a domed ceiling of brick? We have noticed that each trade is typical of many years ago in the US, where you have the master, the journeyman and the apprentice. For example, we had a concrete terrace installed and the apprentice graded the area with a shovel, the journeyman laid the concrete, using a cement mixer, and the master put in the stone steps and gave early morning instructions. It definitely is like the 1950's, and we love it.

Also when you have contractors come in, they give you an estimate and then request a deposit that essentially covers purchase of any materials. Then, they WILL NOT take final payment until the job is complete and you are satisfied. Since this is a cash society, you give them their payment in pesos and invariably they never count it, trusting that you gave the correct amount. They work 8:30 to 5:30 Monday through Friday and then 8:30 until 2:00 pm on Saturday. They are very hard working and very considerate. We are very happy with the work that has been done so far.

The painters finally arrived this last week and have begun cleaning up the walls and painting. The prepping of the walls is messy and time consuming, as they scrape, and dig out and fill any areas they think are not up to par. (Our walls are not sheet rock, they are brick and concrete) These guys are real artists, and our challenge is to keep up with their suggestions for colors. They can view a color, put a large sample on the wall to give you an idea of what it will look like all over. They don't mind doing it over and over. In one case they have given us six samples on the wall for us to decide. Oh, and when we say sample, we mean a swatch about six or more feet wide and ceiling to floor. It isn't just a little chip on the wall. So you can get a good handle on whether you can live with what you thought you wanted. But now we have to decide, and it definitely is not easy. Many of the final decisions we will leave with them because they are true "maestros".

Speaking of a cash society, we enjoy it because our visa account is generally around zero and there never are any checks outstanding to forget about when checking your bank account. The only problem is leaving the house with sufficient cash. Today we went to Walmart and we thought we had plenty of money with us, but when we got to the case register we realized we had barely enough. And it is the rare store that takes credit cards.

Now for the major thing we learned. Utility bills, electric and telephone, are your your responsibility to pay, whether you get the bill or not. Typically the bill is delivered to your house, or in our case, to the front gate. If you don't get your bill on time and are late in paying, they cut your power or telephone off without notice. No grace period. And it will usually cost you a penalty to get it turned back on. Last week we received our first electric bill on a Tuesday, and the power was turned off two days later, and it took five days and many phone calls by different people to get it turned back on. It turns out, when we received the bill, it was already overdue. But we didn't know that. And they didn't care. Now we know that our next bill "should" be here mid-August. Whether we see it or not, we are going down to pay the bill before the end of August. Being without power is not fun!! Oh yeah, you don't ever pay your bills by mail, you go somewhere (maybe a little booth set up in a paint store for a week) to pay it. But many things that we would have paid monthly can be paid annually here, so there are really only a couple of bills to remember.

The other significant thing we have learned is that a large portion of the people we deal with do not speak English. You can get by without Spanish but you are really limiting yourself and what you can get done. And you will never be part of the culture. So we have begun taking Spanish classes with a language school for missionaries. It is three hours a day four or five days a week. There is homework and there are exams!! It is difficult getting back into doing homework again after all these years. However, we anticipate, because of the accelerated rate of this program, that by the end of this calendar year we should be quite fluent in Spanish, at least that is the hope. After being in class for only two weeks we already have been successful in negotiating with various contractors what we wanted done. Our gardener is grateful that we are willing to learn Spanish and has taken it upon himself to help us by expanding our vocabulary as well as perfecting our pronunciation. We find that most people are like that here.

A fascinating and comforting lesson for us is the weather this far South. People generally believe that when you are only 20 degrees North latitude of the equator, that the weather at this time of year would be intolerably hot. We looked at the weather forecast for Lake Camanche in California, where right now they are setting up Survival Camp. It looks like the temperature there will be in the low 100's. In comparison, on our way home from church today around 12:30 pm, the outside temperature was 62 degrees and we are almost 2,000 miles closer to the equator! Go figure. We see another value of cobblestone streets - they focus the water (rivers of it) when it rains.

To give you another glimpse of things going on and views of the area, here are some more pictures for your entertainment.

We are getting there

2007-07-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

We just wanted to make sure everyone knew we were not still living with boxes all over the place! The only things remaining in boxes are books, videos, DVD's and office supplies, as bookcases, entertainment center and a desk are in the process of being built. We actually are having the desk/secretary made by a local furniture maker. It will be seven feet tall and five feet wide, made out of SOLID wood and hand carved trim around bookcase, drawers and doors. You would not believe the price tag!! Also we have a carpenter coming in to build an entertainment center with shelving for our "video store" as well as a bookcase in our music room. Until those are done, we still have some boxes.

You can see what the house looks like in the places where the boxes don't exist in the attached set of photos. We also threw a couple of special interest photos in, so you can better see how life is down here. One thing we have found true, it only rains at night. Had another big storm last night. It sure keeps the days fresh and cool.

We found a wonderful Mexican church with about 60 adults and a large number of children and teenagers. Fortunately someone always sits by us to translate the sermon since it is all in Spanish. The good news is that it will force us to learn Spanish more rapidly. The Mexican people sure know how to sing and they mean what they are singing. We are enjoying it very much.

As far as the Bible Study that we have talked about before, it looks like we will begin sometime mid-August. Finishing decorating our house, learning Spanish and preparing for the Bible Study are the three highest priority items at this point. So it is keeping us very busy. The hot tub feels good at the end of each taxing day. (OK, this is a joke. We spend a lot of time puttering and exploring. But that is taxing, too, right?)

Painting and carpentry work should be complete by the end of July so we will post pictures of the whole house when that is all done so you can get a better idea of how we are doing with our house. It was a beautiful house before, and it will be even more beautiful when we're done!

The Cat Came Back

2007-06-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

Ever since our friend Julie moved into a new place, she has been trying to give us a cat (evidently it came with her house). I have been saying "No, I don't want an unknown, unseen cat". But the other night Julie had a party for us and I saw the cat. Beautiful long hair, black and white, yellow eyes, and very friendly. I said, "When Andrew goes home (he's allergic), we'll come get the cat."

After Andrew left, we picked up the cat, now named Jackson, and took it right to the vet. We find out she's a girl, fixed (very unusual here!) very healthy, no parasites, about 4 years old, she only needs her shots and her teeth cleaned. The vet charged $60, and that included shots and 3 months of flea protection) So we took her home, and she ran under the couch and spent the next hour throwing up. Then she goes outside and she doesn't come back. All night. And the next day. Ok, I guess she didn't really want to move.

So late last night, she came back. She stayed in all night, slept with us, knows how to use a litter box. We have a cat. Meet Jackson.

3 Weeks Later

2007-06-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that 3 weeks have gone by! Here's a quick update:
We got here on June 2, and had to get along with the things we had brought in the truck for a few days. We shared the house with a lot of Daddy-Long-Legs, because the screens were out being replaced. On June 4th, the screens came back, Thursday June 7th the movers brought our stuff (there had been a delay because one of the 7 crates had not arrived in Laredo with the rest, and they had to wait till they were all there to cross the border). On June 9 we got Internet (!!!), which also meant we once again had a US phone, and on the 11th our Dishnet was hooked up. One of the moving guys was stung by a scorpion while collecting empty boxes, and we saw a couple more than I am comfortable with (which is none), so we had the place fumigated. The only good scorpion is a dead one. We haven't had any more problems with them, but we are careful about walking around barefooted.

Walt didn't feel good, and thought he might have an infection, and now we know the quality of Mexican health care. So far we have only good things to say! He got an appointment an hour after he called, and for $230 each US, we can have unlimited visits with all the Drs at the clinic for a year, (housecalls included ) and discounts on other services. Lab tests were $35, a prescription was $15. He loved how the Dr really listened to him, and next week we are both going in with our medical records, just to chat. Walt is much better, too, by the way.

For my part, I have a certain frustration with how slow it is to get things started...For those of you who are old enough, the Cat Stevens song, "Father and Son" keeps running through my head, the son always in a hurry and the father telling him to relax. But I would love to get the rest of my books and videos out of the boxes, which requires shelving to be built, and I'd like to hang up all the art, but the walls aren't painted yet, and I want to have some window treatments made and a chair recovered. (Today I found someone to do that, so I feel a little more relaxed. ) We have a wonderful maid who comes in 3 afternoons a week, and a great gardener who has loved our garden for the last 6 years, and will continue to do so. But you can't just run to the mall or find someone in the yellow pages here, it takes word of mouth to get things done. And not everyone has a phone, or speaks English. We have got to get cracking on our Spanish lessons!

We had a great time with Andrew here; he met a lot of our friends, wrote some music, painted, took a ton of photos, and just fell in love with this area. He did a lot of translating for us,too. I know he'll be back often.

One thing that is absolutely wonderful about this area is the food. I have cooked twice since we've been here. There are just so many excellent restaurants, and all nationalities, and reasonably priced. We already had our favorites, but now we have some new ones.

Tomorrow we're going to visit a little home-church in Ixtlahuacan with our friends Sara and Enrique (if we can find it!). Next week Enrique will be coming to help me choose paint colors, someone is coming to measure for shades and to pick up the chair, and we are going to Guadalajara to sign up for IMSS ( insurance program for major medical issues). Hopefully the next update will not take 3 weeks.

The rain season began about a week ago with a couple of tremendous storms. The lightening and thunder were awesome to see and hear. We have get used to shutting windows when the winds hit.

Here are a few glimpses of our first few weeks.

Our Third Day in Mexico

2007-06-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

This day would be the second longest of our drives. We expected six hours from Mazatlan to Ajijic. We wanted to get to our house early in the afternoon so left Mazatlan about 8:00 am. There was a MacDonalds right down the way from the hotel so we decided to get a good old American breakfast there. Turns out McMexico is a bit different than CA, but still good. Mazatlan was interesting to get out of. Fortunately the streets were pretty clearly marked and we didn’t get lost. However, traffic was a little bit heavier than other places. As we left the city limits, the toll road all of a sudden became a two lane highway. It was rather narrow for just a bit but then had large shoulders that trucks would use to pull over so you could pass them. This part of the toll road was very new and enjoyable to drive along. Again, there was very little traffic on the toll road, so we could keep up a reasonable pace. Perhaps not the speed we're used to on a California Interstate, but considering Federales, topes and toll booths, quite acceptable indeed.

We thought there would be good cruising between Mazatlan and Guadalajara since they are both major cities. However, as we approached a rather large town called Tepic, we were faced with a detour. Mexico has always been a reminder of how life was in the 50’s. The detour was like the detours Walt remembers in the 50’s – narrow, rough and tricky. An older gentleman stopped us just to make sure we didn't head the wrong way. So we had a few miles to cover on this detour-a challenge with our big Ford F150. Once the detour was over we came to the best road of the entire trip. This lasted all the way into Guadalajara. The road was four lanes wide with very wide shoulders and smooth. Again, very little traffic. It's the off season.

Once we got to Guadalajara, we were on the portion of the road that we drove on last March, so we were in familiar territory – it felt good. It was Saturday afternoon so traffic was heavier than the last time we saw it. The reason we were along this road in March was to check out Costco, Sam's and the large modern shopping center – not really a challenge to a Westfield Shopping Center, but nonetheless Nancy assures me that she can get MAC cosmetics there. By the way, there are Home Depots, Walmarts, Outback and Chili's in Guadalajara. No Macy's.

We finally ended up in Ajijic at 3:15. No, it didn’t take seven hours, we forgot about the time change. So we had a little more than six hour drive but then lost an hour. Since we had not stopped for lunch we decided we would stop for dinner at one of our favorite places, Tony's, and we got up to the house around 4:30. Andrew took movies as we drove the last few miles along the carretera and then up the street to our house and right up to the front door. Since this is the first house that we have ever purchased together, I carried Nancy across the threshold – that was fun.

Again, a small collection of photos. Actually the best is the six minute movie Andrew took from our arrival into Ajijic to driving right into our carport.

Our Second Day in Mexico

2007-06-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

We had a good rest in the hotel that we chose in Guasave. We woke up around 7 in the morning with a plan to leave around 8:00 am. We were hoping to get breakfast somewhere along the way, a donut shop, a MacDonalds, actually anything. As we were driving through Guasave there were vendors at various stop lights with orange juice, baked goods and even burritos. So we had our answer to breakfast – stop for a red light and have car side service with breakfast! Such a cool deal. We will never gripe about those "Tope" vendors again!

We knew that the day would be a short one, as we were only going to try to get to Mazatlan - we figured we owed it to ourselves to at least have one day at one of Mexico’s resorts. So we began heading down the Mexico 15 toll road, or cuoto in Spanish. We actually had shoulders on the highway now and it was wide open. Very little traffic to be seen any where.

We figured on being in Mazatlan around noon and actually made it there slightly before noon. So we headed towards the hotels and the beach. As soon as we came alongside the ocean the first hotel we spotted on the beach looked very attractive. We thought it would be extremely expensive. It turns out it was low season, so there were very few if any tourists. The impact? – lower hotel prices. We were on the sixth floor in a grand suite with two bedrooms and two bathrooms overlooking the ocean. Andrew spent the afternoon wandering around the area and Nancy and Walt ate pizza, walked along the beach for a bit and then looked at some of the shops surrounding the hotel. We ate dinner at an excellent BBQ place then walked along the beach and watched the sunset. Back to the hotel, and a movie on HBO. This really is the life.

We knew the next day of our drive was going to be a long one, so we wanted to get a good sleep. Also, we thought that maybe this would be the last time we would have internet for a while, so did a quick check of e-mails.

A small subset of the photos that we collected. Andrew was also taking movies, which have been interesting for us to see after the fact.

Our First Day in Mexico

2007-06-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

We got to the Mexican border at 9:00 am not knowing what to expect. We drove through the two narrow lanes designated for passage. As we drove through, we saw the proverbial green (or red) light. Thankfully we got the green “Pase” light and continued to drive. No one was around or asked for papers. This concerned us a little bit, but we kept on driving. Almost 12 miles later we saw the “Aduano” where we would get our visas stamped, and register our car. Now this was more like what we expected at the border....clearly cdesigned for long lines. Fortunately we were only third in line to have our visas checked and the car registration area had a large number of windows, so we went directly to register. The process was very smooth.

Going back to when we crossed the border, Andrew made the comment that the moment we crossed the border, we saw what the rest of the world was like. The change is instantaneous. Driving itself was actually no different than in the States but the environment clearly was different.

As we continued on our way, we became fascinated by the many differences – differences from what we're used to in the US, but very similar to Ajijic, which was still 1,700 miles away. Obviously everything was in Spanish and we were challenged to try to understand the signs in Spanish, and not translate first – a difficult habit to overcome.

As we had planned our route, we were to drive primarily on the toll roads, or cuoto. They are actually very decent highways, sometimes 2 lanes, and sometimes four lanes with a median strip in between. The biggest challenge is that in the state of Sonora there are no shoulders and there is a significant drop off on either side. Not a problem until attempting to pass a semi-trailer! The traffic is slowed in each little village by "topes" (big speed bumps). Not sure if the purpose is more to slow traffic, or to give the villagers a chance to sell stuff, but both happen at the topes.

We had been warned that gas stations are far and few between and that we should never drive with less than half a tank. We found that the largest separation between gas stations (the state run Pemex stations) was like 30 miles The stations are very clean and have an OXXO market at each, which is like the 7/11’s that we are accustomed to.

At the first Pemex station we stopped at for gas, we wanted to eat lunch. Rather than getting something familiar at OXXO, we saw a little stand with tables next to it serving “Mariscos” or sea food. We had the most delicious cold shell fish soup we have ever eaten. It had shrimp, octopus and conch in it. Yes, as in the conch shell. We are not sure what else was in it, but it really hit the spot.

As we were driving, Andrew was taking pictures and ended up taking more than 200. We have included a small sample of these pictures so that you can see what the countryside is like. Obviously it starts out looking like Southern Arizona, and goes through different types of desert, with the greatest variation being in the vegetation. (In one section it seemed that the vegetation was ROCKS) It was interesting to observe how that changed as we progressed. We looked for the subtle beauty of the desert as small shrubs and manzanita turned to Seguaro, palms and jacaranda.

One of the most interesting things was the Federales stopping trucks every once in a while to check on shipment of contraband. We saw maybe three places where trucks were stopped going North. The line of trucks easily exceeded two or three miles as they thoroughly inspected each truck. In fact, at one stop we saw a guy having to unload his entire truck! Fortunately going South with US plates, we were never delayed.

We wanted to get as far as possible the first day, so we put in over 500 miles. We ended up in a beach town called Guasave that was a couple of miles off the main highway. We are pretty sure we were the only gringos in this town. The adventure now was to find a hotel. We drove up and down trying to follow directions we were given, and seeing nothing that looked like a hotel. Having the road suddenly end didn't help either. We went back to where we started from, and finally we saw one as we were passing close to the center of town. From the pictures you can see the hotel we chose. It was actually a nice hotel by "small Mexican town" standards, and the manager/owner was very nice. There was locked parking for our car across the street. After checking in we wanted to get something to eat. Nancy didn’t feel well and just wanted to go to bed, so Andrew and Walt went out looking. It turns out that all the restaurants were closed already and it was only 8:00 pm. However, right across the street from the hotel was a friendly couple with a grill and two tables on the sidewalk. Turns out it was a taco stand. These were the most incredible tacos we have ever eaten. They were absolutely wonderful. When we were paying we offered the lady a tip and at first she refused saying that she hadn't actually served us. We love this country already!!

Now, we are sure some may wonder why we would pick a hotel like we did and just eat from small stands at the side of the road. We are sure that some people worry about becoming ill from local food. Of course we are careful, but we are determined to feel the true vibe of Mexico and what better way to do it than get totally immersed. We knew from the beginning that God has a plan for us and wants us in Mexico. He has already revealed some of that plan in the form of a Bible study we will be leading as soon as we get settled, teaching such subjects as “What does the Bible really say” and “Who is this Jesus anyway”. We are excited about those opportunities. As we are obedient to God’s plan for our lives, we know He will take care of us because He has promised to. So we move forward knowing that we are in His Hands. Including our stomachs.

As Andrew said at the end of the day, “we have accomplished the most difficult tasks the first day into Mexico – getting across the border, getting the car registered, traveling the furthest distance, and finding our first Mexican hotel”. What an adventure, and we are looking forward to even more!

Here is a small collection of the many pictures Andrew took.

Alaska Cruise

2007-05-28T17:51:00.001-07:00

We've just returned from what has to be one of the most fantastic experiences of our lives - an Alaskan Cruise. We cruised with Norwegian Cruise Lines, and can't say enough good things about them. Their "Freestyle Cruising" offered so many choices that it made it all very enjoyable - you could eat whatever you want, where you want and as much as you want at one of the 13 restaurants. Or you could order free room service. Somewhere onboard there was food available 24 hours a day. In each port (Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan and Victoria) there were new and more interesting things to see (not to mention at least 20 jewelry stores)! There were hundreds of activities available onboard, or you could just watch amazing Glacier Bay go by from the balcony. (We highly recommend getting a balcony stateroom.) Best yet was the entire crew, who were exceptionally friendly, ready to chat, and courteous. To get a small glimpse of what we experienced, we have a few pictures out of about 350 Walt took that you can look at. Anyone wanting to see the whole collection will just have to come down to Ajijic ;-). Remember, our doors are always open for you.

Our day in Disneyland

2007-05-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

This retirement thing is pretty cool. Today we spent the day at Disneyland. Since our honeymoon, this is the first time just the two of us have been there. Not only was the traffic good getting there and back from San Diego, but we were able to walk right on every ride we wanted to immediately. A few pictures of our day there.

Kirstys Graduation

2007-05-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

Kirsty's graduation from Point Loma Nazarene University was the highlight of our busy month of May, and a major milestone for our whole family.

The move

2007-05-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

This has been an incredible experience for us. Downsizing after 30 years in the same house (with 6 pack rats) and then moving to an apartment and finally eliminating everything except what was going to go with us was an arduous process. The last month in the apartment (aka The Fort) was a real experience, as we had removed all the furniture and brought in the boxes from storage. Then we gave away our bedroom furniture and put everything from the dressers into laundry baskets and we slept on airbeds . Finally the movers arrived on 7 through 9 May to pack the lift vans. Every single item or box was numbered and listed on an inventory list. Anything with a serial number was listed seperately, as well as the number written on that box. Another list showed which boxes went in each lift van. International moving is not for the faint at heart. Then we were left with just our airbeds in an empty apartment. Here is a picture of the apartment we left. We brought what we thought we'd need for the month in our truck; who knows where the rest of our stuff is...we'll see it again in Mexico.

La Casa del Colibrì

2007-05-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Some of our readers may not have seen our house in Mexico. We have downloaded some pictures to an album accessible from here. Here is the photo album of la Casa del Colibrì, our home in Ajijic. Some of the furnishings will stay with the house, but it will look much different after we've been there a while.

God's call to Mexico

2007-05-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

A year and a half ago it became clear God wanted us in Mexico. He has pointed us specifically to Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico (closest big city is Guadalajara, about 45 minutes away). Ajijic is a village about 450 years old, located on Lake Chapala. The weather is pleasantly temperate, because we are a mile high. The title of our blog relates to the beautiful view of Lake Chapala from the terraza of the house that God so wonderfully provided. When we finally get there and get a good picture of the sunset from the terraza, we will replace the current one. The picture here now is from a hot springs resort, Monte Coxala, that is a few miles from our home. I took this picture, and it does depict what we expect to see in the way of sunsets.

The purpose of this blog is to keep our family and friends posted on what God is doing in our lives. We know that God has plans for us that have nothing to do with retiring, and we are excited to find out what they are. When you start saying "yes" to God, you better buckle your seat belt.