Thailand 2009

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

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"

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

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

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

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

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.