The day the water flowed.

Good evening from south of the border!

First and foremost, happy birthday Eli!! Can't wait to see you. Hurry up spring break! You're up near Wes now, as our resident old fart.
(Eli is flying down to San Diego for his spring break, and I'm taking a bus up to San Diego, and we're chilaxin' for 2 days at Point Loma University with my cousin, and then 2 days with Bonnie and Steve, my aunt and uncle.)

So...to start things off with a little spark, we'll go with a couple exciting garbage run stories. One, from last Friday, and one, from today Friday. Starting off with last week's epic TGIF moment, we started as usual with the garbage pick up. 9 AM, Paul and I were off to a great start, then the Visitor's hooked up with us right after morning devotions (Sala). We got 5 of them - my good buddies, Lane, Marvin, Luke, Davis, and Andrew, from Outlook, Saskatchewan - came along and made it a blast of a trip. We got all the 50 cans loaded and consolidated on the trailer, took a little break at the Nut House as well for a cookie break (Thanks to Dorothy and Bonnie!) Then...on tho the exciting part. We get to the dump, and unload all the garbage in record time. Seriously...in and out in a good ten minutes or so. But, upon arriving at the dump, I had parked the truck up the hill a little ways, cause that seemed like a good spot to dump our garbage. But then a guy told me to move and go farther down the hill. So we left our few empty cans there, (intending to pick them back up on our way out) and proceeded down the hill a bit and finished emptying the cans. Again, the rest of the cans we empty real nice and quick, so we drove back up the hill to get the rest of the cans...and I made the apparent mistake of turning the car off. Cause, as luck would have it, that was the last time it was going to start in a while. We loaded the cans, only to find out, that, in that whole two minutes, the truck had broken down. Who knows what it was? Maybe the Mexican heat, mixed with my crazy driving had just finally gotten to it. Maybe God was teaching me how to be patient.
("When one prays for patience, does God grant them patience, or the opportunity to be patient?" ~ Morgan Freeman) Either way...we were stuck at this filthy Mexican dump (with a population of flies greater than that of the combined population of all of North America...and part of China) for 2 hours. But, that didn't stop us from having fun. After all, it was our last day together. They were heading back to Canada in the morning. So, we made the best of it. Tried to score glass bottles in a tire way up on the hill. Or, someone would throw one glass bottle up in the air, and the rest of us would try and hit it on its way down with our own bottles. Also, Chewy, our resident orphanage-kid garbage man, and I restocked our decreasing stuffed animal collection. Lately, people have been taking a lot of teddy bears and such from our collection, so we spent a good hour sorting through the mounds and mounds of trash to pick out the animals for our collection. Just another way to bless the underprivileged at the dump. It's great fun. It's nice to see that something as simple and...well...trashy as a thrown out stuffed animal can be so desired around here. Finally, yes, FINALIZLE, Chewy talked a random dump-goer into giving Paul a ride back to the mission, so he could tell the office, so they could send out someone to come get us. Awhile later, he arrived...in a very small pickup. He was a head-mechanic. But our truck was beyond immediate repair. Three guys had already tried to jump our truck by hooking their battery up to ours (thinking it was dead) EVEN after we'd told them it wasn't the battery. Our battery was fine. Our Canadian friends, who grew up on farms(like the rest of Canada...sorry, inside joke...but still mostly true), had determined the problem, and it wasn't the battery. Still, they were determined to pull out their battery and try it anyways. Third guy was especially fun, cause we all just sat there and watched him do his thing, cause, 1) we knew it wasn't going to work, 2) we'd already told him it wouldn't work, and 3) we'd seen our truck NOT work enough for our liking. So, then what? all 6 of us (Paul stayed behind with the truck) piled into the back of this little pick-up and cruised our way home. Bumps were killer. I think I might still be feeling some of those bumps. No matter though, I'm home, and not stuck there anymore. I don't mind the dump in little spurts every Mon/Wed/Fri. But the two hours there was enough to hold me over the weekend.

And the second dump run story. Today. Oh, today. What a day. But, the definite highlight of today was near the end of our garbage run. After we return from the dump, we go back around the mission, opposite direction as before, and put all the empty garbage cans back from where we picked them up. But, it just so happened that there was a water truck driving through the mission. Not just any water truck though. The kind where the water shoots out the back and spreads out over the ENTIRE road so as to keep the dust down. And this truck was a winner. For sure. Cause I just so happened to have 8 people back on the trailer behind me. 8 previously dry people. I had seen that when the water truck passed a car up a ways in front of me, he turned down his water pressure, slowing the output. But as I neared him I waved to him, giving him the signal to keep up the pressure. keep the water flowing. And boy, did he ever. I now had 8 dripping people who were also slightly mad at me. But I was enjoying every second of it. I even got wet in the cab! But, I was given a second chance. We passed him, kept on our way to the Bible School, and returned their garbage cans. So we turned around and headed back towards the mission. And it just so happens that also in that short time period, the water truck had reached the end of the road and turned around. Coming straight for us. Again. SPLASH! Got them again. But this time, I closed my window. Yes, that may not seem all that exciting, but it was easily the highlight of my day. Gave me a much-needed laugh. And that's about all I have for right now. But tomorrow is a welcomed Saturday, so I'll be sure to add a little something something more. I've got a couple more events to share.

Below are my Canadian friends from Saskatchewan. And yes, I miss them very much.


Lane, Lindsey, Kim, me, Davis, Ashlee, and Kelly on the way to Gaston's Restaurant.



Luke, Lindsey, and Me at Gaston's Restaurant on the beach.

Aerial views of the mission

And here are the pictures I've edited to show the mission grounds, most of the departments, and where they're located. Just to give you a look and feel as to what I'm referring to when I say something and go..."Hmmmm...that place could be on the back side of the moon for all I know. Or some far-off planet...like Pluto." OH WAIT! It got de-planetized! Selfish scientists/astronomists.

Anywho!

Back to those photos!











They are all pretty self-explanatory.
For a larger version, click on the photo.

The Pimpmobiler.

So here it is, a late update...busy weekend didn't allow for blogging. So here is a little news covering this past week's events. Starting off with Monday, we got our new batch of Visitor's. For those that don't know, we run a weekly schedule here at the mission. Every Sunday afternoon/evening, a new group of Visitor's come for the week, and leave Saturday, so we can be ready for the next group that will arrive the next Sunday. Here at the mission, every week of the year is filled with visitors except the week before Christmas. That's our free week. The Visitors come from all over the continent, from Fairbanks, Alaska, to San Diego; Vancouver to New York; Chicago to Texas; Edmonton, Alberta to Florida. Each week generally consists of two, three, four groups of different parts of the world, making up one big group of between 30-70 visitors. They range from couples, to full families, groups of friends, an entire youth/church group or class from school. I am in charge of the garbage run, every Mon/Wed/Fri, and it usually takes about 2 to 3 hours, depending on the day and types of events that week. That's my "job" of sorts. The only thing I'm in charge of, that I have control of. The one thing that I do where I wake up and know for sure what I'll be doing that morning. Tuesday/Thursday, it's just whatever is the next project we have.

So last week, we had a great group from Edmonton, Alberta. And that was my first week working with the computer department. There was a guy from the visiting group that worked for Telus in Canada, and knew a lot about servers and programming them. So Kevin and I had him for the week, setting up new switches for the networks, taking out old ones, and putting these newly programmed ones in. Yes, I just ended that sentence with a preposition. Get over it. Keep in mind, that none of these "new" switches are actually new. they're just new to us. Everything we work with is all donations. Occasionally we'll be required to purchase things, especially for our department, because computers are relatively new here. As in, within the last 4-5 years. Before that...computers were foreign objects. So everything that we get donated, is, well, not new. But it's good for us in a way, because we're already behind the times here. So what's old to the donating world is new to us. And the old stuff is less complicated as well, so it's all good. None of that useless fancy dancy stuff yet. We'll work our way up. That sums up a lot of what we did last week. Mainly just network maintenance and repair, keeping everything up and running smoothly.

Moving on to this week, got a new group of 75(!!!!) visitors this week. All from Canada. Two separate groups. One is a YWAM group...and they're a little on the odd side. But I haven't been working with that group this week. I've been working mostly with the group from Saskatchewan. I have a group of four guys that I basically have control over for the week. We've all become great friends, and they're so willing to work with me. Our project has been digging trenches all around the duplexes. I'll include pictures of the mission at the end. We dug about a hundred of trenches, under 5 concrete sidewalks, laid the piping, and snaked it with string so we can pull the cables through next week. It all looks quite fantastic, they were great workers. And tomorrow I've already got dibs on them to come on the garbage run with me. 5 of them, Paul and Jorge from the mission, and myself. Normally we have 5, max. 8 will be interesting. We'll get it done in no time. And we've got another 20 feet or so of trench to dig, then we'll be completely finished with that project, and each duplex will have its own ethernet cable. Instead of it being hung in the air from duplex to duplex. Not cool...one stray branch in these fierce winds, and that network's down. That's why we went underground. Just not safe for those wires to be hanging out in the elements of God's might and power.

For Valentine's Day last Saturday, three friends (Kelcie, Deborah, Marie) and I borrowed the Single's car (pictures below) to go on a formal outing to this nice restaurant out on the water...only to find it had closed down. But the ride out there was worth it, cause we hit about 12 of Mexico's Largest Puddles. I may or may not have been able to see out my windshield for a good portion of that trip. So we left there and proceeded to go to another restaurant more inland, still Puddle Territory though. Always a blast. The girls were definitely on the edge of their seats...quite literally...if on there seats at all. Besides wondering whether our car would get us back to the mission in one piece, it was a stress-free time of food, little girls who were creeped out by us, and puddles that are now more afraid of us coming through than the road-grading Caterpillar and the sun combined.

And today, I've been spending the afternoon building, formatting, and programming a new computer to put in the Nut House. Next week, we're digging another hundred yards of trenches, from the Bible Institute to the Nut House, so they can have Internet there for recipes, ingredient orders, and who knows what else. No one is really sure what they do out there in the Nut House. Crazy people.

That's about all the updates I have for this week. I'm thinking about getting a YouTube channel started, so I can show more of the mission and daily life here. Well, I've had a channel for quite a while, but there aren't any videos on it yet. I need video-editing software. Which I'll be getting.
And I'm hoping to be able to take some pictures, so I don't have to use other people's pictures on this blog. I can take my own. But I don't have a camera. So I'm going to try and borrow a friend's, then you'll all be in the loop. Visually.

I'll talk to you soon! Hopefully sooner then last time. But this weekend is already shaping up to be busy...Pride and Prejudice Marathon...then a Hugh Grant Marathon. Yummy.

Me, Deborah, Kelcie, Carmello, and Abby. Dressed up for the Noche en Belen Drama

Marie, Me, Kelcie, Deborah out for a Valentine dinner

Our Pimpmobile. Our beater ride.

Kelcie, Me, Deborah, and of course, our Pimpmobile

The update of all updates

Smokey's Taco Stand

My Stuffed Animal Collection

The Dump

More Dump

So, this is finally my "Weblog" of sorts. Yes, there is a story behind it. No, there aren't pictures behind it. Cause that just makes it hard to read the text.

But back to the story....I got here in Mexico at the end of October, only to find out that blogs, or any site, any link, anything containing the word "blog" was blocked by our filter on our network. Even things NOT containing the word blog would still be blocked. Like...Hmmm...Youtube? Flickr? Megavideo? In case you were wondering, most videos that you watch online, say, like a good 90%, on ANY site, are originally supplied by YouTube. They're uploaded there first, then links are sent around the globe, and any given site. But they're still YouTube links. And they're still blocked here. Second, Flickr. I don't know about you, but I use a LOT of high-bandwidth sites, like Facebook, Myspace, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, HowStuffWorks, IMDb, YouTube, and really just anything else I come across. And when the majority of the standalone pictures on those sites are originally uploaded to Flickr before being linked to on those sites, they really become blank and empty when they're blocked by a lovely little filter. I REALLy got to know him very well. We WERE the best of friends. Not anymore! I'm full on filter-free! No, no, not that kind of "filter-free." The good kind of "filter-free." The kind where a web site is displayed with full functionality and beauty as was intended by the webmaster. Why you ask? Well I'll tell you! Please tune in!

Upon arriving here, I was immediately thrown into the maintenance department. Not what I was expecting, since I've done more work on my shoes than I have a shower, more on my soccer balls than a propane tank, taken apart 12 times more computers than I have sinks, and put together 12 times more computers than I have toilets. But nonetheless, maintenance it was, and maintenance I went. I started out first with the garbage run. Every Mon/Wed/Fri we take an old beater pick-up with a trailer and gather the 30-40 55-gallon(I think??) garbage cans that the mission uses on a daily basis. After loading them all up on the trailer, we take all the uber fun, bumpy back roads to the "dump." And by dump, I mean, hole in the side of a mountain/hill. Quite literally. I'll attach pictures. Anywho, so we take our garbage there, and simply dump it off the back of the trailer. Wherever we want. No rules on what to dump, no rules on where to dump. Quite simply, a dump. Every Wed/Fri, the Nut House(more on that later) makes 1 loaf of bread worth of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, put it back in the bread bag, and give it to us when we get to the Nut House to get their trash. Then at the dump, we give the sandwiches to the two guys who live at the dump. Apparently, awhile ago, there used to be many familes that lived at the dump. But more recently, the city of Vicente Guerrero took over the dump, sent the families away, and employed these two men to work/live there Mon-Sat, early till late. Sunrise to sunset. They are payed on the basis of how many bags of plastic bottles they fill and loads of cardboard the gather. Every once in awhile, a big truck comes and takes them away...still have yet to find out where they take them. Recycle? Not likely, but it's a possibility. Still not sure. These two men are payed roughly 20 dollars a day...which is extremely good here. The field workers, mostly strawberries, tomatoes, and raspberries don't get near that much. We're in the San Quintin Valley...like the largest fruit/vegetable growing area in Baja. The size of some of these ranches, fields, and greenhouses would blow your mind. Literally, miles upon miles of them. Anywho, back to the dump. The houses of the two guys living at the dump were right in the middle of it all, roughly the size of half a portapotty/sandycan, whatever they're called. But lately, I haven't seen it there anywhere. My only guess is that they've moved out of the dump. With that income, I'm sure they can afford a better lifestyle outside the dump. After a few weeks of working the garbage run, I was promoted to driver. So, middle of November, I began driving. Juan Carlos is the guy who drove before me, and he taught me the route, what to do, and, most importantly, how to back up with a trailer. Every week, I get comments from the visitors about my backing up skills...and it's all credited to him. He taught me it all. And yes...I have kinda hit to cars in the process of being the driver...one was my bosses van. That wasn't a stressful day at all!! And that's about it for the garbage run. That was my "main" job for the past few months. Three times a week. Takes between 2-3 hours. And it may sound gross, dealing with everyone's garbage, but I definitely found ways to have fun with it. From taking the food garbage from the kitchen and playing games with it at the dump, to creating a teddy bear collection on the fence of the dump. And, I soon noticed that some of the stuffed animals were missing. Some kids would come with their parents to the dump, or just the parents alone, would come come to throw out their trash, and see the stuffed animals on the fence, and take them home for their kids. That made me smile. Taking old trashed teddy bears and regifting them to kid who's not going to care that it was trash to someone else, cause it's gold to them now.

As for the days in between, I was also responsible for keeping the 50 or so propane tanks filled. Each trailer (42 of them) has it's own propane tank for the stove and oven, then there are 7 propane water heaters that hold all the hot water to be distributed to the trailers for hot water, showers and sinks. After I was done with all that, I'd just do random, everyday, fix-em-up jobs. Sinks, toilets, showers, laying concrete pads, holes in people's trailer roofs, fixing doors and their locks, caulking the heck out of houses, digging trenches, repairing windows, cleaning water filters, checking water meters, ANYTHING. That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. But, oh, how the times have changed.

Just this last week, Wednesday the 4th of February, I got called into the administrator's office(not the first time haha). And just a little forewarning, he's a scary, controlling man. I was scared. If you're not on his good side, you're dead. Which explains why one of my friends got sent home a couple weeks ago. But we won't get into that now. I'll start fuming. No, no, I got called in to his office for more serious reasons. He's moving people all over the place, out of this department and into that department. But in my case, I was getting pulled from the maintenance crew and put into the computer department...which previously consisted of one guy...our techy nerd, network geek, the man with the plan. He runs it all. If it has a password, he probably knows it. If it doesn't, he still probably has it. Anyways, it was a dream come true. On my original application, I had put on the interests and skills part, computers and all that nerdy stuff. Fixing them , repairing them. That's what I love doing. And that's what I did last year when I came here as a visitor. And, to pull this story full circle, that is why I am now able to create and posts blogs. Turns out, the techy dude I work with has a separate Internet network that very VERY few people no about...and by very few, I mean three. Him, my friend that got sent home, and now me. It's unfiltered. Uber fast. And blog-capable. So here I am. Using this new network, writing this blog for you. And I hope to update at least once a week, if not more. Once a week though, because during the week, I'm a little busy bee, not getting home till 11, 12, 1am. It all depends on the day. Another thing about living here is, there is no schedule. I don't know what I'm doing for work tomorrow. I'll find out when I get there. I'm not in Maintenance anymore, but I'm helping with the garbage run just on Mondays for some time so I can show the new driver the route and what to do and stuff...and how to back up with a trailer. But after that, the rest of the week is with my new computer nerd supervisor. Tomorrow is my first day in this new job. I spent a couple days last week doing some little stuff, updating the 17 Bible Institute laptops with new programs for their classes. But tomorrow, we start all new stuff. I think we're laying new ethernet cables. A good 200 yards of it or so. But we'll see. Again, not really sure what I'll be doing. It all happens as it comes. We all take it in stride. God provides us with a new day, and we use it to work for him and bless his people.

And that's about it for now. I'll be sure to update as much as possible. Keep your eyes peeled!