Thobinator: 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.