Where's Jason?

Cement Mixer Update

2011-04-10T07:41:00.000-07:00

The cement mixer is finally breathing! I met the short term team that brought the pulleys over at the airport at 2:30 the other morning, and after a bit of adapting, we've got things going! The big main pulley fit just right - thanks to the $25 micrometer that was sent over in the last container! We did need to do a bit of work to make the key stock that keeps the pulley from slipping on the shaft, but half an hour on the bench grinder turned a chunk of rebar into a pretty well fitted section of square key stock!

Sometimes you just have to do what you can...

A near perfect fit!

The motor we're using was donated and sent over in the container a couple of years ago. It was crated, and didn't want to start when I opened it up. After taking apart and cleaning the carb, it seems to be running pretty well. The pulley we bought for the motor is the wrong size because the supplier I found at the last minute didn't have metric sized pulleys like the motor's shaft is. So, we did a little careful bending of a piece of sheet metal and it did a great job of filling in the gap between the 20mm shaft and the 7/8" pulley opening!

Not bad!

We found and cleaned up the nameplate on it, it's an Italian machine (Dieci) from 1989. It looks pretty good for its age - and it's getting ready to start its second life, for us.

All we need to do now is patch a couple of rusted spots of sheet metal and find/adapt some wheels for it!

Prepping the pillars

2011-04-05T05:09:00.000-07:00

Now that the holes are dug, we're moving on to the next step. I've never been around commercial/concrete construction in the States, so I'm not sure how we'd do this part there, but the last couple of days the workers have been cutting, bending, and tieing rebar together by hand to make the steel skeletons that will be poured around to make the pillars.

This is how the skeletons end up

They cut all of the chunks of rebar apart with a hacksaw and vice, then bend the chunks using a steel bar with a notched head at the end that grabs the rebar, and finally use wire to tie all of the pieces together.

The next step will be to build wooden forms, stand the skeletons up in the holes and fill the footings in with rocks and concrete. After that, to make the pillars, they'll nail the wooden cement forms around the skeletons, and then start filling the form with bucket after bucket of cement dumped into the top of the form, until it's full. Hopefully the cement mixer will be ready to roll by the time we get to that point!

Cement Mixer

2011-04-05T04:02:00.000-07:00

Once the decision was made that we couldn't get material strong enough to make the two story solar support structure out of steel, we had to revert to the way things are usually done here - reinforced concrete. The normal way of doing small concrete jobs here is to mix the gravel, sand, water, and cement together on the ground with shovels. That works fine if you have time and don't mind the concrete being incompletely mixed and thus weaker. Given that these pillars need to hold up the weight of a pair of cars, that's not going to cut it here even if we had forever to work that way. So, given that we already had a donated motor just waiting for a cement mixer to be used in, and that it costs $80 a day to rent a small mixer or $3000 to buy a new one, we started looking for one we could rehabilitate for this and the many other foundations we'll need to pour for the block maker's various projects in the future.

Fortunately, after several weeks of asking around, our main construction guy, Nilton, got a line on one out on the islands that had been stripped and was sitting unused. He made a deal with the owner of the shell, and for $190 we had ourselves a pretty decent sized mixer that needed some TLC, brought in on a canoe from the islands!

There's a good amount of rust on it, and it's missing the pulleys and motor needed to drive it, but fortunately all of the important parts like the mixing drum, gears, and bearings, seem to be in pretty decent shape!

After sanding it all down, the workers hit it with a coat of primer and some good enamel, and now it's looking pretty good!

The last big piece of the puzzle was to find the proper pulleys to reduce the speed of the generator motor we have to make work with the mixer. After searching around in the used parts market here (which is mostly parts taken off of cars) we realized that finding a pair of pulleys with the correct diameter to gear up the motor to be able to spin the mixer drum and with the correct shaft diameter was like looking for a pair of matching needles in a haystack. I thought about heading down to the local Grainger or McMaster-Carr to pick them up, but... alas, there are none. :) We didn't have time to wait for the mail, and UPS could've gotten the $50 parts here for about $400, which also didn't seem like a good option.

Fortunately, we heard about a short term team coming over, and they very graciously agreed to surrender 20 lbs of their luggage allowance to bring the parts over this week! We'll be ready to hit cement production hard next week, so hopefully we'll get the parts and get the mixer fixed before we even miss it!

Solar Project Begins

2011-04-01T02:59:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the solar system, we're starting to build the structure where we'll mount all of the panels! We looked in every corner of the youth center to find the best spot for the panels, but since they're going to occupy either 30x42' or 30x72' depending on how we lay them out, it's not like you can shove them just anywhere! We needed just the right spot, where they'd be high enough to be safe from mischief, far enough away from the edge of the youth center to be safe from thieves, and never in any shade. We're also trying to balance the desire for the perfect spot against the cost savings of using an existing roof or building that isn't as ideal.

We had planned (and budgeted) to put the system on the roof of our house all along, but when we arrived and talked to the mason that built the house, we found out the foundation wasn't strong enough to support all of the weight, so we beg

an our hunt for a new location. In the end, we came up with just about the only spot in the center that fulfills all of our requirements.

The back section of the youth center is the guesthouse, and the yard in front of the guesthouse is going to be our spot. The yard is beautiful and green in a city with lots of dirt and dust, so we're doing everything we can to minimize the appearance that the solar system is taking over the yard. We'll be building a cement support structure of pillars to hold the system up, which will connect to the front of the guesthouse, and give us a place to mount the panels at the same height as the roof of the guesthouse, but out over the yard in front of it.

Here's the guesthouse before we got started.

This is the basic idea, but now that we decided to use cement instead of steel we'll also have to put connecting horizontal beams all the way around at the half height altitude as well as the ones on top that are in the diagram. We would've preferred steel, but there isn't anything tough enough available here.

The decision about whether to occupy 30x42' or 30x75' depends on how much there is to be gained by building the system to rotate to follow the sun througout the day. After lots of searching online, I haven't found a clear answer, so we're keeping our options open. We're going to build to the smaller size with the option of expanding. When the panels arrive, we'll do a test for a few days to compare the amount of energy collected by a couple of fixed panels compared to a couple next to them that follow the sun. Once we know how much improvement we're talking about gaining by following the sun, we'll be able to evaluate if it's worth the extra expense and complication to do so or not. If it's 2%, we'll be sticking with the much simpler and cheaper fixed method. If the number were closer to 30% extra energy, we'd have to think hard about if we want to leave that much generating capacity on the table, given how expensive the panels are in the first place.

So, in the first phase we'll be building four of those six rows of columns. If we need to add on later, we'll go back and build the other two to get our full 75'. The first step is digging some deep footings, to make sure the system has a solid foundation. The workers dug eight holes that are five feet deep and a bit over three feet across!

Craigslist and Ebay - Fueling the Shop!

2010-10-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've taken the time to sit down and blog, but I thought I'd catch up on some of my projects while we're home. We're going to be sending another shipping container over to Bissau in January, for a big solar project at the center (more on that later). The container going over means there will be some extra space for other things, and we've set aside some money to round out the shop's equipment roster. For anyone not familiar with the project, we started documenting it (including a floor plan) on our website here.

I've been scouring ebay and craigslist in an attempt to make the money we've got go the furthest it can, and I've gotten some great deals! Some of the things I got were ready to go, some needed fixing, some just needed supplies bought, and many will require the motor being removed and replaced with one compatible with our power over there, and rewiring. For anyone interested, here are the main things so far:

Jet HVBS-7MW Horizontal Metal Cutting Bandsaw
A nice 7x12 metal cutting bandsaw! I got it used on eBay. We have an abrasive chop saw like this one already, but it's pretty obvious as we use it that it wasn't meant for the kind of abuse and level of use we're going to need in Bissau. Our current one will become part of our mobile setup, and will do a great job at that. Meanwhile, this new (old) bandsaw will give us a quieter (though slightly slower) way to cut steel in the shop. Since the center is a school as well, the decreased noise level will be appreciated by all. The saw is working great after some adjusting, but will need a new motor, pulley, and rewiring to make it compatible with our 50Hz generator power.

100 or 120 Gallon two-stage Champion R15 16cfm@175psi compressor
A sweet air compressor. We have a little portable compressor that I sent over last time, but it already wasn't in great shape, and doesn't have enough snort to keep up with several of our tools. It's making some funny noises since it wasn't meant for the power over there, so it will live longer if we can move it into our mobile setup which uses American power. This new one is about 2x as big, and is a step above in terms of durability, being industrial. It retailed around $2000 when it was new 15 years ago, but I got it for $275 without a motor, which I would've had to replace anyway! I found a replacement motor on eBay and lucked out, winning it for less than the cost of shipping it to me! There's some flaking paint on it, so I'm going to sandblast it and give it a new coat of paint, but other than cleaning it up, installing the new motor, and putting it back together, it should be ready to roll! It's big enough to be able to run all of the air tools we have over there, and the sandblaster I'm hoping to take over this time too!

Miller SR-300 DC Stick welder
A monster DC stick welder. We have a very nice gas driven Lincoln welder that was sent over last time, but with fuel being so expensive, it's a little stressful to work knowing how much every minute is costing! That Lincoln welder will transition to being the heart of our mobile setup. I paid $42 for this stick welder from the 80's. It will run from the youth center's power, so we can take our time and be more careful. It needs sheet metal repair, sandblasting, painting, and new welding leads, but then should be ready to rock! It's an 800 lb monster, and should be way more than we ever need - but for $42, who can complain, right?

Delta Industrial floorstanding 1HP drill press
This old drill press was a great find on eBay. I brought a used benchtop drill press over with us last time, and it's gotten a ton of use already. Unfortunately, it has a wobble which makes it hard to drill accurately and has snapped several smaller bits because of it. This one should be hardier and is supposed to spin nice and true. I haven't seen it in person yet, but we got a great deal on it - and as an added bonus it looks like it's motor is already dual rated for U.S. and European power, so the motor won't even need to be changed out! Unfortunately the seller lost the top belt cover, so I'll have to make and paint a new one of those, but other than that it should be ready to go!

Hobart Handler 180 Mig welder
A small wire fed welder. Much of the fabrication work we do uses thin metal tube stock, which is what's mainly available in Bissau. It's difficult to stick weld since it's so thin (19 gauge), so we're going to use this machine to make those welds stronger and work more quickly. Other than buying more supplies for it and changing the power plug once we're over there, it's all set and works great!

The last big tool is still in the planning stages. Like I said before, the chop saw we have wasn't meant for the workout it's getting in our application. The bandsaw will be great, for quieter, gradual cuts, but there will still be some times when we need a rotating blade for cuts. I did some research on industrial versions of the abrasive cut off type saw we have, and found out about saws like the Kalamazoo K10B. They cost a pretty penny, but have a nice powerful motor that won't wear out. I then did some more reading and found that there's a newer style of steel cutting saw called a dry cut saw, which works the same way, but uses a carbide tipped saw blade to do the cutting. This dry cut style is actually cutting chunks away instead of grinding fragments - so it cuts clean lines and cuts more quickly, doesn't heat up (and warp) the thing you're cutting. The blades are supposed to last about 10x as long as the abrasive disc kind. Sounds great, but since we'll have to send the blades back to the U.S. to be sharpened, we kind of need the best of both worlds. So, I'm going to build a saw from scratch that can do either - we'll use blades when we have them available, and then switch a pulley to be able to use abrasive discs when we can't. And, by building it, it's going to end up being a lot cheaper than buying either. Good plan, hopefully!

I've got big plans for the shop once we get back, and the new tools are going to put us in a good position to really be able to get stuff done. I'll try to post some updated photos as all of these various conversion and restoration projects have some progress.

It's been really fun being home and having the opportunity to find tough, well-engineered machines at used prices, instead of having to pay 2x for Chinese junk over in Bissau!

Njita

2009-10-22T03:04:00.001-07:00

Sometimes in the process of learning another language you get an interesting peek into the culture of the people who speak the language. For example, in Creole there is a verb, “neni”, meaning “to run, greet someone, and hug them”. The fact that we don't have a word like that shows something about the way we greet each other compared to the way Guineans greet each other.

We recently ran across an interesting word. I have always known that the following mindset existed in Guinea-Bissau, but never found a word for it. We see things cobbled together all the time. Half of the taxis in Bissau are push started each morning by neighborhood kids because their starters don't work, it's routine to see auto repairs done with zip ties, I saw someone last week using cardboard as a replacement turbo gasket on an engine, etc. Doing things in an excellent way is not valued by this culture as it is in ours. This characteristic of Guinean culture comes largely from how hard it is to survive, I'm convinced. People spend so much energy on daily life (cooking, eating, getting water, caring for their health, etc) that there isn't enough energy to be worried about doing things better than they need to be done. If a zip tie makes your car work again, then it's a sufficient repair. Why spend the time and money finding someone to weld and repaint the broken area if the zip tie make the car work just as well?

So when Emily was glancing through the dictionary and found the word “njita”, we had an “Ah hah!” moment. Here is the dictionary entry:

Njita (v): To fix something temporarily

And some visual definitions I've been collecting over the last couple of months as examples of the way we're not going to do things:

I think this is a flagpole. Not that bad, but since they didn't bother to paint it, in 10 years that truck bed will have a giant hole rusted into it.

Our bike seat, worked on by a local mechanic while we were gone. Check out that craftsmanship.

The welder at the local building supply store.

I have been dreaming about the machine shop: how to set it up, lay it out, and how to impart a mindset of excellence; both in what we produce and in how we operate. Tools here are shared among many people because there aren't many of them, which is good as it promotes a culture of sharing, but also has the unfortunate side effect of meaning there are no complete sets of anything anymore because of tools that have been borrowed and either broken or never returned. Then, since someone only has part of the set, they use the wrong tool to do the next job and end up ruining the tools that are left over because they weren't designed for what they're now being used for. So, setting the shop up in a way that fits into the culture but also protects our equipment is a little difficult; we want to be good neighbors but don't want to lose 20% of our tools each year!

I am anticipating that a good dose of patience and perseverance will be necessary to change the mindset of the people that will eventually run the shop that it is worth the extra energy to build things stronger than necessary, spend the time to rustproof them well, and organize the shop in a way that it stays well supplied and won't allow tools to walk off. But, if it were as simple as just building a building instead of changing mindsets, we wouldn't need to be over here! :)

My Sweet Shirt

2009-06-22T02:29:00.000-07:00

It's always funny when stuff from the States pops up over here and reminds us of home. There's a section of the market here that sells used clothes, most of them donated, from all over the place. Last week Jack and Polly were in the "fooka" and bought a shirt for me.

It's pretty awesome, because everyone over here assumes I had the shirt made in the States and brought it over. When they find out it came from the market here, they all laugh. The story got funnier, however, when I looked for the website. The website isn't there anymore, but a google search lead to this "sweet" campaign video for Emily Hutchins for student body president from 2008. Awesome. :)

YFC Mansoa

2009-06-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

One of the fun things we got to be involved in these past couple of weeks was checking out some new land that our teammates are buying to establish a new YFC center in another city in Guinea-Bissau. Wade and Katie McHargue & Family have purchased land in Mansoa, which is about 30 miles east of Bissau. The vision for the land is to be developed into a base which will host a discipleship program (Wade) and an agricultural training program to help farmers improve methods and help improve overall health with more availability of nutricious foods (Katie).

I got a chance to use a new nerdish piece of gear for the first time. So, courtesy of the sweet little bluetooth gps module that talks to my smartphone, here are some GPS tracks to show the trip (overlayed on satellite photos thanks to Google Earth).

(Click on the pictures to see the bigger, more detailed versions.)

Here's the location of the two cities, Bissau is the lower left tack and Mansoa the upper right one. The red line connecting them is the road we take to get between them (about a 50 minute drive).

Here's a closer view of Mansoa. It has a village feel, but has about 8000 residents. The yellow area to the east of all of the houses is the land, and the tack is the first well which is being dug right now.

As they make more progress on the construction I'm sure they'll be keeping their blog updated with pictures. To check in on their progress, check out their blog. The first step is digging a pair of wells, and then when the block making machine gets here in the container in a few months, we'll start their house.

Mansoa is a decent sized city by G-B standards. It's the 9th largest city in the country, but is 1/3rd the size of the 2nd biggest (after Bissau, the rest of the top 10 are within the 7,000-22,000 range). It's at a major cross-road between several other major cities in G-B, so it's a great spot for a new YFC base!

We're really excited for them as they're able to start developing the land!

The story of the trip...

2009-06-18T03:36:00.000-07:00

(This is a long one, if you just want the more interesting stuff, skip to right after the second graphic.)

Our trips from the U.S. to Bissau have often been interesting. Fortunately, we got a good story out of this one as well! The part of the trip that we thought might be difficult went great, the dog was a trooper – we never heard a peep from her on either flight except when we stood up to get off of the trans-Atlantic flight! Not bad, Sydney!

The African section of the trip however, was... a trip. :) We landed in Dakar at 5am the morning of Thursday the 4th. (We left Detroit at 10:30am on Weds.) After going through customs (where the dog was yelping, unfortunately), we got our luggage collected (it was all there – nice!). We have never had good experiences in Dakar. Whenever we're there we're by ourselves, and since we don't know the city or the language(s), it would be stressful even if everything went right, which it never does. :) We had been dreading this part a little bit because we needed to get a taxi from the airport to the SIL guesthouse we were staying at, and we only had English directions (which the driver would never understand). Then the next day we needed to repeat the procedure from the guesthouse to the ferry port. Fortunately, God was looking out for us and a missionary friend of ours was at the airport that morning to pick up the luggage of a guest who had come in the day before without his bag! So, Mario (who does speak French) took us to his hotel to relax and stretch out, called his taxi driver, and told him where to take us and how to get there. Awesome.

We had a nice night at the SIL guesthouse, got to do a little Skyping to let people know we were safe, and got caught up on sleep (neither of us slept much on the overnight flight because of several crying babies). We woke up Friday morning feeling good (fortunately in Dakar they have power all night, so the guesthouse fans let us sleep.) The SIL workers told us the French words to tell the taxi to get us to the port, where we would take a boat from Dakar to Ziguinchor (bypassing two border crossings). Thanks to Pastor Mario and the SIL guesthouse, this trip in Dakar was a great success! So, the part of the trip we were worried about was no big deal... but then the fun started.

We got to the port and waited in line to get checked in for several hours (despite already having tickets, but on this boat they check your luggage like and airline flight). The whole time we were waiting we were worried they were going to see the dog and tell us we couldn't get on the boat (since the webpage about the boat is silent on the subject). Fortunately, no one said anything and we got in the line to board the boat. As we were getting on the boat, they did notice her, but by then we had already been put on the manifest, so even if they'd wanted to, I don't think they could've kicked us off. They did make her ride on the lower deck with the cargo, but other than getting mad at us for making her go all night without food or grass to go to the bathroom on, she was fine. We found a good secure spot for her crate under a big anchor that wasn't going to be moved, and headed upstairs.

The boat is very un-West African. It's beautiful, well run, and clean. We had tickets for two of the beds in a four-bed room (there are also two-bed rooms for $4 each more, which would have been totally worth it, but you can only buy tickets in person at the port, so by the time Mario got them the week before, those rooms were all full.) However, if he had gotten one of the two-bed rooms, we would have missed out on what came next.

We got on the boat at 6pm or so, the boat left port at 8:30pm, and we went to the onboard restaurant to have dinner. The food was really good! In many other cultures where equipment and floor space are more important than your personal space, it's normal for several parties to share a table, so all of the chairs are being used. We sat down with a nice couple (he was German, she was Senegalese) with a pair of 18 month old twin girls. They were trying their best to wrangle the kids and eat at the same time so we played with the kids a little and got to know them. We found out that they hadn't been able to get tickets for a room at all, the coach tickets are for seats in a big room. The seats are nice, but they're still seats. So we offered to give my bed to the mom and the two kids (kids don't count for tickets on the boat, so she could have bought that ticket the same as I did and been within her rights to have the two girls there with her). The family gratefully accepted and I headed to the coach seats with the dad.

I fell asleep pretty quickly, thanks to how tired I was and the sweet travel pillows that my brother Sam got for Em and I for our birthdays. I woke up to Em standing in front of me shaking me. I was awake pretty quickly, wondering what had gone wrong (there were many possibilities, as my wife was sleeping in a small room with one strange man and two other women, with all of our stuff and a big load of currency as well.) Apparently the guy who was in the 3rd bed had come back to the room a little drunk (we found out later), heard one of the twins fussing a little (there are shades over the beds, so he couldn't see them), started yelling about a baby being in the room, found out that it wasn't Emily's, that I had given away my bed, gotten really mad, and started yelling. This of course made the baby cry more, which led to more yelling. He seemed genuinely offended not necessarily that I had given up my bed, but that I had given it to a woman! (Because obviously women should be in coach and men should have the good spots.) Oh, how cultures value mothers differently!

So, the mom started crying. The guy called three cabin stewards over, alternatively yelling at them, the mom, and Em. The mom and the twin she was holding were taken to the room the boat uses as the clinic, leaving Em and the second (still sleeping) twin in the room. Em sneaked away to come wake me up, and we headed back to the room, ready to give the yelling guy a piece of my mind for yelling at my wife. Fortunately, by the time we got back to the room, the stewards had calmed the guy down enough that he kept his trap shut the rest of the night. We took the second twin down to the clinic, where they let the family sleep, headed back upstairs to our room, and fell asleep.

We woke up the next morning (Saturday) on the boat, went to find the family to make sure there weren't any permanent emotional scars left the night before, and walked around the decks a little. We arrived in Ziguinchor at about 9am, and Pastor Mario (who had already had plans to drive from Dakar to Ziguinchor) met us at the port and took us to a hotel restaurant where he was having some meetings. Our travel plans for the 80ish mile trip were to ride with one of Mario's project leaders, who was driving up from Bissau for a meeting with him in Ziguinchor that day, and then driving back down. The timing worked out great, we were able to just bum a ride with them.

We waited for Mario's guys (Andre and Benjamin) to arrive, but got word that they were moving slow because the truck they were driving up in was making a strange noise. They got to Ziguinchor near noon, took the truck to the mechanic who said it was fine, and then had their meeting. We left Ziguinchor at 3pm. We knew we needed to make good time because there is a ferry several hours into the trip that stops running around dusk.

We drove two cars down to Bissau: the truck they brought up, and Mario's Jeep, which was going to be stored in Bissau. An hour into the trip, the truck died, and we started towing it with the Jeep. The towing implement was a thick Nylon rope with hooks. The rope broke three times as it presumably slid under a tire when the lead car slowed down, melting it in two. Each time we tied the two halves together and started going again. We got to the ferry at about 6:30pm, and saw the ferry on our side of the shore! That's good news, because if it's just leaving when you get there, it's another hour and a half for it to get to the other side, unload, reload, and come back. Unfortunately, it was on our side and full, so it loaded, left, and we watched it come back around 7:30. The ferry started to load, and when we got to be the 2nd vehicle in line, it was full again. We watched the ferry leave, get to the other side, and unload... and then it got dark. Everyone on our side assumed the ferry was coming back, but by 9pm, it became clear that it wasn't coming back. A canoe came from the other side to take some of the people over, but since we had cars, that option wasn't available to us. The canoe driver said the ferry people had said something about an engine problem. Hmm... now what? We decided to make one last desperate attempt.

Here I am waiting for the ferry's 2nd trip back to our side.

Wait you say, there's a bridge in the background! Correct. This bridge was finished a couple of months ago and it waiting to be “inaugurated” before the wire rope barring entrance to it is removed and people can use it. So, we decided to walk to the other side of the bridge and see if the soldiers there could be “convinced” to let the fence down and let us pass. No dice, apparently the person in charge of the project had forseen the guards' susceptibility to bribery and not given them a key. So after setting foot on the side of the river we were trying to get to, at 10:30pm we walked back over the bridge to the cars, and decided to sleep and wait for the first ferry the next morning.

Emily and I tried to sleep in the Jeep, and Andre and Benjamin took the truck. The problem was, Bissau is really humid this time of year, 15 degrees hotter than Dakar, which had already seemed hot to our unadjusted bodies, and since we were by a river, the air was full of mosquitoes. (The malaria carrying kind which I now work hard to avoid.) So we tried to sleep in the car with the windows rolled up. Sweating profusely, sleep wasn't very possible, so we decided to roll the windows down just an inch to see if the breeze would let us get cool enough to sleep. Still not doing it. We rolled them down several inches, started swatting mosquitoes, and trying to sleep. The pools of sweat still made it difficult.

Finally at about 2am I had the brilliant realization that the car had A/C. So, despite not being sure of exactly how much gas it would take to get to Bissau, we decided we had to chance it. We ran the car five minutes every hour, and it cooled the car enough for us to sleep with the windows up. We got up at 6am and waited for the ferry.

At 9am we crossed over, started the drive, and soon after broke the nylon rope again. By this time it was too short to keep tyeing, so we looked around for other options. In the Jeep there was a rope, about 1/4” thick. The kind of rope you might use for a laundry line. They said, this will work, no problem. They just laughed at my response: “N ka fia chiu” (I don't believe it much). They doubled the rope over and tied it on. The Jeep started moving slowly, and the truck did follow. Since we hadn't planned on such a long excursion, no one had brought extra water, so by the time we hit a major city at 11am, we were glad for the ability to buy more water.

We had about two hours of driving to do (at normal speeds) to reach Bissau from the ferry. The rope broke every time we went over a big bump, and we kept tyeing it back together. Eventually we did reach Bissau, making a four hour drive of a two hour trip.

We were veeeery glad to get to the youth center and relax. What's the fun if there's no adventure in the trip? :)

Update 6/18: Apparently early this week the bridge was officially opened, which will be awesome for trips up to Ziguinchor in the future (in combination with the motorcycle getting here, of course!)

Sydney the Australian Cattle Dog

2009-05-29T05:17:00.000-07:00

Well, we thought we were busy enough the few days we have left before we fly out, but when opportunity knocks you have to answer! A few months ago Emily and I thought about the possibility of bringing a dog to Africa with us. I was really interested in a breed called an Australian Cattle Dog because they are great natural herders - so in addition to being a dog, which is already awesome, these can "earn their keep" a little by helping out when we start our farming project and have animals to watch.

We contacted a rescue society for this kind of dog, but then we gave up on the idea when we saw how expensive it is to check a dog on an international flight! Driving to the dentist yesterday, Emily spotted a sign saying that a family near us had Aus. Cattle Dog pups for sale! We talked about it, and in the intervening time I had learned that a couple of dogs per flight can be brought as carry-on luggage for a lot less money. So, we called Delta to find out if either of the two spaces was still available on our flight, and there was one left!

So we headed to Walmart to get a pet carrier and some basics, then to the family's house, and picked out our new pup, Sydney!

Here she is looking at her adopted mom for the week, our family's golden retreiver Anna. (Click here for the bigger version)

The flight over is going to be a rough 10 hours I'm sure, but I think we can manage it as long as we can get her to stop crying in the night, but she seems to be assimilating well, so I think we'll be able to manage it. Then, we'll get her to Africa where she can romp around and chase animals to her heart's content!

Very exciting!

She does seem to be a little confused about the fact that not every dog is available to nurse, but she does drink regular milk and eat food once she's given up on Anna, so at least that's good. :)

Dun da da dun dun da dun!!!

2009-05-08T05:15:00.000-07:00

Finished late last night, it's putting out good voltage and spinning well in a gentle breeze! Today, it will get taken back apart and put in the crate to make it's African debut in mid July. Exciting! So gorgeous... :)

All dressed up and no place to go...

2009-05-07T03:04:00.000-07:00

Well, the windmill body is put together and painted (with a paint gun from Gram and Gramp Atkins to take to Africa, thank you very much!)... the powerful magnet plates also got a couple of coats of some hard enamel paint... and if everything is dry this morning, the windmill will be put together by noon, and in the crate to leave by the end of the day! Oh yeah, and I also need to call 100 churches today to see if we can speak some more places. Stand by for more pictures!

The windmill body on it's "paint stand".

The magnet plate sitting on the cement column I used as a paint stand. Does this color say "danger, if you let your finger get between two of these, you won't have a finger anymore"?

Today is the day!

2009-05-06T04:23:00.000-07:00

After months and months of researching and working, today looks like it is shaping up to be the day! The day of the first assembled windmill! We've had some windmill blades in testing, spinning away in the back yard for the last six months, but not generating any power. Today I'm hoping to finish and assemble the first prototype that will actually be generating power! Unfortunately, tomorrow it will be taken apart to send over to Africa - but even though I won't be able to play with it right away, having it go to Africa is exciting in its own way as well.

Wish me luck and check back for pictures tomorrow!!

Yay, snow!

2009-04-06T07:26:00.001-07:00

Yikes, it's April, folks!

Ah, Texas...

2009-03-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

Everything in Texas is Texan. :)

President Vieira Assassinated

2009-03-03T03:51:00.000-08:00

We found out yesteday that the president and a top general (and the president's political rival) were both assassinated. A bomb killed the general and later that day, under the assumption that the president ordered the bombing, several soldiers assassinated the president and fled. More info is available from the BBC and other news sources.

The good news is that (whether it's true or not) the army is denouncing the assassination, claiming that there is no coup in process, and that the constitutional line of succession will be followed. It calls for the leader of parliament to take control for two months until new elections will be done.

We also heard from both of the missionary families in our team who are there right now, and they said that even though they heard RPG's and automatic weapons for a few hours during the night, they are safe - and that the population seems fairly calm. The danger is that if the assassinations are seen as ethnically motivated, there could be tribal warfare. However, from what we're hearing people are remaining calm and waiting for some details on the radio about what happened. When that announcement is made (the army is reportedly not allowing anyone on the radio for now), it will do a lot to either diffuse or escalate the situation.

The government in Guinea-Bissau is one that has had a lot of instability and we've always known things like this were a possibility, we just hope that it doesn't go past this into a full blown war. Hopefully the national memory of the horror of the revolution nine years ago will still be fresh enough to prevent that.

It's a little scary to think that something like this could spark an armed uprising that could reduce everything we've worked to do to rubble. We serve a big God though, and He has the ability to intervene if necessary.

It doesn't look like much yet, but...

2009-02-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

So here it is, the 1993 Suzuki EX-500! The seller was nice enough to let me have it for $400 and even included the shop manual that I was getting ready to have to order for $25 - so I'm counting the bike as $375. :) That logic works, right?!?

It has been sitting in a garage taken apart for several years, so it's going to need a good cleaning, tune-up, and reassembly. I'm hoping none of that will to too far outside of my ability to "figure it out" and we'll end up with a good, reliable bike for pretty cheap.

Nothing like a good project! I'll make sure to post pictures of progress as things come along. I'm hoping not to let this consume too much of my time over the next couple of weeks!

Interesting possibility!

2009-02-26T07:32:00.001-08:00

We found an interesting listing on Craig's list this week! I've been trying to figure out our transportation plan for when we're back in Bissau, trying to figure out what the best way is for us to get around. We still have our little 65cc scooter waiting for us, which is very handy (and cheap) for getting around inside the capital. However, as we've started to have reason to visit some villages and places outside of the city of Bissau, it would be really handy to have something that goes faster than 35mph! (For example, Sintcha Botchi where we have been visiting is about 140 road miles away.)

We have been using the existing transportation system which is a network of small Peugeot station wagons that run between the major cities. (The roads between the four biggest cities in Guinea-Bissau are pretty recent and pretty good, so they make decent time). They work fine, but with no set schedule and bad maintenance, their reliability isn't great and you (I) are sore for a couple of days after you arrive because of being folded in the back seat, lol. Not to mention the animals tied to the top of the car sometimes making "yellow rain" in your window which must remain open because of the lack of air conditioning (that's not merely a hypothetical concern, fyi.) :) Discomforts can be put up with, but the "seti-pluses" are also pretty expensive if you use them often, and only go to the cities they go to. So, when we go places other than the few main cities, you have to arrange for someone to meet you on the other end or take an even less reliable secondary transportation system called a candonga. (I'll make a note to snap a picture of these when we're back in Bissau, they're pretty funny.

So, the desire to have some flexibility in travel outside of the capital city has been in tension with the fact that we don't want to spend much to remedy it because we really want to get back to Bissau quickly and money not spent on other things is money that gets us back to Bissau faster!

So anyway, I've been flipping through Craig's list ads just to see if anything would jump out at us. There is a shipping container headed for Bissau in a few months to carry a donated block-making machine (an awesome story for another day), so if we found something now it could be shipped over, avoiding the problem with buying something in Africa: the fact that it hasn't been maintained and is way overpriced.

So, this week I think I might have found it! There is a Kawasaki EX-500 for sale here in metro Detroit. And the best part is that since it is in pieces in the owner's garage, he's willing to sell it for $500 even though it's a '93 with less than 10,000 miles! It didn't have any major problems when he stopped working on it, just needs to be cleaned up and put back together, have a new battery and tires, and it will be ready to roll! I'm sure it's pretty ugly right now, but if I can get it to run reliably, for $500 I don't care! So, I'm headed down to Warren tomorrow to take a look at it and see what kind of shape it's really in. It's better engineering than the Indian-made models available in Bissau, and cheaper to boot! I'm pretty excited about the possibility!

I've never worked on motorcycles before other than simple stuff on our little scooter, but armed with a good shop manual I'm sure I can figure it out (hopefully!) So, I'm excited to go see it tomorrow and see what we think.

I'll update tomorrow with info on how things went, and if it's not too terrible looking, some pictures...

Home, sweet home!

2009-02-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

For the first time in 2009, we're back to our own space, stuff, and room in Imlay City! We drove the 1,303 miles Tuesday and yesterday and got here last night at 1am. The combination of changing two time zones and driving 23 hours over two days meant we're having a bit of a lazy day today, but it sure is nice to be back home.

I think we're having a little family feast tonight but I'm going to have to start paying attention to what I eat, as I officially hit the big 5-0 mark last week (I've gained 50 lbs from my skinny Africa-sized version since we left Bissau last April!). Hopefully fundraising will fall into line and we'll be able to get back soon.

2009-01-21T19:56:00.000-08:00

I'm reading an amazing book, called Democracy In America written in 1835 by a Frenchman visiting the U.S., Alexis de Tocqueville. The book is his reflection on what he sees as he tours America, as he compares his French and larger European culture to what he witnesses in the U.S.

I'm only through the first two chapters, but already have found some incredibly interesting thoughts that don't square with how America is now. Obviously, a democracy is made to be pliable in the hands of its residents and is allowed to change. But sometimes, I think it's changed by people saying it has always been the way it is now, rather than admitting that the way it is now is different than how it was. It's ok for a democracy to rewrite its rules, but it seems like we should at least be aware of the way an idea was when it started so we can evaluate whether or not we are happy with what it has become.

As I read the following excerpt I realized that not only does it not square with how we (or at least I) perceive freedom now, I think it is different than the way most of us assume the creators of a society based on liberty saw liberty.

Make no mistake about what we ought to understand by our independence. There is in fact a corrupt sort of liberty, the use of which is common to animals and men, and which consists in doing whatever they like. This liberty is the enemy of all authority; it is impatient of all rules. With it, we become inferior to ourselves. It is the enemy of truth and peace, and God believed it his duty to rise against it! But there is a civil and moral liberty that finds its strength in union, and which it is the mission of power itself to proect: this is the liberty to do what is just and good without fear. This sacred liberty we must defend in all circumstances and if necessary risk our life for it.

De Tocqueville is quoting John Winthrop, a then deputy-governor of Massachusetts. How does the concept that liberty is not the freedom to do whatever you like hit you?

If asked for a definition of freedom, I would have given something nearly that: freedom is the ability to do as you please within the confines of the law (aka as far as your freedom doesn't impinge on mine).

So do you see a difference between Winthrop's definition of liberty and your working definition? I sure do. If there is a difference, then it means that somewhere along the way there's been a change. Is that what we want? Today, should we be operating on Winthrop's definition or the one we're using?

(I'm not trying to be sarcastic, what do you think?)

Mother Winter is bearing down...

2008-10-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well, it snowed today! Not enough to pile up on the ground or anything, but enough for Michigan to issue an icy warning of things to come. I think I might start a "Save the Atkins" campaign... missionaries often show how their support raising is going by showing a thermometer representing the funds that have been pledged - but for us it will work the other way, we'll pray for our support to be raised so we can leave in time to keep the thermometer from killing us, haha... I can't believe my body can't take the winter anymore after only being gone two years! I'm holding on to sandals as long as I can though, it seems like you take the punishment early in the winter and then don't notice the cold the rest of the winter, or you bundle up to early in the season and are cold the whole winter - does anyone else notice that or is my body weird?

Where am I?

2008-10-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

Emily and I had an interesting conversation with a class of Guinean students while we were in Bissau this last time. The subject was elections and we were commenting on how the candidates in Bissau tend to promise to fix 100 years worth of problems in their proposed term despite not having any money to do so. We asked the students why they thought the candidates did that, and their answer was interesting. They said that if most Guineans were given the choice between a candidate who promised to fix everything and would inevitably do nothing and another who said "Look, we have tons of problems but this one area is one I know I can fix and that's what I'm going to do" - that almost all voters would choose the guy who promised the moon. Interestingly, the rationale was that the guy who promised everything had vision, and they would rather have a leader who has vision, even knowing the odds are heavily against him actually accomplishing everything (or anything). We laughed to ourselves and I think secretly thought "that's a pretty silly electorate."

So, fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I'm listening to a BBC interview with a U.S. Congressman talking about Obama's campaign. I really wish I could find a link to the interview to listen to it, but since I can't find it and don't remember the name of the Congressman being interviewed, I'll have to paraphrase. The interviewer asked the Congressman about Sen. Obama's agenda and whether the Congressman thought that, in light of the current economic situation, Obama would be able to implement all of the new programs he's promising. The Congressman (who supports Obama) said that it was pretty unlikely because of the slowdown in the economy. The interviewer then asked him if he thought that it would be a good idea for Obama to revise his platform so he wasn't promising things he couldn't deliver. The Congressman paused for a few moments and then said (again, paraphrased), "No, I don't think that people would vote for him." The interviewer replied something to the effect of "doesn't that seem like a lie? Couldn't he just explain that the money isn't there and a few things will have to be taken off the table?" The Congressman said "No, I don't think he could get elected that way. We know our way is better than the other guys, so Obama should say whatever he needs to in order to get elected and then once he's in office he will just have to do the best he can and implement as many of his ideas as money allows. But of course he won't be able to do everything he's saying." The interveiwer didn't really know where to go with that so the interview ended shortly after. And I thought to myself, "Did I just hear someone advocating the 'promise even if you know you can't deliver to sound more visionary-ish' strategy in American politics??"

I don't want this to sound like I'm Obama bashing, because I'm sure both campaigns are thinking the same way and overpromising. For the purpose of the blog, it doesn't even really matter which candidate the Congressman was talking about. The alarming thing here isn't that one candidate is thinking this way, but that our political system as a whole is composed of either a) politicians who view the electorate as being so dumb they "won't remember or care what we said we were going to do once we get elected" or b) an electorate that really is that dumb. I can't get on board with the idea that the people around me really are so shallow they don't have the mental capacity to analyze an election based on sound bites longer than 20 seconds. Our political process needs to be a little more intelligent than that. So to both campaigns I say "give us the truth, we can handle it, we have brains!"

I want a candidate who understands his strengths as well as his weaknesses and isn't afraid to admit that he (or she) isn't perfect. Weaknesses can be compensated for by cabinet appointments and the like if a president knows he has weaknesses - but the candidate who says they're the best on every issue might really believe that, and an unseen weakness is a dangerous one. The next candidate to give an honest answer to an interviewer asking "What is your biggest weakness as a potential president?" is going to earn my respect. And, "I work too hard and care too much" isn't going to cut it. I want to hear "I realize that I'm not an expert in the area of ____, but Mr. _____ who has been working at ______ for 20 years has agreed to be in my cabinet to help inform my decisions in that area."

Are we really so dumb that each candidate has to paint themselves as perfect and the other guy as the devil in a suit? I think we're smart enough to see through that. I say, be upfront about strengths, plans, weaknesses, etc. and let us weigh the choices. If there were some real information to analyze and think about, maybe the electorate would take the time to think about it!

That's enough of politics for now, but whichever way you're voting I hope we can all agree on the fact that America would be better off if elections were about deep discussions of serious issues rather than trading 10 second sound bites and accusations back and forth for 16 months.

What have I done??

2008-10-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

Well, this morning I woke up to go to work and walked out to my car in the long sleeve under a short sleeve shirt configuration I'm using to try to gently get used to the weather turning gradually cooler only to find... ICE ON MY WINDSHIELD ALREADY!! It wasn't much, but that stuff shouldn't be happening for another month or two! My blood is still thin from Africa, can't Michigan give me a couple of weeks to adjust? Holy monkeys! I'm starting to wonder if staying in the States for Christmas was such a good idea - we might not survive until January. :)

Way to grow a spine!

2008-09-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well, props today are deserved by the House which voted the take-the-money-from-everyone-to-keep-a-company-that-should-be-allowed-to-die-alive bill down! I'm not sure whether they did it because the bill was a bad idea, or just that they were left out of the loop in it's creation, or they got so many phone calls from people saying "don't raise my taxes", but either way - it's dead for today. I'm going to choose to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they knew it was bad economic policy and then all of the calls allowed them to vote they way they already knew they should.

If You Can't Take The Recession, Get Out Of Capitalism!

2008-09-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

I generally make a habit of not posting about things that are very political because I know I tend to hold my views very strongly and that can be offensive to some people. I'm always open to someone debating my point (that's how good opinions are formed), but generally find that people end up feeling hurt after such a discussion, so in order to be nice I tend away from such conversations. However...

I am incensed that politicians are even considering this whole bailout idea. Taking taxpayer dollars (either directly through taxes or by printing more money which devalues all of the other money taxpayers have) in order to support a business is ridiculous. There are several issues here, including, even if you decide it's a good idea to artificially prop up a company with public money, who named the government "god" and gave them the right to pick and choose who lives and who dies? Or put differently, which stockholders' (read: taxpaying citizens') money will be lost when one company goes under and which will be spared at the expense of everyone else? It is completely unfair and inappropriate for the government to put itself in that position.

As with many economic occurrences, the real story isn't obvious on the surface here, you have to dig one layer deeper, or as Henry Hazlitt puts it in the great book Economics In One Lesson: "The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."

So what is the longer-term, unseen effect of saving AIG or some other large financial institution? Business is about the balance between risk and reward. Armed with the knowledge that they are too precious to be allowed to fail, the risk-reward equation is now suddenly skewed to making risk have no cost. So, there is no future incentive not to make risky investments, leading to an ever less efficient business which should be out of business but won't be allowed to go away - like a new branch of the government: slow, inefficient, and permanant.

The broader point and the most troubling part of this "bailout" idea is this: the free market economy needs to have recessions. Recessions and companies going out of business are required for the free market system to work. Like a tree with dead branches, those failed enterprises have to be allowed to fall off and die or they will eventually make the whole body so inefficient that the whole tree will die. Now of course, it isn't any fun when you happen to work for or own stock in that company, I don't deny this. But the system requires this birth/death cycle to be allowed to happen.

So the troubling part is this: it seems to me that the bailout is thought to be necessary by politicians because no politician (especially president) wants to have a major recession on his watch. This is understandable as a method of legacy-preservation, but this has always been and will always be the case. So, if we now accept that it is acceptible for politicians to artificially prevent or lessen recessions because they don't want to be the bearers of bad news, then we have removed a part of the cycle necessary for free markets to function.

So politicians will always want to prevent recessions, but if the modus operandi is now that we deem it acceptible for them to do so using artificial means (such as this bailout), then I start to think that capitalism and democracy (with economic manipulation) are fundamentally incompatible. Capitalism needs recessions, and politicians need to get re-elected so they won't allow them. Self-preservation is necessary in politics, recession is necessary in the free market, but if self-preservation demands the lack of recessions, then the two systems are mutually exclusive and can't co-exist together. That's a problem for us.

Now, I don't think all of the blame can be placed at the feet of the politicians. The reason that they are so worried about recessions is because the population is so worried about recessions. If we understood that recessions are necessary parts of the economic cycle of a free market and weren't out to lynch whatever politican happens to be presiding over them, then they wouldn't have to be so fearful of them.

I certainly understand that recessions are difficult and create some genuinely difficult situations for familes. I'm not meaning to downplay that fact and I empathize with those situations. However, before you start thinking that we should switch to a system that doesn't have these valleys and is more steady, I'd encourage you to consider the fact that those systems, while stable, are also less beneficial for their participants than capitalism when you average together the highs and lows of a system like ours.

So capitalism does demand more from us: more patience and more creativity in getting through the tougher times, but in the end we're still better off.

The only problem with all of this theory is that it's correct up until the point where the government is artificially pushing the wealth one direction or another through earmarks and the like - which it is also doing.

The main point though is this: a free market economy dies when companies aren't allowed to.

New Blog Home

2008-09-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

As a quick logistical note, I just switched my blog from myspace to here at blogspot. The posts older than this one in the blog might not be formatted quite right because they were written for myspace's layout.

I am really happy to be done with myspace - today, as I was trying to transfer my blog from myspace to blogger, I found another reason I don't like myspace - no ability to export the blog! So, as a final act of defiance so that I could completely leave myspace behind, I laboriously copied every single blog entry one at a time and pasted/reformatted them here. Good to know that blogspot supports import and export so if I ever need to switch again, it will be a simple process.

Also, for people who have been following our blog through emails, we have a new webiste that you might not have gotten the word about yet, jasonandemilyatkins.com! It's not finished yet, but looking pretty good so far if I do say so myself!

I have gas (but not much)

2008-04-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Aggravated

We've heard that fuel prices have been going up in the States since we left. I think I can top just about any "fish story" about prices (albeit on a much smaller scale) that any of you might have. Gas hasn't been available for a couple of weeks in Bissau (who knows why, sometimes when stuff like this happens they don't even bother making up an excuse to explain it). We'd been hoping that we could finish our time on the gallon of gas that we had left in the little five gallon container we keep for the bike. A day before we left we ran out of gas on the way home and when I switched the bike to reserve found out that apparently it already was on reserve, so we were really out. I've seen lots of strange things in the back of a taxi but I don't think they would have been happy about us trying to take our bike home in a taxi, so we either had to break down and buy some "black market" gas or walk the bike home. We didn't have time that day since we were trying to get all of our stuff done before we left, so we had little choice.

I walked over to the service station to ask the workers where I could go to buy the black market gas, knowing that there wasn't any at the stations but figuring they'd know where, and one of the workers had a five gallon container of his own gas (purchased just before that station ran out at the normal price, I'm sure) to sell. The price was 2500 xof / liter. If I remember right, there are 3.78 liters in a gallon and 422 xof to $1, so even though I only bought one liter that works out to $22.39 / gallon. (In case anyone is curious a gallon's normal price at the current exchange rate is about $6.20.)

Good thing we have a fuel efficient bike, eh?

So that's what a $5.92 liter of gas looks like.

Eatin’ Good in the Neighborhood!

2008-03-08T11:57:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Full

We made doughnut holes today too... mmmmmm!

You tell me...

2008-01-29T09:11:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Indignant

So today we were on our way home on the bike. A lot of times at twilight you get bugs smacking you in the face - some nights it's a little difficult to see - but tonight something smacked my lip and felt like it splattered! I got home with a crusty face and sticky hand from wiping away whatever it was. I'm wondering what the odds are that one might drive into a falling piece of bat poop? Anyway, judge for yourself!

Welcome to our neighborhood!

2008-01-15T23:02:00.000-08:00

Triste Dimas ("Too sad")

2007-12-10T22:07:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Sad

We've been here in Guinea-Bissau for long enough now that I don't expect to be surprised by too much anymore. The weather is normal, the garbage everwhere is just part of being here, we hardly notice the smells now, etc. Every once in a while though, you find examples that still make you say "you're kidding, right?"

Recently I was talking to the main computer guy here at the center, his name is Francisco. His grandma is sick and hasn't been getting better for a few months. I don't know what she has, but it's treatable. The hospital here in Bissau is fairly limited in what it can do, but they can fix a lot of problems that are common here. She hasn't been to the hospital though. Why, you ask? It's not because it's a long trip, she lives right here in Bissau. Here ethnic group? Nope, the hospital will treat anyone. Her kids are animist and are saving the money from taking her to the hospital to use for her upcoming funeral. Francisco's mom is a Christian and isn't happy about what they're doing, but the sons are the ones who make decisions, so the poor grandma keeps getting sicker.

If this were just a disfunctional family, it wouldn't be shocking or worth writing about. The reason that it's interesting is that most of the animists (half of the country) would agree that they're doing the right thing. The funeral celebration lasts for several days or a week and is pretty expensive, despite friends helping by bringing animals to eat. They beleive the spirit of the deceased relative stays at the house until this funeral celebration, which is a big (usually drunken) party thrown for the spirit so that it can leave on a good note. So in their mind, it's not that they're killing her by not taking her to the hospital - she's old enough to die, afterall - it's that they're taking care of the most important thing. Dieing, no big deal - but not having a party to release your spirit, that's a problem!

Of course I don't agree with their thinking, but I do understand from their perspective why (theoretically) this is a good idea. However, when the idea meets reality, it doesn't seem as lofty - there's something wrong with someone dancing drunk in the dirt street to a blown-out speaker blaring "Move b*tch, get out da way" as a way to honor their dead grandmother. (A scene I actually witnessed in our neighborhood at a different funeral a few weeks ago.)

Vindication

2007-12-10T22:03:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Frustrated

One of the goals of this term in Guinea-Bissau has been to get an internet connection established at the youth center. The connection is really important because the network we have here is sometimes difficult to maintain, and an internet connection will allow me to connect from the U.S. and help fix problems as if I were here. Secondarily it will save us a lot of time running to the internet cafe every few days to send emails, download virus updates for the center, and look up solutions to problems.

The project has been a long time coming, and it's still not completely done, but we are closing in on the end (more details on the rest of the project in the future). The very last peice of equipment that we need in order to finish the project is a tiny little antenna cable adapter that isn't available here in Bissau. I ordered one from the States and my dad sent it over in a package. So, we've anxiously been waiting for the package to get here (along with about six or seven other packages that have been sent by various people that we haven't received yet, many with equipment I need for the youth center computers, others with Christmas goodies!) It's seemed like we haven't had any mail for the last three weeks even though we know so many packages should be getting here soon. We started to get suspicious... (and a little worried, because packages do sometimes "dissappear" permanently.)

On Friday, I found out what's been going on. The post office was on strike for three days this past week (this much we knew) but the strike ended on Friday. Of course they weren't actually doing any work on Friday (where do you think we are?), but the workers were at least there. So I chatted up someone we know who works there and found out what the deal was. Apparently, for the two or three weeks leading up to the strike, no incoming mail was being processed! I had noticed last time I was there that there were twenty or so giant burlap bags with the names of different countries on them in the room where we normally go to pick up our packages. I was suspicious, because I didn't think there was that much outgoing mail - and my suspicions were vindicated on Friday. Those giant bags have been coming in for the last three weeks (while I've been checking the mail every other day desperately waiting for the boxes) and just sitting - so close, but so far away. :)

So, the worker told me to come back on Monday. I don't expect them to get all of that mail sorted in one day (if you had seen them work for a few hours you'd know what I mean), but hopefully we'll at least get a *few* of the packages. The strike was because they haven't been paid by the government for a while, so I'm kind of wondering if a $4 bill might get me into that room to look through all of the bags marked "USA" and just find all of our packages myself! We'll see what happens, haha...

UPDATE: We got to the post office and had three packages ready for us! There are still bags and bags of mail to sort, so I was a little worried that this package with the antenna adapter that we needed wouldn't get opened until next week when they finally finish up the last bag. However, their disorganization paid off, and apparently since the recent bags were on the top of the pile, those were the ones they opened first! So, we got our treasured box with the last peice of the internet puzzle on the very same day that the radio tower was put up. Sweet, huh? We also got a pair from Grandma & Grandpa Atkins with some very tasty snacks! So, it looks like the post office is going to come through afterall. We' heading back on Weds to check and see if anymore of our stuff has been unburied. :) Here's Em proudly displaying the haul.

Feeling good

2007-11-18T23:57:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Happy

Hi all!

I just wanted to drop a quick update to let everyone know that I'm feeling fine. By Friday I was a little tired but already feeling ok. We have amazing bodies and we're very blessed to have access to good doctors when we need them over here, I'm conscious of the fact that most of our neighbors aren't in the same situation. I saw the director of the school of nursing here in Bissau and he got me patched up. A big public thanks to our director, Ze Augusto, for knowing the right people and spending all of last Monday morning driving me around to clinics and such! Thanks to all of you for the prayers and notes... I've said before and will keep saying that there's nowhere safer than where God wants you.

I hope you're having a great day!

African flu

2007-11-12T07:02:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: less like death than yesterday

So guess what fun experience I had this weekend? You got it, my first time to catch malaria! On Friday afternoon was feeling really tired (which happens on Friday around here sometimes..) so I came home early at 5:30 and lay down for a little bit. I got back up this morning (Monday). At first I thought it was just a flu, so I was trying to let it run its course (since your body need the fever to kill the virus). I didn't sleep much Friday or Saturday night and didn't eat anything, though I was drinking as much water as I could. We realized Sunday morning that it wasn't just a flu when my temp hit 104.5° and my back felt like an elephant had been dancing on it. Since I think the temperature your brain starts cooking is 106°, it was a little too close for comfort and I started taking Tylenol to keep the fever manageable along with the vitamins/OJ I was already taking. This morning we went to the doctor (actually to the head of the only hospital here in Bissau, fortunately our director here at the center had a connection), went and got some blood tests done to confirm the diagnosis, got some medicines, and came home. I feel better today but am still sore and exhausted. It sounds it will be about a week until I'm back on my feet. It might be a long week if I don't start feeling better soon. I was able to sleep last night though, so that helped a lot.

It's funny the different reactions we've gotten here, because malaria is no big deal to the Africans here. They've all had it, probably like once a year. It's like our flu to them. I think most of them got it for the first time when they were young enough not to remember it though – they say the first time is way worse than the rest, and I can put my vote in for that. I had heard that when you have it you feel like you'd rather die. So it is definitely unpleasant, but also not the "yep, you're definitely gonna die now" idea we have in our head when we hear about malaria in the States.

Oh yeah, one other fun side benefit... exhaustion. I've been sitting up for ten minutes now and I feel like I've been awake for a week, lol. I'm going back to bed now. Just wanted all of you guys at home to know that it's not as scary as it sounds and even though I feel crappy I'll be fine in a bit. It wouldn't hurt if you prayed for me though. :)

PS. Sorry if parts of this don't make sense, my brain isn't working quite right yet. You would laugh if I hadn't going back and reread this though, it didn't even make much sense to me! Saturday night I had a half-awake dream that I was building a six inch wide road along an 80 mile stretch of the interior here. After two hours of the "dream" I had only laid ten feet of the road so I was thinking to myself "this night is never going to end!"

A less educational vlog...

2007-11-06T01:15:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Happy

Last night we were making cinnamon rolls and we didn't have any powdered sugar for the glaze. We made up a batch by blending regular sugar and discovered a lovely side benefit!

Language Videos

2007-11-04T22:14:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Interested

Come learn a little bit of the first African language in our mini-series!

EDIT: This post contained the first video in our little group of clips about different West African languages. To make them easier to find, we've moved them together on the videos section of our website. Check them out there!

Our House

2007-10-09T05:35:00.000-07:00

The Journey

2007-09-30T04:12:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Happy

We have posted our first video blog (about the trip over) to YouTube, and conveniently put it here for your viewing pleasure!

Animals

2007-09-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

This blog is mostly for my brother Sam... the pastor who moved into Jack & Polly's old house, who will be responsible for the center now, is named José Augusto (shortened to Ze Gusto, phonetically). He has a pair of parrots that live in the front lawn most of the day. They reminded me a lot of Adie's bird, but it might just be because I haven't seen her bird for a while. Anyway, they're about Benny's size. I haven't heard any words from them yet, so we'll see...

We are here and settled in and we really like our new place. There will be more details (and media) to follow on that subject, but for now I'll just give you a picture of the "greeter" that was waiting to welcome us to our room.

(Yeah, that's a regular sized door hinge below it.)

Fortunately, my new Chaco's had their first chance to prove their worth in Africa.

New Goals

2007-09-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Too Many

Dakar, Senegal

Well, first of all I must apologize for not blogging for so long! I saw a lot of you over the summer, which is the way I'd rather stay in contact, but I notice that my last post was several months before we even left Africa last time! One of the things that I am hoping to improve this time is keeping my blog updated more thoroughly. I am getting ahead of myself though...

For anyone who did not know (those of you I may not have seen this summer), Emily and I decided before leaving Bissau in April that we would return after the summer (aka right now) for some more time to continue developing the computer program that started last trip and for Emily to teach English again. She really enjoyed it last time and I am hoping that this trip will be no different.

We had originally decided to stay for three months this time, so that we could be home for Christmas (we have yet to see my side of the family on Christmas eve or day since we got married). However, as we began to quantify exactly what it was that we wanted to accomplish with the computer training program, we came to the conclusion that we could get it done in the three months we had planned but that it would come at the cost of not having any free time and not seeing each other much – similar to the way we allowed January-April of last trip to unfold. After weighing pros and cons we decided it was worth the extra time to not be in a hurry all the time. So we talked about padding the time by two months which would put us back in the States around late February. This would have made Emily less useful since the English semester at the school runs from January to April and there will be no Americans at the center to take over her class in February when we had thought to leave. Finally, after thinking of a few more computer training things that I would like to get done, we decided to stay for both semesters, making our itinerary almost identical to last time. Almost the same, but with a very fun twist. We will leave Africa in mid-April when the semester ends, and as it happened, the cheapest flight home connected through Germany. I've been interested in exploring Western Europe for a long time but never had the combination of time, money, and initiative to get it done. So I plugged a few changes into Expedia and figured out that we could have a multi-day layover in Germany with no increase in the cost of the plane tickets! The end result is a 19-day layover where we're hoping to explore some of Germany, Prague, Austria, and possibly Milan. We'll have to see how much our savings allow us to do, but no matter what we end up doing I'm looking forward to it!

Now that we have a plan firmly in hand, here we are back in the Dakar, Senegal airport (with all of our bags so far, a divine act in itself!) waiting out a 12 hour layover on the way to Bissau. (The plan is firmly in hand as far as I am concerned, though some of us have different definitions of a good plan than others. Here's a picture of Emily in the Detroit airport yesterday reading through guidebooks to try to plan the days of our eight-months-distant European exploring trip, haha...). We will (if all goes as planned) arrive in Bissau tonight about 7pm local time (3pm EST). Emily will begin teaching next week and we (I'm sure) will have plenty (other than nursing our jet lag) to attend to before then.

After thinking about the last trip (term, time, whatever you call it) and considering what we are hoping to accomplish with this trip, I have come up with a few goals. I'm not a big "goaler" – I hate New Years resolutions, statements like "I always..." and "I never...", five year plans, and the general tendency of American society to over think everything and plan to do what they think everyone expects them to do, missing out on what they should do. I understand the intentions of those things, but I think the temptation to live for the plan instead of living for the purposes of the plan is just too strong! However, in this case there are a few things in my mind that I want to change this time around. So in specific cases I guess I'm ok with a targeted list of goals. So here are a small list of goals/purposes for this time in Bissau:

Roll out three new intermediate level computer classes – I'm looking forward to these because they'll be more challenging for the students than what we did last time.
Get the teaching portions of the computer classes video'ed and put into Powerpoints to make sure the quality of the lessons doesn't fall off when I and this directly trained group of teachers move on. This is going to be a TON of work, but it will be worth it.
Continue training the computer teachers about network maintenance and most importantly how they can teach themselves new programs in the future.
Network improvements – A lot of the 233 lbs of checked luggage we have is new computer equipment. We are expanding the network capacity, speed, and most importantly redundancy to make sure things will keep running smoothly for a long time.
Time at home – Em felt a bit abandoned for the last part of the last trip because the computer work occupied so much of my time. Spreading the trip out will make it so I don't have to pick between slacking at work or slacking at home this time. (No, slacking at both isn't what I'm saying, lol... I am working on 3 hours of sleep in the last 48, so cut me a little slack!)
Get out! We saw less of Guinea Bissau in eight months last year than most 10 day vacationers would because we didn't allow ourselves enough time for anything but working at the center. There is a lot more to see and we're going to make a point to take trips to some different places in the interior and back to the islands again. We're also hoping to spend a few weekends exploring the neighboring countries – we'll see how that part works out.
Pictures! Last time I didn't bring much camera gear because I didn't know how safe it would be. As a result (combined with the no free time thing) we didn't end up with much to show you guys. This time I have a good arsenal of equipment, including a tough pocket sized point and shoot we're going to take just about everywhere, and also a video camera, so we are hoping to have a lot more to show you! Stay tuned!

So there you have it, the seven habits of highly effective Guinean missionaries, haha... This summer it was nice to catch up with friends and family, to enjoy good food and hot showers, and to have a fun graphics design job (at Cayman Chemical) – but also in other ways the roughest three months of my life. I am excited to get to work but I don't feel like I have anything left to offer. I am clinging to the promise that God can do the most with us when we are the least. I wouldn't have chosen to have a wounded heart, but I am glad for a God who is willing to use us and a wife who loves me.

I appreciate all of the support from you guys back home. Going forward, we really need your prayers for health, safety, and for God to continue to pull us closer. We are missing you all already! (Well, maybe not Em so much, as she has been asleep most of the trip, haha... That's not true, but it makes a really good story, and since I have pictures to back it up... what can she say, right?)

Alright, thanks for keeping up on us, we welcome emails so we can stay connected to you too!

Quick Update

2007-01-21T05:33:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Accomplished

I have been a little lean on blogs lately – but I have a good excuse, so let me update you on what's been going on here recently. One of my projects here at the youth center is to upgrade the computing facilities. We got news in early October that American missionaries from another area of Guiné-Bissau were going to be sending a shipping container over by boat and that there was a little extra space we could have. So, in the space of a few days I had ordered a slew of computers and equipment, including everything we needed to network all of the computers at the center to facilitate some things we needed to be able to do in order to teach our computer classes better.

We expected the container to arrive in Bissau in late November, which was perfect because installing of this new stuff was going to be a pretty substantial project (especially with inexperienced helpers), and we have a break from classes for three weeks in December. The container arrived in mid-December and was tied up in customs until Jan. 4th. So, the last two weeks have been spent feverishly trying to get everything installed so that we can get back to the already large job of curriculum development that was scheduled for January. The project has been made more difficult by the fact that the work has to be done without interrupting the typing students that are using the system from 9am to 10pm with a small window in the afternoon where we can work without having to worry about disturbing them. So my typical day since the container got here two weeks ago has been to go to the internet cafe at 7:45 before staff meeting to try to find answers to the problems we ran into the day before, working from 8:30 to 1, breaking for lunch, working from 2 to 8 or 8:30, going home exhausted, and waking up the next morning to do it all over again. It's been tiring and it feels like we've been doing this for a month instead of just over two weeks, but when I look back at all that we've accomplished I'm kind of amazed, especially by African standards – because things happen here s-l-o-w-l-y. (I know I've written about this aspect of life here before, but just by way of another example, it took me a whole morning to find and buy some plain old metal washers we needed for installing wiring conduit on the wall – and even then I had to pay twice the price because of the color of my skin!)

Fortunately, we are now closing in on the end of the installation/networking project, so now we can get back to the work we were actually supposed to be doing in January – preparing new classes for February! The next few weeks are going to be busy, but shouldn't be as crushing as the last. We're here to get work done anyway!

African Tamaguchi

2007-01-18T06:02:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Irritated

Do you remember the Tamaguchi craze a while back? (The little digital things that had a "pet" on the screen?) I never had one, but I can see how people liked having a little thing to take care of and help grow. Well, in Africa now that it's the dry season, we have something just like that: Mango Worms! The mango trees are pollinating right now (the trees are everywhere), and apparently there are little worms that hang on them and sometimes fall to the ground. Em and I found out the hard way that sometimes they decide to burrow into your foot, and boom! – you have your own pet to feed and help grow! :)

We were getting these weird little swollen blisters on our feet that had a black spot in the middle of them. We soaked our feet in salt water, etc., but they wouldn't go away. So finally we asked Polly about them and she told us about them and that it's really common this time of year. The black spot is actually the worm's head. As you might imagine, Em almost puked when she found out it was a worm, but she immediately convinced herself it was more of a worm bite than an actual worm. :) Anyway, they're pretty easy to dig out once you know how so I think we're both set now.

(Pictures were omitted on purpose for your benefit...)

Three more “West African” moments...

2006-12-25T04:59:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Happy

Feliz Natal! I hope everyone's Christmas is going or was good depending on when you read this. It has been a little difficult to get into the Christmas spirit this year for us, for several reasons, but we've been doing our best! It has seemed less like the holidays for several reasons: the fact that we're away from our families, the warm weather, lack of smothering monotone gray cloud cover (Michigan), and finally the fact that Africans generally don't worry about anything more than a day ahead meaning that Christmas wasn't really a topic of conversation until, say, yesterday.

Last blog I gave a couple of recent things that have made me notice where I am, I have three more today that are funny and also very African. The first one was humorous but doesn't have much of a story. Emily and I were driving around downtown on the TVS (checking the mail and picking up a few groceries) and a monkey ran across the road in front of us. It was spindly, but standing up its arms would reach higher than mine. I might have expected such a thing a little further out of civilization, but not downtown! So, there's another first for Jason – I have never before almost run over a monkey with a small motor scooter. :)

The second story gives you a little window into banking in Guinea-Bissau. There are only three banks in the whole country who offer personal accounts, and all three are in Bissau. One of the center employees, Fernando, needed to open an account to help with the visa he's trying to get to study English in the U.S. for a year. I took him into town on the TVS, dropped him off, and went to do the other errands downtown that the center needed. I came back half an hour later and asked him how it was going. The bank had been open for an hour and a half and his number was 110. They were helping #50 at the time. Yes, that's right folks – there was a three hour delay... even to deposit or withdraw! (While we were waiting I had plenty of time to tell Fernando how miraculous ATM's are, haha.) Apparently lines like this aren't at all uncommon and if the bank closes before they get to your number, you get to come back tomorrow, get a new number, and continue hoping.

The third story gives a good insight into West African society, but I'll give you the cultural interpretation after so I don't spoil the story. We were doing our Saturday morning shopping last weekend downtown, so we were driving from the store that has canned beans to the store that gets good soup mixes (appreciate Wal-Mart, friends), and the road the second store (Mavegro) is on is bad – so sometimes we drive on the sidewalk (which is good) for the last half block.

You might be thinking to yourself at this point, "Jason, you lawbreaker – you have a scooter and now you think you own the road and the sidewalk too!" In my defense I should more clearly define what I mean when I say the road is bad. It has potholes that are four feet wide and up to 18" deep. Not just a few of them either, it looks like the craters of the moon. So we drive on the sidewalk for that half block in an effort to avoid getting lost in one of those potholes and never being heard from again. Sure you wouldn't do it in America... but this is Africa.

Last Saturday we drove the bike up over the curb and onto the sidewalk, past a woman selling bread, past a house, and then as we passed a man washing a car on the street I noticed that he was growing slightly taller. In fact what was happening was that our bike was sinking into the wet cement that we were driving on. You'd be surprised how similar cement with carwash water on it looks to wet (uncured) cement. Or I was at least.

Fortunately only about four feet of the cement was being repaired, so the TVS hummed on through, hardly slowing down. As we drove the last 20 feet to the store, Em looked back to see a disgusted looking man with a trowel in his hand emerge from the house and glare at us. We ran into the store quickly hoping he would not follow. We picked up what we needed, headed back out to the bike (relieved that he wasn't there waiting for us), and took off – not before noticing the cement had been smoothed back out and now had several big rocks on either side to warn anyone else who might want to drive through it that the cement was in fact wet.

Now we come to the cultural learning portion of the program. If I asked an American what was the cause of the problem in this situation, I think most of us would identify two things: First, I was driving on the sidewalk. I'll give you that one, but take my word – it's totally acceptable here. In fact, I would venture to say that a majority of Africans would have thought it a little odd for me to be driving on the road rather than the sidewalk, given its condition. The second cause an American might identify in this situation is that the mason working on the cement didn't put up any markers to alert people that the cement was wet. And here is where American and African mindsets separate. Despite the fact that Saturday is the busiest shopping day of the week, I am convinced that if I had stopped to ask why he didn't put up any warning signs he would have told me in all honesty that he saw no need.

A second example of this lackadaisical approach to warning signs is illustrated by a giant hole in the sidewalk. This hole appeared one day in the middle of one of the busiest paths for foot traffic on our side of the city. It appeared with no apparent explanation or markings and was 6-7' deep and the whole width of the sidewalk when it was dug. I assumed that they might be working on underground pipes or something. A few days later (possibly because someone fell in, lol) there were four corn stalks marking the four corners of the hole with a little plastic stretched across them. The corn stalks disappeared a few days later and now (whatever its original purpose) the hole is filling up with trash as kind of a spot-landfill.

Generally, West Africans much prefer to deal with problems when they occur rather than preparing for/preventing them beforehand. As nearly as I can tell, the rationale is that preparing for or preventing a problem is work that might end up being pointless (if the problem doesn't end up happening). I'm not sure if the thinking is that clearly defined or just happens based on the fact that so many people are living hand to mouth that they don't have time to worry about problems that aren't problems yet – but either way the effect is the same. I think another factor that plays into this is that predictability is not prized here as it is in the States. We plan partially to make sure we know what's coming – so many bad things happen here that trying to have a predictable future is seen as a futile exercise in frustration. (Of course it's a self-fulfilling prophecy because the lack of planning leads to even more bad things happening, reinforcing the idea that there's no point in thinking ahead.)

Jack has done a good job of convincing some of the center employees of the virtues of planning ahead by putting away some money, but even after they understand the importance of it, there is a curious thing about African society which prevents them from saving. If a neighbor or family member comes and asks for money (which happens often), if you have any, you have to give it to them. This causes all sorts of funny idiosyncrasies (such as causing everyone to spend as much of their monthly pay as quickly as possible to avoid being obligated to give it away) but also has the side effect of making saving impossible. Jack has set up an envelope system in the center's safe to allow the employees to save without anyone knowing, but even then they almost have to lie when someone asks them for money by saying they don't have any available. Interesting, huh?

You know you're in West Africa when...

2006-12-18T20:17:00.000-08:00

I think that when you live somewhere else for long enough, you start to adapt to it - no matter how different it is from what you're used to - and begin to stop noticing some of the differences. We've been in Africa for four months, and many days I am used to everything that happens. There are still some things that happen every once in a while that make you realize "hey, I'm in Africa" again. A few of those things have happened recently so I thought I'd share them with you.

First, I woke up at midnight a few nights ago to the sound of tribal drums and chanting. This may happen in your neighborhood too, but it wasn't something I was used to in Michigan. It was a funeral and they were still going at 1:30 when I fell back asleep. Pockets of people from different tribes live in different areas of Bissau, so tribal ceremonies aren't all that uncommon, but this one was loud enough to wake me up (even though I'm sure it was blocks away).

The second thing that happened recently was that our neighbors (in the other side of our duplex) got a goat. This also is not uncommon, our "street" is like a petting zoo - various neighbors own chickens, pigs, ducks, dogs, and other assorted things that are all loose and go wherever they want. This seems quite normal, actually. I'm not sure if any of you have ever been around a goat for very long, but they are loud. It could be that goats are naturally whiny, or that this one isn't being fed, but it bleats before we wake up and is bleating most nights when we fall asleep. (Too bad goats can't seem to get soar throats.) The house is surrounded by a tall wall and the two sides of the duplex are divided by a shorter wall, and since the goat lives inside the wall, the bleating echoes off of the wall and gets louder before coming in our house, lol. To make matters worse, one of their kids (human) the other day was teasing the kid (goat) by mimicking the bleating which only made the goat bleat louder, lol. Anyway, it's not the most annoying thing we've run into (their rooster is much worse), but we were glad this week when the time came for us to move out of the duplex into the apartment above Jack and Polly's house which was vacated when Thomas went back to the States on Wednesday. (Pictures of the new diggs next time, for now here's the goat.)

The third thing is satisfyingly related to the second, which is that we ate goat (unfortunately not the same one) for the first time early this week. We were invited over to dinner at the house of one of Emily's english students (who is somewhat famous for great dinner parties), so we were excited. The first thing we ate were grilled shrimp with spicy lemon sauce (a great combination!) that still had the heads on them. Em almost lost it, hehe... The lights were dim (using candles since the city light wasn't on) so I don't think she realized what was on the end of the shrimp until Thomas said something when she jump/twitched so much she dropped it on the ground and could barely pick it back up, lol. Anyway, they were really good. Next we had squid salad, which was also tasty. The only squid I've had in the States is fried calamari, which doens't resemble squid much after it's been fried so long - fresh squid is a different deal. The different parts of the squid are different textures, so you'd get one bite from the body that was chewy, and then in the next forkfull you'd eat a tentacle which was a little crunchier. :) For dinner we had something like goat pot roast over rice (everything here is over rice - actually it's more like rice with a little of something else on top). The goat was really good! I've been craving pot roast recently anyway, so that may have something to do with my evaluation of the goat, but it was like tastier beef. Very tender too. I'm a fan!

Ok, I have some wilder stories to tell when we get back, but for now this is all I have time to tell! I hope everyone is having a good Christmas season!

We have found the Oasis!

2006-11-04T02:39:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Happy

Well folks, I have to tell you... today was a great day. Today we found a place to escape the challenges of life here in Africa. In extolling the virtue of this glorious oasis, I don't mean to complain about our living situation here. We have a great house, running water, electricity most of the times we care about having it, and in general have a much handier set up than almost all of our nieghbors. However, there are some specific things about life here in Bissau which can begin to wear on a person after dealing with them everyday for two and a half months. Recently, some of these things have been making the daily grind a little grindier than when we first arrived.

I think the most difficult things for me since we got here have been: really bad internet, difficult contact with friends and family because of the aforementioned really bad internet, and the fact that I really miss good, meaty, American food. There isn't much to be done about the first two, and Emily and I have worked hard (mostly her) to find tasty ways to make what we have available here in the food department, but there's only so much you can do in a country where people eat rice to survive, not as a form of entertainment. :)

We found out yesterday that there is a national holiday today for the Day of the Dead (just like Mexico, Spain, and Portugal). Finding out the day before the holiday that everyone has it off is pretty much standard procedure here, so it always comes as a nice surprise when we have a day off! This week has been extremely stressful since the first batch of computer classes were tested and we began the next section of classes with all of the scheduling problems and such that this entails. So the day off came at just the right time. So, we decided that the missionary staff here would go spend a few hours together at a hotel pool, have lunch together, and then come back home so we could use our newfound free day to catch up on lesson planning, student materials, etc. Jack mentioned on the way out the door that I should grab my laptop because he heard someone say there could be internet at the hotel.

The hotel is an eight minute drive away, right on the edge of Bissau. It was built to house a big conference a few months ago when the heads of Portuguese speaking countries all got together here. We've driven by it, but Emily and I hadn't seen it yet. It is beautiful (even by western standards), well laid out, has a great staff, and is generally quite different than most everything else in Bissau. The others hopped in the pool and I sat on a lounge chair to test out the internet connection, hoping that it would be good enough that I might be able to download one message (podcast) from our home church in Jackson. To my utter glee, the internet is blazing! I had given up on downloading the messages from Westwinds after the only one I'd gotten here so far took two hours to download while I was working on ordering computers for the center. In the few hours we were there I got eight of them and did a lot of other browsing to boot! (I did swim as well, lest you define me completely as a nerd.)

(In order to fully appreciate why this was so exciting to me, I must help you understand just what I mean when I say that the internet is bad here. You pay by the minute to go to an internet "cafe". When I say cafe, I mean fourty people packed into a room that smells like some of the worst B.O. you've ever experienced. While you are there, you have lots of time to notice the smell, because you're not doing much interneting. The connection is so sporadic, you make less progress than the worst dial up available in the States five years ago. I have been forced to look several things up relating to the new computer projects we're installing at the center, and it has been frustrating beyond words.)

So, instead of that "cafe" internet experience, today I got to sit under a big umbrella on a lounge chair and use the hotel's fast wifi in the sun with no smells except chlorine! There are several things on the internet that I needed for the installation process of the new computers and networking gear the center is getting, which I have put off for the dread of the hours and hours I would have to wait in order to find all of the things I needed. I got them all done today in less than an hour. In the sun. With a breeze. And no B.O.

After this glorious experience, we met the owner who drove into the hotel in one of only two Hummer's in the country. He is really nice and said to make the hotel home - it sounds like we might even be able to swing a deal to teach his staff English on Saturdays for a few hours in exchange for all the pool and internet time we want! Glorious.

The next treat came at lunch when we sat down to an amazing surprise - good beef! Emily and I split a $15 steak (the second most expensive meal we're aware of anywhere in Bissau), and it tasted amazing. The hotel is glad to have us come to swim and use the internet for free as long as we eat some food every once in a while, and considering how good it was, I'm all for it! (The normal dishes they have are closer to $8-10, and everything is big enough to split between us, so even if we went every Saturday it isn't too steep.)

So, in one fell swoop we have found a place to relax and escape, get good internet, and great food. We got one final blessing for the day when I remembered that since the hotel's internet is so good (it turns out to be satelite via Europe) we might even be able to use the internet to make phone calls home! We didn't have a proper microphone with us, but I downloaded the software (estimated time to download at the cafe: four hours), tried it out, and sure enough: calls to the U.S. using Skype for 2 cents a minute!!! There is a little delay, but no worse than the delay you experience using two regular phones over the Atlantic! The only alternative we had before to call home was $.90 a minute. By the time we got this tested we only have five minutes of laptop battery left, but the possibility looks promising, so we'll have to give it a try again in the future.

I can't really explain how big a relief it was to escape Africa for a few hours today, and the fact that we have an open invitation to relaxation, good food, useful internet, and even (almost free) phone calls home is a big relief for the future.

So here's my reflection for the day (which I need to preface by saying that I don't feel like a "real" full time missionary since we're here for only a few months, so I am talking to myself as well): Support your missionaries and don't begrudge them what escapes and comforts they can find. Until you've done it, you can't believe how difficult and frustrating it is at times to live in a culture that's completely different from your own. You don't understand everything being said around you, you're contantly trying not to do things that will accidentally offend the nationals, always second guessing why someone did what they did because it made no sense to your Western mind, and then having everyone yell "whitey" at/to you wherever you go. Sometimes I feel like we have an image of missionaries that makes us think that since they chose to be missionaries, they should be poor and not need to relax. Our missionaries need more and better vacations than we do, not less. So send the real missionaries you know fourty bucks and tell them to go spend a night somewhere they can get a hot shower and relax. :)

10 year church anniversary - West Africa style!

2006-10-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Productive

In case any of you are curious how a church in West Africa puts on its 10th anniversary shin dig, I have given you all of the details for your reading pleasure!

The celebration was the morning service followed by a big afternoon-long feed. The service had a bunch of invited guests, people who had a hand in the church at some point along the way, several area pastors, and several missionaries from the interior of the country we all invited to be at the celebration. So after service ended, the several women who had been outside cooking over fires the whole service brought in a bunch of huge serving plates. They served the pastors and missionaries first, so I went up and was handed a plate. (Sidenote: It's odd to be served first... we are given seats whenever we walk in and others asked to move, which seems odd to me. This shuffling process happens every Sunday morning as people come in though, more able-bodied people are swapped out of the seats in preference to elderly, women, and other guests. At first we were givens seats because we were guests at the church, but we've been there a month now, so I'm not sure now if it's that we're missionaries or that we're white, lol. At any rate, it feels very strange but it's rude to refuse, so...)

So anyway, I was handed a plate by one of the women. Before I tell you what it was on the plate, I must tell you that we don't eat meat very often here, so when I saw a bowl of curried chicken come in, I was really excited. Big beautiful pieces of meat (unlike the wings we've bought before)! So I was handed a plate of... pig spine. Mmmm... I smiled and took it and went to sit down feeling guilty for not being greatful for what I was given as an honored guest at the celebration. I flipped it over, eyed it up good, and couldn't find any meat on it except a think layer of fat on the back. Hmmm... Anyway, I ate the rice and sauce that came with it, which were quite good! I had a few pieces of the sweet bread that was being passed around, listened to the music, and was starting to forget how much of a bad missionary I felt like for not wanting to eat this nasty meat, lol. Then a friend of mine, who sings at the church and works at the youth center, came over with the food he'd just gotten and sat by me. He's a skinny guy so we always joke with him about needing to eat more than his share of meat out of the community lunch bowl at the youth center. Anyway, I looked at his plate and noticed he didn't get any meat at all, so I said "Fernando, I'm getting full, why don't you eat this?" It may sound like I was passing off the meat I didn't want (which I was), but they eat a lot of meat that you wouldn't think of touching in the States, so usually anything you offer is received as if it were prime rib. So, as I sat there feeling like a bad missionary for not being able to eat this meat I had been given, offering it to Fernando, wrinkled up his nose and said: "Umm.. thanks, but I can't eat that... too hard on my stomach." HAH!!! Vindication! Even the local wouldn't eat this nasty piece of pig-back fat! Lol... I felt much better about things, haha... The celebration went on into the afternoon, they had fried potato snacks, later had a whole pig roasted in pieces on a spit, cut it up and everyone had a couple of pieces (really tasty), and a good time was had by all.

So, if you ever wondered how a church in a really poor country puts on it's 10th anniversary celebration, there it is. Now, as Paul Harvey would say, for the rest of the story. There is a whole cultural thing about celebrations (weddings, naming ceremonies, etc) which is kind of sad, and a big part of what keeps this country so poor. For big events, it is absolutely expected that the person putting on the event will spend much more than they can afford in order to put on a big celebration. (I start to notice a bit of a parallel to many weddings in the States here...) Weddings here would typically cost around $1000 for the ceremony and party. Just to give some scale to that, rice is $.25 a pound, a loaf of bread $.20, etc. The people who work at the center are paid well and make about $120 a month. So the ceremony is basically a year's decent income. I'm not sure if it's that they feel like they deserve a good ceremony because things are otherwise so bad financially, or if it's that they are culturally shamed if their celebration isn't as impressive as the last person who got married, though I suspect much more of the latter. So anyway, a new groom will beg or borrow whatever he has to in order to put on a big ceremony (and pay the bride's parents the bride-price for the loss of her labor). So they start out being married with a debt they won't be able to pay back, basically forever. In the best case scenario if they're lucky and relatives gave them money for the ceremony, then they have used up in one day a huge sum of money which would have kept them financially secure for a long time if it had been used more (to my Western way of thinking) "wisely".

The way the whole thing played out in the church celebration's case was that the Sunday before each member of the church drew a piece of paper with the thing they were supposed to provide. My buddy Fernando, for example, was supposed to bring two chickens. (Funny note, I took him out on the scooter to find them, and we couldn't find any that day, but I would have been excited to be able to say I had driven a scooter with a rider holding two live chickens, hahah..) Fernando makes $60 a month teaching half time at the youth center, and half of that goes straight to his tuition at university. Another $10 goes to pay for his share of the lunch that the employees at the center share (the center buys the rice and their money pays for the meat). So Fernando gets around, buys school supplies, clothes, and everything else on $20 a month. The two chickens he was asked to bring cost $6 - more than his money for the week. With an 80% unemployment rate in the country (which I don't think is any different in the church we go to) his situation was easier than many of the other church members. I talked to him about the whole thing while we were out on the scooter that day, and he understood that it seems silly to me, but basically said it's just how things are here.

The shorts man, the shorts!

2006-10-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Toasty

So last time I promised a blog on African dress... I have been trying to get good pictures to show, but pictures aren't welcomed most places and since I didn't bring any long lenses I can't grab them discretely. So, sorry about that!

There are two distinct kinds of dress here in West Africa. The traditional dress is big, flowy, brightly colored, loose fitting dresses (you wouldn't be blamed for drawing a parallel between what I'm describing and a moo moo, haha). The guys have printed fabric that is embroidered around the neck and then pants made out of the same fabric. (Some guys wear long robes, but most of them are Muslim - I don't think it's a traditional African garment).

The second kind of dress here is... well, what you wore five years ago. No... I don't mean the style, I mean the same clothes. Goodwill sends container after container over of clothes they can't sell second-hand in the States. Florida seems to be a popular place to get containers from, I assume since the clothes are thin. The clothes are cheap, three bucks for a pair of pants, compared to buying new clothes here ($7 for a traditional shirt, $5 for a dress, or $30 for a new pair of jeans). So, most West Africans, most of the time, are wearing stuff from your closet, lol. I even saw a T-shirt from the NCCAA Tennis Tournament that Spring Arbor played in, though from two years before we were in it.

I'm not sure how much of it has to do with it being American vs. being cheap, but these clothes are worn much more than traditional African ones. I have mixed feelings on the subject, because while it's really nice that our old clothes can be put to good use, and also that a county who is already poor can save some money vs. making new clothes by buying our used (saving some money which can be used for rice), it's also a little sad that our left overs are kind of taking away a little authentic African culture. For social events and celebrations though, traditional is still the name of the game, so I guess at least where it counts they're still holding on to their stuff.

The other odd thing (which I find extremely annoying) is that the Western sense that all respectable people wear pants has found its way here. So, in a climate with 90% humidity on 95 degree days, I am wearing pants to teach class, go to the market, etc. Arg! There is no where in the whole world that should be more sold on the idea of a good pair of khaki shorts than here! What can you do... :)

That's it for this edition. For those who were keeping track, I cut my hair this week. :)

Become a missionary for the cool toys!

2006-09-23T01:05:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Chipper

Well, Emily and I have been getting around Bissau now for five weeks by walking, taking taxis, and bumming rides from Jack and Polly when we're headed to the same places. We can walk to church (20 minutes), the vegetable market (15 minutes, though Ade gets our veggies since she gets a better price because of her skin color, lol), the internet cafe (25 minutes) and the center is next door. The taxis here are cheap by American standards ($.60 each way to the internet cafe), but are still expensive when you consider that it costs $1.20 to check our email. Walking is always an option, but now that teaching has started we frankly don't have the time. The other problem we've found with taxis is that we'd like to explore some more of the city, but you can't really get in a taxi and say "take me somewhere". :) So, we have found an elegant solution to all of these problems: the TVS!

Earlier this week, after thinking it over for a few weeks, we found a great deal on a scooter through a friend of a friend situation. We had figured that owning a scooter would be about the same price as the taxi rides we take to the internet cafe each week if we found a good deal on one and could sell when we leave for about 60% of what we paid for it. The import duties are high in Bissau, so the local ones were about $1000 each. We were planning a trip to a border town called Gabu where you can get them cheaper, about $700. The friend who had this scooter had brought it in for the Ministry of Finance, but once he got it here they decided they didn't have the money to pay for it (oh the irony - governments work a little different when they can't just print more currency, haha). So anyway, it had 600km on it, looked brand new, and had all of the papers already completed (a major advantage since the bribes required to take care of said paperwork are much more expensive if you're white), and he only wanted $680 for it! We found out about it on Monday and had it by Wednesday. Yesterday we got a helmet at the market, found some two stroke oil, bought a used 20L vegetable oil can for gas (the standard yellow/red ones like in the States aren't used here, since used veggie oil cans are $2, lol. The gas stations will dispense gas into ANYTHING, so it's not a problem.), and got 15L of gas ($6/gallon).

I've wanted a motorcycle for a long time, as many of you know. It's an insult to real motorcycles to call this one, but I took it out today for the first time and it's definately going to be fun to tool around on! It goes about 35mph, I think it can probably do 55 if I really wanted it to. It only has one gear, and is a lot like riding a bicycle that you don't have to pedal. :) But who knows, maybe it will be a nice step up to a motorcycle once we get home! So anyway, for about the same price as the taxis we can be a little more mobile and go explore the city a little bit.

Tune in next week for a quick update on things here and to find out about Guinean dress!

Yay weekend!

2006-08-26T17:49:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Relaxed

This week has been a really long one! I am glad for the weekend being here. One of my responsibilities here is to keep a typing lab up and running which is made up of some really old computers (several Pentium I 90MHz's). Old computers already, which would have been junked out in the States long ago, but when you can't get ahold of new ones without shipping them over on a boat, they're precious material here! Anyway, most of the week was spent repairing these machines without any spare parts, software, or internet connection to work with!

This week was also when Em and I started making all of our own food. Last week when we got here Polly had us over for lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day. Since they've been here so long they've had a few "accessories" shipped over such as BBQ sauce and peanut butter which make cooking much tastier! So, we ate good last week. This week though, we were still trying to figure out how to make good stuff from what's available here. I love food and eating is fun at home, but it is much harder to prepare stuff here and there's much less variety than at home. I would say that 80% of the population here just eats seasoned rice every day. Don't get me wrong, they're happy to have it, but my point is that there isn't too much emphasis placed on food as a form of entertainment. Anyway, we're getting it figured out, but I have a new appreciation both for Walmart's convenience and variety!

Jack, Polly, Eleazar, Eden, Thomas (a Cedarville grad from Niceville, FL), Em, and I went to a little streetside restaurant for something called Shwarma's last night. They are good, but I was up sick half of the night. It's the weirdest combination ever. It's like a fajita, kind of... a wrap with beef, onions, spice, a mayo-ish sauce, and french fries. No, the fries aren't on the side, they're in the wrap too, haha. Tomorrow after church we're going to a restaurant Em and I haven't been to yet but that Jack and Polly said is the best (safely prepared) authentic Guinean restaurant in the city, so that should be tasty!

I'm off to help out with kid's basketball. Soccer is by far the most popular sport here, with no distant second, so the only thing anyone here knows of basketball is what Jack told them. So, it's a humerous irony to me to be the white guy who's the authority on basketball, haha...

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayer from home - we miss everyone!

I'll show you a rat!

2006-08-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Amused

Warning: If you don't like dead animals and/or vermin, don't look at the picture at the bottom of this blog entry. Now that all the guys are back from looking at the picture, let me explain it, haha...

I am preparing to start teaching an introduction to computers course in a few days. It's been fairly difficult since in the States that course would look a lot different. An example of this is that here I need to explain and show people how to use a rat. Yes, there is no word in Creole for "mouse" so when they were giving me the Creole terms for various computer parts "un rato" stuck out.

I found out yesterday why there is no Creole word for "mouse". The animals that we call mice don't exist over here, and what we call a rat, Guineans would hardly consider a cause for alarm. There was some commotion from the guard dog Maggie in the corner of the youth center by the generator yesterday and a few minutes later I found out what a rat really is.

Jeremiah is a big guy, the picture honestly doesn't do the rat justice.

The guys were pretty excited when they speared it and were planning to cook it later. We weren't around for dinner that night so we didn't get to try it, sadly... :) I know people who have cooked squirrels in the States, which seemed a little silly, if you're going to grill a varmint - at least go for one with some serious meat on it!

As a quick side note, I like lots of things about living here but am definately missing some things from the States. So, I've decided to start a running list of the reasons I like the States and the things I'm going to do (not necessarily in order) when we get back.

Thing to do #1: Go to Applebee's and order the biggest burger they serve. Man I could use some beef!

Thing to do #2: Pay a visit to Mr. Starbuck! Today was the first cool morning we've had since

we've been here. It rained all morning and it was the perfect day for a good coffee. I know I've complained frequently about how expensive Starbucks is, but when the nearest one is a long plane ride away, the $3.50 doesn't look so bad anymore. :)

Here's a picture down our street this morning.

In a different world...

2006-08-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Confused

We live in the capital city of Guinea Bissau, which is Bissau. At last count, I think there are 400,000 people living in the city. It is interesting though, because it doesn't feel like a city we would expect. There is a downtown that has a few multi-story buildings and lots of stores, and also several other markets spread out through town. The 400,000 though is mainly made up of what I think of as "African Suburbs". The town feels much more like a bunch of seperate little villages all shoved right beside each other surrounding the downtown than one unit. Our street zig-zags from the main road, and kind of forms our own little village in Zone 7 of the city. I feel like I belong much more to my neighborhood than the city as a whole.

We had an interesting experience at the end of last week downtown. Polly drove us downtown to a few different stores to stock our kitchen. At one of the stops she stopped the truck by the curb and immediately a police woman came over and angrily demanded her documents. Polly pulled them out of the glove compartment and handed them to her at which point the police woman stormed across the street. A friend of Polly's was walking by and told her to pull forward into the next "parking spot" which had just been vacated. The story should be prefaced by saying that there are no parking signs, markings, or even generally accepted rules for parking downtown. I've seen cars parked two rows deep at the curb.

Anyway, the woman came back and yelled at Polly for a few minutes before telling her that if she wanted her documents back she'd have to come across the street to discuss it. Polly sent us into the grocery store and went over. The police woman had a partner there and they proceded to take turns arguing with and yelling at Polly for the next 30 minutes. They asked here where she took driving school, how anyone could be dumb enough to park that close to the corner, etc. In the middle of the arguing Polly's friend from earlier came over and told her she should give the lady a few thousand cfa ($5 or so) to take care of things. So during the next round of arguing Polly told the police woman "A friend of mine tells me I should give you some money to clear this up, but that's not right!" The woman was totally indignant and yelled for the next several minutes about hwo she would never do something like that. She told Polly that the ticket was going to cost about $70 (obviously not possible, it would be equivalent to a $1500 parking ticket in terms of the U.S. economy.) When police take your documents they have to give you a temporary license form in case you get stopped before you pay your ticket and get your license back.

So, at this point Em and I come back from the store and try not to stand close enough to aggrivate the police woman anymore. The problem is, the police woman is obviously asking for a bribe by saying the ticket is so much and Polly should pay her right there. On the other side, if she doesn't pay and goes through the proper procedure of going to the station to pay the ticket and get her license back, odds are good that her license is not going to have been turned in by the officer because that would expose her as trying to get a bribe from Polly. So, we pay an unfair bribe or Polly never gets her license back - nice, huh? Polly's solution was to demand that the police woman get in our truck right then and there to go to the station and pay the ticket together. After some deliberating with her partner the police woman was understandably unwilling to go to the station so her "compromise" was that she would give Polly back her documents, but if she did that she would need to be compensated for the "temporary license" form she had already written out. She tried to tell Polly that each police officer was personally responsible for photocopying blank forms and that Polly would need to pay $4 (still a decent amount of money here) to pay for photocopying the half sheet piece of paper! The woman had yelled for five minutes about how she would never accept a bribe 15 minutes before and now asked for two different ones in the space of 10 minutes!! Finally Polly just refused to leave without her documents or a trip to the station with the officer, and the officer eventually gave up on getting anything out of us, gave back Polly's license, and let us go.

Thus began our downtown experience! Exciting!

Thing I like about the States #1: Honest (or at least well managed) police force!

A Funny Language...

2006-08-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Curious

Kuma ku bu sta? (How are you, in Portugues Creole)

We have spent a good deal of the last few days trying to get a handle on the language here, and we are making good progress, so I thought I'd let you know a little blurb about it!
Portuguese Creole as nearly as I can tell is the language that the natives learned from the Portuguese colonists... so it's like portuguese lite, lol. It uses a slightly different pronounceation than portuguese, which is a bit different than spanish. Words that end in "o" are pronounced "oo". "S"'s are usually (but not always) pronounced as "sh". But a ton of the vocab is very similar to spanish. For example, the most common response to "how are you?" is "sta bon" (long o - I'm not sure of much spelling since we're really learning to speak it... and even if I was sure I'd be wrong since the language isn't defined anywhere, so no one can really argue that you're spelling it right or wrong, hahaha). Anyway, sta bon is just esta bien. The main greating also came straight from portuguese, but like the rest of the language has been "creolified". So the greeting is "kuma ku bu sta" - kuma is como, the k in ku is que, bu is tu, and sta (though it's pronounced shta) is esta! Interesting, huh??

But now, are you ready for the best part of the whole language??? NO CONJUGATION!!!! The verbs are never conjugated, and there is a simple prefix for past and future tense! So, the verb "to go" is bai. N is I. So, "n bai" is "I go". The prefix "na" makes it future and the suffix "ba" is past. So, to say I will go (or I am going, no difference), it's just "n na bai", and in that case you smash the "n" and "na" together and just pronounce it "na bai", holding the n longer - sweet, huh?? The language is very imprecise, it relies a ton on context. And, if you literally translated it word for word it would sound like a little kid talking, lol. But, all of this makes it easier to learn! We already know enough to greet people, take a taxi, and buy stuff!

Emily and I still have a ton to learn, but we're feeling more comfortable with it everyday. I get to teach my classes through a translator, and Em's classes are conducted totally in English, so we will be fine if we don't have the language perfected when class starts in a few weeks. We're interested to be able to talk to our neighbors though, so we're working on it!

Greetings from Guinea!

2006-08-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Myspace Mood: Excited

As my first official blog entry, I'd like to say hello from Guinea-Bissau! Apparently it's pronounced "be-sow", not "bih-saw" like I've been pronouncing it. We are settling in just fine - some things are as we expected and some things are going to take some getting used to.

Emily and I have been here for a little over 24 hours after a really long day of flying yesterday. We left Detroit Sunday morning and flew to New York for a 6 hour layover, then an 8 hour flight to Dakar, Senegal. We arrived in Africa at 5:55am local time (we're four hours ahead of Eastern here). It was still dark out, and it was already 81 and amazingly humid! We killed another six hours in the airport in Dakar (eating some very tasty rice cakes from our bags, haha) and then got on a smaller plane for the one hour flight to Bissau. We arrived after a bit of a bumpy flight and were glad to have no more flying for a while! The whole trip (despite being long) went extremely smoothly - no lost luggage, no hassle from customs (a few cassette tapes Jack brought to the airport when they picked us up made things go smoothly, lol).

We got to our house after a short ride on roads similar to what you'd find in the Caribbean - lots of pedestrians and bicyclers darting in an out of traffic. The house is great, once we have a little more free time we'll get some pictures up. We ate dinner with Jack & Polly and their kids (Eleazar and Eden).

We slept last night from 10 to 9 this morning, so I think we'll be through the jet lag by tomorrow. We had a few hours of Portuguese Creole lesson from Polly this afternoon, after doing a little computer setup for me and English lesson planning for Em this morning. This afternoon we are taking our first trip to the market to change some money and pick up a few things. In a few days after we've had a little downtime we'll get a few pictures posted, they're always more fun than words, lol.

No good blog entry is complete without a funny story, so here's the one for today. Last night before we went to bed, I killed a cocroach in the bathroom by squishing it with a squegee (our bathroom has a shower that drops water into a hole in the bathroom floor, more on that next time, lol) and this morning, the cocroach was laying in the same spot, still squirming and trying to flip itself back over! Yucko! :)

Package Day!!

2006-01-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

Myspace Mood: Excited

We have been excitedly waiting for about seven packages from various places ever since mid-December, faithfully checking the mailbox and finding only one or two so far. The stars finally aligned yesterday (or the postal workers got done being drunk from the Christmas/New Years parties) and we had a flood of boxes!! We were super excited! There were so many that I couldn't even carry them all back on the scooter. Several of them were Christmas packages, so our Christmas this year has been like three weeks long, haha!

So, without further a due, here is the role call for yesterday's packages:

Ryan & Katie and John & Kelly sent us pictures and a huge box of snacks and candy – yum!
Grama Atkins got three packages in, one of them sent on Oct 28! We're making rice crispy treats – yeah!

There were two more boxes that I couldn't carry, so we'll have more Christmas today!

Photo Marketing sent us a huge one and Grandma Huggins' Christmas package also arrived. What will be in them?? The mystery will be solved this afternoon!

Update: We got Grandma Huggins' and PMA's packages today and they both had great stuff in them as well! We are excited about all of the tasty food we have to munch on! Many thanks to everyone! We will be eating like royalty...