Going once...Going twice...Sold

Wow, I am astounded at how many people are reading my blog. There must be two or three of you out there. This type of exposure is something that I an unaccustomed to. I am truly thankful. This week was of course full of fun and work. Saturday we helped our friends move into their new house in the morning. We are hoping to get their apartment soon, but are not holding our breath. California is a very expensive place to live. We are currently in a 1 bd 750sq. ft. apartment that is $1100 a month. That may seem like a lot but the alternative is buying a 600sq. ft. condo. down the street for $380,000 (not including HOA fees). what a scam. A real house in our area is at minimum $750,000. This is one of the main drawbacks to this area. The apartment we are trying to get is $13oo a month...what a deal.

At 1pm on sat., Brenda and I as well as a friend from work went to the beach. The boys went surfing and Brenda just sat around and looked good. It was a great day at about 80 at the beach and sunny as usual.

When we got back from the beach we went to the San Jose Christian School auction. This is unlike any school auction I have ever heard of. Tickets are $25. This fee covers all the appetizers, fellowship, and wine that you would want. Yes all the wine you can drink at a school auction. This is always one of the funnest school events that we go to during the year. The auctioneer looked like the Nanny 911 lady from TV (not that I watch it...oh ya...there are a lot of idiot parents out there and morons should be castrated and not told how to procreate(some of these idiots couldn't figure it out without being told)).

I guess that their were Russians there as well. This lady had one of those weirdo hats on with a hanging tassel on it. It made Brenda laugh out loud and draw a lot of attention.



Here is Myron and Andrea having a good time. They do not get to see each other very often, so they decided to hang out in the back row (presumably to cuddle and kiss, but I did not witness any of that). I was thankful that they were back there because they were nearest to the wine tasting (refill) area.

We did not get anything at the auction this year but a good time with all of our friends and meeting a lot of the parents. I often hear stories about these people from Brenda, but do not get to put a face to the name very often.

This week of adventure

It has been a very busy week for us and me in particular. Our sailing team is ramping up our practices for the Worlds. As I do every wed., I went out sailing and it was blowing 13-18kn. In that type of wind it became painfully evident that our team was going to need a lot of practice if we are not going to look like idiots for the races coming up in May. While heading downwind we were surfing some of the bigger swells and waited for a big one to jibe on. We began to jibe and got in a bad spot and breached. For those of you who may think that I am talking Greek, a jibe is a turn of the sailboat while heading with the wind. The wind caught our sails and our boat was no longer vertical, but much of what is supposed to be dry on the boat, wasn't. We were heading into the rest of the fleet at an uncontrollable high rate of speed and a collision seemed inevitable. Just in time our boat turned upright and sailing continued. You think that we would have learned what we did wrong, but no we didn't. We performed that maneuver two other times, but got better at our recovery technique.

I also had to work this weekend as well as last. From the time that we got back from the DR I have to work 16 days straight. Weekend work is not bad because it is only for a few hours, but I still have to go and that stinks. It has come to my attention that many of you reading this may not know (or care) what I do for a living. I recently (Dec.) began working for Arcadis and am currently employed as a "Scientist". I am working at a closed down solid rocket fuel plant in the hills of south San Jose. Some of the chemicals used in making the rocket engines had leaked onto the ground and in now in the groundwater. I work setting up groundwater extraction wells that pump water out of the ground through a treatment system and then to a irrigation system. We have over 100 wells and pump many millions of gallons a year out of the ground. I like this job, but most of all I like my co-workers

So after work and sailing on sat. I also had church league bowling. This league is mainly dominated by the "older" crowd, but is fun...most of the time. I have a woman on my team that is over 70 (I am not sure and ashamed to ask so Brenda and I agreed on leaving it at over 70) and a dear sweet lady. I was very angry when she beat me. I know that I should be happy because she is on my team, but when a senior citizen beats a 26 year old at a sport, it is a little hard to take. The above picture is of the moonlight bowling that starts at 8pm. We start at 5:30 and had the worst machines in the whole place and it took till 9pm to get 3 games done. We are usually done by 8pm. Below is a picture of bowling as well (the head on the bottom left is the one who beat me). I have taken care with these pictures to make my score not readable. This is not an accident.

For those of your who are reading this and laughing with me please leave a comment. For those who are laughing at me...don't bother....

Back From the DR

We are back. Yes we have finally arrived back in the USA and had a wonderful time down in the DR. I am not sure where to start, so I guess I will just start at the beginning. When we arrived down in the DR we were greeted by Gary and Pam Van Veen (the missionaries that our church supports). We went to the beach to meet up with the rest of the group as it was Sunday and a day off. The next day was a work day and so we headed off to the site. The cement was already mixed for us and we were ready to go...except the fact that we did not have "permission". It seems as though our property that we were working on had not been privatized yet and the inspector came by and did not like what he saw. It is interesting to note that when the first floor of the building went up they did not even notice and no permission was needed, but when the second story goes up it is a big problem. So we waited for it all to get situated out and played games with the kids in the area. It was getting late and did not look like things were going to be resolved that day so the word was given that the locals could take the cement if they wanted it. A frenzy ensued and the cement was gone in less than two minutes.

Here is a picture of the building and cement before we began work...or standing around on the first day.

The building after we had finished. the roof and bars for the windows will be added later.


Since this project was going to need some work in the capitol to get off of the ground we spent the next day at the beach (one day away was planned later in the week, but we moved it up in order to give us time to get permission to build). The beach was fun, but we were ready to get to work. The next day we began work on the Medical Clinic. Hauling bricks up two flights of very sketchy stairs was an all day affair and a lot of work.
The second work day we were able to work at another site as well as Cangreo which was Pastor Delisme’s house. He is a CRC pastor and needed two rooms added on to his house. In the DR it is very evident that they do not measure or even sight things properly. The footing they had set for the front wall was supposed to be laid so the walls would meet up when the addition was built. Well the 1.5' wide footing was 6" off, and when we showed them and told them to fix it they put the new footing 6" the other direction. That is when we started to do everything ourselves. Of course we had no plans and all of the decisions on door and window placement were done seemingly on a whim. What a weird and inefficient way to work. We did finish both projects (we did not put the structural columns or roof on, that was going to be done later), and were very happy with our progress considering we only initially planned on one.


A picture of our other project. This is when we were about 1/2 way done (obviously).

We also had a chance to do Garbage Dump, Hospital, and Milk ministry. At the hospital we met with the patients and handed out stuffed animals to the kids and hygiene kits to the adults. One of the patients was a Haitian man who had been shot six times and was chained to his bed. The DR police seemingly can do what they like(especially to the Haitians). The garbage dump is just like a US garbage dump except there are people living there and some who commute to work there. When I say work, I am talking about sifting through all of the new garbage to find glass, plastic, or metals that can be sold for money. There is very little money to be made, but the people were happy and sang us a few songs. We also were able to sing for them and then food and hygiene kits were handed out. Finally we got to go to one of the villages and give milk, a hard boiled egg, and a small cookie type thing to the kids. We got all of the kids together in the local CRC church and sang some songs and them handed the stuff out. What happy children, but many had noticeable health problems and it tore at our heartstrings.

Good times at the Dump.


There is so much more we did, but I am unable to put into words all that we had seen and done. The Lord is at work in the DR and I pray that everyone can have a chance to go there and experience what we experienced.

Here is one of the many secluded spots around the "compound" we stayed at. There were so many great views and beautiful areas that the picture does not do it justice.

The CRC Church that we went to on Easter Sunday . Not the typical CRC because women and men sat on opposite sides and the mens side had fans, while the women got nothing. I am putting forth a proposal for San Jose CRC to institute this type of order.
We also went to visit our child that we sponsor through Compassion International. This is the project center and we got to play wiffle ball with him as well as basketball.
Here is Brenda, me, and Jonathan Britto. He was very shy, but I probably would be the same way if I was 9 and two people that do not speak my language, are way taller than anyone else in my entire country, and have weird colored skin came to visit me.

This picture is of our showers at Crossroads where we stayed. Great view and the shower head came out of the trunk of the tree.

Give us a call if you want to hear more about it, or just want to say hi.
408-377-6253