mission work

one of the "unknowns" about me is that i do mission work. this comes as a surprise to many of my friends and people that i know because i guess i come off as some sort of heathen. it's true, i don't follow any organized religion other than my "church of john." this doesn't mean i'm not spiritual, i just find that my beliefs don't seem to fit into any organized religion that i know of.

my first mission work, which at that time i guess was or wasn't a mission in a quasi sort of way, was with a group called "asista," headed up by rita, a spanish teacher at bellevue community college. i was attending classes there, working on my fire administration degree when i received a letter from bcc asking if i was interested in an immersion program -- studying in a foreign country.

i previously had no idea what an immersion program was, but thought the idea of visiting a foreign country, while studying and earning college credits, was something i might be interested in. so i gave bcc a call and signed up for the intro program.

i'm an air force brat. we traveled to a new location about every three or four years. washington, alaska, kansas, germany, michigan -- with a few short stays at other states tucked in between. dad left us for a year while he went to canada when we were stationed in michigan during our fourth year and we ended up doing two tours of duty in michigan (our longest tour), which is were he retired from, traveling back to his home in washington afterwards.

it is pretty hard to make lasting friends as a military brat. about every four years you pack up everything you own and head off to a new location. as have your friends. additionally, you really have no roots -- no attic to store your stuff. i was pretty tired of moving and just wanted to stay stuck.

but my second wife was an adventurer. as a child her aunt would pack her and her brother into the car, see how much money they had, and go until it was half spent, then head back. a bit of her adventurous spirit rubbed off on me when her and i journeyed to france two weeks before the 50th anniversary of d-day. we left for 10 days in france with only return tickets, a car rental, and two days reservations in paris. the rest of the time we were on our own -- and working off credit cards because we hadn't budgeted. her motto was take the trip, then figure out how to pay for it. we had a great time with very few problems. and the french treated us very well.

anyway ... it's evening, and now i'm sitting in a large classroom at bcc listening to instructors tell us about their immersion programs; a quarter in france learning about european architecture; a quarter in australia learning history; a quarter in england studying art. lots of programs, all a full quarter long, until ... up steps this short latino-looking woman with a funny accent. rita, one of the spanish teachers at bcc, tells us about her trips to guatemala studying spanish and indiginous culture. and its not a full quarter, but only three weeks. i could probably get three weeks off work.

so i listen to rita's presentation and spend a lot of time going through her photos and asking questions. i'm the only one interested in guatemala. just about everybody else is talking to the australia presenter, and a few at the other presenter's tables. before leaving i make an appointment to talk to rita in the next week and head home to see if i can find guatemala on the map, cuz i'm not sure where it is, other than it's south -- maybe a long ways south -- of where i am.

my first trip to guatemala with rita was a blast. it was also an adventure. rita is a lovely, heartful, compassionate woman, but she definitely operates in latino mode -- schedules are made but are usually only close to being on time. really, the best you can hope for is that whatever is scheduled will occur on the same day. don't get me wrong. i'm not making fun of her. she is a wonderful woman who is out making the world a better place. i love her and owe her more than she can imagine.

we toured guatemala. visited ruins. learned about its recent violent history. saw poverty and sickness i could never have imagined. learned some spanish. supported a girl's school. smuggled in computers and electronics. and had fun. i am truly a better person today because of rita and my first guatemala experience.

since that first trip i've been to guatemala three more times with rita. also peru and argentina. with each trip i've learned more about not only the people of this world, but mostly about myself. i will be forever grateful to rita.

now i'm traveling with a medical group called "hands of love" out of arlington. this will be my fourth year with them. we supply basic medical and dental needs to indigenous people in remote villages. the first year we went to a small village called san gabriel. the next two years at a smaller village called el paraiso (the paradise). we are going to el paraiso again this year.

the group is sponsored by the nazarene church, although no members of the group are nazarenes. we're kinda all around the church dial, me being the most non-churchy of the group, which doesn't seem to bother anybody. i join in the singing and praying just like i knew what i was doing. and i'm really thankful that they've never asked me to lead in prayer! these are great, giving people.

el paraiso is small, in the middle of nowehere, in the middle of a nowhere jungle. its main structure is the nazarene church, which is where we set up our clinic. there is no running water and little electricity. our first year there we used pit toilets and showered with buckets of water from cisterns that filled only when it rained. the second year they had a surprise for us; they built us flush toilets and real showers. the pressure for the toilets and showers was supplied by pumping the water into a high cistern and letting gravity do the hard work. it was wonderful, and the villagers were very proud of their work.

there are few people in the village, but we have lots of patients. i'm not sure where they all come from, but for five days we see people from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with an hour lunch break. newborns, elderly, and everybody in between. sick and sicker, and some whom i'm sure didn't make it through the year. our dentists are really put to work. the record for teeth pulled from one person is 18. these villagers do not speak spanish. they speak quiche, a mayan dialect. it takes two interpreters, one english to spanish, and one spanish to quiche.

it can get hot and uncomfortable in the village. tarantulas, scorpions, and centipedes are common. as well as the diarrhea i (and others), sometimes get from giardia and other intenstinal bugs. we sleep in tents inside the church to keep the bugs off. it's malaria country. but these people are friendly, hard workers, and happy that we are there.

i can't help but think that if everyone had the chance to come do this the world would be a much better place. we're really all in this together. everybody deserves an education, health care, and safe and sanitary living conditions. no matter where you live, what faith you practice, or the color of your skin. it's just basic. and it's what keeps me coming back year after year.

i love this work. hell, i pay to do it. and i'm heading off to guatemala wednesday with hands of love to do it again. so please, wish me well. i'll be back with more tales of adventure and pictures to show.

yum-o

i don't watch a whole lot of television. seems it just doesn't have really much to offer me. travel channel, food network, local news at 5 and 10 and national news with katie at 5:30. katie is hot for me, and me for her, so i gotta watch. i also like infomercials that say "but wait, if you order now ...", and sometimes i do. i have more junk that doesn't work because i might have had one too many margaritas while watching a shamwow or kreg informercial. i should call capital one and have them put my credit card on a do-not-purchase-off-tv list.

one of my infomercial purchases was the robatti multi-drill, "the most versatile drill on the planet." you know, the double headed drill, where you can put a drill bit in one head and a screwdriver in the other. then you can drill the hole, switch to the screwdriver and drive the screw home -- all with just a twist. it was kinda cool, although awkward and felt out-of balance. the real problem was it couldn't stand the six foot drop i gave it while i was on a ladder attempting to drill holes to mount a flower pot hanger on the back of the house. this was my first real use of the drill, and my last. it now is occupying space in a land fill.

another purchase was a scratch remover i bought to rub out scratches on our fiberglass boat. it came with a compound that would match any color of fiberglass, and, "if you ordered now," a portable vacuum that plugged into a 12-volt power outlet. i missed the phone number on the infomercial, so i googled it on the computer. what a deal, i thought, this i gotta have cuz i got scratches on my boat. somehow during the on-line ordering process i ended up buying two of the additional vacuums, and paying additional shipping costs for both of them -- costs that added up to what was more than the vacuums were worth. oh well.

i know what you're thinking. and no, i will not be buying the penis enlarger pump or the colon cleansing solution.

but i could watch rachael, giada, and sandra for most of a day. you know who i'm talking about. these ladies know about food. and they know that cooking with cleavage sells. yeah, bobby, tyler, alton, and guy know their food too. and they have great shows. but there's just something about the ladies that keeps drawing me back. don't read me wrong here, it's not a perversion, it's just that they are pretty easy to look at. i think we all need a daily diversion, i know i do, and these gals help supply mine. and there's some damn good food that goes along with it. yes, you guessed it, i bought rachael's dutch oven!

first post

like most people, i guess, i tend to think everything i have to say is somehow important -- if not to you, then at least to me. i know this is absurd, but in my mind this is how it works. and so in this quest of enlightening you, i'll begin my wonderings here, today.

i'm not much of a reader, unless it has to do with fishing or traveling. i also tend to limit my television viewing to these topics also. i keep up on my job (more about that below), by reading the trade magazines and pumping out the required training. shift-to-shift i'm pretty busy with administrative stuff and it seems that rarely do i have the time to investigate new techniques, which is what my lieutenants do for me.

i'm a battalion chief at a small to mid-sized fire department. i've been in the fire service for 25 years, beginning as a volunteer, and after testing around for a full time position for three years, getting hired at a department similar in service area and culture as the one i volunteered for. hiring was much simpler then. nowadays a job opening at a fire department, especially a large department, can bring hundreds of applicants.

i believe my age, my years in the fire service, the fact that i held a real job before the fire department, that i have children, grandchildren, and have been married three times to three wonderful women, grants me the right to pretty much say what i please. you obviously don't have to like what i say -- you don't even have to comment on what i say -- hell, you don't even have to read what i say, but i have a mind, fingers, an aging computer and a keyboard, and a bit of spare time.

so please stick around while i learn how this blogger works. who knows, i may occasionally write something worth reading and commenting on. let me know either way, but please don't be rude. i won't if you won't.