More painting

I was gone pretty much all day today so I wasn't there to see the progress that was being made until this evening. I was in a nearby city helping Daniel A. clean his flat (apartment) after the reconstruction he had had done. It wasn't a whole lot of work, but there was a lot of dust!

So, what about our Manna room? I can report with some pictures. First you can see what my (old) room looks like with it's new paint job. I think it looks like a new room.

Since most of the big surfaces are covered and looking new, our attention is now on the one wall with all the drawings on it. When I got back this evening it looked quite different than it did yesterday. Now all the outlining is done and the coloring in between the lines is taking place. I haven't really helped much with this because I can't seem to figure out how to draw on a vertical surface.

Since I wasn't able to help with the "coloring" I found the new outlet covers and switches and decided to install them. I found out, after a quick examination, that they were completely new outlets, which meant I would have to do the wiring in the itsy-bitsy boxes. The first one was interesting, but after the second one I kind of got the hang of it, even when the last one gave me a curveball (no ground wire). I have to say that they really do help the overall appearance of the rooms.

OK. So I got my room all cleaned out and my desk taken apart. I still don't know where I'm going to put it all. As for my room, it is now a nice shade of pea-green. It didn't take very long to get all the walls covered because it's a much smaller room than the other one. I'll try and post a picture tomorrow (I kind of got side-tracked until now).

My (old) room

I just got in a few minutes ago and thought I'd take some more pictures of our painting. I guess it's not really all that much to look at, but I thought you might want to see our progress so far.

There is still a bunch of stuff in the room, as you can see in the pictures, some of which is going to stay there (the low coffee table and the multi-use baby table thing-a-ma-jig). We're "refurbishing" a couple of small, wooden children's chairs which will be used, as well as some other tables that are (or will be made) short.

There's still a lot to be done: window and door frames that need to be painted, light fixtures that need to be picked out and installed as well as switch and outlet covers that will be replaced, shelves that will be built onto the walls, and part of the floor that needs fixing. That's probably not all, but that should be enough to keep us busy for a while.

This morning I'm working on cleaning out my old room. I know, I know, it looks like a big mess! My excuse is that it's a small room and everything is everywhere because we already took out the shelves I had in there. Right now I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to put everything. Ok, I've really got to get started or nothing will happen (funny how that works). If we do get my room painted today I'll try and post some pictures on here before tomorrow.

Another week gone by...

...and I haven't written anything of it. We've been busy preparing one of the rooms here in the church (my old room and the outer "library") for the Manna project. We are hoping to open it as soon as we can, but first we have to make the room more usable, i.e. cleaning out all the junk that was in it. The stage we are at now is painting the walls. We started last Friday and got one wall done and another with black-lined drawings all over it.

The wall with the to-be pictures on it is not finished. There is still more that will be added and then it will all be filled in with color.

Finishing the walls that will be yellow was what we did today. It really isn't so hard to do, and the fact that the paint is water soluble is great (that means we don't have to worry if it gets on anything, unless it's another wall!).

I'll try and keep up with this project as we keep working on it. I'll also try and take more pictures (it's kind of hard to do while I'm painting!) so you can see the progress. More to come!

The youth conference is coming up this weekend and I've been running around trying to get ready the stuff that's in my charge. This has mainly been trying to figure out all the sound equipment stuff so we won't have (nearly as many) problems (as we usually do). Making cables and fixing non-working ones, soldering a transformer box, and making sure we had enough of everything were all on my list of things to do. Koco and I are going in a few minutes to look at the room we will be using. Got to get going...

OK, I'm back! The room is actually in a totally different building. We will be using the Evangelical church's second building which is used for all kinds of activities, very much like what we'll be using it for. The reason we'll be using this building is because our main room upstairs isn't finished yet (!). The room we'll be using looks like it will work out fine, but it could be kind of awkward if we have a lot of people. Now I can rest a little better knowing what we'll be dealing with on Friday.

Up in the Air

That's where my brothers are by now, either that or they are in between flights. Daniel and I dropped them off at the airport at 5:00am this morning. We got everything packed last night, but didn't make it to bed until after twelve. The problem with this was that we had to wake up at 2:30 to be ready to go! It's amazing what you can do before normal breakfast time if you wake up that early; that being said, I think I'll stick with rising at a more normal time.

Our last couple days together were full of all kinds of stuff. This weekend was the carnival/open air market here in NM. That meant that a lot of streets were blocked off, a lot of booths and rides, lots and lots of people, and now lots of trash. M & O got to experience what it was like and I'll leave it to them to describe it. I only went on Friday afternoon when some of us went to look around at the booths. There was everything from "Made in (Asia)" to traditional hand carved wooden spoons. O yea, plus a lot of people. If you think you've ever been somewhere that's crowded, then you have some idea of what it's like. Now imagine taking away the comfort zone that Americans have and you'll have an even better idea. I've heard of the phrase "an ocean of people"; this is a literal example - it's like walking in the ocean.

Saturday morning Owen, Daniel and I got up at around five o'clock to take pictures of the sun rising. We drove up to the top of foothill on one side of the valley and waited for the sun to come up on the other side. It turned out to be surprisingly cold and windy up there, but we were able to hold out until the sun went up into the clouds around seven. I'd post some pictures here, but I haven't loaded the pictures onto my computer yet so you'll just have to wait. That afternoon we, the three mentioned above plus Morgan, went and watched a futbal game here in NM's stadium. It was a pretty good game all things considered, plus we one the game 2-0.

Yesterday, which was Sunday, was the day to say goodbyes and everything. Late in the afternoon we, the three mentioned in the first part of the above plus Daniel A., went to see a hockey game in Trencin. It was a good game with us winning 2-1. I don't know if any of you who are reading this have ever been to a hockey game like we experienced yesterday or not; if you haven't, you need to. Talk about atmosphere!

I took it...

...this chance, I mean. I was sitting here at my computer waiting for some files to transfer to another drive when the thought came to me, "Why don't you just take this chance (like all the chances you've had before!) to write about today?". So, here I am doing it!

This morning we slept in, I admit, and after riding into town we stopped at the A's house to check on things*. We almost immediately started working on the gate to their house/yard/driveway (it's not a compound!). M & O had started working on taking the old paint off a while ago, but for some reason never finished it. Today we got all the paint off with the help of a wire brush on a grinder, plus we got the first coat of paint on. Tomorrow we'll go back and touch up where it's needed and put on another coat as needed. I'll try and remember to take a picture or two.


Tonight we, the "group" (D&M, Koco, Majka, and myself) got together after the service and discussed the youth conference we'll be hosting the last weekend of September. I'll write a little more about it sometime later, but needless to say we might have close to 80 kids coming. Like I said, it'll be a weekend meeting; Fri. evening, all day Saturday, and Sunday will be regular church with something afterwords. I'm mainly just writing this to let you know of something coming up on our schedule here; your prayers would be great. I'll try and get some other info on here when I have the time...

* If you don't know why, just email me.

I'm still here, don't worry

It's been a long time since I last posted, too long in fact. I kind of got into a bad habit of not typing anything for a number of weeks. I'll try getting back into the swing of things. It's been a little intimidating trying to get caught up on all that happened while my family was here and this is probably the biggest reason for why I haven't written. I'll start trying to post new news on a regular basis (again) and save all the old news for when I have the urge to type and the time (or maybe that should be the other way around).

You can be sure that things have been happening around here; we've not been idle. In fact, as strange as it may sound, I have things I could post here nearly every day if I had a mind to do it! Thursday of last week we dug out the dirt in the courtyard here at the church in order to put down paving stones. Part of that also included digging a ditch a meter deep (I'll let you do the conversion) right next to the exterior wall of the building. This was so we could put in a tar-paper water barrier to try and keep the moisture down in the basement (it makes paint peel and does nasty things to anything made from wood). Then Friday morning, after having to purchase 15 meters of tar-paper (they don't sell it in shorter lengths) because we were 1.5 meters short the night before, we began work again. This consisted of holding the tar-paper in place while all the dirt that was dug out the day before was put back in. After having done this we started leveling the whole area as best we could. This worked out fine and we were done by lunch time. We had been waiting on sand to make cement all day and it still hadn't shown up by the time Daniel had to leave. What do you know but about an hour after he left the truck came! We decided that we had enough time to at least pour a section or two before we would call it quits, but it was going so fast that we just kept mixing and laying until it was all finished. I don't know how other people do it, but I used a hand trowel to smooth out the surface and a small board to level (along with a level). I have learned that, although this works, it's an extremely fatiguing way to lay concrete.

By now, the above said concrete is dry (it's not very thick - about 3-4 cm) and we are waiting on what will come next. Problems with one of the three part-owners of the courtyard (we are one of these) is kind of keeping us from completing it. Funny, it's the same man who said we would have to fix our part of the yard before he would change his no to a yes (on a vote from neighbors; this is a must by law) so we can get our permit to work on the church. Now we've got two projects going but nothing being done - for right now. I think we will probably be putting down the sand a bricks here sometime soon. To be continued...

Czech Republic: 52 days ago (!!!)

As far as the summer goes, up until this time we had not really gone out and done any "sight seeing" besides going to the High Tatras. It's not that I usually do this kind of thing in the summer, but since my family was here I thought we'd probably do at least some (or I was hoping to). D&M Invited us to go with them on a short one day trip to the Czech Republic. They wanted us to see a few places that they knew of, but hadn't ever been to themselves. It wasn't much of a drive, since the two countries are right next to each other.

We visited two places, the first being a summer palace for Moravian Kings. It was really neat and the all the inside woodwork was fantastic. It's really too bad that they wouldn't let people take pictures of the inside! I guess you'll just have to ask my family what it looked like because it would be kind of hard to describe in writing. This palace was in a huge park full of all kinds of things, but we didn't walk around it because it would have taken all day. We did visit the greenhouse/glasshouse that was attached to the palace. This was also really interesting, especially since the canopy covering was made of shingle like pieces of glass.

After this we went and visited another big mansion/palace but it was from a different period. I'm not going to try and give all the details because, as of right now, I can't really remember them, but that's understandable seeing as how it has been a long time since we were there. Actually I haven't yet said it, but I started the beginning of this post half way through last month.

After the two places mentioned above, we stopped in Bratislava and walked around, since it was on our way home.

That's about it for this post. It's about time I got it finished so that's why it has turned out shorter than I had at first intended it to be.

VBS: 27 days ago

The title is kind of self explanatory. VBS has to do with being with kids for a good part of the day and doing all kinds of things with them. This week was no exception. If I remember right, I think there were a few more than twenty kids every day, including some of the kids who came last year. Over half of these twenty came all five days. This was great and meant that we didn't have our hands over full.

We were able to borrow a school yard/track which is nearby to the A's house. This worked out fine and placed us near a bunch of apartment buildings so it was easy for kids who lived there to come. Since we were on school property we were also able to borrow tables from the school cafeteria, giving us good working space for crafts, etc.

We played a lot of games, all different kinds, and usually started a new one when everybody got tired of the one that was being played. It was really hot, though, and this always kind of makes games in the sun short lived. Everybody always seemed to be soaked in sweat; I think the high for the summer was hit that week.

Every day we had a lesson (Bible story) of some kind. I was quite surprised that the kids stayed as attentive as they did, what with everything there was to distract them. After the lesson, questions were asked of the kids and if they answered they were rewarded in some way. It is always interesting to hear the kid's answers, some of which are right on the dot, even if it was something that wasn't mentioned before in the lesson.

We sang songs, and for those of us who speak English, we got to learn songs we are familiar with in a different language. Most of the kids sing when it's time, but every once in a while, throughout the day, I would here them humming the tune or singing it under their breath to themselves. This is what we want: to put something in their thoughts and minds that will one day have the chance to flourish and make a change in their hearts and lives.

Overall, I think this week went just great and gave us many more contacts with kids from around the city. It also gave us the opportunity to meat the parents of some of the kids, and who knows, maybe we'll see some of the younger brothers and sisters in our upcoming Manna program which will be getting under way this fall.

High Tatras: 29 days ago

The fact that the "days ago" bit keeps having larger numbers put in front of it just goes to show how far I really am behind in updates. This entry will be about the three day trip we took the weekend after we got back from Germany.

We were invited to spend a couple nights at the penzion Golden Fox, which is owned and operated by some friends of mine. It is located in a small city close to the base of the High Tatras, with the nearest peak being Lomnicky Stit. In our part of Europe this mountain range is known as the "mini alps". For Slovakia, this is one of the biggest draws for tourists, and rightly so since it is really beautiful and cheaper than the real alps. This is just a little overview to give you an idea of the area we were in.

We arrived there, at the penzion, in the late afternoon on a Thursday. We didn't do much that day except to just relax from the trip and eat a good supper. The trip itself was something interesting. There were eight of us and again only one five passenger car. We packed the car full of people and those that didn't fit rode the train. I was the principle driver for the whole trip, meaning I had to know where I was going. This was a first for me since all the other trips that I have driven on were ones in which I followed someone else. I am happy to say that we didn't get lost and I actually had very little difficulty in remembering the way, even though I hadn't been through those parts a good while . Everybody, both in the car and on the train, got to see the same sights (for the most part) on the trip. The cities we drove through are really nothing great to look at, but the country side does offer a nice landscape, plus the entertainment of trying to spot castle ruins in the hills (which I try my best to do; yes, even while driving).

The second day we had a number of choices of what we could do. There were at least three mountain lakes that we could go see, each having there own stipulations. Then there was Mom's ankle that was all swollen from some kind of bite and our host's concern about having something done about it. What ended up happening was that Mom, myself, Lukas, and his mother (our host) went to a doctor friend of her's in order to figure out what to do about the swelling. After this, we went to the pharmacy to get the medicine and by then it was nearing lunch time. This eliminated one of the choices of sight seeing, which then left two. It was getting late in the day and the mountains were starting to cloud up, plus we didn't even know if there were still tickets left. Why would we need tickets for a mountain? Because you have to have them to ride the cable car of course! No really, that was part of going to one of the lakes, and if we wanted to, to go on up to the peak. It was kind of a mutual desire to take this option instead of the other one, but there was a great possibility that we wouldn't be able to go that day. We then decided, after weighing the pros and cons, that we would stay until the next day, Saturday, and go up on the mountain in the morning.

With the rest of the afternoon that was left, I and most of my brothers decided to explore around the place (the penzion's neighborhood). We found a creek nearby at the suggestion of our host, and proceeded to explore it's banks. We didn't get very far until we had someone yelling at us to get off their property, even though there were no signs, written or otherwise, that would have indicated that the brush we were clumping through belonged to anybody but the river. So, what do you do when you get stopped from going one direction? You go the other way. We walked down until we were quite out of what could be imagined as being private property, and then headed back to the creek. And what do you do at a creek? Well, we threw rocks in for a while until I suggested we put stepping stones in so we could walk across. In a matter of minutes there was no real reason for stepping stones, since everybody had their shoes off, wading in the water. We then turned the idea of stepping stones into a making a dam that would go across the creek. This was a great idea and it actually worked; we were able to lower the water on the other side by a good 6 inches.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, but up on the mountain it was a little bit different. After riding the little train from the city to the base of the mountain, we were planning on going from there by cable car; just like all the other tourists who were starting to collect there. We noticed something had to be wrong because the cable wasn't running and we found out shortly that they were not running the cars due to high wind. This was quite a disappointment, and we still wanted to go up the mountain, so we stopped there and tried to figure out a logical "plan B". Most of us were all for hiking up the mountain, but there were a couple who weren't as keen on that plan. We tried our best to make sense of walking up, and if by that time the cable cars were running again, then we would simply just ride them down. If they were not running we really would have no choice but to walk back down. Total time for the hike up was said to be somewhere around two hours (somewhere is right!) and so we decided we'd try hiking.

Mountains sure are deceiving! The closer you get the bigger they get. We made it to the "half way" point in an hour or so (I don't remember). I was rather enjoying the trip so far and I think everyone else was doing OK, if not a bit winded. The discouraging part was looking up and still seeing our goal still higher than we were and knowing that the trail was only going to get steeper. We were on a "strait up the mountain" path, but this didn't bother us. Though it meant more rocks and more stepping up, generally fatiguing the knees quite fast, we were able to conquer more ground while using the same energy as it would have taken to walk on the main, winding path (or something like that).

We kept hiking and kept hiking, going up and up, and by this time we had lost sight of our destination because of the trees and the steep incline. Everybody was starting to get tired here, unless they had already been, but we kept on going. We did finally come to the end of the tall trees, which left us with scrub pine, but more and bigger rocks. We could finally see the observatory (which was a landmark of our destination) again, but now it was quite plain that we still had a ways to go.

By this time our group had gotten quite spread out, I being in about the middle, even though we were supposed to be sticking together in at least two groups. One group had gone on ahead because they were young, energetic and had wanted to go faster. The other group, which, understandably, was the slower group (for various reasons), was getting farther and farther behind because we were now climbing on quite a steep incline. I arrived at the "top" (actually just the next cable car station) a few minutes after the first group arrived. Boy, was it windy up there!!!

Right as I came into view of the lodge/restaurant/station I was blasted in the face with sand blown by the wind. It was even hard just to stand up; you could literally just lay against the wind and it would keep you upright, much less try to walk against it. After being inside for a while and warming up (it was about 10 degrees C not including the wind-chill), I decided to head back out, without my camera bag, and try and help the rest of our group make it to the top. I had no idea how far back down the mountain they were, but I decided to hurry as fast I could (it was actually easier to jog and jump on account of the wind pushing me down). I found some of the group down where the wind had really started to pick up. Lukas' mom and sister had already headed back down the mountain because they decided it was too dangerous and to much work to make it to the "top". I knew that it was only another 15 or 20 minutes to the top so I did my best to encourage those still there to keep going. We all finally made it to the "top", but I don't know that we all enjoyed it. We found out later that the wind outside was blowing at 90 kph! No wonder the cable cars weren't running; it made you sea sick just to watch the empty cars get buffeted by the wind!

We were there at the "top" for a while. We ate what we had and drank what we didn't have (meaning we had to pay the price of what it cost to get something to drink); naturally I had Kofola. Everybody was glad to sit down and rest and I think the eating and drinking did help to revive us some, or better put, what it could revive - legs don't revive very fast. We had to start down sometime, and we decided that the sooner we got down the better, especially considering the fact that we still had to drive "home" that evening. So, after some of us braved the wind to take a couple quick pictures of the lake and view, we headed down.

Going down is always easier than going up, and this time was no exception. I think we were all looking forward to being off the mountain. We took our time and stuck together. We took breaks as often as we needed to and I think just tried to enjoy the last part of the journey as much as we could.

We finally did make it back to the penzion. Those who were riding the train home had to be whisked off to the train station, but not until after they got a pizza to take with them. The rest of us waited until the other pizzas were done and then said our good-byes and headed off.

It really was a nice trip and I am more than positive that we will all remember it - for all our own reasons of course!

Note: Some pictures used in this post were not taken by me. I have borrowed them from family members who took more pictures than I did.

Come and Go

We've been at youth camp all week, which I'll have to report on later whenever I can find the time. I know I'm way behind, but really, I'm going to try and catch up sometime.

Five of the seven left early this morning. If you do the math that means two were left here with me.

We are going to a "work camp" until the end of the week. We will be leaving in an hour or so, but we have to wait on clothes that are washing. I've got to get going before I'm late so this will be the end of a (once more) very short post.

Germany: 23 days ago

Ok. To start off with I will just say that this will have to be a condensed version of our trip. There were a lot of details and it would take me a long time to spell them all out for you. This was a whirlwind trip so everything was kind of cram-packed into four days. Here goes:

Thursday morning we got up around 4:00-4:30. If I remember right, the plan was to be on the road by 5:00, but we ran into complications. As I have said previously we only have a five seat car. You may rightly ask, so how could all eight of us go to Germany? A man from the church owns a company that is in charge of a number of semi trucks, some of which are owned by a company in Germany. One of these trucks was in a wreck so Karol, this man, had to make a trip to Germany to handle paper work. He suggested that some of us ride with him and the rest of us could just follow him in our car. So, back to the morning we left. When Karol got to the house where we live, we loaded up everything and were just ready to leave when he noticed that he had a flat rear tire. At first he thought it was just the valve stem that was broken, but then we found a pencil sized hole in the tread. He said he could drive into town and stop at an SOS auto place and have them fix it. We got there and found out that everybody was gone and only the owners wife was there. We ended up just changing the tire there on the spot, putting on the spare and driving on it until we found a place that could fix the tire. By the time we left the city it was about 6:00-6:30 (it's hard to remember exactly since it was a couple weeks ago).

We were finally on the road! Everybody got settled in, some falling back to sleep, while I tried to get a feel for how to follow Karol. After driving for about two hours, I still hadn't figured out how to follow him without letting him get away or without being right on his bumper (I can only explain it as being two different driving styles). We still had about 12 hours ahead of us by this time. Let me tell you, trying to follow someone driving at 140-160 kph (90-100 mph) with other cars on the road, some driving much slower and some still faster, is quite the experience! We were on the Autobhan so it was just up to all the different drivers out there to choose their speed. It didn't really seem like we were going all that fast, but I think that had mainly to do with the fact that the road is made for high speeds. Passing is the hard part to get used to - everybody is driving at different speeds. In the right lane the cars are traveling at about 100-130 (this will all be in KPH); in the left lane cars are traveling at anywhere from 110-220. I'm trying to keep up with someone who is driving at a speed in between all those numbers. I finally got down how to pass and how to judge the speed of cars coming up from behind, although it is still pretty hard to judge the speed of a car coming at you at close to twice your speed.

Getting lost on the Autobhan is kind of hard since exits for big cities are posted on big signs. Whenever I couldn't see Karol ahead of me, I would just head into the left lane and put the pedal to the floor (especially if there was someone coming up from behind). I just love a turbo diesel car! We made a number of rest stops during the trip. Only on one of these did I miss the exit. I then had to go to the next one to wait for the car I was supposed to be following. We were getting near the end of the drive and had just about an hour before we would arrive at our destination when somehow we got confused on which exit to take. We ended up taking three exits and making two U-turns before we got going in the right direction again. We finally did arrive in Gelsenkirchen while it was still light out (we were farther north).

We were warmly welcomed and given a good supper, just right to end a long, hard day in the car. That night half of us had to be taken to my Mom's cousin's house to sleep. It's always hard to find a place big enough to sleep eight people. (Karol and his daughter, who had come along for the trip, went on to where he had to be the next morning). It was M, O, G and I who were divided from the rest. We talked with Olly and Dagmar for a while after we got to their house. It was interesting to finally meet people that we had only heard about, and I think it was the same for them. We were shown to our room and let me tell you, we slept good that night.

The next day, Friday, after we ate a light breakfast (it was light because we didn't want to eat everything in the kitchen), Dagmar said she would take us (those of us at her house) out sight seeing around the city of Duisburg. We were told before that there really wasn't much to be seen in the area because it is mainly all industry, this city in particular, but we still enjoyed seeing the sights. We went down to the harbor, which just happens to be the biggest inland harbor in Europe, and watched the barges for a while. Once we were up on the bridges driving around, it was a little easier to see how big the whole network of canals is, but I, for one, would have liked to see more of it. After this, Dagmar took us to see an old ironworks facility that has been turned into a park. This was really neat because you could walk around underneath all the towering buildings and machinery, something that hardly anybody would be able to do if the place was still in use. The scope of everything was so big and we were so close that it was hard for me to take pictures. I ended up using my film camera because I could better use the wide end of my wide-angle lens. The whole facility is now turned into a learning center with signs everywhere telling about what different things were used for (too bad it was all in German!). They have turned the huge water tank (which was used for emergency cooling) into a diving tank where people can practice scuba diving. Climbers are given a chance to try out their skills at free climbing up the side of a huge blast furnace. One of the buildings has been turned into a concert hall and they also hold outdoor concerts there in the summer time. At night the whole place is lit up with colored lights and you can actually take a guided tour while this is going on. We weren't able to take the tour because for some reason the lights were not on while we were there.

Something to eat was next on the list, as well as somewhere to sit down and rest, so we went to the city center and had ice cream. It was good ice cream, but a little more than any of us expected. We then went to an area where there are a bunch of man-made lakes. These were made because huge pits were dug to take out gravel and what remained was not pretty. Now the lakes are used for everything, from swimming to water skiing. We walked around for a while until we were tired.

That evening we went to another one of our Mom's cousins and had dinner with the rest of our family. It was nice, but at the same time a little awkward because there were all these people that Mom & Dad know, but we don't know. It ended up being a fine time and a good way to end that part of the trip. The next morning Karol would come and take us on to Giessen.

Saturday. Giessen is where my parents lived while they were in Germany a number of years back (I'll let them say how long). We went there mainly just to see where and what they used to know as home. We drove out into the country and found the mill that they used to live in. It was really nice and the new owners had kept it up. We were let into the inner yard to look around and take pictures, but the people in the house only spoke French (?)

There was only so much we could see there at the mill, so after Dad enquired about the previous owner at a nearby restaurant, we went back into the city. We then went looking for the church/coffee house and finally found it after we got directions from a man who talked to us from out his window. There really wasn't much to look at again, especially since the building is not used as a church anymore.

Giessen was our last stop in Germany before we arrived home. We spent the night there in a hotel and left somewhat early Sunday morning for home. We didn't have any more problems with cars or anything; Karol got his tire fixed or replaced. We all arrived home plenty tired and even though I can't remember, I'm sure we all slept well that night.

That's it for our trip to Germany. If I remember anything I left out then I will try and add it in when ever I get the chance.

Where am/are I/we?

I feel as though we've been everywhere and done everything and still not everything has been seen or done yet! Plans change and this summer has been no exception. I don't think anything here happens on any kind of schedule so this means the name of the game is flexibility. Add onto that patience, long-suffering, and self control. I admit, I've almost blown up a couple of times in the past few weeks. It's not easy to be partially responsible for seven people, besides myself, and it has all been a new lesson for me to learn.

I've been acting as the driver and have been driving everybody around (we've got one five passenger car at our disposal) and this, plus the traffic, really helps wear me out. I've had to follow other people who drive at 160kph (100mph) and fight my way through traffic with everyone else, plus trying to dodge people walking and riding bikes on the side of the road. Driving here is quite the experience, and I enjoy it, but sometimes it can get a little over-bearing. I'll leave it to my family to fill you in on how crazy it is; they've had a pretty good taste (and my dad's got video).

There have been many more things that have added to these past few weeks, which in turn have made me feel like I'm in a whirlwind. I won't go into all the details, but I will try and give updates on these weeks as soon as I have the time to do it. I hope that in my next few posts I'll be able to give a taste of what it has been like for me. I can't really say what it has been like for my family since I know that they have to be seeing things differently. I was the way they were when I was first here; now it's my turn to watch them from both sides. It would be different if I were just watching from the perspective of someone who lives here, but I'm not. They are my family and so I see more than what most people see. It's kind of hard to explain.

Imagine you had lived away from your family for more than a year and a half, seeing them off and on during a three year period. You've learned to live in a different country and have had some of the rosiness of your glasses rubbed off. You see things differently than when you first looked out on this foreign land. Now you have the chance to see you're family in the same environment as you have lived in. They get a taste of what you've by now had by the mouth-full; it's hard to explain what it tastes like. They look around and see things; you look around and see them. They're not exactly out of place but on the other hand they are not exactly in place. It makes me feel kind of awkward because I am attached to both and am yet not really a part of what they are experiencing. Needless to say, if I come up with a better explanation I'll try and write it out so it might make more sense.

I'm (we're) back

Ok. So I've been back now for almost a week. I've still not written, as you can see, but hopefully I'll find time in the next couple days. We've been quite busy with all kinds of stuff so I've not had time to write since we got back.

Next week

I'll try and write some here when I get back. I'll be in Germany until Sunday.

...still

Ok, I'm back. I think I've kind of cooled off a little. Last time when I was trying to write I was (getting) frustrated with a number of things going on.

Anyway... rain water. We're still working on finishing the drainpipe that we were working on. Now we're waiting on the actual drains that need to be put in. This seems to be how things go here; something getting halfway done (for one reason or another) and then getting finished sometime later. The "break" between the work lasts for a day and sometimes dragging into weeks.

I guess I'm just learning how to wait; to be patient. Some things happen "like they're supposed to" and somethings just don't.

Lacking

I have just been reading over what I've written so far and it seems to me that something is lacking. I've written about all the things happening around me, day to day sorts of things, but I've really left out the things that aren't day to day. I can get to the end of a day, look back and and almost completely forget something that happened just because I didn't take notice of it when it was happening. I guess sometimes I don't keep my eyes open to the small things that happen, those things that easily go unnoticed.

I've been really caught up in all the hubbub that's been going on around here lately. It's not really hubbub but it sometimes seems like it is. We've actually been getting a lot of things done lately. Take the last couple of days for instance. We have been trying to beat the rain that keeps getting inside the building. It comes in through the walls when it gets backed up out in the courtyard and we've been digging trenches to put in drain pipe.


...I'll be back. I have to go do something for a couple hours so this is why this post is unfinished for right now.

...where was I?

I'm sorry for the lack of up-dates in the past week. I've been really busy trying to get into the swing of things since everybody arrived*, plus trying to get settled in my new place of residence.

I've been trying to figure out what all I should move from my room here in the church since I will hopefull be moving into my "own" house sometime in the near future. Actually, from what I know, this is all still up in the air. I really haven't been given the go-ahead about starting the clean-up/light remodeling that will need to be done before I move in. The people who own the house are still using it for storing a few things in, plus using it as a place to put their (seemingly) crazy "wolf"/dog when visitors come. I'll try and remember to take a few pictures so you'll be able to see what the house looks like (don't get too excited because it's really not all that much). Speaking of "not that much", I am really happy that, once I get permission, the re-doing/modeling will not be near as much work as I thought it might take; I hadn't been inside the place for over a year, so all my previous thinking was based wholely on my memory.

So what's it like living with seven people that I've known all my life? It's different. That is mainly because we are in a strange land with a lot of things to learn. In just a few words: I'm already worn out. It's one thing for me to ask questions myself; it's a totally different thing to have seven people ask me all their questions. Ok, so maybe they don't ask me all their questions, but it sure seems like they do. I guess I've forgotten what it's like to always be on the outside, the person who doesn't understand what's going on. I guess maybe I've forgotten what it's like to have a head full of questions at the end of the day; maybe I would have done the same thing they do if I had had someone to talk to. I guess I was probably just as out of place as they seem when I watch them here. I guess maybe it all just takes time.

News. So what kind of exciting stuff has been happening? Well...(deep thoughts)...not much other than all the in-betweens that I left out of what I wrote about above.

Oh, wait! How could I forget to write about what happened yesterday? A few of the youth from the church decided to go swimming at the nearby lake which is called (no kidding) "Green Water"; it really is! O, M, and I went along. After we wadded through the bazillion people that were there (I was not having fun the minute I got there), we finally found a spot on the shore where there was enough room to park our bikes (in a bunch of stinging nettle!) and have a little room to breath. Then we got in the water; I did a shallow dive into the deepest spot with M following after I came up and said I didn't hit anything. I warned him that he'd still have to dive real shallow and he did. We then swam around for about twenty minutes. M, for one reason or another had gone up on shore and decided to get back in the water again by diving; this time he miscalculated something. He came up out of the water quite quickly and stated (with a laugh) that he had taken a "chunk out of the bottom (of the lake)". He put up the arm that had hit for me to see - that's when I was glad I didn't faint. He had, among smaller ones on the same arm and his stomach, a big slice in his left forearm. It was near his elbow and was about two and a half inches long. It was pretty deep as far as I could tell (easily a 1/4 in.), but then again it was hard to see through all the blood. I will try and make this a little bit shorter by just saying that he is all right now. We got it bandaged up there on the spot with the help of a first-aid kit out of someones car. I was in the act of pulling shoe laces out to use as a bandage holder-on-er when I heard someone behind me talking about maybe giving us a little assistance; something to do with a lot of blood leaking out between the fingers of a hand clamped around an arm. Cell phones are great and it's a good thing Zorka A. is a nurse! After she picked M up, she took him home, cleaned and bandaged him up, and then made him rest. Anyway...that was all pretty exciting!!

I'll just let you all guess as to what might happen in the second week of the new arrivals! As someone already said, "this might be a very long and interesting summer". Stay tuned!!!

O, btw, a thought for the day: Don't fling a mad dog into the air if he's got his mouth around your arm (it leaves holes).

I'll be back...

I've been really quite busy for the past couple of days. I'm in the process of moving (hurrah!) and I don't have an internet connection at the place I'm moving to. I'll try and post a little bit about all this once I have the time. Right now I'm trying to pack and my computer needs to go. This will be it for maybe a day or so (maybe not).

Work Pictures 0.0.2

Here's a picture of the box that I made for a ventilator fan. It took me most of yesterday afternoon to make and then to fit it. My hole-saw was 108mm big and the pipe I was trying to put in the hole was 110mm; 2mm makes a big difference. I ended up enlarging the hole using a drill-saw bit; it's made for using side-ways (like some people try to do with a regular bit). If you haven't ever used one of these you should try one, they're pretty neat.