Centipedes vs Tarantulas.....Round One

3-19-09
Ah. feels good to go to a real meeting again. Tonight was the first meeting for quite some time, due originally to rain, and this past week because of our special one asamblea. This was a exciting assembly for me, as this was the first spanish assembly that I could understand. not all of course, but it was nice. There was one part I liked especially, There was a part on the young people, and there was a girl, maybe 10 or so, when asked what her favorite party of the ministry was, she was quick to answer she very much likes to explain to those in the field that there is a difference between Jehovah God and Jesus. essentially this 10 year likes to go out in the ministry and slam the trinity. I mean, just destroy it. Awesome stuff.

So our literature counter is pretty rockin. It consists of very little. in fact, there isn't even a counter. but we do have an old amour( If that's how you spell those silly french words)with a few draws (ones missing). Inside this cabinet live a variety of animals The termites, steadily eating away at everything in sight. Including the literature. Every week or so, you have to go into it dust of all the chewed up book dust that the make as the tunnel through the word of god. Needless to say a good portion of our placements have un or two tiny little holes drilled through them, scarcely bigger then a period. Its very odd.
The other Kingdom hall live ins are the spiders. There not tarantulas, but just really, really big black bodied, long legged spiders. Probably from the longest point to point the width of a woman's hand(the biggest ones at least. Were debating whether or not to start counting them in the meeting attendance numbers. If we do though, it would be great. the was a big mama watching the meeting just above the speakers head at this past meeting. I don't know if you've every seen any of spider shows on animal planet or something like that, but many spiders ride on the backs of the mama spider for a while. these do this to. and for that, If we start counting them, it looks like we'll have enough to split congregations. These suckers are fast too. Really fast. they are hard to catch. And smart. they always seem to know when you have mal-intent. Although, I will say its not uncommon to hand a book to someone after a meeting or something, and you notice a smooched carcass fall out. No match for the oblivious literature servant it seems.
Any ways. Think of this next time you go to bed.

Oh if you get a chance, and want to be exceptionally freaked out, search Google for "centipede vs mouse". "centipede vs tarantula" is pretty interesting too, taken from some old nature show.

Yeah, spiders don't have nothing on giving me the creeps compared to centipedes. although the dinner plate sized tarantulas the find in Mexico are right up there.... Sleep tight.

Growing The Stache..

So for the Past three weeks I've been Rockin' the stache. Granted In the bright light, it can't be seen well. And actually,the can be said for dimly lit rooms and such. 10 more days before it get cut. The day I fly back to the US.

Its going to be epic.

So has anyone tried to deep fry a WHOLE chicken?

3-6-09
So we bought one of those silverware organizers that fit into a drawer. Yeah know, Keep things organized.
I noticed recently, that Instead of silverware, the entire drawer now contains solely our collection of kitchen knives. It makes me happy. Big ones, small ones. Ones for slicing, some for dicing. A true mans kitchen.
As a side note, The deep frying experement turned out to be a great success. Aside from the whole house getting sick from the deep fried pancakes....Those were greasy...

The Update...

So there is a bit of a back log on the Blog now. Finally have internet access, and my two previous posting are stuck on a usb drive in the house. ugh. So a quick update on things here. The Major theme lattly seems to be rain. it hasn't stopped in over 2 weeks. so, for that, the river between us here in El Estrecho and Ranchito has been more or less impasable. While we have been having mini meetings with the seven brotheres and sisters from this side, we havn't seen some of them for quite a while.
More then just a high river though, Its destryoyed some sections of road pretty bad. For a couple days the main road going through the county was shut down between Imbert and Altamira. As a recent guagua driver said , "La calle se fue". or, "The road left", it just is gone! so no Santiago trips for a while. a Little closer to home, Two different bridges on the way to Imbert had there supports washed out, making the bridge have a big slope down and then up in the center. really sketchy. In the states this would have been a big problem, as there weren't many ways to get through to the other side. in fact none. but Here in the DR, the firefighter/construction crew just had us hop out the taxi and walk accross on foot, and then the car could go over.
So to add to the insult of Non stop rain, a lot of the water mains have broken. as well as the main pumping station for the town. So for that, no running water for the past four days(that is if you don't count all the watter dripping from our light fixtures). so we've been washing dishes and taking showers with rain water collected of the roof. Knowing that the rain would probably stop before the water came back, this morning i went out and bought a 50 gallon water tank for backup. Wouldn't you know it, all we have collect is a lousy 1/4 inch all afternoon. weather reports say that the rain might be stopping now. The Special pionner couple are in the same bind though too. only, there tank HAD plenty of water(they have a big on ont there roof) but there neighbor used it all on them when they where gone . oh well. hoperfuly it gets turned on soon.
The funny thing is, this whole issue in the states would be national emergency or something, but here, run of the mill kind of thing. power has been kind of bad too, 2-4 hours a day. Max. but No riots yet. Its been quieter lately because of this though. people don't have the energy to blast their merengue and Bachata all day like normal.
Our power has been especially bad in the house. our battery system has been on the fritz. We're not sure if its a bad invertor, bad batteries, or something to do with the water leaking out of all our light fixtures. but either way, candles every night as we make our 9 o'clock dinners. More or less I've been pretty ok with the power thing lattly. more reading and studying...things like that. While it would have been a great time to write emails and get caught up on computer things, The Internet places use satalites, and with the heavy cloud cover where not working properly. So so much for that. Sorry all.

the wetness has hurt the preaching a bit in effectivness. more then 3/4 of our studies are still unreachable due to rivers and such that have been flooded. One spot Me and Miguelito went to This week(braving the downpour with umbrellas) we walked for just under two hours(occasional call here and there) to find that for a about a miles worth of road was a river. Taking of the shoes rolling up the pant legs, we waded through. Got to the call the call on the otherside....Neighbors tell us he went to newyyork only a few days earlier. Oh well. The afternoon /evening was good. between the two of us. conducted 8 Bible studies. All with great success. Seriously, everytime you come back from service here, you always just feel great. so pumped up.
There where a few really good experciences from this day in particular, but Mikes writing about those I think. Maybe for the Non-knowers of Mike I'll Steal some for the blog. But as my turn for the internet is coming up(only two cables where i'm at right now, and mike is taking FOREVER...) We are going to leave it at that.

Oh. One other thing. I'm going to be picking up some plane tickets for a short trip back to NH. Should be the 23 of this month tho the 9th of march(something like that at least). Just as means of a heads up to those who might be interested.

Pull up bars in lui of meeting attendence

3-5-09
So the Meeting is cancelled again. Its been raining like crazy this week and River is to high. All the experienced yoleros(raft guys) have gone home, so I guess my parts are done enough. Ha.
Power has been really sketchy lately too. While we’ve been getting power everyday, it just hasn’t been enough to keep the batteries charged, so It gets to be reading by candle light at night now, not that bad really. Mildly inconvenient when you want bore a 3 anchor into a wall (which we do have a thing for) but that’s about it.

In related news, the pull up bar we installed rocks! Thanks Jose for the awesome gift, We use it every day (even Cory, who officially weighs less then Chris Cook don’t ya know.)

End Of foot Ball season

3-1-09
As I’m sure of you are all aware, this past Sunday was a special Sunday, Super bowl Sunday to be precise. Yes, a day for families and friends to be brought together, and at times split in two. A time for overeating of nachos and cheese dips and tasty beverages that fizz of a types.
Isn’t it interesting though, that even those who may not even watch a single football game all year, still faithfully go to their respective crazed sports fan friend. One who just happens to have a ridiculously oversized tv which if one was especially lucky, Dwarfs the coach one sits on to watch it..). Some Watch it for the game. The Action. The Battle that ensures..the struggle between the opposing armies. Its almost to much to handle.
I like the commercials. Sure the games are alright to a guess. But the commercials……They make me laugh. I am generally disposed to despise advertisements and the commercialization of society as a whole , the way the drain away my precious relaxation time to display things I don’t want and don’t need. But the superbowl ads are different. sometimes between plays, its like watching a minimovie they are so long. They tell a whole stories. I like stories.
Regrettably, this year there where no commercials for me to enjoy. And, for that matter, no football for any of my Pennsylvanian roommates either, As we don’t have cable or a tv for that matter. Also, while we have sports crazed, none with cable, tvs, and power at the same time that actual received the proper channel. And for that, Cory, mike, Our local friends and myself, ate pizza, cookies, crackers and cheese quietly while we stared at a wall and pretended we where watching the super bowl. Ok so that last part isn’t true, but we did eat a lot food playing games. Oh well. Maybe next year.