Greetings from Guatemala! I've not said much lately... mainly because by the time I get home and we get the kids in bed I've been pooped.
Joy volunteered me to the principal to be a home room advisor. The principal asked me if I really was interested and I said, "Sure!" So, I'm one of three advisors for the 6th grade. There are fourteen kids (10 boys and 4 girls). They're awesome. They all have a lot of energy. I cannot remember what it was like to be in the sixth grade. I remember my teachers (Mr. Varner & Mrs. Peterson) but beyond that, nada.
Today I led our home room devotions on "bordom". They didn't seem too bored during it, so I guess that was a good sign.
One thing I've always wanted, yet never actually bought, was a nice hat. Not a baseball hat. Well, my waiting is over. I picked up a nice leather hat at the Guatemala City market this past weekend. At Q100 (about $12.50) how could I go wrong, eh? I look forward to breaking it in.
Anyone whose known me the last two years knows I've converted to Mac for pretty much everything. Well, when Joy and I arrived on campus the number of Macs on campus doubled. Then add in Jordan's Mac and we've jumped from two to five.
My bosses Mac recently had issues with the video card. The technicians diagnosed it as a a faulty motherboard. Well, thanks to his Time Machine and external hard drive we were able to save all his data. Sadly it wasn't all roses but I think in the end we'll end up alright.
As I was leaving today I was reprimaded by my bosses wife. She said, "Ken, you have to be more punctual at leaving on time." Yeah, you read that right... CAG truly is family first.
Well, that about does it.
-knme
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Yeah Applington Parkersburg!
When your ministry is working with TCKs, you need to know what makes them tick. With the case of a few of our students (new to Guatemala) that would be football. They come from a very small town of 1,900 (now less 19 to us) in Iowa. Some of you may even have heard their story - but many I'm sure have not - so I will try to retell it.
As with most of Iowa, football reigns. This very small town had the same football coach for 30 some years - and boasts 4 current NFL players. No small feat for any town. A year ago a tornado hit, wiping out the High School, the football field, 200 houses and more. This high school coach, Ed Thomas, soon stepped out as a leader to help bring the town back together. It turns out he not only was a great coach, but a strong Christian man as well. In fact, the motto held was "Faith, Family, Football." May I add that he was a coach at a public high school - probably the only one in the USA with that motto.
Two of our new students here at CAG were members of the Falcons football team, one of whom is missing his senior year there. We can't even imagine how difficult it must be for him to move to a country where that type of football just doesn't exist. On top of all the adjustments they, and the two families making a total of 19, have had to make recently - they are mourning as well. See, this past June Coach Thomas was shot and killed in the weight room with students present. (For the whole story you can look it up in the New York Times online - it's really moving, especially when you know how close these kids were to the situation, which I don't feel open to share.)
Tonight was the season opener for Falcons football, and it was televised on ESPN. We were blessed enough to be able to go to this family's house and watch the game, and half hour memorial special, with them (thanks to a satellite dish.) We are so thankful that ESPN televised it, it was a gift from God to these kids. It was so neat, and sad, to watch their expressions as they recognized people, and cried over what they were missing. All in all it was a great night, and Abigail had more fun with their younger kids (who weren't watching the game) than she has had since we moved here.
To continue the blessing, the Falcons won (against their long time rival) 30-14! WooHoo!
And seriously, if you have time, read the story...
As with most of Iowa, football reigns. This very small town had the same football coach for 30 some years - and boasts 4 current NFL players. No small feat for any town. A year ago a tornado hit, wiping out the High School, the football field, 200 houses and more. This high school coach, Ed Thomas, soon stepped out as a leader to help bring the town back together. It turns out he not only was a great coach, but a strong Christian man as well. In fact, the motto held was "Faith, Family, Football." May I add that he was a coach at a public high school - probably the only one in the USA with that motto.
Two of our new students here at CAG were members of the Falcons football team, one of whom is missing his senior year there. We can't even imagine how difficult it must be for him to move to a country where that type of football just doesn't exist. On top of all the adjustments they, and the two families making a total of 19, have had to make recently - they are mourning as well. See, this past June Coach Thomas was shot and killed in the weight room with students present. (For the whole story you can look it up in the New York Times online - it's really moving, especially when you know how close these kids were to the situation, which I don't feel open to share.)
Tonight was the season opener for Falcons football, and it was televised on ESPN. We were blessed enough to be able to go to this family's house and watch the game, and half hour memorial special, with them (thanks to a satellite dish.) We are so thankful that ESPN televised it, it was a gift from God to these kids. It was so neat, and sad, to watch their expressions as they recognized people, and cried over what they were missing. All in all it was a great night, and Abigail had more fun with their younger kids (who weren't watching the game) than she has had since we moved here.
To continue the blessing, the Falcons won (against their long time rival) 30-14! WooHoo!
And seriously, if you have time, read the story...
My Parent's Time
First off, let's set this straight - this is Joy writing - thus the title....if it were Ken that wouldn't work because his parents are so much younger than mine. Sorry, but it's the truth.
So - I think it would have been good before moving to get a crash course on life in my parent's day. Things like ice boxes, which our gate guard still uses. I now always have ice on hand for him to "borrow," since how are you supposed to make ice without a freezer.
Then there was this cleaning the carpet thing. I was outside washing down our new stroller, thanks to friends, and the guard comes over to help. In addition to helping he was determined to clean the carpet that we just had laying around in the garage. (A bit hard to clean without a good vacuum.) So we cleaned it by hand, a new experience for me - but I imagine maybe something my parent's may have seen. We laid it out on the driveway, soaked it down, swept it off with a broom, soaked it down, poured soap on it, worked it in with a broom, soaked it down, swept the soap out of the fibers, soaked it down, repeat ad nauseum. I finally decided it was clean enough and came in to get a drink (it is darn hot out there today!) As I was sitting down I heard the hose going again (an addition from my parent's time) - apparently I hadn't cleaned it up to Francisco's standards. Oh well.....Now I know the fine art of washing a carpet with a broom. (Hmmm...now that I think of it brooms are very versatile, they also use them as mops here by just wrapping a towel around the base. In fact, we bought a real mop and it has never been used.)
So - I think it would have been good before moving to get a crash course on life in my parent's day. Things like ice boxes, which our gate guard still uses. I now always have ice on hand for him to "borrow," since how are you supposed to make ice without a freezer.
Then there was this cleaning the carpet thing. I was outside washing down our new stroller, thanks to friends, and the guard comes over to help. In addition to helping he was determined to clean the carpet that we just had laying around in the garage. (A bit hard to clean without a good vacuum.) So we cleaned it by hand, a new experience for me - but I imagine maybe something my parent's may have seen. We laid it out on the driveway, soaked it down, swept it off with a broom, soaked it down, poured soap on it, worked it in with a broom, soaked it down, swept the soap out of the fibers, soaked it down, repeat ad nauseum. I finally decided it was clean enough and came in to get a drink (it is darn hot out there today!) As I was sitting down I heard the hose going again (an addition from my parent's time) - apparently I hadn't cleaned it up to Francisco's standards. Oh well.....Now I know the fine art of washing a carpet with a broom. (Hmmm...now that I think of it brooms are very versatile, they also use them as mops here by just wrapping a towel around the base. In fact, we bought a real mop and it has never been used.)
Monday, August 17, 2009
Loops
We have been awfully busy these past few days, so sorry we haven't written anything. Friday we started Orientation, which was great. We didn't learn a ton of new stuff, but enough to be a little overwhelming. Today we started Teacher In-Service, so vacation is officially over - all 2 weeks of it. It is going to be a busy couple of weeks that's for sure!
I did learn some very interesting thing at a "class" on Connectivism. Basically various ways to use the internet better to help us in our classrooms. Some cool sites I had never heard of - and google things I had that I didn't know about. My two new favorite things today were glogster and ning. Check 'em out my teacher friends. (Of course half you North American's probably already know about them.) So - I now feel like I'm a little more in the loop.
I feel way out of the loop with NH news though. While looking on facebook I saw a bunch of sympathy messages on a friend's page, and had to go look it up. Praise God for the internet. So,
if you think of it - please pray for Mike and Autumn Allen and their family. A few years ago Mike's mom was killed while walking in Dover, and now his little brother has been tragically killed in a drowning accident. Mike and Autumn were friends of Joy's from High School, and we also took a baby class together when Joy was pregnant with Abigail. Thanks!
We hope to update you soon, but may not be too creative - w
I did learn some very interesting thing at a "class" on Connectivism. Basically various ways to use the internet better to help us in our classrooms. Some cool sites I had never heard of - and google things I had that I didn't know about. My two new favorite things today were glogster and ning. Check 'em out my teacher friends. (Of course half you North American's probably already know about them.) So - I now feel like I'm a little more in the loop.
I feel way out of the loop with NH news though. While looking on facebook I saw a bunch of sympathy messages on a friend's page, and had to go look it up. Praise God for the internet. So,
if you think of it - please pray for Mike and Autumn Allen and their family. A few years ago Mike's mom was killed while walking in Dover, and now his little brother has been tragically killed in a drowning accident. Mike and Autumn were friends of Joy's from High School, and we also took a baby class together when Joy was pregnant with Abigail. Thanks!
We hope to update you soon, but may not be too creative - w
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The Eagles have landed - Details
As promised here are more details of Ken and Cindy's journey. I can barely do it justice as it truly is an incredible story... They definitely tell it better-- because it is their story.
Apparently when they called in book their flight when the agent said, "you're all set", it did not mean "all set" as we would obviously infer. They, the airline, never charged the credit card which Cindy gave them and therefore the tickets were never paid for.
The ticket agent in Boston was awesome, however, and worked very hard to get them on the flight to Houston. The cost: an extra $300 per ticket over the price when they booked (July 11th). As good as the agent in Boston was she could only get them on stand-by for Houston to Guatemala City.
The plane from Houston to Guatemala was another story. It was over sold (typical) and had a stand-by list that was six or seven people long. When they arrived they found out that they actually were not on the stand-by list. God prevailed and they got on the flight! However, they were told that their luggage would not accompany them until the evening flight-eight hours later.
On the flight from Houston to Guatemala City there was a medical emergency with a child sitting behind them (details of which I'll leave for them to share). Upon landing at Guatemala City they were pleased to find out that all but one of their luggage bags did make it on the flight (the other is supposed to be delivered to the house when it arrives).
We took them on brief tours of CAG, the local vegetable market, and the Panaderia (bread store) before coming home for rest and supper. Today (Thursday) we're going to head to Antigua to visit Andrew and Escuela Integrada and the market.
Thanks for all who prayed on short notice for Ken and City and their flight woes. The power of God was definitely visible in how the day came out.
-knme
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The Eagles have landed
After a rather tumultuous journey Ken and Cindy Monahan arrived safely. The details of their story will have to come later but I just wanted to let everyone know that they're here safe and sound.
Check back later for the rest of the story.
-knme
Sunday, August 2, 2009
My Canon Kills Your Horse and Pistol Anyday
Sept.24 2006 - The last time we played Monopoly. We can never find time to finish a whole game, so we keep a running tally. When we opened up the game this evening Ken had: $2,688, 1 monopoly, 6 other properties and 3 hotels. Joy had 4 monopolies (including those dark blue ones, 3 hotels, 3 houses, and a get out of jail free card. Out of pity she decided to sell one property to Ken, giving him another monopoly. Now, as we start the new game she has learned a lesson - Never, Ever, Ever sell anything to Kenneth without loads of conditions. Even better never sell him anything. He ended up winning the game by over 5,000. Oh, and Joy decided that the dog piece she used tonight was too wussy, so she switched to the canon. Because, the canon can kill the horse and rider anyday. So, now we start again - with lessons learned. Hopefully this one won't take 3 years to finish.
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