Today was exciting and tiring and hilarious and heartbreaking and frustrating and inspiring. It was training day for the the 60 stoves that we are going to install in people’s homes. I wrote about this before when we trained in March and installed in July. I was a little frustrated at how slowly the training … [Read more…]
Steve let me know about this cool game over at Free Rice. You play a vocabulary game and the website donates rice based on how well you do. Of course, I think the website is making a killing on this because of the big name adverts. For those who like to stick it to the … [Read more…]
Aside from the occasional seminar when teaching or youth pastoring, I haven’t been a student since April 2000 when I graduated from university. At that time I was so sick of school, after 5 long years, that I had no interest in furthering my formal education any time soon. Well, it’s been 7 1/2 years … [Read more…]
It’s the middle of the night between day 2 and day 3 of a medical clinic in Pansalché. I think it’s fair to say that medical clinics are the most exhausting jobs I do here: supervising a pharmacy, managing drop-ins (patient lists are pre-arranged, so we don’t accept many drop-ins, so basically it means saying … [Read more…]
I’ve been super busy. The last two days, I’ve put in 24 hours of work, plus 8 hours on the weekend. During all of this, I’ve had lots to write about, but now I’ve forgotten most of what I’ve wanted to say. Here are a few snapshots of some experiences / thoughts. I’ve installed 23 … [Read more…]
This is how most Guatemalan’s cook. There aren’t many benefits to this. The one benefit I can think of is heat when it’s cold. The damages are numerous. The smoke is thick. Lungs and eyes are constantly irritated and related illnesses are common. Children are often burned when they pull burning sticks onto themselves or … [Read more…]
The Fund for Peace publishes an annual report called the Failed States Index. This year it studied 177 countries and rated them on 12 criteria which polled social, economic, and political factors. A few observations: Canada’s three greatest weaknesses are shown to be: Mounting Demographic Pressures Massive Movement of Refugees or Internally Displaced Persons creating … [Read more…]
I just woke up to Blaise barking at stray dogs and Acadia sneezing repeatedly next to me in bed. Let me offer you some highlights of yesterday though. I picked up 4 classes worth of cards for sponsors from one of our schools. The students are writing their favorite Bible verse and either drawing a … [Read more…]
About a month ago, Guatemala (and many other Latin American democratic, free nations), was graced with the presence of G.W. Bush. President Bush was here to make deals for purchasing Guatemala’s corn to make ethanol. In the days after Bush flew home, the price of corn increased by 20-25%. “Wonderful!” you may think, “Guatemalan’s will … [Read more…]
We are cooperating with Helps International to provide special stoves to families that need them. The stoves were purchased through a variety of gifts from Canada. Two men came out to do a demo of the stove for interested families from our school and church. They put the stove together in front of us in … [Read more…]