I am woman, hear me roar...and watch me fish!

Mom caught the biggest fish on the beach today! ...and I believe it is going on the barbi tonight.

Fishing and the Ministry

The last couple days have been great. Mom brought her rod down has been fishing off the beach in front of our place. I'm not that ambitious yet, and am happy just to run or walk up and down the beach with the dogs. She has done excellent and caught two fish that we had for dinner last night. I think they are called Pampona. The neighbor fishes for tuna and showed us pictures of what they caught during the day and they were HUGE - all by standing on the beach.

Harvey and Pearl have been running tons on the beach and are exhausted at the end of each day. At this moment they are flopped like rags beside me. There is grass in the backyard so I am trying to get them to spend some time back there each day too, but for the most part unless I am sitting out there with them they give me the sad eye, and guilt me into bringing them inside.

The city here is really nice. Very clean and lots of colourful little buildings. The streets aren't as busy as I imagined they would be, so I am happy about that. There are many little golf cart taxis scooting people around town also.

I joined the group for ministry work this morning. Our territory was really productive. Dad had a couple nice Bible discussions with a couple men, and I met a young guy on the street and had a nice Bible discussion too. I suppose due to the culture there were many more people at home than I am used to, so it was nice to find someone home at many houses. After having such a good time this morning, I am looking forward to joining the group again tomorrow. The people you see in the pic with mom and dad are Rick and Gloria West. They are from Reno and a super couple. The know Mike and Sue Ellis from up that way too.

Oh, one pic I HAD to show you was the hand dryer in the bathroom at the store here. It feels and sounds like they installed a jet engine in it. It literally dries your hands completely in about 5 seconds flat. It blows so hard that if you put your face in front of it, it will blow your skin backwards. I have traveled to many places in the world and never seen this before, so if you wanna see it you're gonna have to come to Mexico. :-)

Okay, it is early but I am so tired I think I have to start thinking about bed, so I hope everyone has a wonderful few days.

Love, d

We've Arrived!

The 18 hour drive to Mazatlan was well worth it. It is a beautiful place. The drive here was very pretty with good scenery on day two. We also stayed in a really nice hotel that accomodates dogs also. The rooms were pure luxury and after a long day of driving it was so nice to fall onto the bed. The rooms were really large and just really prettily done. It was the Hotel San Sebastian in Hermosilla - cost about $55 US for anyone else that is thinking about driving down also.

The beach here is incredible with very few people so I have been able to let Harvey and Pearl off the leash to run. Because Pearl has never been off a leash before, when I first took her off she still walked right tight behind me for the first 15 minutes and then she gradually figured out that she could run in circles and chase the birds also. I was still careful with her not to get into the tide though because she is so small I could envision her two big ears floating out toward Hawaii. ;-)

I went to the congregation here today also and it was just wonderful. There were 143 in attendance today. 99% brothers and sisters from Canada and America that are here doing the ministry work. The territory is huge, but the results are really encouraging to listen to. I plan on joining them for three days this week, so I am looking forward to that. One super interesting tidbit from the meeting. After, I went up to the literature counter and found that the counter attendant was a 10 yearold boy. He was running everything with no help. I asked Joe about it afterwards and he said that he was able to handle the responsibility so the brothers thought it would be good training for him and let him do it. I thought that was so cool.

Tomorrow we are fly fishing, so we'll see what comes of that also. Last time mom and I fished together in BC a few years back we did not bad - caught a couple salmon a piece as I remember so we can only hope for the same now. ;-) We don't have any bait though so we thought we'd take one of Pearl's weiners and cut it into the shape of a shrimp - gotta be creative ya know. ;-) ...we'll keep you posted on the results of our artwork.

Okay, I hope all is well with everyone. Lots, of love for everyone. - Darci

Night #1, Day #1

We left Palm Springs at 4pm on Thursday night and drove until 9pm, getting to Phoenix. Stayed at the Motel 6 - very clean rooms again and open arms for the doggies. Otto (my parents dog) and Harvey and Pearl are traveling really good. It is long hours in the car so I am actually surprized. Pearl is fighting addiction again though. :-( Joe gave me a bag of dehydrated chicken jerky from Costco and after just one piece she couldn't control herself anymore. She woke me up three times last night trying to get me to give her more, and when I opened my eyes during the night because I heard rustling I saw she had her head stuck in the duffel where the bag is hidden. If she were a celebrity I'd have to pack her leash and doggy bag and send her off to that Promises clinic for a month (the place they all seem to run when they are fighting one addiction or another). :-)

We entered through Nogales. The scenery of Mexico has been beautiful so far. Very much like Nevada. Going through the border and immigration was a breeze. They didn't even stop us or look at paperwork. The border guards were just super nice about everything. The town of Hermosilla is very clean and I will post some pics of the hotel in my next post - beautiful beautiful beautiful. :-) Okay, have a wonderful day....time to drive again.

Great week here!

It has been such a good week here. I have included a couple pictures of my new neice and nephew - Zane and Alexandra. Tracey and Eric adopted both of them a few weeks ago and they are really happy little ones. Big smiles all the time. Tracey had all five kids at the meeting on Sunday and they did really good. Second row from the front and they played and listened. She said she was worried like no tomorrow that they were disturbing everyone, but you could tell from the response of the brothers and sisters afterward welcoming the new babies that that was the last thing on their minds. The congregation here is really really awesome. Mom and Dad arrived last night from Canada and on Saturday we are starting to drive to Mexcio. It will be the three of us and Harvey, Pearl and their dog Otto also, so it should be a lot of fun going down. Joe typed us out very detailed instructions for practically every mile of the way, so that will help a lot too.

Motel 6 life is going good too. We are walking everywhere and getting lots of exercise because it is so central, and by the time we get back from Mazatlan the RV should be ready, so the timing will be perfect.

Well, better run for the moment...I am off to buy a truck today hopefully. :-)

The Potato Truck

Well, we are here in Palm Springs. It is a lot warmer than Korea at the moment so I am really enjoying that. The flight went well, except that Pearl was extra neurotic. I gave her drugs before getting on the plane but I obviously didn't give them early enough. Same as another flight before, I was ready to take all her drugs myself and wake up on the other side. However, the high point to the flight was that I was seated beside a lovely Korean girl and her father that loved dogs and were totally understanding of Pearl sitting on my lap for 98% of the trip. I had my "big-o-tire" coat across my lap so no one could tell she was there. And I have to give the little coot credit, she layed like she was comatose for close to 10 hours. When we arrived here we booked into the Motel 6 downtown Palm Springs - super clean and they love dogs, so it has been great. We have had only one "hitch" to our trip so far. We were supposed to move my travel trailer into Silver Spur Park on Monday but when I arrived at the storage facility I couldn't believe my eyes...there was a huge hole in the left corner. It was one of those moments where I thought the sun was playing tricks on my eyes because I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT. After last year when it was broken into the storage people told me something would NEVER happen to it again and that they would watch it extra careful...ya whatever. With wide eyes and flailing arms I went into the office, to find out what had happened and why no one had called me. I will spare you the details of the hideously stupid story I was told, but the main jist of it was that they said it all happened during a wind storm. That must have been one big windstorm to blow a hole literally into the trailer, rip off the hydraulic hitch and cut the power cord to the RV. He could tell by my half-slitted-eyes staring at him that I wasn't buying it. I told him that I believe the windstorm consisted of a bottle of whisky and the bumper of a pickup truck. The tow truck driver and RV repair centre man also got a good laugh out his story too when they saw the damage. I must have looked like I fell off a potato truck for him to try that story. Needless to say after it gets out of the RV repair centre I will be using another storage facility. To be truthful it looks like they tried to strip the wiring. That is big business down here selling it. The high point to this situation is that my insurance is paying for us to stay in the motel now and everything is working out well. So even with some early bumps along the way, we are having a great time. :-) Here is a picture too of the vacuum we used to get the air out of the suitcases. It was awesome. As you can see I use my bike for a pickup truck in Korea, as many people do so it is not strange at all. And lastly is a picture of our assembly day the week before I left. These are some of the brothers and sisters from the Philippines. They have to leave their children to come and work and get some money to survive sometimes. It is a terrible and difficult choice to make, but it reminds me of how both my grandfathers came over from Europe in the early 20th century for the same reasons. Hard choices of life for one's family. ...one last pic...Harvey helping unpack. :-)

Snowy, Sparkly, Korea

You wouldn't believe how beautiful it is here this morning! It has been hovering around -11 lately but last night it snowed also, and it is so gorgeous outside right now. I am the only white person in our neighborhood so the children did something very sweet. Their English is very limited to pretty much - hi! Hello! and a few other simple words. But when I came back to the apartment building there was a snowman built on the doorstep. In one hand it held a sign that said Anya-ha-say-o, which means hello in Korean, and in the other arm it held a sign that said Welcome Home! Very cool kids to think of me too.

Also last night Dr. Jeong did a final check on Harvey and Pearl and now they are ready to get on the plane. This country is excellent for vet care. Economical and good quality. It makes me angry how much American and Canadian vets charge. There are some really good things about Korea.

Fry, Baby, Fry...Almost

Well this morning was very scary. If Pearl hadn't kept licking my face to wake me up I don't know what would have happened. As you know we sleep on the floor on a mat called a YO. It is the traditional way Koreans sleep and comes in very handy because our apartment is so small that when I have guests over I can just roll it up. However, the last few days I have been very sick so I have had the heating mat turned on underneath the yo. It is is full-size mat that lays on the floor - 220 volts. Then also because I was so congested last night I also turned on the humidifier: on high. At 4 am Pearl licked me until I opened my eyes and saw that the room was completely white with steam. At first I actually thought that all the medicine the doctor had been giving me had made me go blind so I kind of freaked for a second, but then I realized it was steam. But then I thought I better get up and make sure everything was okay. It was then that I stepped off the sleeping mat and found that the entire floor was covered in water. Because the room is so small I guess the condensation had no place to go and just pooled on the floor. You'll never know how close we came to frying because this was the ONE night that I decided not to turn on the heating mat. I learned a big lesson, but am glad I am here to know what I learned...

One week to go before taking off...

In exactly one week we will be touching down in America. It has been 10 months since being there and I can hardly wait. Being able to be in my RV again, and get on with some projects that I want to work on in there will be a lot of fun. I am trying ahead of time to buy some things that we will need upon arrival and have them arrive via internet before we get there....less running around and going to stores. Mind you until take off time my apartment is truly an obstacle course. I have two HUGE duffel bags in the middle of it and Harvey's carry cage also. I was redecorating it this week just to make sure he stands out like a sore thumb in the airport as usual. And added to the mix is a huge industrial vacuum that I hauled home from school to suck the air out of my bags so I could fit more in - - bought a few things to take back and didn't realize quite how large they were until it came time to zipper the duffels shut...let's just say those bags won't be able to be opened before they arrive. ;-( Anyways, the countdown begins...

Part 69 - Writing from Korea

Hey hi everyone, :-)

 

Greetings from icy cold snowy Korea.   Today was a very chilly meeting day.  I didn't know how I was going to make out getting there but it turned out good, and coming home tonight the young brother I travel with and I had a bus completely to ourselves.  I guess it was so cold that everyone else was holed up in their homes. :-)

Koreans DO NOT like the cold, so that is one advantage for HP and me.  We have the huge park almost completely to ourselves these weeks.  However, the cold was particularly bad even for Pearl today.

This morning in the park when it was -11 and snowing I had Pearl wearing her parka and pants but at one point she just gave up.  She rolled over on her back, put all four legs pointing up, and wouldn't move.  So I hoisted the shrimp into my coat and we carried on.  I guess for the rest of the winter the bulk of her exercise will be chasing Harvey and me around the apartment. :-)  ...she'll be the 'chest dog' during our walks.

Speaking of apartments - I thought I would show you how narrow the kitchens are in our apartments.  I often thought it must be about 18 inches because I can't turn sideways or open the cupboards at the end of the wall fully.  However, today I got out the tape measure.  It turns out the width of the kitchen is 12.5 inches.  All our kitchens are the same. 

Since coming to Korea, I have seen some pretty interesting living accommodations...sad actually...people living in battered cargo containers, or in tattered buildings...people with no heat, but today I saw something else.  I was walking the dogs along the canal and saw this water container sitting on the edge.   Suddenly the lid popped off, a man stood up, got himself dressed, fixed his hair, got himself presentable and went off to work it looked like.  There are constant reminders that this is a second world country.

It has been super cold here lately, so this is the latest addition to the family - Mr. Fujimaru.  Apparently it is the latest in economic heating technology, halogen light. So far so good. ;-/  Now I can keep the ondol on low and use Mr. Fuji to keep things toasty.

For all you athletes I thought you might enjoy this pic.  Koreans LOVE golf but don't have golf courses to play on.  This is where they do most their playing.  There are buildings with driving ranges that are about 10 feet long.  I would get bored to tears of this after a short bit but many people spend hours in here hitting at the wall.

Well National Choco Stick day was this month so I have to say that was my favorite holiday, because I received several boxes as gifts.

This month too was when all the parents came to the school to pray to the pig god.  As you can see once again, the pig's head is on the table where the parents put their money before bowing.  Even though many of these parents are Christians, they will do this also just to cover all their bases before their boys write the big test.  As you know the suicide rate is very high here after the national exam day, but this year I haven't heard of any yet.  The president of the country put a gag order on the media telling them not to report them this year so that other students don't follow suit.

 

Anyways, I hope that all of you had a wonderful month.  In exactly 19 days HP and me are getting on the plane for our holiday abroad.  I am rearing to go...got the duffels ready to pack :-)  We have a very good life here but I find after 10 months I need a break...to eat regular food...see friends and family...work on my travel trailer projects...ride my motorcycle...and listen to native speaker brothers give talks.  I know that sounds odd, but I really do look forward to that.  And this year we are heading down to Mexico so that will be a highlight too, to do some service down there and get to know the brothers and sisters.

 

Okay, have a wonderful winter! :-)  Lots of love to everyone.  :-)  Don't forget to make your life fun, even in some teeny weeny way...bigger is better :-)  but work with small if you have too - better than nothing. :-)

 

Love,

d  :-)