Didacts and Narpets

Haircut 1

2011-10-07T01:23:00.010-04:00

Smiley had his hair cut. He wanted to look like a boy.

Here's a clip of the cut itself. Static filmed it. He gets distracted here and there . . . understandable.

I Went "Hiking"

2011-10-06T00:38:00.011-04:00

Static and I headed for the hills in pre-dawn San Jose.

It looked like this opposite the sun.

The hike was nice but largely uneventful. We were on paved road most of the time, but the final ascent took us through this washout.

On the way down Static invented a new ambulatory method. He dubbed it sidewalking. Check the video: Sidewalking

Standing Still

2011-10-05T23:37:00.006-04:00

This post was going to be about my hip and how I can't run for a while, but I lost interest. I have plenty of photos, though. Here are a couple more from our summer trip to America. Maybe I'll write about our trip to the dentist next.

Running in Provo

Ice Cream in Mukilteo

The Vacation is Over

2011-08-07T22:36:00.005-04:00

We're back from a delightful five-week break and I start work again tomorrow. I felt the weight of responsibility come to rest on me as we began our final descent into San Jose. This vacation was different. I didn't have the nagging urge to get back to work the whole time, we didn't stress ourselves out trying to visit everybody we knew, I kept up my exercising (though not my diet), and slept in almost everyday. It was wonderful. I never thought I'd be able to truly retire and just stop working, but I'm beginning to warm up to the idea. I don't need to worry about that for awhile, though, there's plenty to do for the time being. Now I'll provide a travelog.

We flew into Salt Lake City July 2nd, rented an expensive Suburban and made it to Arctic Circle around midnight. I remembered Arctic Circle being tasty. Memory is not reliable. We reached my sister-in-law's place in Bluffdale shortly thereafter. It was Fast Sunday and we walked to her ward the next morning. It was beautiful. Church in one's native language is a wonderful treat. Celebrating and singing the hymns of your national day in your own nation is another unparalleled sweetness. I felt a long forgotten joy that day. It stayed with me. My sister-in-law and her family are delightful and we loved our time with them. We had the good fortune of visiting with good friends we hadn't seen in several years. We have friends everywhere we go, but there are only a few with whom we share a more familiar bond. There's nothing better than spending time with close friends--friends who know they can make fun of you and nobody will be offended. The next weekend was spent in family reunion with my aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings and parents. My extended family are like the close friends I described earlier--all of them wonderfully kind, funny and happy people. We loved spending time with them. The next week was my more immediate family reunion. While we had fun, it was too short and we didn't get the time we would have liked to spend with my siblings. That done, we flew on to Seattle.

I started this on August 7th and just found it now on October 5th. I'm posting it as is. I also just noticed how often I use the word wonderful. Enjoy!

The Snickers Diet

2011-04-21T00:56:00.010-04:00

It was wrong and I understand that now. I've been organizing files in my klunker tonight and that's made me tired, but it should make for some fun posts in the future. Anyway, back to the Snicks. I'm a glutton with a modicum of self-discipline. So, for the longest time I was able to resist the temptations to buy the large boxes of Snickers or Twix as I passed them every trip we took to PriceSmart--the Costco of Costa Rica. I'm also cheap and it just didn't seem like that great of a deal. At the height of my corpulent decadence, however, I gave in. I threw a box of Snickers in the cart and then figured if I was in for a penny . . . and in went the Twix. Buyer's remorse set in soon after getting home. It was too much. I was too fat and there was no way I should eat all this candy bar. It was time for something drastic. So the Snickers diet was conceived. At first, it would be just a Snickers a day and water. I was sure to lose weight. Before starting, though, I considered that the nutrients from fruits and vegetables were probably important and I shouldn't just drop them altogether. She recommended that I at least have some fish as well and I acquiesced. My final compromise was allowing for grains, which I also understand are good for the body.

And so, March 1st I began the Snickers diet. And it worked. I was pretty faithful. The Snickers were at work, so I didn't have any at home on the weekends. That led to allowing substitutes on Saturdays and Sundays. I may have gotten carried away. Regardless, I lost about 5 pounds the first week, gained a pound the second week, then lost another 4 pounds the following week. By then, I was slipping and cheating on the diet more and more. I didn't totally fall off the wagon, though, and have managed to maintain my weight loss. The diet ended April 1st and as its end neared, I conceived of ways to keep the weight off while eating more than just on the diet. This involved more exercise. I started with pull-ups 3x a week. Then I added push-ups on the non-pull-up days. Then I added additional running (I was already running and biking everyday (about 2.5 miles each (the distance between home and work))). This has helped as I increased my caloric intake following the end of the diet. I've kept up with the exercising. The Snickers box, though, had 48 bars in it and the diet wasn't long enough to consume them all, so I've continued ingesting one a day. I've got about a week's worth left.

That's where I was when I found that New York Times article last week. A friend had posted it on Facebook. I was mesmerized. I didn't even finish the article before going to the YouTube video it referenced and staying up until 2 AM to watch the 90 minute lecture on sugar. It all made sense. Here's the article: Is Sugar Toxic? I highly recommend it. It's changed my whole way of thinking. My revolutionary Snickers diet was based on the assumption that if I burned more calories than I consumed I'd lose weight. It basically worked, but I was doing my body no favors by eating a candy bar every day. So, I'm jumping on the bandwagon and looking to drastically reduce my sucrose/fructose intake. I've already given up soda (not too difficult--I've done that before). I'll go much further than that when I start my low-sugar diet on May 1st--about the same time I finish my 48th Snickers.

I feel so empowered!

Everybody Needs a Holiday

2011-04-11T23:32:00.007-04:00

Shutdown averted, we were able to celebrate Juan Santamaria day without worry. I headed to the beach with a colleague and surfed for the first time in 11 years. This photo is from that surf trip in 2000. I'm the one with the pony tail in the photo. I cut it that year, after having met Her. We married a little over a year afterwards and Static was born 9 months later. My surfing trip today kept me away from home longer than I anticipated and everybody was disappointed I was so late, especially Static. We hung out a bit, ate dinner, and then I put them to bed. When I sat down in front of the computer after Castle, the web browser was opened to a WikiHow article--How to Have Fun With Your Dad. It provides seven steps for broaching the subject with your dad and then some other tips and suggestions. Static had followed them to the letter when I got home today trying to get me to spend some time with him. I guess it's time to start teaching Static to surf.

Rambles

2010-04-28T22:40:00.003-04:00

I haven't blogged for a while - we've been busy and it's only going to get worse as we get ready to leave this place. But I wanted to share some things. Static casually mentioned over dinner the other day that he would be performing in a lunchtime talent show. Apparently his school had asked for volunteers and he signed up. We were able to make it to see him play. He played a classical piece I'm not familiar with - not Mozart, but way beyond the one-handed "Rubber Duckie" I struggled with as an early piano student. More amazing than his apparent musical talent, though, was how he seemed to have no fear of getting up in front of the lunchtime crowd to play this complete 2-part composition from memory. I enjoy being a dad.

We had our second Cuban movie theater experience tonight - saw Guy Ritchie's take on Sherlock Holmes and found it very entertaining. I think someone was smoking weed in the movie house at the beginning of the film. So far, all the cinemas have played DVD copies of the movies via a digital projector. The image uses about a third of the screen, which is kind of disappointing, but the price can't be beat--about eight cents a piece.

I don't have a picture of the boy playing the piano or the theater we went to, but here's some photo of something. I'm tired.

2010-01-31T22:41:00.002-05:00

On Monday, all the children were acting up so I put them on the couch for a 5-minute time out. Smiley retaliated by urinating on the couch. Later that evening, he climbed up on the buffet, grabbed a miniature Chinese terra cotta warrior that we had bought in Beijing and dashed it against the floor. On Thursday he pushed a rolling office chair down the stairs . . . his momentum carried him down with it. He's okay, but still showing bruises on his face. Then today, he climbed up this lattice-style concrete wall in our living room, pulled off a glass votive and dashed that to the ground. He then played with the shiny pieces and cut his thumb. He's pretty tough, though. Instead of crying and running to us, he started to climb back up the wall. When he noticed the red marks he was making he then began to finger paint with his own blood. I was playing the piano and hadn't noticed until She came in the room and asked what was on the wall. He's bandaged up now and sleeping fine, but whew, what a week.

My apologies for no pictures - our hard drive with all the photos is dead. Also my apologies to the friend to whom I just wrote the preceding story in an email - I had to share it with everybody else.

Some Photogs for a Change

2009-07-11T23:31:00.021-04:00

This is Smiley.

This was a phase Paz went through for a couple of weeks. She'd stuff her clothes with blankets and towels and then go to sleep.

I don't know what to say about this kid.

This was Meyer Lansky's hotel (I think). I liked the photo, She took it as we drove by.

Running to Stand Still

2009-07-04T00:54:00.003-04:00

I've taken up running again. It hurts as much as it used to and I remember why I stopped. I run home from work on Tuesday and then back to work on Wednesday morning. This week on the morning run back to work, a car ran into me, but only a little bit. It was a little shocking--certainly not as traumatic as when a car ran over Her last year. I've experienced very little personal physical violence in my life, so it always catches me off guard. I was bitten by a dog once, punched twice, hit by a car while biking once and now hit by a car while running. Thankfully, all have been pretty minor incidents. Anyway, the collision began the morning on a weird note that wasn't at all alleviated by the crab that showed up in the bathroom while I was showering at work. I've showered with cockroaches before, but sharing that experience with a crab is something entirely different.

I should have known something was off kilter this week when I ran home on Tuesday. Once again I saw the guy who likes to stand in the busiest street in Havana and kick cars as they pass by. Luckily I spotted him early enough that I was able to avoid the reach of his lanky right leg.

Clueless

2009-06-14T20:57:00.006-04:00

Static interrupted a lazy Sunday afternoon nap with a knock on the bedroom door and mumbled something unintelligible. I thought he said, "Paz smacked me in the head with the light saber." She thought he said, "There's a man at the door who wants to give us something." While I was closest, we were both wrong. It turns out that Paz smacked his head in the sunroom with a snake.

Always Spontaneous

2009-04-26T20:32:00.025-04:00

We were lucky enough Friday night to attend a little jazz session the mission hosted. The night opened with one of our local employees and his band playing blues music. They weren't bad, but the quality of music went up a notch or two as they left the stage one by one and were replaced by some of Havana's greatest musicians. Chucho was there. Watch Chucho and his dad jam:

He didn't play that night, but it was fun watching his adoring fans crowd around him. We left him alone. On our last trip home, George Foreman sat next to me in the Miami airport. He was very accommodating as others said hello and asked for autographs. One fan even phoned a relative and asked George if he wouldn't mind chatting with this guy. I wanted to introduce Static to him so Stat could always say he had shaken hands with George Foreman. Another part of me, though, didn't want to bother him. An additional part of me thought that while he's talented, he's just a man and I don't really want to start teaching Static to idolize people.

Getting autographs from baseball and basketball players used to be a big deal to me. It's what I had been taught. My mom has a great story about Yankee autographs back when Joe DiMaggio played. As a kid, I got the autographs of Gus Williams, Lonnie Shelton, most of the Sonics who played the year Kareem Abdul Jabaar retired (they signed the back of the Kareem masks that were handed out that night--the Sonic organization gave Kareem a Lay-Z-Boy recliner as a token of their respect for his laudable career), and Barry Bonnell (a Mariner). I grew out of it, like I think most people do. And the autographs seem silly to me to keep now--like the envelope of all my pulled teeth that my wife made me toss out.

Anyway, I find the stories that come from such brushes with fame more valuable than a piece of paper with a name scrawled across it. I've met an interesting mix of people so far. Here are a few:

Jose Fuster

I borrowed this photo from http://www.uniquerocks.com/crazy/artist-hails-cuba-by-turning-village-into-artwork.html.

This is Fidel Castro's son, Antonio (on the right). He is the physician for the Cuban national baseball team. The photo is courtesy of El Nuevo Herald.

I only met one of these guys--the one on the left. They are Dynamic Duo--Korean rap artists. I borrowed the photo from a website that had borrowed it from someone else.

I do realize that it's good for children to look up to people who have had the drive and discipline to compete at the top levels of their professions. But in the airport, introducing my 6-yr. old to a man he's never heard of--it wouldn't mean anything. We left him alone, too.

Anyway, the guys that did play Friday night were phenomenal. I recognized some from Canal Habana's "Habana Jazz" program. We had to leave pretty early to get home to the kids--we only keep our nanny until 9 or so on Friday nights, but we wished we could have stayed longer.

Paz stepped on a piece of glass Saturday morning. There's been a lot of screaming, carrying and limping since then. She'll be okay. That afternoon we enjoyed a production of Pedro y el Lobo as presented by a group of Cuban children whose lives have been affected by cancer. We've been to a few events with them and it's always an enriching and tender experience. They're very fun. You can find out more about them here: Carmen y Rey. There's a PDF in English at the bottom of their initial web page.

This is a longer post than I intended and it's getting late. It's taken me a long time to put together because my internet's really slow. That's partly because I connect via this satellite dish and partly because I'm trying to download my wife's birthday present.

Dead Presidents

2009-02-17T11:38:00.010-05:00

I love holidays here. Since Static and Paz are in Cuban schools, they don't get the same holidays. This means that almost every national holiday is a day I get to spend alone with her. We try to take advantage of the time and be productive. We had a long list of errands to run yesterday and, after enjoying some softball in the morning, headed out to start checking off the list. First item: visit the dry cleaners. We went to a hotel where we had heard there was a dry-cleaners. The front desk told us there was a laundry and that it's only open between 9 and 4. We were within those hours. She added that it was closed that day--and they don't do dry cleaning. Bueno.

Next item: find a piece of art for somebody. This task actually went fairly well, so doesn't make much of a story.

Next item: frame the paintings we had bought last month. We had heard that there was a frame shop in the Manzana de Goma. That translates to either the Tire Block or Rubber Block. I'm not sure which. We had heard that it was close to the Capitol building. We parked in front of the Capitol, hopped out with our one large piece of art and two smaller pieces and asked around until we found the Block. Apparently it's a mall of sorts. We asked around inside for a frame shop, but nobody seemed to know of one. One passerby was determined to help us. She said she'd take us to a carpenter who could make a frame for us. So began our winding journey on foot with a 1-meter tall painting through Central Havana. As we left the Block, she whispered, "I'm going to lead you there, but stay back from me a bit so I don't have any trouble with the police." We complied. We visited a few shops before settling on one. She negotiated the job for us and told us it was all settled. They'd make a frame for us in an hour, and it would cost $30. How convenient! We didn't even have to tell her what type of frame or what color - it was all arranged. She took the painting and told us to come back in an hour. This was the decisive moment. We could demand she return the painting and go on our own to try and find a reputable framing shop, or we could ride this one out and see what we ended up with. For two non-confrontational middle children, the decision was a simple one--what's the worst that could happen?

We strolled up the street and stopped at a cafe for dos limonadas frappé. The lemonades arrived, but they were just regular lemonades with a lot of ice. I got the waiter's attention, "These were good. Can we get two more, but this time, frappéd?"

"I put ice in those," he replied.

"Yes, I know, but . . ."

"Oh, yeah, ummm, the blender's broken."

We paid and left. We still had plenty of time, so we decided to try and locate the other frame shop we had heard about. We never found it, but we met a mathematics professor who invited us to a musical tribute to the Buena Vista Social Club member who passed away last week and a couple who wanted me to help them emigrate. We returned to the park near the carpenter's shop and awaited the signal from our liaison. She appeared but signalled that there were too many police in the area and we would have to wait. After a few minutes, she reappeared and led us back (maintaining our distance, of course) to the carpenter's shop. The frame wasn't ready. We waited another hour before it was. Because she had to wait so long, our go-between demanded a 50% increase in her finder's fee. I said no. They brought out the newly framed painting. It doesn't look very nice. The frame consists of 4 routed pieces of bare, unsanded, cheap wood with saw burns and nail heads poking out of the corners. The frame doesn't really fit, either--it's a little big. Que sera, sera. We put the rustic piece of art in the car and skipped to the end of our to-do list.

The adventure had taken the whole afternoon and made her physically sick. We got home and I made dinner while she threw up and then napped. I made myself a strawberry milkshake (someone had sold us 4 liters of freshly-picked strawberries for $11) and then worked on our car (which still isn't ours because we're waiting on paperwork processing allowing us to buy it that we submitted two months ago).

Contagion

2008-12-11T22:45:00.004-05:00

While putting Paz down for the 10th or 11th time last night, I noticed a topical abnormality. She had a rash around her armpits and on her belly. She didn't seem the least bit agitated by it, though. We applied some lotion and put her to bed again. Those areas had cleared up by morning, but her legs had become slightly rashy. We put more cream on and sent her to school. The school called shortly after lunch and asked us to come get her. The rash had spread to her face, arms and legs. We brought her into the doctors who looked her over and were able to say what it wasn't, but are at somewhat of a loss as to what it is. They gave me a bottle of Calamine and we sent her home. She's in bed now and won't go to school tomorrow. I hope it's nothing serious and clears up soon.

Millie

2008-12-07T21:56:00.004-05:00

We have this gecko. We call her Millie. She crawled in through our bedroom window shortly after we arrived and has made our house her home. She's welcome. She just hangs out on the ceiling and looks for ants to eat. She's great to have around. I took this photo of her. I know it's not that great a picture, but I didn't want to take any more because I think the flash is too much for her. Kind of like taking photos of a newborn baby.

Turkey

2008-11-30T21:41:00.007-05:00

A colleague invited us over for a semi-potluck Thanksgiving feast (with 30 other people). They cooked a few turkey breasts, but didn't have a whole turkey. We made about 5 gallons of mashed potatoes. I had planned for how much my siblings and I would have eaten and multiplied it by 4. It turns out other people don't eat as much mashed potatoes as we used to, so we took 4 gallons home with us and promptly froze them. Anyway, the feast included green bean casserole, some sort of gelatin, sweet potatoes, sweet potato casserole, bread, stuffing, spinach salad, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy. Dessert was pumpkin pie and apple pie with whipped cream. My stomach kind of hurt throughout dinner, though, because I accidentally imbibed some tropical alcoholic beverage at the turkey bowl that morning. The marines had brought two Gatorade jugs; and from the looks of it, one had gatorade in it and the other water. So, during a break, I filled a Dixie cup with what I thought was Gatorade and took a swig. It wasn't Gatorade. It was already down the gullet, thought, so I tossed the rest aside and drank several cups of water to flush the system. After that incident, though, I was unstoppable on the field. We only played for 15 more minutes, but in that time I caught a fourth down pass, made a goal line tackle, and then gobbled up a fumble on the next play and ran the length of the field (with a quick fake to the right to shake a marine who had caught up to me) for a touchdown. So, interesting day. No punchline.

I Love Music

2008-11-15T21:01:00.002-05:00

There's nothing that good music can't fix. Regardless of the day I've had, an hour or two alone with good music always puts things right. There's a sort of mathematical order to music that synchronizes all my urges, nerves and nostalgia. Like magnetizing metal, it aligns all my electrons. I said alone with music, but the process is amplified and accelerated when she crawls into bed next to me and borrows my warmth. The music reveals beauty to me and she reminds me of beauty's purpose.

It doesn't matter how messed up things are here. Waiting in a borrowed car, parked on the side of another trash-lined street with bored, warm children and ashes graze my hand as they fall from the cigarette next to the flower in the hand of the woman pressing for my attention so she can honestly compliment me on the ornery children's comeliness at the same time that she honestly asks me for a dollar. Just one. Then, through the other window, I'm offered black market eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, whatever. Behind the requests lie poverty and despair. I can't fix it for them. The children are oblivious and despite the ice cream, sodas, and swimming pool in our life behind the guards and barbed wire, they cry, complain, whine, scream, push, bite, pout, and ignore us. And then to learn that the woman whom you didn't choose to employ had just quit her job. It can drag you down a tad.

But night always falls, our bedroom door locks, the kids tire eventually, and she has an iPod with 8 gigs of good music to set me right again. So here I am, better now while tomorrow waits with more beauty, meaning and heartache.

November 12, 2008

2008-11-12T21:22:00.000-05:00

The hurricane didn't come anywhere near us. It decimated the towns it went through, though. I visited the Cuban dentist today. She was very nice - everybody at the hospital was. A Korean inlay had come loose - she put it back in its place. $25, sicko. That's all the news for now. I made some tasty guava drinks last night with fresh guava.

November 2, 2008

2008-11-12T21:07:00.003-05:00

Last night she wanted to try out a Chinese restaurant she'd heard a lot about from acquaintances. With a borrowed car from work we headed out to the restaurant near the city limits at the Marina Hemingway. She and the kids waited while I went in to order the food (they don't take phone orders). There were a couple of pool tables near the door in a basically open room. To the left was a small bar and then tables along the wall opposite the door. A group of four ate at one table, while a man stood at the bar. The only visible staff were a couple of ladies sitting on the other side of the bar. I requested a menu and ordered white rice, fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and mixed vegetables. They told me there was no chicken, so I ordered sweet and sour beef instead. A few minutes later they said they had none of the mixed vegetables and suggested the Chinese Seasonal Vegetables dish instead. I agreed and they asked me to sit at a table and wait. The bar patron had watched the exchange attentively and followed me to the table, asking if he could sit. I consented. There was a bit of small talk - where am I from, that sort of stuff. He was listening to rock music on his phone. He pulled an earphone out of his ear and let me listen - Bon Jovi. Not bad. He offered me a beer - Bucanero is the local favorite malt liquor. I told him I didn't drink. Coke then! He had them bring me a cola - the national brand. I forget the name, but it's not bad - better than Pepsi, anyway. She came in with Paz to use the restroom and left again. My new friend then challenged me to a game of pool. He wasn't that good. I was worse and he beat me soundly. Then he told me I owed him a dollar. I told him my religion prohibited this as well. He let me buy his beer instead. Finally, the food was ready. The hostess opened each box to show me. Turns out the Chinese Seasonal Vegetable was cabbage. I settled my bill and left. We'd been there about an hour. Static and Paz were asleep in the car and she was changing Smiley's diaper. We drove home in the rain. It was a dark and stormy night.

October 29, 2008

2008-11-12T21:04:00.001-05:00

She found apples today and I rode home from work in my friend's sidecar.

October 26, 2008

2008-11-12T20:45:00.003-05:00

More on our church adventure: I ran to church on Saturday to make sure I knew where it was and we as a family could walk there. It's about 2.5 miles from our home and the trip, I'm sorry, simply is not a pretty picture. I met the custodian (Hector) and the cook (Acela) of the Evangelical church where we meet and they were very nice. They told me I had the right place and that the Mormons met at 2 PM. I went home and got ready to go shopping with Paz while she and the boys learned how to make tortillas with my boss's wife. Later that day, we decided to walk over to our house that's under renovation. It was about a mile there and made us really sweaty. So, we had a good idea of what we were in for today.

I basically slept all morning. We stocked up on water and headed out around 1PM. Some friends had invited us to dinner and were going to pick us up from church when it ended at 5. It was hot. I had sweat dripping from the nose after the first half mile. We were all soaked by the time we arrived. We got there just after two and the church was all locked up. Hector let us in, but there were no other Mormons to be seen. Around 2:30, a sister showed up - Maria. This was her first time here as well. Finally, around 3 PM, the branch president showed up. He was wet. It had started to rain and he had walked 4Km to church. He didn't seem bothered to be an hour late and offered no explanation. We helped him to get set up. He has a heavy Cuban accent, so I didn't understand him very well. Maria is Cuban, but she's spent the last 8 years studying medicine in Spain, so her Spanish was much clearer. Other people trickled in. There was a pair of college girls from Mexico (Oaxaca and Veracruz) who had a hard time kissing our kids' cheeks as Static and Paz aren't used to that friendly a greeting. I was able to adapt. No other priesthood holders arrived by the time church started, so I got to bless the sacrament and the branch president passed it. The only church business was to introduce us and Maria. A brother who arrived after the sacrament gave a talk on prophets that was very nice. He spoke clearly and was easy to understand. Well, 5 PM came and there was no sign that church was ending, so we decided to leave. The kids were ornery and we wanted to be outside so our friend could find us.

We waited for half an hour and he never showed up, so we started walking home. It rained on us. He finally called us on our mobile around 6 PM to say he would soon be there. Not sure why he was an hour late and he offered no explanations. I let him know we were almost home. He found us and picked us up about three blocks from home. We were drenched (except the top half of Smiley which had been protected by the stroller canopy). Our friends' house was mansionic. They fed us a lovely lasagne dinner. In our pre-dinner, orange soda, light conversation our host made an off-hand comment about falling back. That's when the light went on in my noggin'. Apparently the Cubans change their clocks an hour this weekend. Nobody had bothered to tell us. We had gone to church an hour early and had left likewise. Oh well. Good character-building experience for the kids. And I got to meet Melquisedec, the Evangelical church pastor's son. The other fun thing this weekend was the phone call from my boss's wife to investigate the internet slowdown here. Apparently, I'm not supposed to watch television shows on the internet. Apparently if I do, then my boss has no internet access for the next 24 hours. Another thing that would have been nice to know in advance. So, we're learning.

October 26, 2008 (She wrote this one)

2008-11-12T20:37:00.003-05:00

We have had an interesting week. Things are good here in Havana. I finally found salt after going to six different stores. People here have been so kind to us and very welcoming. Smiley has finally stopped screaming and chasing after me every time I leave the room. Static is back in school. He had his first full day on Friday. I asked him how it was and he said, "P.E. was hard." He is one of two native English speakers in his class. Paz starts at the Spanish school tomorrow. She is excited to ride her own bus--don't worry, it is a small minivan and the driver walks her to and from her classroom. My Spanish is better than when we arrived here last Monday. Of course, anything is better than no Spanish skills.

If anyone is interested in a service project, there is some talk of wanting to collect plastic bags and crochet hooks to teach how to make rugs and other things. Please let me know if you are interested. Going to church was an adventure . . . more on that later. Well, here is a little bit: on the way home from church Paz kept waving her arm and saying, "This all dirty." Fortunately, people thought she was waving hello.

October 23, 2008

2008-11-12T20:30:00.001-05:00

I don't know that I have anything that interesting to write about our
new post, but I'll do my best. First, regarding visitors: if you
are permitted to come visit us, you'll be stuck in Havana like the
rest of us. Our visitors can't leave the city limits. Those in
Seattle may find it cheaper to fly out of Vancouver and those in
California may find it cheaper to fly via Cancun. I don't know what
to tell you Idaho/Utah people. We plan on being away from Havana in
late March/early April 2009 for a brother in law's wedding and in early August 2009 for a family reunion. Then we'll probably take another trip sometime early 2010. So, avoid planning a visit during those times. First of all, figure out when you
want to come and send me those dates as early as you can. I'll fill
out the paperwork here to get the process started. Once we get U.S.
approval for your visit, I'll let you know to apply for a visa from
the Cubans. You'll do that part on your own. If they give you a
visa, then we'll look forward to seeing you.

The apartment we're in now is part of my boss's 32,000 square foot residential complex. It's nice. It has fruit trees we get to use, too. There is no
shortage of bananas here. Our house has geckos, roaches and ants.
Not too bad, though. I went running this morning. The house we're
slotted for won't be ready until early December - best case
scenario. It had termites and water damage. The boss,
though, has told me it's okay for us to have visitors while here in
his residence. Our place is only a small portion of those 32,000
square feet, so if any of you do manage to make it before we move out it might be a little crowded.

Milk's about $2.50 a liter (about $9.50 a gallon), so I've
essentially given it up. There's a small hospital cafeteria near my
work that offers a cheese sandwich or a ham and cheese sandwich (and nothing else) for about $2. I've enjoyed two already. I think all
the cheese is imported gouda. Our TV gets two Cuban channels (and nothing else). We haven't had much time to watch it yet. We're just
trying to get settled and get the kids in school. Static starts his
first day of instruction at the International School tomorrow and we'll try to register Paz at the Spanish School tomorrow as well.

Our colleagues here have been very kind and helpful.

That's it for now.

October 20, 2008

2008-11-12T20:27:00.000-05:00

We made it here. No problems. Nice, spacious place. I'll write more later. Kids are nuts. Great and many thanks to Pete and Kendra and their brood for their kind hospitality over the past 10 days.

September 22, 2008

2008-11-12T19:54:00.001-05:00

We had a fun weekend. We got our visas on Friday, so we're definitely headed to Cuba now. We also got our housing assignment. It's in the Cubanacan neighborhood of Havana (you can Google maps it). Looks like it'll be about 5 miles from the Interests Section. For those of you thinking about visiting, I've listed the charter companies that can fly you there from Miami at the end of this entry. You can call for pricing. I've heard it's around $400 per round trip ticket. Don't book a flight now, though--you can't do that until I get permission for you to come. We plan to leave DC on Oct. 10th and arrive in Havana on Oct. 20th. That gives us about 10 days to annoy Pete and Kendra--if they'll have us. What else? Let's see, she got run over by a car in the Costco parking lot on Saturday. She's okay, though - very resilient, that one. We sold our wonderful Mazda Protege that we've grown so fond of. Static loves Kindergarten. He's dating a girl named Emma now. Paz has become increasingly nuts, which is at times really funny and at other times exasperating. Smiley is still delightful, but is starting to become more whiny (Paz's bad influence). We bought a bunch of food to ship to Havana and Static woke me up yesterday morning to let me know that Paz had broken into the Nilla Wafers. I guess we'll have a Nilla-free tour. I have my Spanish test on Thursday. She and I are going to the cannery tomorrow to get some more food. Take care everybody.

PHONE AND FAX NUMBERS OF THE CHARTER COMPANIES IN MIAMI
AIRLINE PHONE / FAX
A B C (305) 263-6555
(305) 447-0965
Wilson (305) 662-6842 / (305) 261-1324
(305) 667-4417
Gulfstream (305) 428-2828
(305) 428-2621 / (305) 428-2826
C T S (305) 476-9400
(305) 445-3355
C & T (305) 445-6422 / (305) 445-3337
(305) 445-2428
Marazul (Miami) (305) 870-0350
(305) 870-0354
Xael (305) 643-2200
(305) 643-2277