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Wanna' Buy A Cheap CD?

I've seen them for sale all over the place. In fact, I have a couple discs that a young friend gave to me. Pirated CDs are cheap in Ecuador, and there's not much that law enforcement can do or wants to do. The police are going after the violent crimes, and crime rate is up right now in the country. On top of that, in a country where almost two-thirds of the people live in poverty, there is little concern for the multi-million dollar music industry.

Lightning

Like I said three days ago, "If it's not one thing, it's six others". They had bad lightning last night in Makuma, and the e-mail server is dead. Probably took out the power supply. So I really need to press ahead with this new system. I'm making good progress at this point. By the way, this must be the season for electrical storms. We've experienced that quite a bit lately.

Fuel Container Test

The day started off here with a short test of the plastic containers we use to transport gasoline and diesel on our flights to the jungle. The MAF regulations require the container to be able to withstand a drop from three feet. Over the years it seems the plastic walls of the containers have become thinner and thinner, and that's on the newly manufacture ones. So it was time to perform a simple test. The container was full of water, and it survived not just one drop from three feet, but more than ten. The corners were dented in, but other than that, no problems. That's a good thing. If the plastic containers didn't pass, we'd be forced to buy approved containers and then fly the combusibles to the the jungle s, where the pilots would then need to pour the fuel in the plastic jug of the person requesting the fuel. It would add even more work to the pilot's busy day.

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There's More

I forgot to tell you about the end of that 'What a Day!' post from Wednesday. The rain was gone, things were mostly cleaned up, and we were all sitting at the table for dinner. Taylor asked me to pass the butter. I passed him the large plastic tub that held the Dorina, the local margarine. It seemed rather light to me, but I figured it was almost gone. I had returned my attention to my plate, when almost immediately Taylor jumped straight out of his chair with a scream and then started crying. As he ran around to Ellyn's side of the table, I too got a good scare. Hanging onto the table cloth right next to me was a tarantula! It didn't take me long to figure out what happened. Ellyn put the tarantula in the Dorina container to frighten us. Meanwhile, Taylor was curled up in Ellyn's lap, crying. Try as she might, Ellyn couldn't stop laughing about the whole thing, and I was pretty mad about such a mean prank. Taylor and I were both upset at Ellyn, and it was five minutes before either of us could laugh about it. Later that evening, while Ellyn and Dustin were reading, Tay and I charged in the room to scare Ellyn. She jumped and screamed, and then we all sat on the bed talking about it. Ellyn knows Tay and I are up to something, and someday soon we'll get her back. We're keeping our eyes open for a snake!

What A Day!

I didn't have my Spanish lesson today at 8:15 AM as my tutor couldn't make it. The hangar was very quiet this morning when I arrived. The pilots were at their annual tech meeting. All nine pilots met throughout the day over in the Nate Saint house. I wish I had taken a picture of them, and I had hoped to do it at the end of the day. But, before I could, three of them hurried over to the hangar about 3 PM and jumped in planes to go home. Mike and Brian flew to Quito, and Chad flew to Sucua. And of course nobody else thought to get that photo. It's not very usual to get them all together at the same time.

As for me, I got quite a bit done with the new server, and am getting to know it better. It's quite different from the existing e-mail server, yet the same. It runs the http://www.thehoffmanfamily.com/ operating system, but this new server is running a GUI called Gnome. That means there are icons and windows and a mouse pointer instead of me needing to type in cryptic commands every time I want to do something. Towards the end of the afternoon I was fighting with the HP Laserjet printer. It keeps jamming, and I haven't quite figured out why.

At lunchtime the boys had been interested to see that Maximo and Panchito (MAF hangar employees) were building three large piles of wood for fires. I told them that the hangar employees were going to have a lesson on the fire extinguishers and then practice putting out fires. I didn't think they'd get to see it, but the schedule ran late for the day, and by 4 PM they were ready to light the fires. Both boys were there, and both boys were excited to actually get to use the fire extinguisher on the fires. The downside to that was that all the smoke blew right towards out house, and right into our house. We don't have glass in four windows on that side of the house, just screens, so Ellyn got smoked out while the fire extinguisher practice was going on. It wasn't long after that, about 5 PM, that it all broke loose.

Bruce had just walked into the office where I have my desk, and the rain started. And it was really loud as it pounded on the tin roof. So loud that people out on the hangar floor were holding their hands over their ears. I stepped out of the office, and knew right away I should grab my camera. The rain was pouring down so hard, the visibility was about 50 yards. You can see in this picture. In the very center of the picture is the fuel storage shed, and you can't see it at all. That white stuff is rain, not fog or snow! Also, from where I was standing to take the picture, I was getting spray blown onto me. With that much water blowing into the hangar, I knew we needed to close the doors at each end. I also knew that it would be very difficult to do in such high wind. The doors are metal frames with sheets of tin covering the frame, and they are like big sails--they catch a lot of wind as the come down into the closed position. Oscar and Mateo closed the door at the west end, but the rain and wind still poured into the east end, drenching everything within twenty feet of the door. And then, the door at the west end starting going up again, as the force of the wind broke the door loose from it's locks, and started to tear away three sheets of tin. Bruce and Fred ran to close the east door, and I wasn't too sure it was going to work. Right then Wilma told me Ellyn was on line three. Ellyn yelled into the phone for me to come home--something about a tree falling down, and water pouring into the house. I raced out the door and charged across the street in the driving rain, quickly getting soaked as I made the 100-yard dash to our house. Sure enough, when I got to the back yard, there was a tree from the edge of the jungle, uprooted and leaning towards our house, pressing on the five foot high chain link fence. Ellyn saw me out the window and told me that water wasn't really 'pouring' into the house. That had been Dustin's assessment, but really it wasn't as bad as all that. However, with the rain blowing sideways, and those four glass-less windows I told you about, things were getting wet inside. By this time the rain was slowing down. The amazing thing is that the storm blew in so quickly, dumped so much water, and was gone in twenty-five minutes. Within forty-five minutes I could see patches of blue sky again. I can't be sure, but I'll bet it rained more than an inch in twenty-five minutes. Ellyn mopped up around the house while Dustin, Taylor, and I cut up the tree limbs with our machetes. Meanwhile, MAF base families stopped by to see the tree and find out what else had happened on the base. A couple other trees had blown over, but other than that things were good. The worst damage is the hangar door, and a sheet of fiber glass skylight on the roof which was blown off. So tonight there's a 4'x6' hole in the hangar roof. We'll start the clean-up and repair in the morning.

Through the whole thing, Lucy the Macaw sat out in her favorite tree and hung on. She was soaked afterwards, but even when I tried to get her down she wanted to stay put. Normally she jumps on my hand every chance she gets. Later on she showed up at the front door for her dinner and a bit of attention.

Finally

I finally got Red Hat 8 to install on the PC with the new motherboard. Looks like it boiled down to incompatibility with the RAM modules I was using. Once I replaced them with a different one, it started working.

Helicopters and Planes

"David, grab your camera!" I was focused on the install problems I was having with Red Hat http://www.thehoffmanfamily.com/ when I heard Bruce calling me. He'd never done that before, so I figured it must be serious. I reached down, grabbed my camera and quickly headed out onto the hangar floor. As soon as I got there I notice that almost every person who works at the hangar was outide, looking straight up! I soon saw what they were looking at. The Ecuadorian Army flies several Israeli-made Araba aircraft out of their base here in Shell. This one wasn't coming back under it's own power. Several of our pilots had seen it out on the military base runway at Taisha as it was being disassembled, but none of them knew any more than that. It must have somehow been involved in a mishap to the point that it wasn't airworthy. Both Oscar and Mateo, the Ecuadorian mechanics here, and John and I were out next to the runway watching them put the Araba fuselage down in front of their hangar. It was a half mile down the runway, but still, very interesting to watch the pilot of the French-made Super Puma helicopter gently set the load down. He had to wait quite a while until the fuselage stopped spinning and bucking. And then it was back to work. Actually, this is quite an interesting place to work!

Ecuador's New President

Here's a short article about a visit to the US by Ecuador's new president. Since the elections in November, GutiÈrrez has quickly distanced himself from his supporters by aligning himself with the US and by a variety of economic measures that have been hard on the indigenous people of Ecuador.

If It's Not One Thing, It's Six Others

The hard drive I installed in the e-mail computer the other night is working. It took me a couples tries to get the restore and the multiport card installed, as I did things in the wrong order the first time. But, the second time was a charm, and I had my hands on the new hard drive that I wanted to use for a new server. And it only took me until 3 AM.

Now I'm facing a different problem. I have a new motherboard, new hard drives, and I still can't get Red Hat 8 to install. This is most frustrating, as I thought the new motherboard would solve the problem. I'm trying to chase down the problem this afternoon.

Roses

If you have the time to look it up, this is an interesting article on rose production in Ecuador. Roses are Ecuador's third largest export industry, behind bananas and oil. Ideal growing conditions were discovered by international investors in the 1980s and since then Ecuador's rose industry is the world's fourth largest. Volcanic soils, snowmelt from the Andes, and twelve hours a day of sunshine year-round are the key. A rose that costs less than 17 cents to grow in Ecuador will be sold in the U.S. for more than $8. But, as you'll find in the article, it's not all 'sunshine and roses' for the workers who make their living in this industry.

Late Night in the Hangar

It's a little after 1 AM and I'm over here in the hangar hard at work while Chicago is blaring in the background. It's the Greatest Chicago Hits CD, and some of the tunes take me way back, fifteen years ago when I was dating Ellyn. What memories!

The rain is pounding on the roof and I can hear the thunder rumbling in the not-so-far off distance. I'm doing some work on the server that is best done when people aren't around needing to use it. I installed a 60GB drive in the temporary server we've been using since late December. And now I need it back, so I'm playing musical hard drives. I backed up the drive, then swapped it for a different drive and installed a fresh copy of e-smith. Now I'm waiting while I restore the backup. Theoretically it's supposed to work, and I've done it before on another machine. Just have to wait and see how it turns out.

When The Planes Can't Fly

I went over to the hangar this morning for a few minutes. I needed to return the lawn mower that I'd been using. Dan was there, and I could see he was getting ready to fly. Dave is the pilot working this weekend, but Dan was willing to help out since the weather had been bad on Friday and there was work to be done. He told me that he knew of at least two people who had died because they didn't get a flight out of the jungle. Apparently the radio calls came on Thursday to fly them out, but they weren't able to get them that day. They'd need to wait 'till Friday. But the weather was so bad on Friday that we couldn't get them, and they didn't make it. Dave was busy today with lots of emergencies to pick up. I don't know the details, but I do know the value of an MAF flight. It's not measured in dollars and sense, but in people's physical and spiritual health.

How big is your fridge?

Or do you even have a fridge? If you live in Ecuador chances are good you don't have one. Here in Shell that means that many people use boxed milk. It's a liter of milk that doesn't have to be refridgerated, and can be kept on the shelf for months. It also doesn't taste very good. Another option is to buy bag milk. Each bag is a liter of milk, and it's fresh. It's delivered to Shell twice a week, on Thursday and Saturday. Dustin and Taylor like the taste of the bag milk so much more than the box milk, so that's what we buy. We buy ten or twelve bags on Saturday, and that's enough for the week. I try to buy it from the lady who runs a little store just up the street. But when I'm in a pinch, and she's closed, I go across town to another place. The last time I was there, the teenage girl who was working there wanted to know why I was buying so many bags. The girl tonight didn't say anything, but I could tell by the look on her face that she wondered why I needed so much milk. It's really not that much--just about two and a half or three gallons depending on how many bags I get. But if you don't have a fridge in your house, how would you use up that much milk before it goes bad? People in Shell do their shopping every day or so, only buying what they need for the next meal or two. Shopping for the next week or two is unheard of.

More on Moody Aviation

Here's an article from the Elizabethton Star with a little more info on the closing of Moody Aviation. A couple days ago I posted an excerpt from Chad Irwin's e-mail update which suggested that there may be some scenarios in which Moody Aviation might remain open. The members of the Moody family in Elizabethton are praying for a miracle. They know how valuable the school is, and what an asset it is to the world of missions. Over half of the missionary aviators currently serving around the world have been trained at Moody Aviation.

Monthly Update

I hesitate to even call this a monthly update. It's been several months since I last communicated to all of you in the way of an e-mail update. Things seem to be so busy, and I've been trying to get this out the door for the past week. When we first tried to imagine a life here in Shell, we thought we'd have a leisurely life with lots of time to read and relax in the evenings. After all, there's no TV (at least not in English) in Shell, so how late could one stay up? And it's a small town in a third world country, so how busy could we really get? Whew! Were we naive. Life here can get just as busy and hectic as life in the US, let me tell you. Doesn't matter where we are, Ellyn and I always seem to find more than enough to do.

Since I last wrote my parents have been here for a visit. They came in the middle of December and stayed for two weeks. It was good to have them spend time with us, and I know they really enjoyed Christmas with their grandkids. We were glad for the opportunity to show them around Shell. Now they have a better picture of where we are, what we do, and what it's like here for us.

The boys are gearing up for Carnaval. This is the Ecuadorian version of Mardi Gras. It's a little different than the New Orleans version, and Ecuadorians celebrate this holiday by dousing each other with water. Walking down the street, you become fair play for children and teenagers hiding in doorways and waiting on balconies with buckets, balloons, local versions of the famous Super Soaker, and anything else that will hold water long enough for them to take aim and let fly. And of course Dustin and Taylor love to participate in this holiday with great enthusiasm! So much so that they've already begun buying water balloons and having water fights with the other kids in the neighborhood. It's such a big deal here that next Friday the kids at Nate Saint Memorial School will have two hours of class, then two hours of water games and a water fight before they go home to have the afternoon off from school. And, they get the following Monday and Tuesday off from school.

In January a new MAF family arrived in Shell. Steve Dunbar is a pilot/mechanic. this is great news, since we really need a couple more pilots here in Shell. Right now we have two full-time pilots, and they stay very busy. It's going to be many months before Steve is checked out to fly into all of the short jungle airs, but his on-the-job training will begin as soon as he gets his Ecuadorian pilot's license. That should be sometime next week. Steve and Kristen are working full time on getting their house ready to live in. They will be renting a house in Shell, and living off of the MAF base. Ellyn has gotten involved in helping Kristen decorate and set up her home. Tomorrow she's going over to help with some painting. This is almost like Trading Spaces!

I'm staying busy keeping the e-mail system going. I had a major problem at the end of December, with the motherboard going bad on the e-mail server. It was a long week, and at the end of it I had set up a temporary replacement server and we didn't lose any e-mail. This week I've been able to install two new motherboards into computers and am ready to start the move to a new e-mail system that will serve us for the long haul. This will also mean a change to the HF radio e-mail server in Makuma. It looks like there will be a fair amount of 'computer juggling' going on. I'm hoping and praying for a smooth transition.

We value your prayers as we continue on in the ministry here. Thanks for being part of our team.

No Flying Today

It's been a very cloudy day here in Shell. We've had rain throughout the day, and even some fog. Visibility was zero almost all day. Brian needed to get up to Quito twice and should have been in the air before 8:30 AM to make that happen. He could have left here at that time, but the weather in Quito and along the route was poor. By the time the weather up there improved, it had shut down here in Shell. It finally opened up here at 4:15 PM, and it didn't take Brian long to get out of here. He lives in Quito, and spent the past two nights with us down here in Shell so he could help out with flights here in Shell. I know he was looking forward to getting home for the weekend. The reason he needed to make two trips was that he had passengers to take to Quito, and then he was going to return with a DAC inspector who was to inspect our radio shop. Finally, he would return to Quito with the inspector. None of that happened, and when he finally did leave at 4:30 PM, I don't think he had all his passengers. I think I saw one of them go out in front of the hangar at 3:30 PM and get on a bus. Bruce and Dan didn't get their flights done either. On days like this they take advantage of the all the time they have to sit at their desk and catch up on paper work. Because flights are expensive, we try to set up flights so that people are able to share the cost with other passengers. We call it a combination flight, and that way people can afford to fly. The pilots have a lot of paperwork to complete as they keep track of who was on the flight, where they flew, and who paid what amount. Bruce keeps saying it's like doing his taxes. Dan finished his paperwork and then went home early. That way he can save his duty time for a day when he can fly. The pilots have a fixed number of hours they can fly per week and per month. Even if they are punched in, sitting at the hangar just waiting for weather to clear, it counts as duty time.

Moody Aviation

I'm still waiting to hear the 'rest of the story', but here is some news about Moody Aviation. This comes from Chad and Andi Irwin, MAF staff here in Ecuador who work down in Sucua.

"Due to financial difficulties Moody Bible Institute has decided to close
Moody Aviation. Most of you remember that this is where I graduated and
where I worked for two years. This news came as a shock to us. Several
months ago, Moody asked MAF about the future of Missionary Aviation and the
need for Moody Aviation. MAF assured Moody that the need was still there
and would be for the foreseeable future. Needless-to-say this was not
enough to keep Moody from closing the aviation school. As we thought about
the pilots here in Ecuador we realized that 7 out of the 9 pilots plus the
Maintenance Supervisor, the Avionics Specialist and the Accountant are Moody
Av. Grads. We can't help but think of the impact this could have on
Missionary Aviation and specifically MAF in the future. Moody has trained
more than half of the missionary pilots in the world - and as you can see
85% of our staff here.

We ask that you pray for the future of Moody Aviation. The plan is a three
year phase out of the program. This would allow the students currently in
Elizabethton at the Aviation Campus to graduate. Our prayer is that during
these next few weeks a way would be found to keep the school open. There
are several possibilities. One, Moody could receive money from donors to
keep the school open. Two, an outside entity could fund the program and
allow the school to continue under another name. Three, Moody donates the
assets (planes, buildings etc...) to the staff in Elizabethton to run,
providing they can come up with the money to operate. These are just some
ideas that are floating around, but we believe that the work being done in
TN is worth continuing. MAF feels that the graduates from Moody are more
prepared for mission type flying than graduates from any other school.
Please pray with us!"

Radio Repair in the Jungle

Yesterday Jim and Bruce took a trip out to the jungle to visit three Shuar and Atchuar communities. Each village had a radio that wasn't working. Bruce took along a suppy of antenna cable, spare solar panels, antennas, plus all the tools he might need. In each location he was able to solve the radio problems, but at the end of the day, the communities were still without a working radio. Their batteries are in poor shape and won't run the system. MAF will supply and maintain the radio, but it's up to the community to supply the battery. These radios are the life-link for the jungle folk, so I know they will work to get a new battery as soon as possible.

Living with the Boas

It seems like all the gringos who visit the hangar must have their picture taken with a boa. My whole family did it. I hate snakes, so one picture with the boa was plenty for me. Don't let that smile on my face fool you! I took a photo of Miriam with a boa today. Miriam is a community health worker with HCJB. She's a nurse practitioner who works very closely with the Shuar and Woarani people. This lady really has a heart for these people. Anyway, here she's getting her photo taken by an HCJB photographer. My guess is that she'll use it for one of her newsletters. The photographer grabbed John, the chief mechanic, and had him hold the reflector.

Makuma Server

The Makuma server is still giving me fits. But, I guess it's to be expected. It's a Pentium 1 machine running at maybe 150 MHz. The hard drive is going on five years old. The server has spent the past year and a half in Makuma, a warm and humid spot in the jungle with high humidity. On top of that, the power is intermittent there, and the server has been shut down improperly more than a few times when the power went off unexpectedly. So it should come as no surprise that this drive is failing. The problem I'm facing now is what to do next. I don't have another computer to put out there, nor do I have any drives that I can get to work in this machine. Maybe it's time to think about buying another computer to put out there. If I do, that will likely raise the rate I'll need to charge those two clients for e-mail. Unless they want to buy their own computer and I'll install the necessary software. Or, maybe there is someone who'd like to donate a computer, new or used? Whatever I decide, I need to get the process rolling, as I'm sure the two clients are really missing their e-mail right now.

Checking things out

I'm happy using Movable Type to run this blog. There area a lot more features available to me than there were in Blogger. I'm playing with the idea of starting to use categories for my posts. You know, even if there aren't that many people reading this, it will be fun for me to look back through this years from now.

It's a warm day here

It's a warm day here in Shell. We haven't really had any rain since Sunday. The past couple mornings as I've woken and started my day, I've had a feeling of 'spring'. It's the feeling I used to get in Oakhurst when I could tell that summer was on the day. More sunshine and warmth. Do I miss seasons? Not really. But I do miss some of the activities that come with the seasons. Swimming with friends at Bass Lake. Skiing with the family at Badger Pass. Certainly can't do those things here. On the other hand, I really don't miss 100 degree or 25 degree days.

Model Plane

Dustin and I are building a radio controlled model plane. It's really a powered glider. Not sure where we'll fly it around here, but we're having fun building it.

Computers

Here's my desk this afternoon. I've got a new motherboard in the original PC that was our e-mail server when I came into the IT tech position. I loaded Red Hat 8.0 on it today, and it's running great. That was impossible with the old motherboard. So I'm really happy about that. I've got the Makuma server up and running again. I had to repair the file system (actually I had fsck do that) and now it's exchanging mail with the Shell e-mail server. We'll see how this works out. The hard drive may be on it's last leg, so I think I'll run a backup as soon as this connection is done. And after that I might go ahead and reinstall on a different drive.

Using a New CMS

If you're not sure what a CMS is, I'll tell you. It's a content management system, and I had been using Blogger. That's the web site where I went each time I added a post to this web log (blog). I've just switched over to Movable Type, and I have that installed on our website now. Blogger has been great, but they have had enough problems that I don't mind leaving them. There's a lot to Movable Type, and I'm enjoying getting to know it.

Another One Bites The Dust

Looks like another hard drive has gone down in flames. I just had the Makuma server flown back out to Makuma ten days ago. It was returned to me yesterday with the complaint that it didn't seem to be very stable and wasn't connecting to our server consistently. At first glance today, all seemed well. But then it locked up as I was testing it, and I have seen one ominous hard drive failure warning since then. Guess I have my work cut out for me, as I'm sure the folks in Makuma would like to get this server back as soon as possible. And, it would be good if I can save any mail on there that they haven't yet recieved.

Here are a couple photos

Here are a couple photos from Saturday afternoon. When I got back from my bike ride, Dustin wanted me to bounce on the tramp. I had a little energy left, so we bounced for a while. I don't know where he gets all his coordination. Certainly not from me. Here he is doing a back flip. In the background you can see the house that Nate Saint built fifty years ago. Lou likes to get up on the tramp too, but she can't do any tricks. She just thinks it's a great place to hang out. The reason that she can get up there is that we cut into the slope of the yard to fit the tramp in, so on the uphill side she doesn't have to jump very high to get on.

YWSTITUS There's probably a

YWSTITUS
There's probably a better title for this, but for now that will do. It stands for "You Won't See This In The US". I see so many different things as I live and work here in Shell. Maybe I'll tell you about them each day. Today's humorous siting--a family is riding on a motorcycle. The father is driving. His daughter, about four years old, is sitting on the tank. The mother is sitting on the back of the seat, holding a toddler in her arms. The dad is wearing a yellow, full-face helmet. Everyone else is riding without a helmet.

I should have said

I should have said that Luke was coming over to spend the night when he and his mom discovered the snake at the front door. On the way over his mom had just said something to him about wondering when they were going to see a snake. Guess they haven't seen one in the past year that they've been here. At least they didn't find it in our house. The people who lived in our house before us found coral snakes in the house on a regular basis. I think the reason was that they didn't have a thresh hold under the back door. That's the first thing I put in when we moved into the house. I HATE snakes.

"David, the Edwards are

"David, the Edwards are at the door and there's a snake there!!" I was lazily watching a taped stage of the Vuelta de Espana when Ellyn called from upstairs. I ran up the stairs to see what looked like a snake's tail trying to squeeze through the closed front door. "Yikes!!" We both yelled as more of the tailed squirmed inside. Turning, I headed down the stairs so I could go out through the back door and around to the front. As I went through the door, I quickly chose a weapon. There was a short machette or a spade. I chose the spade. Not as easy to handle, but would keep my hands farther away from the snake. At this point I didn't know how big it was. Arriving at the front door, I saw it was a small coral snake, just over a foot long. It's head was under the door and it seemed he was intent on inviting himself inside. His head was quickly separated from his body, and the parts thrown in the backyard. Whew! Back to watching bicycle racing.

What's happening in Shell

What's happening in Shell today? I spent three hours at a school board meeting this morning. Lot's on the agenda. One of the big items is our search for new teachers. We'll need four new teachers next year. The seventh/eighth grade teacher is staying, but the rest of the positions are vacant. We need kindergarten, first-second, third-fourth, and fifth-sixth grade teachers. Know anybody who wants to apply? Actually, we're off to a good start this year, with quite a few possibilities and people interested.

Right now I'm finishing up with the computer for Dustin's classroom. I've re-formatted the hard drive and re-installed Windows 95 on it. I found a bad CD-ROM drive and have installed a spare until HCJB can get another one for the machine. The kids in the classroom had stopped using the machine because it was slow, and programs ran slowly from the CD. Hopefully I can get it back in good running order so they'll use it again. It's an older computer, but will do the job.

We had a huge rainstorm over lunch, and we felt mostly cozy in our house. Except for the fact that the rain was blowing a lot and starting to come in some of our windows where we don't have glass. Guess we'll need to keep pursuing that. When you ask for something to be done here, whether it's get new windows made for your house, a cabinet for your kitchen, or when you car is at the mechanic, you have to hound them every few days if you want the job to get done any time this century! We put in our order for windows to be made last November. Nothing yet.

What's happening in Shell

What's happening in Shell today? I spent three hours at a school board meeting this morning. Lot's on the agenda. One of the big items is our search for new teachers. We'll need four new teachers next year. The seventh/eighth grade teacher is staying, but the rest of the positions are vacant. We need kindergarten, first-second, third-fourth, and fifth-sixth grade teachers. Know anybody who wants to apply? Actually, we're off to a good start this year, with quite a few possibilities and people interested.

Right now I'm finishing up with the computer for Dustin's classroom. I've re-formatted the hard drive and re-installed Windows 95 on it. I found a bad CD-ROM drive and have installed a spare until HCJB can get another one for the machine. The kids in the classroom had stopped using the machine because it was slow, and programs ran slowly from the CD. Hopefully I can get it back in good running order so they'll use it again. It's an older computer, but will do the job.

We had a huge rainstorm over lunch, and we felt mostly cozy in our house. Except for the fact that the rain was blowing a lot and starting to come in some of our windows where we don't have glass. Guess we'll need to keep pursuing that. When you ask for something to be done here, whether it's get new windows made for your house, a cabinet for your kitchen, or when you car is at the mechanic, you have to hound them every few days if you want the job to get done any time this century! We put in our order for windows to be made last November. Nothing yet.

Dan just finished a

Dan just finished a RTS (Return to Service) flight on HC-BMO. They've just finished putting a new nose gear on that plane, which includes a 8.50 inch tire. They were running 6.50 inch tires up front, and 8.50 inch tires in the rear, which was a non-standard configuration. The non-standard part was the larger tires for the main gear. The pilots have found that if they use the larger tires in the back, it helps them accelerate more quickly on the grassy, bumpy, and wet s. The cut grass tends to act as wheel chocks in extreme cases. The small nose gear isn't too much of an issue, so it's been kept at the 6.50 size. But, you may find this photo interesting. It took the pilot and the local people a while to scoop some mud off part of the when the plane couldn't take off because of the mud bog on the airstrip. At any rate, the larger nose gear was required if they wanted to keep using the large mains. The larger tire in the front should also help reduce the incidents where the prop strikes the ground because the nose gear sinks into a soft spot on the runway. When that happens they usually end up replacing the engine, not just the prop.

I've got some photos

I've got some photos of our trip on Monday and Tuesday. It was about 10 AM by the time we left Shell. Ellyn and I were two of five passengers. The other three people were headed to Paandin and Macas. The one lady had been at the hospital, and I'm not sure about the other two. Paandin was about twenty-five minutes away, not too far from Makuma. Makuma is the GMU mission station that I've been to a couple times because I have a radio e-mail server there. Bruce came in from the north on his first approach, but didn't like the wind, so went around. We landed the other direction, skimming in over the trees and landing on the uphill side of a big hump in the runway. It's not a long --just a touch under 500 meters. We dropped off the lady who had been at the hospital and left after about ten minutes. That wasn't too soon, as I didn't even get out of the plane and was getting bit by the bugs. Taisha was the next stop, where we were to pick up a patient transfer. Soon after we landed an Ecuadorian Air Force Twin Otter took off. A few minutes later the Catholic Mission Helio Courier landed. It was a busy day in Taisha. We picked up our patient and mother. The child had pneumonia, and was being transferred to the hospital in Macas. The mom wasn't too excited about flying, and actually was quite scared. She grabbed Ellyn's knee at the slightest bit of turbulence, and put her head on Ellyn's shoulder much of the way. Ellyn was super, helping calm the mom, wipe up when the child threw up, and just being a shoulder to lean on. In Macas we dropped off the four passengers and then continued on to our final destination, Sucua.

MAF has a base in Sucua, with one plane and two pilots. There is also a teacher there, since there are three MAF kids. We spent the night with Chad and Andi Irwin. It was great to see where they live, and they showed us around Sucua. We often have Chad and Andi over for meals when they are passing through Shell. The real purpose of our trip was to drive the Trooper back to Shell, since it's not needed in Sucua any more. Tuesday morning we were on the road by 9:30 AM. It's not a great road, but it's cut through the heart of the jungle, so it makes for some great views. The highlight was probably the bridge over the Rio Pastaza. Actually, we had to cross two bridges at that point. Both are long suspension bridges. But don't think 'Golden Gate' here. You'll just have to look at the photos. The bridge was quite long, and you just stay if first gear to get across. You can see the bridge ripple in front of you as you're driving. It's not very wide either, so the only thing you'll pass are pedestrians.

The distance from Sucua to Shell is almost exactly 100 miles. We couldn't drive faster than 20 MPH most of the way, so it should have been a five hour drive. We had overheating problems, so it took us an hour longer. Six hours to go one hundred miles! But we made it, and the Trooper didn't suffer any ill effects from the overheating. We were back in Shell by 3:45 PM, in time to pick up the boys from school.

I should mention it's

I should mention it's not part of my job description to work on the Nate Saint School computers, but it's something I do. The school is low on the priority list of HCJB when it comes to computer work, and so I do what I can to provide a more immediate level of service. That's especially true of the internet connection, and it's developed that I know all about the internet connection for the school and the HCJB tech here in Shell doesn't. I need to document some of it, because I don't want to disappear with all the knowledge some day.

I'm sitting here burning

I'm sitting here burning a backup CD on my iBook and waiting for a computer to boot. I'm working on the computer from Taylor's classroom right now. I need to wipe the hard drive and reinstall everthing. They've been having some trouble with it, and we want to start all over again with the programs. Along the way I've found a CPU fan that was in poor shape, so I've swapped that out with another one from an old motherboard I've got inthe attic. Can't go buy another one at the local computer shop, so we rely heavily on reusing old parts. Anybody want to donate old computer parts, let me know. I'll figure out a way to get them down here and put them to good use.

OK, a few Pinewood

OK, a few Pinewood Derby photos and then I hit the hay. We had a good time racing in the afternoon, and then again in the evening. In the afternoon, the kids race the others in their class. The evening races are school-wide. This year the Quist family was once again top dog. They've placed either first or first and second the past four years. Taylor's car ran well against the Quist cars, but was not quite fast enough. Here's a photo of Taylor's car racing Jonathan's 'Do the Dew' car. Dustin's car was a bit slower, but again ran very well for a big boxy car. His matchbox car was the most unique car this year. Each year the variety of cars is amazing, and not everyone builds sleek racing cars. Many of the cars have quite a lot of character. Here's a photo of Dustin's car racing Kyle's 'DP Special' car. Taylor finished fourth, and Dustin fifth, out of twenty-eight cars. I should mention that they raced on stock wheels and axles. The cars that took first through third had polished axles, and first and second place also had shaped wheels. Considering we didn't polish our axles, or shape our wheels, I was pleased with how well the boys' cars ran.

Grandma Hoffman sent some

Grandma Hoffman sent some Sunday comics to the boys for Valentines day. Those are always a big hit with Dustin. Of course you can't get anything like that here. He spent quite a lot of time reading them with Matthew on Saturday afternoon. Kyle, who lives next door, has some, and Dustin went over this afternoon to trade some of them with him. He was disappointed because he'd already read most of them.

Tomorrow we head down to Sucua for the night. The plan is for Ellyn and me to bring the program's Isuzu Trooper back up to Shell. It's not being used there right now, and the program could use an extra vehicle in Shell. Ellyn is looking for an adventure, so she volunteered us. It will be a five hour drive back from Sucua, and I imagine the distance is somewhere around a hundred miles. The road goes through the middle of no where, with no phones or cell service, so here's praying we don't break down. I'm not much of a mechanic. We have two options to get down there--a five hour bus ride, or a twenty-five minute plane flight. I'm hoping for the latter, but not holding my breath. The weather of Friday and Saturday wasn't that great. Today was better, but who knows what tomorrow will hold? If we don't get on a plane by 10 or 11 AM, we'll head down to Puyo and get on a bus. We can't afford to wait around Shell all day for the weather to clear. The boys will stay the night with Dan and Sylvia Rogers.

The Pinewood Derby approaches.

The Pinewood Derby approaches. Each year, for the past four years, the students at NSMS build and race derby cars. This year Taylor is racing a US flag, and Dustin is racing a matchbox. Pictures will certainly follow.

The team is gone.

The team is gone. Ron and I took them up to Quito last Thursday, and they flew out on Friday. I'm a little depressed--well, that might be a strong word to use. I'm missing the guys. They were a great group of men, and I'm going to miss having them here. This is a small community here, and they added a lot for the ten days they were here. I enjoyed sharing and praying with them, as well as the fun and joking. I'm glad they were here and for the chance to spend some time with them.