This is Julie writing today... Carly will most likely be out of touch for another 10 days or so, so I figured I'd fill you in.
Well, the last few days were crazy for Carly--trying to get some schoolwork done while wringing the last bits out of her time in California. She hasn't sent a blog update, in spite of my nagging and begging. I'll nail her down when she gets home to go back in time and recap the last 2 weeks in CA.
In the meantime, she has traveled the length of California with Dave Burdette, a friend and mentor of my brother's. When Jake (my brother) was in college, he started working for Mexico Caravan Ministries (www.mexicocaravanministries.com) as the site manager in Tijuana, Mexico. He coordinated and facilitated visiting churches who came to TJ for week-long mission trips to build small, chip-board houses for women who had acquired land in the fast-growing outskirts of TJ. Jake would get the materials to the work site, then supervise/train the church groups on how to build these small buildings in which the women and their families would live.
Jake was with MCM for over 3 years, and it's where he met his wife. Dave was instrumental in Jake's desire to live a servant lifestyle, and Dave performed J&M's wedding. Dave is held in very high regard by our family, though most of us hardly know him!
MCM has grown over the years, and now has a handful of staff on site in Tijuana.
In the 90's, a man gave Dave a building called the Castillo (the castle) that was being built as a residence. For some reason, the building became available, and the owner asked Dave if he could use the facility in ministry. Dave formed a team of qualified people and they started up the Baja Bible School (www.bajabible.org) in the Castillo--it's a BIG place! They are a small bible school, and have added a dorm to the property for their students. BBS is run by a group of 10 or so American and Mexican national missionaries, and has several dozen students (I think it's around 50).
So, Dave drove Carly from Santa Barbara to Tijuana yesterday (Sunday the 21st). It's about a 7 hour drive, and when Carly called, it was after 9pm, and she sounded drained. She'll be in TJ for 8 days, helping at the Castillo, MCM and visiting a local orphanage. She's not in the touristy area of Tijuana... much of her experience will be in Third World conditions and SERIOUS poverty! Imagine a family of 4, 7, or even 12 living in a single room, 12'x12' chipboard shed with a tarpaper roof and no windows save the hinged plywood cut out from the wall! These people don't have running water, reliable electricity or indoor toilets. They live on the steep hillsides outside Tijuana, their mud roads gouged with ruts 18 inches deep after a rain! It's amazing to experience, and Carly will have an eyeful of how most of the world lives.
She is staying in the dormitory at the Castillo, so she is safe, warm and fed, and is being looked after by the staff at Castillo. Dave plans to go down a couple times to spend time with her, taking her to some of the more important places and introducing her to some of the people that will impact her during even the briefest visits.
Keep Carly in your prayers! I'm not worried about her physical safety, but she will have a lot to process during this week. I expect it'll be a week that will impact her life in ways she won't even recognize till she's older. We couldn't have asked for a better situation for her! Dave is a wonderful mentor and will see to it that Carly gets the most out of this week.
More later!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Surprises, Beachcombing, Horse Eye Doctors and Sneezing Seals
Hello Everyone,
Its been a few days but, as always I've been staying busy. Last Saturday, Annette hosted a surprise party for her sister Gerri at the beach house. Almost everybody from the family came and a lot of Gerri's co-workers came, so we had about 40 people show up. It was great!! Gerri didn't even suspect that anything was going on and just like a good surprise party should be. She was completely and totally surprised!! We had really great food that people brought, and I don't think that I went an hour that day without eating!
Since the beach house is a beach house, one whole side of the house is all glass, and we were lucky enough to have one of the nicest days since I've been here be the day of the party. After most of the co-workers left we all went on a walk on the beach. It was a pretty low tide and there was a whole bunch of drift wood, Annette and I were picking through it looking for table top decorations or potential candle holders, and instead of those kinds of things, we found a whole bunch of either seal, sea lion, or porpoise vertebrae. One of Annette's cousins found the skull of a porpoise too, which of course according to both Annette and I was the coolest thing ever!! We did find some pretty cool drift wood decorations also. So after a day of high suspense we were pretty tired, we came home and fed the horses and went to bed.
On Sunday, we and the family went to the little city of Capatola and walked around downtown and went to some cute little shops and of course bought things:) Sunday evening Annette's other sister, Lezlie and her friend took Gerri and her daughter (from Boston) back to where they needed to be, and Annette and I fed the horses their hay and went to a movie to relax and unwind after all the excitement of the day.
Now, I didn't mention this but last Friday, we took Klaudis, the old gelding to Steinbeck Equine Center, because he was a case study for an opthamologist EYE DOCTOR clinic. Klaudis is blind in one eye and is going to have it remove in a couple weeks, so his eye presented a good case study for the clinic. He got to stay at the center for 4 days and 3 nights to be watched and how it affected his "way of life" and his behavior and things like that. On Monday we picked him up and brought him back to the farm. Here's the thing to remember for later on. Klaudis is 24 years old and apparently the pressure in his eye is causing him pain and he should be uncomfortable. So when we got back to the farm, I was to scared to actually be in the same trailer stall because he was ready to get out, I took his halter off while he was still enclosed and once I opened the door for him to get out he took of and went running!! He got all the other horses riled up and they ran for at least 15 minutes. Does it sound like this horse is 24 and has a painful eye in his head?? NO!!
Sunday through Thursday Bruce was in Monterrey for a thing called WMU or West Marine University. They have this every 2 years and it just a whole bunch of classes and sessions on different subjects and things that they can do to make the company better. So on Tuesday night we went down and spent the night at the hotel where the whole company was staying. And because Bruce is a pretty important guy in the company, he got the presidential suite (sweet!). It was soooo cool!! I pretty much had my own room even though it was open. It was shaped as a squarish "C" so I got a wing all to my self. The room had 4 giant TVs and had balcony's all the way around it facing the ocean.
In the morning we walked around down town Monterrey and went to a few stores. Then we went to 17 mile drive where through a majorly ritzy neighborhood. This is also the site where Pebble Beach is and the place where they do the final PGA tour golf match thing. Annette accidentally took a wrong turn and it took us to this point which is part of the route but we weren't planning on going there. Anyways, people were glued looking on to the beach, so we got out of the car, and on the beach there were about 30 Harbor seals! They were so cute, when the waves would come they would lift their head and tail to try and get out of the water. Then one of the seals kept sneezing!! I don't think there is anything funnier that a seal sneezing.
After we finished the drive, we went back to the farm because some people were coming over to ride on Annette's track . Today was an uneventful day, Annette had to go to Santa Cruz for some stuff and Bruce and some errands to do, so I laid on the couch for a while and watched TV, then did some homework and laid back on the couch again. I needed to watch so much TV because I'm sick;) As for Friday, its supposed to be rainy and the vet is coming out to do vaccines. And if the vet gets done soon enough, we're hopefully going to go to Petrogliphs again!It's only 9:15, but I'm tired, could have lots more things to write about, but at the moment, my head is to congested to think properly. I'm definitely going to have to spell check this blog!!Peace and have good weather where ever you are!
Its been a few days but, as always I've been staying busy. Last Saturday, Annette hosted a surprise party for her sister Gerri at the beach house. Almost everybody from the family came and a lot of Gerri's co-workers came, so we had about 40 people show up. It was great!! Gerri didn't even suspect that anything was going on and just like a good surprise party should be. She was completely and totally surprised!! We had really great food that people brought, and I don't think that I went an hour that day without eating!
Since the beach house is a beach house, one whole side of the house is all glass, and we were lucky enough to have one of the nicest days since I've been here be the day of the party. After most of the co-workers left we all went on a walk on the beach. It was a pretty low tide and there was a whole bunch of drift wood, Annette and I were picking through it looking for table top decorations or potential candle holders, and instead of those kinds of things, we found a whole bunch of either seal, sea lion, or porpoise vertebrae. One of Annette's cousins found the skull of a porpoise too, which of course according to both Annette and I was the coolest thing ever!! We did find some pretty cool drift wood decorations also. So after a day of high suspense we were pretty tired, we came home and fed the horses and went to bed.
On Sunday, we and the family went to the little city of Capatola and walked around downtown and went to some cute little shops and of course bought things:) Sunday evening Annette's other sister, Lezlie and her friend took Gerri and her daughter (from Boston) back to where they needed to be, and Annette and I fed the horses their hay and went to a movie to relax and unwind after all the excitement of the day.
Now, I didn't mention this but last Friday, we took Klaudis, the old gelding to Steinbeck Equine Center, because he was a case study for an opthamologist EYE DOCTOR clinic. Klaudis is blind in one eye and is going to have it remove in a couple weeks, so his eye presented a good case study for the clinic. He got to stay at the center for 4 days and 3 nights to be watched and how it affected his "way of life" and his behavior and things like that. On Monday we picked him up and brought him back to the farm. Here's the thing to remember for later on. Klaudis is 24 years old and apparently the pressure in his eye is causing him pain and he should be uncomfortable. So when we got back to the farm, I was to scared to actually be in the same trailer stall because he was ready to get out, I took his halter off while he was still enclosed and once I opened the door for him to get out he took of and went running!! He got all the other horses riled up and they ran for at least 15 minutes. Does it sound like this horse is 24 and has a painful eye in his head?? NO!!
Sunday through Thursday Bruce was in Monterrey for a thing called WMU or West Marine University. They have this every 2 years and it just a whole bunch of classes and sessions on different subjects and things that they can do to make the company better. So on Tuesday night we went down and spent the night at the hotel where the whole company was staying. And because Bruce is a pretty important guy in the company, he got the presidential suite (sweet!). It was soooo cool!! I pretty much had my own room even though it was open. It was shaped as a squarish "C" so I got a wing all to my self. The room had 4 giant TVs and had balcony's all the way around it facing the ocean.
In the morning we walked around down town Monterrey and went to a few stores. Then we went to 17 mile drive where through a majorly ritzy neighborhood. This is also the site where Pebble Beach is and the place where they do the final PGA tour golf match thing. Annette accidentally took a wrong turn and it took us to this point which is part of the route but we weren't planning on going there. Anyways, people were glued looking on to the beach, so we got out of the car, and on the beach there were about 30 Harbor seals! They were so cute, when the waves would come they would lift their head and tail to try and get out of the water. Then one of the seals kept sneezing!! I don't think there is anything funnier that a seal sneezing.
After we finished the drive, we went back to the farm because some people were coming over to ride on Annette's track . Today was an uneventful day, Annette had to go to Santa Cruz for some stuff and Bruce and some errands to do, so I laid on the couch for a while and watched TV, then did some homework and laid back on the couch again. I needed to watch so much TV because I'm sick;) As for Friday, its supposed to be rainy and the vet is coming out to do vaccines. And if the vet gets done soon enough, we're hopefully going to go to Petrogliphs again!It's only 9:15, but I'm tired, could have lots more things to write about, but at the moment, my head is to congested to think properly. I'm definitely going to have to spell check this blog!!Peace and have good weather where ever you are!
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