Life below -40.

First of all, if you're wondering if I mean Fahrenheit or Celsius, it doesn't matter, the scale of temperature converge at minus forty. Now, to the story:

I awoke in the morning, and as per usual threw on my clothes quickly to go start my car to let it warm up to something resembling comfort when I start driving to work by six-thirty in the a.m.. However, upon my arrival to the out of doors, I was astonished to see my car listing harshly to it's starboard side. This was not a natural position for a vehicle, that much was instantly apparent. A quick stroll around the car enlightened me to the problem: two flat tires on the right side of my car.

This did not instantly appear to be a show stopper as I had in my possession an air compressor and I sorted through the tools in the back of the vehicle, located it, set the psi gauge for automatic shutoff, and attempted to place the compressor on the tire stem. It didn't fit. At all. The cold had shrunk the compressor nozzle sufficiently to nullify my attempts to inflate the tires. I decided I should warm up the nozzle by running it under the warm tap. It worked, the nozzle fit over the valve and the tire began to accept air.

After breakfast, it was time to air up the second tire, as the compressor had shut itself off. I unlocked the nozzle and as the air started draining from the tire, realized that I could not remove it from the valve as the cold had shrunk the
nozzle again. While struggling to remove it, the stress and cold of the environment finally won over the plastic compressor nozzle and it failed. Now I am stuck left holding two pieces of my compressor and no way to inflate my tire.
Not a good position for one to be found in.

After considering the damage I would do to the tire, I decided to drive a mile, slowly, to the petrol station and filled my tire, which held air for me to continue my journey to work.

All in all, quite the mystical journey.

Civil Unrest

So, I'm supposed to be in Africa right now. Turns out, I'm not. Not because there was a financial situation, quite the contrary. I was overwhelmed from the support of the community and the resources that were redirected towards this effort. It was quite impressive. My hometown community raised over a thousand dollars towards my departure, so after it was all tallied there was very little that I had to cover out of pocket.

However, there is more to traveling overseas to a foreign country than simply financial issues. If you've watched the news at all in the last month or so, you know that there has been quite a bit of civil unrest in Kenya. I'm not a reporter, and don't want to add to any of the misinformation that's associated with current events, but basically Kenya held presidential elections the last week of December and they went badly. The incumbent was accused of rigging the elections and then a clan war broke out. Now, after more research has been done, it's starting to appear as if the clans involved had a preconceived notion that this was going to happen, and even more than that, some reports say that what has happened in Kenya the last month was highly orchestrated and planed to start a full blown civil war in the Eastern African country that is usually touted as one of the most stable.

Anyway, the trip has been postponed until all this settles down as the LCMS doesn't feel that they want to send over people to be pawns in someone else's conflict. Given the circumstances I highly agree. The earliest we might be going would be sometime in October, but that's very much yet to be determined.

I would like to extend my thanks to all the participants of the fund raising and organizing. I feel very blessed to have so many people who will support my decisions and do what they can to allow those plans to come to fruition. Thank you.

Africa update... $$

Well, we just received more information on how much money we raised, and how much the trip is projected to cost. Fortunately, a good portion of the cost has been offset from the fund raising. Unfortunately, it will still be a bit expensive. The ball/silent auction fund raiser came up with about $10,500 profit. So, in that respect, we did quite well. But with the total cost per person of over $3000 to fly there, plus building materials, that puts most people paying about $1200 out of pocket. Because I jumped in on the project late, I'll be required to pay more like $1800 out of pocket. Ouch.

There's still time for me to do some personal fund raising, and my Mom has been hard on that trail at my old Church. They're having a free will donation this Sunday afternoon in order to raise more funds for me to get to Africa. I don't really expect a huge sum from that kind of activity, but every little bit helps. All this really means is that I'm really starting to hope that I don't get laid off from work for going on this trip... but I'd still laugh if it happened. Hey, you have to laugh or else you'd cry right?

I've never done much... or any fund raising before, so this is a completely new idea to me, but I guess because the funds are going through Zion Lutheran, anyone who donates can get a tax ID# and then they can write off that amount from their finances. Makes me think I should donate about $1500 to myself... ;-)

In other trip news, we received the first pictures of where we'll be staying. It's called the Bull's Eye Hotel. Look at the date stamp in the corner of the picture... that's right: '2007 4 13'... what are the chances of that? Of the other three hundred and sixty-four (and a quarter) days it could have been, it just so happened to be taken on my birthday of this year... Boy-oh-boy was I supposed to go on this trip or what?

Oh, it should be mentioned that I found the green stubbly prickly stuff in the foreground surprising... I know, I know.... not all desert... still, you know how it is.

Beard update:

Here's a late breaking news story on the recent modification of my beard... The beard was last seen before the Africa ball, and has since been missing. If you happen to find it, or have any information leading to it's capture there is a cash reward available. It has been approximately eight years since this portion of my mug has been reviled to the public. For obviously reasons. (*Smacks his lower lip onto his upper* "It feels so weird...")









In related news this man was seen dancing all night with this pretty lady. This is a crime in forty-eight states. Good thing he was in Alaska. Swing, Cha-Cha, Rock, and slow dancing was seen in varying quality and quantity; but oddly enough both parties appeared to be enjoying themselves. Only you can prevent this kind of mayhem from happening again. Should you choose to accept this mission, you will be required to drive/fly/swim/crawl to Alaska and witness the sights for yourself. They are truly breath taking, in more ways than one... ;-)

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