Busy and all alone

So I've had quite the busy week and it hasn't slowed down. The entire Wood's family went up to Acapulco for the weekend to go to a dentist appointment, shopping, pick up work project people from the airport, pick up Tim Wood from the airport, and then fly to the moon and back if they have time. Ha Ha. So they left yesterday. Hoping to leave at about 9:45, big surprise they got backed up with projects and didn't leave till 1:20. And they won't get back until early on Sunday. I wouldn't be surprised if they show up late. It's always hard to show up to anything on time in Mexico. Back to the story: So I spent the day trying to help the Wood's get out of Ometepec on time(NOT EVEN CLOSE). Installing a door by myself to the new computer lab, Teaching a remedial math class in Spanish, walking around town trying to buy the cheap and correct tools because either they don't have it or a tool cost 3X as much as it should. Oh and all this shopping in a rain storm.(Still have the prunee fingers and toes to prove it) I'm living in a town plopped right up against a mountain and a jungle. It rains and it rains hard.

The reason for today's blog post isn't because I wanted you to all be so impressed with my mastering of construction it was more to say I watched the most amazing 12 year old play soccer today. My team won again. WOW it was a close one though. At half time it was 2 - 0 them, it should have been 3 -0 them but a big puddle in front of the goal stopped the ball. Giving our goalie(Portero) just enough time to pounce on it. He had mud all over himself. Halftime came and the kids were very frustrated. I had Paulee the Real Head coach give them the motivational speech. I decided it was time to bring out the Fanta and Fresca to show them a little reward regardless of winning. As I was walking down the ramp with their sodas, they scored a goal. Then they scored another goal which was even more well timed to tie the game at 2 -2. I say well time because they only had 2 minutes left in the game. My team did great in the shoot out. It was a good thing on Wednesday for practice I had them practice their kicks. I was trying to kill time. We ended up winning the shoot out 3 - 4. It was very stressful; seriously I can't even speak the language besides simple phrases. So the kids kinda laughed at me during that time because none of the stuff I was saying was making any sense.

WE won I'm very proud of my team they played a bunch of kids that were much bigger then them so they did very well. Way to go team, as I'm sitting on my butt in the shade. It's still hot even at 10:30
100% means it's raining and 99% means your dripping wet. It's very humid right now.

Scott

So anyone who knows me would have fairly good hint into the fact that I will take any oppurtunity to wear as little clothing as possible. I've been warned not to wear my running short in Ometepec. Because it's a small town and people will talk. I wore my long work out soccer short with no shirt down at the sports center. It was Over 95* super sunny and they think i'm not going to work on my tan. NO WAY WOULD I LEAVE A SHIRT ON. But today during the rain I got the chance to hawl water and take a quick shower. Since the water supply has been I haven't actually take a shower where I've gotten completely wet. It's been a drizzle for sometime and I haven't gotten completely drinched head to toe since I went to the Snake River over a month ago. So here are some pictures of my Rain day shower. The rain drop are alot bigger down here than that soft mist we get up in Oregon, but I appreciated the nice long 80* shower. Everyone down here was putting on their winter jackets while I was taking clothes off and running around. Seriously Andy had goose bumps

Anybody know what a "cistern" is

This tunnel I'm laying in is the tunnel dug by Hezekiah's men. It leads to the cistern which was one of the keys to keeping the people alive during times of war. Location Location is important but during times of war the cistern is the true key that decides who wins the battle.

Before I get too invested in my next post I want to educate you all just incase you aren't sure what a cistern is. I went to Israel just 2 months ago so I saw all the ancient cisterns to last me a lifetime. But apparently I haven't experienced enough of them because they fallowed me all the way to Ometepec. Yes that's right they have them here as well. So you may be asking "what is a cistern?"

So if you have any question this might help give you at least a modern look at a cistern. It collects the rain water and then filters and cycles it back around into your houses so that you don't have to buy water. Down here it is raining for another 3 weeks and, from what the locals are telling me la lluvia(Rain) is going to stop for the next 10 months. When I first arrived I thought I was going to be living in a jungle, since it rains every 36 hours or so. But everything is going to "start" getting brown in about 3 month. Late Abril(April) is when everything is going to be extremely brown. Moving on, with more important topics. The Wood family and I have been on water conservation for the last 2 weeks because it has officially be a month since the city has delivered water to the house. It hasn't been a state of alarm but if the rain season ends and we still don't have water we're in trouble. But until we get water we have to be very strategic about when we flush the toilet(It's got to be brown to flush it down), Laundry water is kept to use later to fill and flush the toilet, Showers are short and most the time the water is turned off and used only to rinse of all those soap sudds. I've been feeling guilty for all the times that I pee and then forget to not flush. Who really thinks about that stuff? I never knew that was going to be a habit I would have to break when I was down here.

Today we got a lot of rain. It rain hard for about 2 hours. It drizzled for another 4 hours, to relieve some of the pressures we've had with water conservation. The reason we got so much water collected was because it rained for so long today. Unfortunately one of our big collection pools was clogged and not draining water to the cistern. So Andy and I tried everything from blowing air down the pipe. Sucking water up out of the pipe. WE got so desperate that we tried pushing the plug out with air using a scuba tank. None of those solved the problem so I started hawling buckets from one collection pool to another. It was about a 200 ft walk across the lawn down a big hill but it was worth it. I made 24 buckets trips back and forth. Hawling 8 gallons of water each trip. You do the math 1 gallon of water wieghs 8.36 pounds. But if you don't have a calculator and want to know the answer it was just over 3/4 ton of water. Or the running number would be 1605.00 That was a lot of water. Now I don't feel so guilty when I take a shower or flush the toilet. Have a great day everyone and remember how amazing it feels to flush a toilet and run clean water. It's so easily taken for granted, until it's taken away.

I still can't imagine being an Israelite in B.C. or A.D.

Scott Ekstrom

I've never sleep well in 85* (Until NOW)

Man it is hot but for some reason I'm sleeping like a rock. Oh yeah I remember why. It's because I'm so tired from all the day's activities that I don't have the energy to actually stay awake. I've been working hard and learning what it means to be a Jack of ALL TRADES.

You see from my pictures that I've been busy working on a construction project. I've now learned how to put up the grid work for ceiling tiles, also how to put up ceiling times(With and without lighting fixtures), wire electrical sockets, and help invent the most economical insect/small animal barrier. That is what I've been up to on the second floor of the school that I'm working at.

Down on the first floor I'm actually a teacher's assistant for English class. Yes I know I'm not exactly the most eloquent communicator of my first language but beggars can't be choosers. Besides I'm learning a lot trying to communicate how to speak English to first year students. Sometimes it's easier to guide them in English and just have them repeat a couple key English phrases. I don't know why but 3 kids were having trouble say the word "BUS". Everytime they would say "Jerry and I rode the ""but"". It's hard not to laugh sometimes but I don't want to crush their spirit, after all I'm learning too. At other times I'm tutoring. I've also become very good at correcting papers, and grading tests. It's a lot harder to grade tests when 50% of the answers are wrong. This coming Tuesday I will be giving an optional re-take of the exam. Optional meaning you better show up, because you got 2/9 or 4/9. So also in this coming week if I don't have a chance to blog until later in next week. I'm also excited to be teaching all by myself a remedial math class. I've been warned that these are the "trouble kids" so I'm not supposed to let them get out of hand or play dumb. It should be interesting to say the least.

I have one more work project I'd like to share with you. One of my earlier post I talk about the things I didn't think I would have done so early in my trip. Well last Wednesday I worked on a project I didn't think I be doing at all. With Tim in the states for 2 weeks I took the project of unclogging our septic tank/local exterminator. I was already very smelly and dirty from soccer practice so I came home and tackled it feet first. I didn't want to get my face to close the smell extremely potent and I didn't want to make eye contact with all the cockroaches. They gave me a can of RAID, I feel guilty if anyone has seen the Disney - Pixar, Wall-E you know why. Either way I worked on that for about 2.5 hours and my nose hairs were gone by the end. It was disgusting but good; I made a syphon out of 2 inch hose and got that "stuff?" moving. Kinda disgusting again because they told me to just run it down on to their lower lawn, but it's better to be down there then to be so close to the house and overflowing everytime someone took a shower.

Prayer request

So yesterday I was busy, busy, busy. But actually feeling like I was going no where, no wher no, where. I can't seem to get a package through Mexican customs because it contains a Liquid. Unfortunately I can't just have them take the liquid out because that liquid which I had sent down is exactly the liquid I need. Dah, why would it be any other way, That Liquid which seems to be freaking them out is my Medicine. UPS is saying they can't release it because it's a liquid, but if I really wanted it they would send it to a Broker. A Broker HHmmm. that sounds like a payout. Because UPS says they don't suggest a certain person or company they are just the company that transports the material. I just have to look up Broker in the Yellowpages. Not going to happen.

If you remember throught your day please send up a Holy Hello to the big guy upstair. Cause it's feeling more and more like the only way it feels like i'm going to get this package is if God is the one walking it to my door step. We worked are little bit with Mexican health department to get permits and the Mx embassy and the US Embassy so things feel like they are making slow progress. But now it's getting close to the weekend and UPS and Mexico stop anything and everything for the weekend. Pray that this weekend I will be able to translate and fill out all the required health forms because they only come in Spanish. It's fairly complex sentence structure not exactly the "I go to the park" structure they teach in Highshool or even the first or second year of Spanish for College. So I'd love a "Holy Huddle" as David Knepprath would say. Other than that i'll post later this weekend about the rest of the weeks events

God Bless and I hope everyone weekend are a little less stressful than mine


Scott Ekstrom

An Unexpected completion

So I since i've been here I've done 3 things I didn't think I'd accomplish so early in my trip. I'm almost 2 weeks in and things are really moving.

# 1
So I'll start with the most obvious of them all. As you can tell by the pictures I went horse back riding. Some of the guys are work told me "Oh your going to Guerrero, cool man those guys are crazy, they're all a bunch of crazy Mexican rancheros(Cowboys)" So I was secretly looking forward to getting on a horse and riding in the wilderness with a bunch of cattle. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the cattle but taking a picture of cattle was the least on my mind when I was trying to guide my horse up and down 30 or 40 degree rolling hills. One thing I can say was the horse that I got was a Hoss. I should have called him Benjamin the Boss, not Francisco. Susi and Andy's horses weren't exactly full of vigor and excitement. Andy's horse would only run to catch up with my horse. Thankyou Brittany for all those lessons on how to back up and turn a horse properly because it came in handy, Seriously. it was so funny Andy actually had to get off and guide his horse of some obstacles. One thing I did learn is if you don't get off you horse for an hour you still walk like you're on one for about 2 days.

# 2
About the only thing I can handle watching on TV is the Olympics and that is broadcasted at weird times so that hasn't been a priority. Although Michael Phelps getting 8 Gold metal is really cool. What I'm trying to say is if I tried to watch TV I would melt my brain because it's so hard to follow and understand Highschool Musical, Spiderman, Bring It On, or even Power Rangers in Spanish. So today I finished my first book since I've been here. I have bunch of books that I brought down because I thought I might do some reading. I picked this one out at Borders mainly because I thought the cover was interesting. Once I started reading it I got suck in because it's about making your dreams become a reality and living those dreams so that you can play a part in a God sized dream. Just because some of our dreams don't fit perfectly in a little box or the road traveled will be hard doesn't mean that God won't be able to turn to challenges and difficulties into a glorious display of God's awesome involvement and power as we become a tool for his kingdom. It's called Wide Awake by Erwin Raphael McManus and it's very inspiring to actually live out your dreams. Once again I would like to thank all the people that have made this dream possible for me. As I work here for the Kingdom and as my arrival back to the states will mark the next step in doing ministry to a growing Hispanic community.

# 3
So number three was completely unplanned for the things I would have accomplished in my first 2 weeks in Mexico. When I'm working on the family farm the endless battle is changing tires. Ron Johnson is are resident tire changing expert but we have plenty of flat tires to share between Brandon, Steve, Mike, Dan, ........, and I. Down here it proves to be no different. I think I mentioned up above that everyone needs to teach their children how to change tires because I changed one tire less than a week into the trip. 3 days later I was taking a tire to the repair shop with Susi to repair a tire that had been slashed. 6 days after that we had the coolest of the experiences on the game we call "Tire Problems". Coming back late from horse back riding at a local ranch we had a tire actually blow out. We hadn't even gotten off the ranch property. The tire completely unfolded which was awsome. I've only seen tires like that laying on the side of the highway, I've never actually been the car with the blow out. So continueing the story rode back with the Ranch Owner and then fixed it at 9:30 at night after a church event. Andy and I would have been able to do it in day light the next day but he forgot the keys so we were and hour behind the sun. Good times.



God Bless


Scott Ekstrom

Little confused these are the pictures

These are the drama pictures sorry I got confused when I was posting last night

Scott

Pictures of the kids working on their DRAMA

This is the same Dunes drama that was so impactful. It was just a suggestion and I didn't know if it would have the same response, culturally. The kids loved and really pulled it off very well. They did add a little of their own flavor. I wouldn't have guessed face paint but it worked well.

So I guess I've been busy

All week I've been thinking I should post but I didn't really know what would be interesting to everybody. I felt like I wasn't really that active and didn't have any cool pictures to share. So I'm sorry for the delay. But now that I'm looking to Friday and a weekend of activities I guess I've been busy. So I'll try to share the highlights.

Monday is a day to relax I was told but apparently they just do jobs that take all day because they are difficult. My full day jobs was to change the oil on the Express Van. It's a longer job than changing the oil on a tractor. I had to find filter in town by my self, find an oil pan by my self, clean an area so I wasn't working on the car in Ant/Scorpion priority area. Oh then I actually had to change the oil as well.

On Tuesday I went to the market by myself. I didn't take a camera so I don't have any cool pictures of some fairly disconserting OSHA violation. I went to the market to buy platanos(bananas) and also buy some papas(patatoes). I bought about 6 bananas for 10 pesos ($1 US) and 5 medium size patatoes for a 10 pesos as well. I can buy a FANTA or any soda for about 5 maybe 6 pesos if I want the big bottle. Crazy how far 10 pesos can go. I talked to a lady that sold plastics off in the corner of the market because she was really the only person interested in talking. I tried talking with the produce people but business was booming and everyone else was stealing their business when this dumb white kid was trying to practice his Spanish. SHOO SHOO!!!

I was also drafted into a project at the school which needs to be finished because school starts in 2 weeks. It's kind of a soft spot for me not only because of the language barrier but also the solution is more commonly sold in the states not Mexico. We're trying to create a barrier between the roof and the support beams so iguanas and large bugs don't crawl into the school so often. We're trying to figure out a new solution because I can't cut out 250 feet of custom cut plywood inserts in 2 weeks. It's not level to begin with it has about a 2 in variance within 75 feet so it will be interesting what we come up with for our final product. When in Rome.


On Wednesday I went traveling with Tim Wood. I'll try to post as many pictures as possible, but it wouldn't do it justice. The week earlier if you remember Tim was a missionary camp with a bunch of kids. This week the kids are on their mission doing VBS and a Drama. Actually they really bought into the same drama that my kids at GSCC did for Dunes. But with a Mexican flavor, well done though. Back to my trip. We saw some interesting road signs as the picture show. Some of the signs were less than 2 feet apart. Tim and I traveled all day to the coast line of Oaxaca, and all around Guerrero which is the Mexican state I live in. We went to a town that was litterally built on sand and about a 40 minute walk from the beach. Also saw the lowland which very just soft rolling mounds not really hills. Before we went back into the hills near Ometepec which is where I live. More like mountains from my opinion. We left at 11:00 in the morning and didn't get back until 7:45 PM. It was a long day and Tim might have stayed out longer if it wasn't for the fact that he had a church meeting at 8:00.

Today's construction project at the school almost went better. Key word almost. I'm running conduit for the schools network. I ran out of conduit fairly quickly and had to stop for about an hour until 39 meter of conduit could be bought. Yes I said meters everything is done in cm. and meters so I've not only been learning spanish but also getting a refresher on metric system. My teachers were right I will use this stuff.

Tomorrow it's up in the air for what I will do. Either I will run soccer practice or I may go horse back riding. I haven't confirmed anything and nothing will be nailed down until the morning because you kinda have to be flexible around here.

I'd also appreciate some pray. I'm getting over a runny noise(nariz) and my extra medicine which is being shipped UPS is in exception. What does exception means, the technical meaning of it from what I found on the internet is that it is except from showing up on time. Which would have been tomorrow?

Blessing to all

Scott E

So I've been to a Spanish speaking church serve before but down in Ometepec apparently they do two serves on Sunday. In the morning at 10:00 they have a time were everyone comes together and does prayer request. The after that today Dr. Tom who I met a couple days ago at a birthday party prayed over every request with the corporate body. Side Note: It took a lot of time we had a lot of prayers to get through. Then everyone breaks up and goes to sunday school classes. That's not it, then they come and do anouncements and talk about joining a growth group. And today we had an added treat. The little kids did a bible verse together with Andy. (Which freaked the little kids out because he started the verse wrong) Then we had a showdown. Elementary group 1 VS. elementary group 2. We had a score board and everything. They just recited as many Bible verses as they could. I think I heard a couple repeats and I don't think all the verses recited fully. But if a kid to say 4 or 5 words and tack on a Psalm 94:4, Proverbs 12:5, or Mark 6:2 give the kid a point.

Oh yeah then we go back tonight and have the actuall sermon. We're real busy and doing our best to stay ahead of the game. Hope everyone is having a great summer. Try walking to church it's great excersise, oh and make sure you wear your dress pants and dress shoes because it's church and you need to look nice. I did it and it's was only 86 degrees out @ 10:00. Talk about improving you prayer life. "God please don't let me pass out from heat exaustion before I even make it to my first church serve.


Scott

I haven't forgotten, I'm just really busy

The picutres are from my excursion on the 7th
Although it may look like I'm having fun, seeing alot of cool things, speaking alot of Spanish. Believe me when I say certain things I'm missing. Por ejemplo: (Mi casa dulce a casa. = My home sweet home.) But for the time being I happy with were I'm at. I didn't have time to blog all this down some I'll give you a quick breakdown of what my journal says.

8/4/08
Plane ride was fine for a red eye, I don't know why both flight I got stuck next to the crying babies but no me gusta. Once I hit the ground at Houston I realized I was going to miss alot of my Friends and Family and BRI. Thanks again for all the people that supported me at any point in the journey (Support, Baptizism, Prayer,............ and more)

8/5/08
I slept in till noon. The day before, I flew in to Acupulco and had to go to the orthodontist before leaving for Ometepec, we didn't arrive till 9:30 . I can't believe how tired I was. I didn't set my alarm properly because I set it to Pacific Time not Central. SO what I thought was 10:30 was actually 12:30 OOPS.

8/6/08
Went around town to the market and town square to see a play and buy fruit with Susi Wood and then later to buy a new bottle of tooth paste with Andy. Stupid security check at the airport. Got a general layout of the town. Later that night we went to a birthday party for the school director where I will be working during the school year. Wow (the party deserves it's own blog post but first I need to get the video. So give me a couple day's.

8/7/08
Woke up at 6:40 made Scotty style scrambled eggs. I still hadn't seen Tim Wood yet because he's been at missionary camp in the jungle. But we drove an 1.5 houts to see him and help with the day's activity's. The road into the jungle was terrible and had only about a 100 yard stretch of pavement the rest was clay that was semi carved into the side of a mountain. we had 9 people in one suburban in 95* heat and high humidity. AAAHHHH. Once at camp I help act in a drama. Only SPANISH. We left there and started to drive back when we got a flat tire. Of course the guy on the farm must have a lot of experience so make him do it. Besides he's the only one who has ever changed a tire. People please instill this quality in your children teach them to change a tire.

8/8/08
Ryan and Jenna are having a wedding tonight sorry I missed guys

Today I went to a teachers meeting that took about 4 hours in a room without AC. Then ate lunch went to take a knap when Andy came in a asked if I was coming to soccer practice with the kids. 9 kids showed up so I bought everyone Fanta because I decided it was "Fanta Friday" Next week it's "Fresca Friday"

Sorry this post is so long I will try harder. Alot has been happening here I just wanted to keep you up to date.

Scott Ekstrom

This is just an apology post I'm sorry I haven't been able to post as much as I had wished I'm going to do my best to get this thing working like a well oiled machine. "This thing" I'm talking about is my body, "Man it is HOT HOT HOT did I mention HUMID" I may not work like a well oiled machine but maybe my sweat is going to make up for that. Seriously the desert wasn't as bad at least the hotels had AC.

Scott Ekstrom