Driving Through My Eyes

the tail effects of the swine flu.

2009-05-05T08:44:00.001-07:00

I want to express my thoughts on this swine flu. I really am confused at how and why the media can take whatever news it wants and blow it to this proportion. Over a week ago CNN was reporting that there were over 2000 cases of swine flu in Mexico when the world wide number is still below 1200 today.

I was in Mexico City when the hype was hitting and it was almost impossible not to get caught up in the fear. They were making announcements about the swine flu, passing out free masks, and giving surveys about the illness. The scary thing was that I had all the symptoms of the swine flu. I sat in the airport with a headache, fever, achy, stuffy nose, and a cough. Mentally I knew it was impossible that I had the swine flu but in the back of my head the pandemonium made me doubt it. For the next week I watched the news unfold as I continued to have all these symptoms but my doctor told me this was all a media hype.

I think we have to be very careful what we trust in, even the news. Now a week later the headlines have changed to a new fad. It went from Saudi Arabian pirates, to swine flu, to who knows what this week. We need to remember that the love of Christ casts out all fear but the media thrives on this fear so you will return to it time and time again. I'm not cursing the news but just saying that we need to be careful how we let it shape us.

a Change.

2009-04-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

Monday I left Nicaragua and the orphanage and came to Mexico where I spent last summer. It was a decision made very quickly but I had a huge peace about making. It is very hard to express the whole story that led me to this place in a blog.

I was working with an orphanage that admittedly had problems in their organization and they are looking for people to spend years there to help fix the problems. There was also a demand to commit a lot of time there for the sake of the kids. A horrible fact of orphanages is that the kids are the only ones who can’t leave. I have seen how these boys have lived their lives with people continuing to come in and out every 6 months, 1 year, or possibly 3 years but they are always there.

For these two reasons, I was always debating if the orphanage was really a place that I wanted to pour out my heart for the next 5 years mainly for the sake of a consistency to the boys. As time passed I realized that this place was not that place for me.

I thought if I stayed 3 more months I would be faced with the same faltering decision if I was going to stay 6 more months or not and didn’t see a long term commitment in the future. More details to follow.

Back in Los Cedros.

2009-04-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

I am back in los cedros with the boys and the crew. I spent my last weekend in Matagalpa hiking up to the top of this mountain over viewing Matagalpa. I learned a whole lot of spanish while i was in Matagalpa. I pretty much only spoke in english when i talked to my mom or translated anything for the school. This has proven to clearly be the best way to learn another language. I will definetly plug this school becuase i thought of it to be very professional. http://www.matagalpatours.com/

Now that I am back in Los Cedros, I am left to make some big decisions here in Los Cedros. If I am going to stay I want to stay for another long little while to continue to make a impact in the boys lifes. But I am not confident that I have a true role in this organization. I am working that out with the leadership these next few weeks. Please be praying that Lord will show me a direction to go and make it clear to me.
Thanks for listening.
KB

clebrating the resurrection with high school nicaraguan catholics.

2009-04-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

The week before easter is a huge week for the Central American culture. No one works and they have many celebrations of the resurrection and the time leading to Easter. Yesterday I went with one of my friends I have met up here at matagalpa to a youth rally to celebrate the resurrection. There were close to 2000 high school aged kids that came to this one day conference at 7AM.

They had a few different speakers and a lot of music and at 3 PM we began to walk back down the mountain behind the cross to the local cathedral in the town. It was about 3 miles that they closed down one side of the highway for us to walk all the way to the steps of the cathedral where they had a closing ceremony and the bishop of the country spoke a word to the kids. It was a really interesting ceremony.

more stories from semana santa (holy week) to come...

Language school.

2009-03-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

Today Finished my first week of language school. Nearly 5 days of nothing but spanish 24/7. I thought/did learn a lot of spanish in my first week. They taught me a lot of the little grammatical things that I never knew from only learning from talking and listening for 6 months.

I have two sessions of class a day. All instruction is given in spanish and normally we finish each session with about 30 min of practicing what i just learned. For the most part in a slow thought intesnive spanish I could carry a 30 min convo without to much trouble almost understanding all of it. Then today I went to work in a carpentry shop with some friends of the family i am staying with. After speaking spanish for four days with people who spoke a clear perfect spanish I was ready to speak in the workshop like a nicaraguan.

When I met the owner of the shop and he asked me the first question I thought it was whats your name but i wasn't dead sure. I spent the whole day struggling through understanding their spanish. Imagine this. It is best described like trying to understand another language in a loud workshop with dusk masks speaking the dirtiest "southern" spanish you can find. Needless to say it was a challenge...

Besides this things are going well....

language school...

2009-03-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

Monday I started language school where I am talking and practicing spanish 100% of the day. I have a 1-on-1 teacher 5 hours a day and live with a family that only speaks spanish. I have learned a lot of spanish only practicing in Nicaragua but shcool is very helpful. I am learning that even though I know some things about some of the most complicated verbs in spanish, I still fail to know very simple things like if problems takes on a feminine or masculine pronoun...

Time will tell but I will be continuing to study in school for the next two weeks...

Out of date.

2009-03-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been really eventful. I was going to language school for a few weeks when I got called up to the other orphanage to reinforce the roof before they could get solar panels installed. Me, Chris and two of the workers went up there for this past week to do the work before the solar panels got there.

I will be going to language school Monday for two weeks where I will be living with a family and fully immersed speaking only spanish all the time. I am excited to see where this will take me over the next little bit of time and and am considering extending that time depending on how much progress I make.

I have been spending more and more time with the 11 teenage boys lately. I have been trying to teach them different skills that they can use in the real world. Currently I am trying to teach them English. Here in Nicaragua if you speak english you have an almost automatic decent paying job working as a translator. I am currently looking for good ESL (english second language) teaching material. If anyone knows of some material that is very helpful please tell me about it.

Lastly something that has been a long time coming is Michael got his hearing aids this past saturday. It was really cool to get to see him to be able to fully hear for the first time in his 7 year life. I am uploading this video of him repeating the words that i say to him. Thank you so much if you gave me some money to help towards this cause.

For some reason I can't load a video now but will bring it soon.

Sweet update on Michael

2009-03-05T18:46:00.000-08:00

I went to the doctor today to find out more information about Micheal's situation. We have an appointment Saturday when Julio has the day off to go and get Micheal fitted for his hearing aid. After this process, she said that the hearing aids should be ready Monday. I had no clue that the process was that close to fullfillment but He should be hearing as soon as Monday.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

KB

the uncompromisables

2009-02-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to a woman's house that lives just right outside the largest dump in Latin America, La Chureca, to pray. This woman, Ruby, and her family have spent the last 20 years right outside this dump ministering and praying for these people. Her family is a powerful testimony by their faithfulness to what God called them to do the last 20 years.

Somehow in just making conversation, all the most confrontational topics about the bible came up; if you had to be baptized to be saved, where your righteousness comes from, can women be pastors, can you lose your salvation.

One girl with us had recently started walking with the Lord and she was not baptized. And they began to tell her she had to get baptized if she really wanted to be saved.

On the ride back we began talking about it and realized that a few of them were really shaken up by the different views that Ruby had compared to themselves. They dwelled on these things for the next few hours of what is true and what is false against the word of God. I was just thinking how imporant it is to know the things that you will not compromise about your faith. For me, the one thing that stands out is the truth that God sent Jesus Christ to take on flesh and die for our sins by the pouring out of his blood on the cross.

I think we need to know our uncompromisables about our faith. Things that if they are changed, they change the message of the gospel. It is clear the bible opens the opportunities for people to stand on both sides of a lot of topics but there are a few that if you change them you change the way you follow Christ. I challenege you to look for those things for you and as said in 1 peter 3:15
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

Michael.

2009-02-19T04:26:00.000-08:00

So last Monday, Julio, Michael, and I went to the doctor to see about Michael getting a hearing aid. When we went we found out that they had to reschedule the appointment for the 13th. This was last Friday. So we took the bus home and wasted 1/2 a day for nothing. This this past Friday We took the 1hour and a half bus ride back to the doctor to have Michael tested.

When we got there, 2 min early, we were informed this appointment was the 13th of March not Feb. I was so disappointed that we wasted another half a day. So we went around Managua looking for another place to have him tested and found a woman that could do it that day at 3PM.

We had a few hours to kill but came back and got Michael tested. He is able to hear out of both ears and hearing aids will solve his problem which is a huge blessing. At this place they will cost 750 dollars and require a certain amount of maintenance. Like changing the batteries every month and getting the piece refit for his ear every 6months to a year. We have been talking about whether we are going to go with this place or shop for a better price. I will keep you posted soon...

excitement rises and falls in a day...

2009-02-09T19:04:00.001-08:00

Disclaimer: This blog entry is slightly dramatic for the affects of a good story but strictly based on true facts that happened today...

Today, more stuff went wrong than any other day I think I have ever been apart of.

The water lines had two main leaks.
The house for well was blown over by the wind.
I took an hour and half bus ride to Managua for a doctor's appointment only to find out it was Friday not today.
We had a fire that burned 75% of our property but didn't get to any buildings.
I ruined one of my best pants fighting the fire.
We ruined a tire on the tractor fighting the fire.

The orphanage owns 85 acres and 75% of burned in what started was a brush fire. Quite the excitement. Basically the whole property was covered in weeds over head high and we frantically tried to stop it from coming on the property for 4 hours as we watched it come with little success. Then when it came crunch time where it was either put out the fire or lose vegetable plants we succeed.

At about the same time two fire trucks came 1 hour and 45 min after we called them and came to the agreement that if they came we would pay for their gas. They fought the fires for about an hour, I paid them 25 bucks 6 liters of soda and a bag of bread thinking the day was over at 5PM.

Then I get a call at about 5:15 while I am enjoying my own soda at the front end of the property that the fire has returned. For the next two hours we fought the fire by smothering it with large leafy branches.

Life in Los Cedros.

2009-02-08T15:12:00.001-08:00

It has been a while since I have posted and to be honest life has just been life around here the past few weeks. I have been building some storage rooms inside of a large storage shed to protect the items from rats and dust the past week and just working more and more with the boys, trying to shape them into men.

Julio's kid Michael went to the doctor on Thursday and he has another appointment to go back for another exam on Monday. I am hoping this process will come to an end soon but like all things in nicaragua, they are slow and normally even slower than you expect.

Tara and Jennifer, two girls i went to college with, have been here at the orphanage for almost a month now. It has been the best thing to have people that i am already familiar with and can relate to. Just having 2 people freshly out of college operating and thinking on similar wave levels is awesome. This has been a huge answer to prayer seeing as though before Christmas there was a large community gap here at the orphanage.

I promise to get some pics of Michael up sometime this week. FYI if you don't know Michael is Julio's kid who is nearly deaf but 6 years old so he cannot talk. Some of my friends and family while i was in the states gave me some money to buy him a hearing aid.

Life in the country.

2009-01-23T04:19:00.000-08:00

I have been back about 3 weeks now and have gotten back in to the swing of things. I have begun to take steps to get Julio's kid hearing aids. We found a place that only charges $12.50 for each doctor visit and then helps him to find the cheapest hearing aids possible. I am hoping to get a picture of Michael soon to post on here. Your prayers are still continually appreciated as this process can be very difficult in a third world country.
2 of my friends that I went to college
with came down here a week after I did for three months. It truly has been the biggest blessing to have some consistent people around. Since most of the missionaries here at the orphanage are in a completely different walk of life than me or live off the property, serious lack of community was something I experienced for first time in my life. It really taught me about the importance of relationships with other believers and why the bible empathizes community so much. But needless to say these two girls have been a huge breath of fresh air to me and Fifo here at the orphanage.

All of us at the beach.

we had a party with a pinata and this shows how all ages will still fight for candy.

Jamie Ripped his fingernail off so I played Doctor Baynard tofix it.

Ehh...

2009-01-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

So I told you about the school that I visited. All day wed I prayed and thought about the opportunity I had. Upon thinking and praying about it I just felt that it was not for me, even though it seemed so right. Thanks for your prayers but for now I am going to hold tight in Los Cedros and even pursue some opportunities here.

Yesterday the Tia's (aunt's) had the little kids make their own kites and then fly them in the wind. I felt this was something only best explained in photos. FYI Celeste in the picture flew much better than any kites that day.

Joseph

Yelkin in the foreground and Jose in the background

Celeste Flying through the Nicaraguan Sky.

Opportunity....

2009-01-14T10:35:00.001-08:00

Even though I just got settled in Los Cedros to work here at the orphanage yesterday I looked at making a move. When I first came back I just felt that maybe my time here was up and this couldn't be a place I was at long term. So I began to explore other opportunities.

Within a few hours, I found a ywam, youth with a mission, school in a small town called diriamba about an hour from here. They had an opening for a construction facilities manager in Sept. But to work with them you have to attend their mission training school that is 5 months long and it starts monday. I went to visit them yesterday and see what I thought and to get a feel for the place.

They had everything that I was looking for. A beautiful property, people from all cultures including nicaragua and other latin american countries. The climate there is amazing and it is in the middle of a larger town than Los Cedros. Now I am left to pray about this situation for the next few days before i decide.

I know that it would be good for me and I would learn a lot but I want some confirmation that this is a place I could spend some time and not just go to school for 5 months and be at the same place. Please pray that I will get some confirmation in that over the next few days.

Over and Out

2009-01-06T01:15:00.000-08:00

Sorry I took a few weeks off as i took a few weeks off of my journey. I wanted to sincerely thank everyone that gave me money to help Julio's (the guy I have lived with the last two months I was here) son Michael get a hearing aid. Julio may claim Christianity as many people in the States do but he does not act on these things. I am excited to see how this gift to his family will lead to conversatoins about Christ's Love.

I ask that yall will continue to pray for me as I am down here. Just in the hour that I have been here, I have felt the desire to pray for change and Christ's Love to be re-instated in these communities but also the burden that the mountain is so high and the climb is so long.

Thank you,

More stories to come.

Home Sweet Home.

2008-12-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

Well I am in the states for the holidays. As most of yall know by now I surprised my mom and came home for Thanksgiving lunch without her knowing. I was hoping to get a picture of this but was unable to. Needless to say she was over joyed that I did not miss Thanksgiving.

The overall time spent in Nicaragua was really good and i realized that i learned more than i ever thought i did. From the beginning of a new language, to blending into a new culture, to the Nicaraguan bus services.

I will be home through Christmas and going back in the end of December or first of January. I will try to remain somewhat updated with how things are going stateside.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded.

2008-11-25T14:38:00.000-08:00

So this family came in from Boston for a month. And there were everything hippy short of marijuana and dreads but really cool people. They were on the leading edge of getting Green and getting off the oil dependency. He gave me this book I began to read called Hot,Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Freidman.

The lines out of this book are frightening. It speaks of how the stunning population growth is meeting the energy crisis. The answer we have had is to just use more oil and burn more coal which has slowly made the quality of water and air worse and worse. He claims at the rate things are happening, if we do not take drastic steps in the next 5 years we could enter a point of irresistibility of the living conditions of the world.

I know it sounds out landish and somewhat drastic but the cold numbers are very daughtning. Check it out. I am sure i will post some more about this book later....

only pictures....

2008-11-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

A different World

2008-11-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

So in the shadow of the country that seems to ring around the world, Nicaragua had their own election for mayor and other municipliaties. Honestly, I think it was just for mayor of Managua but so some reason the whole country voted... Nor real sure.

But there is a huge problem with corruption here. Somehow ancient cheating principles still fly here. The current gov't in charge FSLN reportedly worked the voting precincts in areas that were more heavily PLC, the rival party. There were several reports of the FSLN precinct workers opening the polls late and closing them early not giving PLC voters enough time to vote. Other corrupt stories include some precincts reporting 100% votes for FSLN and 0 votes for PLC.

You would think in the year 2008, with all the technology people would know that you can't steal 100% of the votes and get a way with it. They write this stuff down and its as simple as looking at the records. Anyway we are 4 days after the elections and at night the differing parties get in rock fights in the road and anywhere from 1-4 people have died from the fights and there is still not a real clear winner.

on the rocks

2008-11-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

so i was supposed to go fishing this weekend for the second weekend in a row but it didn't work out again so me and julio and lester went a beach... We hung out and watched some little kids fish instead of getting to go out on a boat ourselves. Over to left there were a bunch of rocks that were sticking way out of the ocean. I wanted to get a picture of the waves hitting the rocks and spraying up so I walked over there and Julio followed as my bodyguard.

When I got over there I left my bookbag with Julio and climbed on top of the rocks with just my camera. On the ocean side the water was about 10' down below the rocks and waves were hitting it and I got a few good photos. As I was waiting for one more photo, a wave came that broke over the rocks and knocked me down but luckily i didn't fall off the rocks.

As I was standing back up I saw another wave, bigger that was coming. It was more like 3 or 4 feet over the rocks. I just laid down in defeat trying to hold on to the rocks to no avail. It knocked me off the rocks and i fell down on the backside about 10 feet. I landed somewhat on my feet but got several cuts and bruises including some horrible bruises on the bottom of my feet.

Needless to say I lost my camera and any awesome photos that I got from the photo shoot. This blogs picutres have been suspended until further notice.

The local Dump.

2008-11-06T05:31:00.000-08:00

Nicaragua, specifically Mangua is known for their dumps. La Chureca is the local city dump that sits on lake front property of a beautiful lake. But due to poor care the floor of the lake is over half way covered in plastic bags. But this dump is home for anywhere from 1500-2000 people. You can google it and see pictures of people who spend their days fighting for first rights to pick through other people's trash for anything possibly salvageable including their food. It is very sad.

I don't take my trash to that dump but to one much closer and much smaller but the problems are the same. There are four boys that all but live there. Every time I drive up they are running to my truck barefoot and shirtless ready to pick through my trash. I always bring them whatever food I can get my hands on and unload my own trash to give them a break. I also try and spend a couple of minutes to just talk to them, to be someone who cares enough to know their name.

This last time, I made two runs on the way home the first time I was expressing to Julio how i wanted to share the Bible with them and help them on their walk of life. On my second trip i found a ratty old book in the dumb that was the new testament. I asked the boys if they knew what this was and then looked at me like i was crazy, it was a book duh. Then I realized these kids can't read, and they barely know how to write their own name. They are 9-13 years old and don't go to school and have no one that really forces them to do anything. I am trying to get these kids enrolled in school and teach them that without learning these things they will live at the dump the rest of their lives.

I made a deal with these kids. I would buy them a new pair of clothes, bookbag, shoes, and notebooks if they would go to school. I go to the dump every week and they would have to show me their homework to prove that they went to school. Pray that this will work for these kids and the Lord will show them somehow that they need to learn these things to survive in this world.

a long post coming

2008-10-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry, after moving out of the orphanage my time on the internet has become more scarce, limiting the time I can post blogs. I promise to get better soon.

There have been many stories since I have moved into Julio’s house. Stories about his wife making his kid write the sentence “El Chele es Malo” The white man is bad, getting to read the bible with Julio, having his nieces just look at me and giggle while saying look a gringo along with many others. But this weekend was worth telling the whole story.

So me and Julio and his kid and 2 nieces and 1 nephew took the bus to a little down at the beach where his dad lives. We walked around the town where everyone wanted to at least shout at the gringo walking through town. There was a baseball game going on with people ages 15-50 playing in all different uniforms. We walked down to a little shanty on beach front property where his cousin lived. His cousin is a professional fisherman and invited me to go out with him next weekend. After that we went to a real Nicaraguan rodeo where you could do anything you wanted after you paid 30 cords ($1.50). That included hang out in the bull ring, ride a bull if you want, or grab a piece of red cloth to provoke the bull.

We left early to try and catch the last bus out of town for the night but we were 15 min late and were stuck in the town for the night. We went to the local carnival with some of Julio’s friends and rode a few rides and called it a night. Woke up at 4:30 AM to catch the first bus back to Los Cedros where we made it to work only 5 min late.

more post to come with better quality i promise.

My New House.

2008-10-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

So this week I moved out of the orphanage and into a house with one of the guys I work with, Julio. I did this because I really feel more than to be in Nicaragua for the kids, the Lord sent me here to reach the everyday people. I also moved out because I wanted to learn more Spanish.

So now in a given day I wake up at 5 at Juilio's house and eat breakfast and get dressed and go to work at the orphanage with Julio. We work until 3 or 4 and then we go home to his wife and kid. She serves us bread and coffee and we just watch some TV or talk until dinner at whatever time we want when she gets it for us. Then we study spanish and he studies english until we go to bed.

But I hit a new culture shock with the relationship of him and his wife. I knew that Latin American women were very much domesticated and did most of the house work. But Julio does not lift a finger for anything. If he wants some coffee, she gets it for him. It is hard to even have that conversation because it is clear that this is all he has ever known.

More stories from the house of Julio are sure to come.

Picture of the Orphanage.

2008-10-08T18:25:00.000-07:00

My daily routine consists of waking up at 5 and walking straight to the kitchen for some coffee. I talk to the cook for a few minutes while i wait for the coffee to brew and then head back to my room to study some Spanish or read the word. As I was walking back to my room I saw this rainbow and took a few pictures. This is a picture overlooking the kitchen

Since the orphanage has 85 acres we have to have roads inside the orphanage to drive around with the tractor and what not... Due to the rainy season you really need four wheel drive to drive on the roads.... here is an example of the road honestly in decent condition due to the fact we didn't have that much rain the day i took this picture... Sometimes you can't see any mud inbetween the huge puddle... basically the road become the grand rio.... the big river of the property...

Hiking in Nicaragua.

2008-10-05T17:58:00.000-07:00

Note: To keep this blog post interesting, there could be slight dramatization but it will be very slight and this is based on a true story and I have photos to prove it.

Today, I went hiking with Julio and Jamie, my two nica friends that i work with. I was out running some errands so i picked Julio up at his house at 145 as he looked as though he was still in the bed about 15 min before i got there. We drove back to my house and I got dressed before walking over to Jamie's.

The walk over to Jamie's is actually when the hike began. I live on 85 acres that is never mowed so the walk out the back of the property was like me and Julio playing Lewis and Clark across Nicaragua. When we got to the back of the property there is a river dividing Los Cedros and Monte Fresco. Since it had rained alot today there were no rocks to hop across on... you had to walk through and soak you boots and pants too (picture attached)

Once we waded through the river and lost 2 oxen and our entire supply of wheat we made it to Jamie's house. As usual, there were about 20+ people at his house and they were all family. I was introduced to everyone and maybe caught two or 3 of their names. The three of us took off for the summit with three of his family members following us.

After traversing the rigid slippery soil of Nicaragua and finishing the climb with an exhausting rock climb to the summit, we made it. We just hung out for a while and talked about our future plans of buying cows and which land would be most plentiful for them to eat on (not dramatized).

The second picture is the property of the orphanage. They own all property from the tower to the next tree line. The huge red building is the bodega, or shed for tools. This is my kinda place where the bodega is the biggest building on the property.

A taste of the culture.

2008-10-02T20:50:00.000-07:00

So the culture here is slower and things that we find important are not labeled as important and time is not as important. This is true of all of the Latin American culture but i think Nicaragua is one of the worst.

Tuesday, Aldofo dropped the kids off for school a little early and they showed back up an hour later because school was canceled due to the rain. It is not like rain is a foreign concept here. They have only two seasons here, the rainy season and the dry season. Another employee on monday did not come to work. On tuesday, when I asked her about it, she said, it was raining all morning.

A Nicaraguan weekend

2008-09-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was able to experience another side of Nicaragua as a typical Nicaraguan. On Sat. I was planning on trying to sleep past 6:30 before the sweat hit me. I had the fan on full blast and was laying in bed when i heard "Kevin, nesicitamos las llaves?" The two guys that work here needed the tractor keys about 7:30 because the guy we asked to come on wed. to get down about 60 trees showed up today.

Contrary to plans I put my boots on for a day of work. We cut down about 60 trees ranging from 20-60 feet into 6 foot sections and loaded them on a trailer all day in what seemed like the hottest day I have experienced. Once again I got outworked by the locals. The bottom post of the big trees weighed between 250-300 lbs and after lunch i was not able to pick them up unlike the Nicaraguans.

After work they invited me to watch the big fight, a nican vs. an american. I was super excited to get to to just hang out with all nicans for the first time. Julio came to the orphanage and I drove over to Jamie's house. Clearly they don't have cars but i was not going to walk 4 or 5 KM in the middle of a nican neighborhood at 11 or 12 at night after the fight.

Jamie lived in a two room house with dirt floors with two lights and two outlets. I think it is a life long proces to fix up your house because his parents lived in a very nice ceramic tiled floor house right next door. It is crazy to think that i have more invested in this laptop i am typing on then he does his house. They know everything that I have and even though i am a little ashamed to know that fact, but I pray that my wealth doesn't distance me from them.

I promise more pictures now that i can load them from my camera.

The simple beauty of google and technology

2008-09-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

So today, living in this third world country, I found this amazing technology called Google. I am not sure if you know about it in America but apparently it does a lot.

It has this one feature that I used today. I had to do all the electrical wiring for a bathroom but had no clue how to do it so I just used the Google search option on my iPod touch. I was able to find a detailed diagram.

I then carried my iPod to the job site and carried out the diagram in real life. It was pretty amazing to see that all the wiring I did worked on the first try thanks to google. Check if out. www.google.com

Moving towards a goal

2008-09-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

The older boys here are, for the most part, good kids but have little

direction or motivation to do things. In their free time, which this

past week was all day because they didn't have school, they either

wreak havok or sit around and through the ball.

Chris and I decided that we were going to plant a garden and teach the

boys a little bit about farming. We worked in the field all morning

explaining every step of what we were doing. When we were done, we

drank some pepsi and read the parable of the sower and talked about

it.

As cliche as that sounds, the boys really need to see a man that

reads and strives to live out the Bible. There is little masculine

influence at the orphanage compared to women. Coming from a culture

where women are not respected and your dad's mistress is practically

dinner conversation, the need for solid men is great.

An American-Nican weekend

2008-09-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend was Independence day, so the city shut down on Monday. I lived it up big time this weekend--not like the Nican I have tried to become but just like a typical gringo for a change. Saturday, I went to the mall to just walk around and look at overpriced clothing and merchandise. You can live real cheap here, but our common luxuries are
ungodly expensive. For example. I clearly went to the hardware store in the mall and a 200 dollar drill was 449 and a 100 dollar saw was 239.

Sunday I didn't go to church because we have rotate and play guard on Sunday mornings. It consisted of me sitting around and practicing Spanish on the cook. Then at lunch we went to the beach to go surfing, and I tried my best at a very difficult sport standing up on 2 or 3 waves. Monday consisted of another surfing trip and the movies. Monday,
I successfully road a wave from the break to the shore. Enough rush to make me go again.

It was a refreshing weekend before entering the Nican workforce again.

Known similarities of Nicaragua and Mexico

2008-09-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

Construction machinery consists of your two hands, no matter how deep

your holes are.

The Internet is horrible in the rain.

Meeting times are set with up to an hour of leeway.

Public transportation is slighty chaotic but great.

If you have white skin. Girls like you. Period.

Everything is made of concrete.

Living Among Your Mission Field

2008-09-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

The Lord calls us to go and make disciples of the world. We are all called to be reaching people with the love of Christ. I have learned to effectively show a person the love of Christ, you must at some level become like them. Some of the missionaries here live like a white collar worker. In a world, where minimum wage is 65 dollars a
month, some of these missionaries stay in 350-500 dollar a month apartment complexes. In a town where very few people have cars, some missionaries are driving 20,000 dollar cars...25 years of a minimum wage workers salary.

I would never say to be wealthy and have nice things is outright sinful but you must look at who you think the Lord is telling you to reach. As my dream is being fulfilled, to work beside local poor Nicaraguans every day doing construction, their attitudes towards this lifestyle show. They outright tell me that they don't respect some of
the people that work here because they show up and tell them what to do and leave.

I know that they are first and foremost here for the kids but i see the workers as a huge opportunity to begin to change the community. If you began to change workers into people that can change others, you began to improve the whole community.

Phillipans 2 says that our attitude should be like Jesus that even though he was God he humbled himself to become a man and was obedient to that... all the way to obedience of death on a cross. I think that we need to chew on how Jesus didn't just tell us how to live but walked beside us and showed us how to live too.

How much does it rain

2008-09-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

So they told me about rainy season and how it lasts all of September and part of October. I thought I experienced a rainy season in Mexico when it rained like every other day for about 45 minutes. Well, here it has rained for 12 straight days at least 3 times a day.

To give you perspective... Today it was raining, and I had, at most, a 15 foot run to the truck, and in those 15 feet, I fell in two puddles up to my calf that covered the bottom half of my body in water and the minimum of 5 gallons that fell on my head and soaked my t-shirt. After making the same run back into my house, I had to change all my clothes to get dry.

Last night, a storm woke me up at 1AM and 4AM. 3 straight hours of serious down pour and when I went to look at my hole in the morning that I was almost finished with... it was more than 3/4 full of water and the force of all that water running down the hill knocked one wall

down.

After pulling out close to 75 buckets of water, we had another 50 buckets of dirt and broken block we had to pull out of the hole. Needless to say, work here is ridiculously slow and something ALWAYS goes wrong.

Cultural Changes

2008-08-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

I went to this cultural integration seminar today and learned about the warm culture of Nicaragua and what it means to be here cross-culturally. Most of it I figured I already knew from the training in Mexico, but we did a portion on how you respond to changes, whether going to another country or to another college. It talked about how at first it is fun, and you love the new environment and what not. Then, after time sets in, you begin to fight the culture a little bit. Often you criticize the culture you are in or want it to be like the culture you were used to. This is followed by flight, where you seek another culture behind the culture you are in. You do this through doing things you used to do or trying to connect a lot to people you used to know. After you work through all your differences, you begin to fit into a new culture. It was interesting to see how that cycle happened to me differently in two different countries, and the amount of time it took me to find a place of fitting. I think whether you are living out on your own for the first time or going to college for the first time, it is not wrong to want to seek the old things you were used to but the amount you dive into them and live in them will prolong or shorten your time to find comfort in a new place.

Major Differences Between Mexico and Nica as of now.

-Mexico did not have a grocery store in the town. Nica has at least 5.

-For two months I did not watch TV in Mexico. Last night, I was able to watch the Clemson/Alabama game in English.

-Mexicans ate a very wide and tasty variety of food. Nicaraguans eat rice and beans with meat periodically.

-In Mexico, I thought we dug big holes. In Nica we dig bigger ones. ( See attached Pictures)

-In Mexico, I lived with 20 people my age. In Nica, I live with orphans 0-4,12-17 and women over 40.

Similarities to follow.

a different world

2008-08-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

So I have traveled out of the country three times to do missions and found one re-occurring problem. The work Americans have just finished doesn't work anymore. I think Jordan taught me this lesson when we were in Cancun because the church there before us had built a church but used a bad piece of wood as the main ridge beam for the roof. Jordan asked the locals who

lived in the land how they would do it and that is how we built.

In Mexico we learned all about being a learner of the culture. One thing I learned is that Mexican culture is more Christian than America. When I got the truck stuck in Mexico I had two taxi drivers and a dump truck stop to help pull me out. In America, our schedules would hardly allow our friends to help us let alone strangers.

I think we have a lot to learn from the rest if the world.

2008-08-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

I was wanting to post a blog about travels and all the stories aroundthat but failed to get around to it. But tonight I watch pursuit of happyness with the ten boys I live with. it was great for them to see a story about a dad who went through so much hell but held to his standards of raising a son. None of these guys have dads anymore but they got to see how people have those standards. It is cool to see adolfo, the house dad, and his mom jackie, the house mom, live there to give these ten boys parents when they don't have to. These are not your average good boys but adolfo and jackie give up their life to try and show these boys what a Christian family is supposed to be like.

State of the World Finances

2008-06-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

Here, they are huge about the unreached people groups and cross cultural ministry. They talk about the 10/40 window where there are over a billion people who do not have access to a Bible or have any established church. Here are some stats from Joshua project about the Christian finances. I don't really know how to take it, but it is convicting.

16.4trillion. Income of Christians worldwide
370 billion. Amount Christians give to church (2.5%)
22 billion. Amount church gives to missions (6%)
22 million amount church gives to areas of the world that have no church or bible (1%) or 1 dollar for every $1737 goes to unreached people.

I say that in a calm spirit, but that is still pretty mind blowing...who says money is the answer to all the worlds problems.

tent making

2008-06-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

History shows that most biblical missionaries had their own way of supporting their ministry. As it is always quoted, Paul made tents to support himself. Tonight, Jordan and I found our tent making. As you have heard, the rules prevent a lot of things...one being having a cell phone or using the base phone. Well, calls from here to the states cost 30 cents a minute-a rate Jordan and I can't afford. Today we bought a Mexican cell phone with a plan to call the states. It is only one dollar for 20 minutes. How are we making tents you ask? Phones are obviously a hot commodity and could turn into a huge business. I don't think we will pursue this, but it is funny that they always talk about looking for their tent making and we found it right under their noses...

rules?

2008-06-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

how tight are the rules at this place? The guy who has lived hereten months wanted to go see his girl at nine pm. To avoid question inghe climbed out the window and rode his motorcycle down the hill withthe engine off. I don't handle all these rules well.

Attitude of a learner

2008-06-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

5 days in, and I have already learned a lot. Jordan and I are the only two people from the same state so there is a wide group of people. GFM has a really good vision to reach the people of the world that have not heard the gospel. The people here have huge hearts for the people of Oaxaca to hear the gospel for the first time. There are about 30 missionaries here, and I am older than about 25 of them, which is ridiculous.

There are definitely more rules than I am used to following, but I am beginning to adjust. I am not sure why, but here, I am really good at handstands...which is a good thing!

Viva Mexico

2008-06-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

I am finally leaving for Latin America after several years of wanting to go. I first had a passion to go and serve in another country about two years ago when me and a friend Mike would talk about starting a city in Africa. I am not going to start a city yet, but I do have dreams of making a connection with one of the ministries I serve with that allows me to go back again and again and use my construction skills to somehow further their ministry. I am going to Mexico from June 7^th- August 9^th where I will be leading groups coming from the states doing a variety of things but rarely construction. When I leave Mexico, I will go to Managua, Nicaragua to do solely construction on three orphanages.

I just wanted to get this blog started before I left and I will be periodically updating it with some stories and pictures probably some humorous ones about me being an southern man in a non-southern environment.

I would appreciate your prayers as I go and serve in another country.

This is a picture of the first thing i ever built in mexico over Christmas. tres poco ninos (three little boys) tore it down in 1/2 the time it took me to build it.

Dry Erease Board Wall

2007-05-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

Thats right today i painted one wall in my new house dry erease board. I encourage more people to get an ereasable surface in their room so they can write stuff and draw pictures and then erase it at will. I will prob post some dry erase board art soon...

Just wanted to keep yall up to date on the latest construction technology

KB

Facebook

2007-05-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

So my friend mike informed me today that facebook released a new area in the vast world of facebook. It is an electronic marketplace.

You can sell anything and people can request to buy anything. Then you just contact the person and meet on your college campus.... This is ridicliously clutch for selling text books and other things that you want to sell.

Facebook is awesome

Don't worry the post will get better with time
...

Small Soap Box...

It is really funny when girlfriends/boyfriends put pictures of their significant other in their facebook profile picture. It's like well i am so committed to you that i am not just going to say we are in a relationship but i am going to show people through a picture. I mean it is cute but i have not found someone that i am that committed to....

Maybe on Day

KB

Next Thursday

2007-04-29T19:06:00.000-07:00

Next Thursday Stuart Hall is teaching....

is a long-running American animated television series produced for Saturday morning television in several different versions from 1969 to the present. The series was created by Joe Ruby, Ken Spears (story) and Iwao Takamoto (character design) for Hanna-Barbera Productions, who produced numerous spin-offs and related works until being absorbed in 1997 into Warner Bros., which has handled production since then. Though the format of the show and the cast (and ages) of characters have varied significantly over the years, the most familiar versions of the show feature a talking dog named Scooby-Doo and four teenagers: Fred "Freddie" Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers.

These five characters (officially referred to collectively as "Mystery, Inc.", but never referred to as such in the original series) drive around the world in a van called the "Mystery Machine", and solve mysteries typically involving tales of ghosts and other supernatural forces. At the end of each episode, the supernatural forces turn out to have a rational explanation, typically criminal plots involving costumes and mechanical special effects intended to frighten or distract. Later versions of the show featured different variations on the supernatural theme of the show, and include additional characters, such as Scooby's cousin Scooby-Dum and nephew Scrappy-Doo, in addition to or instead of some of the original characters.

Scooby-Doo was originally broadcast on CBS from 1969 to 1976, when it moved to ABC. ABC cancelled the show in 1986, but presented a spin-off, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, from 1988 until 1991. A new Scooby-Doo series, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, aired on the Cartoon Network and soon after was put on the WB Network during the Kids' WB programming block from 2002 until 2005. The current Scooby-Doo series, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!, airs Saturday mornings on The CW network. Repeats of the original series, as well as second-run episodes of What's New, Scooby-Doo?, are broadcast frequently on the Cartoon Network and Boomerang in the United States and other countries.

Where do you look?

2007-02-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

Two nights ago I kidnapped Austin Hardison to initiate him onto FCA's leadership team for next year. He was not certain that he was going to do it when the rest of the team was kidnapped so the new team kidnapped him to accept him into the family.
We took him, blindfolded, up to the top ridge at Hart's Cove and showed him the view of Clemson. This showed him his mission field as a whole, the campus of Clemson and sometimes the community surrounding. As I was taking him up there I thought about what else to do and thought of the dike up at the rowing facility. So we re-blindfolded him and took him to the dike at the rowing facilities. When re unblindfolded him it showed him another angle of the campus. From the dike he could not see the whole campus, similar to our life, working hard for a bigger project, a bigger vision than what we can see.
This is something i think we are often guilty of.... wanting to see and do everything in the ministry.

mother Teresa,
In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.
It is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action.

We need to trust and know that what we are doing does not show the full picture but is a part of a bigger picture, a bigger battle, a bigger community.

Find your place among Jesus's followers and pursue it with Great Love.
Far Away

Close Up

not sure what to post about....

2007-02-10T13:52:00.000-08:00

Apparently this method is bass ackwards but i decide i am going to post then decide what to post...

The break down of man.

I bought an ipod today... It was the shuffle... 1 gb 80 bucks a lot of convenience. It was a tough step... I sat at that final checkout page for about 30 min before i actually bought it. Working out is the number one reason i bought it. I just see a lot of advantages to having it...

I cracked. i am 12% a part of the apple family but I PROMISE i am a red headed step child and everyone else in the family hates me. and i want to keep it that way

Google: to great for words

2007-01-31T12:38:00.000-08:00

Google. [pause to think about what all that entails]

gmail
best search engine
images
videos (You Tube)
Blogs
Chats
Documents
Spreadsheets
Calendar
Spell Check
ETC.

If you use the internet you use google. Google is to internet as Q-tips are to cotton swabs. Google is like the Wal-mart of E-world. You know you need a lot of stuff but only want to go one place.... Go to google.
Some features you may or may not know about Google

When you chat on google it saves the conversation like an e-mail
When you receive emails with appointments it automatically gives you the option to make it an event in your calendar
You can store your documents and spreadsheets on Google and allow others to view/edit them from anywhere in the WORLD
It has a search engine

Google is good.

fortune cookie

2007-01-28T16:27:00.000-08:00

I got a fortune cookie and it said "You need to make important decisions in the final days of the month". It is the 28th and the end of the month is approaching....... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I'm forced to make an important decision and it may be irrational due to not having enough time to make the decision.
Decision Options

Do I drop out of school and go to work in the circus?
Do I or do I not go to Honduras?
When should i go to the Grand Canyon
Should I run for Governor of Texas?
Do I name my novel....
"Kevin Baynard goes to the edge and back"
"Whats up my nerds?!?!?"
"Jesus comes back, Macs rule the world"
"Don't knock it till you try it"
"I didn't think I'd like apple pies but boy was I wrong"

Those are my options...

Obviously I need help....

HELP................................

Peyton

2007-01-22T06:41:00.000-08:00

I don't know how many of yall saw the game yesterday. But Peyton is a fickle individual. Many people have called him the "Jim Kelley" of the new millennium. It is pretty obvious that for the past few years he has worked for more than the colts, the mafia. No one is that good in the regular season and then that bad in the post-season except for ol' Jim. Yesterday he began the normal Pats playoff game.... throwing blatantly obvious interceptions. But he turned it around. He said screw the mafia. A ring is now worth more than 1 million per pick to peyton....

A Man's Game

2007-01-20T06:38:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, in an old mill village that they called "Cedarvale" the kids started playing a little bit rougher. Boys will be boys, but for these boys football, baseball, and hide-and-go-seek in the dark was not enough.
Justin's back yard was perfect for baseball. This commitment of a great baseball field was there, trimmed trees to avoid interference, permanent bases in the ground, ivy grown up the outfield fence. But after a while baseball was not enough.
Stephen's yard was a typical backyard football field. Rough grass between the hashes. The twenty-something yard gap with no boundary, the flowerbed on the south end and the swing post on the north end. The games were filled with hard hitting, deep passes, and trick plays.
Then one guy in the neighborhood caught wind from a friend a few neighborhoods down of a new game. Oklahoma. The roughest toughest team in the country. It was a 10 yard by 10 yard square in which you played football in. 3 on 3, no passing, no fancy moves, just running down the middle head busting plays.
That was it and for a group of blood thirsty 12 year olds it was heaven. A man's game. Every day that summer the guy's of cedarvale would split forehead and black eyes on the new gridiron. That game definitely but the hair on the chest of those boys. By the end of the summer every guy had his share of black eyes or sand dollar welts on the arms. Even a few walked off that field with a broken bone.

Cutting Edge Technology Review

2007-01-14T17:25:00.000-08:00

As some of yall have heard the new technology that is now available, the eyephone. As you know it is the greatest phone to ever come out. It has everything every American needs in a phone. With this phone you will always be in touch with every form of communication. Basically people will always be able to get in touch of you regardless of the form of communication they use i.e call, text, e-mail, aim, facebook messages, wall writings, video chats and probably much much more i do not even know about. The price is a little steep, 499 for a 4gb ipod and 599 for an 8gb ipod. But Dan put it best "I mean if someone gave me 600 dollars and said I could only use it on a phone I would definitely get the eyephone."

I mean I guess since no other phone cost near 600 dollars by default Dan is right. So if someone does happen to give you 600 dollars and tell you that you must use it on a new phone, get the eyephone. Otherwise its way overpriced and settle for the free flip phone that gets the job done.

I'm checkin out.

-KB

P.S. Checkin out does not mean dying

School.

2007-01-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

With only 21 min left i find myself reflecting on this legendary day.... the first day of school. For many of my peers it is the their last first which is something i hope they cherish. It was a good day cause as most of you know there is little school going on and still a lot of socializing. By Tuesday it will be back to some ol' same ol'. I do have a new class.

Nextel 101. This is where we learn common nextel slang and how to use our blackberry. We learn techniques like "business happens in the truck supervisor". This guy drives around the jobsite in his heated/air conditioned truck point and talking on the nextel of what needs to get done today.

Or the Overbeeper. This is the field guy who is the biggest suck up and beeps the project manager back in the trailer to ask him how to do everything and what he should do next every 5 min.

This is going to be a tough class but i think i can get an A.

mY aPOLOGIES

2007-01-07T06:19:00.000-08:00

Well blog world i've fallen flat before i even flew high. I guess you could say "i wrecked" but i hope this blog isn't totaled and faithful bloggers will still come back for more now that i am prepared to blog some more. Please friends tell your peers that you can see the world through Kevin's eyes once again.

You see there was some sense of significant symbolism due to the absence post. It represented a silent time in my life; a time away from time if you will. During the last month at home things have been uneventful but very relaxing. I found a good mix of work, play, and rest to refresh myself for this semester.

I am now back in Clemson and ready to dazzle my blog world friends with some incredibly deep post (probably some frivolous post too).

Warning: These are my 2 cousins and uncle... all of which are bigger and badder and scarier looking than myself. They are not afraid to come out of the mountains in which they live in and take you out. You mess with me You mess with them.

To the right is my 7th grade bully after they got done with them

Christmas Eve Eve

2006-12-23T16:24:00.000-08:00

Its the eve of Christmas eve and I am "hanging out" with my family. I'm the only one left hanging. My sister and brother-in-law on slept like 3 hours before driving up today and my mom and dad woke up at the crack of dawn for no reason and shopped all day leaving me the only one still awake. At least i get my say on what sports game we watch.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a great time with all their families.

Fact you need to know: best 100 yard dash time for someone over 100 years old 17.8 seconds by the ol' man Larry Lewis.

that man is old.....

Post Trip

2006-12-20T07:12:00.000-08:00

The trip was ridiclious. A ton of things happened in not a lot of time

44 cubans were illegally smuggled on the island

swam with 5 foot baracudas

did some great snorkeling

met two guys sailing around the country

met 1 guy who rode his bike 6500 miles to the keys, solo

made a message in a bottle with all my contact info and threw it in the middle of gulf

It was a sweet trip and i definetly recommend anyone to go down there and spend a few days. It the kind of place that attracts interesting people and the people we met were interesting to say the least.

Stresses of Travel

2006-12-13T20:08:00.000-08:00

As I have informed many of you that know me personally (shout out to all the random bloggers that daily read the latest news and actions of Kevin Baynard) I am going to "The Dry Tortugas" Friday morning.

Tortugas National Park" height="391" width="576">

This is a 16+ hour trip that will be broken up with a 2 car caravan to Orlando, a 6-8 hour lay over and a midnight drive to key west for a 7:15AM boat ride to this lonely yet peaceful island. This first half of the trip will be made with 3 guys and 2 girls and that makes me nervous. 8 hours of co-rec travel does not equal the smooth sailing the dry tortugas will create. You know the drill, there is not enough space for male pride and women's estrogen in one vehicle. I think this is the root of the frequent bathroom breaks, inappropriate times to be hungry. You see you know how men are, every trip must be a record break time trial and women frequently create an insurmountable amount of obstacles to try and slow the record.

Haircut

2006-12-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

Last night I got a spontaneous haircut.
A special thanks to Shannon Anna and Megan.
They made my mohawk what it is today because they made my mohawk.

Its a mohawk and needless to say its pretty sweet.
Disclaimer: All pictures below are to be taken lightly and as a metaphor.

As you notice the girls are definitely enjoying my acting.

This is the image that most mohawks get.
I obviously did not get this mohawk for frivolous exam study distraction.
I got this mohawk to try and change the image of mohawk culture.
Today I passed out cookies in the library with a mohawk.
It was not received as well as Ryan Etheridge who did not have a mohawk but I am making steps to converge the two cultures into one.

Postage

2006-12-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

This is a picture i found on Claire's blog as i was just doing some blogging research. It is a map of where people that click on her link live. But amazingly the dots surrounding clemson make a huge smiley face. :) What deep meaning and symbolism. Clemson is such a happy place. There is such great friends and memories i have here that i will never forget. I love clemson. I love everyone at clemson.

keep it happy

Introduction

2006-12-11T04:34:00.000-08:00

I just created a blog and i am in the library laughing out loud about it. I am very inexperienced in blog world so i left speechless about the ins and outs of blogging. I am going to do some research on what is appropriate/trendy to post on my blog. Maybe give it some direction and vision. I always heard if you dont have vision you will run into a lot of walls and fall down a lot.

-kevin