| February 9 Hello others, It's been a technologically interesting time here lately. First the main server for most of the internet here died last week, which looked to be a major project to repair. But that was magically fixed (?) within a day. Now our email has been on the fritz. Not the internet, only our email. Really weird. Thus the delay in keeping in touch on a broad scope. Anyway, life continues here. Our MCC contacts are coming into town tomorrow for 2-3 days (depending on weather while coming in and out). We are having some continuing dialogue with them about straightening out some factors of our assignment here. We'll keep you informed of any developments. Speaking of visitors, we have had George staying with us. George is form Vancouver Island and has been in and out of the village teaching computer classes to locals since November. We had another visitor named Phillip for a couple nights. He works with a First Nations Education group out of Vancouver. So we all went hiking yesterday with Nicole's teacher as well (totaling 6 adventurers). Hiking here can mean walking on a logging road or bending and climbing and sliding through muddy deciduous rain forest. Yesterday meant all of it. Speaking of adventure, last weekend Kristin and Nicole's teacher went out of town to a neighboring inlet called Echo Bay. They attended an art class there taught by a local woman there. They made it by way of a gillnet (sp?) boat and had an amazing time. Nicole and I were dog sitters for her teacher. So everybody was happy. Nice diversion. There is something I should have written in a January letter, but for some reason forgot. 3 days after coming back from Abbotsford, an event happened which brought the realization of isolation literally smack into my face - in the form of a soccer ball. Face - no damage. Spirit - not broken. Glasses - in 3 pieces. oh great. So I made a futile attempt to use crazy glue - no help. I had to balance my lens in a broken frame while I ordered glasses over the internet (good thing I brought my prescription). And I finally got the glasses last weekend. Without going to an optical store, it's amazing that they fit, don't give me headaches and don't look completely gooney. All done over the internet. We recently tried a video of Nicole eating strawberry pie with only her face as a utensil. It was great! She refused to have it on the website for fear of public ridicule. We reluctantly complied. Nicole on Iraq: "If George Bush wants to do war, and Daddy doesn't want to go, we can move to that one country, what was it again?" "You mean, Canada?" "Yeah, Canada." "Nicole, we're already there." "Oh yeah." We miss everybody. I mean everybody on our mailing list, not everybody. I don't miss the Spice Girls. Work for peace, JohnKristinNicole |