Montgomery, AL

This morning, we headed out to Mongomery, AL. More interviews, and a chance to go to a city where our family would not have been welcome in the recent past. Seems an appropriate trip for Martin Luther King Day.

I was blessed when our big group of Chinese, Ethiopian, African American and white friends and family walked into a lovely country club, and were received with smiles warm greetings for our dear hosts,Joy and Cole. After a fabulous meal, the day continued with some interviews and LOTS of kid fun. My children did not want to come home, and have been talking about our trip to Altanta and Montgomery non stop.

When we did finally pull into home, we raced over to the State Museum for the Martin Luther King student art exhibit, where a piece of Sarah's art was displayed. Alas, we missed the event, but did have a lovely afternoon with our local artist friends, the Cooks.

of snow and fish

Since political shows consume the first 21 hours of David's every day, the kids and I decided to take a short road trip.

Last night, Atlanta, home of Laura and Brian. I did some work, a video interview with our friend Mindi, to validate the rental car as a business expense, and then we all stayed up way too late talking.

Following morning waffles, the kids started screaming and dancing when giant white flakes began dropping out of the clouds. We eventually pulled them out of the back yard and loaded them up for a trip to the fantastic Georgia Aquarium. Then, a late lunch at my favorite store, IKEA, where we did some shopping for the Dominican Republic pack.

Seconds after we landed back at my friend Laura's home, the big kids were back to the cold outdoors, making snow angles, snowmen and I have no idea what else because I do not venture out into cold snow. At Sarah's request, I did race out to snag one photo to prove the white stuff was not a dream.

Please Vote

Okay, CNN just called the SC Republican Primary result, so this post is not to encourage you to vote today for someone here. Rather, please vote for my favorite project on Ebay Giving Works.

I'm campaigning for the Heart for Ethiopia project. To vote, you click on the video for a project you like to help it win $5000. The video for Heart shows a woman against the brick wall and is second to the left under "non profit."

This project provides water to people in Ethiopia. They dig wells for $200, so if they win the ebay contest, it will do a LOT of good. I've stayed in their home/guesthouse and have really enjoyed getting to know the people behind the work.

I'll post a pic when I'm back at my big computer. Here is a segment from their last newsletter:

. . . Ermias wrote that two wells were drilled the first week of January.

"This week was a week of digging. The second water well which we dug at Awash Belo in Ato Sorsa's compound has attracted the attention of the community. All the community are using only that well for drinking. The chairman of the kebele (commune) has called me so many times and begged us to go and asked us excuse them for their first disinterest.

Yesterday I was there to dig the second well in this week. I saw a lady was taking water from a hand dug well. I went to her and I saw the well. It fell in on all sides but in the middle it had water. I saw the water and it was not clean. I asked her what they are using it for. She replied that they use it for cooking. When I asked about drinking she said, "There is one water pipe in our community. We use that for drinking." The water she speaks about was the one we dug before.

Ato Sorsa's wife also said "It is holy water. Since the time we got this water all our family has become healthy. We are grateful for your helping us to have this water."

Please vote often and email your friends to vote. Every vote enters YOU into a $1000 sweepstakes as well.

Here's a pic of Kidist's husband, who lives at the guest house. ALWAYS studying, in this shot a book on English.

Keep the conversation going

I decided not to post anything new today because we have a good conversation going in the film post below and I would like to continue it for another day. Thanks to those who have submitted comments, I would love to hear more . . .

Save our film jobs!

South Carolina's Secretary of Commerce Joe E. Taylor pushed our film industry off the roof last year. Though I can certainly understand Mr. Taylor's concerns regarding the price of business incentives, I believe he has taken it upon himself to interpret the proviso offering those incentives to filmmakers in a manner diametrically opposed to the intent of the legislators who drafted it.

What I'm stating here is the TIP of an ice burg not affected by global warming. We are a small industry (only bringing around 64 million dollars into the local economy last year), so apparently few think to investigate further. If they did, they would immediately see the brain drain going on over at Commerce. Lasting implications for SC in MANY areas besides film? Sadly, yes.

Here is a shot of me working on the movie Death Sentence. And, no, Mr. Taylor, contrary to what you might tell the governor, I did not make $8 an hour doing this!





Subject: Film SC, a grassroots organization, formed to promote South
Carolina film industry

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FilmSC, Grassroots Organization, Formed to Promote the Film Industry

FilmSC, a grassroots non-profit membership organization created to promote the film industry within the state of South Carolina, announced its formation today. Comprised of working film industry professionals as well as members from the business community who have an interest in growing movies within the state, FilmSC is dedicated to advancing the film industry in South Carolina through education, professional training, networking, and advocacy.

FilmSC will focus its efforts on four main areas: creating high paying jobs in the motion picture industry for South Carolinians; strengthening South Carolina's motion picture and television production infrastructure; developing educational opportunities to help residents find jobs in the motion picture industry, and establishing an environment where creative talent and new media industries can flourish.

"From July 2006 to June 2007, the film and television industry in the state of South Carolina was an amazing success story," said Martin Bluford, President of FilmSC. "'From Army Wives' in Charleston to 'Leatherheads' in the Upstate, 'Asylum' in Rock Hill to 'Who's Your Caddy' in Aiken, our state was selected for six feature films, two television pilots, as well as numerous commercials. Over 7100 high-paying jobs resulted, with more then $64 in direct expenditures invested in our state's economy. Since early summer the pace of film production in South Carolina has plummeted and FilmSC is working hard to turn that around."

FilmSC's Board of Directors is comprised of Bluford, Manager of High Output, a motion picture lighting company in Charleston; Tom Morris, a Construction Coordinator from Sullivan's Island; Geoff Herbert, a feature film and television Key Grip from Greenville; and Todd Stuart, CFO of Mad Monkey, one of South Carolina's leading commercial production companies based in Columbia.

Contact: Cara White, 843.881.1480,
Cara.white@mac. com

AHOPE, needs list

Those who know me well know how much I love carting donations to places I visit. I start "the pack" weeks in advance. I have big, lightweight luggage so I can cram in a full 50 pound loads. I'm Queen Duffle-stuffer. And I adore my silver medalion status on Delta because with it, I can tote even more internationally.

This week I've been holding a carrot to encourage me to edit. I get to start packing for my Feb 7th flight to the Dominican Republic as soon as I log 12 hours of footage. Today is that day, hurrah!


So, I was even more excited today to get a letter from my friend Lisa, detailing the needs of AHOPE orphanage for hiv positive children in Ethiopia. I've visited AHOPE three times, and I can promise you, you give to God when you give needed items to these children.

If you love collecting things to give, like current medical books, craft supplies, toddler boys' clothing and more, please read this post!

Yellowstone

This past summer, Alden and I went on our first trip to Yellowstone. We flew into Salt Lake, home of David's favorite basketball team. Because the Jazz are so far away from SC, we had to buy a special monthly cable sport thing so David can watch EVERY game. After checking out the Mormon tabernacle in Salt Lake, we decided to take the scenic route to Northern Yellowstone. For the first 5 hours of the trip, my gps kept telling me to go back to Salt Lake and start over. The trip I told my son would take about 5 hours, took 11.5. Alden kept asking sweetly, in his limited new language, "Mommy, it five now?"

I got pulled for speeding at one point. 70 in a 35. I had no idea, I thought I was on some sort of long on-ramp, certainly not a road to a trailer park. The Idaho cop was really nice and gave me directions rather than a ticket.

Scenery though the park that day was lovely. On the other side, we met up with our friends Sandra, KT and Emily and their families at Sandra's cabin. It was so strange to me that I had never seen the meadows and their wildflowers, which are just stunning. All growing up I read about meadows covered in wildflowers, but I had not imagined the scene to be as lovely as it is in person.

We got close to a moose and her baby, too close to a bison, saw an eagle and a wolf and a bear and were near enough to almost rub the antler fuzz of a resting elk.



On the way home, we camped. Setting up the tent proved Dave Barry's point that a three person tent means that it takes a minimum of three people to set it up. We were setting up a three person tent with two people who didn't speak the same language, and found ourselves trying to stuff the rotted elastic back into the "super-easy-quick-snap-together" poles. A nice Canadian in a massive motor home provided a roll of packing tape that made it possible to sleep inside that night.

All in all, fantastic trip. I really wish the rest of the family had gone, but I'm not opposed to going again as soon as it gets warm.

Absolute Power, anyone?

I was going to write a post on the price of bananas in the Dominican Republic because I was talking to my friend Jennifer there who said the price has tripled since the recent massive rains. Though everyone eats bananas and plantains, the poor literally survive on them. I'd heard an story, I thought on NPR, about a possible serious problem with South/Central American and African bananas last week and went to their site so I could link it. Before I found it, I ran across this sentence:

"the Chinese government announced that as of the end of the year, only government-owned or government-controlled Web sites will be able to post Internet videos. All Web sites containing video must obey a "socialist moral code" or risk being shut down."

Remember how I said the other day not to get me started on Communism? Well, that article got me started.


And, since I'm not going to an un-named communist country again next month as I'd hoped - a country that might post billboards saying things like, oh, "Patriotism or DEATH," and "We will Conquer," I feel a bit more "free" to start a conversation here.

I'd love to hear your personal stories that have shaped your views on communism. Then, I'll share some of mine as well - as long as they don't endanger anyone's life. Because, if you live in a communist country, your life is worth equally as little as anyone else's. Well, except for the pigs, but only because they are more equal.

Christmas 2007, part B

I like Christmas traditions. One of my favorites is Game Night in Pennsylvania. Aunt Judy’s games differentiate this Game Night from any other. Last year, she had all of us drawing, per her specific directions, on plates on top of our heads. Sarah won that art contest.

This year, we had to tear out a Christmas tree from construction paper, while holding it behind our backs. Then, using only tape and ribbon and box lids full of decorative (and fought over) items, we decorated our trees. David’s tree was “interactive” and received many laughs. We then divided into teams and had to build reindeer out of balloons and panty hose. I think the winners of this game might have been the people that did not volunteer to BE reindeer.

How to speak 12 languages in 12 days

My good friend Laura called from Bucharest, Romania yesterday. Her name is pronounced something like Laugh ruh - like a Southerner would say it but not exactly. Her timing was great because Sarah was busy researching Nadia Comaneci for a school project and we were discussing communism (don't get me started) and the abusive regime of Nicolae Ceausescu.

Laura is another one of my truly brain gifted friends. She fluently speaks five languages and has a smattering of others she can speak better than I speak Spanish. To give you an idea what that means, I have attempted to "study" Spanish for at least 5 years, plus high school, and when I try to hold a conversation longer than "turn right at the corner," people still smile politely at me or just look confused or do that Dominican nose wrinkle thing that means they have no idea what I just said.

Laura's five majors languages are: Romanian, English, Spanish, German and French. Minors include Russian, Turkish, Italian, Hindi and Gypsy (which is probably called something else, anyone know? Roma, maybe?).

Here is how she learns a language. I witnessed this when we went camping together in Italy, so I'm not making it up. Hour one, plane lands. Laura looks at the airport signs and deduces what they say so we can find our way to the rental car. Hour two, she then says hi to some people in the new language. They assume she can speak their language and she learns the basic small talk in about 15 minutes. Hour three, we are hopelessly lost in Rome. We stop the car, she jumps out and asks directions and then laughs and talks with the guy in fluent Italian.

Language aquisition, accomplished.

Our friends in Kenya

I got this email, and I wrote my friend asking if she minded if I posted it, but I must have missed her on her way back into Kenya. Anyway, I think it would be okay to post a few lines so that if you want to, you can answer my friend's request:

"Our church in Eldoret was burned to the ground killing 50 people and seriously wounding the pastor. Please pray for him."

The rest of the letter is full of similar horrible stories, many of which you have seen or heard on the news.

My heart breaks for the people there and for the political, tribal and economic issues that currently tear them apart. I guess it has to do with my not knowing the situation that well, but, frankly, I was shocked by what has happened and the speed at which it shifted into such brutality. Looking back, the energy in the slums of Nairobi where I spent time shooting did have an edge - close to the edge you feel when a crowd is about to bolt, but not quite that electrifying. I attributed it to poverty and stuck close to my local contacts.

This paragraph really hit home, as I spent hours with Moses recording the stories of his childhood as in the Masai village:

"We spoke with Moses Sayo, one of our Masai pastors in Narok and he told us of more than 300 gunmen who came into the city and just began to shoot anyone moving. The grocery stores were burned, shops were burned and people are hiding indoors for fear for their lives and they are unable to get the basic necessities of life and are running out of food. The stories go on and on. Please pray."

My friends are back in Kenya now, lending hands, wisdom, prayers and encouragement. Here is an article with more info.

I dedicate this post to Robert

And I will tell you why as soon as he finishes helping me fix my editing computer.

Except, that may be tomorrow because he lives in a developing country and I think his power just went off because I lost contact . . . .

Okay, bad news. Robert says I have to dump everything off my computer, go buy a new hard drive, put it in and completely rebuild everything. David thinks we should buy Robert a plane ticket to come do it for us and I agree. I wonder if he can be here by tomorrow?

Robert is one of the smartest people I have met in my entire life. Once, he fell for a girl who could only speak English, so he taught himself English in like two months so he could talk to her. You would NEVER know that he has not lived here for years, yet he has never even visited the States. He actually lives in a ghetto, because he works for a ministry, and we all know how they pay:). Anyway, when you go to his house, you find all sorts of computer parts everywhere - well, that has changed a bit since he got married, now they are more or less stacked up. But, you can picture it, I'm sure.

Walk inside and find that he is likely talking to a friend, chatting with ten people on line while translating a book and fixing a laptop. At the same time, there is a video playing in the background teaching him to program in some computer language mere mortals like us have NEVER heard of, and he is absorbing it while he does all this other stuff. He also enjoys basketball, is married to one of the most beautiful woman on earth and has a cutie of a daughter and another on the way. His favorite snack is Jelly Belly jelly beans.

So, if you have a computer emergency, and happen to be able to get in touch with Robert, just promise him some jelly bellys and a video study seminar on the merits of programming in Perl or Fortran, and you may just be in luck. But, don't expect me to help you find him. I'm even keeping the country he is in a secret. But, this I will say. You know Wade, the computer guru in Kim Possible? The guy behind the plan to out think the villains? Yep, entire character sketch based solely on Robert.

Mommy, why didn't you help my birth family?

How will I answer this question, if my child asks me one day, "You knew my family in Ethiopia was starving, why didn’t you DO something to help them?”

I planned on waiting until after my Christmas posts to discuss connections among adoption agencies, birth families and adoptive families, but today someone sent me an email that made me realize it is an issue that can not remain at the back of my mind.

In an effort to not overwrite this post, I want to open a discussion in the comments about whether adoptive and birth families should have the right to know one another if both agree to it, and also discuss how adoption agencies can facilitate adoptive families choosing to help birth families if that is desired.

I know this is a muti-faceted issue and I look forward to conversing with you all about it.

As those who read my blog know, I spent 3 weeks in Ethiopia in October/November, and while there, researched birth families for some friends. Feel free to click on the Africa link to the right to peruse those posts.

Christmas 2007, part a

There are many photos to cull before I can properly present Christmas. But, this is one that stands out. My parents gave the kids scooters this year. Zion insisted on wearing her Lighting McQueen helmet, even though it didn't really fit over her hair baubles. She loves all things related to the movie "Cars." Some mornings, when she is sitting in her high chair, she gets this really serious look on her face and says, "I. am. speeeed!"

You have to have seen the movie to truly appreciate. My kids saw it 366 times.

Why has this been on my desk?

Some things about the clean up make me really question myself. Why, for instance, did these four items take up space on my desk for a year? The flames, created by my brother Glenn are going on my camera body this week (check out ebay for your own set, including some big flames for bigger items such as mixing bowls, You can find them by searching "EZ Flames"). But what is the right thing to do with two fake eyeballs? And why did I have TWO different fake eyeballs on my desk? And just what does this mystery key open?

Maybe it was a good thing

So, I've spent a few days rearranging and cleaning and organizing. My office is now darker, which is a minus, but, I won't have a clear view of the construction site and I have a seating area close to my desk. I figured out we have a LOT of stuff related to two things we want to do but don't - exercising and art. I now have a space to do those two things, and since that space is now in the nicest room in the house, I hope we spend time there! I've asked David to hang plastic up from the ceiling to the floor before he begins the renovation to the last 10 feet of this room so I don't have to dust constantly.

What happened to my last vacation days?

The bee is stuck in David's bonnet. He really wants to make Sarah a new bedroom in part of the big front room that also houses my office and a living room. So, I'm in the massive re-arrange at the moment. Our hope is to finish before Joanna comes from the Dominican Republic in February so she can have a room to herself. We have a lot of company, which is great, but it means that Sarah is often displaced.

Her new room will be narrow, but because the ceiling is high, she will have a loft for sleeping. I think it is going to be neat, after I get over the aching muscles from moving everything.

So, that is why there are no Christmas photos up yet. But, they are coming . . . .

Hair

This result begins as follows:

she really does not like having her hair washed

drying is okay, as long as she is in charge. I think she looks like a print model in this hair drying shot.

Alden is NINE!

Can you imagine celebrating your birthday, at age 9, for the FIRST time in your life?! I'm sure you can imagine it was fun.


Zion had a bit of a hard time giving up HER birthday celebration of two days ago. She really wanted her birthday to continue.

Alden was happy to open presents from family, then share a few hours in the afternoon with two friends, one from his class at school and another friend who is home schooled. They jumped on the trampoline, played in his room and then Alden blew out candles (for the first time) on his Chocolate Torte Royale, which is a Mehltretter family tradition for birthdays.


Here's the recipe if you want to try it: recipe

Annual ACS poker tourney

Yesterday was the annual ACS Christmas poker game. David won. He gave his winnings to Dido, runner up (far left of photo). Dido has not played much, but basically scared everyone else out of the game by raising EVERY hand. David came home for twenty minutes, then left for poker game number 2, which he also won. I emptied his wallet while he was sleeping and spent those winnings today at the grocery store, which I thought worked out well.

Zion is FOUR!

and, boy, is she happy about it!

To do, or not to do

In keeping with my recent meditation on un-complicating my life in order to live it, I’ve been listening to some of Doug’s sermons on line.

I am a big proponent of the “to do” list. Up until a recent paper purge, I had to do lists dating back to sixth grade. Scores of hand drawn check boxes next to a myriad of essential tasks. I considered making an art project out of them, but I didn’t want to add it to the current list. I’ve actually missed them since throwing them out, which I find symptomatic of an un-yet-realized something, perhaps something serious.


Doug says: “We need to step away from the supposition that ultimacy is found in our “to do” list – of getting stuff done so now we can move on to real life.” He encourages his listeners to live in the now and “tap into God, pursuing the eternal, awakening ourselves to the always-ness of eternal time.”

I experience now-ness when I shoot, especially in documentary situations. Time slips, my fractured awareness unifies and hones in on what is present. It is energizing. Doug talks about times like these and how though they may be an aberration to us, but truly they are what God calls us to.

“The fulfilling parts of life, like deep community, and energy exploding spirituality, the deeply fulfilling experience of divine love and the deep fulfillment of love among spiritual friends gets missed because our lives are just too complicated.”

I think I will listen to this again. Maybe my goal this year will be to disengage from my to do list. I’m having with drawls just considering it.

Doug’s series “Awakened to the Dance” may be found here
Quotes taken from sermon: Awakened to the Dance: Uncomplicating Our Lives (part 3)

accomplish it?

Daily I ask myself, "why can't I seem to accomplish more?" to impact the world, to get rid of stuff, to forward projects, to write a book, to do things with my kids . . .

My dad is going through some coaching right now and addressing some issues, not surprisingly, similar to my own. He sent me this (3rd graph REALLY resonated):

Learning

I find myself
In a difficult place
The pressures of life
Not keeping place

With all I know
Of the nature of man
My own life seems
Out of hand

How do I order
The things that I know
To reframe the world
To get up and go

Some is with skills
Faster and better
Learn how to do it
Get good at the letter

Some is by seeing
And changing the rules
What governs my life
At times I can choose

Some is with being
The who that I am
Transforming my role
In this scheme that’s so grand

These three talk of me
And my role
And my place
Where do I fit
What do I embrace

But the who that I am
Is related to you
The system I’m in
Bumps your system too

I suspect that these loops
Go on for ever
Well beyond
My mental endeavors

But change we will
As time goes on
To find a place
Serene and calm

To find that place
Where each one fits
A perfect match
For all our gifts…

©12/20/07, Glenn Mehltretter
You can read more of my dad's poems on his personal blog. Or, check out his work in human capacity at peoplefit. They are in the process of updating the look of the site, so try back if you don't get in.

touch my heart

I finally took a few days and gathered all the information I'd found on the birth families of my friend's children when I was in Ethiopia. I mailed out dvds of interviews and cds of photos. Well, they arrived and I'm getting some wonderful emails. I find that parents, myself included, are so happy to hear about their adopted children's lives prior to coming to the States. I look forward to the time when all adoption agencies in Ethiopia understand this desire and pay someone in Ethiopia to compile background information for families.

It costs about $500 a month, plus transportation, to hire a local person to research and create videos. For me, it took a few days to find leads on the children and make initial contacts. Then, a full day to travel and meet families that lived in outlying areas. Another day to edit the footage and send it out. So, a full time person with contact information supplied when I child was found could probably research a minimum of ten children a month, and edit a video for each of them. Say there is $50 in transportation costs, averaged for each person. Total: $100 spent before the trails run cold and it is harder to find families. I do not know one adoptive parent unwilling to pay an additional $100 for this treasure.


This note was emailed to me this morning from a girl who was adopted when my son came home from China. I took photos of her to her aunt (see above) while I was in Ethiopia. This precious note made my Christmas:

Dear Miss Heidi,

Thank you so much I love you. I felt happy to see my auntie in the pictures.
Thank you for taking the time to go see her. I love these pictures, I
appreciate them so much.

Have a Merry Christmas,

Love,
Hannah

An article about ACS

EAW, manufacturer of high end sound gear, wrote this article highlighting David's company's work on the Obama/Oprah rally. Nice publicity for us.

http://www.eaw.com/frontrow/2007/12/acs_taps_eaw_for_largest_polit.html

Shooting the president

Thanks to my friend Lee Ann Kornegay, last night I got paid to shoot the president. Not too shabby since a ticket into the room required a $5000 donation.

President Clinton spoke for over 40 minutes at a dinner honoring former Secretary of Education Dick Riley. I truly enjoyed his talk, which I mistakenly thought would be full of political platitudes and low in meaningful content. But, he spoke in depth about key issues I ponder often: global warming, illegal immigration and, of course, the educational system in the USA.

more thoughts to come . . .

Sarah's gift

Sarah decided to give the gift of her beautiful hair - or at least a large portion of it - to charity this year. Grandma helped while David winced.


I'm thinking about encouraging Zion to donate her hair so we can end the 4 hour Sunday scream-fest where we wash, part and braid it.

First Christmas

I guess I never thought I'd have an 8 year old kid who had never celebrated Christmas. It has some really fun moments, actually.
Watching him set up the nativity, having never seen one before was one of them. First, the animals and people were in battle formation, then, after some prompting, they were crowding in staring at Jesus, much like people do to white Americans asking directions in Ethiopia. In the end, they stood in a straight line across the front of the table, flanking Jesus, his manger leaned up against Mary so he can see our front door.

David's hobby

David has spent most of his nights this past week at church. I knew it was coming when he came home from the Adult Christmas Musical last year and said, "it was really well done, if only they had the lighting they deserved . . . "

So, I wasn't surprised when he volunteered as the lighting designer this year and filled a truck full of gear to take to the church. After some animated discussions on the virtue of haze in the sanctuary, and a number of frustrating hours trying to get a mylar curtain to drop and then fly again without getting tangled, the end result of everyone's labor was fantastic. Each song had it's own unique feel and I felt the evening was an inspiring success.

Politics

So, David has not been home much. He's been doing Christmas shows and political rallies. The biggest was sound, lights and staging for the Obama/Oprah thing this past weekend. I went by in my pj's the night before the event because David accidently left with the truck keys and was too tired to go back. The set up looked impressive. I didn't venture into the traffic the following day, but did get to see it on line. Oprah's speech inspired me, regardless of my political leanings (or lack thereof). I didn't catch much of Obama's talk because I had to go get kids.

Unwrapping Homeschool

I finally made the committment to homeschool my son, starting in January. A big box of history and reading material arrived today and Zion jumped right in. Lying in the packing paper was by far her most relaxed moment of the day.

World AIDS day

Please visit my friend Lisa's blog for a wonderful thought for World AIDS day. I too have been to this orphanage she mentions and loved reading her thoughts on it.
http://www.anderson-net.com/~qualls/

office depot chat help?

heidi: I'm getting a message that my item is 3 day delivery and it won't arrive if I order today until next Friday. I must have it to take to Ethiopia on Tuesday. Can I pay more to expidite?
Agent30 has entered the session.
Agent30: Hi Heidi.
Agent30: Thank you for contacting the Office Depot online assistance team, my name is Jacob and I have been assigned to your query.
heidi: hi
Agent30: Could you please provide me the 9-digit order number to assist you further?
heidi: 000669235
heidi: i can pick it up today in Columbia, SC 29169 if it is local.
heidi: i also need two of them
Agent30: Could you please provide me your zip code?
heidi: i just did, my local one. But, I can either pick it up here today, or it must be shipped to zip 83835 by Tuesday.
Agent30: One moment please...


Agent30: 83815
Agent30: Thank you Heidi, this item is affable in the above zip code.
Agent30: Here is the complete address 131 W. NIEDER AVE
BETWEEN SAFEWAY & K-MART ON NEIDER AVE.
Store# 541
COEUR D ALENE, ID 83815 and the phone #(208) 676-0846.
heidi: okay, that does not help. I am in 29169. I can pick it up near this zip code today. OR, I need it shipped to 83835 by Tuesday. I can not pick it up in 83831, as I am not there.
Agent30: One moment please...

Agent30: How about this address 2242 W PULLMAN ROAD
W ON ID-8 W PULLMAN RD. PAST FARM RD.
Store# 612
MOSCOW, ID 83843?
heidi: I'm in SOUTH CAROLINA. You keep giving me addresses in ID and I am not there. I can pick up the ram in SOUTH CAROLINA today, OR I can have it shipped, by Tuesday, to Idaho. I can NOT pick it up in Idaho as I am here in South Carolina and it is a 3 DAY drive from South Carolina to Idaho. The reason I can get it shipped to Idaho is because a person traveling to Ethiopia is there, but that person CAN NOT go pick it up. I can pick it up today, but only in the Columbia, South Carolina area, which is zip code 29169.
Agent30: One moment please...


Agent30: I am sorry Heidi, I just gave the information which I got. This item is available only at those location which I provided. If you want to make a delivery for this item with pleasure you can do it.
heidi: I don't understand what you are saying. You can overnight ship it to 83185?
Agent30: I am sorry Heidi, we do not overnight the orders. If you order today you will be getting it on Monday.
Agent30: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
heidi: When I tried to order it, it said it would take 3 days and be delivered by Friday which is too late.
Agent30: One moment please...


Agent30: I apologize Heidi, the mistake is on my side and I dint see the complete information about this order. This item cannot be picked up and it is a special order, so it will take 7 to 14 business days.
heidi: So, are you saying it is not available at either store in Idaho that you mentioned? And, it is not available in South Carolina anywhere and it is not possible to overnight it to me at all for any price?
heidi: And, are you also saying that the message I got when I tried to order it saying it will take 3 business days is incorrect?
Agent30: I apologize, this item cannot be pick up from any of the store and it is not available in stores. It will take 7 to 14 business days to deliver.
heidi: So, it is not possible to pay extra and have it overnighted to me?
Agent30: One moment please...


Agent30: I am sorry Heidi, it is not possible to do overnight delivery even though you pay any extra charges.
heidi: Okay.
Agent30: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
heidi: no
Agent30: Thank you for choosing Office Depot.

This Service is available 8 am- 8 pm EST. Monday through Friday. Please don't hesitate to use this service again.

Have a nice day.
Agent30 has exited the session.
Chat session terminated.

Storytime: how to calm your child

This is our nightly calming bedtime routine. It works very well on Zion, who settles down peacefully during the story every night as demonstrated here.

Here is the link to it on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwvY_noLqdY

Updated with Photos

I finally put photos with the Ethiopia entries, just scroll down to see. Your thoughts are always welcome - that way I know I'm not talking into a void and we can have a conversation. Actually, a void plus Laura, who is always saying something nice:).

Yummy. Raw meat in Ethiopia is a real treat. The white looking meat you see here is really the fat inside the hump from the back of a bull. I wholeheartedly agreed with praying over this meal, which was breakfast in a town called Boditi, on the mountain overlooking Soddo.

David in Croatia

Yeah, pretty much looks the same as David in SC. But, I think he is having fun, so that is good. We are going to decorate for Christmas tomorrow. It is early, but with chicken pox keeping us at home, it should brighten the day.

UPDATE, email from David:
(notice in the photos everyone is wearing coats INSIDE. I would not do well there, as I wear wool socks when it goes below 70 here)
It is Wednesday night and we fly back tomorrow. The last couple days have been very crazy and I have not been on line much. My computer was at the building where we were working last night so I could not even use it. We did rack wiring yesterday and the day before and re-worked the whole sound system with the new speakers that we brought. Branko is really nice and wants to be a good host and wants us to see things so he has us scheduled for lunch at this place up north with people that wedge knows and one night with Branko’s parents, etc. Wedge lived here for a month once and has visited several times as well. It is kind of like we are fighting for the time to get the work done that we need to get done.

Well we finally finished the wiring tonight, after the concert. We were pretty much done but went and set up the concert with two wires bypassed and on rack not neatened up yet. The concert went really well. This is their model for local concerts in these little towns and it works really well. The find a children’s hospital or children’s home or something and ask them if they can do a benefit concert for them. They then find a local musician or two to open up the concert. Tonight they raised about $600 for a children’s daycare center that we visited earlier today. About 300 people were there and the children from the center sang a song first, followed by a local musician backed up by the band. The band is Branko on guitar and lead vocal, his son on keys, another son on drums, an electric guitar, and two backing vocals. They are all really good. They just jumped in with this guy doing country music without any rehearsal. The son who plays keys (he has a total of 4 sons and 1 daughter-Sarah) is really good. He played along with these kids singing on songs that he had never heard. He let them start and would just throw in a chord after he heard it but by the second verse he was just playing along. He is a music major in college and plays a lot—pretty much all Jazz/Fusion kind of stuff.

The sound guy they have is really nice. He does not have much experience and they don’t give him as much respect as he deserves but he is really sharp. He is not very good at the art of mixing yet (which is what bugs them) but he has the signal flow and technical ends down. I think he can learn the art of mixing with some time.

The place we went today was right beside the Slovenia border. Yesterday we were somewhere where they said “that hill right there is Hungary”. Unfortunately we did not get to cross the border either time. Some of the things up there reminded me more of Romania—but not as poor. It was more like the Black Church area of Romania.

I have done a really poor job of taking pictures. I think I have about 3. I will get a copy of Leon’s pics. He has been taking more.

Well it is 12:30 and I better pack up and get to bed. We have a couple things we “have to see” in the morning. I also would like to get some paper money. I have not even spent a dime since I got here. The first day Leon paid for lunch at a restaurant and Branko was visibly offended. I have not exchanged a cent or spent anything. They just cart us around and feed us. I said I wanted to get some souvenir money and two different people came back with baggies of change. I am not going to ask or they will just give me bills. I will try to get some after they drop me off at the airport.

It is not like I have had a chance either. We have always been with someone or just been at the shop where we worked. I have not even had a chance to buy anything. Tonight they gave us a gift bag of chocolate, a shirt, a mug, some other snacks, etc. I feel bad that they are spending so much on us.