Father's Day

June 18, 2008


Well, I haven’t been able to post that last entry because the internet has been knocked out here for the past week and some. Bummer, because I was waiting on some important emails and now I’m kind of lost as to what my next week will look like. There was a chance of me translating (all expenses paid, haha) in Zacatecoluca this coming week for Habitat for Humanity, but now I don’t know how that all has worked out. Also, for those who might have emailed inquiring about information on the sign-up sheets, sorry, but I’ll get back to you asap, not much I can do on my end J I laugh at the internet company here, TurboNet. They charge like $35 a month for the 1mb service and I’d say at least 5 days a month its out. This month they have already reached a week and a half. I told Nina Delfina that she needs to call and open a can on those guys…not that it will do any good, but sometimes if you act angry enough they give rebates J The bad thing right now is that there are too many options for internet here so, I feel like they don’t have to give the people much of anything.

In other news, we went out to the middle of NOWHERE this past Sunday (Father’s Day for you guys, Happy FD Papa Williams J) to play our soccer games. I mean, straight up adobe and bamboo houses, it was awesome. The first and second team won both games… 2-1 and 4-3, but I’m amazed that no one broke their ankles. That field had holes and washouts all over it…the sides of my calfs and ankles are really sore from the 3 or 4 times I thought I broke my ankle to pieces, haha. This pic cracked me up because Mercedes, daughter of Raul, is trying to get the twin to pose for a picture and her hubby is stuck with both cakes annoyed for a while dodging the kid

Finally, Father’s Day here was yesterday (Tuesday, 17th). They have it every June 17th and not every second Sunday of June….Mother’s Day works the same way here. The Lopez family though came in Saturday to celebrate Saturday night with Don Raul. The kids went in together on a cake and also a shirt and pants for him. It was pretty funny, check out some of the pics.
As far as work goes… this week FUDEM, the eye people, are coming back to different places in the municipality to turn in the prescription glasses to everyone. The last date is this Thursday, and then when the mayor gets back in town, I have to bother him until he donates the transportation to the people who needs surgeries (46) to go get the complete exam in FUDEM San Salvador.

Don Raul cutting his cake that the kids brought.

They have an interesting, but apparently really good way of measuring the waist without trying it on.

Actually trying it on.

Such is my life at the moment. I finished Augustine’s Confessions a few days ago. It was definitely worthwhile as a reflection on life and its obstacles. The last few chapters though he turns super deep philosophical on the origins of the world and time and stuff though. That slowed things down, but as always, he brings up good questions to ponder. He focused a lot on the allegorical interpretation of Genesis and other books of the Bible…..werd.

Jose.

Yesterday and today I also read a book called Constantine’s Bible by a David Dungan, professor at the University of Tennessee. It was a really good and quick read compared to other “scholarly” books that’s I’ve read while here. He presented this thoughts and research on the thought processes of the Hellenistic (Greek) culture and its effects on the development of the Christian canon. I enjoyed it in the manner that it presented an idea, presented primary sources and other established citations to explain why he believed the way he did, and then followed those ideas to their logical end. Now, that being said, towards the end I wasn’t really in total agreement with his conclusion, but I respect the guy and his work.


For those of you who haven’t ever questioned where the Bible came from, or who it was that decided these books and not others would be Christian scripture (there were many, many others in contention), I encourage you to check it out. It’s a real thought provoking situation, you can’t lose out. Just go to Barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com and search “where the bible came from” or “canon of the bible” and see what pops up (usually the books with 'canon' in the title touch more on the specific topic). I have a few book ideas, but you know me, always Mr. Neutral, haha!


You can’t truly know what something is until you know where it came from.