Startled Guests

Earlier this week we had our friend from North Carolina, Alison, and her friend Amy visit us for a week. It has been strangely rainy and cold here. Tuesday night Roamer decided to make chili. It was a good way to head into winter. After eating our fill of chili and cornbread, we settled down in the livingroom to watch "The Lady in the Cage." It's a black and white film that is a little bit Hitchcock and a little bit Drive-In. It was one of James Caan film debutes. His head gets run over by a station wagon in the end - but he deserves it because he tried to kill the poor lady stuck in her own private elevator.


Although it was a bizarre and traumatic film, I drifted off to sleep because I was warm from the big bowl of chili and content to kick back with Roamer and our guests. Suddenly I was awakened by my own loud fart.


Roamer exclaimed loudly and pulled her shirt collar over her nose. The other guests were silent but their eyes got really big and they tried not to look at me. I guess no one likes being startled like that...

The New Building

As a ministry, what do you do if you were kicked out of Belgium, are renting a house for an office in Madrid, and the lease on the house is running out? You build a new building.


I spend a couple of hours everyday on this construction project. I photograph details for the overseers in the U.S., and videotape daily for use in promotional materials and historical documentation. This also involves alot of computer time manipulating images. Although this task is not one of my opportunities for stretching my creative skills, it has become an important part of my daily routine. And as a consequence, I have gotten to know the spanish-speaking workers quite well. That is good, because this building project will continue for a year or more.


The guy drilling into the wall is George (hor-hay) who is from Ecuador. He is the yard boss and he does it all, always wearing his baseball cap backwards. He is proud to tell me that he knows people in Chicago (shee-koggo).


The materials and procedures are very unique. There is already enough concrete in the building to require a bunker-buster bomb to penetrate the foundation. I have not seen any wood. Dangerous moments occur often. No one wears hard-hats. Here is a brick block with 82 holes. Copious amounts of cement bind these holes to the next block. Trapped air is further insulation against the Spanish heat.


Here is a wall. The pipes seem random. They are.


This is Eduardo drilling a meter-square hole into the floor of the old swimming pool on the property. He is very young and has a child. Eduardo and I always wave to each other in the morning.


Very often, specialilized craftsmen come in. These past two weeks have seen steelworkers preparing the skeleton of the building. They laughed when I showed up on the jobsite a week ago using a Roman helmet for a hard-hat.


The vertical beams have been installed. This building is going to be huge and cost over 2.5 million dollars. It towers over the neighborhood. We can't tell the neighbors what it will be because the facility's true use is a bit of a secret. I have my own opinions. They are wide-ranging and its best if I do not share them.