BradDenton

Hello from Marbella, Spain! Brad, Janie, Greg and I are here for a few days, enjoying the Spanish Riviera. All the vegetation is the same as in Mesa, just healthier and bigger. Maybe that's what it's supposed to look like at home! We drove to Gibraltar today, after sleeping 12 solid hours to overcome the jet-lag (kinda worked, kinda didn't). We had the greatest cab driver, a Gibraltar native named Douglas. He drove us all around the island, telling us stories of Gibraltar's history and what it was like to grow up there. We loved him , and he was worth every penny (or pence, you might say)! The weather was cloudy, and we couldn't see Africa, but we hope to get there in a few days. I think my favorite part was the macaques. They ... read more

We’re coming into the homestretch of the trip. This morning as I was getting ready the lady who cleans the place mentioned that it was her last day. I said yep. She said she had a favor to ask. I said what. She said he son doesn’t have shoes and could I give her some. I thought that was a little forward but of course it’s impossible to say no under the circumstances. And she’s a nice, poor lady. So I said sure, and gave her the choice between my sandals and my running shoes. She took the sandals. I also took her picture and printed it out for her. She really liked that, and I told her that if she comes back tomorrow, I’ll take one of her whole family. She also said, you ... read more

Big day today. We went to an orphanage called Nhamantanda, about a 90-minute drive north of here. There were some pretty interesting things to see on our way there. One thing we saw was a government office along the road that looked like a weigh station would look in the US. There were six or eight speed bumps in the middle of the road, so we were crawling along for a quarter-mile or so. A bunch of guys trying to sell bags of cashews ran along the car for the whole time, trying to get us to buy. I probably would have if I hadn’t been so surprised by the whole thing, didn’t have my money out, etc. One of our group was taking pictures of them as they ran along. I thought that was ... read more

This morning Warner Woodworth, a BYU professor in international development, left for home. He’s been here with us the whole time, although usually doing different things. When I went to the meetings with villagers, he was the one I went with. He’s a pretty interesting guy. Remember Oulessebougou, Mali? He was instrumental in starting up that whole thing. He is involved with the church’s international aid and with various microcredit organizations, and similar stuff. He lives on half his BYU salary and gives the rest to similar kinds of organizations. Hmm, I remember when I was planning on doing that. The guilt-meter is starting to buzz. The only problem with the guy is that he’s a Democrat. In the morning we went to Dondo. We helped repair a decrepit swingset that has probably injured as ... read more

Today was fairly uneventful. More of the same, really. In the morning we worked on a machessa, and in the afternoon we did some work and played with orphans at the Dondo orphanage where we’ve spent time several times before. At the machessa we tied grass into long bundles that will go on the roof. There were a lot of villagers who showed up, which is a really good thing. The more they put into it, the better it is for them. If it’s just white people showing up and doing stuff for them, there’s little or no long-term benefit. The downside of having so many villagers there was that there were kind of too many people for what needed to be done, so we didn’t have a full morning of work. Which was okay, ... read more