January 31, 2003(Friday)

Today is another "mind your own business" day. There is not much work needed to be done, so I can spend more time in my personal stuff. I have reorganized the personal_photo.html page. I also prepared PowerPoint presentation for the Baptist Church 10th yr anniversary. I also icq Carmen about our wedding preparation too.
I went to Baptist Church at night for the prayer meeting and dinner too. We talked about the poor economy and job situation because Mr. Wong got laid off today after working in a company for 26 yrs! We talked about the difference between how male-male love each other versus how female-female interact love each other.
Mr. Wong gave me a CD consisting of about 200 photos. I spent about an hour finding which ones are good for the 10th yr anniversary slide shows.

January 30, 2003(Thursday)

I went to work full time today again. As expected, there is not much work needed, so I can spend a considerable amount of time working on personal stuff especially the Baptist Church 10th yr anniversary thing. The company wants us here because they need to pay our salary anyway, and because in case there is any support needed, we are there for the customer.
I went to Baptist Church for the "discipleship training" (the one level up after Baptismal class). Actually, I went there to socialize and have dinner. I did not attend that class but talked to Pastora Loh about the 10th yr anniversary instead. Thursday (and Monday too) is no water day. Usually there is a tank of water in church so that there is some water. However, the tap is closed so that there is no water at church. So we can not wash our hand, flush the toilet, clean the table nor wash the dishes. I felt very uncomfortable for that. When I go home, there is no water to shower too. I studied some Cisco stuff. I have not really study for a long time.

January 29, 2003(Wednesday)

I did a lot of house keeping work in the morning, e.g. updated the sharing that I get rejected from the 10th yr anniversary booklet committee (I am in the committee too!), photos for Carmen's and my homepage and so on. Also, I accidentally did something to my venez_church.html file and I have to reorganize my photo homepage. That is annoying to do thing the second time.
The woman sat next to me told me not to have food in my seat. I brought a warm chicken sandwich and left it there. She complained that the whole place is filled with smell. I always like to eat in my desk but I have stopped it since she complained it previously. I never imagine that this kind of food also annoyed her! Currently, I am eating a mouthful full of food from kitchen and use my hand to hide my mouth and walked back to my desk to keep on working.
I went to Paco's house for dinner and then had Spanish class with him at my home. I went to bed early (11:00pm)

January 28, 2003(Tuesday)

Finally, after two months of suffering, they installed some water system at our house yesterday. Therefore, I can have my first hot water shower, with a decent water pressure, in my house today! It felt so good. However, the water stopped totally for several times during the shower. I guess that there is not enough water in the water tank and that cause this inconvenient. Every Monday and Thursday is "no water" day (except during lunch or dinner time) so all water in the tanks is used up during the night and that may be the reason why.
After two months of on strike, the company finally issued that the working period will return to normal starting yesterday. No more late night sleep nor early leave for me :( There is not much job anyway so I may have a hard time to do anything during the day. I also received an email from one of the engineer to the cisco study group that our company is hiring (this is also the way that I know about my current job). That is unreasonable because there is on strike and we all afraid about getting laid off. I have checked with two "little" bosses and none of them know anything about this. I will check with them later to see whether this is true or not.
I went to church at 3 for the Outreach. This "every last Tuesday of the month" outreach is life game this time. I was supposed to organized this on Dec 31, but due to the difficult political situation (it still is) and I was in Canada, we postponed that to today. We are not sure how many people will come and this game would not be fun if there are few people. Therefore I set the bottom line of 15 newcomers by 5:45 (we told them to come at 5:00) or else we will use Plan B. It turned out that there were about 15 newcomers by that time. I was a bit disappointed at this low "show up" rate but it is better than nothing. And my team really did prepare for this night so I don't want to waste their effort.
After some songs and dancing (from the ACM's "Beautiful Life" in "Elijah" CD), we started the game. It went smoother than I thought because the workers really know what is going on. I am quite impressed by that. The atmosphere is quite good too. The only regret is that my digital camera was low on battery and therefore I have missed a lot of interesting pictures.
I went with Pastor and several people to help someone to move refrigerator to Pastor's house. I went home at 10:20. After some exercise, I wanted to take a shower. And there is no water! I am really mad by that. Afterward, there is very little water, so little that if the shower is lifted more than 30cm above the floor, the water supply would stop. I took a shower like that anyway. I found out that the water pump installed yesterday was unsuccessful and the situation is worsening now. But at least I know why.

January 27, 2003(Monday)

I went to have a hair cut in the morning at the house right across my street. It is actually the house of someone and this Chinese hair cutter went there to help cutting the hair. Che So told me to go there too. She was there and chatted with this woman about going to church. This woman is in debt because she has to pay US$10500 per person for her family (4 of them?) to come to Venezuela. So she is seriously in debt and has to work hard to earn money. The hair cut was so cheap (Bs 3000 = Cdn $2.3) that even Hubert the Ebenezer Scrooge is willing to pay Bs 5000 (Cdn $3.98, still less than half of the price in the cheapest place in Vancouver) for the hair cut.
I went to work to check email, update homepage and so on. I have a serious problem with my hotmail account. I have about 20 new emails and bombed my email account. Only one or two is for me and the rest are junk mail. Previously the junk mail is several kB in size but now there are some with 100s k. It really annoyed me.
There is not much business in Venezuela. Therefore, I just found out that, my company is selling our time off. First, our resumes will be forwarded to a more popular Consultant company in Miami. Then when a country is looking for someone to do a particular kind of technical job, this company will assign one of us to perform that job. That may be in Brazil, or in Argentina or Peru or anywhere in South America. That sounds quite interesting. We are now in the beginning stage to perform this job and not sure that whether it will work out yet or not.
I went to Che So's house for dinner. I wanted to design for the 10th year anniversary invitation card there. I also talked to her for 2 hours, just on the church and family. She asked that whether I am interested to move to her house. Her son possibly will study Master in US so there is a spare room. Also, I don't need to worry about my meal. That sounds like a good deal. However, on the other hand, I need to buy a little motorcycle in order to go to work because there is neither bus nor metro station nearby.

January 26, 2003(Sunday)

After taking a hot shower in the morning (this is something that I took for granted for my life but not anymore!) I went to church. Today is the first time that I was both the worship chairperson and the singspiration leader. I still remembered six or seven years ago I requested to be singspiration leader and got turned down. God has His own timing. The songs that we sang are mostly from the ACM. "The whole world praise", "Hevenu Shalom", "Give thanks", "Come worship God" and "Shout to the Lord". It is a bit harder than I thought, but I thought that I did a not-to-bad job.
During the Sunday School, Pastora Loh was teaching about dating again and she asked me to share why I love Carmen. People amazed as my willingness, my openness and my readiness. During lunch time, Mrs. Wong asked me to announce about the church policy on buying food for church and offering money for the food department. I stood on the chair to talk to everyone about this. This felt so weird. I used to do a lot of this in VCAC and FCGC but this is my first time to make public announcement representing the committee in the Baptist Church. This marked the uprising of my leadership at the church level, not only among the Chinese youth. I chaired the church committee for finding committee for the 10th year anniversary celebration. Once again, this is another thing that marked some "status change" of me at church.
I had some brief discussion with the 10th year anniversary committee (Pastor Loh, Mrs. Tse, myself, and maybe Ricky Lam, who is in Toronto now). The atmosphere here is quite difference. I need to gain the trust. My sharing for the 10th year anniversary booklet is banned. That is an interview that I did to myself about who Hubert is. They said that the sharing should be regarding about the church ministry so it is not too appropriate. I was not happy about that but I still accept this decision. I am also trying to gain my leadership position among these two people but not too successful. I know that I am a bit quick to show my "real character". But from the bottom of my heart, I know that I am the more appropriate person to do this job. But yes, I know that I should slow down and wait for God's timing. Also, I can feel that, for the first time in this church, that I take ownership of the ministry and not too willing to let go (which happened to me lots of time in Vancouver). I should be careful or else I will fallen into the politics (which I am really balanced now)
Since Pastor Loh will preach at MB church today, I went with him and attend the Sunday Worship. It has been several months that I did not go to their worship (after Pastora Ana asked am I too tired and that's why I fall to sleep during sermon) They had their deacon anointment today. Pastor Semson has to pick up one of the deacon during the service and therefore we have to keep on singing at that time. For one, I find that it is very dragging and not organizing. For second, the songs are the old ACM's "You Are King" songs which I get extremely bored. Especially now I am changing the worship environment in Baptist church. The worship plus the ceremony lasted for 2.2 hours which was quite long.
We practiced for the compartmental song. This is a burden to me. I have not been to this worship for a long while and has emotionally detached from this people. In addition, these are the Spanish youth which I need to learn how to communicate with them (they know how to listen but only one or two of them know how to speak in Chinese). I do not feel that I have the "authority" and the "trust worthy" that I had in the Baptist Church. Anyway I still try to do the best of my job. In fact, in my opinion, these people have more musical talent than the Baptist Church Chinese youth and I am really asking a lot from them. The songs are in Spanish and I am not too familiar with them, even though for the past week I listened to these songs many time to know them.
I went with Chi Kong to help Man Pui (Chinese youth in Baptist Church) to move. He said that there is only little stuff to move but turned out that it *fully* packed Chi Kong's 4X4. I chatted with Chi Kong at night for about 30 mins about his and my situation at the two churches. I emphasized that I do not have a preference of any of the two Chinese churches (I mean that, I don't hate one or like one more, especially I am new to these two churches). I care more about whether he, as a person, is happy at one church or not. I do not mind whether he served at either of these two churches as long as he is happy.

January 25, 2003(Saturday)

I went to work for several hours in the morning. The network is slow and I thought that it is my computer's problem. It really scare me off because I don't want to kill my laptop fourth time (I would have a nickname of "laptop killer"). I removed icq and download icq again, just to check is this the thing that messed up my laptop. I went to church at 5:20. We practiced for the singspiration for tomorrow's Sunday worship. They are all familiar with the songs so the time went quite smooth. Afterward, I went to Chu So house with a lot of church people because there is a birthday party for her young son. Actually I just go there to have dinner and have some socialize time.
I went to Mrs. Wong's house to stay over for the night. My original intent is to have a shower with hot water and strong water pressure, after suffering the little cold water in my own apartment. It has been two weeks since I use hot water (the office, church and house all have cold water only) What a nice feeling. I spent about an hour chatted with the Wong couple about the church 10th year anniversary and the church politic and other situation. It seems like to me that I should take the lead for the 10th year anniversary project. Personally I find that I am more comfortable and more gifted in leading, chairing or organizing function than music serving. There is no obvious leader in the church, except Ricky Lam (who is in Toronto now), Pastor Loh (who will leave the church for good this summer) and myself. And we are all from Canada. It is a high priority to develop local leader. It is also nice to hear that I did make a positive impact to the church.

January 24, 2003(Friday)

When I went to work in the morning, I renew my richest spiritual treasure, my Bible memory verse. I had the discipleship training in the summer of 1994 and I still keep these verses handy all the time. Below is a list of verses. And there are more that does not fit to any below.
Salvation: Ro 3:23, Ro 6:23, Heb 9;27, Ro 5:8, Eph 2:8-9, Jn 1:12 and Ro 10:9-10.

	Basic Truth	Difficulties	Solution	Result
Guarantee	Jn 10:28,29 1Jn 5:12	1Jn 2:3 1Jn 3:21	Ro 8:16 1Jn 5:13a	2Ti 1:12b 1Jn 2:5
Morning Devotion	Mk 1:35 1Co 1:9	Pr 6:9 Rev 2:4	Ps 5:3 Ps 46:10	Ps 90:14 Ps 143:8
Prayer Life	Je 33:3 Jn 14:13	Ps 66:18 Jas 4:2-3	Mk 11:24 Jn 15:7	2Co 7:14 Jn 16:24
Memory verse	Job 23:12 Ps 119:11	Ps 50:17b Rev 3:15	Dt 6:6-7 Job 22:22	Ps 119:130 Jn 8:31-32
Spiritual Growth	Eph 4:15 2Pe 3:18	Lk 9:62 Ro 10:3	Jn 15:4 Col 2:6-7	Ps 1:3 Php 1:6
Life	2Co 14:6 Jas 4:4b	Jn 12:43 1Jn 1:6	Ro 12:2 1Jn 2:15-16	Ps 1:1-2 1Jn 4:4


God's word: Mt 4:4, Ps 119:105, Ps 119:16, Heb 4:12
Encouragement: Gal 6:9
These are the 60 verses I memorized, and still do, from the discipleship training. It is a pain and a very exhausting exercise to try to recall everyone of them. Actually there are other verses that I know (e.g. Jn 3:16, 1Co 5:17, Jn 11:35, Jn 1:1, Ge 1:1, Ps 23....) I am sure that these will become handy when I need them.
I went to work for 6 hours and icq Carmen too. I went to Che So house and played Pool (American style snooker) for 1.5 hours. I guess that the 12-yrs-old Victor is too good and I lost every single match. I need to practice more. This is a humbling experience to lose to a youngster. But that is ok because I have a good testimony. I am not yelling or whining. I went to prayer meeting afterward and there is not much people came.

January 23, 2003(Thursday)

I was writing sharing the FCGC for about two hours. I can't imagine that I have so many thing that I can share. I guess writing diary online really helps. I woke up at 10:10. Since today is Thursday, there is no water supply to my apartment after the breakfast hour. Therefore, I have to suffer the day without a morning shower. I did not go to work today because there is a march organized by the government today. It was a memorial for 1958 today that they get rid of the dictator and had democratic government. It is quite irony that this government is actually moving more and more to the dictatorship side and ignores the feeling of normal people. (However, it is observed that even if there is election held today, the government may still win. It is because there is so many poor people and so little middle and upper class people) Today is also a show of support for the government. They need that in this rebellious period. These people are poor and violent so people suggested us not to go to work to avoid any "massacre". (It turns out that there is "only" one death and 14 injured because of an explosion near a subway station)
I went to Paco's house to eat lunch and dinner. I spent part of the afternoon at home writing some sharing for the Baptist Church 10th year anniversary magazine. I slept too; it seems like that these kind of "aimless" life really make me bored and encouraged myself to sleep for 10 hours a day!
I had lots of conversation opportunity with not only Paco but also his family. I told them about life in Canada and Vancouver. Also the job situation in US and Canada and my experience of going to Belgium last November. It is like I am telling some extra-territorial experience to these people. When I reflect on this, I am amazed that my life experience really broadens in the last year. I can talk to these people about how life is like in Canada and when I go to Vancouver I can tell my friends about how life is like in Venezuela.

January 22, 2003(Wednesday)

I went to work for about 6 hours. It seems to me that even though there is no official work that I need to do, I am still quite occupied. There are a lot of other housekeeping jobs that I need to do. For example, I need some final touch to the ccbootcamp, photocopy some songs for Church, check the news, update homepage, check email and so on. I can't imagine what life would be like it I have the normal 8 hours workload. (Then I may have to do 14 hours of office job!)
As I read more about the News, I hate the president more and more. He does not have any direct impact to my life. Even though now 1US=1923Bs, I still earn the same because my salary is calculated in US. However, the central bank has to stop trading foreign currency for a week in order to preserve the Bs value. It really hurts the economy. If the president is someone that loves the country and his people, he will quit for sure. On the other hand, the opposition party was a bit too much too. They are destined to loss anyway so why keep on dragging this strike?
After a 1.5 hours of late afternoon nap and dinner, I had my Spanish class. I always have the burden to learn Spanish quick. However, for some reason, it is not working too well for me.

January 21, 2003(Tuesday)

I tried to have a regular day by waking up at 7:20. I tried but end up I woke up at 7:50. I went to Desca to do some work and went back home at 1:20.
I went to church at 3pm and would like to discuss about the Jan 28 Life game outreach. There were three new comers suddenly arrived and we sang some songs and played some games instead. One of the newcomers got freak out about the action of the song ("the whole world also praise" from ACM's "come revive me") and he left. Nothing much is needed to be done except clap hand, raise hand and put the hand down. And then we tried to play a "call name" game and the second new comers got freak out and left too. (Actually these two newcomers did not leave the church but went to the library upstairs and read books). I was thinking to myself at that time that is the song and game (which is extremely normal in our standard) too much for them?
We had some sharing time and we asked why the newcomer (the third, or the last) does not accept Christ (since she was here several times already). She said that she planned to accept Christ today, just that Pastor Loh is not here. I picked up that fish at 4:45pm easily (and it is the first fish in Venezuela)
We discussed about the Life Game of next weeks and practiced for the song that we will sing next Tuesday too. That song is called "beautiful life" from ACM's "Elijah" CD. There is a lot of action for that song and I guess that these are the dance team. (hey, my modern dance lesson helps a bit :)
After dinner, we practiced for this Sunday Worship's songs. I got a bit annoyed by the little kid (10 and 13 years old) because they are so annoying. I almost lot my temper. It is so exhausting to ask 10 people to be quiet and practice for songs and these two little kids added oil to me, especially I had just finished washing dishes for the dinner. I am sure that if I am not going to hold this people together, they will fall apart and no practice will be done. I wish to have one or two helpers to assist me to control these people.
I went home at 9:20. I spent about 45 mins to learn the compartmental songs that I should teach MB church Spanish youth to sing for the compartmental camp in Mar 1-4. I was just learning two songs; but since they are in Spanish, it takes me a long time to learn. I have to use the electronic dictionary that Carmen gave me to find out the meaning of these words. Their pronunciation is weird too and I have to know exactly what is going on.

January 20, 2003(Monday)

I planned to leave home at about 11:10 to go to work. My housemate asked whether I want to eat lunch with them. At first, I refused because I am "not good e c" (means embarrassed). However, since they insisted, then I had lunch with them. After being hungry for the last 13 hours (but 10 of those hours are sleeping hour and I felt nothing), it is good to eat a full meal. My housemates are nice people even though they are not Christian. (after all, the MJ sound and the smoke does not matter so much. The cold little shower water still does though)
Usually after a weekend being absent from the Internet, I would have a lot to do. Even though I did check email once or twice in the weekend and I have already typed up my diary in the weekend onto my computer, I still need to spend about 3 to 4 hours to update myself of what is going on. This is called "information explosion"!
I went to Che So house to eat dinner at night. Also, I fall in love with playing pool (pool, not poo! It is American style snooker). She has a pool table at her house. I played it several times in December. I played it again last night too and I am pretty good at it (even though I still lose to the 13 years old Victor and 16 years old Megan who live at Che So house in the moment)

January 19, 2003(Sunday)

There was a choir offering song "Please Send Me" (in Chinese) and it went pretty well. There will be some hard decision that I need to make in the future. I believe that you need to be a Christian in order to serve God, especially on the stage. However there were quite a number of non-Christians that went to our Saturday night choir practice. (I don't think that any of my Vancouver friends will find it reasonable. But this is true! For some weeks, there was about one third, which numbered to 5 or 6 people, was non-Christian!) This was the second performance. Last time, all non-Christian can't make (not that they don't want. Just because they have to work on Sunday!) The Sunday Service. However, there was one that can make it today. On one hand, the Saturday night choir singing can be an outreach event. (I don't mean that it will be a big one. But singing with Hubert and his cool songs is better than spending money to sing in Karaoke! And even better than gambling or sitting at home doing nothing!) We even have a thought that if there are more non-believers coming, we can even make it to be a fellowship! On the other hand, it is very hard to talk to the non-believers that "you are not welcome to sing with us in the Sunday worship because you are not a Christian". Wow, in my entire "Christian ministry" "career", I have never worried because I may have to turn down non-believers come to church or do things with us! What a luxury! (I am sure that my Vancouver friends would extremely envy about my situation!)
Pastora Loh (This is Mrs. Loh in Spanish; there is an "a" after the pastor to denote female and is not a typo) continued from last Sunday and shared about dating and courtship. I have heard this many times in church but this is probably the first time that these people heard it. They were enthusiast and the talk went pretty well. Instead of hosting the Sunday School of the coming weeks myself, I have invited her to teach for as many times as she thinks possible. (I am not slag off; on the other hand, there is some hard lesson that I am learning. Email me if you want to know what I mean).
After lunch, we had the church council meeting. Pastor Loh officially resigned today and his last date will be Jun 8, 03. On one hand, I think that it may be good for the church and him (so that he can recharge and serve again). On the other hand, I would miss him especially because he helped me a lot to get settled in Venezuela. He is my main contact if there is anything happens to me (e.g. my "almost go to jail" experience in the Venezuela airport in Dec 20, 02). But since this is his decision in front of God, we all respect that.
I went to MB Church and played with YiSon for a while. No, I don't really want to treat him like my son. I would rather treat him like my little brother (which is "only" 26 years younger than I am). He still likes to play with me. The "Last Thursday night Bible Study at Dr. Chu's house" works! We had fellowship afterward and the program was about money.

January 18, 2003(Saturday)

I slept for 11 hours and woke up at 11 today. I thought that I lost this "magic power" (of waking up late) in Venezuela because I always woke up at 9 during the weekend. Probably because of the tired in Canada (Missing Day Project) helps me to regain this power.
I spent an hour drafting an email to my boss to express how eager I want to stay in the company. (email me if you want a copy). I think that I did a good job because I have never spent an hour to write a hundred words email. If I really do get laid off, I know that I have done my part in rescuing myself.
Since I have nothing to do, I went to Baptist Church at 3pm for a kick-off meeting for "All Venezuela Chinese Church (only 6 or 7) retreat" on April 18-19. I was quiet 99.5% of the time, excepting asking people whether they want to fill up their cup with water or not. There is a position for music ministry. I (almost everyone else too! I can tell this!) thought that I am the most suitable person. However one (the only one?) person suggested that this test should be given to some other church to do. I was a bit disappointed. However, this feeling has gone briefly. I learnt from that person that God's timing is not here yet and God wants me to serve Him by sitting down. I have to rethink about what I am doing at church. If I feel any bitterness, that means that I am serving my ambition instead.
We practiced for choir for about 3 hours. I went to Paco's house to check email (being an IT person, how can I be absent on the net for more than a day?) and talked to him about Chinese youth's ministry. This is not an easy task because the Chinese youth are too mobile and they are moving from city to city. Even myself is too unstable. we need several core people who can stay at the church to help out for over a year!

January 17, 2003(Friday)

I woke up at 8:50. After my usual routine, I was sleepy and went for another hour of sleep. I started to fall back to my South American mood - need 9 hours of sleep a day. I was not like that when I was in Canada; 8.5 hours is enough. It may be that I am not as busy here and the weather is a bit hot.
I received feedback about the ccbootcamp that I wrote last month (I have written three so far). The lab difficult and the correctness are good but it was a bit short and I need to write more. . Anyway, I was a bit overwhelmed by this because I am in the process of finishing my third lab. So I may have to do two at once!
The exchanged rate reached 1US = 1780Bs today. My feeling was mixed. On one hand, since my salary is in US, that means that my equivalent salary in Bs has double (it was 850Bs when I started this job last May). I am so rich compare to the people here! On the other hand, I felt quite bad about the economy. I don't spend a lot here (only paying Cdn 150 rent per month) so I can not take any advantage from this situation. But the people here would suffer a lot! Who knows that this poor economy will cause any laid off!
I went home at 6 and played piano for an hour after short exercise. Then I went to Baptist church for the prayer meeting. I found out that people really do line up for a long time to get gas. Mrs. Wong lined up today from 8am to 4pm for gas; it is like a full time job. She is so exhausted from the line up. Pastor Loh spent for four hours in void yesterday because by the time almost reach his turn (he is the tenth car!) there is no gas. I read from email that some other people spent 36 hours for gas. It is ridiculous. I remembered that in Vancouver when there are more than 3 cars, I consider that to be too long. But there are, in some cases, 15 streets long of line up for gasoline! Pastor Loh, Mrs. Wong, Pastor Semson, and many others people that have car here have to line up for gas. Anything less than 3 hours is lucky!
There is two ways that can avoid this line up. One is to pay someone to fill the gas for you (which means, black market). The other is to pay the person at the gas pump and would get a faster service (which means, bribe). If I have to fill up the gas, what should I do? I was shocked to know that (actually, I should not be shock. But I am!) in order to have good testimony, Mrs. Wong lined up for gas. I felt so ashamed. People like me contribute the reason that sometimes it takes people 5 hours for the gas.
Accessory like diaper, detergent will be gone soon. The price of milk and bread went up, as the exchange rate went up. Pastor Semson said that it is better to have a civil war so that the situation would not keep on dragging. The situation has not yet influent me directly, but every time I hear my friends' sharing, I can feel the pain that they are going through. By living in this country, I learnt how selfish and how power hunger a ruler can get. The president's point for staying at the office is that the constitution (which he changed previously to work on his favor) allows him to. He did not consider how the people are doing. There is only absolute hatred and power hunger and no love. For other rulers, they will step down if there is so many opposition; but his face is extremely thick and he is a very determinant person. It reminds me about what Habakkuk questioned God - the righteousness and wickedness of a country.

January 16, 2003(Thursday)

I went to work from 10:30 - 5:30. I tried to add some cool Java thing to my "what is new" page. There is still bug and it does not work all the time. I know very little thing about JAVA and that is the best that I can do. I also edited something for the ccbootcamp. By the end of the day, my mind was pretty dead.
I went to Dr. Chu's house for dinner and Bible Study with the other MB church people. It seems like to me that there are four pairs, Dr. Chu & wife, Pastor Semson & wife, Mr. Yip & wife, Hubert & YiSon!!! YiSon still remembered me. It took sometimes for him to get warm up with me though. He still remembered the "thank you", "good morning", "good night", "please" that I taught him long ago. The dinner was full. And Bible Study was ok. I was early home enough that there is still water for me to shower (for each Monday and Thursday, there will be no water, except during the meal time)

January 15, 2003(Wednesday)

I went to work from 10:20 to 4:00 and did a number of administrative work. I updated the photo homepage, photocopied transparency for church, icq with Carmen (obviously this is not an administrative work!). After 2 months without personal computer, I finally have one. It is actually the spare one that I got this Monday. It originally belonged to an engineer here (who worked with me in the DirecTV project); he left and I was assigned this new second-hand computer. My old broken lap top is still in Toshiba; I have no idea when it will be fixed. Hence, I spent some times in organizing the computer environment too.
I am worrying about the upcoming of my third laid off since I graduated in 1998. Normally there is free coffee in the company. However, the CFO sent an email to tell us spent every penny carefully. We have to pay for the coffee now; it is only Cdn $0.6 but it does symbolize something. So I may have to start work on my resume again. I hope to talk to my boss about my visa, upcoming work project or training plan. If he had resistant in any of these, I know that I will not be safe.
I talked to my coworkers and found out two interesting things. First, we are losing money because of the exchange rate. We had some customer and made deal in the end of November. The exchange rate at that time was 1 US to 1350Bs (slightly lower then the all time high of 1500Bs at that time). There is strike for two months; the exchange rate is now 1 US to 1720Bs. Who knows what the exchange rate will be when the customer get back to work to pay us money! (In the future, our company will require customer to pay US dollar rather than Venezuela Bs). I also talked to a Cisco employee and was a bit surprise to find out that Cisco employees still have to work. I thought that, since McDonald, KFC or others are on strike, Cisco will be on strike too. He told me that these company are franchised but Cisco is not (or else I will be one of the first to get a franchise from Cisco!). Hence, they have to work all the way through, even though there is not much happening. The Cisco employees can work from home because they want to make sure that they are safe. He told me that there is no revenue since December 1. We both agreed that Venezuela will bankrupt soon and will be a bad place to be. (Actually, if I do not have the danger of being laid off, I would hope this strike last forever!)
I went to a customer NetUNO for their network card upgrade. This is the sole purpose that my boss wanted me to come back Sunday. This takes place in a really remote place. I have no idea how to get there, and neither did the taxi drivers. He asked for direction and different people gave him different direction. They postponed the upgrade because the on-site engineers are not ready. The upgrade took place very smoothly. I worked on my own thing all the time because it was so smooth (When did network change become so smooth? The last time that happened to me was my Security CCIE test in Nov 4) Actually, I have absolutely no idea what the customer doing. I was a useless person that consumed their electricity, bandwidth (for my laptop) and a cup of water! I was even more useless than last time I was here in the end of November. Just in case if there is problem, my job is only to contact Cisco and ask them for support (i.e. a receptionist or an echoer. I can't even be a translator from Spanish to English!)
I cooked (macaroni, tomato and left over meat from yesterday's BBQ) at night. This is the second time I cooked since I moved into this new house.

January 14, 2003(Tuesday)

After 3.1 hours of work, I went to church. I asked them about the Tuesday Outreach, fellowship and Saturday night Choir to update myself. It is good to know that there are people who backed me up, and they really welcomed and looked forward for my return too.
There were not many people came in the beginning. We sang some songs. While 6 or 7 of us were singing, there were some non-believers played ping pong besides us. I was quite upset at that time but tried to control myself. I did not want to lose my temper and lost my testimony. After all, we just wanted to make friend with them. We had some BBQ afterward and kept on singing some new songs that I got from Canada. I hope that they like all those weird action that was developed by ACM. We also took some photo with the digital camera.

January 13, 2003(Monday)

Venezuela is still on strike but there is about 1/3 people in my company went to work. I saw one of my small bosses and gave him some presents from Vancouver. I dropped off others to other "big guys". I hope this "brushing shoes" would help me to stay in Desca longer.
I had a spare lap top today; after two months of using other people's computer, I finally have a laptop that I can use at least temporarily. I downloaded software (e.g. icq and SecureCRT for telnet). I am still having a hard time to adjust from an English keyboard to this Spanish keyboard; most of the keys are in the same position but keys like ( or = or ) or ' or " still mixed me up. I icqed Carmen too; every time I icq with her or any other of my friends in Vancouver, I find that my Network Engineer job is worthwhile!
I went to Paco's home for dinner. I brought him lots of things: Chinese food that her parents asked me to buy, new digital camera and a gift for his baptisms. I also spent some time teaching him how to use the digital camera and Yahoo Briefcase.

January 12, 2003(Sunday)

I woke up at 4:10, finished my morning daily routine (little exercise, piano [violin if I have one] and devotion) and arrived to the airport at 6:20. Neither Carmen nor I felt too sad because we were only half-awake.
It took 4 hours to get to Houston and another 5 hours to Caracas. I read books and slept for 4.5 hours in the flight. It was really smooth during leaving the custom and the airport. The lawyer was supposed to pick me up (This is what I requested my boss and my boss said that he had told the lawyer already). However, he did not. So I have to take a taxi to home.
There were two things to confirm that I am in Venezuela. When I was in the airport, I planned to get a cart for my luggage. I need to pay Bs2000 (Cdn $2) for the cart. When I was about the insert my Bs2000 bill, there was someone came to me and used the key and unlocked a cart for me. I thought that I can get the cart for free. But nope. Instead, I have to pay the Bs2000 to that person and he put that money in his pocket. When I was looking for my lawyer, there were over 20 people came and asked me for taxi (not simultaneously but one by one of course). I kept on refusing. My lawyer did not show up so I decided to take one of the taxis. Then there were someone showed me to the taxi and helped me to lift the luggage to the taxi. I thought that he was the driver. But actually he was nothing. He asked for Bs5000 for simply taking the luggage from the cart to the taxi. I did not ask for that service but he insisted. I ended up gave him Bs2000. Shortly after, that person came with me with two cops and said something. I guess that it is illegal to get money like that and he tried to show the police that it is I that volunteer to give him the money. I did not say anything because I was still in my Canadian mind. But afterward, I converted back to a Venezuelan mind.
I had to pay for Bs30000 (Cdn $30) for the taxi ride (which I can avoid if the lawyer showed up). It was Bs18000 when I took the taxi from home to airport. I had to understand their side though because there was very minimal gasoline. I unpacked things and called Carmen, Hansel and Venezuelan friends to let them know that I am ok.

January 11, 2003(Saturday)

This is the last day I stayed at Vancouver. I drove Carmen to and from work. Parents also called me about how I am doing and say bye to me. Probably they read the yesterday entry of my diary and know that I am quite home sick. Hansel also emailed me about he will return tomorrow but would not be able to see me in the airport. At nighttime, I talked to Carmen for a long time about many things.

January 10, 2003(Friday)

*** This is the second time I write this because I accidentally erase the writing last time ***
I worked on the ccbootcamp thing until 4am. And I had a late lunch with Tai and went with him to the BCIT bookstore to buy course note for Hansel. We talked quite a lot thing about church, fellowship members and Venezuela.
We arrived at church at 4:30 for the worship team meeting. The preparation and the organization of the entire night were just as good as usual. We watched the movie "the Climb" at night. It is about two climbers Derrick and Michael. Derrick is a non-Christian that is very ambitious, play to the edge and wants to prove to the world and himself about his ability (just like me!). Michael is a Christian that plays on the safe side and is serious on his faith. These two people are put to be a team and needs to climb a challenging mountain. Derrick was very repulsive to Christianity at first. He hurts people in his surrounding deeply and has conflict with Michael because of the different value system. After several incidents that happened to him and also Michael sacrifice his life to save him, he finally became a Christian.
In the past several months in Venezuela, I controlled my emotion carefully. I don't want my emotion to "free flow" or else I would miss Vancouver really much. In the last few days, I was quite home sick especially at night. I am in a house with no people in it. Tonight I watched this movie. It is not the plot of this story that moved me but because I am thinking that I will leave Vancouver in 30 hours. I don't even get to see Hansel in the airport! I am glad that Carmen is still here, even though she has to work tomorrow. This is one of the things that I am really proud to be a Christian. Jesus is with me from HK to Vancouver and all the way to Venezuela (and to jail, if necessary!)

January 09, 2003(Thursday)

Today is the most "normal" day in the entire week. I woke up at 7:30! My Missing Day Project is not working too well. And I don't have time today for my Half Day Project. I drove Carmen to work in the morning and I went home to do some work and slept for an hour.
I went to have lunch with Joyce and Winnie from Enoch Outreach. We had a good chat about the situation in Venezuela and ideas about outreach. There is too much talent in Vancouver and I wish that some of them were moved to Venezuela to help out in the church ministry (am I one of them?). I went to talk to Karl afterward about some cute surprise for Carmen during the drama practice.
I drove Carmen from work and went to Oakridge. I met William there, and also Terence Chow too. It is so good to see long time friends. Carmen and I ate dinner and I told her a lot about the church politics in Venezuela.
I went with Eileen and Val for dinner. We arrived to the restaurant about 30 mins early and have to wait for the clock to strike for the late night special. We looked quite stupid for those 20 mins. We made fun at each other (which is not exactly right!). Although this is an "all you can eat", I did not eat a lot. I thought that there is no point to eat a lot till I suffer!

January 08, 2003(Wednesday)

I worked on the ccbootcamp till 5:30am. Then I slept and woke up at 1:15pm. My Missing Day Project is not going too well. Here are two reasons. First, I am not asleep in the morning / afternoon. Even though I always have afternoon nap, at most I can sleep for an hour. Moreover, I have nothing to do between 4am - 8am and so I go to sleep at that time. Probably the "Half Day Project" is easier to make.
Canaan worship team came to my house for dinner. Carmen cooked the dinner; I was the helper and also keep on washing dishes, for two hours. Then they practiced the worship while I helped Carmen to type and edit her resume.
Allen came to my house to practice guitar at 11:15pm. I played piano while he played guitar. That was fun.

January 07, 2003(Tuesday)

I have worked on the ccbootcamp security ccie lab for 5 hrs till 4 am. My enthusiastic level was not as high as last night because today is the third day, I did not drink coffee and the cisco material that I work on is on the second day.
I did some exercise in 4am and played piano for another hour. That is my first time to work out/practice music so early (or so late?) I went to bed for 4 hours of sleep. I find that it is very hard to do the "Missing Day Project"; I am more like involve in the "Half Day Project" - split one day to two days, each with 12 hours. Sleep for 4 hours each time and work on the remaining 8 hours.
I went to Surrey and had lunch with my UBC friend Alan. I jogged for 68 mins afterward and it did not hurt this time. I ran from my home, along Boundary and Canada Way, to my old house. Then I ran on Wayburne and Moscrop and back to my house. I slept for 3 hours afterward.
Carmen was so sweet and surprise visited at night.

January 06, 2003(Monday)

In order to have a fruitful time during my extra week stay in Vancouver, I wrote my ccbootcamp lab. I spent from 1:45am to 6:40am this morning doing this. I have used my brain five or six times between this periods of time, all are for my R&S CCIE studied in March - June 2000. It went really well. The coffee/tea that I drank on the previous night really helps me to stay awake, and even cause difficulty for me to go to bed at 7:00am!
I woke up at 11:50am and had my usual devotion time. Last night I argued/discussed with William about the effectiveness or purpose of prayer and expressed my doubt (I still trust that God listens to prayer. I am just not so sure how much God answers prayer). Today during my Bible reading time, I "rushed" as usual. However, something strange happened during my closing prayer. I found that it is sweet, interesting and spiritual, which I seldom felt previously. I started to have a prayer book since May 1999, when the speaker of the Revival meeting Dr. Won Wei Yie suggested. I was "wishy-washy" during the "thinking" prayer ever since. Moreover, I had a bottom line between God and me. I also prayed (or God suggested me to pray?) this to be removed in order to have great thing in my life.
Carmen came over during the day and cooked food for me, enough to last for a week. She also taught me quite a number of Chinese pop songs. It is good for me to learn some of these so that I can have these songs in the Outreach meetings.

January 05, 2003(Sunday)

I woke up at 4:50am and arrived airport at 6am in order to exchange my air ticket. Now I will go back to Venezuela in Jan 12 mornings. After eating breakfast with Carmen, we went to Willingdon Church morning Service. I guess that with only 5.5 hrs sleep, I am tired.
I drove my parents to the airport afterward. This is one of the reasons that I want to go back to Venezuela. My parents and Hansel are not in Vancouver and Carmen will have full time work. There is less motivation for me to stay in Vancouver. I felt a bit empty (I try to be positive. Many people have to miss their family for several years. But I can see them after half a year. I am very lucky!). I can try to visualize myself working in US or Toronto alone! (I can't use the Venezuela comparison because now my situation is way better. I can speak English and I can drive and in a North America society. This is the kind of situation, not the radical South America mission, that I visualize I will be after I was laid off from TELUS in Sept 2000)
Carmen and I went to Fraserland Church for a talk about Youth. I always want to be a youth worker. I am very happy now that I can work with youth at Church. I have thought of being a full time youth worker (just like my parents, who are social workers). However, my current situation is very nice to because I have the freedom and the financial advantage. We went to have snack with Ricky, Karen and William afterward.
In order to be fruitful during my coming week, I plan to have my "Missing Day Project". I had this idea for over 10 years but I never have the courage, time and the environment to do it. The idea is like this. I have always heard people, especially my mom, said that I am not willing to sleep at night and therefore I am not willing to wake up in the morning. According to this theory, if I sleep very late, then I wake up really very late. And I will sleep even later the following day. If this cycle continues, I will miss a day. I never have the courage to do it previously because it does take courage (for me only) to break my daily routine. Also, I did not have the environment previously because I have to eat when my family is eating too. I will see whether I can complete this "dream/project" that I wanted to do since I was in high school this week. (But how to define a day in my diary?)

January 04, 2003(Saturday)

Usually I update my diary and my photo homepage at night. However I did not do that last night because it was late and I was quite tired. (Even though I have 10 hours of sleep yesterday, I still feel tired.) When I checked email this morning, there was an email from my boss saying that he recommends me delay my return to Venezuela. I was quite irritated by this late notice. I had lunch with my family and Carmen's family but I did not really want to go because I really want to find out what my boss's response to my email. Basically, I know that there are two reasons that he wants me to stay in Venezuela. First, the situation is quite tough there. (I have received email from my church people and they said that life is more or less then same.) It is good that he concerns my safety. The second reason is a hidden reason. He wants me to use my vacation for my stay in Vancouver. From my perspective it does not make sense because I don't have to work in Venezuela anyway. However, from his perspective, he does not need to pay me. It is good for him. I have to worry before that this strike may cause my laid off because of the economic downturn in both Venezuela and my company. This may be a good thing to me. However, there is some kind of upset or felt being taken advantage in my mind. In addition, the change of the flight causes me US $100. My air ticket will be void if I change it pass Jan 12! My parents will leave Vancouver to HK tomorrow and Hansel is already in HK. Carmen needs to go back to work.
The weather was good in the afternoon and I went for a jog. I went from my house in 27th and Rupert to Lougheed and boundary and to my old house in Norfolk St (near BCIT) and to Moscrop and back to my house. I was quite out of shaped, compare to my peak the time before I left Vancouver. It took me 1hr 25 mins! My right knee hurts too! The main reason is that I did not practice when I was in Venezuela.

January 03, 2003(Friday)

After having lunch with my parents and Carmen, Carmen and I went to pick up my passport. I have a new passport number now, and I must memorize that. Afterward, we went to Granville Island to talk and walk.
I went to FCGC Carmel fellowship at night. This is a total different feeling from going to VCAC Canaan fellowship. One is more fun, energetic and the other one is more mature and are my long time friend. I love both groups of people very much and thank God for giving me the chance to serve at both churches.
They still have the "prayer request"! And their worship team has improved too! I was sharing my frustration serving in the "not so music literate" Venezuela churches. They comforted me that if they changed from playing CDs to a live worship band so there is hope in the Venezuela church too. On one hand, I am glad and happy about their matureness to comfort me. On the other hand, I know that what lies ahead of me is 10x harder than the original situation I faced in FCGC. However, I will still try my best and see what I can do.
Of course we HAVE to go to drink thing afterward. That is part of the life of a Friday night (which I really miss in Venezuela). We (at least I) had fun sharing (is that the tenth time?) about what happen to me in Venezuela especially the illegal thing in Dec 20. I went to Derek Lo's house with Allen Chan to pick up and learn some cool ACM music and their action so that I can teach the Venezuela Chinese Christian.

January 02, 2003(Thursday)

Carmen and I went to eat lunch with Norman and his family; we talked a lot about churches and also Venezuela. We went to donate blood afterward; this is a nice suggestion by Carmen. Then after drinking afternoon tea with Mrs. Yeung, Carmen and I went to Metrotown. I went home for dinner and went to see the last 10 mins of her drama practice.

January 01, 2003(Wednesday)

I did nothing but sleeping (10 hrs) and relax today. I also cleaned up and organized my stuff too. I did not leave home at all. What a way to start a year!