Feuchtblog

Obama Cares

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:01:55 -0700

My best friend kindly rebuked me for my absence of propriety in discussing issues sensitive to race. He is correct. But, it is a hard balance. Any political commentary against the reigning Führer is deemed to be racial, as evidenced by Jimmy Carters‘ comment about Wilson’s inappropriate (though true) epithet in the joint (congress).

As Pat Buchanan said regarding Carter’s comment, “Carter's contribution to the national debate represents a truly rare blend of malevolence, ignorance and moral arrogance.” http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110155 ... Unfortunately race is being used as a witch-hunt accusation against anybody who seems to be strongly opinionated in a non-liberal fashion. Similar accusations happened recently with sexual orientation. I can’t wait until we get a cross-dressing gay/lesbian for president—my comments will then be delivered in an unrestrained though personally detrimental fashion.

ObamaCare!!!!. . . I would really like to obtain a Medizinmann outfit like Obama is wearing as pictured above. Maybe I’ll be able to purchase one while in Cameroon. I think that my patients would love that. We must not act judgmentally against those who hate the AMA/Big Pharma/Medical Industrial complex. After all, there is a dominant role for the chiropractic, naturopathic, transcendental meditation, Christian Science practitioner, Voodoo, alternative medicine, Medizinmann health care provider within general medical practice. Just ask my brother Dennis!

We reflect back on the Obamaphilia the nation experienced a half year ago. School children sang in solemn reverential worship about Obama. People displayed their ecstasy over Obama now being able to rescue their bank accounts, put food on the table, clothe them and give them comfortable shelter, regardless of their ability or desire to work for those things. He was even likened to a saint that we could pray to.

He may not have come through yet with providing those material items of sustenance, yet, like God in heaven, he watches over our very thoughts, and will hold us accountable if we rise in rebellion against him. Thus, we are no longer policed just for our actions, but also what we might perhaps, perchance, vielleicht, peut-être, possibly, could have been thinking.

In terms of commenting on the virtues and failures of ObamaCare, I believe that I have said more than enough. So, now I’ll tell you what I really think of Obama. He is a corrupt, dishonest racial bigot hell-bent on an agenda that is polar opposites of the beliefs and philosophies of the founding fathers of America. He is a traitor to the state that has doubtful constitutional credentials to serve as our president, speaks with forked-tongue, smooth and slick, yet working toward philosophic ends that when embraced by other nations has always led to their inevitable ruin. Though he shows signs of intelligence, he lacks any sort of true wisdom to adequately guide a nation, and instead will dupe the masses with his worm-wooded tongue. In spite of that, the masses voted him into office, and they deserve what they will get, so I wish Obama total success with two to four or more terms in office as president. The only regret is for those who wish to maintain honest quiet lives with a separate morality from our Obamination-in-chief, like my children and grand-children. So, to our new national anthem, needing just a few substitutions of words....

Enough of that! The last month was quite event-filled. Most of it was filled with bicycling and reading. I attempted to backpack the Wonderland Trail for a second time, with Jon and Russ, but was heavily rained out the first night. We drove home, dried out, and headed down to Crater Lake for two fantastic rides (see outdoor section). The weather has remained quite desultory, with rain constantly threatening, but with weather breaks leaving us wishing that we were in the mountains.

Other events... Alex, Rachel’s fiancé, came to visit. I was able to take him around Mt. Rainier. It was nice having him here, and I am very proud to be able to call him a son-in-law. The wedding is on 02JAN10.

I learned to do Panorama shots, using a tripod, and then stitching together various panned shots using photoshop. Here is a view of Rainier that I did on top of the first Burroughs Mountain Summit...

This photo can be blown up to a huge photo, since it is about 7 photographs put together, with 12 megaPx definition, taken on a tripod, so it is a sharp image even at huge magnifications.

With Diane’s help, we also mastered the art of making Pico de Gallo. Here is the top secret recipe...
1 scotch bonnet pepper
2-3 Jalapeno peppers
1-2 Serrano peppers
1 Green pepper
8 cloves garlic
Clean them all out, wash out the seeds, and chop them VERY fine in a food processor. Add...
1-large Walla Walla sweet onion
1 large bunch of fresh Cilantro, with the stems removed
This time, chop them moderately fine in the food processor. Then, remove all the ingredients from the food processor, and add the juice of two fresh limes, and two tbsp. of salt. Finally, take 12 Roma tomatoes, wash out the juicy innerds, chop by hand modestly fine, and fold into the pepper concoction. This makes a great Pico de Gallo, that is not too spicy. Please do not give away this recipe to anybody, as it is TOP SECRET!!!!! It is the mixture of the various types of peppers with lots of lime juice that creates a pleasant taste. But, beware when cleaning the peppers, as they are highly toxic!

Liam was baptized, our fourth grandchild. That was a wonderful experience, and Pastor Scott did a nice job of officiating the event. That same day in the evening, Resurrection Presbyterian church became a real church, loosing its mission status. Thus, we elected elders and had Pastor Scott appointed as the official minister. I feel very good about both the choice of elders, and David Scott’s ability to serve as a pastor. Scott seems to have grown in pastoral skills by leaps and bounds since we first met several years ago, and we have deeply appreciated his ministry in Puyallup.

As you can see, we had the kids over for ice cream afterwards. They also got to experience our new deck, built since the old deck was rotting out, and actually becoming dangerous. We found a carpenter with a good price, and so was able to follow up on a project that I started 10 years ago. It seemed like forever to finish this deck. Here are some photos, though it is not quite finished, including getting a roof on the gazebo...

I was able to do one last bicycle ride with Russ. We rode from the top of Chinook Pass down 27+ miles, and then back. Later, we stopped at our favorite ice cream stop, Wapiti Woolies, famous, since they make the cap that every great contemporary climber from the US has worn in the Himalaya expeditions, including Ed Viesturs... They have photos from a smorgasboard of the hall of fame of American climbers on their wall, showing themselves on the Summit of Everest or Annapurna or where-ever in Wapiti Woolie hats...

The last photo is Russ on the right with Bob, who owns Wapiti Woolies.

Meanwhile, we need to pack for Cameroon. We leave on the 26th of September, and will be in Cameroon for two months. I must learn French. I prefer to talk German as my second language. French has too many silly grammar rules. French used to be the language of the self-acclaimed intellectual snobs in college. I took Russian instead. I tried to talk Russian with a German accent. My Russian teacher always needed to correct me. Except for the articles, German seems the closest of any foreign language to English. I’ve finished Part I of French in Action, which is the most entertaining language program I know, but I still feel most comfortable sitting down and listening to a German podcast or reading Der Spiegel on-line. German just kind of clicks in my brain, even though I don’t understand all of what is being said. I’ve also just finished a book written by a missionary surgeon in Nepal titled “Don’t Let the Goats Eat the Loquat Trees”. It was an enjoyable read, and certainly seemed to reflect what I’ve seen in Bangladesh more than any other book that I’ve read so far. You can see the full review in the books section.

Unless the internet connection in Cameroon is fantastic, you will probably not see any more posts on this site until we return to the US, which is thanksgiving time. Expect to see a lengthy post at that time. Remember to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we serve in Cameroon, and e-mail us if you think of it. We fly into N’Djamena, Chad, and the travel to the Maroua, Cameroon area, where we will be staying.

Fahrraden im Himmel

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:34:22 -0700

The big event of the last few weeks has been the class I took in bicycle touring. It was sponsored by the Adventure Cycling Association ( http://www.adventurecycling.org/ ) and lasted for 5-½ days, including a day of instruction, and four days on the road. The riding was really very simple, with very short days, and lots of eating, but the camaraderie was delightful, getting to know a number of very interesting people. It was also instructive to be with other people to learn in a safe environment how to really do distance cycle touring. It is like driving a Freightliner truck as compared to the Ferrari of Gelbvögel (yellow bird). I find that I can easily mix photography with riding, and will be using the handlebar bag mostly as a camera bag. I need to figure out how to bring along my tripod in order to obtain crisper photographs, plus photographs that include everybody including the photographer in the group. My panniers were always half empty, so, I think I can devise a way to get a tripod on board. I’ve become addicted to my Canon XSi camera. I use 18-55 mm and 55-250 mm lenses, as well as an accessory flash. It is tough lugging that stuff along, but it is worth it. While I learn more about digital photography, I’ve realized the importance of taking primarily RAW photos. I did that on this trip in the RAW+jpeg format, and neither iPhoto, Photoshop, nor Aperture were able to properly handle this format. While experimenting all possible variants, I learned that I need to photograph in the Adobe RGB colorspace, and should only take RAW photos without the jpeg, as all three of the above programs will immediately convert the RAW files to .tif files once I edit them, saving the original .cr2 (raw) file. So, I get the best of all worlds, except that I need to edit all of my photos. All three programs will convert the photo to any size jpeg file that I wish for publishing on the internet or sending to friends and fiends.
Someday, I’d like to be the first person to do “The Box” in one setting, assuming it has not been done already, which is both the Pacific and Atlantic coast, combined with the Southern and Northern Tier routes. It can be done, probably starting from home on the Pacific coast in February, hitting the Southern Tier in March/April, the Atlantic Coast in May/June, and the Northern Tier in July/August/Sept. My guess is that by traveling light (except for my camera), I could average 80-100 miles/day, and still include 1 day/week for rest.

Thus says the Lord:
“Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come,
and my deliverance be revealed.
Blessed is the man who ... keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,
and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” Isa. 56:1,2

That assumes that Betsy will start riding, or that I can talk some looney tune into coming with me. I’d do it alone, but Betsy would throw a fit. But, I need to think short-term first, perhaps doing the Rainier loop next week, and the Washington Parks loop in mid-September. I’m running out of time. My most formidable task that remains is in getting my dear wife to take up cycling, as it would do her much good, and get her away from the house, doing useful activities. I also need to do some bicycle modifications, including revising my front racks, since I cannot remove my front wheel because of the racks. It would make fixing a front flat very difficult.
On another note, I have included the ability to make comments on my other blog pages, including the book, movie, and music blogs. If you have read any of those books, heard any of that music, or saw those movies, please feel free to comment. Also, I welcome comments on the other blogs, including if you have done any of the bike trips that I have done, or hikes, or adventures. And, if you say something really stupid or offensive, I will hold nothing against you that I don’t already hold against you. Also, if you are new to this site, don’t panic! The German that I use is for my Deutsche Freunden. The title means “Bicycling in Heaven”. If anybody receives blog announcements and doesn’t wish to, please e-mail me and I’ll take you off the list.
On yet another note, the countdown until 14DEC at 0700 when I formally restart work...

Obama Will Save Us

Wed, 5 Aug 2009 22:31:56 -0700

I’ve written often regarding the new health care system under our national clown - Obama. Whether or not the health care agenda of Obama goes through remains to be seen. Yet, it really doesn’t matter, since any failure of the democratic agenda only means that it will take just several more years for all the facets of his plan to settle into place. The greatest disappointment was receiving an e-mail from Dr. Lunzy Britt, who I know quite well, who as the director of the American College of Surgeons Board of Regents, informed us that our college is siding with the Obama agenda. I presume that skin color may be playing a small role, since both the Lunz and Barack originate from a race with innately darker skin than the pilgrims that settled this land. We wait with baited breath. The American College of Surgeons has almost no private practice surgeons in its leadership, and so increasingly don’t speak for the surgeon in the trenches. Maybe it’s time to drop out of the ACS?

Schöne Sommerszeit

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:28:27 -0700

This summer has been awesomely beautiful, permitting a delightful ability to ride my bike, go backpacking, or just sit outside enjoying the sun. It’s been truly marvelous. Since my last post, I’ve been able to do the STP in one day, backpack Eagle Creek, and then do the Seattle Century. I’ve had time to spend with family, and get some reading in, as well as listening to music. It’s also been a time when I am able to do other sundry projects, such as to write test questions for PAACS, and study French in preparation for our trip to Cameroon. I prefer to learn German, and find that I am understanding German speech much more, especially on news channels, where the language is more clearly spoken, and less idiomatic than you would find in movies.

We are also blessed with our fourth grandchild, Liam Isaac. He was born on 22JUL09, healthy and cute. His photo is above. The other children seem to appreciate their new brother, as well as Oma.

Sammy had a birthday two days later...

He loved the cake, but would not eat my favorite food...

... sauerkraut mit Wurst und Senf. Yum. I always shop for German-made sauerkraut, as the stuff made over here tastes terrible. It might explain why so many Amerikans don’t like sauerkraut.

I brought my Lungi on the Eagle Creek backpack trip, and found out that it is perfect for wearing around camp in the evening. Yet, when I sent Hannes und Herbert Lungis, they developed a wonderful new use for them, that I must show you...

I love Herbert!!!!! There is something about him that tells me that we are of the same blood.

Before sending out this Blog today, I was able to do the Sunrise ride. I’ve blogged this before, but it has now become just another fun ride, though probably the most beautiful ride in the world. Photos fail. It is 10 miles (16 km) of 6-12% grade uphill, unrelenting, averaging about 8% for a total 3000 ft elevation gain. In truthfulness, the last time I did it, I stopped several times to rest, but not this time. This time, I couldn’t keep up the speed of Russ A., but he stopped to clean rocks off the road. Luc A. started about 5-10 miles before our start, and he arrived on top at about the same time as us. He is totally awesome power on a bike. Jonny just ordered a new bike but couldn’t pick it up, so rode my Touring bike, which is too heavy of bike to just be running up to Sunrise. At the same time, the RAMROD was occurring (Ride Around Mt. Rainier in One Day), a 150 mile 10,000 foot elevation gain circuit around Mt. Rainier. I would never formally do the RAMROD, though would like to just try it in a self-supported fashion. Today would have been a terrible day for the RAMROD, as the ending temperatures in Enumclaw were 96°F (35.5℃), which is just too hot to ride. Fortunately, we were at 6200 ft elevation on top of Sunrise. Here is what we looked like on top. The photo from left to right shows Luc, me, Russ, and Jon.

The ride down was totally exhilarating, though I’d never ever wish to miss the ride up.
You may review my many adventures and other activities during the last month at BikeBlog, BookBlog, Hike-Ski Blog, MovieBlog, and MusicBlog. Stay in touch and keep your stick on the ice.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

Schließlich!

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:36:43 -0700

I had no idea that this month would go so quickly. I’ve spent much of my time doing a number of things...
1. Recovering from jetlag. I did not think that it would take about two weeks to return to reality. Every day after return from Bangladesh was like being a Zombie. My internal time-clock persistently woke me at 2 am, and I was ready to go to bed every day at noon. Pitiful.
2. Learning French. I prefer to learn German. German is more fun to learn, and more useful. Except, when someone is going to Cameroon, which used to be a German colony, but taken over by the French. The area where we will be uses French as the immediate second language. So, I will re-learn French. I’m using French in Action, which is the best language study method that I’ve ever seen. You never are given English equivalents, but must always think in French. It is similar to how things were at the Goethe Institut learning German. I’m still trying to stay on top of my German, and you are all welcome to communicate with me in German whenever! Ich liebe Deutschland.
3. Preparing for the STP in one day. This is a 203 mile (320 km) one day affair. I’ll be doing it with some friends from church, Russ and Luc Andersen. They happen to be a bit stronger bike riders than I am, but, I suspect that I shouldn’t have too much trouble getting in the mileage. I’ve already done one century this year, and am doing at least one 70-80 mile ride per week, riding at least 3x/week. I’m now registering only the more significant rides in my Bikeblog, and will eventually merge that with my Hike-Ski blog.
4. Learning photoshop - reworking some instruction books to better master the art of connecting my camera to the computer to produce compelling prints.
5. Installing a new computer. My Power Mac was 5 years old, not Intel, and getting a touch slow. It was at last time to upgrade. So, I now have a new Mac Pro.    I suspect this one will also last about 5 years. The old computer will be put to work performing other tasks. When I was using PCs with Billy Gates’ Windows, I’d essentially trash the computer every 3 years. All in all, it was a savings to be on an Apple computer, as it is a little more expensive up front, but you don’t have the crashes and problems that a PC gives you, and upgrading tends to be less expensive as on a PC.
6. Reading/ listening to music - I’m reading mostly larger texts, so, the book reports won’t be so plentiful. I’m re-working much of my old music, gaining a familiarity with more obscure pieces. iTunes lets me set to hear only “unheard” pieces, so that I am able to work through the entirety of my collection. I enjoy classical proper as well as twentieth century music, such as that of Korngold or Shostakovich or Goreki. There is too much good stuff to listen to. There are also too many good books that remain unread by me, and my library shelves sit full of books read or waiting to be read. “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh” Eccl. 12:12.
7. Ripping all of my movies. It’s easier and safer to use your movies from the computer than from the original disc. So, I am putting all the house movies onto several large hard drives. It doesn’t take up much personal time, as I can do other things on the computer while the computer rips a film.
8. Preparing for Cameroon. This will be another adventure, and am spending time thinking about how to make things go well in Cameroon, and how we might be of the best help to the missionaries who we will be staying with. Cameroon and Bangladesh are not countries that are high on the tourist list, and unfortunately, too many people go expecting some sort of adventure. We are going to be servants. It’s the least thing we could do. With that attitude, we could not have had a better time in BD. Hopefully, Cameroon will be the same. If I wanted a vacation, I’d go to the Caribbean or to Deutschland.
9. Backpacking? I hope. Jonny and I are signed up to do the Wonderland Trail counterclockwise starting 28 AUG. You’ll hear more about that once we are done. It is 93 miles, 20,000 feet elevation gain total, and usually takes 7-14 days. We will be doing it in 8 days. You have to schedule and reserve all of your campsites, so that you can’t just wander in and do the trail. It’s about 12-15 miles/day, which on this trail, can be rather demanding. You’ll get a full report in September.
10. Family. We visited Rachel and Diane. Rachel is now engaged to be married. We are delighted. She has found a good man.
11. Trails class - I did this one weekend, learning how to design, build, and maintain hiking trails. There is actually a science to this. Going to this class was an inexpensive luxury, that I could have never done outside of a Sabbatical.

While bicycle riding with the Andersens, it occurred to me that people do this activity as a fund-raising activity. And, why not? If people will pay me to have fun riding my bicycle, or hiking, or running, or picking my nose, or chewing gum, of course I’ll do that for a good cause. But, haven’t things gotten out of hand. How does a physical activity actually help somebody dying of cancer, or prevent poor starving children in China. In reality, it does nothing. This year, I will be engaged in two fund-raising activities, the Courage Classic, which is for the prevention of child abuse (you’ve got to be kidding me, no amount of money will prevent a moral problem!), and another ride4US, which is to purchase ultrasound machines for CareNet clinics. But really! Why these activities? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to have me work for a day or week, and then donate the revenues to the cause? Of course it would, but it doesn’t get press. Actually, it was a Tacoma surgeon, Dr. G. Klatt, who started the whole run/walk/swim/pick a booger for some cause movement. He was quite well intentioned, and raised much money for cancer. It was a great idea, but, now, there are people arbitrarily asking for money for every mile of something that they do? Should I support this madness? I don’t think so.

Aber, was ist schließlich? Ich habe mein neues Fahrrad abgeholt! Hier ist es! Ein Foto! Ist es nicht wirklich schön? Es ist aus Stahl gebaut, dunn aber sehr streng, und ohne Gewicht! Nur 8.3 kg. Die Farbe sind gelb und rot und schwarz, und es fahrt wohl. Die erste Fahrt war über Cayuse und Chinook Pass, 1600+ km Anhöhe und 87km weit. Es war sehr schön. Siehe “Bikeblog”.

Why I won’t leave the Northwest

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 19:16:54 -0700

I went on a bicycle ride today from home up to the Carbon River entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park, and this was what I saw along the way. The Carbon River entrance remains closed owing to previous rains washing out the road, but the ride to the entrance and back was 72 miles (116 km) and moderately steep uphill most the way, allowing me to burn off over 5000 calories in the 5 hours that it took me to do the ride. Here’s proof...

Yes, I am still using the Trionfo, as my Steelman bicycle is not quite done yet. I did visit my bicycle dealer, with Tacoma bike, a super cool guy named Mike Brown. I bought him a lungi, and here we are together in his bike shop.

The mail came today, and I had a box from Hannes und Katja aus Würzburg. When I visited them this February, they knew that I desperately wanted a Universität Würzburg t-shirt, as I collect university t-shirts.

What an awesome gift! As you realize, not only is it (the U of W) an ancient university by American standards (founded in 1402), but it has had significant Nobel prize winners, including Röntgen, who discovered X-Rays here. Well, I’ll soon be sending Hannes and Herbert (sorry Katja, only men wear lungis) their own personal lungis from Bangladesh. Unfortunately, I won’t be there to teach them how to tie the lungi. Oh well... it’s an excuse to visit Germany again.

But!!!!!! I’m omitting the most important event of the last week!!!! Yes!!! Betsy and I flew back to Iowa so that I could visit Rachel & Diane, and Rachel’s boyfriend (not yet engaged). it was a wonderful time, and I really liked Alex from the very beginning, as not only a wise and prudent young man, but also a strong Christian man.

We will be praying that the Lord be in that relationship. Meanwhile, we also went boating in Lake Obijobi.

We also got to meet Alex’s family, as well as his new dog, Bentley.

I’m sure you will be hearing more about this in my next blogs, but, we’ll leave it at this for now.

Apnara amader bondhu

Wed, 20 May 2009 17:08:09 -0700

It was not easy for me to decide exactly how to do the reports on the trip to Bangladesh. It was impossible to publish a webpage update while in Bangladesh, unlike while I was in Germany. Thus, I created a large Bangladesh report in the “Travel” section. Here, I offer overall assessment and reflections on the trip. First, you may be wondering about the title. It means, you all are our friends. After such a long episode of silence and absence of correspondence, many of you felt that we had abandoned you as friends. That is simply not true. There was a combination of 1) poor internet connections, 2) mac incompatibility, 3) inability to download appropriate programs to connect my mac, owing to large program size and slow internet connections, and 4) suspicion that the Bangladeshi government was keeping an eye on correspondence. It was not that we felt that we might say something that offends our Bengali friends, but only that we wished to avoid even a remote suggestion of wrong-saying or wrong-doing. Thus, our silence.

So, reflections on our trip. Many of you have written to us, acknowledging the sacrifice that we have made to serve the Bangladeshi people. I guess that Betsy and I don’t really view it as a sacrifice. What were our motives? I hope they were genuine, in having a love for the people we served. I certainly have a much deeper compassion for reaching out as a Christian to the Bangladeshi people and other unfortunates in this world. Perhaps there was also this curiosity, or spirit of adventure. Perhaps Betsy and I were “absolving sins”. I hope not. I leave with two thoughts. 1) I have the most extreme respect for Memorial Christian Hospital, and their ability to not only provide medical care to the mostly Muslim community that we served, but that they were also able to deliver the message of salvation only through Christ, in a consistent and honest fashion. 2) I have acquired the utmost respect for the long-termers, who faithfully work year after year, mostly unthanked, mostly unregarded, yet they serve without grumbling or complaining, delivering medical care and spiritual hope with joy and gladness. For this reason, I have listed a few people in the trip section that have especially been an influence to me.

But, what about Bangladesh? My biggest surprise was the number of people in this country. When you look on a map of our area of stay in Bangladesh, you see only two cities, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar. Yet, except for a few rice paddies and rivers, it is almost wall-to-wall people between those two towns, with many large villages between. And, Chittagong has a population of about 4-5 million, Cox’s Bazar of a million. Dhakha itself is roughly 15 million people. The country has about 160 million people, in a state the size of Wisconsin. It is the equivalent of moving everybody east of the Mississippi into the state of Illinois. If you look on a map, you will not even see the town of Chabigong where our hospital sets, yet the 30 mile radius around the hospital has approximately 6 million people. Except for the Chittagong hills, which are not terribly high, it is essentially flatland, and a giant vacuum for typhoons. In spite of the crowdedness, they grow 95% of their food, and unfortunately, also grow a poor quality of tobacco, and poor quality rubber (the rubber starts out okay, but poor standardization of processing ruins the quality of the product).

There are four main religious groups in Bangladesh, being Muslim (approx. 90%), Hindu/Buddhist (10%), Animists mostly found in the Chittagong Hills (?%), and Christian (less than 1%). Buddhists are mostly located in the strip of land south of where we are. Hindus live sporadically throughout the country, but tend to stick to their own sections of town, living together. Wealthier Hindus will also own land in India, owing to a serious lack of trust of Hindus for their more dominant Muslim neighbors. Muslims seem to dominate the scene. Many mornings, they will wake us up at 5 am with prayers roaring over the loudspeakers (their god is now slightly deaf), or late at night on Thursday. They tend to be reasonably pleasant folk as a whole, and we have found many of the Muslims to be quite enjoyable.

But, we also see the problems of the Muslim religion. It is definitely a man’s religion, and the wives are often treated no better than dogs. Besides an obliteration of their personality through the Burkha, they are expected at all times to remain at home, while their husband socializes at the local tea shop or town square. We have seen many instances of husbands dumping their wife when they fail to deliver a desired boy child. Joy seems to be totally absent from their religion. It’s hard to not imagine that religion maybe plays some role in the prevailing morals of this country. When one ventures to the wealthier Muslim countries, one doesn’t see the situation any better. Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and many others have no freedom of religion, and Muslim converts are usually put immediately to death. The situation is only slightly better in Bangladesh. We get many patients in our hospital from Saudi Arabia. Bengali workers will go to the Middle East with the lure of money. It is not uncommon for serious injuries to occur to these migrant workers, since the Bengalis are given the worst and most dangerous jobs. If they have any life left in them at all after an injury, they are usually thrown on the next airplane back to Bangladesh. If you think that the Saudis have any value for human life, think twice. The appeal of their religion remains a mystery to me. Muslim is the only religion that teaches their children to hate at birth. The more religious the Muslim is, the greater the scowl you get from them on the streets. Yet, even the most radical bitter Muslim will soften after a time in our hospital, seeing that we truly care for them, and have no intention of shoving religion down their throat. The less religious will often return a smile once they realize that you are looking upon them as a person and not just as a “Muslim”. It is certain that unloving Christians have done more harm than good.

Again I am NOT saying that all or that even the majority of Muslims are mean and nasty, because we have become friends with many kindly Muslims, such as the Mayor of CB, though they often tend to go unnoticed sitting quietly on the side.

Hindus tend to not exhibit the passivity that would be expected from their religion. They can be violent, when they are in the majority. Sadly, we have seen this behavior even in Christian countries. All in all, there seems to be a common behavior of man, in spite of their religion. This confirms the Christian doctrine of the total depravity of man. Man cannot escape their “mannishness” through religion. It is sad to see that as the west escapes from its Christian base, we are reverted more and more to the prevailing behavior and moral base of the rest of the world.

The tribal people are hated by all, especially the Muslims, which leads to the tribals having a very poor image of the religion that dominates the country. This leads to serious unnecessary oppression of the tribal people by the Muslims, increasing the hate factor between the two peoples. I find the tribal people to be the most friendly folk, and there are many tribals at the hospital that we’ve gotten to interact with.

I suspect that there will be a day when white ex-pats will be asked to leave the country of Bangladesh. That day is possibly soon, as economic jealousies and racial tensions as well as Muslim fundamentalism intensifies in the country. I pray that the Christian Nationals in the country have the fortitude to stand for Christ, even when it means persecution or death.

What have we accomplished personally by the trip? I was able to catch up a little on my reading, going through 33 books on the trip. We (Betsy and I) had our first real experience with third world medical missions. We had much time together in devotions, and in really thinking about our plans for the future. It was a great time to escape our culture and see the world through the eyes of a non-European. It was a time that we hope to repeat. We will probably keep our trips a little bit shorter, but hopefully, will be able to do at least one trip somewhere each year. And, hopefully, that will mean returning to Malumghat more times in the years to come. We have new friends on the complete other side of the globe, that are more dear than most of our acquaintance (friends) at home. I’m not sure we will ever be the same, once we return home.

Coming home has had minor challenges. It’s called foggy brain syndrome (jet lag). I’ve never been hit worse with it. It has disoriented cay and night for me and Betsy to the extreme degree, so that we are getting barely nothing done. We’ll have to try to figure out a solution.

I should be posting additional thoughts and reflections on our trip in blogs to come. This whirlwind trip left us with many questions and thoughts that we will need to explore in the coming months. Our next medical mission in coming up in late September through November, and hopefully, a restful summer will provide more time to meditate and prepare ourselves for the work ahead.

For a blow by blow account of our trip to Bangladesh, please turn to the section on “TravelBlog”. I have tried to be discrete in my discussions, and to not leave anybody out. Considering the technical difficulties that I had, I may have inadvertently said something too strongly or offensively, or failed to mention somebody. Please graciously drop me an e-mail if you feel that have noted a website problem, and I’ll do my best to immediately correct the issue. Note that I have divided the Bangladesh account into three sections to allow for easier editing and downloading.

I will be giving slide shows of various other aspects of this trip, such as the work at the hospital. I would normally include it on the webpage, except that it would be photo heavy and quite laborious to download. Also, I am using iWeb, which is acting up on me, and behaving unbearably slow. It took me about 36 frustrating hours to accomplish what usually takes me about two in making up this website. I’ve figured out pretty much what I’ve been doing wrong, and will be re-designing this site for more speed. In the meantime, it is forcing me to do a smart move, which is to reorganize my website with “blog” style for all my entries. This will allow you to comment on particular book reviews, trips, etc. You should see this organization on my next post.

Phoenix SSO

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 00:09:31 -0700

I’ve often commented about the Northwest being a Paradise in summer. Actually, I was slightly inaccurate about that comment. It is also a paradise in winter. True, it rains all winter. But... it can be paradise if one enjoys skiing. Both downhill and cross-country skiing appeal to me, though I definitely enjoy cross-country skiing more than downhill. So, I got to experience my first downhill night skiing this year. It was a blast. I was with somebody who was definitely a much better skier than myself, but it was still very delightful. The photograph of this precious event was not so helpful at showing that we really had a blast.

Cross-country skiing has many varieties in the Northwest. One day, Jonny and I was able to go at a fairly fast clip on groomed trails. The next, Jonny and I did true cross-country skiing, plowing our way through steep slopes, in the woods, powder up to our hips, which made it extremely difficult since we were on fairly steep slopes attempting to go up. It would have been easier with Mountaineering cross-country skis, with skins attached. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry!).

The snow hasn’t been particularly plentiful in the mountains. That is a little surprising, since, as I write this piece, it is snowing for the fifth time this year outside. This is unusually strange, since I’ve never seen it snow more than twice in a year. Surely this is global warming! Either that, or God intends to make a total fool of Algore.

I was able to make it down to Portland. During that visit, I discovered that a new Bengali language text was out on the market. The problem is that it didn’t have a CD, which is not available yet from the publisher. It looks a lot better than the only other real text out there, which is totally useless, the Teach-Yourself-Bengali text by Wm. Radice. I am completely frustrated with the language teaching modalities used in Radice’s text. I’ll have to wait for Bangladesh in order to re-commence my studies. Meanwhile, I was also able to see my youngest brother Gaylon. We went out to a “German” restaurant (Gustav’s), and I noted that there was about nothing on the menu that was similar to what I had in Deutschland. So, I endured, enjoyed a good beer, and left it at that. I ate much better in Germany for a fraction of the cost. The photo shows Gaylon in his pad.

So, off to Phoenix. The first two days were spent with brother-in-law Petie Megyesi. He is a wonderful cook, his wife is an even better baker, and they have the most loving dog named Bubba that would eat your leg off if you ever came near to him.

Petie runs a business that makes on-hold messages for the telephone. If you need some 1st class stuff done up for your office telephone system, give him a call (1-800-678-9971). I then went to the Society of Surgical Oncology meetings. It was nice meeting my old friend Dr. Peter T.

There was nothing new at the meeting. I didn’t learn much. In the old days, we fought cancer by looking at very large metabolic charts that hung on the wall, and devised means of blockage of various metabolic enzymes. Now, we have very large charts that hang on the wall with lots of regulatory substances, all named with three letters, like ras, raf, fos, kit, etc., etc., and now we are devising blockade for them. Then, we do a few limited bench studies, herald the drug as a “promising” new treatment for cancer, after which we run countless expensive clinical trials to find out that the drug gives a possible 1% survival benefit, which is definitely statistically significant, even though the effect lasts for only 3 weeks - 9 months. I had to contain my excitement. There were a few good talks. I wish they would spend their time funding sole basic research, especially looking at embryology, the genetics of development, and the mechanisms of differentiation, de-differentiation, and phenotype expression. It’s not so glamorous of research, but it would be challenging to convince the Feds to pour billions of dollars into this sort of research, though, I suspect that it is here where the ultimate cure for cancer will be found, and not in the endless search for another metabolic or regulatory pathway to blockade.

Final preparations have commenced in earnest for our trip to Bangladesh. Our bags are slowly getting packed, unpacked, and repacked, very indecisive about exactly what may be needed for 2 months in Bangladesh. Betsy also has several outfits for Bangladesh, as you can see in the introductory photo. When we return from BD, I will make up a packing list for future ventures! We have our visas, and Samaritan’s Purse has been exceptionally helpful for Betsy and myself. Meanwhile, I’d like to remind all you dear readers that I cherish all of our e-mails, even though I don’t respond to every single one of them. We will try to stay in touch, and even update our “Feuchtblog” once in a while, though I’m not sure how good the internet will be in BD for such a task. I WILL NOT be sending out notices of blog updates which in BD, so please check the webpage from time to time if you are interested.

Amar nam kenneth

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 07:16:07 -0800

I now have to prepare for Bangladesh. Part of preparation is getting a feel for the language. Bengali is the most deprived language in the world. I’ve only been able to find one instruction book in Bengali, with a limited CD that gives you a rough impression as to what the words sound like. No major language instruction company offers any help. Berlitz? No Bengali. Rosetta Stone? You can take Welsh, spoken by 750K people total in the world, or Irish, where only half the population of Ireland speaks Irish, and then, mostly as a second language. Then, there is Bengali, the 6th most common language in the world. Nothing. Nichts. Nada. Nichivo. So, I slave away. Countless pages of Sanskrit later....

A return to semi-reality has just occurred. I was able to touch base with the office and surgery center, as well as do lunch with Dr. Liao. I ran over to the hospital to talk with The Lord High Grand Inquisitor. It was a rather cold event. I’m troubled by the statements that I’m a valuable character in the MultiCare system, and yet do not get the impression that I’m particularly wanted. They realize that I am the character able to bring major abdominal cases as well as breast cases to the hospital. Otherwise, the cases will be totally lost to elsewhere. It was sort of like a “wake-up” for me. Several movie wake-ups come to mind. The first is in the next-to-last scene of Conan the Barbarian (the best movie of all time) when Conan wakes up to the siren voice of Thulsa Doom. The second is deep in the earth when Puddleglum wakes up to the sweet talk and enchantment of the witch, in the movie, The Silver Chair. Somehow, I don’t have a good feeling about things to come. Then, I get the Surgical News, and always enjoy reading the occasional articles by Dr. Cossman, who is a vascular surgeon in Los Angeles. He seems to hit home every time. The article this month speaks of the death of private practice general surgery, and he is absolutely on the mark. I have included an exerpt in the Veröffentlichungen. Please read it in whole to get a good feel of what I’m going through. So, I remain uncertain as to what to do for the future. With the Franciscans, I will need to throw out any chance of doing any more thoracic or gynecological work, and I’d have to work with surgeons that I don’t trust. That doesn’t turn over well with me. I’d consider moving to Portland but the job market there is a zoo like it is in Tacoma. There is the thought of either figuring out a way of staying in Missions work until retirement, or doing nothing but locum tenens. Please pray for me that the Lord will guide Betsy and me in making proper decisions.

So, national news continues. A chimpanzee attacks a lady and nearly kills her. We now learn that apes can be quite vicious. Why didn’t Margaret Meade tell us that? If you accept the simple schoolbook -what you’ve learned in college- teaching on evolution, then we are the random product of a fairly violent species. No wonder I don’t feel safe in Harlem, or Washington D.C..

The Pope has now made several declarations that have ruffled many feathers. The first was to pardon and remove excommunication from a bishop who declared that the Holocaust did not occur. The second was instruction that Catholic politicians (such as Nancy Pelosi) must vote pro-life, or risk church action. Wow. My first reaction to the first declaration was a fit of anger. How dare the pope do such a thing? But then, I got to thinking... who cares what Pope Joe declares? Do you really take him seriously in these sorts of matters? I don’t. Secondly, I don’t know where there is an injunction in Scripture to hold in excommunication those with stupid beliefs. The strength of Christianity is that it tends to look beyond politics and our own screwed-up-ed-ness. Yes, it is possible that the Marxist bleeding heart liberal Tony Campolo might even make it into heaven. It’s definitely not ours to judge. So, perhaps it is proper for the church to stay out of issues such as belief in the Holocaust. I know of nowhere where the Constantinopolo-Nicene creed, the Apostolic creed, the Heidelberger Katechism, Westminster Confession, or any Roman Catholic creed insists on a belief in the Holocaust as a ground for orthodoxy... But, Pope Joe just can’t stay out of politics, or perhaps, just has bad timing on his statements with heavy political implications... He now declares that pro-death politicians cannot be good Catholics. Certainly, I’d wonder if anybody that strongly supports abortion or PAS should even waste their time identifying themselves as Christian. I’m not talking about many, who tend to wring their hands on the issue of abortion or PAS. Like I said before, lot’s of confused and uncertain people will be going to heaven someday. I’m speaking of the Gloria Steinems or Nancy Pelosi’s, who view themselves on a mission from (god?) to make abortion common, accessible, and completely socially acceptable. These politicians should quit wasting their time with the “Christian” or “Catholic” label. Meanwhile, Pope Joe must learn that he can’t be selective about when he practices politics, or when he practices Christianity.

Katze 19.FEB2009. Katze threw up everywhere in the house for the umpteenth time. We realized that we would have a serious problem with Katze, being that we would be gone much of this year. So, we decided to have Katze returned to the Animal shelter where we got her 5 years ago. We gave Katze a good 5 years, and it was not without plentiful tears to wish Katze goodbye. We had Sarah take Katze to the pound as we could not bear to see her go. We will miss Katze’s vomitus on our rugs and floor. She was otherwise a good Kitty.

So I end my ramblings. Kreuzberger Nächte sind lang, aber denn? (For my English readers, I’m referring to the lead song, which was a German hit song in 1978. It remains for you to figure out what the song is all about.)

Nebel im Dorf - Nach Hause

Sun, 8 Feb 2009 21:50:19 -0800

I’m home! Thank you to those who made this trip special. Tops of the list is to Herbert Feucht. Then, to Katja and Hannes, Debbie and Heinz, and of course, to the teacher who endured me for four weeks, Roman Truhlar. I feel much more comfortable with German, but also see that I have a ways to go to survive comfortably. After visiting the town of Feucht, we returned to Würzberg, where I went dog-walking in the countryside with Hannes and Tasso.

It was quite foggy in the Mainztal, giving the entire walk a surrealistic impression. We returned home, and attacked the currywurst restaurant...

As you can see, many German restaurants allow you to bring your dog. Arras peers over the tabletop, not wanting the currywurst, but the Rheinania Alt. Our last day, we went to der Pott, which is a term used for the Ruhr region of Germany. In its hey-day, der Pott was the massive industrial area of Germany, occupied by massive coal mining, and heavy steel works. The industry continues, but competition from elsewhere has lead to much less steel production than in the past. The best designed coal mining facilities, which also included the massive machinery for separating and cleaning the coal, was the Zollverein Schacht XII, which was turned into a UNESCO site. We did a tour of the complex.

The entire facility was absolutely massive, mining and processing, if I remember correctly, about 60,000 tons of coal a day.So, I have two cups in memory of Germany, one is white for Betsy, one black for me...

The first says “Ruhrpott”, and the second is a quote from the Coffee Cantata of JS Bach, commenting on how good coffee tastes.

So, I am back to Puyallup, and I have a mad dash to prepare for Bangladesh. Germany was wonderful, and the only failure of the trip was the awfully cold weather, making it impossible to do bike riding. This gives me a reason to return! I’d especially like to ride in Franken. More adventures will follow, so stay in tuned.