VIRGINIA

Not a very eventful day.  I sat in the office and worked on some cards.  Joe has some pictures he wants us to go through, but not sure I know many of the people. Will have Larry help me with that off and on.  He will probably know more that I do.

In our prayer time this morning we were encouraged by how the Lord is working in this area of the world.  Churches begun because of the broadcasts of TWR.  People hearing who have never heard. ‘Pastors’ who were saved through the broadcasts using the correspondence with the pastor on the radio, as well as literature that is included to form a library for the new converts.  Their only method of learning besides the radio.

After Larry picked me up, we ate a light supper and went for our usual swim and watched the sun plop into the ocean.  Tomorrow it will pop out of the ocean on the other side of the island. 🙂

LARRY
After devotions this morning and rather than making two trips to the transmitter site, I spent the morning at the office/studio answering emails and studying the manual for the Nautel 100,000-watt transmitter.  I was planning on checking out the spare PA module that was suspected to have a problem and wanted to be more familiar with its operation before tackling any repair.

We came back to the guest house for a dinner of leftover curried chicken, rice, and bananas. I then took Virginia back to the office and went to the transmitter site.  First I wanted to verify that the suspect module was actually faulty.  This was done by removing one good module and noting that the power dropped about 7kw.  I then installed the suspect module and noted the power only dropped about 4kw when it was removed.  This definitely confirmed there was a problem.

While the transmitter was already turned on it was switched to the nondirectional pattern (it also has a north pattern to the Carribean or south pattern to South America) and it was noted the output power showed 105kw.  Last night the log showed that the transmitter had cut back power to 80kw for much of the early morning because the power had reached the max limit of 107kw.  Therefore we decided to reduce the 105kw to 103kw to see if we could avoid the cut back of power.

After returning the transmitter to remote operation so it could be controlled by the automation, I opened the PA module up.  I quickly observed that one of the four main 20 amp fuses was different than the other three.  An ohmmeter test showed that it was blown and none of the others were.  I looked for a spare fuse and found none.  Checked at Newark Electronics (~$24 each) and DigiKey (~$21 each), then decided to check Alan Sales [www.alan-sales.com] and found that they had six in stock at $6.90 each.  An order will likely be placed tomorrow.  Because the fuse was blown and it was different than the rest, I am guessing that this is at least the second time this fuse has blown and that I had better check further to see it there is a faulty device(s) that might be the cause. Something to do tomorrow.

Came back to the office at 4:30 to pick up Virginia.  I shared with Joe Barker my observations and we discussed the things required for me to take over sole monitoring of the transmitter while it is broadcasting from 5:30pm to 8:30am.  I had been given a cell phone that will ring, if there is a problem, and now I have a list of codes to help determine what is wrong and other codes to try to correct the problem remotely via the cell phone.  Joe wants to lend me a laptop that will show what is happening at a glance and allow corrective action by pushing a button on the computer screen.  The laptop can also show a log of the sequence of events which the phone can not do.

We came ‘home’ for a light dinner then went for our evening swim.

Virginia and I were given a tour of the studio building this morning.  Much of it is no longer used as almost all the programs now come in over the internet and are loaded into one computer (with a redundant computer for more reliable operation).  Quite a contrast from the continual taping and playing of programs nearly 24 hours per day in years now long past.  The studio and offices are now used for various other things, such as a private school and youth outreach ministries.

After lunch, Joe Barker took me to the transmitter site for a tour and introduction to the Nautel 100,000-watt medium wave (AM) transmitter and associated auxiliary equipment.  Joe went over a list of things that he would like to have done, in addition to my being on call for any broadcasting problems originating at the transmitter site.  The site can call my cell phone to let me know that the transmitter is coming on, then calls again if there is any problem during start up or throughout the broadcast schedule.  Not sure of the exact hours yet, but think it is on from about 5pm to 9am.

I know the priority work for me is to install a new UPS for the transmitter site and move the one that is there back to the studio where it came from. This will entail some rewiring because there are usually two UPSs at the studio on two different phases and some rewiring had been done to be ensure uninterrupted supply to vital circuits that were on the UPS that has been moved.  This move had been required to replace a UPS that had failed at the transmitter.  Since the replacement will not arrive for a couple more weeks, I will be looking at some other projects to reduce even further the need for trips to the transmitter, especially during the middle of the night.  Actually the transmitter itself is very reliable, but power supply problems seem to be the main source of failure.

Tomorrow we plan to be at the 8am devotions and from there we’ll see how the day proceeds.  Virginia will be receptionist on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We had a busy day again today.  We went to the office at 8:00 this morning for devotions and a tour.  I was given a password for the computer so I can use that one when I am “playing receptionist”. I don’t think they have  much in the way of phone calls or visitors, but there are a few other things where I can hopefully help a little.

After our tour and we were situated with computers, we went to the store to pick up a few groceries.  It was fun trying to figure out the labels on the packaging. Some were in English, some we could recognize from being in Swaziland, because of the similarity of Dutch and Afrikaans, and others we just guessed!  Everything seems very expensive here, probably due to the high influx of tourists.

After lunch, Ivan came over to repair our shower.  It has something worn out in it, so he changed the water so it runs through the hot water heater (it doesn’t heat)so now we can take a shower instead of using a pitcher! Nice!!

I wonder how long it will take before I remember that no matter how long I allow the water to run, it will be the same temperature?

After lunch, I did a few things around the house and then walked into town. I did have the car, but since it is stick shift and parking is limited and people drive a little crazy, I decided to walk.  It is about a half mile and I walked on the shady side of the street.  I visited several shops and picked up a few things that I wanted.  I walked home by the sea and stopped by the old fish market where they sell vegetables now.  I bought a hand of the little short, fat bananas that are so good. There are about 16 bananas on the hand I bought from the toothless little old man.

One thing that is nice,now is that we can use dollars to purchase items.  Usually we get dollars back, but the vegetable man gave me guilders.  So now I have a G1.75.

When I got home, I was hot!  So I made a big pitcher of ice tea and enjoyed several glasses as I sat in front of a fan with my feet up and read a book.  After I cooled off a bit, I started supper so it would be ready after our swim.

It was a lovely evening for a swim again, as it has been for every evening so far.  The beautiful silver sliver of moon and the bright stars (too bad I can’t see them without my contacts. I can see the moon and I am thankful for that!). We saw the sun slip into the ocean and it was gone.

Today was a full day for us.  The International Bible Church meets at 9 am and the pastor’s message was on the church at Ephesus from Revelation 2.  Sunday School was at 10:45 with a long fellowship time between.  We met about 3 people that were here 40 years ago when we were here.  Sue Felix confirmed that the strong trade winds are less than then, so our memory of stronger winds was correct.  The same is true that the humidity is higher.

Our first animal encounter of the day actually occurred during the pastor’s message when a pigeon walked across the floor in front of the pulpit.  No one seemed to be paying attention and we found out that this a regular occurrence and usually it is more than just one.

Joe Barker and family took us out to dinner at Rum Runners Restaurant at Captain Don’s Habitat.  I had a quesadilla and Virginia had a Ceasar Salad with grilled tuna.  They both were quite tasty.

On the way into the restaurant there were two parrots in a large cage.  While we were waiting to go in for dinner, one of the parrots said “hello”. Just before dinner we saw a several dolphins swimming past a couple hundred yards off shore.  After dinner we saw two tarpon fish about five feet long about 3 feet from shore and then, when walking out of the open air restaurant, there was a small 2 foot long iguana crossing the ceramic tile floor.  Maybe they were waiting for it to grow bigger before putting it on the menu!

From the restaurant, Virginia and I decided to drive around the north end of Bonaire.  After passing through about 3 miles of housing that has been built up in the past 40 years we began to see scenery that was much the same as we remembered.  It was here that we saw the first of several of the wild donkeys that inhabit Bonaire.  We also saw some flamingos at Grooto Meer on the way to the small town of Rincon.  We passed the only source of fresh water on Bonaire, a well with windmill, just before entering Rincon.  [Today virtually all the fresh water for the island is distilled from sea water]  The town of Rincon has not changed very much from what we remember.

In Rincon we saw goats roaming around town eating any vegatation that was available.  This used to be normal, along with grazing donkeys, in the capital city of Kralendijk where we are staying.

After passing through Rincon, we returned to Kralendijk via the east route that passed close to the east coast.  On this road we saw a huge iguana over five feet long.  We tried to get a photo, but he took off like a shot when we pointed the camera at him.

After a short rest at ‘home’ we decided to go around the south end of the island.  Again, new housing extended for several miles to the south before we saw familiar terrain.  We briefly stopped by the transmitter site and saw the familiar large transmitter building and diesel building with the same old familiar engines, but they had been cannibalized for parts and were rusting away.

South of the transmitting site were many square miles of salt flats and huge ‘mountains’ of salt ready to be loaded onto ships for export.  All along the coast we saw snorkelers and scuba divers.  At one point we saw two men surfing with what looked like parasails.  Further one we saw the old slave huts (now refurbished) that housed slaves for harvesting salt and loading salt in early Bonaire history.

After getting out of the high traffic area, I let Virginia drive to get used to the manual transmission of the car that has been loaned to us.  She learned to drive a manual 4 speed in their family’s Suburban that was used as a school bus, but it has been nearly 20 years since she drove a manual transmission vehicle.  By the time we got around the southern part of Bonaire she was ready to drive in town and did a good job!

Tonight we again went for a 30+ minute swim at sunset (which occurs within a few minutes of 6pm year round).  Until we get the shower fixed we will have to rinse off or bathe using a pitcher.

We plan on being in the office in the morning for devotions at 8am, so need to think about getting to sleep.

Had a refreshing cool good swim last night. But after mom took her shower to rinse off the salt water, it would only dribble for mine.  The problem was in the shower faucet and not the water pressure so I had to rinse off using a pitcher by filling it from a faucet near the floor in the shower.  Don’t have any tools with me to repair the shower faucet but hope to do so when I get access to some of TWR’s tools.

We are here during the short season on Bonaire when the trade winds have died down and the humidity goes up.  We are thankful for an air conditioner and ceiling fan in the bedroom and ceiling fans throughout the house.  These are things we did not have when we were here 40 years ago. With the ceiling fan, we were able to set the air conditioner thermostat to 24C (75F) and felt comfortable.  I think we can ease that setting up a bit tonight.

Got to sleep last night about 8:30 but we awaken by explosions at midnight and remembered today 10/10/10 is a special day in Bonaire with a fireworks celebration on the pier, which is only a couple blocks down the street.  Today Bonaire has changed from being a protectorate of the Netherlands to being more like a part of the Netherlands.  Will try to explain what this means once we learn more.  I have heard that there will be more funding available for infrastructure.  There are also question on what affect this change might have on TWR Bonaire — so pray about this.

It’s close to 8am on Sunday, so we need to take a ‘pitcher bath’ and get to church at 9am.