Dominican Republic and a Humanitarian project

For the past 13 years, I have been longing to go back to where I spent 2 years as a missionary for the LDS church. Just over 3 years ago I became a charter member of a new Rotary international group here in Logan. After serving a stint as the club's president, I began to develop an interest in doing an international humanitarian project. Well what a better place than the DR! Over the past year I have been in communication with a few Rotarians in the DR and in New York. Its funny that while I was there, I was so engrossed in the culture that I don't really think I realized just how poor the conditions were.



We as Americans are so blessed, we truly are. We have nice houses, nice cars, running water, electricity whenever we turn the switch on. Yet there are so many of God's children not so blessed. In the northern area of the DR near the town of Santiago (and the same could be said of many of the pueblos in the DR and other countries) there are people living in the most impoverished conditions. The houses are constructed out of twigs and spare metal. They don't have running water, no bathrooms, no clean water. That is where I, along with my rotary club are going to begin to make a difference.

A Rotary club in Santiago, Dominican Republic formed a project and they are going to build 65 latrines (outhouses) so that every house in community of Los Higos will have a bathroom and a hand cleaning station. Check out some of these pictures:















The first picture is the old Latrine and then the new latrine. In February or March of 2010 a group of Rotarians from Logan will be going here and building these latrines. Can you believe that $250 pays for a new latrine. How many times do we as Americans go to the store and spend $250? Almost everytime I go to Sam's club or the grocery store I spend that much.

Today I gave a presentation to my club and afterword on the table, was a check for $250 from one of our members. I seriously teared up. I have had the opportunity to go to Mexico a couple times on vacation, and while I enjoyed it, I look forward to going with my wife and actually helping people have a place to use the rest room, a place to wash thier hands. I love Rotary because it gives me opportunity to help those less fortunate. You know you can too...if you want to help donate to the cause let me know and I can give you the address to our Rotary club and you can make a donation. Can you imagine how much good we can all do if each one of us, donates $10 and then invites our friends or neighbors to do the same. The world really could be a better place!

Kira in Figure Skating

Yesterday my four year old Kira participated in Logan's first annual Learn to Skate Beginners cup ice skating competition. Over the past few weeks Kira has been getting 15 minute lessons from Emma's coach Becca. Well Becca loves Kira and she has been trying to convince me to allow Kira to join the club etc. Well Kira is too young to join the club in my opinion but I let her skate in this little competition. Of course Kira was awesome! She won first in her division (granted there was only two of them, but she was by far the best!)

I am not too sure about having multiple skaters in my family. But it is fun to watch them perform! She was so cute yesterday really milking the whole day for what it was worth. She kept on saying "Today is my special day so...." She was very cute. Being a dad really is great. I am sometimes jealous of my wife for getting to stay home all the time with them. Now I am sure she feels the same way and wishes she could get away some time. But as they get older, I begin to realize just how much fun they are. It is great to see their excitement when they try something new. It is fun to see them learn new things or understand concepts that previously they did not understand. The one thing I am not sure about is the whole getting older aspect. In my mind I am still in my 20's, yet I am realizing that in reality I am not. Where does the time fly?

Emma at Winter state games

Figure skating and basketball...plus a little finance

So, I am sitting her tonight thinking about the fact that I am now in charge of two different sports. If you read my last blog you know I coach my son in basketball. (By the way...he rocked last week, 12 points a number of steals, some rebounds...and he took a game tying 3 point shot at the end, was fouled, but the refs didn't call it!). Well now I am the chair of my daughter Emma's ice skating show in April. Its quite funny how I ended up with the gig..lets just say they needed a few males to take over and keep the drama down!

So as the chair I get to make sure everyone gets along and that we produce enough income to break even. Have you ever tried to fundraise in this economy? My goodness, it is hard. But what is funny is that in a single day (yesterday) I raised $1200 for the Republican party annual Lincoln Day dinner...just by asking my amigos in credit union land. Four credit unions ponied up $300 a piece to have dinner and listen to political talk. Yet I approach them about sponsoring a local club and actually getting advertising....no money! Go figure. Worse yet, my own employer won't even back me up...yikes!

That raises another good point..where are we headed with this economy. I know we should just be positive but man, I get done talking to my boss and it seems like gloomy times in the industry. We need to have people just pay thier debts! You signed on a piece of paper you are responsible for the darn car or house or credit card. Why do people think they are entitled to "stick it to the man" when really they are just sticking it to themselves. Now I understand that there are circumstances where they just can't pay up. Jobs are being lost etc, but still go out fighting at least.

In addition Washington just keeps on thinking it can fix everything. I know I don't know all the details, but how many more bailouts are we going to have? We need to make it possible for people to keep in their houses, keep their jobs and pay their bills. Really we should make all those high level executives of these failing firms liquidate thier own investments and give it back to those they messed over! I really don't have a fix for this except following the principle of saving and spending only what you have..something I need to be better at also.

So back to my original thoughts, basketball and figure skating. I really just love my children. Its fun to watch each of them progress in their own way. We have in my family a sports fanatic (Jacob), a future olympian ice skater (Emma), a future world wide dancer (Julia) maybe another skater in Kira and well right now a complete spoiled little girl named Lily. Yet they bring so much joy to my life. And I am sure that whatever our next baby is (due in August) it will find its niche in the world....wow..what a future we have in front of us!

basketball and coaching

Sometimes I wonder why do I coach. Mabye coaching is like golf, you wait for that one great hit and even though you suck the rest of the time that one hit makes it worth it? My wife and my son and even some of the parents say I don't suck at coaching. Heck most of them think that I do a good job because I am so positive. But you know it sucks to always lose by like 30+ points. But its JR Jazz and its suppose to be recreation league. However it does seem like most of the time the luck of the draw just doesn't work for my team and you should see some of those kids, I swear they are as tall as most freshman in high school!

I probably should state that last years JR. Jazz team I coached we actually won all of our games, this year we will probably lose all of them. Maybe its the basketball gods conspiring against me or maybe it has to do with level of skill...thats an interesting thought. But I need to sit back and realize that usually I can see small improvement in my players at least some of them! How do you teach desire and agression without having them knock players over! How do teach a kid to stop whining win you suck at defense and your guy scores and get back to play? How do you teach your own son to move around more and get some dang rebounds without yelling at all of them and looking like a jerk of coach? And does it really matter? I come home, I analyze the game for hours while my son and I am sure all the players just go home and move on. I think there is a lesson there...it probably doesn't matter whether or not we get completly destroyed (50-12) what matters is that the kids still like the game and they are getting excercise. But really maybe the real question...do I still like the game? And I have to say, being a coach is better than just being the parent in the stands because, well I can only blame myself if my son doesn't play as much as he should or if he sucks...its all my fault, because I am the coach.....and you know..I am ok with it.