Category: Argentina

Recent Projects

While it has been quiet here, I have been actively putting out content in different venues. Some are very targeted and therefore don’t really fit here at My Thought Spot. However, I wanted to share some of the projects here as a way of informing and inviting you to join in any that seem appropriate.

Deaf Ministry
First we have been busy with the deaf ministry here in Argentina. You can read about our ministry and get updates at www.dpeach.com. I will be posting a new prayer letter there in a couple of days. We have started our second round of sign language classes at the church. That is going well. I am also taking a sign language class at the local deaf club which gives me many contacts with the community.

Missionary Talks
Missionary Talks is going well. While I have not had a lot of interviews lately, I have been very encouraged by the feedback I get from some of the recordings. The most recent interview was with a family who is currently raising their support. God used a Missionary Talks interview to teach them of a ministry where they could be involved.

If you are on Facebook you can join the Missionary Talks page by clicking the “Like” button at the top. You will be informed of all future episode releases right in your Facebook news feed. I also post short clips from interviews that are interesting, but don’t seem to fit with the rest of the show. Consider the Facebook page to be like the bonus features on a DVD.

I use my @DavidPeach account on Twitter to share ministry related news. That would be our personal ministry, or information about Missionary Talks.

Missionary Geek
I started a new website a few weeks ago intended to share news and information from the technology world that would be of interest to missionaries. It is called Missionary Geek. Missionary Geek also has a Facebook page that you can join. I look forward to sharing things through the website itself as well as news and information links via @MissionaryGeek on Twitter.

Discover Spanish With Us
While our Spanish vocabulary site, Discover Spanish With Us, has been sporadic since we left Mexico, I have been trying to keep it updated recently. It is a website where my wife and I type up an occasional new word that we learn. We tell how it is used. These are usually not normal words. The purpose of the website is not to teach a person how to speak Spanish, but how to use certain words (as we understand them) that may not be as common. The secondary purpose is that people would leave comments and tell us how we might be wrong on the usage, which then helps us become better speakers of the language.

Info Barrel
I have been writing articles at Info Barrel that don’t seem to fit anywhere else. I mentioned this in a previous post. I was planning to give a weekly update with a list of all of my articles that I wrote. However I probably will just highlight certain ones on occasion. My articles range from beekeeping to podcasting. There are also articles on riding bikes and taking pictures.

Running
On top of all this, I am getting my running back under control. I have had a pretty miserable year since September of last year. I was plagued with different injuries dating back to October, 2008. Everything seems to be back in order and I am bringing my mileage up again. I am almost back to running as much per week as I was when I was in my best running shape.

Thanks for checking out the projects I have going. Join me in the different communities if they are appropriate for you.

Last long run before my World Wide Festival of Races Half Marathon

Yesterday I did something I have not done in over a year—I ran more than 7 miles in one run. I went out for an 8 mile run and ended up with 9.5 miles under me.

I can’t believe that it has been so long since I have had a good long run. I hurt my foot in marathon training last year and had to back off considerably from the long miles. Since then I have never built up my distance again. Because I want to complete my 5th consecutive running of the Phedippidations World Wide Festival of Races Half Marathon I knew I needed to get a long run in to test the waters for a 13.1 mile run. Yesterday was the day, though I should have done it earlier.

I mapped out an 8+ mile course which took me into new territory that I had not seen in my neighborhood. I actually ended up running completely around the town next to us (City Bell).

I decided on a run/walk. Usually when I do this I try to cover a mile and then walk a minute. Since I didn’t know where my miles would end, I just ran 10 minutes and walked a minute. Then after that I walked for a minute when I got to minutes 20, 30, 40 etc.

During the run I listened to As the World Cheers (MP3 file). This was the 2010 “Shouts of Encouragement” episode from Steve Runner. He puts one of these together every year to allow his listeners to shout encouragement to the other runners in the group. This year’s episode was really cool since he, and some fellow runners, put together a song. In it he gave a hat tip to those running at the River Plate. I am the only one registered from the Argentina/Uruguay/Paraguay section where Rio de la Plata (what we call it down here) runs. That was pretty cool to hear.

When I got to within a mile of my house I was feeling really good and strongly considered just knocking out the half marathon all at once. I did end up running around the park once, which added 1.4 miles to my run, but I did not do the extra 5 miles I needed to finish up the distance. By not doing it all yesterday I am forcing myself to get out there and do another long run this week to get my half marathon completed.

NOTE: I don’t recommend going from 4 and 5 mile runs to a 13.1 mile run. It is probably not too wise to jump up to a 9.5 mile run. Doing the run/walk helps considerably. Knowing how to fuel properly for a run of that distance is also a big factor in being able to do that type of run without worrying about injury. And, finally, I certainly wasn’t going very fast. I never felt like I was pushing myself too hard. Just a casual run around town.

Now to get the legs rested up for a casual half marathon next week (though this weekend was race weekend, the actual date is a bit flexible). I have no time goal other than to complete it in less than my 3.5 hour crawl last year.

Now where is my Escargot recipe?

As our northern friends are moving into fall, we are moving into spring here on the bottom part of the world. A welcome transition too. We have had some days up into the 70s the last couple of weeks, but it is still down in the 40s most every night. Today got up into the mid 60s, but already tonight it is 45 with that penetrating cold humid breeze coming off our river. By the way, I haven’t mentioned the river much, but it is 140 miles wide at its mouth. We live 5 miles from the river.

Slimy snail pictureToday was the day to start preparing the yard for spring!

We started by using a pair of garden sheers to clip the small patch of grass outside our fenced area around a tree. The rest of our roadside space is barren since the two trees cast such dense shade that nothing grows under them.

Then it was time for the main yard. I got our son hooked up with the weedeater and he got lost in the monotony of his work so that he couldn’t argue with his sister much. Can’t say it took all the tension out of their relationship, but it gave him something to focus on and gave us a small break from the bickering.

I busied myself with trim work and doing a bit more pruning on some trees and plants. It is too late in the year to do too much more of that, but I don’t think I damaged anything. Mostly I tidied up our Laural trees and our gigantic Bird of Paradise plant. I need to get a nice picture of that sometime. Our fruit trees (plum, peach, lemon, kumquat and orange) are all ready for the growing season and are putting out flowers and new leaf growth.

Our daughter followed me around picking up branches, twigs and weeds to carry out to the bio-waste pile in front of the house.

Steph took advantage of us being outside and swept and mopped the floor. She also washed windows, pruned bushes and beat rugs.

Bucket of snailsThe fun came when we got onto the porch to uncover and clean the table. We knew what we would find. The snails seem to love either the wooden table, or the black tarp that covers it. Have you ever tried to get a snail to let go of a table or tarp he considers home? We gathered up about 30 snails into a bucket and deposited them with the branches and weeds out front. I don’t envy the guys who will pick all that up by hand in the next few days.

While we still have a ways to go to get everything ready for spring, we accomplished a lot today.

Monday we have a group of friends coming over for a Sign Language Class fellowship. We expect about 30 people here. Our front yard will easily accommodate that many. God has blessed us with a very nice house to use while we are serving here. This is our first opportunity to host a large group of people, but I hope it won’t be our last.

“Don’t use so much tape!”

Bench GrinderThis afternoon I took a gift over to my friend Victor. He turned 86 today. He has become a good friend, even though he doesn’t let me talk much. I initially hooked up with him to form a symbiotic relationship. He is an old bicycle builder. I figured I could help him out in his shop (yes, he still works every day he physically can) and he would teach me all the finer points of bike building and repair. However, most of the time we just stand in his shop and he tells me stories…for hours at a time.

I met him about 4 months ago. From that time until now he has been saying that he needed to get a new wire brush for his bench grinder. He often tries to clean things with the little bit of wire he has left on the wheel. However there is not enough left to accomplish anything. I knew a month ago that I wanted to get him a new brush for his birthday.

When I delivered the present to him I sat and watched as he and his dear wife fought with the tape and paper trying to get the box open. I try to be patient with them and let them do as much as they can on their own; I don’t want to rob them of their last bit of independence. However my embarrassment got the best of me and I had to help them open the box. I should have known not to use 5 pieces of tape when 3 would have worked.

Next time I will put his gift in a bag.

Are my problems behind me?

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I have had a pain in my backside. I think it is Piriformis Syndrome, however a visit to the doctor last week had him thinking it was Sacroiliitis. The main reason I think he is wrong on that is because Sacroiliitis is typically worsened by prolonged standing or stair climbing, neither of which bother me at all. In fact, because I experience so much pain in either sitting, or standing from a seated position, I have either been on my feet or in an upright kneeling position to work at my desk or eat for months. Standing has not bothered me at all. Until last night I have not even sat down in church for almost 2 months.

However, my visit to the doctor did a couple of things for me. First, it confirmed that I had no major problems that was going to be worsened by exercise and stretching. He gave me the green light to do both. About a month ago I talked with a kinesthesiologist who suggested a couple of stretches that would help loosen the muscles in my derrière. The stretching seemed to help some, but not significantly.

The second thing that talking with the doctor last week did was to get me a prescription to more focused pain medication. I had just been taking Advil which helped with inflammation, but was not doing a tremendous job on the pain. The doctor got me on a pain medication that is often prescribed for arthritis patients (Arcoxia). It has helped considerably with the pain and is an anti-inflammatory. The huge advantage of this is that I am able to keep the pain at bay enough to do more stretching. He also put me on a vitamin B complex of B1, B6 and B12.

I think the single biggest help in my problem is being able to stretch the muscle enough to get it to finally not be constantly tight. I still have pain, but it is nothing like it had been. I actually sat in a chair the last two evenings and did not seem to hurt any worse when I got up.

The stretching routine I use is one I heard about on the Marathon Training Academy podcast. Angie from the podcast put together the video below. For the last 8 days (since I went to the doctor) I have done some kind of warm up exercise of either running or aerobic routine for 30 minutes to an hour and then followed up with the stretches Angie shows in the video. It has been almost unbelievable the progress I have made in a week. Through the years my flexibility has been pretty amazing even as a fat guy. But when I started doing this stretching routine I discovered I am not near as flexible as I was just a year ago. This could be what caused my problems to begin with. But in the last week being faithful to get my muscles well warmed up and stretching with this video, I have gained most of my flexibility back and can see hope for the end of my problems.

Thank you Dr. Unpronounceable-Name and Angie for giving me the medicine and tools I needed to get back on the road to recovery.