Videos from Liestal

We took a lot of video at the Liestal Fasnacht celebration last Sunday. These two short clips show a pipe and drum corps which gives you a taste of the traditional Basler Fasnacht sound. Only pipes and drums are permitted for any Clique that participates in the parades. This group is poking fun at rich oil shieks making wads of dough from the price of petrol. The themes for the parades are usually picked in late summer when the price of oil was spiking - it was a common theme for many of the Basler Cliques this year.

The other component of the Liestal parade is FIRE! Groups carry or pull carts of tinder-dry wood through the main street. Let me tell you, just holding up the camera to get this video was a feat. We were in a much more sheltered spot this year but it was still HOT, HOT, HOT!

I'll post some pictures later of the various parades in Weil am Rhein, Liestal and Basel.

Staff Retreat to the Swiss Alps

Today is quite balmy - a huge 5° C last time I checked. This is actually pretty good considering the weather we had just last week. As I may have mentioned in another blog entry, even the Germans and Swiss are getting a little tired of this winter. The cold and snow are coming more frequently than in the last couple of years, but it is probably closer to normal patterns -I guess last year we were just really lucky. As I look back over last year's February blog entries, I see that the weather was still rather cold, but man, we didn't get this much snow. On the upside however, we have hardly been sick at all this year! Yaahoo! Here is a picture of the school about a week ago. You will note the parent parking to the left and staff parking on the right. I took even a tumble off of my bike for the first time last week on some ice - Oy! that was no fun. I'm still limping a little from where the steel bike pedal hit the knuckle of my left foot.

Okay, so where else in the world could a school take a staff retreat to the Swiss Alps without it sounding like one of those boondoggles that a bailed-out bank had to cancel after receiving BILLIONS of our taxpayer money? Well, our staff retreat probably cost less than a similar trip to the Oregon Coast. We were able to stay at a hostel where the accomodations were basic - twin beds (no sleeping together), bathroom and showers down the hall, etc. But the view - Oh, the view...
This was actually the view out of our window. Okay, I can take bathrooms down the hall for one night for a view like this. I created a panorama of our room's view below. If you click on the picture itself, you should be able to get it to open in a seperate windows with a larger image view - it is fantastic.

This is a view of the other side of the valley. Our hostel can be seen along the very left edge of the picture. It is the small tan'ish colored building almost half way up, above the red tile roofed building. Whether or not you see it, what you can see is the glory of God's creation in the Alpine region of Switzerland.

From our room, there was a really beautiful church to our left. There were several terraced levels as one approached the entrance. We took a walk over and up to the church and what do you think we found on those terraces? (Any guesses?)

For those of you that guessed graveyards, give yourself a gold star. It wasn't necessarily what I expected, but they were beautiful none the less. I don't know if we have mentioned it before, but graves and honoring those who have passed over is significant for most Europeans. Since many families live in the same town or village for generations, this shows their respect for family after they are gone.

The many markers were primarily made of wood - this is just one example. Isn't it just wonderful? The grave sites are well tended and quite beautiful.

The church also has some magnificent stained glass windows. (I know Jesus didn't look like this, but I appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship)

Since this was a staff retreat, I wanted to give you a picture of our staff. There were a couple of folks missing, but these are the souls with whom Delynn and I have had the priviledge of serving for the last 18 months. The woman in the back center, Aubrey, hails from the Pacific NW, actually from Eugene, and she has the same birthday as I do - 12 June - but obviously she was born many, many years later. She teaches are 1st and 2nd grade girls (well, the entire class of 8 students are all girls). She is a really excellent teacher and we are proud to serve with her. We could tell you great, compelling, touching stories about each of those here but we will save those for another day. What a blessing it is for us to know each one.

We took a day trip on Saturday further up into the Swiss Alps. The last picture is in the village of Lauterbrunnen. Delynn and I will be returning here in a couple of weeks during our Fastnacht break to recreate some more together in the Alps. Obviously, this day had quite a bit of cloud cover, so we are hoping for some clearer weather the first part of March. We'll see - whatever happens, we look forward to our break.


We pray God's blessing on everyone who reads this. When we see the wonder and beauty of His creation, we are continually amazed that God would make this for us. May you too see something of God today. Keep your eyes open; expect that God will cross your path in some way today - maybe big, maybe small. In all, be thankful and give Him the glory He is due.

A day in Strasbourg

Well, we promised you pictures and during a recent day trip to Strasbourg, France, we (well, the Michael-half of 'we') took a lot of pictures. We met up with our friends and fellow RIA'ers, Cam and Jen to take a trip up north to Strasbourg. Strasbourg is the principal city of the Alsace region of France, home to some 3/4 million people. The city celebrated its 2000th anniversary (no, that's not a typo) in 1988. It was founded as a Roman military outpost in 12 B.C. (right about the time my old home town of Augsburg, Germany was founded). It is now home to the European parliament and the European Court of Human Rights. A fairly significant city just an hour away by train.

We were blessed to get a discount ticket on the French railway - this is essentially a day-ticket on which up to 5 people can travel in a given region or state for a single price. In our case, it cost us only 44 Chf for the four of us to travel round-trip to Strasbourg (That works out to about $9.00 per person which is an outstanding bargan). As as added bonus, there were no strikes, so we got quickly to our destination. The day was clear and cold but those are the best days to travel in winter. We caught an early train so that we could spend a full day in this beautiful city before returning back home to Weil am Rhein.

This is the main train station in Strasbourg. You can't see it very well, but the domed building in front of you actually covers the original stone train station. When you exit the old station building, this curved structure compeletely envelopes the facade and pedestrian area in front of the station. It was not until we walked out and across the square that we noticed how pleasing the architecture of the covering structure was. We knew we wanted to get to the center of the old town. In most cities of this vintage, all that means is looking for the church spire that usually signals the most important part of the oldest section of the city. In Strasbourg however, there are lots of more modern buildings reaching several stories high but that is no challenge for the Strasbourg Cathedral.

The Strasbourg Cathedral, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg, is incredible to behold. It held the record as the tallest building in the world for 250 years until the late 19th century. Even as I write these tid-bits of information, I find myself shaking my head in disbelief. It is still the 6th tallest church in the world.

As you can see, it is hard to get this baby into a single picture, the scales are not to be believed. People walking around the Cathedral square look like so tiny when contrasted with this immense Cathedral. The interior is just as soaring with airy vaults and lots of stained glass. I appreciate so much that even with the throngs of visitors, churches like this also have areas reserved specifically for prayer and not for photos.

The Romans normally established outposts on riverbanks and Strasbourg is no exception. Today, much of the old city is between two branches of the Ill river (really, that's its name -it is a tributary of the Rhein). With old sections of cities, there is always beautiful old buildings to admire.


Here we are next to the Tanner's building. Delynn still doesn't have a hat on despite the sub-freezing temperatures, but she is at least wearing ear muffs. We are dressed in our standard two-layers bottom, four-layers top configuration for winter travel.

THIS IS WHY WE LOVE FRANCE! ('nuf said)

This is called the Kammerzellhaus (Maison Kammerzell) and is one of the most ornate and well preserved medieval buildings found anywhere in the Alsace. It is situated on Cathedral square and was built about 70 years before Columbus "sailed the ocean blue". It now houses a restaurant (we didn't even look at the prices) but pictures are free!

We didn't actually eat any of those cakes in the picture we took earlier, we just drooled over them. We did however find a quaint little place that served a brilliant French onion soup (they just call it "onion soup") and Tarte Flambé. By the time we stopped for lunch, we were all really, really chilled so when we found this restaurant, we were more than ready to enjoy the inviting atmosphere and warmth we found inside.

True to french culture, we sat and ate and talked until we realized that we had been in the restaurant over one and a half hours - just for lunch! We had arrived rather late for lunch so by the time I remembered to take a picture, most of the other customers were gone. Most every table below was occupied with happy, contented french-folk during our wonderful meal.

Our whirl-wind day-trip to Strasbourg was a delight. I know we say this a lot, but we feel so blessed to be able to live here, to experience new cultures (french and german culture are certainly different...) and have the priviledge of sharing our lives and faith with new friends and our precious students. We will be forever changed by our time here. God is good.

Good news and bad news

I've been struggling to get myself to start this blog entry because it carries with it some sad news. As some of you already know, Rhein International Academy will close at the end of this school year. The president of our parent organization, the Network of International Christian Schools (NICS), came to the school to meet with the staff and parents to deliver the news. The decision by NICS was not an easy one - NICS has never had to close a school before. It was a decision that broke the hearts of the board and needless to say, it broke our hearts also.

In the end, the sustainability of the school just wasn't there. Over the last five years, NICS has faithfully supported the school and covered each year's shortfall. Last year, RIA was able to finally have a year when no outside support was needed, but several of our families, some with multiple children attending RIA, were rotated back to North America or other countries and we just could not make up the shortfall.

Our focus right now is to continue to deliver the very best education possible for our students and to finish the year well. We are also working diligently within the international school community to insure that each of our students has a place to attend next year. This can be especially difficult as we support a number of special needs students. We would ask our praying friends for their support as we move forward with this tremendous task.

On a more personal note, Delynn and I have made our decision for the next chapter of our lives. We had been pursuing several ideas which included staying in the Dreiländereck region or returning to the States. When Delynn returned from her trip back to Vancouver during the Christmas break, we spent much time in discussion and prayer over where we would be in six months. I had my CV (resume) submitted to some companies in Switzerland as well as back in the U.S. We began to sense that our next home should be back in the Washington-Oregon region so that we could be close to family; to be close as Delynn's father battles cancer. To remain here, as much as we love the area, the relationships, our church, seemed a little selfish. But, as most of you know, the economic climate in the U.S. is not exactly stunning to say the least. Still, we felt a sense of peace, a peace which passes understanding.

Our answer came in the form of an offer from my previous employer, Intel. I had sent off an email to an old colleague seeing how the job environment stood. Once my former boss found that I was interested in perhaps coming back to the OS group, he and his boss went to work on a job requisition to which I could apply. The request for hiring had to get approval at the group's general manager (this is the person that reports directly to our CEO, Paul Otellini). In this environment, it was a miracle to get the approval. I was really humbled when they came back and made me an offer. It was truly and offer that I couldn't refuse and was an answer to our prayers.

We feel incredibly blessed to be moving forward with this decision. It is and will be a bitter-sweet time for us. We appreciate the prayers, responses and emails from family and friends as we work through the next several months. Thank you for your support.



Next week I promise to post some more beautiful pictures of our staff retreat. Promise.

Things we have learned

I don't think I will have any pictures for this blog entry (oh, the agony of just reading words...) I know for some of our students at RIA, weaning them off of children's picture books into the world of just words is an interesting process. We start with specific age-level readers (think Clifford or some of the Magic School Bus). These have more words that the child can read and understand, still with pictures on every page but definitely a step towards the ultimate goal. The children than graduate up to chapter books. These books may have a picture on one page and text on the other. They also begin to have chapters (hence the name). Then, we go up to having pictures on every few pages until eventually the child is making the pictures completely in their own minds. That was what I really loved about reading, both as a child and even now. For Christmas, the parent group gave each staff member some really nice gifts. For me, I received a significant gift certificate to one of the bookstores in Basel that carry English books. Because English books are hideously expensive (well, they all are, but especially English books) I have refrained from purchasing many for personal consumption. A paperback book is somewhere between 15 and 20 CHF which translates to $12.00 - $17.00 - FOR A PAPERBACK! It is no wonder that the annual Anglican Church Bazaar does such a booming business selling used paperbacks for like 3 CHF each. (CHF stands for Swiss Franc - one of the only countries in western Europe to not use the Euro €). The CH is from the country designator Confoederatio Helvetica which is actually Latin for Swiss Confederation. They chose Latin because it is language neutral and therefore does not favor any of the three official languages of Switzerland - German, French and Italian.

Whoa! Tangent... I wasn't even planning to talk about books in this blog entry... What I was going to talk about were some of the unique things we have learned here over the last 18 months. Certainly, we have learned to take some risks, put our lives out into a new place to learn, serve and love. We have found great friendships, a wonderful church body and exciting opportunities to serve God while here in the Dreiländerecke. But we have also learned some less esoteric lessons like...

Europeans use a lot more deodorants than anti-perspirants. Yes, it's true. Now, I can say that in general a LOT more deodorant is used today than when I lived in Germany in the mid-1990's. It makes riding the older, non-air-conditioned trams significantly more tolerable. (Picture in your mind a full tram of people, packed together while holding the hand straps attached to the ceiling - you get the picture...) Anyway, I was intrigued that when I went to Müller (a local drug store - but you can't by drugs there...) that the men's toiletry aisle has probably 10 times more deodorants than anti-perspirants. I did some research and found that anti-perspirants, which I have been using ever since I started to stink - or at least be aware that I stank - can be a pretty nasty collection of chemistry designed to essentially plug up the pores so that you don't sweat. Now, deodorants also have alot of chemistry inside but they work in a fundamentally different way but attacking the bacteria that makes your armpit smell like... well, an armpit. Anyway, I decided to switch over to deo a few months ago and Delynn has yet to complain - I guess the real test will come in summer. This is probably way too much information but hey, you're reading this blog voluntarily.

So, when is a drug-store not a drug store? And the answer is: In Europe! So, this takes some explaining. In America, if you want to buy some asprin, or Visene, or cough syrup, you simply trundle down to the local Walgreens (or any of a hundred different drug-stores or drug-stores within a mega-store) and get your non-perscription drugs. In Europe, what we would call a drug store or chemists is a Drogerie. However, Drogerien do not carry any perscription or non-perscription drugs. You can get naturopathic remedies at a Drogerie, along with toys, DVDs, shampoo, the aforementioned deodorant, office supplies and diatetic foods but no drugs. To get drugs, you go to an Apotheke. Also, I don't know of any Apotheke that are located in larger stores like we have in the states. Most are small, family run businesses that are scattered throughout the town. All Apotheken are closed on Sundays, just like everyone else, but each Apotheke takes it in turn to have someone on call during Sunday in case of emergency. In our hometown, Weil am Rhein, the Wednesday paper publishes which Apotheke will be open on the following weekend.

On a more personal note, I have learned that I don't need so much coffee, espresso, or other forms of caffeine delivery that I was so addicted to (yes, I must admit addiction) back in the states. When I was commuting to Intel every day from Vancouver, we would normally stop by Starbucks in Jantzen Beach and I would get a triple or quad-shot espresso con panna (that's with whipped cream folks and it is Yummy with a capital Y). After I got to work, I would soon get an IM from my work-colleague to go get a cuppa. We used our stroll down to the café to discuss the upcoming day, meetings, etc. While he headed over for a Dr. Pepper, I would get in line for another double or triple shot of espresso - all before 8:00! It was insane. It seemed like I needed to 5 shots of espresso just to be human - I didn't get the shakes or headaches or anything. Cut to 18 months later, living and working in Germany. As we have said before, our lifestyle is slower. We walk, bike, tram or train most places. We carry our groceries home in a fabric bag. We read (Michael) and knit (Delynn) and play Sudoku (also Delynn) more in the evenings (CNN gets repetitious rather quickly). At church, we have become more select in our ministries and commitments even though much of our non-school related activities revolve around our church family. In general, we try to sleep more. Part of the reason that I didn't blog last Sunday was because a rather nice nap enjoyed in the sunshine took priority. Because of these changes, after a couple of cups of coffee at home as we get ready every morning is enough to get me through the entire day. Quite a stark change from the caffiene-hound of two years ago.

I know that these are rather random thoughts but they are what's on my mind this week (well, among LOTs of other things that are not blog material). I hope you have enjoyed these wanderings. May God bless you and keep you, may God make his face to shine upon you and grant you peace.

Waiting for Spring

It is surprising the number of Germans and Swiss that have given voice to their yearning for spring to come. Granted, this year has been much, much colder than normal (but no comparsion to what our family in Boston, MA is experiencing), so that probably helps form people's opinions. Having said that, it is relatively balmy this week, we have finally gotten above freezing. Today, in fact, we enjoyed an entire day above freezing - Woo Hoo! Spring is coming! (Okay, I'm being a little delusional)

As Delynn and I were walking to school Friday, I decided to take a couple of pictures of Gelbe Sack pickup day. Back when we first arrived, in August 2007, I wrote a blog entry about recycling that generated quite a bit of interest. So, what happens to all of those "gold sacks" full of recycleable stuff? Every household gets a garbage calendar in January which lists local pick-up days. Well, when Gelbe Sack day comes, everyone stacks their sacks outside to await pick-up.

After taking the picture above, we came across a second stack which looked even more German - notice the nicely laid stack with the closed ends all facing the same way. It was for me the epitome of Gelbe Sack day.
Delynn has been a bit under the weather this weekend, so I have been trying to take care of her. (I think the ice cream helped...) I went to worship alone this morning, but it was well worth the trip - Geoff talked about the beginning of Christ's ministry with the invitation to "Come and see" what the Kingdom of God is all about. I also had the priviledge of assisting in the administration of communion which is alway special. We have a very busy week planned - please keep Delynn's (and my) health in your prayers as we really don't have time to have a cold (just like everyone else...) We have several additional meetings planned in addition to our normal committments.

We long for the day, which gets closer every morning, when the temperatures will be warm enough and the sun out late enough for us to sit at an outdoor café and soak in the warmth. May the light and warmth of our Lord bless you and keep you in the week ahead. Keep praying for our leaders.

So, did we mention it was cold here?

This year has been an unusual one in the Dreiländerecke where we live. The average temperature for December and January swings between a low of -4° and a high of 2° C. This translates to between 25 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Last year's winter was fairly typical. I know I have mentioned before that because we are outside more - waiting for busses, waiting for trains, walking between point A and B - that we are more accutely aware of the affect of temperature on comfort. But as the Swiss say, there is no bad weather, just poorly dressed people. Then came 2009...

We have been going through a bit of a cold snap for our region. The temperature for the last several weeks has not significantly broken the freezing point and it has profound effect. This morning for example, I was getting ready to go into church - today I was leading music worship so I had to be there early. At 7:30 I checked my Yahoo! weather (we check the weather here much more frequently than we did back in Vancouver...) and it was -10° (Yikes! I need another layer.) degrees outside. That is like 14 degrees F. We have an Apotheke (pharmacy) just up the block from us which has readerboard displaying date, time and temperature that we can view from our balcony. I didn't even think about venturing out to check their temperature. So, I donned my long-johns to add another layer (4 on top, two on bottom) before going out to catch the 7:57 bus to Basel.

The pictures in this blog entry are of the Tinguely Fountain in Basel. Jean Tinguely grew up in Basel and does a lot of sculptural machines. There is an entire museum, aptly named the Tinguely Museum, devoted to his works. The Tinguely Fountain is located in front of Basel's city theater (Stadttheater) with the soaring gothic Elizabethan church in the background.

The fountain is made up of a collection of mechanical fountain pieces that spray or move water in various ways. As you can see, when we have extended periods of sub-freezing temperatures, it morphs the fountain into something new and rather alien. There was quite a crowd at the fountain today as the sun was shining brightly, adding to the beauty of crystaline water.

We have another use for our balcony - it serves as a secondary fridge during about one-third of the year. We store our drinks outside to keep them cool as our inside fridge has a fairly limited capacity. If we store them close to the windows, they normally get sufficient heat to stay in a liquid state. Unfortunately, this year, we have had to move our liters of fizzy water inside because even standing near the windows is not sufficient to keep them from becoming big icecubes of water and gas.

I hope it doesn't sound like we are complaining - for we most certainly are not. This is just an unusual year (much like it has been in Vancouver/Portland) and I wanted to comment on it. We are blessed, happy (don't we look happy?), content and thank God for every day that we live here (and I heard that it hit -20° in Frankfurt so we're glad we don't live there...).

We look forward to what God has in store for us in the coming year. It will most likely include a move and we look forward to the adventure to come. In the mean time, we live each day in the surety and peace that comes from knowing Jesus.

May God grant peaceful resolutions to the wars raging in Gaza and throughout the world.