MKs all over the place

We are currently enjoying a invasion of MKs (missionary kids) here on Bonaire.

Christophe Lusse and his familiy are visiting. There is a picture of Christophe in a posting from July 14 or so.

Bob(by) Flaming was just here to help with the CEF camp last week, and his sister Sara Lyn is here for a couple months working on a book.

And I had a nice chat with David Romo, who was at the Sunday say-goodby-to-Renata pot luck at the Church. David is married, living on Bonaire with his wife and two sons, and teaching in a school here. He is building a house in Bel Nem, in what used to be the mondi where he played and built forts when he was a kid.

There is now a huge housing development to the East of the coast road in Bel Nem. The mondi area East of the original houses in Hato has also been completely built up.

Renata Fairwell

Renata has been a fixture here at TWR, Bonaire since she came from Brazil in 1976. Yesterday, we said our good-byes at the airport as she left to join the team at the TWR headquarters in Cary, NC.

We had a reception for her at our staff meeting last week, as well as a ladies lunch on Friday, and a pot luck reception at the church on Sunday.

Here we are, hanging out in the mail room - staff lounge. TWR old timers may recognise this room as the entrance lobby of the office wing. We have our weekly staff meeting in here now.


Renata received a Bonaire book, that her friends were all able to sign for her.


Yum yum!


Here we see Azalea and Ivan Statia, and Sara Lyn (Flaming), with Udo lurking on the right edge of the picture.

moon map

I mentioned Google's cool maps and satellite images a while ago. Our son, Richard, just alerted us to Google's new moon maps.

They are pretty cool, and if you zoom all the way in, you'll finally find the answer to an age old question.

What is Wrong with this Picture - Emily Edition

Here are two photos I took on Thursday, around 5 pm.

Here is the first view.


Here is the same scene from a bit further back.


You can click on these pictures to see them bigger, in case that helps.
Or you can look at my post from April 25 (I think) to get some clues.

Emily Update

Emily is turning into quite the storm. Yikes.

Fortunately for us, Emily was just far enough North and was "tightly wound" when she passed by Bonaire during the night. Our trade winds shut down and I noticed some waves coming in from the west this morning, but it was basically a quiet and uneventful night.

It is overcast here now with a light wind from the South. I had a nice tailwind riding my bike along the coast road to Karpata earlier this morning. Water had splashed up on the road in one spot, but I don't think there will be any significant reef damage this time. It may take a little while for the churned up water to settle down however.

I'm tentatively planning on riding up in Washington Park tomorrow to see how the north side of the island fared. If it is still cloudy and coolish, like today, it could be fun. It has been seriously hot here lately.

Emily update

Well, it's 5 pm and Sandra is on the phone telling me to get home quickly 'cause it looks like rain is on the way. A rain band hit Bonaire around noon and really dumped down on us. It's been pretty nice all afternoon, but satellite images seem to indicate that another chunk of storm seems to be headed our way.

As Emily moves West, the part of the cone of doom over Bonaire gets narrower, and further away from us. In fact, from the Satellite images, it looks like the body of the storm will miss us entirely. That would be great.

So, I'm optimistic that we'll experience a fairly 'normal' wind reversal type storm, and not a super intense one.

I'll post an update tomorrow, assuming that we still have power, and internet access etc. :)

Waiting for Emily

Unlike, Godot, it looks like Emily will indeed arrive.

Wednesday night, Bonaire was within the "cone of uncertainty". I call it the cone of doom, but I guess one can't say that on TV.

This morning, Emily has veered a teeny tiny bit North, so the ABC islands are outside the cone. Whoo whoo! I imagine that even if Emiliy passes us by to the North, we'll still have a wind reversal and some damage along the shore etc.

It looks like we'll have the final answer by this evening and we'll in the thick of things later tonight. A direct hit by a storm like Emily, would basically demolish Bonaire, much like what happened to Grenada a year ago.

So we're praying that Bonaire will be spared once again, both for selfish self-preservation type reasons, and also to preserve the broadcast ministry of TWR, which is such an important part of the lives of so many, from Cuba to the North, all the way down into the Amazon basin to the South.

You can track Emily at this web site, or at weather dot com.

Workshop Move

A few years ago, we moved the wooodworking shop from the back of the Activities Building, to the north wing of the Studio Office complex. The next step was to move the shipping containers, used for parts and equipment storage over too, so the stuff would be readily at hand. That happened in 2003 as I recall. Here are some photos from my archives. They are sort of backwards. If you scroll down to the third photo and work up, it will make more sense.

Ivan and Benny help guide one of the containers to its new home.


The site has been prepped and everything is in readiness for the big move.


The end of the building in this picture is where the woodworking shop is now located. It used to be the Purchasing/Shipping and Receiving area. Before that..... well, storage area for the print shop maybe. This wing was radically altered back when the auto shop was moved here from the transmitter site.

Workshop Changes Part II

The woodworking shop and the storage containers have been in place for a while now. The area is now being walled in and a roof added. This is a zoning requirement, but also will add a sheltered work area for those nasty type jobs that you don't want to work on inside. It will also greatly increase the security of the storage area.

Rich West has added new features to the trusty Suzuki Samurai work beast that I've featured in the blog from time to time.


Christophe Lusse and his family are visiting Udo and Berni here on Bonaire, just in time to get in on the construction action.


Here is the top end of the rig, and the form for the reinforced concrete beam.


In the background, you can see where the Hotel Bonaire used to be, on the left, and on the right, you can see the new building where the Den Laman restaurant used to be. It houses a new restaurant, a dive/bicycle shop, and hotel rooms.

Moon, Venus, and Mercury

The show in what has come to be know as the Bonaire Sky Park continues. On Friday evening, the Moon, joined Venus and Mercury in the west shortly after sunset for a beautiful grouping.

From lower left to upper right, you can see Mercury, Venus, and the Moon in a nice line.


You can click on the picture to see it bigger.

30th Anniversary for Ivan

On Friday, Ivan Statia completed 30 years with Trans World Radio, here on Bonaire.

Here, Rich Fuller presents Ivan with a plaque and a clock as part of the 30th anniv. ceremony.


Ivan's wife, and former TWR missionary, Azalea Statia, looks on.

30 years continued

A lot of folks have come and gone from TWR Bonaire during Ivan's 30 years. Some have moved on to other ministries, and some have moved on to their final reward.

I caught Ivan in front of one of the wall displays created for TWR's anniversary celebration last year. If you click on the picture, you may be able to identify some of the people.