Author: benjancewicz

My good friend and former classmate, Tolulope Ogundipe, asked me to design a logo for her conscious engineering company. Her goal is to use modern engineering to help the poor, hungry, and oppressed. There is no way I could turn her down…

My good friend and former roommate Nick Machlan (also a missionary kid (like me) from the Philippines) is breaking into the Philadelphia theatre scene, and needed some headshots for his auditions.
We did some standard shots, and then went outside for some more expressive ones. It was dark out, so I put my camera on a tripod, took my flashes out, and had him stand very still while I ran around flashing light at him. These are the result.

This news is coming quite quite late, but we’re having a boy.

Come December, Nya will have a little brother! Tamika and I have been very very excited about the whole thing, but with all of the other craziness going on (the car, Tamika staying at home, the American economy deflating like a 2-week old balloon animal) I just haven’t had time to write about it.

He’s very healthy, and as Tamika will attest, it’s a very different pregnancy from Nya’s. Staying home helps a lot too, I think, and is allowing Tamika to “nest” a little more (read that in a pregnancy book for guys that my friend Chris Beard gave to me).

Tamika is going in for another sonogram soon, so I’ll post up pictures as soon as I have them.

Nya is doing great too! She’s standing up and edging around furniture. She hasn’t quite take her first step though, but if she’s not thinking about it, she can stand on her own for about 3 seconds (though as soon as she realizes she’s standing up, she sits down). She crawls and scoots her way all over the place, which has caused us to be a lot more thoughtful about picking things up! She also enjoys talking, clapping her hands, impersonating Popeye the Sailor, banging wooden spoons on over turned pots, and climbing stairs.
Yes, climbing stairs. Thankfully, Connie Molitor, an former coworker of ours, gave us a set of wooden gates for the stairs. However, because Nya is so small, she actually fits under the gate that leads upstairs. We turn around, and there she is, halfway up the stairs clapping her hands and smiling. We shoved a bolster pillow underneath the gate in the meantime, and occasionally allow her peak-scaling activities by following her up.

She hasn’t quite learned any words yet, but she’s close. She does say Bubba (for Bottle), and has a vocabulary of other sounds she likes to make. Ummm (like she’s about to say something), Abu, and Goyim-goyim-goyim are some of her favourites.

More later!

-Originally written 7/24/2008-

Aloha!

I’m sitting in the club car of the Tshiuetin Railway, the only train between Schefferville and Sept-Îles.

The Picnic

On Sunday, Tamika, Talisha, Tom (Talisha’s boyfriend) and I all drove up to Philadelphia to go to the Mapp family reunion. Tamika’s mom (whom everyone calls “Angel” as a nickname) has the maiden name of Mapp, which is her father’s last name. So her whole side of the family was there. It was really nice. They held it in a park near the Philadelphia Zoo parking lot; a huge open area underneath a canopy of ancient trees. They had everything there. Ribs, hot dogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, 25 different flavours of chicken (curried, fried, baked, broiled, barbequed, blackened…) rice, beans, meatballs, sausages… and that doesn’t even count the hundreds of deserts and candies and drinks they had too!
Nya was already up there (she had spent the weekend with Tamika’s mom) and she was having a ball meeting everyone and being passed around. She’s learned how to clap her hands now when she’s excited, and will mimic you if you do it.

The Car

Tamika, Nya and I have been driving for the past two days.
Troy didn’t fix the Mercury in time for us to drive it, so we had to rent.
Tamika and I talked about it, and decided it would be the best decision, despite the price. I wanted to get a Mini Cooper or a convertible of some sort… just to make the long drive a little more tolerable, but in the end we agreed to just get whatever was cheapest.
Last time, we rented from Enterprise, which we used to drive to Connecticut. This time, however, when I called them to see if I could drive the car over the border, they said no way.
I did a little research; Budget, same thing. National, same thing. Alamo said I could, but they were expensive. Tamika and I wanted to go with the cheapest, smallest car available (which seemed like a Kia at most places. I checked up on Avis. Border crossing? No problem. And it was $200 cheaper than Enterprise.
On Monday, Tamika and I went in for her checkup. We were a little late, so it took longer than we originally planned, but it was cool to hear the heartbeat of the new baby! Everything was normal. We’re going to different doctor than we did last time; and they’re very nice. Very knowledgeable too. Nya’s checkup doctor seemed bit condescending to me when we used to go. The doctors paid little attention to me (I was at almost every visit). I understand their reasoning; I’m not the one giving birth… but when it came to things that Tamika should be doing or food she should be eating, or even how to take care of the baby after it’s born… they always talked to her.
After the appointment, we drove to the Avis in the Lakeforest Mall; right outside of the National Fatherhood Initiative.
The kid at the desk was really nice. We told him what we wanted, and was happy to oblige. However, once he looked through the system, he asked us if we would like to drive a convertible. They had a red convertible 2008 Misubishi Eclipse, which had two tiny cracks in the windshield. With such a defacement, it could no longer sell it at normal price, and so it was the same price as the economy cars we were looking at.
We thought about it, and decided to go with it. Tamika drove our Saturn to work, and the rental agent drove me to the lot to pick it up.
It was beautiful. Candy apple red, with a black mesh and leather interior and matching top.
I took the top down and drove it home feeling like a king. I’d never driven a car like that before; every car I’d owned had something wrong with it. I wasn’t accustomed to such luxury.
I drove to the birth certificate office near our house. I needed to get some sort of paperwork proving Nya was ours so that we could take her with us.
When I got there, someone told me I should hurry up to get there before they closed down for the day, so I ran.
Waiting in line at the office, I suddenly realized I no longer had my phone. I knew I had in the car; Tamika had called me from her office on my way back… but I couldn’t leave. The office was indeed closing, and because I had to take a number to be waited on, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back in if I went to look for my phone.
I was miserable. It took 30 minutes for them to process my request, but it seemed like hours. As soon as I had it, I dashed out the door, asking everyone I saw. No one had seen it. I ran out to the car. Not there. Not under the seats. Not in the parking lot.
I was frustrated. I drove to the gas station, and filled up. I had the thought that maybe I should leave my information with the security people back at the office.
I drove back.
It was hot. REALLY hot. Maybe 95-100º F. But I didn’t notice.
I ran back to the office. I asked the security. Nothing. I left them a note. I asked some more officers. Passersby. Anyone.
Nothing.
I ran back out to the parking lot, and ran around everywhere. Nothing.
Dejected, I drove home.
Once I got home, I felt a tingling feeling on my neck and arms.
I was burnt crispy. All red.
I sat in the reading room chair, wondering what to do.
I noticed the light on the answering machine was blinking. Tamika had left me a message. Someone had found the phone!
Apparently when I was running, I had dropped it, and some lady who was shopping picked it up and called my parents. They directed her to Tamika, and Tamika called the house.
I called the lady’s husband up, and he agreed to meet me that evening with the phone.
I spent the rest of the day cleaning, doing laundry, packing and preparing food for the trip.
At 9 I went to pick up my phone. Turns out that the lady’s husband, David Muhammad, owns a media company! We exchanged information. His team seems pretty cool, and he said he was looking for some help with some graphic design! We’ll see what happens.

Baltimore to Québec City

Early Monday morning, we took off for Canada. I had fit everything we needed in the Mitsubishi, and we drove for most of the morning with the top down (up until it got hot). We took I-83 north to Harrisburg, and then continued on I-81 all the way up to 1,000 Islands. I’d never crossed the border up there; it is really beautiful. Right before the border was a really tall bridge that led us onto one of the main islands, and down below you could see the most beautiful lakehouses, yaghts, jetskis, people swimming… all nestled among these islands overflowing with pine trees.
We crossed the border without a hitch, and continued on up.
In Québec, we hit some fierce thunderstorms. Huge thunderheads, at least a mile wide and several miles high crashed down on us, turning the roads outside of Montréal to rivers and turning the visibility to practically nothing. The Mitsubishi had some really nice tires on it, though, so we stayed firm on the road.
Late Monday night we met up with my parents at Le Comfortel in Québec City.

Québec City to Sept-Îles

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early and took 40 north along the St. Lawrence, caravanning wit my parents. They wanted to take Nya along in their car (plus, she didn’t seem to enjoy sitting alone in the back of the Mitsubishi), so I installed the car seat in the back of their Taurus. It was a beautiful ride. I love that part of the trip just because there is so much to see. And surprisingly, it didn’t make Tamika sick at all. That ride always made me and my brother and sister motion sick when we were younger.
We crossed the ferry at Tadoussac. I saw the back of a whale briefly, but I don’t think anyone else caught it.
Just outside Sept-Îles we stopped at the beach… but there was very little wind in the parking lot and within seconds we were suffocated with black flies. Even though there was a nice breeze on the beach, we decided on to stay and continue on to Sept-Îles.

Sept-Îles to Schefferville

This morning we got up from the Comfort Inn (next to Mike’s restaurant) and drove to the train station. It’s really cool to see the train completely native run. About 4 years ago, the Naskapis and Montagnais got together and purchased the railway from the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) and have been working on getting it repaired. This summer they got a grant from the government to repair it.
It’s been a beautiful ride so far. Tamika stood out in the vestibule with me watching the scenery, and got to see the Tonka Falls.
I just realize I made a grave mistake, though… I left the battery charger to my camera at home!!! I packed 16 GB worth of memory cards, and now my battery is just about dead!! My dad and I are going to see if we can rig something when we get home.

In case you haven’t heard, the sky is falling.
And as it turns out, my parents and I aren’t the only ones in trouble.

Steve Mathewes

Meet Steve Mathewes.
He’s a talented musician (with a B.A. in the field), accomplished performer and has a musical steel trap for a mind. He can, at any given moment, reproduce a menagerie of musical facts the artists themselves probably have forgotten.
You probably remember me talking about his wife; Jocelyn. She was my former classmate at Messiah, and coworker when we worked for the National Fatherhood Initiative.
They also have a baby daughter, who is about the same age as Nya. Once their baby Ruth came along, Jocelyn decided to become a stay at home mom and to grow her event photography business.
And just about 3 weeks ago, Steve lost his job.

Steve had just taken a vacation, and while he was away, the company he was working for decided they were getting hit pretty hard by the economy too, and decided to lay off some people. People like Steve.
So without any warning (fuggedabout 2 weeks) Steve comes back to find himself jobless.

A few days ago, Jocelyn sent around Steve’s resumé, so here I am passing it along to you.
Some of you may be interested in his private services; he is an accomplished Piano Tuner, and also gives drum lessons.
If you need him, or have a job available, contact him.

The Mercury

I stayed up quite late last night, and not doing Zerflin work.
Troy has been quite the slippery character. He has a really hard time staying focused, and from where our car is parked in front of our house, every passer by, cell phone call, and anything else is a distraction. So, yesterday, from the time I got home until about 1 in the morning, I stood around the car and helped him put it back together.
And we got quite a bit done. The fender is back on and firmly attached, the hinge on the hood is bent back into place, the tie-rod is straightened and reattached, and the anti-freeze has been refilled.
The tire still needs to be replaced, as does the axle, but I feel accomplished.
I’m still worried, though. Next Tuesday we’re driving up to Quebec. If worst comes to worst, we may have to rent a car. But I really really hope it doesn’t.
Keep praying.

My Parents Car

Still no news on my parents car situation. So far the response has been slow. That didn’t really surprise me… not too many people want to buy art during an economic downturn!

Gospel Choir

Again, more bad news. Remember Twi? Among other things, his car was totaled. He was in some traffic and while he was checking his blind spot, someone stopped in front of him. Keep him in your prayers. He’s optimistic and is already looking at new cars, but that, along with us not being able to sing this month (the church has some other matters to attend to) has him in need of prayer.

That’s all the news for now.
Talk to you later!