December 31, 2002 (Tuesday)

Terence Lee, Carmen, Karen and I went to Metrotown to buy food for the hot pot night. Then we arrived to Ricky's house at 6 and started washing thing. Canaanites had hot pot at 7:30. Then we had some singing and sharing time. The main purpose was count down. We went home shortly afterward. This is a different style then what we used to have when we were Hebronians. At that time it was more wild and stayed to a later time. Probably we are getting older and mature and wanted to go home soon.

December 30, 2002 (Monday)

I went to have lunch with William and talked about the idea of having business. Interesting! I went to Canaan worship team practice afterward but spent some times reading comic too. Carmen and I had dinner with Arthur and Garfield and talked about her new pregnancy and our wedding in 2004.

December 29, 2002 (Sunday)

Carmen and I went to Willingdon Church in the morning. Then I went with my parents to VCAC. After lunch with some friends, I went to Metrotown and London Drug for the digital camera partial refund and photo printing. Carmen's parents came to eat dinner at my place at night and we talked a lot of thing. It seems like that everyone enjoy the time.

December 28, 2002 (Saturday)

I stayed at home and organized my stuff for the afternoon (slept through the morning of course). Then Carmen and I went to Mom's YWCA co-worker dinner and met lots of people.

December 27, 2002 (Friday)

We ate dinner with Auntie 1; they brought us nice Japanese Sushi. Then we went to Chinese Christian Communication for shopping gift for friends in Venezuela. We went to Canaan at night and drink thing with them.

December 26, 2002 (Thursday)

Today is the first time I went to Metrotown in Boxing Day. There are a lot of people. Carmen and I also saw HK Actress "Chow Wei Men" in metrotown! People asked her to take a photo but I did not.

December 25, 2002 (Wednesday)

I celebrated the Christmas Day by staying at home. I organized my stuff, did some exercise, played piano and also slept! And then I celebrated the Christmas Night by going out with Carmen to see "Lord of the Ring 2" and drank bubble Tea with her. We talked for quite a while and I am glad that it makes up for the missing conversation that we didn't have when I was not here.

December 24, 2002 (Tuesday)

Hansel and Fiona went back to HK this morning. At least I can see Hun in the last two days, or else my reason to come back to Vancouver is greatly diminished. Good bye ~~~~
Digital Camera changed my online life. I had many photo (as u can see in this website). Parents and I went to buy another one; I am searching one that is good enough to print out the real photo so that when Hansel or I are getting married, we will have nice photo too! I went to Enoch and met my friend Winnie there. She brought me to a Christian bookstore for shopping; this gift will express my appreciation to my Venezuela Church friends. And I still need to do more shopping!
I ate dinner with Carmen's family and then went to Fraserland Church for Christmas Eve Worship. I have not had good Worship time for a long time! When I was looking at the service, I really wish that one or two people were willing to go to Venezuela to help out, so that I can have someone to work on the Music ministry too! Carmen and I drank thing with Canaan people; I finally don't have to talk and behavior nice (which I was doing in Venezuela; after all, since I was either talking to the adult or to the new believers, I need to be nice ;)

December 23, 2002 (Monday)

I drove Hansel to work today. He showed me his work place; it looks a bit like lab in the movie - full of liquid and equipments. That is quite cool and he designed (to use the word "invent" is a bit strong) some equipment. Then I picked up Carmen, took passport photo and applied passport. We went to Tom Lee Music Store for window shopping and then picked up memories from UBC. After pick up Hansel from work, we went to check out Digital Camera. We went home for dinner and enjoyed the last family time in the year. We took some photos too.

December 22, 2002 (Sunday)

Today is a long (literally) day. I arrived at the airport with my lawyer at 7:10. Then I passed through everything smoothly. It seems to me that money does talk. I took a flight to Houston for 5 hours. And then I have to wait for 8 hours in Houston. I read many magazines and several Chinese books; I slept too. And then I took another 4.5 hours flight to Vancouver. Today literally is a 28 hours day for me.
I can't believe that I am in Vancouver now, a first world country, surrounded by the love of my family and Carmen. That is a heaven! I can't believe that I was originally come from this place.

December 21, 2002 (Saturday)

Today is a church day. I went to church in the morning and helped set up for tomorrow's puppet show. Pastor Loh and I cleaned the Baptismal pool afterward. It hasn't been use since May 2001. It was dirty and dusty. There are quite a number of spiders; the dead cockroach really scares me when I saw it after taking up the plastic carpet. I even picked up a leg of a cockroach! I played ping-pong with Pastor and Victor too; that was quite fun.
I went to Pastor's house for dinner and went with them to Fernando and Menyee's house. They just had a baby girl this Monday. That was the first time I hold a baby that was only five days old. She was weak and fragile! I went to Paco's house to update my homepage and checked email afterward. (sounds like an Internet Cafe to me)

December 20, 2002 (Friday)

I woke up at 4:45am with only 4 hours of sleep. I went downstairs to meet the taxi that was pre booked. I saw one coming and I am pretty sure that this is the one. However, life was not as smooth. Since I don't know my house address (probably because I was in other people's house more than in my house since I moved here), I used Mimia's address. I met the taxi in front of my house and due to the language barrier, I cannot convince the driver that I am the one that ordered taxi. Therefore I have to wake up my friends that booked the taxi for me to help me.
The line up was long in the airport. I spent an hour and then arrived to the custom. The fun began.....
They looked at my resident paper, the one that said that I was here since 1995. They asked me why I don't speak Spanish and why I don't have the ID card. Then they led me to the immigration office. I was not too worry at that time because there were plenty of time at that time. (My flight was at 10:05 and that was 8 at that time). I feared that they would take my cell phone away, but they did not. I immediately called my boss and Pastor Loh for help.
They said that my residential paper is fake and I definitely cannot leave Venezuela today. I felt a bit upset. But I tried to control my emotion. I read a book that I planned to read in the flight. I understand that if I let my mind wonder, then I would feel very homesick and scare about the situation. After all, I was the only person in a separate room and they all speak Spanish. (I remembered read something from the missionaries before coming to Venezuela that speaking English is better). I called my parents and Carmen about my problem in the airport. I am sure that it really scared them (and it should). I also called brothers and sisters here to express my problem. They all expressed serious concern and prayed for me. compare to the response from my boss (he tried to help me but of course not as enthusiast as the Christian. He said that the lawyer is coming but I kept waiting), they are definitely very helpful and comforting. I owe them a lot
Life was at the bottom at around 11:30am. My cell phone battery run out and I did not have my charger with me. (Who would put a charger in the carry on luggage? My two big bags were already checked in). Also, the "chicken talk to duck" (Chinese phase, means that they can not communicate) between the officer and me was worrying. He made hand sign saying that my resident paper was bad and may need to be jail for up to five years. That was really my lowest point. I made my last phone call to Pastor Loh with all my contacts in Vancouver, just in case if I end up in jail, how he should contact my family.
Life changed afterward. One of the officers was nicer enough to lend me his cell phone charger, so I can talk to the rest of the world again. However the lawyer has not yet arrived. I talked to my boss and he said that, as he did previously, that the lawyer was coming. Today is a special mega march day in Venezuela. People know that roads will be blocked. So probably the lawyer was stuck in the traffic.
I got to eat lunch at 2pm. It was a bit late and I was not in the best mood to eat. The lawyer finally arrived at 3pm. They talked for some time in the other room. My boss later told me that all these immigration officers want is money. They asked for $3000 USD! Wow. They took care of that. I asked my lawyer what to do next and then we went home at 4:30.
I went to Mimia's house for dinner. She is a travel agent and knows a lot about these legal issue. I am sure that her info is more accurate then the lawyer the liar. My resident paper is fake. And she mentioned that if the immigration officers put a black mark besides my name, I might not be able to come back to Venezuela. But I should not have any problem going back to Vancouver, may be after detaining in the immigration office for a few hours. I also concerned about my two big checked in luggages. It may be in Vancouver now or it may be still in Venezuela. I have expressed concern to the immigration officers in the beginning but I don't think that he really cares.
I went to Paco house to discuss about what happened to me today and also updated my lengthy diary.

December 19, 2002 (Thursday)

I went to work today and not much happened. Packed up a bit and also booked the flight for tomorrow. I went to Pastor Loh's house for dinner and then I went to Che So's house to pick up my stuff to go home. I went home at 12am because there was a party in Che So house to celebrate two of the Baptist Church youth people Cristina and Keiling's birthday.

December 18, 2002 (Wednesday)

Instead of bothering at Che So's house for the whole day, I went to work. I also talked to my boss about my Vancouver visit. They basically are ok with that. However, they wanted me to take the leave as holiday leave. This is not too fair because I don't have to work anyway. The difference is that I am in Canada but not in Venezuela. (Using the word "fair" actually is not fair. If there is no strike, I have to work. So it is actually fair.) The boss actually like this deal, I guess. It is because I can take the holiday instead of wasting their money to give me salary.
In order to be a responsible man, I went to Semson's house to discuss about the Dec 25 program for the MB church, and also Dec 22 and Jan 5 MB youth programs. Rather than talking about the church thing, we talked about the Venezuela situation. There is very limited gas; the line up is 4 or 5 streets (about 100 cars) long. I have heard that people lined up for several hours for petroleum and when it was almost their turn, they run out of petroleum. Because of this, many people may not be able to church. Semson even doubt that he can go to church on Sunday because his car may not have petroleum. We both agreed that the country is in chaos and something really big will happen soon. My prayer is for the brothers and sisters. I hope that none of them will be affected (for example, not starving because of no food and would not be robbed if there is mob)

December 17, 2002 (Tuesday)

I went to church to play ping-pong for about two hours at church. Since I was in Venezuela, I have not play team sport (except individual exercise) and I treasured it. I also talked to people at church. They supported and even persuaded me to go back to Vancouver. They said that there is no point for me to stay here for the Dec 31 and Dec 25 program. I was struggling myself too. On one hand, I have promised people here to be in charge of the two programs. I also find that life is so unfair because for many Chinese here, they do not have the option of leaving or not. On the other hand though, Carmen's flight is cancelled. And I am really bored (as you can tell from my diary). ¡@I really need to think and pray about that. If I happen to go back to Vancouver, here is the flight info


Dec 20 (Fri)	CO1929 Caracas - Houston 10:05 - 13:20 CO1904 Houston - Vancouver 20:37 - 23:28
Jan 5 (Sun)	CO1911 Vancouver - Houston 08:25 - 14:40 CO1928 Houston - Caracas 15:51 - 22:41

December 16, 2002 (Monday)

It was really frustrating here. The opposition had a new way to protest. They block the intersection of every road in the city so that no one can drive. The opposition are just normal citizens like you and me. There is no danger involve, but definitely make life inconvenient. I walked to work, just to check some email and had some meaningful thing to do, rather than sleeping for the whole day.
I went to Che So's place to stay over. The people here really treat me well. In Vancouver, I always stay at home but in the last several weeks I have visited three different families for stay over already.

December 15, 2002 (Sunday)

I went to Baptist Church in the morning. During the fellowship/Sunday School time (I still don't know what exactly should I call this "supposedly Sunday school time but with fellowship function thing") we played the life game that we will play in Dec 31. It is not easy to describe the game to them. I need to be very careful and descriptive to these people or else it will be a big mess in Dec 31.
We had the meeting for "assigning chairperson and singspiration leader for Sunday Service" afterward. It is good that they gave me a lot of chances to lead. I need to be careful, faithful and with lots of prayer to support this ministry. It is a bit overwhelming at first.
I went to MB Church for the youth fellowship meeting afterward. It is a brief meeting but we were still able to pick the position (president, VP, devotional and secretary) and define the main goal of the coming three months. I went with Chuen, Elisa and Chung for dinner. It was one of the very few times that I went with the youth to eat in restaurant. Of course, I remember those many memories that I had in Vancouver, especially the Friday night "fellowship after fellowship" snack. We talked about fellowship, their love story (I have to wait till Carmen to be here to share mine) and IQ questions.
I went home doing some exercise, practising piano and cleaning up singspiration folders.

December 14, 2002 (Saturday)

Originally there were a prayer meeting in the afternoon and choir practice at night. However, there was a Mega march scheduled today. People from the East, West, South, North march to the highway near Altamira. It reminds me about the Armageddon that will take place in the end times. It is quite frustrating because it is very hard to schedule any program that will take place in the future.
I went to Desca (since I have nothing else to do) to work on the ccbootcamp lab. I have to rewrite the lab to abide to their template format. I always hate to do thing twice.
I went to Paco's home for dinner. We talked about plans and dreams. If his wife can come to Venezuela, he wants to start a Chinese newspaper. There is one currently but is quite bias towards the Chinese government. He wants to have one that is more natural; this is a very good dream! I wish him success.

December 13, 2002 (Friday)

I went to Mrs. Cheng's house with Mrs. Wong to help her install Chinese software. After the installation, the computer (also, Window XP) is stalled. I have no idea why; it reminds me about the terrible time I had with my own laptop. Probably I am not good at computer. (Just to make myself feel better is that her computer had problem previously.) People always thought that since I am a computer engineer (not true! I am a Network Engineer), I must be good at computer. I always have to make clarification. I am not good at computer at all; and I am not good at Local Area Network (e.g. hub, switch, server, ADSL, cable modem). My concentration is on Cisco Wide Area Network (Frame Relay, routing protocol, IPSec all using Cisco gear). Obviously I am not all-rounded. (but even that, I still spent lots of time studying)
I went to MB Church and talked to Pastor Semson about Dec 31 program. I went to work for about 2 hours and went home to have afternoon (evening) nap for an hour.
When I woke up, I look out to the window and saw Che So just arrived. Her kid went to Joe's house to play because there is also a kid there within the same age. Joe is a person that I don't really know; his family lived right across the street, at the same level (9th floor) from my house. I can see his house (if there is no bind) right from my window. I felt so interesting that I woke up look out the window and people invited me to their house to dinner.
During 8:00, people started to make noise by bang their "bow". This has been the way for the last week. This time, there is a large crowd (about 300 people) downstairs with their "bow" and Venezuela flag walking. Even the TV station videotaping them. I was at the 9th floor and had a good view looking at these demonstration.

December 12, 2002 (Thursday)

I went to work for a while and then I went to Mrs. Wong house to stay over. We chatted for quite a while at night. We talked about church politics, church, daily life, my new rented house, Venezuela politics. She mentioned that most houses have some kind of weird sign. This may be that when there is coup and the mob went to rob us, these signs are the signal that which house to rob and which is not. This is very interesting to listen to her imagination. I am so grateful that church people are nice to me and I can live in different people's house.

December 11, 2002 (Wednesday)

I went to work and did quite an amount of work. I photocopied the story time that I will teach in Baptist Church. I also photocopied and assembled the life game passport that we will play in Dec 31. As usual, I went to Che So's house for dinner and other thing. I also talked to my roommate and hoped that they will come to the Dec 31 outreach.

December 10, 2002 (Tuesday)

I started to get use to no work. I went to work to check email for a while. I went to the Baptist Church's Tuesday afternoon meeting. Some of us shared about our love life. I am thankful that I can have some positive impact to these new Christian. Most of them date for many time but for a very short time each time. They envied and amazed to know that Carmen and I dated for 8 years and also our first love. They asked about the secret of our success and I shared about the importance of relying on God and pray with each other. Be positive and wait upon the will of God. I hope that many years from now, people will also ask me the secret of the success of my marriage too!
We made sushi and I took quite a number of photo. This is the first time that I am able to use my digital camera to take cute and funny pictures, the type that I really love to take when I was in Vancouver.
I dined at Che So's house and finished up with the passport of Dec 31.

December 09, 2002 (Monday)

I talked to Mrs. Lam for two or three hours again today. We chatted about the church politics, earning money, working aboard etc. They are leaving tomorrow because the petroleum company is on strike. There may be a risk that air plane would not be able to leave Venezuela because of no petroleum. I surely hope that this strike would end soon or else Carmen cannot come here, and I will be really sad.
After several days of staying at their house, I went home tonight.

December 08, 2002 (Sunday)

I went to church in 8:15 and practice for the singspiration leading. Today is my second time. Last time, Oct 6, I lost my voice. This is the first official time that I can use my voice to lead singspiration. I find that it was pretty good. I want to raise their standard of worship and I am sure that this is coming.
I went to MB church for the compartmental music practice. I taught them to sing "Shout to the Lord" and "Stream of Praises" in male and female voice. This is challenging and I am sure that this is one of the very first time among the Chinese church in Caracas to have a formal choir singing with different parts. I went to Pastor Semson's house to discuss about Dec 25 program. I suggested to use the Fraser land church's idea, where a dad or a mom sit in front of the fireplace and talk about Christmas thing.

December 07, 2002 (Saturday)

There are several things planned for today (e.g. eating dinner with Lam's and Wong's family, choir practice) but were cancelled because of the unstable situation. I had some time to have afternoon nap. Also, since I am staying in the Lam's family, I found that I talked to them a lot in these two days (2 or even 3 hours a day?). Topic ranging from their family/relatives, their previous working experience in different places to Belgium chocolate tastes good and my honeymoon destination.
After the dangerous incident of yesterday, I really want to let my family and Carmen know that I am doing ok. I am so glad that I can talk to them today. It is really inconvenient to be without a phone card. However, all the shops are closed for this week. I have to wait till the end of the strike before I can get a phone card.

December 06, 2002 (Friday)

Today is my talking day, which I spent about 7 hours talking. In the morning, I talked to Mrs. Lam about the culture difference between Canada (she is Ricky's wife and is from Toronto) and the difference between the two generations. We also chatted about the rich Chinese which spoil their children with materialistic. It does not matter how much we have but it matters how much we are. It is another good reminder for myself.
I went to Paco's home for dinner. And then I chatted with his younger brother, who is two months younger than I am and his brother's wife, who is a month younger than Carmen. They were not believers and I tried to be as objective as possible to show the benefit of Christianity and its difference from Buddhists.
I was talking on the phone with Pastor Semson about the MB church fellowship when I was walking back to Ricky's house. When I arrived there, I was told that there were guns fired at Plaza Altamira. This place is very close to my office and is the gathering place for the opposition party. I have expressed feeling that these people were like having a party when they were demonstrating before. Then there were gunmen and killed several of them and injured about 30. That was really scary because the government used this dirty method to destroy these opposition. At night, I talked about these and prayed with the Lam's couple about these people.
I prepared for the ccbootcamp Security CCIE again at night. Life after passing the CCIE is a bit dull and boring. However, in the last two or three days, I can work on that again (to create a lab and sell to ccbootcamp) so my life is more "fruitful".

December 05, 2002 (Thursday)

I went to "Che So" house to finish up with the promotion flyers of Dec 31. Ricky invited me to their house to live for a few days because of the political instability (actually it is not bad at all, as long as I stay at home or at work). That is cool because their house is a very nice house. I got my own room! Also, I borrowed a laptop from Megan so that I can use Internet at here too!
After dinner, we had some chat about church and Venezuela politics. And then we chose songs for this Sunday's singspiration. I prepared ccbootcamp security CCIE lab too!

December 04, 2002 (Wednesday)

Life is getting a little bit boring. Today is the third day to go on strike and I have no work again. I spent some times working on the ccbootcamp Security CCIE lab (I will make some lab for other people to use) and I felt sleepy. I went home to have afternoon nap. I found that lately I slept a lot, average to about 9.5 hours.
I read a book named "Developing the leader within you". This is an interesting book and shared it from a perspective of a company management. It may be a preparation step for me studying MBA. I dinner at Paco's house with other church people and had Spanish class at night.

December 03, 2002 (Tuesday)

Today is the second strike day. There was no work but I went to work to check email and update my diary anyway. After lunch, I went to church, or else I do not have anywhere to go to. There was the usual Tuesday church meeting for Chinese youth, which I can never attend because I have to go to work at that time. However, there were very few people today. It is probably because the street is dangerous. (Actually, it is only partially true. There were demonstrations and strikes near the down town area. There was tear gas and police and military were there too. However, other than that, the streets were very quiet. If you avoid that area and do not watch the news, there is absolutely no way to distinguish today with a Sunday)
We went to Pastor Loh's house to eat dinner at night. He gave us red wine to drink. It is one of the few times that I drink beer or wine, and definitely is the first time that I see a pastor drink wine. (There is nothing wrong with drinking wine, as long as it is not damaging the health nor drunk or drink-and-drive)

December 02, 2002 (Monday)

Today is the fourth time in Venezuela for a national strike against the government. We do not have to work but yet we do get the salary. It is good from the employee side. However, if it lasts for longer time, the employer may start to lay off.
There was no food in my new rented room. I went to "Che So" house for lunch. And then Paco came and we discussed and designed the promotion flyer for the Dec 31 program. I went to Paco's house to have dinner with his family. I have not enjoyed life this way for a long time. It is really relaxing, but not productive either.

December 01, 2002 (Sunday)

The Saturday night Choir had the first performance today, with the song "Shout to the Lord" (in Chinese). They had no music background and I spent a longer time to teach them this song. I find that the music background in these two churches is lower than my Vancouver's VCAC and FCGC church. I have to spend a longer time to teach them sing a song, and the rhythm is not even correct!
We had Baptist Church fellowship and then meeting for the Tuesday night outreach. I was still the chairperson. My position in this church is that I am THE core person (in terms of the Chinese youth ministry) and they really listen, obey and respect every word I said (I have much authority, which means that I have to be careful about what suggestion I came up with and what I said).
I went to MB church at night and hosted the fellowship there. We played a "scaled down" version of "life game" (which the Baptist church will play in Dec 31). There were energetic and like this game. I advertised that there would be a full-scale version of this game in Dec 31 in Baptist Church. This was quite dangerous for me to say in MB church because there is some church politic here. However they just elect new deacon so I believe that the situation would be brighter. The MB fellowship elected the committee for next year too. I was appointed (not elected) by the deacon to be the "attendee". This is a position like advisor, but does not require me to be a member of this church. After three months of hard work, I can slowly shift and offload the work to these four committee members.
I played piano at night, first time since I moved to this new house. Carmen also phoned me late at night (3:00am) and it was always good to hear her voice (of course it is very good to hear my family's voice too!)