Homeschool

Ever since I was a young girl I always loved to learn independently. I was the kid who would come home from school disappointed because I had no homework, so I would make it up. Weird, I know. I would create my own projects, write my own books, and challenge myself anytime I could. I loved learning and I think a lot of that came from the long line of ancestors on my mother's side who were teachers. I believe my great great grandfather was the first teacher in all of Upper Canada.

When I hit grade 8, I had heard about someone who did homeschool. It seemed like the coolest thing I had ever heard! What? They can decide what and how they wanted to learn? Heaven. I proposed to my mother that I wanted to do it too. I don't recall her initial response, but she knew me, and realized I would flourish if I had the opportunity to explore and learn independently. It was a bold move on her part but she supported me every step of the way. I love her for making that choice.

We encountered a lot of opposition and many people made judgements because homeschool was not really a known practice where I lived, but my mother persevered and she made the call to pull me partially out of school. We found one high school in our city that would allow me to attend science and math classes and the rest I learned at home.

On top of the regular readings of Shakespeare, calculus, and social studies, I was able to travel and experience so many other cultures and people. My parents first sent me north to live with an Ojibway family in Moosoonee, Ontario. I could only go there by a small, one propeller plane and I remember the lake was frozen over most of the year so they made a highway out of it. I learned to soapstone carve, snowmobile in the middle of no where, and I volunteered at a disabled facility, among many other activities.

At the Moosonee Community Living Center

My parents also made me attend an Amish school where I met one of my very good friends who became my pen pal for many, many years. I remember wearing a Laura Ashley dress to the school and feeling so out of place because I looked so modern. It was a one room school house and the students there were so welcoming and nice.

During my homeschool years, I visited a private school, worked in a fabric store, participated in an exchange with a girl from Calgary, shadowed an actor at the Stratford Shakespearian Festival, and lived in Israel for a couple of months where I consequently met my husband who was studying Arabic at the Jerusalem Center. My parents afforded me with so many incredible experiences and for that, I am forever grateful. They must have been inspired because it was all in preparation for what I was about to experience after I married Axel. It made me open to many other cultures and people and I also realized that learning is a lifelong endeavour.

The orphanage that Axel and I both volunteered at in Jerusalem

Spending my time wisely.

Charity Masters and Amber Allred overlooking the old city

Mom and I at Mosada

In Waterton, Alberta with Kathy, my exchange student

Consequently, I have always been active in teaching my children ever since Heavah was tiny. I loved to watch her learn and grow and understand the world around her. However, I must admit that when she enrolled in the all girls school in Dubai, I became a little lazy. She had two excellent teachers and they really taught her well.

It wasn't until I came to Nepal that I realized I needed to get back on track and play an active role in my children's education. The philosophy of the school Heavah and Xavier attend don't really jive with mine. Heavah would have moved up to grade 1 but because of their 'age policy' Heavah had to move back to Kindergarten. This frustrated me because she is reading at a 3rd grade level and has excellent math skills. Xavier has also been reading for over a year now and has been doing very well in all the maths and writing. He was put in 'preschool' this year. It has annoyed me but also motivated me to keep my children challenged and growing.

I decided the best way I could do this is to devote an entire room in our home to teaching and learning. I created a curriculum, Heavah (grade one), Xavier (kindergarten) and we have a very nice routine. Everyday the kids come home they asks, "Can we do homeschool now?" They both have such a love for learning.

Once a week we have a presentation day. The children look up information about whatever subject they are interested in. One week it was penguins for Heavah, and deserts for Xavier. This past week Heavah did a project on birds and Xavier on electricity (it is a hot topic in our home these days). They each have to find out 3 interesting facts about their subject and then they must make some visuals. In the evening, when Axel is home, the kids make their presentation. For that time, they are the expert and they are given questions at the end of the presentation.

The children have daily journals, and they learn about money, time, social studies, science, etc. I then have alone time with each one and they read books to me. The best is when we have a guest speaker--dad. They love it when Axel teaches them about anything. He usually teaches them about science and they do a little experiment.

The main point of homeschool for us is to show that our house is always a house of learning. I try to make it as fun as possible and they are always eager. I haven't made the final plunge of taking them completely out of school because I am fearful of the social aspect. They don't have neighbourhood friends and very few friends at church. It is the only place they really get a chance to see other children their age. The school is more focused on the social aspects of the child than academic anyways. So, it has been necessary for me to send them to school so they can play with friends, and supplement their education at home.

Heavah's bird visual

Xavier showing the flow of an electrical current

Xavier's desert diorama

Explaining to dad what they did for the day

The 'classroom'

The 'Reading Corner'

Dad explaining how to age a tree

Heavah showing her graph

Bob our friendly classmate

Nothing has brought me more joy than to experience something new with my kids. We are a family that is linked strongly together because all we have is each other. I intend on continuing this process with my kids for many years to come. It is comforting to know that wherever we end up in the world, we will always have instruction and fun learning at home.

Cal and Ace - 16 years today

Asa making up stories for Cal to a picture I drew on my mission and sent to them

This is Axel again. The main reason Terah started this blog (and I support all the time she puts into it) is that it is the best way to keep a journal of what goes on in our lives for our children. Later on we will make a book of all of this so they can document their lives when they were young.

Today, September 24th is the 16th anniversary of the death of two of my brother's James Asa (Ace) and Stephen Calder (Cal) I thought I would write a long one with pictures. I have three great siblings still living, Anna, Jake and Jane. We have a blast every time we get together and they have all done so well for themselves in all aspects of their lives; spiritually (all very strong in their wards), picking awesome spouses (we have all married up), all great parents (I forget how many kids we all have together, and honestly they are ALL awesome!) and financially. I am really proud of them, but this blog is about my other two brothers.

JAMES ASA

Haha making a scary face. Probably of Godzilla

We used to call him Haha because when he was a toddler he couldn't say Asa and called himself Haha. Sedona has the same problem with my son Asa and calls him Sheesha. But Haha was probably the most accurate name he could have given himself. Asa made everyone in our family laugh from the moment he was born. He had a big round head, shock ice blue eyes and white hair. He would follow Jake and I around like a puppy and make us laugh all the time. He was always up for any game and even before he knew how to talk he was playing guns with us.

He loved to be tickled. And I would go to town on him. We called it getting beats, and daily I would wrestle him to the ground and make sure that every tickle spot on his body received a good thrashing. I remember when I went to Montana to work on a cattle ranch he learned how to write and sent me a letter saying 'I am dying because I need beats'.

Asa visiting Anna out in Utah. Smiling like always

It helped that he had some hero worship for Jake and I. I was never popular, or for that matter had any friends until the last two years in High School when I met Dave Alizo. Until that time my family was where I got all my self respect and friendship and Asa was a never ending fountain generating friendship and creating self respect as I saw myself through his eyes.

He was fat from the time he was a kid and he just got fatter. He had the same body type I did. I got fat too but joined wrestling and lost it. He didn't like to do much physical activity, so he stayed pretty fat. And he never cared. He would use his glorious (or tender fatness as he called it) to make everyone laugh. When I would tickle him he would scream 'Ax not my tender fatness!' . Later on he joined the ELHS swim team so he could be closer to Jake. I think The guy came in dead last every time and I can only imagine his horror at having to take a shower with all the other guys, but he never let it stop him. He wanted to be close to his brother and everything else just wasn't important.

I do remember one time when we were on one of our cross country trips in the suburban to Utah when he was in the back crying under some covers. I climbed under the covers and asked him why he was sad and he said because he was small and kind of fat. I told him that I looked up to him because what was important he had and did. He was kind, smart and made people laugh and he was comfortable with who he was. He was a great example to me. He gave me a hug and honestly I never heard him complain about that again.

The burban. Just before a trip. Nothing better than leaving on a trip with the family to Utah. Hunting, and family time.

He was a gifted hunter. Our whole family hunted. Every year we would get about four or five deer, and Asa always filled his tag and most of ours too. He had an amazing connection with nature and seemed to intrinsically know where to sit to wait for the deer. And unlike my dad, Jake and I, he had the patience to sit as long as it took until a deer came by. And he was death with a gun. He used a .270 and killed everything he saw. In our family hunting was very important and Asa could do all of it. I remember one time he had already killed his deer and the three of us were walking back through the forest to get the car. A pair of deer jumped up leaving Jake and I a bit stunned. Not Asa. The kid raised his gun up and while walking forward put three rounds into it. I had the killing shot, so he said 'Ax, this is your deer, you killed it'. Happily I dragged it, gutted it and skinned it. Upon completing all the work, he announced to everyone it was too bad I killed no deer that year and he killed two, because everyone knew the hunter to hit it first was the one who got to count it. And he was right...

Asa in High School. You can't see it but he had Ice Blue eyes. The best in our family.

When I was in high school I debated because I like to argue and I had no qualms about making up evidence cards in the middle of the debate to win. Asa also joined debate but didn't cheat to win like I did. On the contrary, he used his brain to win. Everyone in the family knew that he was the smartest one. It was a fact we all were kind of proud of knowing what order of smartness we fell in. Asa was number one and we all knew it and talked about it as a fact. Anna came in second and I won't tell you where I fell. The year he died his partner he mentored won the whole State of Michigan debating finals and there is still a scholarship fund at ELHS in his name he was so good. Had he wanted to be a lawyer he would have been the best.

The family came first. I remember one time when I was coming back from my paper route and we were downtown after collecting .10 cent bottles and cans. We were right outside 7-11 and both Jake and Asa did something to piss me off so I started beating them both right there on the street. All of the sudden a college aged kid came running up and grabbed me from the back of my neck to pull me off. Both Asa and Jake immediately bounced up off the dirt and jumped on this 25 year old kicking, biting and hitting yelling 'LET GO OF MY BROTHER!!!'. The guy dropped me and ran away scared out of his wits. We all walked away and talked about how you didn't mess with the Bromley boys.

Then there was the time that a kid at school called our sister Jane a bad name. Jake and Asa went over to the kids house after school. They rang the door and his mom came to the door. They both asked his mom if this kid could out to play. She said sure and went back inside yelling to the kid that his friends were there to play with him. When he came to the door they both grabbed him, dragged him outside and kicked his butt and then ran away before his mom knew what happened. You didn't mess with a Bromley and get away with it.

He always won all the games we played. In my family it wasn't a problem to swear or cheat, but it was if you did so incorrectly. Asa was a perfect cheater at any game. He used to go next door and play Risk with his friend and his father a lot. He always won. Later the man (Marc Spieser - one of the best neighbours you could want) told us after losing 'Risk' to Asa for many months he finally caught him sneaking armies between his fingers and dropping them in countries he needed. We all laughed and scolded him for finally getting caught.

He got this crazy idea to become a scout. You have to know in my family scouting was a joke. Why would someone go camping if there was no hunting involved? All a tedious waste of time in our minds. But Asa had a great mentor, an old bishop (Neil) who took him under his wing and made sure Asa got his Eagle scout. When I went to his ceremony I have to say, I was really proud he could stick to something all the way through.

He was my friend. We could talk, read comic books together, go fishing, hunting, looking for snakes, make guns in our wood shop, or just do my paper route together. He was a great younger brother to me, Anna and Jake and an even better older brother to Jane and Cal. I was always proud to be his brother.

STEPHEN CALDER (CAL)

Showing off his strong muscles

When Asa was born my mom had an emergency C-section that almost killed her. I remember being in the hospital and my dad telling Me, Anna and Jake mommy might not live. She did, and the first thing my dad said to her was no more kids. To which she replied that as she came out of it she saw a vision of a grown beautiful woman and man holding hands and she knew she was to have one more daughter and one more son. Jane and Cal were born a few years later.

Cal was the most loved kid in the family by everyone. I am sure everyone with lots of kids have stories about the last kid being spoiled and everyone loving them, and with Cal it was no different for us. But he himself was different. He was a always a General Authority spirit stuck in a little boy's body and he and I had a special connection.

I remember when my mom's mom died she took Anna and Cal to the funeral. He was about 6 months old and it was the first time we were apart. My mom called and said that Cal was crying and sick all the time there and she was worried enough to come home early. As soon as she got off the plane with him, the little sick guy jumped out of her arms and into mine and went to sleep immediately. I held him the whole way home and my mom said it was the first time during the whole trip he slept.

He also made us laugh all the time. He would jump around, say funny things or make fun of us and we all loved it. I remembered once I was chasing him around the house and he ran into Jane and Anna's room. He was about in 1 grade and I was telling him how I was going to beat him good. A few minutes later a piece of paper was pushed under the door with the words 'U SAK'. I laughed so hard he got away and from then on our family said that to each other rather than 'you suck'.

In our family TV was a big no no as my Dad hated it and said it was a waste of time. We could only watch two shows a week and we would sneak TV anytime we could. For several years we didn't have one, and we had to rely on Jake who was the best trash picker, to get us one. He found one with picture and no sound, but back then one of the three channels on TV came in on the radio so we would watch whatever was good while listening to the only one we could get sound for. Until Cal's 7th Christmas. We all got one big present and the one FROM MY DAD was his OWN TV!!! And honestly we were all fine with that because if one person should get whatever they wanted it was Cal.

Watching Cal's Coat of Many Colors, or TV. Same thing....

Unlike Asa he wasn't a great hunter. When I was at BYU Cal came to stay with me and Anna for a few weeks. I took him out hunting jack rabbits which was something I dreamt about as a kid and was going out to Manti to see my mom's parents and hunting was the highlight of my year. So I took him hunting and was using this .22/20 guage over and under. I let him shoot the .22 a few times to get used to the gun and when I found a rabbit hiding in the bushes I switched it to the shotgun. He blasted it and I gave him high fives and told him what a great hunter he was. To which he looked at the dead rabbit and then to me and asked, 'Ax, why did we do that?' It was an innocent question, one that no Bromley should ever ask. And I didn't have an answer. I said I really didn't know, and perhaps we should just go to a movie. Honestly I have still hunted since then, but not with the same zeal I did before he opened my eyes.

Cal visiting me at BYU. Check out the cool 'fro. Yep, I am THAT cool.

He was extremely spiritual even at a young age. I remember at a baptism he said the opening prayer. Most kids say the same things again and again, but not Cal. When he prayed he really talked to God. I honestly opened my eyes to see who he was talking to and the Stake President came up to our family and said that kid is special. Keep an eye on him. And he was right.

My brothers died in a car accident coming back from hunting with my dad in Wyoming September 21st 1992. They were sleeping in the back of our Suburban as we all did going across country before seatbelts were thought as good ideas. The car rolled several times and they both Asa and Calder were thrown out of the car and killed instantly. My dad had a closed head injury and couldn't talk, eat or move for many months after. It was a horrible time and my poor dad and his lack of memory had to find out for the 'first' time again and again that his two favorite sons had been killed and we had to live it over and over again with him.

The morning we found out my mom, Jake, Jane and I were at home. Anna was in Utah with her husband Keith and we all had no clue what to do next. Our dad was in a hospital not known if he would live or die and the best two kids in our family were dead.

I felt their presence around us during those trying first months.

Their funeral was a slow process waiting for my dad to come back which didn't happen. It was amazing to see how many people turned out for the services. I will bet it was between 500 and 700 people, many of whom flew back from all around the country.

The other thing that came from this was my deep appreciating for Life Insurance. In the very hour our family could have been destroyed emotionally and financially, we were saved by excellent insurance on both my bothers and my father. We had enough money from the claims so that I didn't have to work again during my college years. Without insurance I might have wound up working for a labor job. I am so glad my dad had the foresight to prepare for the worst. I now work in Life Insurance and everytime I talk to the agents I tell them I KNOW how important the job they are doing is. My life is a result of having this kind of coverage.

I miss these guy so much. Cal would be 25 and Asa is the same age as Terah, so would be 32/33. I know they would have been marvelous guys down here and that they are up there.

It seems strange that they died 16 years ago. It was so long yet it really does seem like yesterday. The ache is mostly gone, and the whole process showed me why my mom made me go to church. In the end, when the chips were down, knowing about the afterlife was the best defence I ever had against total despair. I know they are fine, but I can't wait until I am with them again.

Oriental Boys

The four of us: Bate, Miller, Lay and me; Brom

This is Axel again. This is getting to be a habit! I just got a post from my good friend and old mission comp, Paul Miller and I realized that we are just passing our 20^th year anniversary of going into the MTC. I was called to the Washington, DC South Mission, Vietnamese speaking. I thought I would write a post about the three guys I served my mission with. It will be long, so you are forewarned. My friends' names are Buddy Joe Bate, Jeff Lay and Paul Miller. I am going to talk about them in alphabetical order because there is no other way to sort them, but before I do I also want to mention Mike Morgan, our MTC teacher.

Mike Morgan (Anh Khai)

We had three teachers and only one was funny and actually had a testimony. It was Mike. He always taught us the best lessons and always gave us the truth about what the mission would be like.

I remember during my time at the MTC I was having a hard time because honestly I didn’t know if the church even was true. I questioned why I was there when times were tough. I remember Mike taking some time just for me and reading through my Patriarchal Blessing and pointing out that the best part about it was that I would find out that Jesus Christ was my Savior and that I would know that the teachings were true. I had never read it in that light before and it gave me hope. And he was right. That has been the cornerstone to my life since then.

After the mission Mike was always there for any of us four. He was always good to us and he even sold me the wedding ring on Terah’s finger at a great deal. I still keep in contact with him to this day. Unfortunately I still haven't dug out all our old pictures from the last move so I don't have a picture of him.

Buddy Joe Bate (Anh Tung)

Bate, Bill (a member) and me

Bate was is the MTC with me and he was companions of Jeff Lay. Jeff and Bud got along really well from day one. His Vietnamese name was Tung but mostly we just called him Bate.

Bate was hilarious. He ALWAYS had some funny way of commenting on what was happening in our lives out there. I don’t know where he got his gift of putting people at ease, but he had it. The members loved him and the missionaries all wanted to be companions with him. Being a missionary is lots of things, but between the highs and lows, it is mostly just boring. Tracking, visiting people, doing meetings. Like I say it is mostly just boring. So having someone like Bate as a comp was a real treat. You were always guaranteed a laugh and you knew your time with him was going to be easy.. You also knew that all the members would want to see you and that it would be easy to get referrals out of them to teach people. And that made those two or three months we were companions together breeze by.

Jeff, Buddy Joe and me at the 4th celebration. Paul is probably taking the picture

While the four of us were out there, we decided to make a video kind of making fun of what it was like to be a missionary and especially an missionary working with the refugees. I wish you could see the finished product. It was hilarious, and most of the best parts came from seeing Bate do crazy things.

When we got back from our missions he married a girl who was one of the really strong members out there who always had something nice to say to us missionaries. Kelly and Bud made a great couple then and still do 20 years later. During college Jeff and I got to see him a lot, though not as much as we would have liked. Still to this date I get emails from him and when we get a house in Utah, Bate will be the only guy I trust to give me good information on where and how to buy.

Jeff Lay (Anh Tri)

Me and Jeff with some kids. Jeff is shooting our movie.

The funny thing about Jeff and I was we were never companions. I think everyone of us four were, but Lay and I never were. But even though we were never companions we always talked on Pdays and throughout the week. He was always an easy guy to talk to and I could always trust he would listen and give me great advice. He was also well loved by the members out there and had some really stellar baptisms out there because he was so good with them. The kids adored him and he would use that to our advantage. All the little tykes would run up to him at the playgrounds and he would spend a lot of time with them playing. He was also the tech guy who did all the editing of our moving, Oriental Boys and made it turn out so well.

Jeff, me and Paul hunting bunnies after the mission in Utah

After our mission Jeff and I made up for never being companions. We moved in together at BYU and basically not only were roomies, but became best friends. We pretty much hung out 24:7 and as we like all the same things whatever he wanted to do always sounded like a great idea to me and vice versa. He took me up to Montana and got me introduced to hunting elk with bows. It was always the highlight of my year to go up there and hunt. Honestly the hunting was just the frosting on the cake. The best part was hanging out with his awesome family who always made me feel like one of the family. It was a real refuge from school to go there and get pampered by his mom, or go out with his dad and brothers to hunt. I became good friends with Jeff’s brother Ryan who was also at BYU and with Kenny and Russy as well.

We cruised girls together too. It is always easy to go after the fairer sex when you are doing so with a best friend because you can compliment each other. I must admit we even dated a few of the same girls and it should come as no surprise. If you liked one of us, you probably were going to get along great with the other.

When I went away to Jerusalem Jeff met an awesome girl named Celina and they got married. I went to their wedding and was best man. I honestly was pretty stunned he got her to marry him. I mean, I love the guy, but he really married up. They have a beautiful daughter named Ester who is way too smart for her age.

During my courting of Terah I spent many a night at Jeff’s house bleeding about how much I wanted to marry Terah and both of them just listened and calming me down so I didn’t propose on the second date. They were there with me when Terah went on her mission and of course there when I got married. One of the biggest downsides to me living overseas is I can’t hang out with Jeff. I don’t make friends easily and when I do, I have them for life regardless of the time span in between when I see them.

Paul Miller (Anh Truong)

The thing about Paul is he is always so serious....

Paul was my first companion in the MTC and we were paired up with another Vietnamese guy I totally forget his name. Paul was the DL and his Vietnamese was the best in the group.

When we got to the field my friendship with Paul continued to grow. We would talk about our new companions and about the members and having lived together for two months we knew each other better than anyone else out there.

Our missions progressed and after we had become more of the 'older' missionaries we were put back together as companions. We were comps for four more months in the field. That meant that over ¼ of my mission I was companions with him. And it was great. I can honestly say there aren’t many people out there who know me better or who I know better than Paul for all the time we spent together.

Miller and Bate making food at a member party

It was great to go around teaching with him and I actually have him to thank for my pursuit of other languages. You see, by then his Vietnamese was so good I really felt like if we were with a Vietnamese family he really should do all the talking so at least they could understand us. So I started learning Cambodian just so I could have my own domain. I am not sure how well I did, but it got me thinking that learning languages on my own was possible. .

After our missions we kept in contact and he eventually came back to Washington DC to work and wound up marrying a girl all of us missionaries loved; Vandy. Vandy came from a very strong member family, had about 10 cousins we would always play with and I was so happy to hear my friend had married such a great girl and that Vandy had married such a great husband. It was win win. One of my biggest regrets in life was I didn't have the cash to make it to their wedding.

Because Paul and Vandy lived in AZ, I didn’t get a chance to see him much, but then Terah and I went to Croatia. After Croatia I had heard about Thunderbird in AZ before, but I had no way to ever make it there to start the school. But I knew I had an ace in the hole, and that was Paul and Vandy.

I called him up and he insisted that Terah and I come live with him and his family. I really had no money or options so his offer really saved us. Paul and Vandy made us feel totally at ease living in their home. He showed me around, took time off work to get me up to speed in the city and he even had his mom loan us one of her cars until we bought one. When we finally bought a house, Jeff and Celina picked up our few bits of furniture from my mom's house in Utah, and brought it all the way down to AZ and Paul helped us move in.

Terah and I both finished into grad schools (Terah got her Masters in Communications and I got an MBA from ASU and I also got an MIM from Thunderbird) and we spent many more days and nights hanging out with the Millers. We left when I got a job with ALICO. None of it would have been possible had not Paul and Vandy helped us out when we needed it. There are those times in your life you don’t know what to do, and luckily I had Paul there to offer a hand to help me out of a tough situation. I will never forget that.

I loved my mission and I hope you can see the biggest reasons why. I was really blessed to have rock solid guys who were always there for me, listened to me when I needed to complain, put up with me when I got in a bad mood and always set a great example for me both during and after our missions.

20 years have flown by. We are all balder, fatter and I don’t think playing hoops again on P-day will ever happen again. But I know the love we have for each other is still as bright and strong as it was back when Milli Vanilli were still cool and there was no such thing as the Internet.

There are those people you know that when you die you will make sure your heavenly house is one the same street as theirs. I know we will be kicking back listening to Bate crack jokes, Paul talk about our time in AZ and Jeff and I tell stories about college and Mike laughing along with us all. I don’t want much more out of heaven than being with my wife, kids, family and these guys.

Car Puja

Today, our driver Devendra did a Bisu Karma puja (don't fault me if this is spelled wrong. No one can tell me how to spell this in English). Apparently, it is a sacred ritual offering to the god who-helps-the-cars-run-well . One of the cars is a Kia so it can use all the help it can get.

Our 16 passenger van. It is the only van we could get in Nepal that had seat belts. I feel a little guilty when we drive pass buses that look like this. I also feel bad when people try to wave our 'bus' down so they can get a ride.

The offering

A little sprinkle of rice for eating (which was later eaten by our chickens).

The 4 wheel-drive Kia receives a special offering for the engine.

Gosh knows the tires need all the help they can get because of the pothole roads here

Axel said the god didn't do so well when his motorbike kept stalling today when idle. Maybe Devendra should have given him more rice?

A Voice Crying from the Wilderness

This is Axel again.  I have heard a few questions asking how we are being affected by what is happening with AIG.  I can tell you what I know:

1.  AIG is a huge parent company.  By itself it doesn't sell anything.  It is just a holding company.

2.  There are three main divisions.  Life Insurance, General Insurance and Financial Services.  There are something like 2000 companies in these three divisions.

3.  All of these credit default issues are happening in the Financial Services side.  NOT the Life Insurance side.  Hence the Government loan which means AIG doesn't have to touch the money from the insurance companies to make good on the Financial Services side.

4.  Under the Life companies, we have three major ones; AIA which is in Asia, American General in the US and Canada and ALICO (mine) in Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Japan. 

5.  ALL of our life companies are registered as separate companies in their countries where they do business.  ALICO Nepal, where I am the General Manager, is its own company which not only meets all of our regulatory requirements, we are also the number one Life Insurance company in Nepal.  I have been meeting with my staff (about 150), agents (about 4000) and Nepali government divisions and all seems well in their minds.

6.  Not too many people here have made any connection that ALICO is AIG, so we don't really anticipate any panic issues with that.

7  The new AIG CEO is from a life insurance background, which is only good for us.  He understands what we need, how we work and it is seen as a great move within our division.

8.  IF we get split off or sold, I don't think that would be the end of the world for the company or my job by default.  ALICO is making lots of money, has an excellent name in the markets we work in and regardless of where we wind up, it isn't going to change our day to day operations which are to serve our customers and find new ones.  I just had my Regional President come visit me and I feel he was mostly satisfied with what I am doing and gave me some great ideas on how we can get more business in other ways, which we are doing. 

9.  Was I worried?  Definitely.  Not just for AIG but for the world.  Had AIG gone under I think we would have seen huge panic and even more financial problems the world over.  We are all connected now.  Problems in one area will affect other areas quicker and with more impact than ever before.   That is good and bad and we are seeing the downside of that now.

10.  One crying from the wilderness.  Through all this I kept remembering  a scripture from our Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 4:34.  It talks about not putting trust in the arm of flesh.  I honestly think all of these issues are God's wake up call to stop putting all our faith in money, systems, governments etc.  That in the end nothing can save mankind but doing good deeds to each other, being honest, identifying mistakes, owning up to them and changing for the better.  While I think the world's financial situations will recover for this for a time, I hope the 'voice calling from the wilderness' isn't unheard.   I am glad we are living in Nepal where nothing seems to work.  It has been a good teacher that electricity, gas, and even getting food is not something that is a sure bet. 

If AIG can fail, anything can fail.  Reliance on anything other than God is misplaced trust in my opinion.  Reliance on God will give a sense of security that no document written in ink could ever produce.  

So in short, as of today, I am not losing my job and we are working hard here as business as usual.  But I heard the voice loud and clear and hope others did too.

Tappy-Tap-Tappers

This is Axel again. About a month and a half ago Terah and I were out on a date and we stopped by this wood carving store. It is something I have always wanted to learn, as my dad used to do it and he claimed his grandfather used to do it as well back when he was a kid living in SLC during WWII. It always seemed too hard for me.

But talking to this guy I decided what the heck and asked him if he could teach me. He agreed, and we set up some time to do it at night.

Om, My Mr. Miyagi

I did that with him for about three weeks and finally gave up. It was too hard to get away at night (something always made me stay late at work the nights we agreed I would come), he wanted me to sit on the floor like they do and it was always in bad light.

When Asa got sick and we took him to the scary clinic, across the road as we were waiting I met Manish at another woodcarving shop. His work was really good and after talking him up a bit, I asked him if he could come to my house in the morning to teach me. He agreed and he now comes three times a week for an hour a time and gets a whopping 4.50 an hour for doing so.

I can't tell you how great it is to do it in the light, in the morning (he comes at 7 and is gone by 8) and we sit in a chair. The chisels they use here are just strips of metal beat out into different shapes. 21 of them cost me 30 bucks. Terah made the really sweet carrying thing for them.

Manish teaching me how to do it.

Whenever I work on something and show it to him he always says 'Hmmm, this is a little bit good' and proceeds to clean it up. I get ticked off when my Nepali staff just tell me what they think I want to hear, but somehow with Manish I don't mind it. I am working to hear him drop the 'a little bit'.

You can see my new Lady Amherst pheasant in the background.

My first picture frame I worked on. This leaf is something very Nepali. They say if you can make the leaf and the flower you can make anything.

My first big project. It is a Tibetan Buddhist design. It was a real pain to get all that wood out but very fun.

How the frame will look when it is done.

Just something I tried out. I want to do a bamboo picture like the leaves here. The flower was something different too.

My first dragon head and a few flowers.

A flower design I wasn't too passionate about, but it taught me some good techniques.

Another design for a picture frame I want to do. It is much harder than the flowers but pretty cool looking.

I always say wherever you go and wherever you live there is going to be something uniquely cool about it and uniquely awful about it. Wood carving is something Nepalis know. While I want to learn their style, I really wanted to do some Celtic carvings. So I made this dragon design:

I ultimately want to make a four post bed for Terah and I. But in addition there are some other great Nepali things they carve I also want to learn. More to come.