A Year in the Dominican Republic

About 14 months ago, I was sitting in large, fairly-newly renovated, dark, nearly empty cafeteria of a mini mall about ten minutes walk from where I lived in Changning, Shanghai, China. I was aware that it was already five years that I had been in China, my work contract for the Elementary School I taught at was soon up, and I was wanting a change. Before this day, I was considering moving to another part of Shanghai, or maybe another city in the same country.

I can't remember if I actually ate dinner in that cafeteria that evening, but I do remember sitting there and reading the article linked to below on a PDF version of the Watchtower on my iPad. This was when the idea of moving to a Latin-American country first popped into my head. 

Click here to read the article that I read. If you want to get motivated to live abroad and haven't read it yet, I recommend you do. 

I tossed around the idea of Ecuador, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, but ultimately, it was the Dominican Republic plans that flowed out and progressed most smoothly. My initial plan was for a short visit, but ultimately the plan became a full year. 

Now, after a year in the Dominican Republic and a recent trip to America, I know that DR is where I want to be not only for the next year, but also for the years to come if circumstances permit.

My life here is less of an experiment (with China remaining my base) and more and more like my new home, my new 'base.'

I'm getting more comfortable with Spanish and am useful in the congregation here because of being able to help the Chinese language learners, and even being used as a regular for interpretation of talks from Spanish to Chinese. 

There were many great memories from this past year, but I'll just post a few service related pictures here from the last year here. 

The photos are posted more or less in chronological order.

Anyolina cracks some nuts on the street to share with the service group on a day during my first few weeks of service in Fall of 2012.

Before we were a congregation, the El Ejido Chinese Group crammed into the back school to study the Bearing Thorough Witness book. Sometimes it was so crowded, that members would have to stand outside and comment through the windows of the back school (not joking).

A shot of the Chinese group and visitors making more and more clear the point that we had outgrown the tiny back school room at El Ejido.

Kazu and I enjoying real Chinese food at a return visit's home.

Alan studying his Watchtower before meeting. Alan has discontinued studying for several months now, but hopefully he'll start again! :)

Days after the announcement that we will become the second ever Chinese Congregation in the country, the printout of the biblical year text arrives for placement at our new home, the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses on Avenida Imber.

On Sunday, February 3rd of this year, while many in America were getting ready to watch the Superbowl, we had our first meeting as a congregation.

My first Chinese assembly in Santo Domingo in the back room of the Assembly Hall while the Spanish brothers had their convention in front.

Me with two of my former Bible studies. 

Patricia and Jael during the tract campaign for the Memorial.

(Above and Below) Catherine takes a photo with some of our Asian brothers and sisters and Jorge Lebron gives the talk at the last Memorial in the Imbert Kingdom Hall.

An angry goose we met while doing census work in southern Santiago. Yeah, I'm not really sure why I thought including this picture in was necessary either.

Teammates and friends Catherine and Emi enjoy evening service with newly bought flowers (above) and help learn Chinese from one of their students at Monumento (below).

Kiara with a Spring flower in her hat during a day in the ministry earlier this year.

The Santiago Chinese Congregation doesn't just cover Chinese territory in Santiago. We are also responsible for all of Cibao (the state) and the northern region of the country. This photo was taken when we were doing preaching work near the border of Haiti and informally shared a tract with this young boy.

A new stage in DR witnessing begins as we have the meeting of orientation for the new public witnessing project (Metropolitan Witnessing) to begin in Santiago.

After service, we hit the beach in Monti Cristi.

Me practicing my Chinese character writing skills with friends who were writing encouraging messages on cards to hand out to Chinese people.

Day 1 of the Metropolitan witnessing project in Las Colinas Mall.

Sarah, a three month need-greater joins Emi and I for service near Monumento.

A young child leaning against a wall in Santiago while we do census work.

A more recent picture of our growing congregation and visitors.

Krista, Kazuyo, Akane and Kazu take a break from the hot sun on a construction site.

My first day of doing Metropolitan witnessing (above) and my completion of my service time for the year a couple of weeks ago (below).

What I look forward to in the upcoming service year is participating more in the Metropolitan service project, getting a regular Bible study (or two), and developing the friendships I've already started here.

Hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures, and hope it makes you perhaps consider moving to the DR or another foreign field one day.

Have a great new service year. :)

JW Showroom Project

More and more people I ask have been telling me that they've received emails about the JW showroom in Rouen, France--a town about an hour and a half northwest of Paris on the way to England. Thankfully, I recently got the chance to talk to my personal friend Havalah who lives in Paris and recently visited the location to get more information.  

The showroom will be open for 6 months as a trial. She mentioned there was a boat show in town that attracted a lot of outside visitors to the city and that the brothers there are hoping to attract some of those tourists. 

All of the brothers and sisters working in the place were locals. There were around 10 people in the showroom at any moment, and around the area there were a couple public witnessing stands set up within three blocks of the actual showroom. Those who worked in the showroom rotated shifts with those manning the public witnessing stands.

She noted that right now they have 11 different languages featured, and there are brothers that speak all of those languages working in the showroom.

There were also computers set up where people could access the website to get more information, and there is a section out of public view where people could look up information on their own or ask more questions/study with one of the Jehovah's Witnesses present. 

On June 1st it was a barbershop. On June 3rd construction began. Three days later the showroom was open to the public (Thursday June 6th). 

In the first week, around 1000 publications were placed in various languages. Since it has been open for over twenty days and seems to be successful for now, it will be interesting to see if more of these open up in the rest of the world. Hope an official video will be made on JW.org soon. :)

Gerle Creek

Here's my latest song by the title of "Gerle Creek."

Gerle Creek is a camping spot my family and friends from the El Cerrito area would go to quite often.

This is the third song I've posted with electronic drum tracks and my "Joy Division" style singing. I'd like to complete a full video/karaoke album of ten tracks with this same style.

If I get to ten songs, I'll probably delete these individual posts and make one post with all ten songs in it.

I know this isn't everyone's style of music, but I hope you do enjoy it. :)

Super Sad Love Song

The second of two new original songs I'm posting today.
This one by the name of: "Super Sad Love Song."
(I wasn't feeling very creative when it came to giving this song a title)

Hope you like it. :)

Marigold

Here's a song I wrote a couple days ago.
It's called "Marigold."

Hope you enjoy it.

Boy + Girl

Update: A few people have told me the embedded video isn't working. Click here to see the video on YouTube. :)

Five years ago, Josh became my first ever roommate in China. Soon after he and I began writing songs, playing in tiny cafes and even finished a rickety, poor-sound-quality full length album. Since then, Josh married the girl he was then dating (Ayumi), started a bigger band with my other two roommates, Levi, Bren and myself (Stegosaurus) and continues to live in the 长宁 district.

Josh is left handed (using a left-handed guitar) and I'm right handed (I used my broken-necked steel string and a standard nylon string guitar I found in a garbage heap in Shanghai), so whenever we played songs together sitting side by side, it looked like I was the mirror image of him...sort of.

Our duo's name was 'Mirror Mirror.'

It's now been five years since we recorded that album. There are parts in it where you can hear ambulance sirens, birds chirping in the background (during the song "Banana Fish"), washing machine alarms going off (during album version of the duet "I Am A Robot") and other sounds that are the result of recording an entire album without a studio--and instead with a Logitech Skype Microphone on a problematic Hewlett Packard laptop.

I recently talked to Josh about making a second album. I'm not sure whether or not it will be possible, but for now we have one new song. It definitely feels like a song that would have fit in perfectly on the first album.

Ayumi was very reluctant to sing at first. It's not easy to sing for others and especially when English isn't your first language, so I really appreciate her finally recording this song with Josh!

Hope you all enjoy the song. :)

'Stegosaurus made a few hits and rocked things hard,
But they were just the pulse, and we the beating heart.
Banana Fish is still the song they ask me to play
We didn't make a big splash, but we made a few waves.
Now the world is changed. Obama said 'Change'
Different world now, my life's rearranged.
We were kids with an HP and a notepad,
Now we're old men keepin' up with the iFads.'

- Lyrics From an Unfinished Song Meant for the Mirror Mirror Album Sequel

Meet Minion the Monster!

Galen has shot his artistic arrows in many directions. He would likely be quick to admit that few of them have hit any targets besides perhaps the hearts of a few young ladies :D (I have some of his static-y original me-and-my-guitar songwriting efforts collecting dust in the corners of my hard drive). On the other hand, perhaps all that 'artistic archery' was good exercise for the one field he wants to break out of the amateur ranks and become professional at--the art form closest to his heart--writing.

He's closer than ever to that goal with his latest book.

Meet Minion the Monster! is his largest, most comprehensive project yet. At first look, it's obvious that it will be difficult to not respect it as professional and marketable.
Galen began this project a year ago, and now is closer than ever to finishing.

Joseph:
Without giving too much away, what's the story?

Galen:
Meet Minion the Monster is a tale about a young boy named Michael who becomes old enough to walk to school alone. Unfortunately he gets lost along the way and ends up in 'The Land of Monsters.' Upon arriving, he sees a group of monsters doing a very 'monster-like thing.' As a result of being afraid that the monsters will find him and do something worse to him, Michael decides to disguise himself as one of them--he decides to become a monster. This decision works at first, but he then realizes he must do the actions of a monster.

Joseph:
What is left for the project?

Galen:
All that's left for the project is to find a printing company we like. Next month we'll print around a few hundred copies for marketing and for giving to friends and family.

Joseph:
Stuff like this is always a gamble, but what are your hopes and expectations for Meet Minion?

Galen:
I hope to find an actual publishing company to take over the printing, distributing and getting rich process. As Sean Puffy Combs put so eloquently: "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems."
If this process works, who knows when they'll release it, but if I don't find a publisher--

Joseph:
Kickstarter? (www.kickstarter.com)

Galen:
Maybe. If that happens, that could mean a U.S. release by the end of this year. But since my life is focused on doing volunteer work, I don’t know how much time I am able to put into a huge self-publishing venture.

Joseph:
I hope things do go the independent-publishing-route, because it means the book people are reading about in this interview can actually be in their hands sooner! :) I'm sure there will be a lot of friends out there that would be willing to support your project and even many more who are just curious to read the story itself and perhaps share it with their children. -- You've written a few books since I've known you. What does Meet Minion specifically mean to you?

Galen:
This book is very personal. I didn't grow up with monsters in a forest, but I was raised in an environment with thuggish, monsterlike kids. That's essentially what this book is about--how I dealt with those monsters.

Joseph:
It's definitely obvious that Meet Minion is very Where the Wild Things Are inspired. How much of an influence was there, and how does it differ?

Galen:
It's inspired and yet at the same time definitely not inspired by it at all. (Laughs) Where the Wild Things Are is my all-time favorite picture book. Even to this day as a 31 year old man, I have a copy of it in my room.
I'm sure Maurice Sendak's story at least subconsciously had a huge role in the way I imagine and write, but the moral of Meet Minion the Monster and the actual story itself are completely different. Whereas Sendak addresses the issue of a child's inability to express his pent-up rage, my story deals with a boy trying to keep his "humanity" in world that pressures him to lose it.

Joseph:
Did you write it to perhaps appeal to the more modern Pixar/PlantsvsZombies-era-child audience?

Galen:
The art style was definitely developed with that in mind, but the writing itself was done in a way that I hope will appeal to all audiences.

Joseph:
What do you think may be the biggest difference in publishing challenges for you as compared with those Maurice Sendak had in 1963?

Galen:
I think there are lots of similarities actually. Publishers don't look at what children like when deciding what to publish. They look at what grandparents, librarians, and mothers like. These are the ones who will actually buy and recommend these picture books. If the idea and the book itself doesn't match the publisher's idea for what will sell and what will resonate with that audience, my book wont be published. The late, great, Sendak had the same issues, which is why he originally self-published Where the Wild Things Are.

Joseph:
Nowadays, many parents and teachers prefer an iPad instead of a traditional paperbound storybook, and things seem to keep trending in that direction? How do you plan on factoring that in to your plans?

Galen:
I would love to make an iPad version! If I'm forced to try and self-publish, maybe I can enlist you as the narrator, Joe. I believe your voice was once described as "smoltry" (not a real word), but I think I would like that for the audio/iPad version.

Joseph:
(Laughs) I'm flattered I think. :) I do hope you put more emphasis on the digital aspect in the development of your book though. It would make it so much more accessible to an international audience, including those who are reading this article, and it will mean better business opportunities for you! -- Is your book better than Where the Wild Things Are? :)

Galen:
(Laughs) For those of you who have never read Where the Wild Things Are: Yes, it's 100 times better. For those of you that have--no comment. :)

Joseph:
You're primarily an elementary school teacher and an unpublished writer on the side. Do you think your years of experience with children has helped you to appeal to your target audience in a special way?

Galen:
I have definitely learned how to appeal to kids through my teaching. Although, like I previously mentioned, they aren't the ones that buy the books. If they were, I could easily make a book about a 'poop-monster' that hits men in their crotches and supports a gender-war between boys and girls. This would sell millions in a make-believe 'child-buyers' market. I have learned to appeal to kids but I'm still unable to capitalize on that fact…poop.

Joseph:
Always classy! :) -- I've personally had the privilege to look at the complete artwork from the story and have included a few watermarked versions here in this post. I think the drawings are amazing. How much of a role does your artist play in this book?

Galen:
The actual story idea was all me (self-high-five). The actual telling of the story--that's all him (humble-high-five). :)
Honestly, he took a good story and made it magnificent!
The story itself was like Anne Hathaway in The Princess Diaries: It's fun, cute, meaningful and clever.
When Fish (the artist) added his artwork and painted emotion into each detailed image, it became Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables: Amazingly epic, emotional--even spine-tingling and beautiful. Honestly, any success that comes from this book I owe to him.

Joseph:
(Laughs) I definitely find the Anne Hathaway analogy interesting and your description ambitious! I think the way you responded to the questions also may have given everyone a glimpse into the creative mind behind the book that could be destined to be your Magnum Opus.

--

Galen expressed thanks to me and I in turn express thanks to all who read this article.
When Meet Minion becomes easily accessible for the blog readers, I'll post again with more information.

If you're too impatient, and want more information or even want to try your chances at getting a personal copy of Meet Minion, Galen has invited you to contact him directly at imagine@cipherbooks.com.

Memorial 2013 On Instagram

I'm not sure if anyone out there actually keeps track of Jehovah's Witness Instagraming statistics, but if they did, I'd imagine they'd find that there are more posts made by JW's on the Memorial date than any other of the year.

Perhaps marketers could somehow use this information to their advantage in the same way Doctors Medical Center supposedly took out large billboards advertising their bloodless surgery program in the vicinity of the Cow Palace--a regular district convention location used still to this day in the San Francisco area.

For the rest of us non-marketers, Memorial night on Instagram is at least a reminder that everyone is commemorating the same most important moment of the year at the same time that they are. At most, it's an opportunity to see attendance numbers/statistics in different fields, stories, what's happening in Memorials across the world and perhaps more.

This isn't the first Memorial in the Instagram era, but it is probably the first in it's golden age.
Here's a quick glimpse of some of the posts.

Nicole posts an artistic shot of the emblems. 288 attended her Memorial in the New York City area.

Zihan from the Sacramento California in a picture with several of students from her school (UC Davis) coming to support her during the memorial. You may be able to make out the text below where she says "It's really a beautiful feeling when your student hands you the bread and wine."

Ida makes a post from the first ever Quichua Memorial in Queens, New York. There were 73 total in attendance 25 of which were bible students. Impressive considering they have only 12 publishers. If this ratio of publishers to attendants was the same every where, there would be over 40 million in attendance at the memorial worldwide--more than the population of all of California.

Above and below, the young Jessica posts photos from the Memorial in Pimentel. 250 were in attendance. There are 55 publishers in the congregation.

Above, Brealana posts a picture from the one of the tinier Memorial commemorations in Milan, Italy where the Japanese field had 18 in attendance, 4 of which were Bible Students.

Pre-Memorial preparations underway in the woodsy Kingdom Hall of Windsor, California (Above), and Yvonne snaps a leavenless-baking-prep-picture (Below).

227 attend a Memorial in Australia. Photo taken by Jay Symonds who is currently helping in the Chinese field there with his pregnant wife and daughter.

Above, a picture of the Memorial full moon in South Sweden.

Amara helps with last minute invitation placements just hours before the event.

Post Memorial wine and crackers for the enjoyment of Bjorn and his, presumably, 'other sheep' friends in Malmo, Sweden.

Ann Catherine with two children at a Memorial in Stockholm, Sweden. Ann Catherine was recently serving in the Bavaro, Dominican Republic. She returned home around a month ago, and not long after that, the Chinese group attached to Stockholm English Congregation which she belonged to became a congregation.

Daniel enjoys his first ever Memorial outside under a tent in Sosua, Dominican Republic. For the English, there were 69 in attendance, and for Creole, 93--nearly four times the amount of publishers.

Above and Below, two pictures of children from Violetta in Orlando, Florida. Sophia (the young girl pictured below) asked if she could take a sip of wine during the Memorial so she could go to heaven.

Zeke and Luz post a picture of some of their family members who joined the 188 in attendance in their Spanish congregation in the New York City area (Yonkers).

Above, Jessica Krebs (pictured on the right) from an English Congregation in Atlanta notes: "Sweet little Ms. Mary (center) came to the Memorial after about 15 consecutive years of being invited. Also, what a warm feeling when a coworker comes along too--last minute surprise."

Joanna Pool, an American sister from Portland Oregon serving in the ASL field in La Vega, Dominican Republic wrote: "This is Beligca. :) She is deaf and blind. I interpreted the Memorial for her. She was so happy to be there! Every time the bread and wine came, she would sign, 'Thank you Jesus, but I'm not eating it!' We are 24 publishers and had 93 in attendance."

Grace Park from Long Island, New York mentioned 3 attended with Memorial invitation tracts in their hands--coming as last minute invites to join the crowd of nearly 300.

Melissa Brooks from the San Francisco, California area posted a multiframe of the 117 attending in Reykjavik, Iceland--50 publishers in English and also a Polish group.

And last, but not least, my friends from Santiago Chinese, set up signs, clean up and participate in other preparations for the 31 that attended our Memorial--3 of which were Bible Students.

Hope you enjoyed checking out this post. The tract campaign and Memorial activities are over and it's back to normal ministry now. Look forward to more great posts on Instagram for the rest of 2013. Enjoy! :)

A Brief Review of 'Tiny Triumphs'

In order to properly describe "Tiny Triumphs," I need another album as a reference point. The first thing I was reminded of when I heard 'Tiny Triumphs' was Animal Collective's first album "Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished." (The second track "Rain" could easily be mistaken as a B-side from "Spirit")

Like early Animal Collective, 瘫滩疫 obviously wants to put more emphasis on originality than make music that is widely appreciated--'Spirit' is possibly Animal Collective's most difficult album to unpretentiously like.

Whether 'Spirit' was an accidentally good album or not, it was critically acclaimed, was the starting point of one of the most critically acclaimed indie bands of the last ten years and is one of my personal favorite albums.

Will "Tiny Triumphs" be 瘫滩疫's 'Spirit?'
I think the answer is, "No. And I don't think he was trying for that anyways. Yet, it is a good place to start."

Besides the droning repetitive concluding song and a couple others, most of the songs seem to finish right at the point where they could be taking off and it feels more like a mix of musical ideas than a finished album.

However, the ideas in themselves are interesting.
This album will hopefully be only a first step of what could be an interesting trip when 瘫滩疫 matures musically and develops the ideas from the strongest tracks such as my favorite song on the album, 'Seppuku,' and the two great subsequent songs.

It is a homemade album that was made on a zero-dollar budget, and, as the album's title suggests, 瘫滩疫 doesn't claim to have written a masterpiece.
That being said, I liked it enough, I love that 瘫滩疫 has completed an album and I'm now very curious to see if he will evolve into being an artist I will like even more.

To hear the full album, click on the link below.
http://tantanyi.bandcamp.com/album/tiny-triumphs

I'm always willing to review and/or plug your personal art projects on my blog.
Email me with your art projects at elihu0@gmail.com. :)

More original music posts to come! :)