8-31-2001

11:17 AM

Good morning.
I woke up feeling better this morning, no real sore throat and the headache was minimal. Stomach is still a little perturbed, but workable.

There will be another acoustic set today at the compound where the guy ran after us because I inadvertently took his picture. I’m staying here, I hope Billy chooses to as well, he needs the rest too.

I’m going to have my jacket and slacks cleaned today for the flight out on Sunday, so if we get a shot at Business or First Class, I’m dressed appropriately. I guess we’ll see how that works out. Once I get to Sunday afternoon, I will probably not be able to write any more, unless we have a long stand-by time frame at one of the airports.

I emailed Kent about taking the rest of the week and he supported me in it. That is a weight off my shoulders. I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to pull it off, getting off a plane from Africa and going into to work, where I have to use my mind for the job, not some repetitious manual gig I could get away with.

Matt bought firecrackers yesterday while we were at the market, he got permission to set them off here in the compound…only he didn’t let everyone (me) know he was going to set them off. Scared the wee out of me. Billy was proud of him. I think the family needs some group therapy or something…kidding.

Travis came back in and he’s sleeping right now, most everyone else went to town and the market place. 2:00 is the gig at the last compound today. I hope and pray it goes well without any incident. My acoustic guitar is getting a workout. The hard shell case for it will have to be replaced when I get back. It took a couple of serious hits while out of my control…praise God for hard shell cases, this one has served me well.

You’d be proud of me; I’m resting like I should and not asking for trouble by pushing my limits. I want to come home well. Heck, I just want to come home. Actually, I want both.

Know that I love you and miss you. I got the last of the pictures off to you today, so until I get the video camera from Roger or Rich, I won’t have any more shots to send.

I should state that my only real physical mistake was trying to wrestle Travis in the van. Travis, 6 years of Tae Kwon Do and 2 years of kick boxing (or something like that)…I would have been well advised to have learned these facts first. It ended a draw, but only because I was smart enough to stop. I’ll just pick on Matt and Kenny if need be.

(11:59 AM) Billy just came in to get his camera; apparently there is a Chameleon in the front yard on a rock…I should go see. He’s pretty stoked. Besides, it’s lunch time.

I love you.

It’s 2:43 PM and I’m back in the room, Travis is back in bed after gargling something that smelled like furniture polish…absolutely nasty. He’s got what Matt, Billy and I all dealt with. Billy and I are pretty sure it’s due to being in Chipata Compound all day with no shelter or relief. I am still pretty frustrated with that whole event.

I’m listening to one of the CD’s I burned for the trip, Styx and others, very cool, very inspiring too. While on the planes, I listened to all the CD’s I burned for the trip. They were a good escape for the plane rides here and now just kinda “restocking” if you will.

From an engineer’s standpoint, there is much to be learned from listening to other people’s mixes, tones and styles. How they use effects and pan images and such.

(Praise the Lord for E5’s.)

Once a rocker, always a rocker, with or without hair, I guess. After playing with Billy, Matt and Travis, I really want to play more and especially when I listen to the likes of Styx and such, it reminds me that I have more to express than is currently on tape, shall we say. I have more confidence in my playing now, too. I would like to have more time to learn some other styles of lead and such, I like what I play, but I feel limited when I play on the spot, I revert to some familiar phrases and boxes which I’ve always used.

“Snowblind”, “Renegade”, “Crystal Ball” (Styx songs recently enjoyed…)

Billy is so fun to play with because he offers no walls and facades. Same as when we were in SBG, just 100% effort with seriously fun results. Plus he continues to listen to the same music his kids listen to and he stays fresh in his ideas, not be satiated with the same old, same old.

It’s 4:27 and I just got to speak with you! It’s like I can breathe slower now. I hear your voice and visualize your face and the same with Missy. She about broke my heart when she said that when her birthday comes, she’ll send me a postcard…I told her I’ll be there for her birthday and that I’m coming home very soon. She was pretty tired, but I hope she’ll remember I called to talk to her and that I love her and miss her. I’m glad I prepared myself for the extreme of missing you guys because it has been nothing less than that. Now I feel rejuvenated and I want to play. I’ll probably crash and burn if I do, but I want to, nonetheless.

Let’s see: 4:30 PM here…in right about 48 hours, we will be heading for the airport!!! Anxious…? Me?

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that we used the In Ears for the Chipata Compound gig. We should have had more monitors available to us, but that is behind us now. At any rate, we had 2 floor wedges on the front corners of the stage for the up front leadership and Matt, Trav and I used In Ears, which worked functionally, there was distortion, overdriven type, which means that somewhere in the signal path from the mixer’s Aux send to us, something was being overloaded. That excess or overload of signal causes distortion to become part of the signal path. Matt wasn’t comfortable with it and Trav seemed to survive well, because he is going direct using electric drums. I was going direct too, so I needed something to work from and I was able to do all right with the overloading. I would have been happier if I could have found the offending distortion source and killed it. It was also risky to use them with Max because he’s never engineered anyone using them and doesn’t know how or where to troubleshoot them. The point of monitors is exactly just that; they are for monitoring, not listening. They are to give you reference and point and time as needed, and in the best case scenario, they provide you with a comfortable listening atmosphere, but I expect if you ask most musicians what they commonly think of monitor mixes, they’ll tell you that they work but they are never quite right, and I thinks that’s all right too. When you have the bucks to spend on full scale monitor equipment, separate monitor board and engineer with loaded outboard gear racks, you can reasonably expect that your monitor mix should be equal to or better than your house mix, certainly parallel to the recording, if there is one.

Had I not brought these units, we would have been deeper in the dust (very bad pun…), so to speak, so it was a good thing to do. And had we needed more than the four I brought we would have been dusted as well. That’s not to say that I was something cool to have done it, it is to say that MPPC was able to partake in the blessing of what is happening here in Zambia because of the gear I am fortunate enough to have access to. How cool is that? I over-brought on the one hand, but on the other, I am and was prepared to make whatever adaptations I thought needed…and then I got put on guitar instead of the board…something I did not expect.
I can run down the expectations versus the realities:

Expectations in bold and the reality follows the colon sign...
Dr. T to be treating people daily: Has gone out once to the Bush tribe, treating in house mostly

Ron would be witnessing daily, daily for Billy Graham conf.: Has officially shared 3 times, 1x for Billy Graham, compound sharing.

Wade would be sound engineer and technical coordinator: lead guitarist only, no sound control, became expendable

Billy would be worship leader, player: Worship leader, song selector, group coordinator for travels and such

Leadership thought things would go reasonably smoothly: Things did not go reasonably smoothly, some strife from within

There would be a medical brigade: There was no medical brigade

The medicine manifest would be accurate and appropriate: The manifest was inaccurate and contained medicine we could have used.

Our rooms would be like those of a camp lodge or motel: rooms are like rustic camp, bed-netting necessary, nocturnal visitors

Lodge would have air conditioning: nope.

2 people per room at the lodge: 4 of us in a room which should house 1 maybe 2

The beds would be like in a motel or hotel: nope. Single beds, springs pushing through, pillows aren't store bought.

communications would be set up in advance: Only the locals have cell phones, the hired drivers don't

Francis would not lose his job because of working with us: He did.

We would stay healthy: We didn't.

Most of the food would be ethnic and traditional: most of the food is Americanized with an ethnic twist to it

We would not find ourselves in jeopardy of our well-being: there have been multiple time when we were at minor to reasonable risk

The police would not carry automatic weapons: The police carry automatic weapons and watch white people visiting…

Now not all these are as drastic as they appear and some need explanation, but what I wanted to do was to provide kind of an over-view of our expectations, some said, some not, but expectations nonetheless. They are not all questions I would have asked in the past, but I'd be far wiser now about what to ask about and look for. I hope to use this gained knowledge to assist other groups who plan excursions and maybe it can help. Like asking how many phone lines there are at the lodge or place of residence…one phone line is very difficult to navigate among 16 plus people in our group, plus the staff and the other lodgers. Had I asked if, when I look out my room window, I will see a stone wall topped with broken glass shards and electric fencing, I might have thought differently about the trip and where we might be finding ourselves.

Oh yeah, I remembered another story;
Francis is (was) building a new home in Lusaka, his current home isn’t safe and he’s been robbed in the past. His new home has the standard wall around it and a guard inside at night, and until the electricity got turned on, his guard was getting robbed and beaten. He got the fencing wired up and turned on and the beatings stopped abruptly. He ran the 3 phase electrical wires along the top of the wall so you can’t see them sticking up, but if you lay your hand on top…zap.

So one night the alarm went off, signaling that someone had tried to climb the wall again. The guard watched 3 men carry a fourth lifeless man and lay him in a pick up truck and speed away. There is no regulation of the power wattage allowed for electrical fencing…these fences are not set to “stun”, they’ll kill you upon the grasping, end of story, no discussion. Most fences are 1 or 2 phase power; Francis installed 3 phase, more juice, so to speak.

Anyway, the guard was quite pleased to know the electrical wall works now and he is safe as well. Francis regrets the man trying to break in, but with his wife expecting and all the political stuff going on, he needs a safe haven and if it takes electrifying a wall to bring the safety, I suppose we would do no different. I would do whatever was in my means to protect my family from known intruders and thieves.

It’s almost 6:00 PM, 9:00AM your time. I wish I could be there with you, but I will be soon.

It’s now 10:25 PM and we got back from dinner about an hour and a half ago. Upon returning, Billy happen to walk through Ron and Rich’s room where a brief discussion was underway that “The Vineyard Band and The King’s Way Group” are to be at a women’s breakfast down town tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM…If Billy had not walked through there…Seems that they printed up tickets and everything so Billy and Junar are going to go and I will organize our stuff for the show tomorrow. I guess I’m amazed but not surprised, you know that I mean?

Dinner was at an Irish restaurant in the Manda Hill Mall. The food was excellent; I had Fish and Chips, which were wonderful and 3 Diet Pepsi(s). It was fun to be out, since I’d been kinda stuck here sick and all. Roger paid for everyone’s dinner…pretty cool thing for him to do. He enjoyed it. We all appreciated it, big time.

I’m on a plane in less than 48 hours! We’re all getting into that place of being ready to go, somewhat like the “home stretch” for the runner. The loneliness actor gets to be tough occasionally; it’s going to be wonderful to be home.

I was just able to log on and send Billy’s email to Sue and checked out the AOL instant messenger web based chat and found Dave Swartz online. That was great, surprised him and was good to chat a moment with him.

It’s now 11:02 and I’m gonna call it for the day.

Tomorrow will be a full day, lots to do and much to accomplish. We’ll be up at 7 and I’ll be going through the gear getting it ready for travel to the Fair Grounds. I plan to write tomorrow night-
I love you
W