Chad: As many of you are aware I have a bit of an affinity for basset hounds. In fact that has been one of the challenges of being on this continent (I couldn't bring my parents basset hounds). I have particularly missed Chessa, who despite Emily's opinion does not drool very much like Chloe does. At any rate, the other night we went to the Santa Cruz Ghetto to drop off our friend Jared. This is a neighborhood without paved streets that white people lock their doors when travelling through. After dropping him off I saw a basset hound. His name was Diego. I got out and asked the Bolivian people near by if I could pet him. It was awesome. It is also amazing how God can encourage us with the simplest things here. Oh and for all concerned Emily did not pet Diego (or go within four feet of him) and I did not get fleas or any other communicable disease (so far as we currently are aware of).

Yeah, so I pretty much have a mate now. One of my friends here is from England, and his name is Andy Partington. He's a couple of years older than me and has two kids. Anyway, we have gotten to be pretty good friends, and the reason that I know this is that he now calls me "mate." So that's pretty sweet. The problem being that if I call him mate it sounds stupid. We Americans don't have any names to call each other that have the sophistication, yet friendly nature of mate. We say dude, buddy, dawg, and many other less than worthy nicknames. I'd be curious to see if anyone has a suggestion of a nickname that doesn't make me seem like a neanderthal (sp?) when speaking with my "mate" Andy.