Owen's 3rd Birthday

Here is Owen at one of his birthday celebrations. We like to confuse our son by celebrating is birthday once in July with friends and family in Canada, and then having another party on his real birthday in August in the Philippines. This birthday featured 6 boys, 3 years old and younger. What were we thinking??

Hong Kong

Here are some of the people we met on our trip to Hong Kong. We stopped for 4 days on our way back to the Philippines this summer. We found out that a few people live there.

Dancing Owen

Who taught him how to move like that?

Smokey Mountain

"Smokey Mountain II" in Tondo is a dump site in Manila and also home to many impoverished Filipinos. The dump is full of people that come to scavenge through the trash to collect anything that they can sell. Recyclable items like plastic, and bottles, and items that can be sold to a "junk shop" like cardboard or metal, are in demand. As you can see in the picture these people work long days to collect on average $3-$5 to live, eat, and support their families. It is also very dangerous as large machinery move very close to the workers. Most of the people actually have shacks built on site from trash that they have salvaged. It is so sad to visit this place and see many small children (starting around age 8 or 9) working and not at school. There are public schools that they can attend but many can't afford the small fee for a school uniform. Those that do go must also work at the dump to help support their family. When the sun goes down there is no electricity for lights to do homework and many can't even afford candles to burn. It makes me realize how lucky I was to be born in Canada. It is easy to things forgranted in life but a little easier to see here that we actually have it very good!

The Jungle Run

Last weekend Mindy, Owen, and I took the X-Country team up to Subic Bay for a weekend training camp. It rained pretty much the entire weekend but it didn't stop us from having fun. All weekend the kids asked if we would do the "Jungle Run", a particularly difficult run through the jungle to a small village and back. The Subic coaches advised against it due to the weather conditions but the team diasagreed and we went for it. The clear pavement soon turned to steep, muddy, clay hills as we turned onto the path. We stopped avoiding puddles very quickly, and gave up trying to stay clean soon after. By the end of the 1 hour run you can see how we returned to the school. It was not all completely innocent as we did have a few mud bath fights along the way. I particularly liked it on the way back while we were still who knows where, in the middle of the unknown jungle, and we passed a local carrying a machetti saying it was a dangerous place. We made it back to tell the tale.

Baby Logan??

Introducing the next addition to the Martin family hopefully around the end of November 2008. The name that has been sticking around the longest is Logan Alexander Martin. Neither of the names have any significance to us other then the fact that we really like them and they don't remind us of any particularly awful students we may have taught in the past. This is Baby Logan at about 30 weeks in utero. Technology is amazing!

Wet Ride

Maid of the Mist boat ride at Niagra Falls (summer 2008). Owen wouldn't wear his own rain coat but gladly shared with Daddy.

The Beginning

I kept hearing about everyone's wonderful blog they have set up to share pics and videos with their friends and family back home. I always figured it was too difficult, or would take too much time to set up, or was just another way of communicating that I would eventually stop using. Finally my desire for action outwayed my laziness and here we are. It actually took one google search, and about 5 mins to get to the point I am at now......who new it was soooo easy! Hopefully this will not be my first and last entry but the beginning of some better communication with family and friends from around the world. Wish me luck!