Corey Wride: I'm a little frustrated. The "take-away" I have is that we simply cannot afford to leave a bad impression with unstable software. I didn't even know those people (the Consejo who showed up during the classes to take notes, video record, and evaluate the software) existed before I got here - and had only agreed to do one class with 8-10 people, so we did very good delivering - but they simply did not view it as a pilot which is strange. This organization has some influence, but its not certain that they'd be helpful. the root problem is that people are very excited about this - and they want it finished sooner than we can finish it. Its a good problem to have - as long as we can manage expectations, its funny - the first day at the University I had a meeting with all the students - inviting them to participate, I told them about the "pilot" and how they would be "testers" and that its not finished, but we want their influence and opinions, then, the woman in charge got up and said "oh, no...Corey is just being modest. Its very great software. We love it, and you're going to love it, its really wonderful" - even though she had never used it, so even when I tried to keep expectations low ...sort of funny. One other thought you might enjoy, they said they want to start using it for all the students at home, so they can use it whenever they want - and I said its not ready yet for that. The woman who is the most critical said "just have people in India finish it for you- they are very smart and they work while you sleep"
Kiran Babu: :D
Corey Wride: I wanted to assure her we have the best India has to offer - but it still takes time
Kiran Babu: That's really funny
Corey Wride: yeah, its weird. I'm told I should l get angry at them and tell them how unorganized they are - but that's not really my style. ok, I'm done venting - anything else you want to talk about in that regard? Monday appears to be the last day of the pilot, and now that all the machines work it should go just fine.
So that's where things were left at after Friday. Sunday he went to church at our old ward in Santiago. Saw old friends, sent me this email: "Funny, I just bumped into her at church and told her that our kids missed the lady with the rabbits - and guess what she had in her purse?"
(On Easter Sunday last year, Corey was out in the lobby with Lily who was being fussy, when the "crazy lady" from the other Las Condes ward (that shared the building with us) told Corey to go get the rest of the kids who were in the meeting with me. Corey waved for them to go to him, a few went out, then came back in, whispered to the other kids, then they all went out again, all while someone is giving a talk from the pulpit, I was starting to steam out of my ears like "You guys are really distracting the meeting, what is going on?!?!" The kids informed me that the 'crazy lady' (which we call her for lack of remembering her real name) had some baby rabbits that were SOOOOO cute, so all the kids were out there, waving for me to come out too, Corey shrugged his shoulders like "Hey, it's Chile. I don't have a say about this..." I sat alone on the bench for the rest of the meeting in defiance. I was like "NO! We don't skip out on sacrament to play with rabbits!!!" So that is funny that my kids miss her and her rabbits, and that Corey ran into her and there was a baby rabbit in her purse AT CHURCH again, funny.)
So, after Church, Corey took a bus to Peralillo to visit an area where he served as a missionary back in the late 90s. He ate breakfast but didn't take any food with him so was pretty hungry all day. He decided to buy some water from the bus personelle, he said as he called me to tell me he was on his way, I said have fun and good bye, then he called back and said "Serves me right for buying something on the Sabbath - the water is carbonated." I laughed. Yuck! Something particular to Latin America - have you ever had water "with gas"? It is nasty. Ugh. Don't think they even sell carbonated water here in the US, do they? But in Chile you have to specifically ask for "Agua sin gas" - water without gas - or they will bring you carbonated water, and the first time I ever tried that, I just can't explain it. You'd have to experience it, but it was nasty. Doesn't seem like it should be incredibly horrid, but it is.
After he arrived in Peralillo, he went to go buy his return bus ticket for that evening and they were all sold out, so he was stuck there for the night until the 5:30 a.m. bus to Santiago. I was sorry for him (glad the kids and I weren't there with him). Corey did find a few of the members that he went there to find. Carlos in particular. Carlos didn't remember Corey at first. He isn't active in the church, it was a little bit of a depressing experience but gave Corey some good insights. Corey ran into the missionaries and went with them for a while on their visits members and teach people, he enjoyed that. They offered for Corey to stay with them at their apartment, he asked "Is that allowed?" They called the Mission Pres. for permission, it's not allowed. Poor Corey, abandoned and alone in Chile. I told him he needs to write down these experiences in his journal (as he was talking to me that night from his alcohol smelling hotel) and he said "No. I just want this experience to be over..." and entrusted me to try and document it. It's hard being the historian for our whole family. Especially since I don't really know half the stuff that's going on at Corey's end with MovieMouth. But anyway, so Sunday night the kids and I here in our comfortable home with soft beds said a prayer for Corey to fall into a deep sleep and that the night would pass by quickly. He was at some run down house turned into a hotel, where the owner was drunk from celebrating his first customer and Corey's arrival as his second customer. I was a little worried for him that night, I woke up and called him at 6 a.m., he was already back in Santiago and plugging away so that was good.
As for me here at our house, things are going well... 1)I gave myself a haircut - feel free to fix it for me if you see me and can tell that I did it myself. 2) I bought "the genie bra" at Walmart on Saturday night. Love it! Saw their infomercial some time ago and so it was on my list to check it out - happy I saw it, and I give it 4 stars, go buy one!! (there were two in the package). 3) I learned that Oxyclean is also a great wedding ring cleaner. My ring hasn't been cleaned for 3 years, looks so nice now! And 4) yesterday at 5:00 I noticed my cell phone had a voicemail message - it was from the principal at the kids school. She didn't say what she was calling about, I just figured I'd call back tomorrow to see. Then during the evening it came up in a conversation with Joseph that he was called to the principal's office where he met Wesley, my 1st grader, who told the principal that Joseph had given him his Scouting pocket knife. So Wes took a pocket knife to school, showed it for show and tell to his teacher, his teacher had to (district policy) send him to the principal's office with it. Then Wes passed the blame onto his older brother. Pretty funny. The knife is still at the school, I have to go pick it up. I think Wesley found it under the boys' bunk bed when they were cleaning their room on Saturday, and Wes snatched it then. He won't fess up that he put it in his back pack. I'm not mad that he took it, but do want him to tell the truth and not be scared to tell the truth. We'll probably revisit the incident again when Corey gets home Saturday and see if we can get Wesley to feel safe enough to admit it, or see if we can figure out if someone else did put it in his backpack. Anyway, that's the Chile and At Home update. How's it going at your headquarteres?
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