"Let your 'yes' be 'yes,' and your 'no' be 'no.' Anything
more than this is from the devil." (Matthew 5:37)

Update on Don Jíbaro's Health
by Irene (Mrs. Don Jibaro)
rlando visited with the cardiologist today. She says that he can live with an "arrythmia" in the heart. that is, the atrial fibrillation is when the heart speeds up instead of pumping at a normal speed. rlando (DJ) visited with the cardiologist. She says that he can live with an "arrythmia" in the heart.

Atrial fibrillation is a cardiac arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm) that involves the two upper chambers (atria) of the heart. It can often be identified by taking a pulse and observing that the heartbeats don't occur at regular intervals He's taking medications that control  this and he was taken off of the aspirin and the water pill. (His blood pressure was dropping too low with them).

Now, his job is to concentrate on losing weight anddoing his exercises provided by a physical therapist for an hour a day. He can still drink one cup of de-caf expresso a day. He's already lost forty pounds. The report was positive and we wanted to thank all of you for your words of encouragement, uplifting us in prayer, and your cards/visits/e-mails and, phone calls have been what has given us the strength to "hang in there!"

We are so grateful.
Thanks so much,
Irene for the Vázquez familia;
Orlando, Raquel, Panchis, Sammy and Sparky the Beagle
("The prayer of a righteous man, availeth much")

Cuba Missions Trip Update
Mission Trip 2008 Update 7-16-08
Depart from USA - Sunday, August 17th 
Return to USA - Sunday, August 25th

rganized Fundraisers are now over. Though, the team is still welcoming any and all donations for the trip.  The Cuba Missions Team meets every Sunday to go over the vacation bible school lessons and activities that will be put on for the children of Sancti Espiritus. 

Campus Crusade for Christ has donated several VHS cassetes of the "Jesus" story that will further share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Spanish to the people of Cuba.  I want to thank the many people who have given of their time and money to support this missions trip to Cuba.  God will bless you for your generosity.  Please keep our team and the trip in your prayers.  Thank you very much!

Sincerely, Frances

See Details on this trip See current donors list

FOOL, n. A person who claims to be present throughout the intellectual circles and dilutes himself through the channels of moral activity. He's a wannabe omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscience, omnipotent. He claims he it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the conga drum and the circle of the sciences. ...and also created patriotism and taught the nations war -- founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and The San Juan Ferry. In the twilight he prepares Man's evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up in the porch with a sewing kit to mend garments of the passersby... (No, it's not me.)
SEE THE AMAZING FOOL

Puerto Rican Memory
The history of a country... is generally written by the conquerors. The "conquered" seldom writes a thing. Many things contribute to the correct and accurate depiction of historical data. Sponsorship by the wealthy MORE

HOWSiDOiN Dept.
A Message from Irene Vázquez
(Mrs. Don Jíbaro)
ate last month, Don Jibaro (Orlando) had an accident. The van accidently ran over his left foot causing a four inch open gash that required thirty stitches. He was getting out of the van while it was still moving and the door knocked him down and dragged him. His body is suffering from post trauma and chest contusions/a sore rib cage when he breathes. A month ago he fell on the other leg and tore a ligament....  READ MORE

HOW TO SPEAK AMERICANO Dept.
Dumb Oxymorons Chaps Your Hide?
by Don Jibaro Barbanegra

long with the Spanish, I studied academic English and its literature in the schools of Puerto Rico from 1952 to 1964. My teachers made sure that the phonetics and dictions were executed flawlessly. However when I came to USA in 1973 I found that English was spoken much different to the stuff I had learned. They had stuff called "SLANG" that could be used to fit on any lirterary exchange. But that's another story. READ OXIMORONS

LICENSE AND REGISTRATION DEPT.
Don Jíbaro gets run over by car... his own car
Report by Don Jíbaro Barbanegra
—"¿Hello? ...This is 911. What's the nature of your emegency?"
—"¿Hello? HELP HELP !!!"
—"Sir, what's your emergency?
—"I got run over by my car and I'm on the floor bleeding..."
—"Sir.... You got run over by WHAAT? ¿Is this a joke?
—"NO JOKE, my name is Orlando and I'm wounded and bleeding on the corner of Limonite Blvd.and Hamner Ave."
—"Sir, the Paramedics will be there in about 3 minutes."

hree minutes later the fire engine and the ambulance surrounded me on the asphalt floor of the Mall's parking lot... while I looked in disbelief at my left foot, swimming in a pool of blood, my eyeglasses and shoes far into the yonderland. READ STORY
 

What's Wrong with the English Language
by Don Jibaro Barbanegra
My regarded opinion on linguistics rests on the premise that there's nothing more beautiful than romantic poetry or prose recited in the Classic Castillian Spanish while holding a long stem rose between... READ MORE

N U M B E R S

4,400,000,000,000 - $ combined wealth of the world’s 1,125 billionaires in 2008.

97,500,000 - million approximate number of American households that receive CNN, a reach surpassed only by Discovery, TNT, and ESPN.

735,000 - number of telephone numbers registered with the Do-Not-Call list on the day it went into effect.

10,000 - $ reward offered for Jesse James "dead or alive," for which a fellow gang member shot him dead at James’s home in Saint Joseph, Missouri, in 1882.

1,933 - length in miles of the border between the United States and Mexico.

824 - estimated 2008 population of Vatican City.

25 - length, in feet, of the tether attaching Edward H. White II to the Gemini spacecraft.

5 - fingers on one's hand.
MORE NUMBERS

The Puerto Rican Jesus

Controversy by Don Jíbaro Blackbeard

F YOU VISIT any town in Puerto Rico, most likely you'll see a church in the town's main plaza. Inside that church, for the most part, Jesus will be the focus of the congregation's faith. It has been like that for hundreds of years since the Spanish Friars were sent to proselyte the inhabitants of the the "New World". I didn't make it so, you didn't either, but that's just the way it is; and nothing is going to change that... not even statehood or independence, should it either ever come.