Blizzard in Tunisia

Joshua, in front of the Amen Bank in Sousse, Tunisia

This fog rolled in like a blizzard. We were laying on our backs, watching the Leonids meteor shower. Joshua saw a couple meteors. I saw a few.

Joshua on a quad

Joshua getting ready for our departure. He drove most of the hour.

Kuriat Islands, Tunisia

They are about 18 kilometers off the coast of Monastir, Tunisia.

View Larger Map

This is our pirate ship. I'm holding the camera about one inch above the surface of the water.

I'm in the water, behind our pirate ship.

Joshua is climbing down into the water. He was glad we didn't see any jelly fish in the water. We saw three large red jelly fish on the way there.

Something growing on a steel pole off the coast of Kuriat Island, Tunisia. I assume it is coral.

My favorite fish today. The stuff falling around him is some left over broiled fish from lunch. The workers assured me it was a waste of time to put cooked fish in the water, but it drew over 50 fish to me in minutes.

This is the clearest fish photo I took today.

Camel Ride in Douz Tunisia

Mike on his camel

Mike and Sue after our camel ride

Mike, Sue and Joshua

Joshua feeding turtles

Our neighbor in our building has several of these turtles in the garden by or back door.

I debated with myself, whether I should rotate this photo correctly, with Joshua above. What do you think?

Acqua Palace Sousse

This is a view of the lazy river that circles around the kiddie pool and the wave pool from the kiddie pool.

The kiddie pool with mini water slides

Joshua with the big water slides

This is the Google map of the Acqua Palace. It has reasonable prices for food and drinks. The price for a day pass is about $10 for children and $14 for adults.

Joshua playing accordion

Joshua really thought this accordion was fun to play.

Saw a jellyfish

Aequorea Victoria jellyfish off the coast of California. See full resolution‎ (1,600 × 1,200 pixels, file size: 450 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Joshua and I were snorkeling north of Sousse this evening. We happened across a small jelly fish that resembled an Aequorea Victoria. Joshua did a quick u-turn for the beach. We were about 50 yards from the shore.

I didn't want anything to happen to him, off alone. What if he saw another jelly fish on his way back without me? So I quickly grabbed his arm with one hand. I studied the transparent jellyfish, less than 3 inches in diameter, with black specks around its bell perimeter. Joshua will say it was much larger! I couldn't see any long tentacles.

Josh enjoyed looking at our jellyfish for a very short time. It started to swim toward our faces. :-0 Joshua shouted through his snorkel tube, "I'm getting out of here!" As I held him tight, I raised my right hand and pushed enough water toward the jellyfish to change its direction. Then it propelled itself gently out to sea, a beautiful sight to see! Wish we had a camera with us.

Some extremely important rules of SCUBA diving or snorkeling we learned in Dakar, Senegal:

• Always dive with a buddy! Never, ever, dive alone! Keep an eye on your buddy. Make sure everything is OK. When something happens to you, your buddy could be the difference between your life and death.
• Relax! Being relaxed in water is vital in an emergency. When something happens, follow these steps: stop, breathe, think and act. Never panic and immediately flee or surface. You can make a minor situation fatal.

Joshua and Sandy

Joshua and Sandy at the Kantaoui Golf Course

Kantaoui Golf Course

Mike and Sandy walking the Panoramic Course

We're at the tee for the green on the other end of the lake. The Mediterranean Sea is the darker blue that merges with the blue sky in the back ground, beyond the white buildings.

Joshua at the practice green

Sue Leading Christmas Carols

Josh is next to the TV

Singing Christmas Carols

Joshua Eating Lebanese Ice Cream

It was very sweet and stretchy.

Joshua Taekwondo Red Belt 2nd degree

Taekwondo Joshua and Issa

Joshua's Taekwondo Red Belt

Issa and Joshua

Joshua blue belt test

Mohamed and Joshua

They both passed their tests to move on to the next Taekwondo belts. Josh did a great job.

Abidjan Zoo elephant

John is feeding Cany the elephant

Abidjan Zoo black Emperor scorpion

This black Emperor scorpion was on the ground at the zoo in one of the separation areas that keeps animals separate from the visitors. Joshua spotted it crawling around. It was larger than my size ten feet.

Abidjan Zoo

This turtle is over 60 years old.

Cany the elephant is 16 years old

Mike, Sue, Josh, John and George Assouf

George arrived to tour the zoo with us. This is a large Silk Cotton tree or Kapok (Ceiba pentrandra). Notice how the trunk branches out into supports. In French it is called a Fromager. Fromager is French for cheese tree, because the ripe seedpod smells like cheese.

John and Sue

The others were all on this bench that was on two piles of dirt a foot above the ground. Erosion had worn away the surrounding dirt.

Josh, John , Sue and Mike

As I joined them, the ground crumbled and it tipped forward. John caught the bench as we jumped from it. Then we took this photo.

Water Baseball

Joshua's Baptism

Gavin Johnson, Joshua and Mike

Josh was so excited when he came up out of the water. He clenched his hands in victory. It was so much fun!

Joshua and a forest crocodile

Singing in Bambara

John, Joshua and Sue with the CCC 808 team singing a song in Bambara for the Modeste C&MA Bambara congregation. They also sang a song in English.

Luke Skywalker's house Matmata, Tunisia

Tunisian Camel ride

Camel ride clothes

Mike, Sue, Joshua camel ride clothes in Douz, Tunisia

Taekwondo class

Joshua's Taekwondo green belt test

Joshua taking his test for green belt

Aleria beach crab

Mike, Joshua, Nassif

I was able to capture this crab on the beach. He is actually holding on to my stick, so he thinks he captured me. When we set the stick down on the ground, he ran off into the ocean. We are at the Aleria Beach, a less expensive beach not far from Abidjan.

Flight simulator

We're getting our instructions about how to operate the flight simulator at the SAC Air and Space Museum

John's motorcycle

We're in the parking lot of the SAC Air and Space Museum near Ashland, NE

Krispy Kreme window painting

Joshua's Baseball team medals

Bob Thune Jr and Bob Thune Sr. took the boys out to celebrate at Krispy Kreme

Joshua's Baseball team

Bob Thune Jr. was Joshua's coach

Oceans of Fun KC, MO

After swimming all day in the various pools, we took this photo.

Boating with Fred Link

Golfing with Fred Link

Joshua had a great time golfing, but he liked driving the golf cart even more!

Joshua golfing in Platsmouth, NE with Fred Link

Des Moines Science Center

The Center had these huge models of insects. Joshua was running so fast from insect to insect, that I couldn't get a photo of him.

First Federated Church Motor Fest

Joshua is doing the Pit Stop Challenge, to see how fast he can change a tire

Westside Church Omaha DVBS

This was the final celebration for the week of daily vacation Bible school at Westside Church in Omaha, NE. Josh was waiting in line to put pie in the face of one of the teachers. He couldn't resist a taste of the wipped cream topping.

Sue, Mike, Joshua

We're at a mini-missions conference at Rosemont Alliance Church

Henry Doorley Zoo Peacocks

Joshua and Sue visited teh Henry Doorly Zoo with the Winters Family

Luncheon at FFC

Sue and John Porter are standing behind Joshua and Roy Porter

First Federated Church hosted a luncheon for us to share our ministry. Sue sang and spoke while we showed videos of our ministry on the TV screens. This was the last time that Roy was able to attend church before he died on May 22, 2007

Ringling Brothers Museum and Mansion

We visited the Ringling Brothers Museum and Mansion in Sarasota, FL with a large group of of homeschoolers.

Disney World

Here we are in the Magic Kingdom, thanks to Wendy, who took this photo and provided our day passes. We had a wonderful day!

Disney World Discipline

Now we know what teachers did before Ritalin and Adderall

Skim Boarding New Smyrna Beach FL

King size 4x4

Joshua really liked this big Ford Ranger.

Joshua Kayaking in Marion NC

Windy Gap North Carolina

How exciting to visit the Young Life Windy Gap Camp on my 51st birthday. Joshua and I are standing on the trail where I knelt and put my faith in Christ alone for salvation at about 9 PM, May 29, 1977.

Driving lawn tractor

In Asheville, NC, Joshua drove Pastor Overmoyer's mower day and night

The Simon Family

We had a great stay with the Simons. They are members at the Statesville Alliance Church. Tom, Joyce and all the children are great folks. We even had freshly rolled oats for breakfast! Joshua loved playing in their yard. We hated to leave.

Carting near Lexington, NC

Josh was thrilled when he got invited to go carting and bow and arrow shooting. We had a great time sharing our ministry at the two C&MA churches in Lexington, Grace Alliance and First Alliance.

Cingular NASCAR race car

Lexington, North Carolina has lots of nice race cars! Josh really liked this orange Cingular beauty.

George's birthday with Joshua, Nassif, Fauzi

Joshua's 9th birthday

Nassif, Joshua, Haris, Gad

Joshua Tennis

Paris Eiffel Tower

Mike, Sue, Claire, Philippe and Joshua

We're standing across the street from the Eiffel Tower, at Place Trocadero Square. I put my Kodak Z7590 on 1.6 second exposure to get the tower all lit up and the flash to light us.

Marrakesh round point

Night photo at the round point by the train station in Marrakesh, Morocco. In French it is written Marrakech.

Josh bought his own Côte d'Ivoire soccer outfit today

If you aren't wearing orange, white, and green (the colors of the Ivorian flag) on this week, you really stand out against the colorful crowd. People are even wearing colored wigs and draping Ivorian flags over their cars. It is quite exciting to see everybody so happy and enthusiastic.

Kayaking with Ahmed

Joshua and Ahmed

We were at the Oceanium scuba club in Dakar, Senegal and rented two kayaks to go out on the ocean. We saw a huge beautiful Portuguese man-o-war. It gave us quite a scare. We were glad that we were in our kayaks and not in the water when it passed by us.

Joshua's 1st SCUBA Dive

Translation:
The Oceanium diving center and the fish of
Dakar had the pleasure of the first dive:
Joshua Farho
March 22, 2006

Joshua dived to 3 meters, about 9 feet, and saw many fish and even some sea urchins. He doesn't like them at all. His dive lasted about 20 minutes. He was too cold to continue on much longer. The water that day was cold, about 17C or 63F. I, Mike, dived at a different location that day. I wore two diving suits to stay warm.

Joshua's Tennis lesson

Joshua keeps his eye on the ball

Joshua's tennis lesson

Laurent is Joshua's tennis coach at the Club Athletic

New Year 2006

Nassif and Joshua celebrate the New Year 2006.

We're at a little Lebanese pizza restaurant in Beitry quarter of Abidjan with Fauzi. It is the first time we've been out to celebrate a new year since the first coup d'etat in December 1999. Holidays became a time of danger in Cote d'Ivoire. We just returned to Cote d'Ivoire last November.

Chicken Farm: Joshua

Chicken Farm: John and Joshua

Christmas 2005 Joshua and John

Barracuda N'Gor Island Senegal

Josh is holding a Barracuda head he found on the beach at Dakar that faces Ngor Island, Senegal

Joshua wall climbing

Joshua

Joshua and Mr. Potato head at Sylvans

Joshua's snowman

Las Vegas Ski Area

- It was a rough drive up the mountain, with the heaviest snowfall of the year. Security chains or 4wd were required to continue past a certain point. We parked on the side of the road and searched my brother-in-laws pick-up for chains. Someone came looking for help with a problem. We helped him, and he showed us our 4wd button low on the dashboard.

We were curious how this sports car got up the mountain.
Do you know what it is?

We assumed this was the home of some employee of the ski slope.

Joshua decided he would use a snowboard, rather than skis for his first attempt. He'd done snow boarding on video games, so he thought he could handle the real thing. His hands were frozen after our first descent. So that was all we were able to do the whole day.

That was OK with Sue, as she was content to hang out in the warm ski lodge. Our Africanized blood freezes below 80F. We never saw John, he was off skiing with his cousins, who left ahead of us from Las Vegas.

Vegas Christmas

Back row left to right: Jimmy Porter, Jan Porter, Joshua Farho
Middle row left to right: John Porter, John Farho, Joseph Porter, Jay Porter, Roy and Rhonda Porter, Jim Porter
Front row left to right: Jason and Christina Porter, Sue and Mike Farho

Clive, Iowa Fire Station

Adventureland: Mike and Joshua

Adventureland: Joshua

Adeventureland Ferris Wheel: Mike, Sue and Joshua

Adventureland: Joshua merry go round

Joshua's go cart ride

Lake Tahoe Mustang Convertible

Mustang Convertible Lake Tahoe

In the California mountains at Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe California

Farho Family, Roy and John Porter

John's graduation party

John's High School Graduation

John graduated from Westside High School in District 66, Omaha, NE on May 22, 2004

Easter 2004

Celebrating Easter with Philippe Saliba in Abidjan

Easter 2004 Passover

We like to do a Passover service every year as a family. Josh gets a kick out of the feet washing.

Farho Family: John, Mike, Joshua, Sue

Joshua sick Malaria

Farho Family at SIL Dakar

Sue and Joshua praying

Joshua at Hotel Ivoire

Joshua playing guitar

Joshua's new cowboy boots

Joshua's 4th birthday

Joshua feeding baby deer

Mike and Joshua