Southern Africa

Continuing to fill in the blanks... in January I got to visit southern Africa for 2.5 weeks, where I added two new countries to my life list and nearly filled the last blank page in my passport. When I got back there was literally one blank side left. 

Bear with me, this post has a LOT of photos!

Lesotho - man in the background is my colleague Vuriyayi Pugeni

Again Lesotho, Growing Nations Trust

Debating details of conservation agriculture

Some food

A bit of material culture - I am fascinated by missionary subcultures; these books in a mission guesthouse really  index a time period

A farm in Mozambique

The Zambezi, view from the hotel we stayed at

Future garden site for a school in Zambia

This was a work trip, but we had some fun too, managing to squeeze in a half-day at Victoria Falls.

Bulawayo 

I didn't get many photos of Zimbabwe - I think I was just really tired by then. This is part of the Cape to Cairo thing. The African continent is really, really big. 

It was a good trip; it felt like way too long to be away from the kids and Terry, but it was a good trip. 

Conferencing

At the end of November, I went to DC for the annual anthropology conference; we also like to call it the nerd circus. I made incredible progress on my current sock project!

knitting + Star Wars = happy!

I also chaired a panel, that I was really proud of. We had 7 papers on reception of immigrants in rural US areas and there was really great synergy between the presentations, plus we had about 30 people show up to our 8 a.m. panel which is a really good showing (I have been at panels with 4 or 5 attendees, so that was what I was expecting). We didn't even have to add "in the age of Tr*mp" to the panel title (although that was kind of a secondary theme of the conference, so many talks had that as a reference point). So I'm looking at how to mobilize that energy and take it the next step (i.e. something published collectively). 

Ready to chair my panel
(75% repeat outfit from last time I presented)

I also had a couple days in Harrisonburg which was super helpful to start getting over the jet lag, connect with a bunch of people, update my ethnographic material, and pick up about 2/3 of our Lego collection to bring back to Tirana.

It's a lot more than it looks like

I've given the kids 3 of these bags and am holding back the rest for actual Christmas, along with a few other things. Legos are surprisingly heavy! But worth it - in addition to Lego Bethlehem, they've already created 4 or 5 different sets of their own, each with its own cast of characters and dramatic storylines. It's fun to be back.

Central Africa

I got back about 10 days ago from a trip to central Africa, my fist time in that region. It was amazingly beautiful. I flew into Kigali, and spent the next 2 weeks traveling around Lake Kivu - first to Goma, then Bukavu, then back to Kigali via a retreat center called Kibogora.

Leaving Kigali

My experience of Rwanda, and what I heard from most other expats living there, is of a very orderly, clean place. Plastic bags are totally banned, so people either bring their own cloth bags or use paper. On the first Saturday of every month, one person from every family goes out for a neighborhood clean-up day. There are wide new boulevards throughout the city. Security going into any big building was like going into an airport - metal detectors and bags x-rayed - but the mood on the street was relaxed and felt very safe. 

Ginger!

Entering Goma

We ate out a lot, I had some really amazing Indian food one night; I only got sick because I foolishly used tap water for brushing my teeth - rookie mistake. I was really ill for about 2 days and then slowly got better.

We had a lovely 3-hour boat ride across this lake

If I had to be sick though, this view more than made up for it:

Yes, this lake - now seen from Bukavu

I'm leaving out photos of the many interviews and meetings, but I just could not get over the beauty of this spot specifically (below) - there was something so perfect about the precise temperature and humidity of the air that just felt delicious on the skin. Although I recognized most of the ornamental garden flowers and plants I saw, the birds were something else - I'm not a birder but even in my ignorance I could tell I had never seen or heard these particular species before.

Retreat center in Kibogora

Such a blessing and privilege to be able to travel to this area.

Tentatively

There is a mythology of the expat aid worker, it’s sort of an inverted nationalism or perhaps a metaphor for marriage, in which you leave home and fall in love with another land. Once you’re as jaded as I am you come to realize that this is by no means the norm, but it somehow becomes a kind of holy calling, an ideal, a moral high ground – as long as you stay just short of actually “going native” this love for an adopted country is often worn as a badge of honor.

That hasn’t happened for us here in Colombia, and I’ve always felt terribly guilty about that. I don’t think this is the worst place on earth, but neither is it paradise. It’s just a place that I have failed to form any strong sense of attachment or connection to. And for this reason I have lost count of the times I've wondered whether coming here wasn't the hugest mistake. 

Last night though I was thinking about that emotional burden that I’ve placed on myself and began to consider alternative ways to look at the situation. For most of our time here I’ve believed that my lack of love for this place or its people has lowered the quality of my work, and that has been a source of shame for me. But then I began to wonder, what just is my motivation, if it isn’t love – and why am I ashamed? Maybe it’s actually more admirable, in a way, to do the work and strive to do it well even without love. They say that in marriage love is a choice you make; I think there is a parallel here because we’re talking about commitment. We made a commitment to living and working here because of something we believe in – service in the name of Christ, if you will (that’s our organization’s tagline) – and we’ve stuck it out. And I think that, overall, we’ve done a pretty good job of it.

I know I have grown tremendously, personally and professionally - and that we achieved what we came here for in the first place: living closer to family, our children learning Spanish. It hasn't been without a cost, but I'm beginning to feel that it might be possible that it has been, perhaps, worth it (have I added enough qualifiers there???)

We’ve begun the process of leaving, spending some time at the team retreat last weekend beginning to say our goodbyes. For the first time, it feels possible to actually leave well.

Indonesia

Right this minute I'm in Frankfurt, on my way back to Colombia after almost 2 weeks in central Java. It has been an amazing trip, not least because of my "entourage" - three young people who accompanied me throughout. The purpose of this trip was to interview people about our youth exchange programs, I think I talked with close to 100 people, and ate mounds of amazing food. 

Soto, cooked before our eyes in a street-side cart diner

2/3 of my Entourage! in yellow, Stephannie my interpreter and handler; in white next to her, Anielle my PR rep and agent. Not pictured: Alan the driver! This is at the Soto food stand

One night we stayed with a pastor and his wife at what they call the “pond house” – our only homestay on this trip – and there were so. Many. Critters! What you might expect from a pond house… to get there we drove and drove and drove on little country lanes with rice paddies stretching out all around on all sides and views of spectacularly pointy mountains around every bend. Little villages with elaborate tiled mosques and fish markets. We got lost and had to ask directions several times. The roads were narrow and bumpy. When we found the house the pastor and wife were waiting on a covered verandah waiting with hot jasmine tea and fried tempeh snacks, wearing matching batik button-down shirts. Behind the house was a 7-hectare fish pond (yes, it was enormous). This was the only place I stayed on the trip where there was no A/C and no Internet, it was kind of refreshing… but also got really hot!

The pond behind the pond house!

 When we went to bed, I saw about a thousand mosquitos on the ceiling around the light but Stephannie said they weren’t mosquitos. I put on a ton of repellent anyway. Then an enormous flying cockroach buzzed around the room. Stephanie killed it and then found another and killed that one too. The next morning while interviewing the pastor I saw a centipede on the floor. But it was so nice sitting on the bed for the better part of the day with my puffy feet up, the floor fan slowly rotating, looking out over the pond while my clothes dried in the sun and I typed up interview notes.

The bathroom system here is different. Every bathroom has a tiled water tank in one corner, with a spigot and a plastic dipper (about 2 liters size). There may be a squat toilet, what Albanians call Turkish style, or a regular sit toilet, but there is always a hose with a spray nozzle for washing your butt. What I can’t figure is how you are supposed to dry your butt after washing? There is never any toilet paper. The proper thing is to bathe twice a day, morning and evening, using cold water dipped out of the tank. Despite the poshness of the hotels, in only two of them has there been truly hot water for showering. (You know how I love my hot showers…)

 I feel like my body odor has changed from all the spices in the food.

Fried frog legs! I also had them in the soup version which was delicious. Add enough garlic, lemongrass, and spices and anything tastes amazing!

After a dozen of these lunches I think I gained at least 10 lbs on this trip:

beautiful countryside. It also rained every day.

This Christmas tree was made entirely out of plastic water bottles and cups cut into flower shapes!

It was a really amazing opportunity to see this country and meet so many people. Sadly the only phrase in Bahasa Indonesian that I really learned was "Terima kasih," which means "thank you." But I sure got to say it a lot :-)

This post is political

I don't normally do this, but only an ogre turned to stone by the morning light could fail to feel something after Sunday's plebiscite vote to reject the peace accords. 

A few weeks ago, we went as a family to a musical event organized by our kids' school. The second part of the show was organized by the school's music teacher, Oscar, whom my kids adore. Terry and I were rapt - the collection of songs were an incisive, clever, and heartfelt commentary on Colombia, in that particular intersection of politics and culture that we both find so fascinating. It was so good. 

The video embedded below is a small sample, a song about militarization that ends with a vision of the hopes and dreams of all people for a decent life. 

On Sunday, I watched people going to Corferias (a large expo center across the street) to vote all day long, even running in at the last minute before polls closed at 4. I was shocked ten minutes later, watching a live feed of the vote counting, to see how narrowly the Yes vote was leading. Every ten minutes a new update showed the gap closing, until 5:00 in the afternoon when it became clear that the No vote had pulled ahead. Honestly, I was stunned, and my eyes were not dry.

It seems like this turn of events was completely unexpected, by everyone; even the opposition had no plan to put forward on Monday when the president asked for a meeting and sent his negotiators back to Havana.

Here is a sample of analysis that I've been reading (as of right now there is still no news on today's meetings between the president and opposition):

Ginny Bouvier, from the U.S. Institute for Peace: Why Did Colombia's Plebiscite for Peace Fail?

Something I'm still trying to get a bead on - how significant was the No vote from churches (Catholic and Protestant)? An article from BBC in Spanish: El Rol de las Iglesias Evangélicas en la Victoria del No.

From a peace church perspective, Michael Joseph gives a synopsis of the ins and outs of what happened and what lies ahead.

There are many more op-eds coming out these days, here's one from the New Yorker with a lot of "I was there" detail from the day of the signing.

This afternoon, university students are planning a silent march through the center of the city, evoking past marches in grief over the violence that has torn this country apart for so long.

(probably more like 7 million)

For now, trying to understand, and thinking about how to contribute my grain of sand within my small sphere of influence here.

Good things, September edition

One of my favorite things in life is working with intercultural young people. Or, in this case, young people in the process of becoming (more) intercultural. It is such a huge leap of faith for this crew of six (waiting for one more to get his visa and come from China) to have traveled so far outside of their comfort zone, and come to Colombia - from Mozambique, India, Indonesia, China, the United States, and South Africa. The past two weeks have been an intense but wonderful time working with them in their in-country orientation, learning about Colombian history, politics, and churches, as well as a host of topics specific to the work they will be doing here. I have been very pleased with their can-do attitudes, curiosity, and willingness to serve. Off they go today!

Work/Life (updated with photo!)

This is a busy month for us. So instead of 2-3 posts a week I'm aiming for 2-3 posts this month...!

We just wrapped up a week-long learning tour and symposium with three visiting professors. The great thing about these events for me is I learn so much - taking them around places means I see things that I don't see every day, talk to people I don't interact with nearly enough, and hear things that add to my accumulating knowledge. I was humbled realizing how little I know even after four years here.

Our learning tour group visiting a school - photo credit Elaine Barge

For example, yesterday I walked with one international visitor all along the Septima, or 7th St. Since it was a holiday it was all closed to traffic (although even on normal days portions of it are strictly pedestrian). We found the flea market, which I had never been to before, even though I'd wanted to... in daily life I just don't make space for that kind of thing. Buskers, vendors, lots of people on bicycles - it was a fun day.

Doodle, for when I can't knit during meetings

Tomorrow we begin receiving our one-year volunteers from around the world. Due to an unusual confluence of events, this year we are expecting seven, from six different countries. Visas have been an usually major headache which makes me nervous about our own visa renewals next month (but that's another story). So we are gearing up for their in-country orientation, and resolving a thousand little details around their housing, language study, and so forth.

One thing that I have learned in these nearly-four years here is to trust my intuition. I don't always know why I feel a particular prompt, but I've found that listening to that still, small inner voice is so important. When I don't, I always regret it.

Hot-duras

Happy June! This year is flying by, at least since things started to get busy at the end of April. We just got back from a week-long trip to Honduras (or, as the kids called it, Hot-duras) for work meetings with the whole family. Here are some photos of the backs of their heads:

With two of the Guatemala reps' daughters, at the finca where we stayed near Lago Yojoa

On our last day there, visiting a rural school where they were crowning the queen of the flowers.

There was a pool at this place, Finca Las Glorias, so the kids were happy, in and out of the water whenever we were on breaks from meetings. There were hammocks and horses too. One morning after a big rainstorm we found a big brown frog near the pool, and a broken egg-shell that looked as if it had been empty for a while. We saw caterpillars and squirrels, and birds unnumbered. One thing we did not see that I over-prepared for was hordes of mosquitos! I took three different kinds of mosquito repellent and applied it to the kids religiously, because of Zika, but although I got three bites the first night even Gabe who is mosquito crack only got maybe two bites the whole week. So that was a pleasant surprise actually.

I think though we were all happy to be back home in "Cold-lombia" (although the kids staunchly rejected that nickname). We spent the day yesterday doing massive loads of laundry and equally massive grocery shopping trips. Today (Monday) is a holiday so we are home for a relaxing day again although Terry went up to the office just for a bit.

In just two weeks we'll be in the US for our second home leave! I'm looking forward to seeing lots of friends and family and hitting up the secondhand stores for new clothes especially for Val. The kids are both growing so fast, I think Val will soon be out of a booster seat entirely. I'm looking forward to the farmer's market and the library, and sorting through more stuff to get rid of. This trip is timed for just a year before the end of our term so I also anticipate a lot of introspective musing as well, my true spiritual gift :-).

Ecuador

We just got back from a 4-day team retreat, during which the earthquake in Ecuador happened. Three of our team work in Quito with Colombian refugees, and will be providing support in some way, but there is a church-sponsored initiative in the works in coordination with MCC.

Meanwhile, Gabe and I spent some time during the retreat rescuing beetles from spiderwebs and bandaging a cut on his toe.

Chocó

I found this post in my "drafts" folder unfinished but thought I'd post it now just because I want to hit my goal of 2 posts a week, even though I once said I wasn't going to blog about work!

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Terry just got back from a two-day trip to the region known as el Chocó, on the Pacific coast of Colombia. The photos in this post are all from a previous trip he took to the region. I've been able to visit several times in the past three years and it's always a pleasure.

It's a very hot and humid area - I think even hotter and more humid than Yarina, where Anita and I grew up. It rains pretty much every day. Most of the travel is by river.

It's also an area that has suffered a great deal. Foreign mining companies, guerrillas, paramilitaries, and the elusive coca-to-cocaine industry are all currently active in the area, and it is the small-scale farmers, as always, who are caught in the cross-fire. 

This region of Colombia was originally settled by various indigenous people groups; when the Spanish colonizers found gold there, they brought in boatloads of slaves from Africa to do the difficult work of extracting it from the riverbeds. However hundreds of slaves escaped and established their own communities deep in the jungle, and have been living there for hundreds of years now. So the majority of people in this region even now are Afro-descendents.

One sad result of the cocaine industry moving in is that many people have abandoned their cultivation of food crops, in order to grow coca which fetches an exponentially higher price. So nearly all the food is brought in from outside the region, which means that anytime an armed group wants to flex their muscle, they blockade the area and bring it to its knees.

One initiative that our organization has been involved in for several years is supporting a church-based project for replacing coca with cacao. Currently, the farmers involved are exploring avenues for  marketing their produce. 

It's a big question what will happen in this area once peace accords are signed. Will the armed groups really lay down arms, or will they morph into something else in order to maintain control of narco-trafficking?

They're all flexing their muscles; an armed strike was held last week that basically shut down the whole area. When that happens, people start running out of food since nothing can come in our out.

Just last month the Mennonite Brethren churches in Colombia celebrated 70 years of existence as a denomination here. They've weathered a lot of storms, violence and persecution. Our hope is that through our presence we may help them weather the coming ones.

Context

This is what happens when I forget to bring my knitting to a staff meeting

Last Saturday, I don't think I left our apartment complex. I had found an old, worn-out basketball court behind the utility shed and community vegetable garden that I thought would be ideal for sidewalk chalk - and it was! The kids and I drew rainbows and zucchinis and traced outlines of things and ourselves, played line tag and splashed in puddles. It started to rain and by afternoon all traces of our play time there were gone.

The next day I saw the messages and news items about all the crazy political stuff going on right now - the right-wing backlash to the current peace negotiations. Seriously, WHO stands up and says they're against peace???!?

Well... there are those who benefit from the conflict, frankly, so I suppose it really shouldn't be all that shocking.

But it's sad.

There's a sign I walk by on the way home from work, "future site of the museum of peace," with a picture of two dark Afro-colombian hands holding each other, and a beatifically smiling grandmother holding a red rose. I think it is ridiculous. It sentimentalizes peace. Peace-building work, after decades of armed conflict, is not a feel-good proposition. Dealing with the memories of all that pain, the processes of truth and reconciliation, will be extremely hard.

There are signs and graffitis for peace all over the city. I understand the fatigue and how tired people are of the conflict and the heavy toll it has taken on this country. It's hard to see those calls for peace being answered with increased and further violence.

Ah yes...

I wrote a blog post for MCC's Latin America/Caribbean Advocacy Blog, about Biblical perspectives on migration (which caused me to go on an investigative mission to learn whether "Biblical" should be capitalized or not). Enjoy!

Outlet

Well! I ended up unplugging for much more than a week - more like a month! It was fantastic. And hard to get back into the swing of regular e-mail reading etc. But we're back at the office now, although it's been quite quiet since a lot of people are at MWC Assembly at the moment.

I'll be back over the next half of the month to post more about the delegation that came, our trip to Peru, Gabriel's fifth birthday, and more - meanwhile here are some "sneak peek" photos of all of the above.

10-year anniversary of Sembrandopaz in Sincelejo, Colombia

The community of Pichilín shares their hopes and dreams for sustainable life while remembering lives lost in a massacre ten years ago.

Feria de Huancaro in Cusco, Peru! My sister and nieces in background

Gabriel's fifth birthday and first piñata!

One of our favorite spots - the stone slides at Sacsahuayman above Cusco

Cousin time!

At a retreat center in Bochica, Colombia