tuesday 7/24

Tuesday-
Today was mostly light and joyful. I am finding that this trip is becoming less and less about what we’re doing, and more and more about the conversations with people, the relationships built, the people we are becoming. Well, maybe the trip was always about that, but we needed the tasks to get us to understanding that. Not to say that there aren’t tasks- there are, and they are valid, and they are being accomplished. But something more important is happening too.

The morning started with breakfast- a slightly smaller group as four of us had already headed to the widows house, which is actually beginning to look like a house! Well at least you can picture it- the bricks are coursed to about waist high. They needed to set before we went higher at this point. And when I say we, I mean they, because I was part of the office team this morning. We also sent some people to the “growing God’s way” garden.

At breakfast, Alex told us about his dream from last night, and it was amazing. Many of us have been having strange dreams due to our malaria meds, but Alex’s was fantastic. Even though this is mostly a journal to share with you all what I am learning and processing, I am going to briefly retell the dream because it’s so great, and alex is great, and I want to remember it forever. Alex starts by asking if we know what magic, the gathering is (it’s a card game, sort of). I ask alex if he plays it, and his response was “I used to….. and I still do”. So in the dream, he is going to a magic tournament, and he is facing his rival, but it’s $300, and he has to make some money. Luckily he works at a bank and can get screen names and passwords, (at this point, I ask if his plan was identity theft, to which he said “yes”) so he goes to start that, then leaves for his other job, which is as a bicycle inspector. And if he fails your bike, you can’t ride your bike at all. So his rival, who, as it turns out, is John Goodman, is in line, and alex has this moral dillema about whether to pass or fail John Goodman. He decided to fail him, because John Goodman is his rival, and he doesn’t like him. So John Goodman puts a hit out on alex, because he can’t come after him, since he can’t ride his bike. Somehow there’s a casino in the story as well. But anyway, when he’s running from John Goodman’s hitman, he get’s on a bus that has a sign that says “no card needed” which is important, since he left his wallet on the plane (in real life). And people come and get him and start interrogating him about his computer use at college, and when he’s in the middle of that, he flashes back to 1936. and then he wakes up, so we’ll never no why. And if john goodman’s hit man gets him, and if he wins the magic tournament.

So. Like I said, I was part of the office team. We had heard that the shelves were put up, so we decided it was time to start filling them with the donations that we have. So we sorted and packed up and headed over to the office. Well, some of the shelves were done. One set. In the back room. This is Africa- and how it goes. But we decided to put things up on those shelves. And we went back and forth another time, with a decent amount of sitting and resting in between because it was a hot day. Then we had to figure out how to get to the widow’s house for lunch. We talked our way into a ride with the lunch in the back of the pick up truck, which was an adventure, sitting on the rails and holding on for dear life.

In the afternoon, Michele and I sat down to figure out the money situation- what we’ve spent where. We’ve got it mostly figured out. Then she, Foster and I walked over to the library to check our email. It’s not so exciting for me, since I’ve prepped everyone that I’ll be out of the country and not able to get email- except that I found out that my harry potter book and my swim suit have both shipped, which is fun. Of course, on the way to the library, we picked up a few kids, and so while we were waiting for computers, we sat and read stories to them. As I was attempting to catch the attention of one young boy with the story I am reading, I notice foster next to me has gotten a math book that he’s reading to a couple of little boys. And then they all went and got math books to look at. It was so very funny. And in the mean time Michele is reading goodnight moon to the boy on her lap and getting him to repeat each word. I am having much less luck with the hungry caterpiller, and it’s more fun to listen to Foster anyway.

The last few hours of the afternoon were spent in conversations- I feel like I am getting to know matt and ari better, which is fun. I feel kindred to levi, and I’d like to get to know steve better. I just really like foster and taylor, and want to know mary and tasha more, because I feel like they bring a lot to the table that is outside of my experience.


Tonight, our community time was discussing the beatitudes (Matthew 5). It was a great discussion- I am working on the idea that the American idea of blessing and the “blessings” in this passage are two very different things. And that maybe we are blessed in some ways, especially with resources, but not for our own benefit- it’s for the benefit of the whole church. But it’s too easy to set ourselves down and say look how much favor God has on us, and then do nothing further. It’s also hard to shake the notion of the amount of things that we have is proportionate to God’s love for us- it’s a very ingrained in the way we interact in relationship. But it’s not necessarily correct. Even categorizing blessing, and comparing may be a wrong mindset. It’s so hard to pick apart what I think about things and evaluate it- what is worthy, what is off.