Thursday and Friday, I facilitated a participatory strategic planning
workshop for YOP Cameroon. Here are some photos: Me and the Vision chart;
Omer Songwe (the Coordinator and a BBC Journalist) and Dr. Maya (Board
Chair), participants getting untangled from the Knot exercise (these folks
succeeded!), and participants coming up with their 90-day implementation
plan.
The session went well. Fortunately, the bulk of the "real" work happens in
small groups because a lot of the youth are awfully shy about speaking up in
a big group.
I just had to share. These guys are so darn cute. And today they
accomplished the great feat of jumping up onto my bed. Not sure that's a
good thing. . .
- All Saints Catholic Church, Bayelle, where I most frequently attend services, has a very good acolyte training program. It is amazing to me tosee young boys with so much liturgical "presence". They move around and dotheir jobs with no fuss, virtually invisibly and they move so well togetherthat it's quite beautiful to watch. I was particularly delighted on Ascension Day when we had incense in church (INCENSE! Yay incense!) and a boy of probably 12-13 was the thurifer. He did a great job, too. Not overly showy, but confident and safe. Very impressive.
- The okada boys (young men who drive motorcycle taxis) have very particular fashion sense which cracks me up because clearly they define "cool" in Bamenda, at least among that sort of crowd, but their definition is so the opposite of any sense of "cool" I have. . . Case in point, cheap knockoff women's "designer" sunglasses are all the rage with them (think Jackie O on the yacht with Aristotle). The bigger the better. And apparently pink is a hot color. The first time I saw one of these guys in his pink women's "Dior" sunglasses I actually laughed out loud. I come from a culture
where cool men, with the sole exception of Don Johnson in his Miami Vice days, do NOT wear pink. - I'm pretty deep into the "job search" process these days and it's pretty hard on me. I've realized (just now?) that I don't take rejection very easily. That's not a particularly useful trait during a job search where you are bound to get more rejections than affirmations. And so far, the rejections are pitching a shut out game. . .
- I just finished reading Happiness by Mathieu Ricard. A book I would highly recommend, btw. Among many things in it, near the end he discusses the Buddhist approach to ethics. In addition to finding myself meditating almost daily (something I never thought I could/would/wanted to do), I now discover that, ethically at least, I'm a Buddhist all the way. It was a great relief, actually, to see it laid out as a "system" since I've always experienced my aversion to "theoretical ethics" as some sort of weakness on my part. I'll share more from this book in a future post.
Just posted some new photos on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlongacre/, a couple from my recent trip to the Far North, but mostly photos of the new kitties who are scrumptiously adorable!
Well, I created a photo slideshow with my photos and Shawn McDonald's "Captivated". You can download it at:
It is a Windows Media file (wmv) which, unfortunately will not run on a Mac (unless you can tell me how, if so, please do). It was a bear to upload at 8.5mb. I could convert it to an mp4 file, but the quality degrades tremendously unless I make it less than 50mb and I cannot really upload a file that large.
There's gotta be a more bandwidth efficient method of creating these. . .
I've been captivated by this song for the last several days. By a CCM (contemporary Christian Music) artist named Shawn McDonald who has an interesting personal story.
Captivated
When I look into the mountains I see Your face
When I look into the night sky it sparkles Your NameThe wind in the clouds and the blue in the sky
The sun and the moon and the stars so high
That's what draws me to YouChorus:
I am
I'm captivated by You
(You know that You do)
I am
I'm captivatedWhen I wake unto the morning it gives me your sights
When I look across the ocean it echoes Your mightThe sand on the shore and the waves in the sea
The air in my lungs and the way You made me
That's what draws me to YouChorus x2
The wind in the clouds and the blue in the sky
The sun and the moon and the stars so high
The sand on the shore and the waves in the sea
The air in my lungs and the way You made meThe blood in my veins and my heart You invade
The plants how they grow and the trees and the shade
The way that I feel and the Love in my soul
I thank you my God for letting me knowChorus x2
The other night, I was walking home from Acacia Bar and the sky was absolutely clear. It has been months and months and months since this was true, either due to rainclouds (since March) or the harmattan haze (Nov-Feb). But that night it was so clear and I looked up and nearly fell over from all the stars and their brightness. Simply awe-inspiring! There was the universe, God's creation, captivating me, yet again.
