Posts (page 2)
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.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, miracle of miracles after 6 1/2 weeks, last night I came home and voila! I had lights, power, electricity. So sweet. So, so sweet. Backed up my computer, charged my toothbrush, turned on the lights! As you can see, it doesn't take much to get me excited :-)
This morning after my run, I just automatically put water on the cooker to heat up. It wasn't until I was pouring it into my wash bucket that I realized, "oh duh, I could have used my handy electric wand heater." Apparently they are right when they say it takes 4 weeks to create a habit!
This morning I had an initial job interview (they are interviewing by phone to shortlist who they will fly in for a face-to-face interview). I think it went reasonably well. I'm sure I don't really have any perspective on it, it is pretty difficult to read "the space" over the phone. But, personally, I think I am a very good fit for the job, possibly even a bit overqualified. They are moving pretty fast so I should know in a couple of days if I've been shortlisted. I really appreciate that.
This job is one of 3 opportunities that I will find out about in May. I started getting anxious, wound up, about how would I decide, but then I realized that is just crazy. I don't have any choice to make yet and who knows if I will? But the most effective thing that happened was the other night, my mind was getting all in knots and some part of me just popped up out of the morass and prayed, "God, please help me, when I'm faced with a choice, to follow my heart's desire." And as I said it, I realized that was what I really wanted -- to follow my heart's desire. Not to make the most practical choice or the most lucrative choice or the choice that would be the best for my career or whatever else. No, what I really want to do is follow my heart's desire. Knowing that so clearly is a wonderful tonic for my mind.
In the West (well, definitely the US and the UK at least), we are constantly told that "time is money" and we really do believe it. And we believe that this means time is valuable and that we are aware of its value.
I wonder if perhaps the opposite isn't true. Here in Cameroon, time is definitely not money. Time is free. It's the one thing everyone has plenty of. I'm not sure if it necessarily follows, but I notice that my Cameroonian colleagues experience much less stress and they celebrate significant life events (weddings, funerals, births) with much more vigor.
Here are a few lyrics from one of my favorite songs ("Life Means So Much" by Chris Rice) which I think illustrates this perspective:
Everyday is a bank account
And time is our currency
So no one’s rich, nobody’s poor
We get twenty-four hours each
So how are you gonna spend?
Will you invest or squander?
Try to get ahead?
Or help someone who’s under?Teach us to count the days
Teach us to make the days count
Lead us in better ways
Somehow our souls forgot
Life means so much
Well, the bad/sad news is that only two kittens have survived. They seem strong though and their eyes are just now opening.
The good news? I've applied for a lot of jobs and other opportunities for after VSO and one of those was to be a UN Volunteer and they just offered me an opportunity. That doesn't mean I'll get it (they offer it to 3 or so people), but it felt really great to be *wanted*. Really good.
Sadly, this morning I had to lay two of the newborns to rest. So now we are down to four and one of those is not moving as much as the rest nor eating as much. The good news is the other three are quite active, aggressive about eating and very mobile (for 6 day old kittens with their eyes still shut). It's sad, though, I was hoping we'd have a big batch this time.
