My Father was a Wandering Aramean

Slight Detour

2010-01-04T17:25:00.003-05:00

In an attempt to organize my life, I've moved my blog so it fits with my current email address.

In other words, click this... New Blog Address.

Missionary Affluence and a Crucified King

2009-05-02T12:56:00.006-04:00

One of the interns gave a seminar based upon Jonathan Bonk's book "Missions and Money," which addresses the issue of missionary affluence overseas. Bonk points out that most missionaries are believed to be making huge sacrifices by their peers from their home country. Missionaries give up much in terms of what "could have been" if they had stayed home. Most missionaries, however, still live in incredible affluence compared to the poor people they live among. Affluence doesn't have to look like TV's and vacations in Spain; in some contexts, affluence is a tin roof. Affluence is access to hospitalization, or the ability to leave the country if things get hot politically.

How exactly are we, as representatives of Christ, called to model him who "though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor?" How do we witness to a Jesus who asks us to die with him that we may live, and commands us to give to all who ask of us, and yet still do so faithfully from within the walls of a missionary complex? How do we find the proper balance between living wisely and caring for our families, and yet still exemplifying the kind of self-denying life that Christ calls us to when we take up our crosses and follow him?

I don't have easy answers to these questions (perhaps because there are not easy answers to these questions). It is good to be challenged though, and to prayerfully reflect.

I'm beginning the process of seeking out next steps. I still have no idea where I'll go when I finish here at ECHO, but I am excited to find out. There are so many organization working overseas, and so many potential countries and programs, that it is very difficult to narrow down my options with any confidence. Things would be much easier if I was given a clear calling to a particular place, but until then I must learn to prayerfully discern his will in each decision, and trust that he will guide my steps at the proper times.

I'm going to Chattanooga next weekend for Heather's graduation, and I couldn't be more excited. I only wish I had longer. I'll be in Marietta next in early July, and I'm hoping to have an entire week to catch up with people who I won't have seen for several months.

What season is it again?

2009-02-20T21:10:00.004-05:00

Time seems to be unusually short here at ECHO right now, which means that a lot has been happening. Here are some highlights...

Freezes

In January we had a number of sub-freezing nights, which for our farm is pretty bad news. Here in North Fort Myers we are technically a sub-tropical environment, but many of our trees are native to very tropical areas. Our distance from the equator means that any temperature below about 30 degrees F is potentially devastating for many of our plants (mangoes, avocadoes, lychees, longans, etc.). Of course, the tomatoes don't care for freezing temperatures either (this is veggie season here, you recall).

Each night there was a freeze, interns stay up in shifts, monitoring thermometers around the campus. When temperatures plummet, we turn on overhead sprinklers and coat every plant in a thick layer of ice. For scientific reasons that completely evade me (even after explanation), constantly freezing a plant keeps the temperature constant, and so protects it from the sub-freezing air. A lot of things still died, but the farm looked pretty cool in the morning!

Farm Challenge

For one week earlier this month, all the interns participated in something called the "Farm Challenge," which means we were only allowed to eat food off of the farm (plus water, salt, and oil). Consequently, eating became a much more premeditated act. Veggies were harvested daily, corn was ground for cornmeal, and people got unusually creative with their recipes.

In the end, we all ate pretty well. Here's an example of some of our meals...

Goat meat, dry rubbed with citrus, fresh herbs, and olive oil. Goat and Rabbit sausage on a bed of cooked greens and onions. Rice with ginger stir-fried brocolli, sugar peas, green beans and carrots. Fried green tomatoes. Corn bread with farm honey, peanut butter or molasses. Fresh squeezed orange juice and lemonade. Ginger, lemon, and honey tea. Mmm.

Tech Request

On Tuesday and Thursday mornings this month I have been on Tech Request, which means I joined the team of staff responsible for answering technical questions sent to ECHO from missionaries and development workers in the field. In addition to being a good deal of fun, being on Tech Request was a great opportunity to become more involved with ECHO's international ministry. The questions are varied and often unusual. What are some potential forages for horses in Haiti? What is the best way to germinate Dragon Fruit seeds? Is it possible to feed rabbits (for meat) completely off of foraged greens? If I build a tree house in my Jackfruit tree, will the tree survive???

Being on Tech Request has helped to remind me of why I am here to begin with (and what ECHO exists for). I find it all too easy to become caught up in the busy schedule of plantings and trainings, and forget the overarching mission.

Pray that God would make me passionate about the things that He is passionate about, and that he would teach me to listen for his guidance over and above my own. I think I have a lot of weaknesses for his strength to be made perfect in.

New year, new lessons

2009-01-17T13:28:00.005-05:00

And so ends a year of surprises. Certainly, I would never have guessed in January '08 that January '09 would find me working a farm, blanching broccoli and butchering chickens.

Here at ECHO, vegetable season is in full swing. While the rest of the nation shovels snow, we who straddle the border of temperate and tropic are harvesting bright red strawberries, filling buckets with sugar snap peas, and hand-pollinating pumpkins. I must confess that the tropical abnegation of seasons still strikes me as bizarre, but who can complain in the face of vine-ripe tomatoes? Though temperature highs never broached 60 on Thursday (the southwest Florida equivalent of a blizzard), most days hover around the upper 70's to lower 80's. Don't be jealous... I'll have to pay off my climatological debt when the summer hits!

What has happened since the last update (November!)...

- ECHO Agricultural Conference - Missionaries, development workers and nationals from developing countries converged on Fort Myers for a week long conference in December. Speakers discussed a number of issues: the global food crisis; underutilized food crops; cultural land tenure problems in Indonesia. Perhaps more importantly, opportunities were given for people to network together, sharing struggles and solutions they've faced while working overseas.

- Responsibility overload - As of December I completely took over stewardship of the Monsoon garden from Heidi, my predecessor. The agricultural complexity of managing crops, animals, and trees is still a little overwhelming for this city boy. When is the proper stage for harvesting broccoli? Who knew that Okra becomes unedible if not picked young (aka near-daily)? What is Jicama?

I think I'm coming to enjoy the labor of seed, transplant, cultivate, harvest, weed, weed, weed, weed, weed. The cultivation of food is a lifestyle that transforms daily patterns, as you slowly become tied to the land on which you live. Chickens need daily care, plants need water, crops must be harvested or else lost. It reminds me that every piece of food that passes my lips was once alive in one form or another, and that 99.9% of it was intentionally cultivated by someone, somewhere.

I inspect my thumb periodically for any green pigmentation. So far I haven't noticed any, but I take comfort in the surprising resilience of young plants, and the vigorous abundance of God's creation in general. Perhaps the green thumb will come one day.

- Christmas - The Christmas season was made brilliant by my family's week-long visit to the ECHO farm. It was strange not being in Atlanta; strange to not see friends; strange to miss the flickering candles at ECPC's Eve service; strange to step outside from Christmas dinner into 80 degree sun. But there was still family, food, and singing. And those alone are luxuries beyond belief. And we reflected on Glory, incarnated in weakness. On Love, submitting to persecution in order to redeem the persecutors.

With the rest of my time I've read a lot, and spent time with the community here on the farm. I've been thinking a lot about the future, wondering what God has planned. It would be nice to be given a glimpse of one's future, but He knows best.

I miss all of you from Marietta and Chattanooga. I'm a terrible distance communicator, but please feel free to call or email.

2008-11-06T21:02:00.005-05:00

Life at ECHO continues this week much as it does every week: weeding, planting, harvesting; construction, seminars, and trainings. The weeks seem to fly by, but I feel as if I'm finding my place here.

We butchered some of our rabbits a couple of weeks ago, which was the first such experience for me. I had been anticipating/dreading the activity, but it was actually easier than I thought. And it's always good to know where your food comes from. We'll be butchering some of my and Heidi's chickens next week, and hopefully goats as well.

I am posting a few more pictures to the blog, and there are more new ones on the online album (the link is on the right).

This is a drip irrigation system, such as are used around the farm. The barrel is placed 1 meter above the ground, and a rubber hose is connected to the bottom and laid across the planting bed. Small holes are placed on the hose, and so the water drips out of the holes with no water pressure except that provided by gravity. I built this one last week for the rooftop, built primarily out of scrapwood found around the farm.

This is the Neem tree, native to India. It's not edible at all, but has a number of other uses. In India people will use the stems of leaves like a toothpick or as an alternative to brushing the teeth. The tree actually has antibiotic properties that make it very effective at cleaning bacteria. Oil from the tree can also be used as an insect repellent which is organic, does not harm the plants, and is relatively accessible to poor farmers. In the bookshop at ECHO we sell a number of Neem products, including a lotion. One of the interns has a mild eczema on his hands; the prescription he had didn't help, but the Neem lotion cleared it right up. Snowbirds, when heading north for the summer, often buy several tubes of our Neem toothpaste. Apparently some people swear by it. It's also a beautiful tree, and would be great for climbing in if I was allowed.

I've had a lot of opportunities to talk with other interns about development and the Kingdom, and between that and the great teaching at EPC, a church I've been attending, I really feel as if God is growing me in this season of my life. I've been thinking a lot about community, and the biblical injunction to hospitality. I don't necessarily think I'm a hospitable person naturally, but I hope to nurture that trait.

I hope y'all are doing well, I miss seeing everybody...

Of Plants and Poultry

2008-10-14T21:21:00.003-04:00

I have now worked as an ECHO intern for a full week and change, and think I now have a better idea of what my life will look like for the next 55 weeks. I wanted to update y'all on a couple of things...

What does ECHO do?

ECHO does a lot of things, but perhaps the most important role we fill is one of networking. Missionaries and development workers in the field can become part of the ECHO network. Members of the network receive the periodic ECHO Development Notes which give practical advice on subsistence level farming techniques, and also have access to ECHO's tech request program. Basically, missionaries in the field send their questions and problems to ECHO staff/interns, who troubleshoot solutions. E.g. the corn crop is not producing, but there's no sign of obvious pests.

Interns and staff responding to tech requests have a number of resources at their disposal. In addition to the constant experimentation that happens on the ECHO farm, we have an extensive research library full of obscure and hard-to-find texts and files. After a few hours of dedicated research, a detailed response is sent to the missionary giving possible solutions to their problem.

In addition to providing information, ECHO also provides seeds to missionaries in the field in order to facilitate crop experimentation. Our seedbank is constantly being expanded, and is refreshed by the many varieties of edible crops grown on the farm.

ECHO does a lot more than this, but networking is a key part of their work.

What have I been doing?

This week I took over a couple of new responsibilities, in addition to continuing my orientation. Heidi (the intern whose Monsoon garden I will eventually take over) is on vacation for the week, so I am in charge of caring for the chickens and chicks in her absence. We are currently trying to wean them away from commercial feed and towards forage, which is a better option for poor farmers with limited funds. This means I cut branches from trees such as Moringa, Lucaena, and other nutrient-rich varieties and hang them in their pen. I also gather eggs, clean the coop, and all the other things you'd expect with chicken-care. I'm currently researching effective ways of upping their protein-intake, as they are not laying as much as they should.

I have also taken over the responsibility for watering one of the nursery areas, which has been a more challenging job. I am not yet an expert in judging which plants need water and how much (bamboo is thirsty, papaya doesn't like much water.). I'm hoping that repetition and practice will allow me to attune better to the needs of the individual species.

This post is getting long, so...

Plant Spotlight: Moringa

The Moringa tree is one of the plants that we highly promote here at ECHO. Moringa is an incredibly hardy tree (assuming you're in the tropics; it doesn't freeze well). It grows back from heavy pruning, and so can be maintained at head height, although it will grow into quite a large tree if left alone. It is perennial, drought resistant, and quite tasty with a slight horse-radishy flavor.

The primary value of Moringa is its nutrient content. Every part of the tree is edible, and the leaves are often dried and then grinded to a powder. One teaspoon of Moringa powder has more beta caroteen than a carrot, more protein than a glass of milk, and is also chock full of fiber and several important amino acids. Moringa powder added to a staple crop diet (e.g. yams) has been shown to significantly increase health indicators. It is often effective when given to infants in the breast feeding stage, as it can contibute necessary nutrients not provided by malnourished mothers. In combination with other nutrient-rich plants such as amaranth, Moringa has been shown effective in slowing the progress of AIDS - comparable to medication!

Moringa has numerous other uses too: it makes a great animal fodder. Moringa seeds, crushed, act as a water purifying agent when stirred in polluted water. The list could go on, but this post is too long already.

Final Thoughts

I will try to update more regularly with shorter posts. I will also continue to tell you more about important plants and crops, if you are interested.

Please feel free to post comments or email me with any questions you have; I love to talk about this stuff.

Quotables

"A church full of life and love, working for the good of the community in which God has placed it, is the proper end of mission. Transformational development that does not work toward such an end is neither sustainable nor Christian"
-Bryant Myers, Walking with the Poor

2008-10-05T19:22:00.005-04:00

Tomorrow is my first official day at ECHO! Here is an overview of what I'll be doing for the next several months...

During the month of October I will be primarily completing orientation tasks. In the mornings I'll alternate working with five of the six interns in their various garden plots: the Tropical Lowlands, the Rainforest, the Urban Rooftop, the Tropical Highlands, and the Semi-Arid garden. The only garden I will not work with is the Monsoon garden, which I will eventually inherit the maintenance of.

In November I begin shadowing Heidi, who is the current intern over the Monsoon garden. For the entire month I'll be learning the garden by working alongside Heidi, so that at the end of the month I can take over the maintenance and planning of the area. This also includes caring for the chickens and the Moringa trees.

From December on I will work a more constant schedule: work in the Monsoon garden and plant nursery, trainings and seminars on Mondays and Wednesdays respectively, large project farm work on Thursdays, and other tasks including leading tours of the farm and working in the bookshop. Next August I'll begin training my own replacement.

We work 6 days per work: 7:30 - 5:00 (although often later) on Monday through Friday, and then Saturday mornings. I recognize that it will be difficult work and long days, but right now I can't wait to start.

During these few days before the internship I have been hospitably welcomed by a lot of people. The Johns and Valkenburg families have both welcomed me into their homes and fed me, and their warmth has definitely eased the transition to life in Fort Myers. I have also enjoyed getting to know the rest of the staff here at ECHO. The girls living in the India house had the guys (Asia house) to dinner one night, which was incredible (even though they fed us caterpillers. No lie.).

Anyway, thanks for bearing with my long post. If you have any questions or just want to say hello, I'd love to get emails from some of y'all!

Early ECHO Pictures

2008-10-04T11:29:00.002-04:00

I will update more thoroughly later and post some pictures here with explanations, but for now I encourage you to click the link "My Photo Album" on the right side of the webpage >>>>>

The pictures currently up are only what I could take in about an hour of wandering the farm, so they're not all of good quality. They should give you a better feel of the types of plants we're working with here!

First Impressions

2008-09-30T14:08:00.003-04:00

I'm at Fort Myers, and today was my first day here at ECHO. I don't officially begin work until the 6th, so I've got one week to meet everybody and settle in.

So far, I couldn't be more excited to begin. I took a tour of the farm today, including the Monsoon garden which I will eventually manage. I've already seen and learned a number of cool things...

I learned how to keep elephants out of a garden (fences, clearly, are ineffectual)
I saw a contraption that converts barrels of dung into methane gas, which fills an innertube and then fuels a stove.
Saw and tasted the Moringa trees. Very, very cool. I'll have to dedicate a post to them sometime.

Anyway, there's a ton more I could write about but it will have to wait. I've been meeting my fellow interns, and they all seem very cool, and very knowledgeable about subsistence farming.

I haven''t been able to take pictures yet because it's raining, but I promise they are forthcoming!

2008-09-24T13:07:00.002-04:00

Setting Out by Wendell Berry
Even love must pass through loneliness,
the husbandman become again
the Long Hunter, and set out
not to the familiar woods of home
but to the forest of the night,
the true wilderness, where renewal
is found, the lay of the ground
a premonition of the unknown.
Blowing leaf and flying wren
lead him on. He can no longer be at home,
he cannot return, unless he begin
the circle that first will carry him away.

I recognize, of course, that Berry's poem is about a far more final "setting out" than my trip to Florida. Nonetheless, I think it's a beautiful picture of leaving home. This is my final week in Marietta before leaving for Fort Myers. I am scheduled to move in to ECHO on the 29th, so I'm quickly running out of time to tie up all my loose ends here: cleaning, voting, friends, odd-jobs around the house that remain unfinished... and packing, at some point!

I'll confess to being a little nervous about starting life in Florida. I recently spoke with one of the other interns, and discovered that he has both an undergraduate and Masters degree in Agriculture, whereas I have no previous exposure to agriculture at all. I'm trusting that the staff didn't make a mistake when they accepted my application; and I know that God is in control of these next couple years of my life.

Needless to say, my digital camera and my laptop will be making the pilgrimage to Florida with me, so I'll try to get pictures and thoughts up soon after I arrive.

2008-08-01T13:56:00.010-04:00

Once again I have failed to update for a long time. Heather and I have been home for a couple of weeks now, and if you want to know more about our trip across Europe you can go to her blog here. Although I think even it is only updated to cover half the trip so far. I'll post some pictures to give you a general idea...

Now that I'm home I'm more or less biding my time until the ECHO internship in Fort Myers, FL begins in October. My knowledge of farming is limited to reading Wendell Berry short stories and having a killer farmer's tan. So I should have a lot to learn when I reach Florida. I can't wait to start.

During the trip and since returning I have had a lot of opportunity to read, which has been a nice change from the busy schedule of the school year. Purely out of spite, I'm going to inflict last month's reading list on my readers...

- Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco - I found this book really enjoyable, though I hardly think Eco considers himself a friend of the church.

- The Road, Cormac McCarthy - I read this book at Jeff Pipe's suggestion, and it was haunting, if a bit (intentionally) sparse. It's by the same guy who did No Country for Old Men, so don't expect a terribly bubbly story.

- All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy - I actually enjoyed this more than The Road, and can't wait to read the other two related novels.

- Peace Like a River, Leif Enger - An author/blogger I've been reading picked this book as one of his favorites, and it very well may be one of mine now as well. Couldn't put it down.

- Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy - Potentially the least depressing Hardy book I've ever read. I liked it.

- Two Ears of Corn, Roland Bunch - This is not a novel, but I'm reading it in preparation for my ECHO internship. It's about general good practice for doing agricultural work, including things like introducing appropriate technologies. Crucial if you're interested in Ag. Dev. Otherwise skip it.

- Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien - Hardly my first time.

- Two Crichton novels - State of Fear and Congo. Good quick reads.

- King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard - I had never read any Haggard before, but both Mr. Narayan and Heather (who read him at Oxford) recommended him. This one is a great adventure story, and a fun read. You do have to deal with the unthinking racism of Haggard's time (England was still an empire).

- She, H. Rider Haggard - Still reading this one, but so far I like it more than King Solomon's Mines.

I'm probably forgetting a couple. Anyone read anything recently they recommend?

La Ville-lumiere

2008-06-19T16:26:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is our last full day in Paris, after which Heather and I part ways with my parents and grab a train to Strasbourg. Heather hasn't been home since March, and I think she's more or less ready to see the States again. Still, I think this should be a good trip.

Some highlights from Paris... we saw Victor Hugo's house, the Pantheon (which contains among other things Foucault's pendulum and the aforementioned author's remains), Saint-Sulpice, the Eiffel Tower (of course), and Saint Chapelle. We viewed a large amount of impressionist and realist art at the Musee d'Orsay, and today we spent a few hours at the Louvre (where I could have spent a week). We also saw the Opera Garnier, which is the opera house that inspired Leroux to write the Phantom of the Opera (the French book, not the musical). It has subterranean water and everything. Tomorrow we're catching an early train to Versailles.

The pinnacle of the trip for me, however, was our visit to Notre Dame Cathedral. The cathedral itself was spectacular, and not just because of its associations with Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. After touring the inside of the sanctuary we climbed the tall spiral staircase up to the first landing at the base of the two towers, right near the entry to the belfry where the fictional Quasimodo made his home.

There is a belfry at the base of each of the two towers of Notre Dame, one containing a full complement of cathedral bells and the other a single, gargantuan bell. While wandering around the top of the cathedral, amidst the gargoyles and chimeras, the bells began to sound. The clamor was enormous, almost to the point of being painful; the vibrations could be felt across the entire stone edifice. They sounded for a good fifteen minutes, and those fifteen minutes overlooking Paris and listening to the bells of Notre Dame were the best fifteen minutes of this trip.

In my opinion.

Traipsing the Old World

2008-06-14T12:40:00.002-04:00

Heather has officially finished her term in Oxford, and thanks to her study abroad-ing and my father's hoard of frequent flyer points the whole family is over here now to visit the university town with her. It was great meeting some of the UGA students she studied with. And it was obviously cool to see the colleges, shops and pubs of Oxford. Several of the pubs we've eaten at are older than the U.S. The majority of them, actually. Just to put things in perspective.

Being here gives one strange ideas about graduate work abroad, though the cost would be prohibitive. Especially at 2 dollars per pound. Though they have a great D.Phil program in Development studies, with focuses in Economic Development, Anthropological Research, Forced Migration...

Anyway, we're off to Paris tomorrow from whence Heather and I will be hitting hostels across Europe.

Radiohead - All I Need

2008-05-20T10:09:00.000-04:00

Hell in a Handbasket?

2008-05-12T18:12:00.003-04:00

"For the Time Being"
Annie Dillard
---
Is it not late? A late time to be living? Are not our heightened times the important ones? For we have nuclear bombs. Are we not especially significant because our century is? —our century and its unique Holocaust, its refugee populations, its serial totalitarian exterminations, our century and its antibiotics, silicon chips, men on the moon, and spliced genes? No, we are not and it is not. These times of ours are ordinary times, a slice of life like any other...

There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation. There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been: a people busy and powerful, knowledgeable, ambivalent, important, fearful, and self-aware; a people who scheme, promote, deceive, and conquer; who pray for their loved ones, and long to flee misery and skip death. It is a weakening and discoloring idea, that rustic people knew God personally once upon a time—or even knew selflessness or courage or literature—but that it is too late for us. In fact, the absolute is available to everyone in every age. There never was a more holy age than ours, and never a less. There is no less holiness at this time—as you are reading this—than there was the day the Red Sea parted, or that day in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as Ezekiel was a captive by the river Chebar, when the heavens opened and he saw visions of God.... In any instant the sacred may wipe you with its finger. In any instant the bush may flare, your feet may rise, or you may see a bunch of souls in a tree. In any instant you may avail yourself of the power to love your enemies; to accept failure, slander, or the grief of loss; or to endure torture. Purity's time is always now.

And then school was over

2008-04-24T22:20:00.002-04:00

"My Utmost for His Highest"
Oswald Chambers
------
We are apt to imagine that Jesus Christ constrains us and when we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God's purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired end; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process , God calls the end.

What is my dream of God's purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end the purpose of God. God is not working toward a particular finish; His end is the process-- That I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.

God's training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the afterward. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end.

God's end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present: if we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.

Benefits of Off-Campus Life

2008-03-31T09:54:00.002-04:00

None of the roommates has class on MWF mornings, so this morning all of us (Wilson, Dan, James, and myself) got up at 7:30 and ran a few miles. And by a few I mean 2; it's a start. After cooling down we all hung out in the kitchen and made bacon and chocolate chip pancakes. Which almost certainly offset all the health benefits of the run. All together, though, it made for a great morning. I'm not usually a morning person, but it always feels good to get an early start to the day.

In other news, I should hear this week from both ECHO in Florida and (potentially) the organization in Nairobi that has my resume. I'm probably equally excited about both opportunities: if I get a "yes" from both organizations I will have a tough decision ahead of me. On the other hand, if I get a "no" from both organizations I'm not sure where I'll turn to.

David Scott called me a couple of nights ago to say that he was looking into moving into an immigrant area of downtown Atlanta, and either working for a non-profit in the city or just getting a normal job and focusing on cross-cultural relationships for about a year. He suggested that if I don't have any plans, I should live with him. I'm thinking about it. If Kenya and ECHO both fall through, I will think about it even harder.

Still here... biding time...

2008-02-26T19:48:00.000-05:00

"...he is, of course, absurdly young--not twenty-one--and he will be engaged to be married at twenty-three. He has no knowledge of the world; for example, he thinks that if you do not want money you can give it to friends who do. He believes in humanity because he knows a dozen decent people. He believes in women because he has loved his mother. And his friends are as young and as ignorant as himself. They are full of the wine of life. But they have not tasted the cup--let us call it the teacup--of experience, which has made men of Mr. Pembroke's type what they are. Oh, that teacup! To be taken at prayers, at friendship, at love, till we are quite sane, quite efficient, quite experienced, and quite useless to God or man. We must drink it, or we shall die. But we need not drink it always. Here is our problem and our salvation. There comes a moment--God knows when--at which we can say, 'I will experience no longer. I will create. I will be an experience.' But to do this we must be both acute and heroic. For it is not easy, after accepting six cups of tea, to throw the seventh in the face of the hostess."
~E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey

For all his oft-times muddy social critiques, I cannot seem to get enough of E.M. Forster. Which is unfortunate, because if Wikipedia is to be trusted (and indubitably it is) I have now read almost everything he ever published.

This is becoming a difficult semester, due not to an abundance of work but to a complete lack of motivation. It's not that I want to be lazy, but rather that other things feel so much more important than my classwork. The people I see daily now but mayn't see again after May; the Lookout Mountain moonlight dripping through heavy fog is more enticing by far than the desk covered in work sheets that stands between tonight and graduation. Even the collection of Dostoevsky short stories that has, unopened, adorned my desk these past weeks feels more urgent than my daily reading for Science class and my looming research papers.

On the other hand, I'm in no hurry to graduate and leave this place. It's a dangerous business, going out your door. And it's almost time for my class to step out onto the road and see where it sweeps us off to.

Better late...

2007-10-27T00:47:00.000-04:00

Tuggy has tagged me, meaning I am required to answer this quiz tonight rather than write that China and Japan paper I have been procrastinating on. First though, I'm supposed to post

The Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (if you don’t have a blog, email me)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read their blog.

8 random things:

1. This one echoes Joel P., but it is true of me as well... when I was a kid, I was so enamoured with Star Wars that when nobody was looking I would reach my hand out toward objects and try to pull them to me with the Force. And I was always pretty disappointed when it didn't work. Secretly, I think I still believe that if I just concentrate hard enough...

2. I have only once shed tears in a movie theater, and that was when Wilson the volleyball floated away in Cast Away.

3. I often cry in church. Although that doesn't bother me anymore.

4. As a child I had a recurring nightmare that a flying whale was coming through the window next to my bed. I would sit there on the bed, paralyzed from fright, and watch it draw steadily closer through the night air. Still gives me chills.

5. I have a close-held but unlikely dream of one day writing a novel.

6. As a kid, I remember whenever missionaries spoke in church I would become terrified that my parents would pack us off to Uzbekistan or something. I am now an International Community Development major.

7. For most of my life I have made friends only with those who pursue friendship with me, and I am not good at faithfully pursuing others. I didn't realize that until this year but I'm trying, with God's grace, to reverse it.

8. I love fairy tales, mythology, and fantasy. Even the lame stuff. I recently rediscovered the variously colored fairy books edited by Andrew Lang, and have been tearing through them.

Okay, and I'm tagging... Wilson, Heather, Hannah, J-Ho (reading your SIP, by the way), Faith... my friends seemed to have dropped off Xanga like I did...

Homecoming

2007-10-04T11:59:00.000-04:00

"It is hardly possible to overrate the value, for the improvement of human beings, of things which bring them into contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar... "
~John Stuart Mill

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."
~St. Augustine

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow."
~Lin Yutang

I am once again enjoying the old, familiar pillow, even if that pillow currently rests in a house on Lookout Mountain. I'm not sure how often I will write here, or whether anyone is still checking this dusty corner of the internet. I've enabled comments now that I'm home as well...

Cultural Differences, Yek?

2007-07-15T12:44:00.000-04:00

I have tried to write this post several times, but I keep getting interrupted. The interruption yesterday was a pleasant one, however, as a Moroccan friend called to tell me he was in the neighborhood. He is blind but gets around well and speaks English. He's also a Fulbright scholar, and he has been unemployed since he returned to Morocco. There are not many opportunities for those with special needs here, even when they are brilliant. Anyway, we met and set in a cafe for two and a half hours, where we discussed obesity in America, rituals in Morocco, and I tried my best to explain to a blind North African what a set of bagpipes looks like.

This past Friday I went for dinner at the house of my Moroccan language instructor. My French language class lasts from 6:30 to 9:30pm, so when he invited me for dinner I assumed he meant before our class: he even told me "I eat very early." In reality, when he said we would be eating "early" he meant that the food was on the table by midnight. The food, however, was incredible (It always is here), and the famous Moroccan hospitality ensured I was wonderfully stuffed and not back to my apartment until 3am. I was still full when I crawled out of bed at 8. Heck, I was even full when I got out of bed the second time... at 2pm.

I have witnessed an interesting thing the past several days. July is considered the most propitious month for ritual celebrations: marriages, engagements and so forth. Over the last three evenings I have seen numerous groups exactly like this one (pictured) pass under my apartment window. Though I already suspected the reason, I asked my blind friend to explain the phenomena... you may have to click to see...

The mounted men with their decorative rifles are fathers, and the important people are the boys riding in front of them. This is the earliest stages of a circumcision party. And the boys, as you an see in the picture, must be at least five or six. Probably older. They march through the streets of the neighborhood playing trumpets and drums and shouting, and then the entire party returns to the home. Some metropolitan Moroccans have the operation done in a hospital, but most do it in their home with a pair of scissors... you know, so all the guests can watch.

Also a quick update on the research... things are still, for better or worse, moving very slowly and not according to plan. At least, not according to my plan =). However, we recently were allowed to meet the training instructor at a major MFI, and he told us that he will give us permission to finally observe a group-lending meeting and talk with the clients (the first time in 9 weeks). No word from him yet, but I'm pretty ecstatic about the possibility. There's very little time left to learn from the experience. I could use some Help. That is something for you to think about...

Anyway, here are some final pictures to close:

In spite of the locale, we did take some time to celebrate July 4th. We grilled out, ate potato salad, and drank Moroccan mint tea (because the latter is basically obligatory here). In the picture you can see the immaculately beautiful burgers that we grilled. Ah, the taste of home. You also might notice the suspicious-looking turkey burger we cooked for Intern Valerie. *shudder*.

This is a Moroccan garbage disposal system. And in case you can't see it because of the small picture size: this is not a cow, it's a bull. These walking trash cans with horns can be found all over Hay Hassani.

Nus-nus?

2007-06-26T18:30:00.000-04:00

As I listen to the violins and haunting vocals of "Cathedrals" I can't help but imagine that this is the first time that the band Jump, Little Children has ever been heard in Morocco. But then, who knows? Stranger things have happened...
Such as, for example, yesterday when my flatmate and I witnessed a police car chase; except that the getaway vehicle was a horse-drawn cart at full gallop. The cart and it's frenzied driver were attempting to escape down the wrong side of the road, and the police vehicle squealed its tires noisily as it sped after. They vanished around the corner and I didn't see the conclusion. But my money is on the car.

Nus-nus is the name that Casablancans give to the half-coffee, half-milk variation of their cafe espresso. In the ubiquitous cafes of this city there is only one coffee option: strong, thick espresso. There must be dozens of different ways to order your espresso though; cafe nus-nus, creme, au lait, noir, beida, and several other French or Arabic words that denote exactly this or that ratio of coffee to milk. All, of course, sweetened to unsafe levels. And all wonderful.

Anyway, this internship has now reached nus-nus: halfway finished.

I had the opportunity this past weekend to see Marrakech with some of the other staff. We spent significant time in the Djemaa El Fna, which is a large square known for its entertainments. Starting in the afternoon and going long into the night, the square becomes something straight out of The Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Monkey-handlers show off and sell their chimps, Arabic storytellers (who made me really wish I spoke Arabic) recite folklore, tumblers flip across the pavement, snake charmers play to cobras, veiled women paint henna, magicians sell medicines and reagents, and traditional musicians sip mint tea and strum their lutes. Unfortunately, everybody demands payment if you take a picture, and I was short on change!!! I did get a few pictures of the outer ring, however, where food, OJ, and spices are sold from wheeled carts. This may all sound like a tourist trap to you (and there are a growing number of tourists in Marrakech), but in fact the Djemaa El Fna has been operating in much the same way for decades, and is equally frequented by Moroccans.

My favorite part of the experience was in the evening. Wade and I were eating cous-cous at one of the carts when the Maghrib sounded (the call to prayer at the setting of the sun). Immediately the cacophony of instrument and voice stopped, perhaps for the only time all afternoon and evening. An eerie silence falls and the wail of the adhan can be heard clearly as it comes from three separate muezzins on different sides of the Djemaa El Fna. As the call comes to a close, all the carts turn on their powerful electric bulbs and the reverie explodes once again to welcome the night.

Finally, on the research side of things... the going is still very slow, but I have had some interesting interviews and talked with a growing number of people. A lot of what happens in the coming weeks is riding on meetings with the local Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). We have had to pull some strings to get an opportunity to meet with them, and I hope they'll give permission for me to observe some group lending meetings and talk with the clients. If this happens it could open up new avenues for the study; it's definitely something to think about.

Well, I'll close with some more pictures:

This is one of many tables selling fruit, spices, or olives and nuts in the Djemaa El Fna. This, obviously, is one of the latter. A man stands in the crevice at the top center on a stool, and uses a really long-handled scoop to retrieve your purchase. If you're considering buying, it's perfectly okay to just grab a few with your fingers and try the wares.

This marabout is in Casablanca near the popular beach area. A marabout, or saint's tomb, is thought to contain "baraka" (blessing). The idea isn't orthodox, but is widely held nonetheless. A witch lives in the marabout who is often sought out for problems that need a supernatural cure, especially infertility in women. If you click on the picture, you should be able to get a clearer view.

تأملا

2007-06-08T16:47:00.000-04:00

Well, I've done a bad job of keeping this up so far. More seems to happen as the days pass than I can possibly make sense of in my own mind, much less put into coherent words for my blog. But nevertheless...

I'm riding the bus everywhere now: in the morning, on the way downtown, the bus is inevitably packed with bodies. In order to assert my right to a space I often must make liberal use of my elbows, jostling for the privilege of cheap transportation. Once, on a Friday evening, I quite literally had to raise both my arms above my head in order to make space for just one more commuter. We all pay our 3.50 dirhams to whatever open palm emerges from the tangle, and then spend the rest of the ride strategically maneuvering towards the front of the bus (no gentle task, believe me) in order to catapult out the front door upon arriving at our destinations. Thus far, I have consistently been the only non-Arab on the bus; some Moroccans have grinned at my willingness to jostle with the rest, while one woman grabbed a cloth and buried her face in it as soon as I climbed the stairs. I am, after all, still an infidel.

It seems hardly possible that I've been here for almost 4 weeks. My study of microenterprise still seems, to me, to be going excruciatingly slow. I've conducted a number of informal interviews with individuals and organizations, but so far I haven't been able to use any other tools in order to triangulate the data. Maybe I just need to chill out, but I've been a bit disappointed with my seeming lack of ingenuity thus far. I guess I just need to be more trusting, because the one who began a good work...

I might be leaving the city for the first time next week, and I'm excited to see some of the countryside and the rest of Morocco. I didn't know until I arrived how varied the climate and scenery is in this small country: Casa and Rabat are mediterranean and temperate; Fes and Marrakech, slightly more inland, are by this time of year covered with a dry heat that is oppressive in the sun but beautiful in the shade. If one travels further south, the Atlas mountains tower upwards in the traditional lands of the Berber people. Some of the peaks are covered in snow year-round, and more than one town open ski resorts in the winter. Past the mountains, the pre-Saharan oases with their rural villages of Berber-speaking peoples fade into the Sahara desert.

Anyway, I'll end with a few pictures. Hopefully I'll be taking better ones soon?

This is somewhere deep in the heart of Derb Ghalef, the massive and labyrinthine market in Casa. This is actually an unusual section, as in most parts the shops and stands are so close together that they form a roof, and the whole place is dark except for the artificial light coming from TVs for sale. You can buy fake Rolex's, genuine iPods, pirated DVDs, second-hand clothes, fresh(?) fruit, hand crafted furniture, coffins, olives, laptops, live chickens, seat-covers, or buy raw snails right out of the shell. Guaranteed to make you sick.

This is taken outside the Derb, where people who can't afford a place in the Derb itself sell their wares on blankets or straight from carts. They're also, of course, completely informal (though the Derb operations are semi-formal at best, from what one shop-owner tells me). They mostly sell second-hand clothing (and advertise it as such), though a few blankets held "prada" purses or other such treasures. For the most part people just sell whatever goods they can afford.

This final picture is of an empty plot near the Derb, but there are two noteworthy things in the background. The first thing is a bidonville (just beyond the wall). The second thing is globalization. By "bidonville" I mean the Moroccan term for a shantytown. And by "globalization" I mean high-powered satellite dishes in places where the toilet is a plastic bag. I have a really hard time knowing what to think about that. You can see some of the apartment buildings where most people live in the further background as well.

This is already longer than it should be, so I'm off to bed.

An Image is Worth a Thousand Words

2007-05-19T08:58:00.000-04:00

Week 1

2007-05-17T13:33:00.000-04:00

The study is coming along slowly. Because of budget and availability, I may only have an interpreter for 2hrs/day and 2days/week; my English is relatively useless, my Arabic is non-existent (except for "hello" and thanks"), and my French is truly execrable (although I can now order that clutch chicken dish across the street... pardon, je voudrais le poulet plat avec des fritures). I have my first interview tomorrow: and I do mean a single interview. At the same time, I understand that this is how it will be for a while. I'm trying to avoid idleness.

I did make one achievement though: I went to the local supermarket with my flatmate and bought some groceries. The cereal box I chose was nothing but Arabic writing and one English phrase: corn flakes. They're some local brand; who knows how they taste. But then, as my English flatmate commented, "all corn flakes taste a little like soggy cardboard anyway."

In other news... Casa is exciting! The people are hospitable, warm, and eager to communicate. The city streets are nigh overwhelming: in addition to the masses of people and the insane drivers, I have seen unattended cattle, horsecarts, and one character wandering aimlessly around with an eel dangling from his hand. Yesterday I climbed out of a taxi too slowly and he ran over the back of my shoe. I suppose it could have been my heel.

There's supposed to be a shergui (sandstorm) sometime this week. My host suggested that by August I might need to buy a djellaba.

The beginning of a beautiful relationship?

2007-05-15T18:47:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm here! I lost my phone enroute and twice misplaced my boarding passes, but after 23 hours of travel I've arrived in the Casablanca airport. The city is massive, throbbing with people, and mesmerizing. Men and women in full traditional dress are juxtaposed with modern business men and McDonalds. We passed both a Mercedes and a mule-drawn cart in the same block.

I want to tell you guys more soon, and show you pictures, but for now I have a lot of sleep to catch up on...