"I'm in the back seat of a jeep and Natalie Merchant is driving. Then she suddenly disappears and nobody is left driving the jeep! I have to crawl to the front and drive. ...It has something to do with me not being in control of my music."
-Jayson's recurring nightmare
(written last night on the train with only spotty internet connection)
I’m sorry (Mom!) that I haven’t been able to update more often on this trip…though I have been able to get internet in most places, there were others where we didn’t have a connection (or running water, or electricity!). On the days when we HAVE had a connection, I have been so tired at the end of the day (or have been still working on my laptop, in bed) that I couldn’t muster the energy to blog. (I like that “blog” is a verb.)
So, we are currently on the train…just leaving Bhagalpur and headed to Calcutta. We had a lovely few days in the villages of Bihar and Jarkhand…really, really lovely. I very distinctly felt my soul align one day as we were driving along the paddy fields…on terrible roads…with most of my traveling companions singing songs in Hindi. It was truly a beautiful area and I met many beautiful people…lots of things to ponder (like my future vocation as a farmer in India…just kidding). Perhaps whenever I have an opportunity to gather and write my thoughts, I will.
Overall, we have had a very productive visit so far. I can’t believe that we are almost headed home…just a few more days! In the beginning I was VERY homesick, and, of course, now that we are nearing the end of our journey I am just hitting my stride. Oh well. I AM looking forward to getting home...though I think I have sufficiently mastered the bucket-bath on this trip, I am indeed looking forward to a nice hot shower in my home.
I've been reading some Wendell Berry agricultural essays while I'm here (though "reading" might be an overstatement, as I've probably only read about 15 pages over 2 weeks), and what with that and all of my time in the rural villages, I've been thinking a lot about...well, agriculture, and development, and a lot of things. Lots of good things to chew on.
miss you all...right now, I'm on a sleeper train...it's about 7:10am here, and I've been awake for the last...4 hours or so? This jet lag thing is kickin my butt...I'm EXHAUSTED during the day, and then I sleep pretty well for a couple of hours...and then I wake up at about 4am!
the sleeper train isn't bad...I have a little curtain, and have been plugged into my ipod all night...not bad! HOWEVER. it has THE most disgusting bathroom I have EVER seen in my whole life. Makes all disgusting gas-station bathrooms absolutely pale in comparison. I unfortunately drank quite a bit of water last evening, so have had to make a couple of trips, but I've bathed in hand sanitizer afterwards (and am holding it right now, waiting until we 'land').
Unfortunately, I'm pretty homesick, and still kindof culture-shocking. I'm missing Kansas City a lot...[and then I lost my internet connection]
“These two boys waited as a long line of adults greeted Senator Obama before a rally on Martin Luther King Day in Columbia, S.C. They never took their eyes off of him. Their grandmother told me, “Our young men have waited a long time to have someone to look up to, to make them believe Dr. King’s words can be true for them.” Jan. 21, 2008.
Check out the rest of these amazing photos that Callie Shell took candidly of Obama over the last couple of years..
(post stolen from my friend b mccoy)
One of the main challenges I faced the first time was life without luggage. THIS time, I am pulling out all the stops to ensure that NOONE loses track of my bag on the way to India. (To be fair, I will do my part and keep track of my baggage claim tags.) It's a pretty nondescript black suitcase, so I'll need to do something to make it a bit more...festive.
any ideas??
(this is me being reunited with my suitcase last time, after several days!)
My dear friend B. McCoy posted some thoughts on race and the election.
I've been thinking about formalizing a "why I'm voting for Obama" post, but that seems too complicated (and there are SO MANY reasons!!), so I'll just share some thoughts that I commented on his post:
"hm.
I think Obama’s race might have something to do with why I want him to be the next president…(a) because I feel like he has had the ‘opportunity’ to experience discrimination, and (b) he has struggled with his own identity as it relates to his race…and I feel like both of those things make him more well-fit to be president than any candidate that I’ve ever seen.
let me flesh that out a bit more…I’m voting for Obama because I believe in his character and because I believe that he cares more about the average American (and the oppressed, the ones that Jesus calls US to care for) than most politicians. I believe in his convictions and in his authenticity. perhaps his racial identity has contributed to that…that is the impression that I got from reading his first book..."
"I’m going to try to make this simple. On the Democratic side you have a guy whose campaign has been based on the Internet, who believes America may have something to learn from other countries (like universal health care) and who’s unafraid in 2008 to say he’s a 'proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world.'"
On the Republican side, you have a guy who, in 2008, is just discovering the Net and Google and whose No. 2 is a woman who got a passport last year and believes she understands Russia because Alaska is closer to Siberia than Alabama.
If I were Obama, I’d put it this way: 'Senator McCain, the world you claim to understand is the world of yesterday. A new century demands new thinking. Our country cannot be made fundamentally secure by a man who thought our economy was fundamentally sound.'"
If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.
If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
Name your kids Willow, Bristol, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
Graduate from Harvard Law School and you are unstable.
Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a=C 2district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on theForeign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society·
If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.
I'll add one more fact; and your rich heiress wife, became addicted to pain killers that she stole from the charity she volunteered for.
Her explanation; "I was under a lot of pressure, while John was involved in the "Keating Five" trial."
Hummm, wonder what she will do when the real pressure of the White House hits?
PLEASE TAKE A FRIEND TO THE POLL AND VOTE!!!!!!
From an email to a coworker:
"Oh how disappointing to have to throw away so many jelly beans! I could tolerate baby wipes, toothpaste, black pepper, and pencil shavings (definitely my fave of the weird ones), but could NOT tolerate (in order of bad to worst) skunk spray, booger, moldy cheese, ear wax, vomit, and rotten egg. Ewwwww!"
Since we moved into our new place, I have:
…that’s it so far. But I’m feeling very empowered! Maybe I should ask for some power tools for Christmas…
"We're at a moment where it's neither smart nor fun to trust other people with saving the world. When you make a conscious choice--as millions of people are starting to--to become the kind of person who is going to redefine the world around them to make it more sustainable, more just, and more beautiful, it actually changes the way you see the world. It lifts that burden of despair. It makes you somebody who's part of building the future, rather than somebody whom the future is bearing down upon. If I can recommend to people to do one thing, it would be to simply become one of those people."
-Alex Steffen, Worldchanger (stolen from readymade)
...There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, "Business as usual." But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.
These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended. not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defence, not God's, that the self-righteous should rush.
-yann martel, the life of pi
…is that, after being shut in for the last several months because it has been SO COLD for SO LONG, it’s absolutely beautiful outside…
…and I find myself being shut in by necessity, as my allergies are maybe worse than ever.
tragic!
I have embarked on a new (hopefully more natural) regimen that a little bird prescribed to me: eating local honey every day (supposedly increases my immunity to local allergens) and using a neti pot. If you don’t know what that is, I suggest that you look it up, because it’s kind of weird and I don’t feel like describing it.
So, that’s what I’m doing for my natural remedy…and…eating lots of things like Claritin, Mucinex, and Sudafed PE Sinus Headache. (sigh.) :) until my natural remedy starts working. Hopefully, soon, I will be able to open the doors and windows and play in the park…
Take a good look at the diet of each country and the cost of what is eaten in one week.
since I've been in
...and food.
Yesterday my "feeling sickly" continued and was accompanied by fever. I referred to the cdc.gov website, which told me to "seek medical attention immediately" if I get a fever any time during my trip (or a year afterwards!) (in case it's malaria [I have been taking malaria pills, but they apparently don't prevent all cases]). So, we went to a hospital.
Fortunately, our coordinator (here in
So after a couple of days of eating hardly anything (really, I'm on the road to swimsuit season now), I ate some last night, felt better, and feel almost 100% today.
I am very glad that I don't have malaria.
Otherwise,
Urban and rural areas are VERY different, obviously. In rural areas, I feel like a total weirdo because I'm not in a saree. In urban areas, my man-shaped and man-colored outfits don't look SO out of place (though we do get a lot of stares regardless).
I’m really only capable of a short update right now because I am sooo tired…we have been having some very long days. Good, but long. It didn’t really help that I slept for what was probably a total of 5 hours in a 48-hour stretch (my body was still on ‘merica time and I was having anxiety about my suitcase sitting at the bottom of the atlantic). Fortunately, last night I got about 8 hours. Unfortunately, I was more tired during the day today than I have been for the past few days. Figures.
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What is Your World View? created with QuizFarm.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You scored as Cultural Creative Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.
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from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr
http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/
