Thursday, October 26, 2006
OH YEAH!
The farm workers were planting this week. It was fun to watch a field go from dirt to covered with little green tufts over the period of a workday. Check out the photo of the planting that I captured near the end of the day - I love the dichotomic harmony of the greens and blues. I also like this natural cameo I spotted of the multi-purpose building. The "pool" in the middle ground is the tank used for watering the fields and not for swimming unless you have a thing for algae.
 |  |
Tonight's prayer service was in a village named Dumay, a couple unpaved miles away from Double Harvest. It has rained hard the last couple nights so the roads were super muddy and rutted out. Between two pickup trucks, we carted almost 50 people to and from the service. I am not kidding. In our truck alone we crammed 6 people into the cab and Becky counted 18 in the back, just like a real tap-tap! The service was at a church member's home nestled in a banana forest (at least that's what it looked like.) It was very tropical and kind of made me want to crash through a wall and say "OH YEAH!" like the Kool-aid man. Something about being surrounded by trees makes me exuberant.
A woman named Diane from Kansas has been here for the last couple days getting the surgery and recovery rooms prepared at the medical clinic for the next surgical team. She attended the prayer service with us and I heard Becky whisper to her that visitors were required to stand up and sing a creole worship song in front of everyone. After a few Haitians had done this, Diane looked like she was starting to get worried. (Me too a little, even though I wasn't really a "visitor" anymore.) As it turns out, they don't usually make foreigners participate and we were off the hook! It seemed like everyone had a great time and enjoyed themselves. I also learned that roosters and chickens can fly really high. During the middle of the service a whole bunch of them decided to fly up and perch themselves about 20 feet atop some banana trees. That's just crazy business.
 |  |
I'm not a summer person, but oohwee, I am going to miss this warm weather and sunshine when I return to Chicago next week. I do enjoy a nice, crisp fall day but I fear I've already missed that fleeting season while I've been away.
Ok, this is not really related to what I'm doing down here but one of the DVDs I brought along for the Spaldings was Akeelah and the Bee. It is a really heartwarming, upbeat movie and referenced an awesome quote that I'd like to share with you. It was written by Marianne Williamson. Go girl!
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." |
# posted by A*Dub @ 8:03 PM 
