eh doe say, mu ta gay, maung nay sar, and joseph hla...the cornerstone of the children's male representation.
the sadness indeed
all the kids together for say meh's birthday!
Maung Nay Sar and Nan Yae Aye, two kids from my class who have been here since before i came, left last week to go live in Atlanta. All the families eventually leave, most after a period of 2 months. Their family ended up staying a couple weeks extra, and every day was a savored blessing. I miss them so much, and I don't think that feeling will go away ever, maybe just get crowded by other things and emotions that happen while I'm here. Talking to Leslie, we agreed that it would be so hard to live here longterm as a partner, because of the heavy flow of people in and out. How can one person take that kind of emotional beating? Emily, one of the partner kids who grew up here, got very emotionally attached to that family, as it seems she does with all the people who come here, and that's what she's known her whole life...this amazing time to be with people and then to have them ripped away right when you're starting to dig deeper into each other's lives.
And what of the refugees themselves, who come from the country they know and have lived in most of their lives, suddenly thrust into turmoil and forced out, staying in the camps for God knows how long (up to 25 years for some) and then come here to Jubilee--what of them and their emotions? To stay for this time of 2 months, surrounded by people who love them and care about them, only to have their time run out and be placed back in Atlanta big city no time no space to breathe city, where they get jobs in chicken plants and spend their days around the stench of death...I wish they could all just stay here, that we could keep building houses and make a city of Karen and Karenni right here in Comer, a city where everybody knows everybody and nobody gets ignored and nobody has to be alone.
Pray for Mah Chaw, Maung Nay Sar, Nan Yae Aye, and little Kyaw San Lay as they make their way in the metal city.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
happy
I figured out how to put a bunch up at once, so here are a few pictures off of Flickr. If you want to see more, you should click on one of them, and go look at my flickr page. the end.
caleb, kyaw san lay, and maung nay sar by the volleyball net after a day of fun.
jump roping by the school, from left to right, eh doe say, nan yae aye, kyaw san lay, and joseph hla.
hanging out with little roberto at his house, eating popcorn.
also from a while ago...we held a feast in Htun Hla's honor because he can finally eat solid food again after a long struggle with cancer. So we slaughtered a goat and everyone made a dish and the Karen and Karenni made their amazingly spicy food, and we ate.
our resident toddler, jacob, and a hat familiar to some.
older picture, back in january. wonderful place, wonderfuller people
caleb, kyaw san lay, and maung nay sar by the volleyball net after a day of fun.
jump roping by the school, from left to right, eh doe say, nan yae aye, kyaw san lay, and joseph hla.
hanging out with little roberto at his house, eating popcorn.
also from a while ago...we held a feast in Htun Hla's honor because he can finally eat solid food again after a long struggle with cancer. So we slaughtered a goat and everyone made a dish and the Karen and Karenni made their amazingly spicy food, and we ate.
our resident toddler, jacob, and a hat familiar to some.
older picture, back in january. wonderful place, wonderfuller people
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
work/play
Another week, bringing another bunch of stories and memories with it. I feel more settled than I did a week ago. The town is more familiar, I know my way around the land, and I've actually been off property now a couple times, which is such a stress relief. And I'm realizing now for the first time that I will certainly miss these folks once I'm gone.
Ok, stories. Last Saturday, we all finally got off the land and into the busy streets of Comer, busy like one stoplight in the whole town busy. But we did find some cultural nightlife at Carmine's Pizza, where we discovered there was a karaoke contest happening, so of course we had to stay for that. I braved the crowds of cowboy hats and big hairdos, every person singing something with a little to a lot of twang thrown in, to get up and sing some Hall & Oates disco music. Lots of Georgia eyes looking at me under hat brims, wondering if I was flamboyant or just a little "special." But I denied them all, and had fun too. And I'm pretty sure we're going back next weekend.
Sunday all the refugees came up to the K-house for dinner and worship, and then we started another work week. I taught my first class on Monday, which was predictably stressful but lessened by my class being the children's class. I teach three kids from Burma (Joseph Hla, Maung Nay Sar, and Nan Yae Aye), and we have fun every class reading dr seuss books or playing games with prepositions. They especially love their times tables, oddly enough.
And I work in the garden and do random maintenance jobs around the land, or work in the childcare building hanging out with the littler kids of the bunch. I also found out that I'm going to tutor Joseph in addition to his classwork, because he's been here a while now and will be missing out on a year of public school, and needs to catch up. He's a lot of fun, and is quite the calm 10 year-old. And I play ping pong after class with all three, which is nice to be a friend as well as a teacher.
It's getting warmer here, which is incredible for January. I might get addicted to Southern weather by the time I leave. Also, it has been brought to my attention that I may be developing an accent/using the word "folks" excessively, and thus proving myself to be going native. Well, for those doubtful folks who say so, such statements are true and by gum I'll keep on staying true to them :o) A little Southern charm never did no harm.
On Thursday, we gathered in the library to have two of the volunteers share their spiritual journeys, which everyone will do eventually. I was one of the two this week, and so I got to talk for a half hour about my life and what I've been through faithwise and what I'm going through now. After, I felt more connected to the people here, especially the Partners, who all came up and hugged me when we were done talking. Sam also shared her story, and that was nice to find out more about her life just by listening. I'm excited for the next two people to share.
Then yesterday, in spite of the rain, most of the volunteers went out for drinks in Athens, a larger city nearby. We went to a nice pub/coffee bar with about 30 taps of fine beers, and sat in the big booth playing table games and talking. Some of us wanted to go out dancing after the night wore on a little more, so Liz, Leslie and I split off from the group to head to the Loft to dance the night away! It was very reminiscent for me of the November roadtrip and dancing in Cory's house in Boone, not caring what it looked like, just feeling the music pounding my blood and my heart beating my body black and blue. Plus, this time we had fun observing a lonely cowboy, boots, hat and all, trying to dance his cowboy heart out to hip-hop. Quite the spectacle.
Finally, today I went with Bernard to Springfield Baptist Church in Comer, where he and I were the only white guys and were welcomed by everyone there. I think I'll keep going back, even though the services last usually till 1:30 or 2. It seems like the sort of place where you can learn everyone's name really fast, because all the people introduce themselves.
And there's the dinner bell, so I'll head up now for another Sunday meal with the refugee families, good cookin' and warm hearts. Love to you all,
-Caleb-
Ok, stories. Last Saturday, we all finally got off the land and into the busy streets of Comer, busy like one stoplight in the whole town busy. But we did find some cultural nightlife at Carmine's Pizza, where we discovered there was a karaoke contest happening, so of course we had to stay for that. I braved the crowds of cowboy hats and big hairdos, every person singing something with a little to a lot of twang thrown in, to get up and sing some Hall & Oates disco music. Lots of Georgia eyes looking at me under hat brims, wondering if I was flamboyant or just a little "special." But I denied them all, and had fun too. And I'm pretty sure we're going back next weekend.
Sunday all the refugees came up to the K-house for dinner and worship, and then we started another work week. I taught my first class on Monday, which was predictably stressful but lessened by my class being the children's class. I teach three kids from Burma (Joseph Hla, Maung Nay Sar, and Nan Yae Aye), and we have fun every class reading dr seuss books or playing games with prepositions. They especially love their times tables, oddly enough.
And I work in the garden and do random maintenance jobs around the land, or work in the childcare building hanging out with the littler kids of the bunch. I also found out that I'm going to tutor Joseph in addition to his classwork, because he's been here a while now and will be missing out on a year of public school, and needs to catch up. He's a lot of fun, and is quite the calm 10 year-old. And I play ping pong after class with all three, which is nice to be a friend as well as a teacher.
It's getting warmer here, which is incredible for January. I might get addicted to Southern weather by the time I leave. Also, it has been brought to my attention that I may be developing an accent/using the word "folks" excessively, and thus proving myself to be going native. Well, for those doubtful folks who say so, such statements are true and by gum I'll keep on staying true to them :o) A little Southern charm never did no harm.
On Thursday, we gathered in the library to have two of the volunteers share their spiritual journeys, which everyone will do eventually. I was one of the two this week, and so I got to talk for a half hour about my life and what I've been through faithwise and what I'm going through now. After, I felt more connected to the people here, especially the Partners, who all came up and hugged me when we were done talking. Sam also shared her story, and that was nice to find out more about her life just by listening. I'm excited for the next two people to share.
Then yesterday, in spite of the rain, most of the volunteers went out for drinks in Athens, a larger city nearby. We went to a nice pub/coffee bar with about 30 taps of fine beers, and sat in the big booth playing table games and talking. Some of us wanted to go out dancing after the night wore on a little more, so Liz, Leslie and I split off from the group to head to the Loft to dance the night away! It was very reminiscent for me of the November roadtrip and dancing in Cory's house in Boone, not caring what it looked like, just feeling the music pounding my blood and my heart beating my body black and blue. Plus, this time we had fun observing a lonely cowboy, boots, hat and all, trying to dance his cowboy heart out to hip-hop. Quite the spectacle.
Finally, today I went with Bernard to Springfield Baptist Church in Comer, where he and I were the only white guys and were welcomed by everyone there. I think I'll keep going back, even though the services last usually till 1:30 or 2. It seems like the sort of place where you can learn everyone's name really fast, because all the people introduce themselves.
And there's the dinner bell, so I'll head up now for another Sunday meal with the refugee families, good cookin' and warm hearts. Love to you all,
-Caleb-
Saturday, January 9, 2010
First Week at Jubilee
Wow, what a blur of events has passed me by since I last wrote.
I was struggling to decide whether to continue this, and I ended up doing so because I'm only writing letters to the amount of people I can handle, and so this seems like a good way to keep in touch with anyone else.
To catch up:
I ended up having a wonderful rest of the roadtrip with Meira, going from Boone, to her brother's place in Savannah GA, to a few days at her house in Gainesville FL (where we went to the prairie, visited friends, played an intense set of raquetball with her dad, and walked down the Devil's Millhopper), then up through the night to Wisconsin (complete with in-car dance parties and too many energy drinks and creepy Tennessee gas stations in the middle of the night), and we spent a couple days with my family and around town in Madison.
Then there was Thanksgiving and a couple weeks at home with mom and dad. In mid December, I went down to Chicago to pick up Verena from the airport, come all the way from Germany to stay with my fam for Christmas. We spent a week in Chicago seeing the sights (German xmas market, lincoln park zoo, museums, chinatown, Wheaton) and then headed home for Christmas in snowy Wisconsin.
We spent two weeks there, taking time to go to Madison and to Lafayette IN to visit the gramps. And we had a wonderful time through all of it, baking things, reading to each other in German (Der Kleine Prinz, poetry, kid's books), and talking talking to fill up all the time from the 5 months we had apart.
Then on January 2nd, we both said goodbye to the rest of the Warners and took the Greyhound down to Chicago (verena for the airport, I for another busride). We said our goodbyes in a crowded bus station, waiting way too long for the bus to arrive. Then I got on the bus headed south, straight to Atlanta. Then another bus to Athens. Altogether the trip took me about 24 hours.
And now I'm here, after lots of waiting and letters and phone calls...I'm here, just outside of Comer, GA, at the Jubilee Partners community as a five-month volunteer. I unpacked my overalls (just for you Meira :o) and some sweaters and probably not enough underwear and settled into my tiny room in the Koinonia House. It's the biggest building on the land, where the kitchen and the dining hall are, but also housing 6 volunteers, four women and two men. Those are the single volunteers, and then the married ones live in various houses on the 260 acres Jubilee owns. Altogether we make 14.
Then there are the partners, the long-term, committed folks, who also live in the houses. Most houses have more than one apartment, and some families have kids, so they really live with only the essential amount of space. I think there are twelve partners...something like that.
And then there are the refugees, living in another cluster of houses about a half mile down the road from the K-house. They live over there to maintain their own community and culture, but the volunteers and partners are down there all the time. We teach English classes, have childcare so the parents can go to class, and have class for their children too (that's what I will teach). There are five families here right now, but two of them will finish their 2-month stay in about 2 weeks, so that will change the dynamic here soon. And everybody comes over to the K-house for dinner on Sunday nights, so it's a packed house and we play music and sing too.
Ok.
I just finished my day of work today, so I have the rest of the day today and tomorrow off. I've been here 7 days now, and there's still so much that I haven't written about. It'll all come out eventually. Anyway, just wanted to let people know that I do have some internet here, but I don't really have time to be on it all the time, so things like facebook kinda go out the window with that. shoo, I'm tired. I think I'll go make some tea and read a book or something. This'll probably get written on about once a week. And that's that for now. Love to you all.
-Caleb-
I was struggling to decide whether to continue this, and I ended up doing so because I'm only writing letters to the amount of people I can handle, and so this seems like a good way to keep in touch with anyone else.
To catch up:
I ended up having a wonderful rest of the roadtrip with Meira, going from Boone, to her brother's place in Savannah GA, to a few days at her house in Gainesville FL (where we went to the prairie, visited friends, played an intense set of raquetball with her dad, and walked down the Devil's Millhopper), then up through the night to Wisconsin (complete with in-car dance parties and too many energy drinks and creepy Tennessee gas stations in the middle of the night), and we spent a couple days with my family and around town in Madison.
Then there was Thanksgiving and a couple weeks at home with mom and dad. In mid December, I went down to Chicago to pick up Verena from the airport, come all the way from Germany to stay with my fam for Christmas. We spent a week in Chicago seeing the sights (German xmas market, lincoln park zoo, museums, chinatown, Wheaton) and then headed home for Christmas in snowy Wisconsin.
We spent two weeks there, taking time to go to Madison and to Lafayette IN to visit the gramps. And we had a wonderful time through all of it, baking things, reading to each other in German (Der Kleine Prinz, poetry, kid's books), and talking talking to fill up all the time from the 5 months we had apart.
Then on January 2nd, we both said goodbye to the rest of the Warners and took the Greyhound down to Chicago (verena for the airport, I for another busride). We said our goodbyes in a crowded bus station, waiting way too long for the bus to arrive. Then I got on the bus headed south, straight to Atlanta. Then another bus to Athens. Altogether the trip took me about 24 hours.
And now I'm here, after lots of waiting and letters and phone calls...I'm here, just outside of Comer, GA, at the Jubilee Partners community as a five-month volunteer. I unpacked my overalls (just for you Meira :o) and some sweaters and probably not enough underwear and settled into my tiny room in the Koinonia House. It's the biggest building on the land, where the kitchen and the dining hall are, but also housing 6 volunteers, four women and two men. Those are the single volunteers, and then the married ones live in various houses on the 260 acres Jubilee owns. Altogether we make 14.
Then there are the partners, the long-term, committed folks, who also live in the houses. Most houses have more than one apartment, and some families have kids, so they really live with only the essential amount of space. I think there are twelve partners...something like that.
And then there are the refugees, living in another cluster of houses about a half mile down the road from the K-house. They live over there to maintain their own community and culture, but the volunteers and partners are down there all the time. We teach English classes, have childcare so the parents can go to class, and have class for their children too (that's what I will teach). There are five families here right now, but two of them will finish their 2-month stay in about 2 weeks, so that will change the dynamic here soon. And everybody comes over to the K-house for dinner on Sunday nights, so it's a packed house and we play music and sing too.
Ok.
I just finished my day of work today, so I have the rest of the day today and tomorrow off. I've been here 7 days now, and there's still so much that I haven't written about. It'll all come out eventually. Anyway, just wanted to let people know that I do have some internet here, but I don't really have time to be on it all the time, so things like facebook kinda go out the window with that. shoo, I'm tired. I think I'll go make some tea and read a book or something. This'll probably get written on about once a week. And that's that for now. Love to you all.
-Caleb-
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