October 27, 2007
The man who dreamed up this whole idea, President Kennedy, once said of the Peace Corps: “But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying”. Boy, was he right! I haven’t written on this blog for a while, and I have been neglecting my other blog as well. Unfortunately, what President Kennedy didn’t mention is that life is going to change on a daily basis. One day you want to cry because your language skills are terrible, the next day you are laughing so hard you almost pee in your pants while trying on Peruvian dresses, or the following day you are rubbing your sore leg after a dog bit you while running. Even then, I still do not know what will come tomorrow. My life changes on a whim’s notice, and I am off doing something I had never expected to do. It is exciting, challenging, sometimes very frustrating, and yes, rich and satisfying.
Lately I have been getting more and more involved in my community. At first I was shy, keeping to myself and being incognito. It just doesn’t work. You have blonde hair, green eyes, waltzing through the plaza, a foot taller than everyone else – they are going to notice you. And if you aren’t there, they notice your absence even more. So, I have decided to stop caring so much about what my community thinks of me or what cultural blunder I might commit next. It is really difficult though, because even the smallest things are huge insults, like not greeting someone properly or sharing the food you have. But I am learning. I just have to laugh at my mistakes, cry quietly into my pillow at night, hold my head high, pray a lot, ask for forgiveness on a daily basis, and do everything with a sincere positive attitude. Most of all, I have to be myself.
The question I have been facing lately, however, is who I am exactly. I can say “be myself”, but who is that girl? Sometimes I attack all projects with a huge sense of idealism; this time I shall save the world! It is nearly impossible. Development work just doesn’t work like that. You can have the big victory in the back of your mind, but really you have to work on the small things first in front of you. I expected things to be difficult and challenging, but never so tedious and I will admit, sometimes boring. I have always wanted to be this person who is incredibly outgoing, witty, funny, and personable; with all of my sincere attempts I expected to make tons of friends and be weaving on the street corner with all of the elderly women in my town. It just doesn’t happen that way. First off, I am slightly shy. It takes a while before I can open up to others. Second, sometimes I really do prefer being by myself in my room reading, rather than out in the plaza dancing to huayno music or attracting attention. So, throughout these past five months, I have had to learn more about myself and realize that I can only be who I am, and no one else. It is difficult, because sometimes I just want to build a ladder and climb up to God and ask Him what in the heck is going on. I just want this perfectly laid out map of where I am supposed to go and what I am supposed to do. However, for the first time in my life I am going to be content with no answers. I am just going to go with the flow, take on projects that arise out of the community’s needs, and not be so persistent and proactive. It is hard, because I have a “Type A” personality, but perhaps the answers can be found in the things I cannot control.
Things are going well in Peru and I feel more and more productive everyday. A year ago I wouldn’t have thought hanging out in the city hall building for two hours, talking to random people would be productive – but in Peru, it is. Today I had several girls from the high school come over to my house and we all made vegetarian black bean soup. They had never had black beans and I think we enjoyed ourselves. It was pretty funny though, because we had to combine cultures – me with my vegetarian soup recipe and them with their rice and potatoes. And who knows, maybe this was just a random event to socialize – or perhaps these girls might have taken away something else. These are the small tiny details of development work that I never knew existed.
So, RMC community and fellow bloggers, I am surviving. They say it is the “toughest job you will ever love”, and it is true.
- Tiffany, Peace Corps Volunteer, Peru
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Rilke has a way with words...
As I am prepared to tell the story of my summer field work tomorrow at RMC, I am rereading lots of old journal entries and other books that I read over the summer. One book in particular is Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. I highly recommend this to anyone. I want to share a specific excerpt that has really spoken to me many times in the last 6 months.
"Were it possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches, and yet a little way beyond the outworks of our divining, perhaps we would endure our sadnesses with greater confidence than our joys. For they are the moments when something new has entered into us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent.
I believe that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension that we find paralyzing because we no longer hear our surprised feelings living. Because we are alone with the alien thing that has entered into our self; because everything intimate and accustomed is for an instant taken away; because we stand in the middle of transition where we cannot remain standing. For this reason the sadness too passes: the new thing in us, the added thing, has entered into our heart, has gone into its inmost chamber and is not even there anymore,-is already in our blood. And we do not learn what it was. We could easily be made to believe that nothing has happened, and yet we have changed, as a house changes into which a guest has entered. We cannot say who has come, perhaps we shall never know, but may signs indicate that the future enters into us in this way in order to transform itself in us long before it happens. And this is why it is so important to be lonely and attentive when one is sad: because the aparently uneventful and stark moment at which our future set foot in us is so much closer to life than that other noisy and fortuitious point of time at which it happens to us as of from outside. The more still, more patient and more open we are when we are sad, so much deeper and so much more the unswervingly does the new go into us, so much the better do we make it ours, so much more will it be our destiny, and when on some later day it "happens" (that is, steps forth out of us to others), we shall feel in our inmost selves akin and near to it. And that is necessary. It is necessary-and toward this our development will move gradually-that nothing strange should befall us, but only that which has long belongs to us. We have already had to rethink so many of our concepts of motion, we will also gradually learn to realize that that which we call destiny goes forth from within people, not from without into them."
Chew on that for a while and let me know what you think!
I can't wait to see some of your smiling faces tomorrow morning!
Peace,
Jodi
"Were it possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches, and yet a little way beyond the outworks of our divining, perhaps we would endure our sadnesses with greater confidence than our joys. For they are the moments when something new has entered into us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent.
I believe that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension that we find paralyzing because we no longer hear our surprised feelings living. Because we are alone with the alien thing that has entered into our self; because everything intimate and accustomed is for an instant taken away; because we stand in the middle of transition where we cannot remain standing. For this reason the sadness too passes: the new thing in us, the added thing, has entered into our heart, has gone into its inmost chamber and is not even there anymore,-is already in our blood. And we do not learn what it was. We could easily be made to believe that nothing has happened, and yet we have changed, as a house changes into which a guest has entered. We cannot say who has come, perhaps we shall never know, but may signs indicate that the future enters into us in this way in order to transform itself in us long before it happens. And this is why it is so important to be lonely and attentive when one is sad: because the aparently uneventful and stark moment at which our future set foot in us is so much closer to life than that other noisy and fortuitious point of time at which it happens to us as of from outside. The more still, more patient and more open we are when we are sad, so much deeper and so much more the unswervingly does the new go into us, so much the better do we make it ours, so much more will it be our destiny, and when on some later day it "happens" (that is, steps forth out of us to others), we shall feel in our inmost selves akin and near to it. And that is necessary. It is necessary-and toward this our development will move gradually-that nothing strange should befall us, but only that which has long belongs to us. We have already had to rethink so many of our concepts of motion, we will also gradually learn to realize that that which we call destiny goes forth from within people, not from without into them."
Chew on that for a while and let me know what you think!
I can't wait to see some of your smiling faces tomorrow morning!
Peace,
Jodi
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Christmas for Congo 2007
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About a year and a half ago the Raleigh IDR held "Congo Night" at RMC. We sang Congolese songs, ate Congolese food, and listened as Tresor shared about the violence occurring in his country due to the civil wars and political upheaval that has continued there for the past 20 years.
At that time, RMC sent donations to Tresor's friend Nicholas, who with the help of Congolese churches, runs an orphanage and AIDS orphan ministry for many children, in Northern Congo. Nicholas' group provides housing, food and education for the kids, a few of whom are pictured in the photos above.
After Congo night we waited, prayed and hoped that the presidential election that took place in Congo earlier this year would put an end to the bloodshed. It has not.
So, it's time to help Nicholas once again. Let's send the kids around Northern Congo a special Christmas that they won't forget!
Many people at RMC have been asking how they can help support those working for peace in Congo. So, Tresor and the IDR have joined with Nicholas to plan "Christmas for Congo." Financial gifts will be accepted from October through the end of November, at which time they will be wired to Nicholas to help buy Christmas presents for the kids, and to provide for their other daily needs this winter.
Other churches in the Raleigh area have also joined in, and are making donations to the cause. If you'd like to make a donation to help Nicholas' kids, send your checks to Al Reberg, at Raleigh Mennonite Church, and note that they are for "Christmas for Congo." As the holiday season begins to edge it's way toward us. And let's continue to pray for peace in Congo, and to support those there who are rising above the violence to help others.
Happy Early Christmas to all! - Janelle, Tresor, and the IDR -- for Nicholas and the kids.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Reflections of Faith
Since arriving in Austin, we have been immersed amongst the Catholics! St. Edward’s, where I teach, and St. Michael’s, where Ben teaches are both Catholic institutions. (no surprise there with those names eh?) Ben’s grandparents were Catholic so for him this brings back memories from his childhood, but for me it’s a whole new world. Just trying to keep up with the terminology (what, exactly, is a diocese?) so I know what the people around me are talking about has been a challenge! But as I’ve found other times in my life, with each new challenge comes the chance to learn something new about yourself and those you have the privilege to interact with.
I’d been to mass before. And as a born and raised Mennonite, those services seemed to be the polar opposite of what I was used to! The rituals, the smell of the incense, chants and liturgies that everyone knew, up and down on the kneelers, the sometimes ornately decorated sanctuaries with altars and candles, the priests in formal robes – there was so much to take in! I must admit I never left feeling particularly worshipful, it was more spectacle than worship service for this teenage Mennonite.
Fast forward a few years and here I am, professor at a Catholic university. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in a Christian institute of higher learning – how refreshing it was to begin orientation that first day with prayer. A brief moment for me to step back and thank God for this new opportunity I’ve been given, to center myself, take a deep breath and feel God’s presence with me as I step forward into the unknown. There is mass every day here on campus, and I’ve been a couple of times. Although the services in our humble chapel aren’t quite as elaborate as mass that I’ve attended before, there is still a very different feel to this experience of worship. I find that the sights and sounds serve to remind me that I am in a holy space, and a time set apart to connect with God. I imagine that once you learn the liturgies, the comfortable repetition helps to block out the distractions and put you in a frame of mind to focus on worship. Kneeling and performing the sign of the cross add a physical connection to worship and employ another of my senses. I am learning to appreciate this new experience and the ways it can add meaning to my relationship with Christ.
Here at St. Edward’s, I’ve found a community of people who are deeply committed to one another and to their faith. Not everyone is Catholic, or necessarily religious. But we can, and do, learn from each other every day. The variety of beliefs and faiths represented on campus provide a good opportunity to reflect on my own faith, and where it needs strengthening in thought and action. At one of the start of school ceremonies, this was part of the prayer:
“Loving God...today you breathe into each of us a new opportunity to form community, seek truth and deepen our understandings of the universe around us”.
May we all be blessed with the challenge of new opportunities, and what it can mean for our faith, and for our world.
-- lisa
I’d been to mass before. And as a born and raised Mennonite, those services seemed to be the polar opposite of what I was used to! The rituals, the smell of the incense, chants and liturgies that everyone knew, up and down on the kneelers, the sometimes ornately decorated sanctuaries with altars and candles, the priests in formal robes – there was so much to take in! I must admit I never left feeling particularly worshipful, it was more spectacle than worship service for this teenage Mennonite.
Fast forward a few years and here I am, professor at a Catholic university. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in a Christian institute of higher learning – how refreshing it was to begin orientation that first day with prayer. A brief moment for me to step back and thank God for this new opportunity I’ve been given, to center myself, take a deep breath and feel God’s presence with me as I step forward into the unknown. There is mass every day here on campus, and I’ve been a couple of times. Although the services in our humble chapel aren’t quite as elaborate as mass that I’ve attended before, there is still a very different feel to this experience of worship. I find that the sights and sounds serve to remind me that I am in a holy space, and a time set apart to connect with God. I imagine that once you learn the liturgies, the comfortable repetition helps to block out the distractions and put you in a frame of mind to focus on worship. Kneeling and performing the sign of the cross add a physical connection to worship and employ another of my senses. I am learning to appreciate this new experience and the ways it can add meaning to my relationship with Christ.
Here at St. Edward’s, I’ve found a community of people who are deeply committed to one another and to their faith. Not everyone is Catholic, or necessarily religious. But we can, and do, learn from each other every day. The variety of beliefs and faiths represented on campus provide a good opportunity to reflect on my own faith, and where it needs strengthening in thought and action. At one of the start of school ceremonies, this was part of the prayer:
“Loving God...today you breathe into each of us a new opportunity to form community, seek truth and deepen our understandings of the universe around us”.
May we all be blessed with the challenge of new opportunities, and what it can mean for our faith, and for our world.
-- lisa
Friday, September 7, 2007
Progressive Party a big, loud success!
Welcome Back to all those who were gone for the summer, to those who came by phone, and welcome to our new folks! Music and games all around.
Food, Food and More Food at the IDR September Event..
"Wherever two or three are gathered, there I will be in the midst of them" Matthew 18:20
Stop # 1 and Stop #2. Didn't we just eat at someone else's house 5 minutes ago?...
Stop # 1 and Stop #2. Didn't we just eat at someone else's house 5 minutes ago?...
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
little baby chachi
we were getting ready to eat dinner at my sister's house the other night and we kept hearing a high-pitched squealing in the back yard. when we went to investigate we found a nervous but very friendly baby squirrel under the sea-grape trees; he gave the air two quick sniffs before running right up to us. his teeth weren't strong enough to bite into the nuts we gave him, but his little feet were perfectly capable of scurrying up my leg and investigating his new friend.
thanks to photo-lovin sisters i can share the moment with you guys!!
i'm can't upload any of the great little videos of chachi becoming acquainted with us, but here are two of my favorite pics:
we brought chachi inside on my shoulder breifly before dinner and after that he'd run back up to the sliding door and squeal when we set him outside. so we made him a box and by the next day could see that his mother was not around... but a little brother was!
we check in on them in lisa's backyard though they won't intake the liquids we try to give them, and if we leave the backdoor open chachi will still run in and follow you around till we help him to the door.
they are both little heartbreakers, and I don't think I'll ever be able to look at a "pesky" squirrel the same again.
me and my mom will be drivin out early tomorrow mornin back to Raleigh. I'm lookin forward to seein everybody lots!! and yes they have made sure i leave the squirrels here ...
me and my mom will be drivin out early tomorrow mornin back to Raleigh. I'm lookin forward to seein everybody lots!! and yes they have made sure i leave the squirrels here ...
- kp
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Apo-kata-what-a!?!?
In addition to KP's cycling marathon, I have a whiffle ball trophy to add to the IDR blog. This afternoon my fellow Divinity School students came together for BBQ and a whiffle ball tournament. It was a great time to meet some new faces and greet some friends from this summer. The teams (aptly named A, B, C, and D) played each other and the the only team to win all their games was Team A, my new friends and I. Some of the upper classman decided the team's name (Team A) stood for apokatostasis and begin to create cheers in earnest. Of course, the other newbies and I had no clue what that meant. Never fear! We discovered it is a Greek word that roughly translates into "the end shall be like the beginning." After arriving back home I grabbed my hand pocket dictionary of theological terms (NOT A JOKE: It has already come in handy and classes haven't even begun!) So here's what it had to stay about my team's name :
apokatoastasis: A Greek word loosely translated as "restoration." In the Old Testament the Hebrew equivalent of the term referred to the return of Israel from exile (See Jeremiah 16:15). In the New Testament apokatastasis speaks of a future time when God in Christ will restore all things in creation according to God's original intention. Some theologians have taken this to mean that at the end of history all humankind (and perhaps even Satan and his demons) will be saved. Generally, Christian theology has rejected the idea of universal salvation.
Additionaly, one fellow student remarked that it would be like all the hair you've ever had cut off with come back at the endtimes and we will all have heavenly afros.
I think I'm going to like these people a lot.
The past several days have been a whirlwind. I've been through orientation, registration, campus tours, and various extracurricular adventures. I have bought my requisite 30+ books and poured over the syllabi that have been available to me. The nerdy part of me is quite excited!
Some of you may remember Andrew Tatum. He visited RMC for a few Sundays. He graduated from Campbell and he and his wife are in the process of moving to Durham. Well, Andrew and I are not only fellow Dukies, but we are in the same Spiritual Formation group. Our SP groups are about 10 people with which we meet weekly over the entire year. It was great to have a a friendly face to hang out with during orientation.
I also met a 2nd year student who goes to Chapel Hill Mennonite (He know you both, Karen and Janelle!!) and I shared with him my love for RMC. CHMC meets on Sunday evenings so I might get my Mennonite fix regularly after all. I know it won't be the same as RMC (BTW: HUGE Shout out to Eric and the SA fellas who helped me move. Y'all are amazing!!!!)
I hope you all are doing well and I hope to visit soon. Actually, I think Karen Metzler is scheduling me to speak to the Journeys Sunday School Class sometime around the end of September. Soon might come sooner than I think!
The Graduate School Adventure begins tommorow!!
Peace,
Jodi
apokatoastasis: A Greek word loosely translated as "restoration." In the Old Testament the Hebrew equivalent of the term referred to the return of Israel from exile (See Jeremiah 16:15). In the New Testament apokatastasis speaks of a future time when God in Christ will restore all things in creation according to God's original intention. Some theologians have taken this to mean that at the end of history all humankind (and perhaps even Satan and his demons) will be saved. Generally, Christian theology has rejected the idea of universal salvation.
Additionaly, one fellow student remarked that it would be like all the hair you've ever had cut off with come back at the endtimes and we will all have heavenly afros.
I think I'm going to like these people a lot.
The past several days have been a whirlwind. I've been through orientation, registration, campus tours, and various extracurricular adventures. I have bought my requisite 30+ books and poured over the syllabi that have been available to me. The nerdy part of me is quite excited!
Some of you may remember Andrew Tatum. He visited RMC for a few Sundays. He graduated from Campbell and he and his wife are in the process of moving to Durham. Well, Andrew and I are not only fellow Dukies, but we are in the same Spiritual Formation group. Our SP groups are about 10 people with which we meet weekly over the entire year. It was great to have a a friendly face to hang out with during orientation.
I also met a 2nd year student who goes to Chapel Hill Mennonite (He know you both, Karen and Janelle!!) and I shared with him my love for RMC. CHMC meets on Sunday evenings so I might get my Mennonite fix regularly after all. I know it won't be the same as RMC (BTW: HUGE Shout out to Eric and the SA fellas who helped me move. Y'all are amazing!!!!)
I hope you all are doing well and I hope to visit soon. Actually, I think Karen Metzler is scheduling me to speak to the Journeys Sunday School Class sometime around the end of September. Soon might come sooner than I think!
The Graduate School Adventure begins tommorow!!
Peace,
Jodi
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