Watch the Walk

A view from inside our house There once was a man who had two sons. He went to the older one and said, "go work in my field today." The older son said, "I won't go." But later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the younger son and said the same thing. The younger one said, "okay, I'll go." But he never went. Which son did his father's will? Which is better: to continue in a bad decision, or to change your mind and do what is right? A local view This is a story that I translated this week and discussed with my language helpers. I was drawn to this story after reading a book about honor/shame-based societies. Whereas North American cultural interaction is based on the idea of right and wrong (guilt-based society), societies like the one I'm living in now interact on the basis of honor-- how can I give honor where it is due and be a person to whom honor is due? How do I prevent myself and my family from being shamed? Why is this ...

After four months on Clove Island, I left my 10 mile radius and went on vacation to another island. This other island had things like electricity 24/7, air conditioning (yay, sleep!), and clean beaches, along with a smattering of good shopping (can we all say "Oreos!" together?). It was a wonderful few days of relaxation, good sleep, swimming, and sight seeing. It was a lot of fun, and quite relaxing in general. Having fun We took a boat back to Clove Island today, which was a beautiful ride and very peaceful. We played some card games, read books, and just relaxed. Then we arrived back at "our" island. Immigration was no biggie: the official came on board and stamped passports as we exited the boat. I was the first one from our group to exit the boat. Upon reaching the landward end of the gangplank, I asked the official at the bottom where we could pick up luggage. "Tomorrow" he said. "No, I need it today. Where do I get it?" "Tomorrow. Cus...

I feel like life has been pretty normal lately. And by normal I mean that the toilet works, the miracle mold on my ceiling isn't growing right now, and I'm going about my daily routines of language time, time with the Father, time with the neighbors, visiting friends, and time with the team. Oh, and time spent in housekeeping. A friend and I, ready to head to a ladies' event. Then again maybe it isn't so normal. My language helpers have been unavailable for various reasons, which means I've gone to a bit more work to do the intentional learning time of my language acquisition. We've had very little rain during this part of the rainy season, meaning that collecting water is more of a chore (or we have to buy it, yikes). And the power situation on the island is still pretty frustrating. Oh, I haven't mentioned the power situation? Well in short we've had very little power since the beginning of February. Before that, we could count on power being on most o...

Due to popular demand, here's a "day in the life of" post for what life looks like here. A few notes first, however: -- Not every day includes all of these events, but they often occur in my daily living here. -- Because I didn't feel like doing a story format, this is in the form of "if I wrote FaceBook posts frequently throughout the day."  A Day in the Life of [Me]: 7:00 AM – I’m up for the day, what more can you ask? Bucket shower first, then time to make coffee. 8:00 AM – Trying to prepare for a language lesson on 1.5 hours of sleep is pretty ridiculous. I’ll be glad when the electric company sorts things out and we have electricity through the night again. Hard to sleep without a fan. 9:00 AM – Heading out for a language lesson. Caught a taxi right away, but the driver then stopped at a shop for 10 minutes to do… I don’t know what? My fellow passengers have now quizzed me on my nationality, marital status, reasons for my (non)marital status, and I’...

Transplant: move or transfer (something) to another place or situation, typically with some effort or upheaval. Looking down the hill toward my part of town. I'm a transplant. Uprooted from my home soil, still carrying some dirt with me, but planted into a new place to grow and be an agent of change. In my new soil, I have new friends, new habits, and new priorities. But I'm still the same person. A carrot is a carrot whether planted in a garden, greenhouse, or growing wild. So in a lot of ways, I have to learn how to thrive in a new environment, but as the same person I've always been: quirky humor, commitment to the Father, need for relationship, and all. I still struggle with laziness. Now that comes out in the way I handle language. At first I was gung ho: let's do this! I love language! It's such a fun challenge!  Now I'm hitting a hard part: as I get into more difficult parts of the language, it's harder to see progress. I have to figure out new ways t...

“That’s not how you make it!”   She laughed at me, but with a shocked look on her face. “Your mouth will burn up that way!” Hmm. That sounds about right. How you really cook it. See, there’s this strange grass-like thing in the market. I see women selling big bags full of it, and I’ve asked them what it is, but knowing the name doesn’t really help unless you already know the plant. Then I realized that it was actually a big leaf that they cut into thin strips to sell. So not grass-like at all. And still a mystery. One day there was a distinct lack of vegetables in the market, so I started asking more questions about this unfamiliar plant. I asked if you could eat it like a salad, and the ladies of the market assured me that it tasted delicious. Chances are, they didn’t understand my question, but just wanted me to buy from them!  So I took the new plant home and added it to a salad. Have you ever tried eating shredded fiberglass? I haven’t either, but that’s the impression I ...

Once upon a time, a group of white(or somewhat white) people went hiking on their little island. I'd say the hike was no fairy tale, but even Little Red Riding Hood got chased (or eaten, depending on the version) by a wolf. So fairy tales are sometimes more dangerous than expected also. Are you enjoying the suspense yet? Well, our hike was full of suspense too! It all started with a friend of our team leader who suggested that we climb the tallest mountain on the island. It's only a little over 5,000 feet high, and we'd be starting at a decent elevation, so it sounded like a fun adventure. Plus, many people said you could see all the surrounding islands from the top of this mountain. Most of the rest of the team though it sounded like fun too, so we started planning. Reports from islanders about the trip were varied and vague. Would it be 3 hours roundtrip? Six hours? We planned for the longer estimate, figuring that at the latest we'd be back mid-afternoon. Would it ra...