Listening to Bob Seger, and contemplating my last blog before I'm thirty. I'm finding it amusing that milestones make us sentimental. Tomorrow is no different than today – I won't be able to drive anything different, or drink anything different, or cash in any retirement savings. I'm not leaving anything behind. Well, nothing except my 'List of things to do before I turn 30'... moving around the world wasn't on there, and it set me back :) Maybe I'll add it so that I can mark it off.
The electricity just went out as I'm typing, and I laughed out loud. Case and point that nothing's spectacular about being in your twenties, or hitting 3-0 – still gonna be in a village with limited power at best, eating bah bah (rice porridge) :)
Cambodians don't typically celebrate birthdays – most don't know exactly when they were born. They were probably born at home, and no one wrote it down.
I'm sure a few of you are laughing at me b/c you've already hit 30 and its no big deal. Why is it so bittersweet then? For those folks that sent birthday cards and balloons in a care package – THANK YOU! It just came to me! The obvious reason its bittersweet is b/c there won't be cake – there's my mission: find cake. Or something that could resemble cake... or at least be sweet.
“...feel the wind, and set yourself a bolder course...” Thanks, Bob.
Sunday, February 28
Wednesday, February 17
Things are picking up speed and I find myself so tired but so energized. I'm wrapping up my official language lessons, but picking up mega-steam in what I'll be doing full-time soon enough. My boss goes state-side for a few months in March and wants me implemented by then – no pressure.
I'm forming and training a follow-up team and helping get all of our GPS locations of previous work into 1 database so we can see where we've been and where we're yet to go. We'll see where to need to... say.. follow up on the highest arsenic concentrations in drinking water tube wells, then be sure they have appropriate information, alternate water sources, medical teams, school teaching teams etc. Once we've gained their trust by having a consistent presence and Shared with them, hopefully the Death rate and illnesses will go down dramatically. I love it.
I've now eaten with, laughed with, and worked along side of poverty for a few months and there is no longer “them” and “us”... its not “these people” when I talk about them or remember them in prayer... ignorance hasn't made them any less fantastic and hospitable. Its “we”. I've never thought of myself as an arrogant person but at the end of the day it would be easy to fall into that trap here, seeing what I have and know based on what others have and know. Ironically, there is no possible way to be arrogant when you're surveying a village and covered with dirt. But for Grace this could've been me.
I'm forming and training a follow-up team and helping get all of our GPS locations of previous work into 1 database so we can see where we've been and where we're yet to go. We'll see where to need to... say.. follow up on the highest arsenic concentrations in drinking water tube wells, then be sure they have appropriate information, alternate water sources, medical teams, school teaching teams etc. Once we've gained their trust by having a consistent presence and Shared with them, hopefully the Death rate and illnesses will go down dramatically. I love it.
I've now eaten with, laughed with, and worked along side of poverty for a few months and there is no longer “them” and “us”... its not “these people” when I talk about them or remember them in prayer... ignorance hasn't made them any less fantastic and hospitable. Its “we”. I've never thought of myself as an arrogant person but at the end of the day it would be easy to fall into that trap here, seeing what I have and know based on what others have and know. Ironically, there is no possible way to be arrogant when you're surveying a village and covered with dirt. But for Grace this could've been me.
Tuesday, February 2
So I've been thinking about brokenness. Being broken, a broken people. There's an obvious comment – that we're all broken, not functioning exactly as we should due to crap. That whole original sin thing that has snowballed and now affects everything. My brokenness exists due to selfishness, arrogance, ignorance, too much freedom, too much comfort. Not by dictators, lack of education, poor hygiene, and lack of food.
As a blanket statement, these people are broken on a large scale - their spirit, their abilities, their pride, their economy. Maybe losing wars does that to you, I don't know. The US always seems to dominate the wars I've known in my lifetime. So the people are broken, but is each person? Or maybe I'm thinking on it backwards – is the whole people broken b/c each person is personally broken somehow? How did they get THIS broken? I hope this doesn't sound arrogant of me. You have to see it. Ironically, I do know that to fix this population, and the others like it that are struggling - one person, one family at a time or else you'll be overwhelmed. Wow, that's a big vision....
Here's the frustration I see - government's callousness or perpetuation of it. They're charging people to fix it, and then either taking the credit or pulling the plug. Do you know how many lives would be saved by simply installing “piped water” to the populated areas?! It is what it is.
Final thought: if these people were never hurting, I would never know what it was like to give of myself and help. How can someone learn to serve if no one is ever suffering? Could this explain some of the reason for suffering?
As a blanket statement, these people are broken on a large scale - their spirit, their abilities, their pride, their economy. Maybe losing wars does that to you, I don't know. The US always seems to dominate the wars I've known in my lifetime. So the people are broken, but is each person? Or maybe I'm thinking on it backwards – is the whole people broken b/c each person is personally broken somehow? How did they get THIS broken? I hope this doesn't sound arrogant of me. You have to see it. Ironically, I do know that to fix this population, and the others like it that are struggling - one person, one family at a time or else you'll be overwhelmed. Wow, that's a big vision....
Here's the frustration I see - government's callousness or perpetuation of it. They're charging people to fix it, and then either taking the credit or pulling the plug. Do you know how many lives would be saved by simply installing “piped water” to the populated areas?! It is what it is.
Final thought: if these people were never hurting, I would never know what it was like to give of myself and help. How can someone learn to serve if no one is ever suffering? Could this explain some of the reason for suffering?
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