I just finished reading The Poinsonwood Bible, which I want to take a moment and highly recommend. The novel is " a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it—from garden seeds to Scripture—is calamitously transformed on Afrcian soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the corse o thress decades in postcolonial Africa… " Barbara Kingsolver is an amazing writer and reading this novel at this point in my life was incredible because I could relate to a good deal of the experiences described in more than one way. There are so many quotes from the book that stood out to me, but I’ll just share one passage and leave the rest of the book to your own reading.
" Think of all the duties that were perfectly obvious to Paul or Mathew in that old Arabian desert that are pure nonesense to us now. All that oot washing, for example. Was it really for God’s glory, or just to keep the sand out of the house ?…Oh, and the camel. Was it a camel that could pass trhough the eye of the needle more easily than a rich man ? Or a coarse peice of yarn ? The Hebrew words are the same, but which one did they mean ? If it’s a camel, the rich man might as well not even try. But if it’s the yarn, he might well succeed with a lot of effort, you see ?… When I want to take God at his word exactly, I take a peep out the window at His Creation. Because that, darling, He makes fresh for us everyday, with out a lot of dublous middle managers. "
I just finished (almost all in one very lazy day) Nickel and Dimed, a journalists’ experience trying to get by in the poor working class in America, definitely worth reading. I wish so many of the people that I talk to here that think everyone in the US is rich and they would be too if they were able to get over there could read it also.
Just today I picked up (or got handed, actually) Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. I’ve heard good things about the book and thought the change in genre might be good. I’ll hopefully get through it this weekend and start on Blink—content and evaluation TBA.
Friday, January 18, 2008
things said by other people I have recently come across that i thought were interesting
" Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed – doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language.
But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps—who works in a foreign land—will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task o bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace. "
-John F. Kennedy offering an inspirational (though a bit rosy) description of what the Peace Corps is about. Whether or not this is accurate varies from program to program and volunteer to volunteer.
" Peace Corps training is like no other training in the world, having something in common with college life, officer’s training, Marine basic training, and a ninety day jail sentence. "
-Mortiz Thomsen from his book Living Poor on PC training. Very true in an exaggerated king of way. Although, I feel this is a better description of what life as a student in the CEG is like.
" Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. It is also a weapon that the world cannot do without in the fight against AIDS. Education saves lives. "
-Nelson Mandela on why education is a weapon. I don’t like weapons, but I want to help save lives. Couldn’t he just have called it a tool?
" Question : In what sense do you think that outside help is useful ?
Answer : We need outside help for analysis and understanding of our situation and experience, but not or telling us what we should do. An outsider who comes with ready-made solutions and advice is worse than useless. He must first understand rom us what our questions are, and help us articulate the questions better, and then help us find solutions. Outsiders also have to change. He alone is friend who helps us to think about our problems on our own. "
-From a diologue with activists of the Bhoomi Seng Movement in India. I like this grassroots approach, but it’s a lot more difficult in practice than most people probably realize. Lots of patience required.
But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps—who works in a foreign land—will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task o bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace. "
-John F. Kennedy offering an inspirational (though a bit rosy) description of what the Peace Corps is about. Whether or not this is accurate varies from program to program and volunteer to volunteer.
" Peace Corps training is like no other training in the world, having something in common with college life, officer’s training, Marine basic training, and a ninety day jail sentence. "
-Mortiz Thomsen from his book Living Poor on PC training. Very true in an exaggerated king of way. Although, I feel this is a better description of what life as a student in the CEG is like.
" Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. It is also a weapon that the world cannot do without in the fight against AIDS. Education saves lives. "
-Nelson Mandela on why education is a weapon. I don’t like weapons, but I want to help save lives. Couldn’t he just have called it a tool?
" Question : In what sense do you think that outside help is useful ?
Answer : We need outside help for analysis and understanding of our situation and experience, but not or telling us what we should do. An outsider who comes with ready-made solutions and advice is worse than useless. He must first understand rom us what our questions are, and help us articulate the questions better, and then help us find solutions. Outsiders also have to change. He alone is friend who helps us to think about our problems on our own. "
-From a diologue with activists of the Bhoomi Seng Movement in India. I like this grassroots approach, but it’s a lot more difficult in practice than most people probably realize. Lots of patience required.
i was thinking the other day…
there are certain phobias that probably don’t exist in Togo : germaphobia, agoraphobia, claustrophobia, or any fear related to bugs, spiders, kids, or being on time. Fortunately for me, my phobia level in all of these are very low to non-existent.
why, hello there.
I’ve now been in village for over a month and things are looking up. I’m getting to know people, people are getting to know me, and there always seems to be something to do. With all the Chrismas and New Years parties going on (which mostly consisted of lots of music and lots of fufu. Happy New Year !), I’ve only just started to do more formal type work and I’m hoping to expand that in the upcoming weeks.
About a week and a half ago, I had a meeting with people from one of the quartiers (or neighborhoods) and that was … a good learning experience. I wasn’t entirely sure what we were supposed to be talking about or what my counterpart (Koffi) expected to accomplish, so when it was time to start the meeting and he told me I had the floor, I did my best to keep it as general as possible and ask questions to spur discussion. The goal of the meeting ended up being to decide when would be a good time to meet again, but since there was another quartier meeting going on at the same time, they thought there was an underrepresentation of voices. SO they decided we should meet the next week at the same time to further the discussion. That eneded up being last Wednesday and everyone, including my counterpart, forgot about the meeting, so it’s postponed until next week. Lesson learned : verify with people the day before a meeting to make sure it’s still on.
Last Monday I was supposed to start teaching in the CEG, but the school director wasn’t there, so for reasons I didn’t quite understand, Koffi said I should wait until Wednesday. I did and Wednesday came around and the director was still gone, but this time Koffi said that I could go teach if I wanted. So I did. It went ok. My idea was to just introduce myself, try to get the students’ names, and go over what we would be doing for the rest of the year, which is more or less what ended up happening. The plan is that I’ll be teaching Life Skills (good communication, healthy relationships, how to make good decisions, share health/HIV/AIDS information, etc) on Monday to sixième students and on Wednesday to cinquième students (roughly the equivalent of 6th and 8th grade). The English teacher and I also went around to all the CEG classes and said we would be starting an English club next week. I’m not really sure what we’ll be doing in it specificially (should I be worried that this tends to be the case in a lot of situations ?…), but I figure I’ve got a good enough grasp on the English language to be able to figure something out.
The work I’m doing is to promote young girls’ education and empowerment, but that doesn’t mean that I’m only going to be working with young girls. This is the work of the whole community and there are numberous approaches I can take, which, I’ve been told, is both the greatest strength and weakness of the program. I’m looking forward to seeing what my work ends up looking like.
About a week and a half ago, I had a meeting with people from one of the quartiers (or neighborhoods) and that was … a good learning experience. I wasn’t entirely sure what we were supposed to be talking about or what my counterpart (Koffi) expected to accomplish, so when it was time to start the meeting and he told me I had the floor, I did my best to keep it as general as possible and ask questions to spur discussion. The goal of the meeting ended up being to decide when would be a good time to meet again, but since there was another quartier meeting going on at the same time, they thought there was an underrepresentation of voices. SO they decided we should meet the next week at the same time to further the discussion. That eneded up being last Wednesday and everyone, including my counterpart, forgot about the meeting, so it’s postponed until next week. Lesson learned : verify with people the day before a meeting to make sure it’s still on.
Last Monday I was supposed to start teaching in the CEG, but the school director wasn’t there, so for reasons I didn’t quite understand, Koffi said I should wait until Wednesday. I did and Wednesday came around and the director was still gone, but this time Koffi said that I could go teach if I wanted. So I did. It went ok. My idea was to just introduce myself, try to get the students’ names, and go over what we would be doing for the rest of the year, which is more or less what ended up happening. The plan is that I’ll be teaching Life Skills (good communication, healthy relationships, how to make good decisions, share health/HIV/AIDS information, etc) on Monday to sixième students and on Wednesday to cinquième students (roughly the equivalent of 6th and 8th grade). The English teacher and I also went around to all the CEG classes and said we would be starting an English club next week. I’m not really sure what we’ll be doing in it specificially (should I be worried that this tends to be the case in a lot of situations ?…), but I figure I’ve got a good enough grasp on the English language to be able to figure something out.
The work I’m doing is to promote young girls’ education and empowerment, but that doesn’t mean that I’m only going to be working with young girls. This is the work of the whole community and there are numberous approaches I can take, which, I’ve been told, is both the greatest strength and weakness of the program. I’m looking forward to seeing what my work ends up looking like.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
