12-23-09
The last post was posted prematurely. I did not end leaving Mukono on the 21st. I did, however, turn in my cell phone, wash basin and mosquito net on the 21st, thinking I was going to be leaving. Oops. Evidently my mom thought that it would be a better idea not to take a public taxi with all my luggage because of the extra hassle and asked Tim (brother) to go find a car that we could rent to drive me up to Luweero. Our estimated time of departure was 12pm. Tim was sleeping, waiting for mom to get back from town at 11:55am, and had yet to look for a car yet. At around 1:30 he set out to get the vehicle. We had lunch… at 4:15pm… and still no car. My mom said that the car Tim was waiting for was running late and that the guy kept saying he’d bring in 30min. Tim waited for him till evening and gave up around 7:45pm. So I slept with no mosquito net and a sheet for the night; one of the most restful night so far (surprisingly).
During the extra time I got to spend some precious moments with Subie and Dianna (4 year old). I tried to entertain them while working on my computer to no avail, so I packed everything up and pulled out my Compassion book. I read about the importance of displacement, solidarity, humility, and the move away from anxiety, but couldn’t focus on the spiritual goodness God wanted for me because these two pests were climbing all over me, sticking their feet in my mouth and occasionally sucking on my toes (I was not clean!). I had already kid proofed the room (so I thought) and somehow they’d still find things to break or throw. I looked up to Dianna shoving things into the outlet and seeing what would happen if she plugged in both ends of my laptop charger to the same socket. Subie thought it a good idea to shove her finger into Dianna’s rectum and see what great reactions she could get from me when she lunged to stick it in my mouth. I was sitting here trying to rest from a long stressful day of not knowing when or if I’d be able to get to Luweero (or even to the airport), and these menaces were stomping all over the time I wanted to spend alone in my room. I’d tried to compromise by reading instead of working on the computer, but I was helpless against their devices.
It was here that I realized how silly this all was. I was growing more anxious and grouchy every second I tried to tolerate them while doing the things I wanted to do. So I gave up, gave in, and (after washing Subie’s finger) wrestled around with them the rest of the night. I actually found that by placing both of them under my legs I could wrestle them with my lower half and actually read a few sentences every now and then.
The next day we ended up hiring a private hire to take us to Kampala after finding out that Shawn (the New Hope guy I’m staying with now) was in Kampala and could pick me up there. At 9:30am I told Shawn we’d be there around 12am, thinking that if we left immediately for the 45min drive we’d get there in less than 2 ½ hrs. The private hire was at our house, and I was ready to go. But we couldn’t leave without taking tea. So we waited for water to boil and the bread to be bought, sat around and chatted for an hour or so. During that time we were able to exchange Christmas gifts. She got my family and me a … (it’s a surprise). I was able to run out the day prior and purchase a “rocket stove” for her and the family. It was a very well made portable stove that is extremely fuel efficient/ environmentally friendly and produces little to no smoke. We had a great time posing the exchange for the camera at least five or six times: “Hold the present higher… now turn your heads more this way… tilt it more this way… okay… um… oh, the camera’s off… again!”
We did end up making it out of there by 11am, only after my mom insisted we turn the car around to get one last picture of all of us in front of the house. We made it to Kampala in time and I made it to New Hope finally; a two hour (or two day) drive from Mukono.
New Hope is a children’s learning center (like an orphanage) that has different programs and institutions in a few other areas in Uganda. Shawn and Courtney Zimmerman are the couple that have agreed to host my for till the 6th and have me along for their Christmas celebration. Their a young couple (around 30 years old) with three children: Ava (4), Tai (2), and their newest addition A.J. (around five months). Ava and A.J. are adopted Ugandans, A.J.’s birthday and upbringing are unknown, and Tai is their biological son. Shawn co-manages New Hope’s farm with a local Ugandan and hopes to one day grow enough food to sustainably support New Hope’s demands. He has made a lot of progress since he came here two years ago but there is so much more to do if anything is to be sustainable one day. Finances are already dry and the vision of a sustainable farm is not the priority of foreign investors/supporters. Shawn has described how burnout is a problem with New Hope personnel and I’ve gathered that Shawn, within only two years of being here, is struggling to keep his zeal fresh and is getting caught in disparity from lack of funds, donator interest, and resources to build the farm into what it should be.
He expressed his excitement to have me visiting and was glad to hear any ideas, suggestions or visions I had about New Hope, the farm, or anything. After our first conversation I was stoked to have been given this opportunity to spend with Shawn and his family, humbled that he was interested in my thoughts, and excited about what was already churning in my heart. I’ve learned about the importance of agriculture, the humanness of working the land, how localized communities with a deep understanding and appreciation of place are the only vehicle of hope for the restoration of creation, and how integral it is to instruct our children about the proper relationship man is to have with the land and one another. I can’t help but see how a children’s home like New Hope could be a beacon of sorts to how education can and should be tied to the importance of rootedness, belonging, and community through appropriate and sustainable land practices. This semester has brought up many questions about our traditional sanction of western education and the goodness of amassing information. Information and a western education enables one to operate (if you’re lucky) within a cosmos that’s economic paradigm is based upon fallible assumptions of infinite capital. What good is that?, especially when you’re learning these things in a context that is nearly completely irrelevant. More than 80% of Ugandans are dependent upon subsistence agriculture, yet I doubt the ratio of students learning sustainable land techniques and appropriate technologies at an institutional level, let alone a domestic level, is above 10% of Uganda’s population. What if education was regionally relevant to the extent that a child might graduate knowing how to maintain and build top soil, boost soil fertility and water retention, and sustainably cultivate the same land (or similar land) he did his studies on. He wouldn’t know a lick of English or where to find the USA on a map, but he’d be able to explain the weather patterns, soil acidity, crop yields, and biodiversity of his lands…
Sorry for the tangent, but my excitement stems from discontent with a fallible paradigm that promises salvation by completely enslaving us to the momentum of upward mobility, displacing us from creation, God, and each other. There is another vision that transcends the uprooted nature of information, capital, and ourselves, a vision so transcendent that it stoops to the lowest level imaginable and roots into a single place with no intention of leaving, tapping into even the deepest pains and burdens of his new dwelling and entering into truly compassionate solidarity in order to truly be. Man’s existence is found in the incarnation of Christ burrowing down into our world and rooting into the father; the father of peace, stillness, content, joy, and unshakable love. The narrow way does not rush anxiously into some other direction searching for truth in some distant land or within some distant community, rather, it gives in and sinks into the ground it’s been given; it humbly roots into the eternal rock beneath him, there for his ancestors and before; there since the beginning. Rootedness, belonging, and place (not space) is what we long for. It is the only place we find consistent meaning for ourselves and our relationship to our brothers and sisters and the creation.
I’ve no idea if anything above made sense, but it was helpful for me. This is an attempt to articulate the flood of exciting thoughts that have been whirling around in my head for the past few months. I am truly enjoying dreaming about some of the great things that God has for us to partake in. It’s romantic. It’s supposed to be. I know how much I want to make a major change; how I want to see the miraculous happen; how I would love to die feeling the sense of great accomplishment and even legacy. Such silly sinful pride. Longing for legacy leads only to meaningless anxiety and inevitable disappointment, but true content is buried in the present moment; being grateful for the now, hopeful for what’s to come, waiting in wondrous expectation, and humbled in joyful servitude. God’s grace is for us to put on now, and the future is His alone. Only he can prepare the path before us, and no plan, worry, hope, dream, or vision built upon our selves will stand in the righteous presence of God’s future. This vision I’ve received is wondrous, marvelous, exciting, romantic, idealistic, foolish, and unpractical, and so far, not too different than the craziness that God pulled out on the cross. My faith shall thus remain in Him, rejoice in His work despite my efforts, dreams, or vision, and fully trust that His hand is mightier than I’ll ever know. This vision come to pass or not, it matters not for I’m content; content in the assurance that God has already won, his kingdom is already come, and the greatest vision already done. Amen.
(Thanks for reading my ramble/reflection. Comments are welcomed, encouraged, and lawfully enforced. If you have read this your are obligated under the jurisdiction of BlogSpot to post a comment here, on my Facebook, or send me an email. If not, I’ll be sad [but content]. I love you all!)