Life isn’t what I thought what it would be at 28. I don’t
have a family or a home of my own... things that I once thought I might be living out in today.
But on my birthday, I am reminded that my life is so very,
very full... full of people, full of love, full of sharedness of life. I am full of family – wherever I may
be, friends that live life together in that present moment as family; mothers,
fathers, grandmas and grandpas that have adopted me as their own; and many,
many children who have weaseled their way with their sweet smiles into my
heart, running jumping into my arms each day for hugs and clinging on with arms
around my neck til my own arms can hold them no longer.
I love this little girl, Santica. She doesn’t have a mama that
is present in her life.. but she is so, so dearly loved.
Santica, Mifa, Ismae, Samuel. Mifa and Ismae are sisters... their family came from Haiti and have become a part of this community.
Gosh these kids melt your heart quick!
I shared this birthday with yet another UNION team, a
perfectly awesome, perfectly family one, in the “middle of nowhere”, Dominican
Republic. Middle of a beautiful village a long bumpy ride up into the mountains
where these little souls live. “Middle of here” where life slows down enough to
actually live it, to sip a mug of hot chocolate in the cool morning dawn, to
sit around telling stories and shelling beans, to pick rocks in the
mountainside, to swim in rivers, to feed
goats, to scrape out a coconut to make a pot of
coconut cornbread over open fire, to end every night with hoots and hollers of
kids and the scrambling of little feet playing stella-stella-ola, London Bridge
is falling down, or never-ending dance parties, until finally we brush our
teeth in the dark each clutching a water bottle under the stars. To share life, and laugh
and laugh and celebrate together the beauty of it.
I found myself bundled up the last few weeks under a few sheets and a bug
net on a pokey wire bunk bed, surrounded by 9
recent strangers, the bulk of my possessions in a backpack on the floor... so
routine now it’s become part of life as usual. Sometimes I feel a little
homeless, living in spits and spurts, different set of people in each place.
But every morning, as we hopped in the back of a pick up truck to make our way
up a steep and rocky mountain road (to pick axe, dig, and sweat together with
the community in building a 20km irrigation system through the mountainside that
will transform the dry land to do what it was meant to do – to produce and give
life in abundance)...
and I found myself surrounded by the beauty of “here”
painted with the golden glimmer sunshine off a thousand shades of green,
together with people I quickly grew to love...
... in those moments on the
dusty and rocky roads less traveled, I realize I am full of home. It is more than comfortable. This is so my place
in the world, and I love every ounce of it. My life... many “lives” sometimes
it seems... is so full of home.
When you’re in a place that feels like home, you kinda forget to take photos of the “ordinary-ness” of it... and this community of La China in particular felt like home so immediately. So.... it turns out I’ve missed taking pictures of almost everything that was part of my day to day and the people I shared it with. :( But I’ll get pictures from the other 9 cameras with us that froze some of those glimpses of home. :)
When you’re in a place that feels like home, you kinda forget to take photos of the “ordinary-ness” of it... and this community of La China in particular felt like home so immediately. So.... it turns out I’ve missed taking pictures of almost everything that was part of my day to day and the people I shared it with. :( But I’ll get pictures from the other 9 cameras with us that froze some of those glimpses of home. :)
Anyways..... 28. Along the way the first week, someone
leaked that it was my birthday the next, and the whole community came together,
a week in planning, with all secrecy and shushed giggly enthusiasm, to surprise
and love on me. From the littlest to the oldest 83 year old member of the
community, everyone was in on it. The community somehow managed to convey to the team without
me that they were to go to town and bring back a cake without letting me know.
The team realized that that would be very much impossible without me/Spanish,
so I got a cake for us, pretended that I hadn’t smuggled it in, and practiced
my surprise face. :)
That day, I probably spent about 5 hours outside the church
where we’d made our home, visiting with our neighbours, having cookies, rice,
and beans with them while talking about life and families, all while my team “prepared”
and women and children in the community rushed around giggling and shooing me
away from our door.
When it was all said and done, it was like Christmas in our home, as much as creativity in a rural village would allow. Toilet paper streamers, pine tree branches in the window slits, a banner that all the kids in the village made together with paper and felt pens... and, best of all, a "disco ball" for the dance party, made from flashing headlamps inside an empty gaterade tin punched with holes.
When it was all said and done, it was like Christmas in our home, as much as creativity in a rural village would allow. Toilet paper streamers, pine tree branches in the window slits, a banner that all the kids in the village made together with paper and felt pens... and, best of all, a "disco ball" for the dance party, made from flashing headlamps inside an empty gaterade tin punched with holes.
I walked in to a round of Happy Birthday in English and Spanish and was
swarmed with hugs and felicidades (congratulations) from each and every one of
the community once I got inside. After hearing our birthday song, one guy even wished me a
happy birthday again in English with his hug. Unfortunately it came out as “Happy Baby For You”, which I couldn’t
help laughing out loud at, but it was very sweet.
So were ALL the bundles of cards and letters the team and community wrote me! :)
Even if I knew what was coming, somewhat, it was still pretty beyond amazing. Sometimes I think we get little glimpses of heaven on earth, when lives and worlds collide, beauty from ashes, wealth in poverty, and I am blessed to share in some of these holy moments.
Even if I knew what was coming, somewhat, it was still pretty beyond amazing. Sometimes I think we get little glimpses of heaven on earth, when lives and worlds collide, beauty from ashes, wealth in poverty, and I am blessed to share in some of these holy moments.
