Thanks to those who donated!

It's been sometime since my last post. In April I was finally able to send the money and goods donated to Sierra Leone. In July I received photos and letters from the children in Sussex Village, Freetown. These images show most of the goods that were donated arriving at the school in Sussex. In addition monetary donations were used to purchase shoes for the kids which you will also see in some of these shots. The books that were donated were given to the school to become part of their library. Soon I will upload some of the letters that were written by the students at the school. All graciously thanking us for the items they received. See slide show of photos that were taken predominantly by Mr. Bundu. Also note some of the supplies were kept by our host family for use in the school they have been building (and already running) at River #2 in Freetown.

strangers in nicaragua

the silence was penetrating. oddly though, it was difficult to tell the direction from which this silence rose. one might say that based on the nature of our surroundings, the silence came from without. from the stillness, darkness, basic no-frills environment, from nature itself.

i believed differently. i say the silence seeped up from within. born out of our mere presence, the spectacle that we were, the fear we must have injected at the simple sight of us. strangers, tresspassers, alien even. with people like us comes empty promises, the anxiety of hope, connections that disappear in a flash. i would fear such things too.

...break through the silence.

deliverance

Yesterday was a happy and emotional morning. I cried tears of fulfillment and satisfaction. Thanks to some of the most generous people in my life, I finally delivered on my promise to help the village of Sussex in Sierra Leone. I delivered boxes full of supplies (books, clothing, writing instruments, art supplies, toothbrushes) and $600 in cash which will be distributed to the village.

The books will create a beautiful library at the school. The school supplies will add value to the students experience. The clothing will be distributed to villagers. The toothbrushes will be given to a number of large families I met while in Sierra Leone. The money will go towards the purchase of rice for the families of Sussex as well as sandals for the children.

Without the contributions and care of some very special people this wouldn't have come together.

Saturday was a perfect day.

The Poems I Have Not Written by John Brehm

This poem touched me for whatever reason, i thought i'd share:

I'm so wildly unprolific, the poems
I have not written would reach
from here to the California coast
if you laid them end to end.

And if you stacked them up,
the poems I have not written
would sway like a silent
Tower of Babel, saying nothing

and everything in a thousand
different tongues. So moving, so
filled with and emptied of suffering,
so steeped in the music of a voice

speechless before the truth,
the poems I have not written
would break the hearts of every
woman who's ever left me,

make them eye their husbands
with a sharp contempt and hate
themselves for turning their backs
on the very source of beauty.

The poems I have not written
would compel all other poets
to ask of God: "Why do you
let me live? I am worthless.

please strike me dead at once,
destroy my works and cleanse
the earth of all my ghastly
imperfections." Trees would

bow their heads before the poems
I have not written. "Take me,"
they would say, "and turn me
into your pages so that I

might live forever as the ground
from which your words arise."
The wind itself, about which
I might have written so eloquently,

praising its slick and intersecting
rivers of air, its stately calms
and furious interrogations,
its flutelike lingerings and passionate

reproofs, would divert its course
to sweep down and then pass over
the poems I have not written,
and the life I have not lived, the life

I've failed even to imagine,
which they so perfectly describe.

Sierra Leone update

As i have requested donations of both product and cash I owe all an update on the status of the delivery of such goods. I had had a date (march 1) set in my calender to send off what has been generously donated (THANK YOU SO MUCH), but there have been a few snags along the way. The people who were going to deliver the goods changed their travel schedule. I may still be able to send some things over by the end of this month. i said some because it now appears that they may not be able to take all of it. I'm still working on that. Also a friend of mine who has a connection at the UN is trying to help me out. So i am working a couple of angles right now. If all else fails i am making a return trip to sierra leone and getting the stuff there myself!!

who am i really scared of?

We are so scared of each other it's rather comical. We do our best to avoid another's gaze, we reject all signs of friendliness from others - dismissing those people as weird, we even feel unspoken contempt towards others, the angry new yorker waiting to erupt. In reality, we are just scared, we are protecting ourselves from the very thing that makes us human - social interaction.

I'm a gym fanatic, I take classes, see the same people every week yet neither party reaches out to the other. Instead I look at my fellow gym goers, half wanting to extend a friendly nod, half wanting to hide my eyes. I develop this almost "I'm better than they are attitude". But why?? When the very moment one of them makes a friendly gesture towards me I melt, chastising myself for not having reached out to them first or for not being more open.

There are some who are immune to this whole game. A friend of mine will talk to anyone anywhere. I admire that. While I hide she expresses herself openly.

Don't get me wrong, there are moments when I am "on" - and this form of social openness comes easy but it's not often enough. What's stopping me? Again, that's fear. The question to analyze further is how do I break this pattern? Imagine what a train ride in manhattan would be like if only we weren't so scared...if only I wasn't so scared.

reconstitution

It's as if stars collided and stardust fell from the sky, sprinkling it's magic on me - a shower of deliverance. I stand grateful, glowing from the inside out as my body is cleansed. Baptized in the spirit of light. Awashed in this sense of newness I step out. I walk among man, free, inspired and reborn.

Hope and Change

As we embark on this historical year in politics where change and hope seem to be the platform here in the US, I think of Sierra Leone. Where upon our first full day in the country we were "set back" by the inauguration of President Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People's Congress party. I call it a set back facetiously, what I mean is that everything stopped; businesses were closed, schools were closed. The entire country celebrated all but for a few street vendors and restaurants that found the occasion perfect to make a few dollars.

This was to due to the number of people that came out to be part of the inauguration - the first inauguration opened to the public in the history of Sierra Leone - which took place in the national stadium in Freetown, the streets were pretty much closed as well by the amount of traffic on the road. Tens of thousands of people came out, even late in the day the traffic had not subsided. We watched as large groups of women in their red dresses and headwraps walked home up the hills of Freetown after the celebration. People everywhere celebrated. Similar to the wave of enthusiasm surrounding this year's election, the election and inauguration of President Koroma stirred a lot of positive feelings with the Sierra Leonians. All of those who I spoke with were expecting improvements under the new president. They were hopeful - this is, as his party name implies, the people's president.

Time alone wil tell if this president does indeed deserve the praise given him by the people. No different then here in the US.