Walkin' legs

The rainy season is coming into full swing now. It really makes travelling to communities tough. Today on the motorbike, I had to cross a normally shallow river (1 ft deep). I was thinking it had probably grown since it had just finished raining, but once I saw it, it didn’t look like it had very much. I dropped a gear and went into the little river, lifting up my legs so as not to soak them. The moto and I got across fine but my boots went under so I think it was probably about 2.5-3 feet deep. But eso no fue nada (that was nothing)! My coworker Elvin (the one who doesn’t exaggerate) said one time he crossed a river where the water almost came up to the seat on the moto. Scary!

I got to the community and sat around for a while, waiting for the young people to show up. Plenty of younger and older people came in too once we started singing songs and playing games. As is typical, following instructions turned out to be difficult. Reminded of the time, I tried to talk with them about what kind of interpersonal and life skills they had been able to practice while working on the vegetable garden. Unfortunately the presence of the overly participative group leader meant that no one else really had to talk. Soon, the rain started up again and drowned me out. Between the time restraints, the talkative leader, and the rain, I think very little (less than normal) of what I said was understood. Though it was a weaker than mediocre meeting, a bunch of them let me know that they had enjoyed it and thanked me for visiting.

My conclusion is that there is a lot of value in going to a meeting just to make sure that they know you’ve made the effort to come out to see them. I’d probably be encouraged by a simple visit too if I lived out there. Some of them walk to the municipality center (1.5 hours fast, 3 slow) and back for high school every weekday. For these people, spending half a day walking is fairly common. My church in La Campa had a service tonight at an 85 year old man’s house for his birthday. He walks to town at least twice a week for church, about a 4 hour roundtrip over hills covered with loose rocks. In that context, understandably, the presence of people at any meeting means that they care.

And some more books that I just read:

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver – She has an ability to pull you into her story so completely that you never want to put it down and then when its done you miss the characters. It carefully explains the importance of community as few of us know it while providing an intreaguing look into modern Native American society.

A Traves de Cien Montanas (Across a Hundred Mountains) by Reyna Grande – Is a powerful book about immigration to the US from the point of view of a poor Mexican family. Hope carries through the emotional struggle of anger, worry, fear and disgrace. It puts a very human and personal touch on immigration, well worth the read.

Same Kind of Different As Me by Denver Moore and Ron Hall – Powerful and touching, it is a true story about how a millionaire and a homeless man become emotional brothers. Encourages the reader to an enduring relational ministry to the homeless and society’s outcasts. Read it and tell me how many times it chokes you up/makes you cry. My count of 2 shouldn’t be very hard to beat (especially if you’re my dad ;).