Feeling tired but excited and joyful after a week of orientation (with the other 50 YAGM) in Chicago and also a long day of travel, we finally arrived in Mexico City on Wednesday where we met Andrea, our country coordinator. An hour and a half later our bus turned a corner overlooking a valley of glowing lights against the nighttime’s obscure shadow. We made it - Cuernavaca! So here I am writing from CCIDD -- the Cuernavaca Center for International Dialogue and Development -- where the four other YAGM volunteers and I are staying during our orientation. Some of this city feels different than when I was here before but a lot of this is new to me. I’m still trying to remember street names and where buildings are located. The rutas,or busses, race around the streets and there is always something happening at the Zocalo, or city square, where men and women sell corn, crafts, as people pause for a rest, or walk in from one end to another getting to where they need to be. The main cathedral gates are open during the day but at night when they’re closed I notice that the courtyard is transformed into a still, quiet space. Also, when it rains at night and the city noise is hushed, I realize how I’m not quite used to the sounds of traffic, people, music, and little animals from outside my window. The CCIDD staff have been wonderful hosts! These are the people who assist the Center with administration, maintenance, and preparing meals. I’m still trying to remember names but no one seems have problems remembering who were are – maybe because we have a Sara, Sarah, Katie, Katherine, and Peter in our group, which in Spanish would mean two “Saaaraaahs,” two Kaaatteees” and one “Pedro.” Already, we’ve been able to enjoy just “being” together, sharing a lot about what brought us here, what we hope to learn in this time, and our hopes and dreams for the future. I'm going to miss seeing them everyday but I'm also super-excited to begin work! And, well, my sides hurt almost every day from laughter, if that gives you any idea about how well we get along. Later on I hope I can write more in detail about how this week has been. In the meantime, we’ll be wrapping up orientation, visiting more of our placement sites, hanging out, sharing meals and reflection time together, reading, and learning about life in Mexico. If you’d like to learn more about the work that CCIDD facilitates here in Cuernavaca you can visit: http://www.ccidd.org. Below is a picture of Cuernavaca (the faint city you can see way out to the right) from the top of a mountain in Tepoztlan - a 45 minute drive from Cuernavaca. 
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Pack nothing.
Bring only your determination to serve and your willingness to be free. Don't wait for the bread to rise. Take nourishment for the journey, but eat standing, be ready to move at a moment's notice. Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind -- fear, silence, submission. Only surrender to the need of the time — to love justice and walk humbly with your God. Do not take time to explain to the neighbors. Tell only a few trusted friends and family members. Then begin quickly, before you have time to sink back into the old slavery. Set out in the dark. I will send fire to warm and encourage you. I will be with you in the fire and I will be with you in the cloud. You will learn to eat new food and find refuge in new places. I will give you dreams in the desert to guide you safely to that place you have not yet seen. The stories you tell one another around the fires in the dark will make you strong and wise. Outsiders will attack you, and some follow you, and at times you will get weary and turn on each other from fear and fatigue and blind forgetfulness. You have been preparing for this for hundreds of years. I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way and to learn my ways more deeply. Some of you will be so changed by weathers and wanderings that even your closest friends will have to learn your features as though for the first time. Some of you will not change at all. Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth and feel abandoned by you. Some will find new friendships in unlikely faces, and old friends as faithful and true as the pillar of God's flame. Sing songs as you go, and hold close together. You may at times grow confused and lose your way. Continue to call each other by the names I've given you, to help remember who you are. You will get where you are going by remembering who you are. Touch each other and keep telling the stories. Make maps as you go remembering the way back from before you were born. So you will be only the first of many waves of deliverance on these desert seas. It is the first of many beginnings -- your Paschaltide. Remain true to this mystery. Pass on the whole story. Do not go back. I am with you now and I am waiting for you. It’s no secret that I love radio. NPR, WGN, BBC, and CBC Radio 1. I’ll go through phases where the radio is on all day: WGN in the morning; NPR when I drive to and from work; and BBC or CBC during a slow afternoon.
Immigration reform, health care reform, and the economy. These topics have bombarded news media this summer and it’s been all over the radio. Recently, I heard someone argue in favor of denying health care and other rights to undocumented immigrants. The guest said that the U.S. Constitution does not defend the rights of undocumented immigrants, even their children. The host disagreed. Back and forth, they argued over each other’s main points without offering any concrete application of their ideas and concepts. While I was uncomfortable with the debate, I continued listening. Normally I would leave the room and hustle through my morning routine because, in my opinion, tense debates like this really do little, if anything, to improve the situation at hand (I find them so offensive!). Instead, I rested my elbows on the kitchen counter and paid attention to the words that were being used. In those few minutes leaning into the voices over the radio static buzz, it struck me that this will likely be one of the many issues in my growing awareness during the coming year. The segment I listened to didn’t help me to understand the root causes for these polarizing issues and it certainly didn’t add anything remarkably profound to the overall conversation. I still don’t quite understand the realities behind these important questions – even when the most seasoned experts do their best to unpack the facts. I wonder: What happens when we don’t agree on certain issues? How do we change the focus from feeling right about ourselves to living out the ideas and values that resonate most powerfully within us? Why is it so hard to admit what this is? And how do we do this? Immigration reform, health care reform, and the economy. Yes, I do have my own thoughts on these topics; however one of the main things I hope to learn throughout this year of service is the ability to find new ways to narrow the gap between myself and the object of my opinion. Maybe this will help me grow in my understanding of how these issues are part of a rapidly globalizing world and don’t belong just to the U.S. I hope to discover the many ways I am impacted by, or even the ways that my actions impact, these issues and the people they affect. Finally, I hope to gain a more generous perspective on the divisive impulses that seem to make people choose sides. While in Mexico, I’ll be without my normal radio line-up: WGN, NPR, BBC and CBC. Instead, I’ll be listening to the new sounds and voices around me. Like that morning, leaning into the voices drone on amid the radio's staticy background noise, I'll have to pay close attention to the words, maybe even the gestures and expressions being used by those around me. It could be the voice a new friend or neighbor that fills me in on the details I might not otherwise understand. It could also be the voice of a stranger that passes by, or that of a group of people gathered, laughing and talking, nearby. Whatever the case, I’m sure the act of listening will inform and expand what I am learning, of what I want to learn more about, and all that I am un-learning in the process. This fills me with hope! Immigration reform, health care reform, and the economy. Nope, these issues still aren't clear to me but that's okay. I’m about to start out on a wonderful, exciting adventure into these unsettled questions and I’m glad they already disturb my thoughts. I don’t have a clue about how this year will unfold but I’m sure that in the course of thinking through important events and experiences, letting the questions surface, and reframing my way of understanding relevant issues, that resting into the messiness and open-endedness of all that is ahead will be an important part of the journey. I wouldn’t have it any other way. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 "The great essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for." - Joseph Addison
Hello everyone! August is always a busy month but even busier now as the months have turned into weeks and the weeks into days before I leave for YAGM orientation in Hyde Park - Chicago (and then Mexico!). Muy pronto. From August 19-26 I’ll be with the other 50 YAGMs in what I assume will be a time of intense learning seminars, Global Mission information and preparation, reflection, and of course group bonding time :) I can’t wait to fill you in on all that I’m about to learn and do in those days. Until then, summer life continues in full swing and I’m enjoying every minute of it. I hope you are too! Hasta luego mis queridos amigos y amigas. | AuthorI'm a 2009-2010 ELCA YAGM in Mexico, spending time in mission, service, and living in community. ArchivesJuly 2010 Categories |
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