Grasping for Entebbe

We got stopped short en route to Entebbe, Uganda today.  The plan was that we would be landing at the airport there about one hour from now (as I post this blog) , but so it goes for best laid plans.  

Yesterday we took off from Akron, PA at 11:30 am to catch a 6:30 flight from JFK Airport outbound from New York City to Amsterdam.  We finally got off the ground a little after 7:00pm, and then about 1 ½ hours into the flight, over the Atlantic Ocean, the pilot announced that there was a technical problem that required us to return to JFK.  As it turned out the technical problem was that one of the engines on the Airbus had lost power.  It made for a very rocky and somewhat frightening landing, but we all arrived safely back to the point of our original departure!  

We had another lengthy wait there while they fixed the airplane, and finally at 3:30 am we took off for Amsterdam again.  We arrived in Amsterdam about 5:00 pm Amsterdam time, way too late to catch our 11:00 am flight to Entebbe.  After another long wait at the KLM help desk we are now rescheduled to fly, via London and Addis Abbaba, to Entebbe tomorrow evening.  So if all goes well we will arrive in Entebbe Sunday morning, July 4 at about 7:45 am.  We may not be bright eyed and bushy tailed, but we will be running on adrenaline, so can probably keep up with the Sunday schedule of orientation which is pretty mild.

We are staying the night in a nice hotel here in Amsterdam, and were able to watch the last half hour of the World Cup game where the Netherland’s “Orange Army” upset Brazil for a 2 to 1 win.  People are jubilant here!  Next blog will be from Uganda!  Finally!

Mennonite Worship

We are learning so much about the Mennonites as we go through orientation at Mennonite Central Committee here in Akron, PA.  On Sunday we went to our first worship with the Mennonites.  There were several churches to choose from in the small town of Akron, as it is in the heart of Mennonite country.  We chose to go to a lay-lead worship at the "Pilgrim Mennonite Church" here on the campus of MCC.  A study group gave a presentation on the Psalms.  Among other things, several of them read Psalms that they wrote from a 21st Century perspective.  I am copying one below that I found particularly pleasing.  It is posted here with the permission of the authors Phillip and Dee Horst Landis.

Where are you, God, when it is winter?
Is it Your breath that dips south
blowing icyness into the cracks in buildings
where flies hide,
where they press as tightly as invertabrately possible,
letting go when they die and
warming the air minutely as they fall

Surely, God, you hope for other seasons
What word, O Lord, is becoming flesh
when the March grass greens under snow

I have seen You tutor the red beet
giving it knowledge of its own fibrous strength
as it digs its burrow

There is a verb You utter
that helps earthworms find each other
above ground
on damp nights

How often do You, O Lord, guide a dandelion seed
into a dog's nose
tickling as it lingers
Is the sneezing a fair impression of Your laughter?

Do You sometimes forget the scent of the perennial field?
Surely You recover it
through a sheep's broad nose
sniffing.....water, clover, manure,
shepherd, shade, flock and fence

Should we take these things personally, O God?
Does the sunflower's yellow head look around for us to notice
or is each day's twisting stem
simply the work of making one more seed

East Coast USA

July 13, 2010


Our travels to visit friends and family before leaving for Uganda are finished. We arrived in Akron, PA yesterday evening to begin our leadership orientation with the Mennonite Central Committee. The air, heated to 84 degrees, was thick with moisture and draped itself across our skin and under every seam of clothing. The humidity increased until the air, no longer able to contain it, released it in the form of streaming rainfall complete with lightening and thunder… a good start for our orientation to Uganda which is one of the lightening capitals of the world.
We are staying at the “Welcoming Place” http://mcc.org/welcomingplace  at MCC in Akron. It is a very peaceful place with rolling, landscaped grounds and themed “houses. We are staying in the Mid-east/Europe house which has enough rooms to house 8-10 couples or families. There are four houses with the same floor plan, which includes a large community space with a kitchen, dining room and living room arrangement, and laundry facilities. There are outdoor or indoor fireplaces, also inviting community to gather. We share meals with people from the other houses at a central dining hall, and have our meetings in a large building with rooms to house various numbers of people.
We shared breakfast this morning with other guests from Indonesia, Nepal, Jordan, Iran and the Ukraine. Oh yes, there was also a guy from Ohio. We are so excited to be among such a diversity of people and languages again!

Our time with friends and family on the East coast was wonderful. Among the highlights were a visit to a Smithsonian Aeronautical Museum outside of D.C, a historic walk along the Freedom Trail http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/  in Boston, a weekend gathering in Brattleboro, VT for the Strolling of the Heifers http://www.strollingoftheheifers.com/v2/ , and a sailing trip on the U.S. Brig Niagra http://www.hnsa.org/ships/niagara.htm , an old Navy square-sailed ship that won a decisive battle in the War of 1812 with the British on Lake Erie. It was the same type of ship they used in the movie, Master and Commander…very cool! It goes without saying that the best part of the travels were visiting with friends and family in each of these places. It was a rushed agenda with just a day or two in each place, but what a wonderful way to spend our last weeks in the U.S. before leaving for Uganda. Our next entry to this blog will likely be from Kampala.

Traveling East

Life took on way too busy a pace to keep up with blogging about our last weeks in Chico.  Time seemed to accelerate with so much to do and time moving way too fast to get it all done. We don't know what we would have done without Jacob and Quin to help with so many of the home improvement projects we've been putting off for years.  It was fun to watch Joel and Jay and Steve working together to rebuild the deck out back.  Julia came up from San Antionio and packed about 1/3 of our house for us while also entertaining us with her wit and good humor.  Jane and Jim came up from Santa Cruz, Jeannine, Mieken and Christy helped finish packing the house.  Karen, Jay, Laura and Jim hosted the most incredible party, and many of Quin and Jacob's friends came to wish us well; an unexpected delight!  I feel like I just won an oscar, but I can't close this blog without saying a heartfelt thanks to all our friends for the parties, dinners, help with packing and all the well wishes and thoughtful gifts that came our way in the last weeks in Chico.  It was so much fun that we wished we would have thought of leaving years ago! 

Our last night in Chico we stayed up until 1:30 a.m. finishing packing the house and our bags.  We are now in Colorado visiting my parents. We went for a ride by Ridgeway Reservoir to enjoy beautiful views of the San Juan Mountains, and this evening viewed the full moon through their spotting scope.  Saturday we will head back to Brighton, Co to visit with Steve's dad before heading back to the east coast to visit friends and family. 

More later (including photos); sleep now!

Turbulence over Minneapolis/St. Paul

May 6, 2010

We said our goodbyes to friends and family in Seattle and Gig Harbor, WA today after a four day weekend. Our time in Gig Harbor was a reunion of families, most of us still living in Chico, who have shared Sabbath Suppers” together every other Sunday for the past 14 years. Our time in Seattle was spent visiting family we haven’t seen in years- my sister and her husband, Betty and Howard as well as a niece and her husband, Mandy and Michael. It was a fabulous weekend with friends who seem like family and family who we discovered are still good friends.


We are on our way to Winnipeg where we will meet the Canadian MCC staff and learn more about the programs there. The departure from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Winnipeg was late due to the weather. There in Seat 5F, as we sat on the runway waiting for the clearance to go, I watched the raindrops collect, make rivulets and flow down the surface of the oval window. Once we were in the air, it became apparent why our departure was delayed. The plane jolted, dropped and rocked its way across the sky. It made me stop and wonder which was more dramatic, the turbulence over Minneapolis/St. Paul or the turbulence in my heart. The farewells begin.

Peacemaking

We were heading towards Pacheco Pass with the Gypsy Kings singing their ballads on the CD player. It was one of those cherished moments when time seemed suspended in perfection. I turned down the music and said to Steve, “You know, I think this was one of the most profound weeks of my life. I really felt like we were among the heavy weights of the peacemaking world!”

In preparation for our time in Uganda, Steve and I had the opportunity to spend an amazing and inspiring week attending the Basic Institute in Conflict Management at the Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies in Fresno. The Center is part of the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary at Fresno Pacific University. Ron Claassen and Dalton Reimer, the professors who offered the training have an obvious commitment and decades of experience in peacemaking. The two of them have made the rubber hit the road in ways that academicians rarely do. Dalton has developed Peace Institutes in areas of conflict around the globe, and Ron has implemented conflict mediation in some of the most emotional and difficult circumstances.

Have you ever had the pleasure of hearing a story that is so well told that it transports you in time and place? Images come alive and the story, though told only in words, seems to be experienced with all your senses. Such were the stories that Dalton told each morning for the first hour of our studies. The stories were from Genesis. I fell in love with the Book of Genesis; it came alive for me in a way it never has before. Each story revealed an account of conflict, and a different human response to that conflict. Cain’s response to the conflict with his brother, Abel, was to take Abel’s life. Jacob’s initial response to conflict was to flee in order to avoid the conflict that would arise when his brother, Esau, realized his inheritance had been usurped by Jacob. Many years later when Jacob returned to his home country he sent out emissaries, gifts and praise to Esau in hopes to appease him- the conciliatory approach to conflict. Joseph’s style of resolving conflict with his brothers, who had sold him into slavery, was total reconciliation- he offered forgiveness. But even beyond that he offered protection for them when they were in harms way. Taking a life, avoiding conflict, conciliation, and reconciliation. These represent the gamut of choices humans have to respond to conflict. As Peacemakers we try to help people and communities acknowledge their conflicts, and work towards the reconciliation end of the spectrum.

Ron had example after example that brought life to the mediation techniques he was teaching. Most inspiring to me was the work he is doing in the area of restorative justice. Ron secured funding from the California Endowment to implement a system of Restorative Justice for certain offenses by minors in Fresno County. Restorative Justice brings the offender and the victim together, if each is amenable. The victim has the opportunity to fully express to the offender exactly the extent of impact the crime had on their life. The offender acknowledges that he is responsible for the crime, apologizes, and proposes solutions to restore the damage (s)he has done. The result is that “injustice is recognized, the equity is restored (restitution and grace), and the future is clarified so that participants are safer, more respectful, and more empowered and cooperative with each other and society” (Restorative Justice – Fundamental Principles; Ron Claassen 1995 http://peace.fresno.edu/rjprinc.html).

While we learned a great deal about mediation and Peacemaking during the week, we certainly have a long ways to go on this learning curve. Thankfully there are MCC staff in Uganda who have extensive training in peacemaking skills and experience in using them. As a result of this training, Steve and I will be in a better position to support the MCC staff in the work they do to help repair the broken relationships and fractured communities in post-war Uganda.

Uganda plans

"We've taken a new job", is a frequent comment we make to friends and colleagues these days.    When we go on to explain that our new job will take us to Uganda the responses vary from unbridled enthusiasm to cautious pessimism.  Some friends, those who know us well, tell us "You're living the life now!"  Others express concern about our safety.  Others wonder how we can leave our children behind on a different continent.  All wish us well, of course. 

We, ourselves vascillate from those early morning clouds of doubt, "What in the world are we thinking!" to  full throttled excitement!  Right now we are in the preparation stage.  It is a time of defining life's priorities.  Spending quality time with local friends, divesting ourselves of volunteer responsibilities, and making lists of things to do fill the hours that comprise our "spare time".  Setting up this blog, with skilled guidance from my good friend Francine, is one more thing I can check off my list!

I hear the chainsaw in the back yard as Steve takes down a maple that is going to grow large enough to crowd the side of our house if left to its own devices over the next five years (who knows what the previous owners were thinking when they planted it there!).  I hear the skillsaw as he prepares lumber to repair the deck or the fence or the shed or who knows what else.  He's working on his own checklist.

Next to come is the pairing down of our belongings.  We need to get down  to dimensions that will either fit into the shed in our backyard or into one of the four suitcases we will take with us to Uganda. We have been packing away, into the nooks and crannies of our home, so many accumulations over the past 15 years that this will be quite the task!  It will be a catharctic exercise in simplifying our life, and I am looking forward to that.  But it won't happen if I keep blogging, so I'll sign off now.  If you signed on to read about Uganda, check back in July.  If you stumbled upon this because you are a friend who googled our name, feel free to keep reading as I blog through our preparation and departure.   -Marge