So Long 2018

Some highlights from this last year have been:

• Finishing an MA
• Getting a job that has seen me spend the last few months of this year in Bangladesh learning Bangla
• Spending 6 weeks traveling around the States visiting family
• Working with Jerusalem PeaceBuilders over the summer doing training in dialogue with Jewish and Arab youth

(For some reason I can't load any photos! Sorry)

Looking forward to 2019 I'm looking forward to:

• Learning how to do my job well at Sari Bari
• Getting better at speaking Bangla
• Finish reading the Old Testament in Hebrew
• And a number of other things that are a bit more nebulous...

I'm really excited about all the new things that I will experience in this coming year and all the new things that I will be learning. I love the twists and turns of life and the unexpected things!!!

Sari and Fuchka

It's finally happened, the moment I've looked forward to since I got a job that would take me to the Indian subcontinent; I wore a sari!

Sorry for not having a more posed picture, but I prefer the "action" shot as I give a speech (in Bangla) at a Victory Day/Christmas party!

I wore the sari again a couple of days later for a party at the church that I've been attending. So far, I feel elegant and stately whilst wearing a sari. I am getting better at putting it on by myself. I'm thinking that after a few more wears I'll have graduated to solo-sari-draping.

Another new experience that I've had recently is trying a local street food called fuchka (FOO-chkah). It is a colorful, flavor-packed, mess of a meal and it is my favorite new food since getting here.

Once I'm settled into Kolkata I am going to see if I can figure out how to make them at home!

I Wonder How

There is no place in the world that is free of poor people or beggars. I've seen them in every city, town, or village in which I've been. What to do about that is a question I am constantly asking myself.

A recent book called 'When Helping Hurts' suggests that irresponsible giving can actually hurt the recipients in the long run. Giving, when done, should be done in a responsible and sustainable way that builds up interdependency in the community and autonomy in the individual.

Jesus, on the other hand, said, 'Give to anyone who asks and do not turn your face away from them.' For me, Jesus' words carry infinite more weight than 'When Helping Hurts'...and there is wisdom in carrying for others in a sustainable way.

I've gone through periods where I followed Jesus' words more literally and was truly blessed by doing so. I learned a lot during those times and do not regret giving freely. I've also gone through times where the needs overwhelm me and I am intimidated by what freely giving will cost me.

I went to buy a sari a few days ago. As I was talking with the salesman, a woman alternated between grabbing and pawing my arm and my friend's arm asking for money.

While we wandered through the maze of stalls looking for the right sari we were followed by different women asking for money.

I felt simultaneously guilty for being able to spend $15 on a sari and indignant that I should have to split my focus between bargaining over the sari and responding to the woman at my elbow.
(I'm not saying that any of my reactions were justified or right, I am just being honest about what I experienced in the moment.)

Outside the stalls amidst a crush of people I saw a man whose limbs were so atrophied that he seemed to be all torso, covered in a skin disease, a large lump coming out of his back. It took 2 seconds for the mass of people to move past him, myself included.

I haven't been able to stop thinking of that man since. I have come to realize that it would have been and still is easier to simply give him money and move on. Much harder, would be to go, sit down with him, talk with him, and hug him. I wonder how often he is hugged. I wonder how often people take the time to sit and chat with him. I wonder how often his humanity, as a beloved creation of God, is affirmed.

I am challenged by the question of how to give and what to give so that the true needs are met, not just the ones that are easy to see on the surface. I haven't been able to escape that question recently.

Grand Aspirations

No, this post is not about desires or longings, but about a different type of aspiration.

If you are unfamiliar with the linguistic meaning of aspiration, please hold your open hand up to your mouth and say the word 'tap'. For most dialects of English you would have felt two little puffs of air as you pronounced the word. Those puffs of air are called aspiration.

Now say the word 'dab'. You probably didn't feel much aspiration with that word.

In English we aspirate the letters p, t, k, and ch. We do not aspirate b, d, g, or j.

Bangla aspirates all of those sounds...and doesn't aspirate them. That means that whether I aspirate them or not, the word's meaning changes. On top of that, whereas English has the one aspirated t sound, Bangla has 4 different t's!!!

Anyway, spending so much time focusing on aspiration has had one odd affect. When I hear English being spoken, the aspiration sometimes feels really harsh and shocking...why must we fire puffs of air out of our mouths all the time! It's so abrasive! I never realized it before.

I wonder if non-native English speakers ever feel like we are trying to blow them over with all of our aspirational words!