Blessing
from my journal yesterday morning...
"My head itches like mad from the lack of water pressure in bucket-bath shampooing, and I sit in the almost vacant BERUDEP office in Njinikom. I'm on the line between calm, reflective space and uncomfortable boredom. The hard wooden chairs function as a primary deterrent for enjoying this space. My body aches for large cushions on which I can sprawl and create and allow my thoughts to wander. Also deterring to this space are the cars and motorbikes that rush by and the ever-present flow of human traffic. I need a deeper quiet and cleaner canvas on which to create.
However, maybe the purpose of these hours today are not creativity and productivity but a present interaction and being with the reality of my environment. I suppose that is why the most fulfilling and meaningful parts of my day so far include offering pen and paper to 9-year-old Blessing to ease her boredom, helping Blessing shelter the drying herbs from the rain, and observing and photographing images in and around the office that inspire me.
Maybe the creativity to which I'm called today is to surrender to the reality of my environment and allow it to impact, inspire, and transform me. Thus, it is not my environment that I should necessarily seek to change but my expectation of and interaction with it."
After this entry, I spent the next couple of hours happily interacting with Blessing (who's a participant in the after-school program I helped BERUDEP develop). Among our interactions included Blessing putting my hair into at least 20 braids and an enthusiastic performance of numerous songs and rhymes in her dialect.
p.s. There is some "actual" work going on over here too. I spent several hours today observing and evaluating some of the classes in the after-school program and women's literacy classes. But the evaluation process is quite a boring thing to write about. :)
"My head itches like mad from the lack of water pressure in bucket-bath shampooing, and I sit in the almost vacant BERUDEP office in Njinikom. I'm on the line between calm, reflective space and uncomfortable boredom. The hard wooden chairs function as a primary deterrent for enjoying this space. My body aches for large cushions on which I can sprawl and create and allow my thoughts to wander. Also deterring to this space are the cars and motorbikes that rush by and the ever-present flow of human traffic. I need a deeper quiet and cleaner canvas on which to create.
However, maybe the purpose of these hours today are not creativity and productivity but a present interaction and being with the reality of my environment. I suppose that is why the most fulfilling and meaningful parts of my day so far include offering pen and paper to 9-year-old Blessing to ease her boredom, helping Blessing shelter the drying herbs from the rain, and observing and photographing images in and around the office that inspire me.
Maybe the creativity to which I'm called today is to surrender to the reality of my environment and allow it to impact, inspire, and transform me. Thus, it is not my environment that I should necessarily seek to change but my expectation of and interaction with it."
After this entry, I spent the next couple of hours happily interacting with Blessing (who's a participant in the after-school program I helped BERUDEP develop). Among our interactions included Blessing putting my hair into at least 20 braids and an enthusiastic performance of numerous songs and rhymes in her dialect.
p.s. There is some "actual" work going on over here too. I spent several hours today observing and evaluating some of the classes in the after-school program and women's literacy classes. But the evaluation process is quite a boring thing to write about. :)
A picture of the braids, please. :)
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