October 28, 2012
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Unpacking
I am slowly unpacking my soul. It hasn’t been very long—just a couple of days, but I have been living a different life. During the week I am living in Cajueiro Claro, one of the poor communities Living Stones works in. A family offered to house me—they are better off than most of the families, but still have only the basics compared to American living.
Nouwen wrote “Compassion is not a bending toward the underprivileged from a privileged position; it is not reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy or pity for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On the contrary compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there.”
I think the biggest difference about these days is that is isn’t about me. Nothing is. It isn’t about what I can add to the conversation. Or where I will go, or when I will eat. I know nothing. I am a little child again, relying on others. And it is beautiful.
“Your vocation is always and only this: to be a servant of God. You are always a success when you are serving because in the upside down kingdom the way to be great is not to climb higher but lower.” –Ann Voskamp
I have an instant family. They’ve opened their doors and hearts to me. We watch a movie and Marlene makes us popcorn and I remember how much I miss my mother. I went jogging and a couple of kids from Living Stones went with me, jogging on either side—one barefoot, one with soccer cleats. At the end, they climbed up a coconut tree and got me a coconut, chopped off the top with a machete. Fresh coconut water over Gatorade any day!
The family has three rooms in their house: one for the parents, one for their oldest daughter (18) and her husband and new baby, and one for Laiza (17) and I. It is a decent sized house, and luckily, has a huge reserve of water so we are never out. They have a beautiful area of land where Marlene has planted many flowers and Zezinho has many fruit trees and plants. There is a shower (cold) and a toilet that flushes, so I really have nothing to complain about.
Behind their house it looks like jungle. Ha—because it is. There is a bunch of banana trees and a couple coconut trees and then beyond that it is “the wild.” You can see nothing but trees and sky. I wake up in the morning and listen. I know some of those noises are the little monkeys—I’ve seen them jump from tree to tree. So many kinds of birds. So many other noises I can’t identify. Laiza took the top bunk. Because, she said, sometimes things drop down on you from the roof. It is true. They have a basic brick and Spanish-style roof, and many things come through those cracks. I was very happy that she volunteered.
