obsessed

(how many posts about jamaica is too many posts about jamaica??)

by now, i'm sure that you know that i'm obsessed with jamaica. (if you don't, my apologies: i obviously haven't articulated myself well enough.) if i'm not in jamaica, i'm wishing and hoping and planning ways to get back. 20 of the 28 pictures on my wall were taken in jamaica to remind me of jamaica. (as if i need reminding...) if i'm not talking or blogging about jamaica, i'm thinking about it. i can bring it up in any conversation, with any group of people, and relate it to almost any circumstance. it's almost like i'm in love.

the person makes you forget about your ex. could losing a passport with the stamp of every other explored country be any more symbolic?

always remembering the person. see above paragraph.

always showing concern. read the news/pray. daily.

a characteristic about that person attracts you. uninhibited joy, simplicity, wisdom, strength, dance, fresh fruit, community...to name a few...

go well together. if not, we probably would've ended things by now...

loyal to only each other. weelll....this one gets a little complicated. we're currently in a long-distance relationship and i currently live in america...

sharing special moments. so many. just trust me on this one.

learning to compromise. compromise? eh...i'll take what jamaica gives me

prioritizing importance. i have yet to turn it down...

thinking about the future. currently researching travel costs, non-profits, living expenses. i think me and jamaica are in this for the long haul :)

(obviously more about jamaica to come)

*all credit goes to Ezine Articles for an (almost?) exhaustive and (almost?) accurate list of the signs of being in love.

earthquake

Go tell the earth to shake

And tell the thunder

To wake the sky

And tear the clouds apart

Tell my people to come out

And wonder

Where the old world is gone

For a new world is born

And all my people

Shall be one.

So tell the earth to shake

With marching feet

Of messengers of peace

Proclaim my law of love

To every nation

Every race.

For the old wrongs are over

The old days are gone

A new world is rising

Where my people shall be one.

So tell the earth to shake

With marching feet

Of messengers of peace

Proclaim my law of love

To every nation

Every race.

And say

The old wrongs are over

The old ways are done

There shall be no more hate

And no more war

My people shall be one.

So tell the earth to shake

With marching feet

Of messengers of peace

Proclaim my law of love

To every nation

Every race.

For the old world is ended

The old sky is torn

Apart. A new day is born

They hate no more

They do not go to war

My people shall be one.

So tell the earth to shake

With marching feet

Of messengers of peace

Proclaim my law of love

To every nation

Every race.

There shall be no more hate

And no more oppression

The old wrongs are done

My people shall be one.

Thomas Merton//Earthquake

hello?!

"I often have the impression my whole body is filled with the desire to express itself. To speak. To make itself heard."

Milan Kundera//The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Hello lovely friends and followers!!

Are you there?! Are you alive?!

I'm thrilled that (apparently) there are so many of you!

In order to satisfy your reading desires, I would absolutely love some feedback!

Are you enjoying my posts? Are you bored?

What do you want more of? Less of?

Any suggestions/critiques would be wonderful!

If you have a blog that I'm not following and/or commenting on, please tell me!

I'd love to be a part of your blogging world too!

Now, get off your computer and go enjoy the beautiful summer day that awaits!

jolene

"I want to side with defiant hope. I want to hope and build in this place, in Haiti--right here--because I want desperately for people here to be buying and selling land, working good jobs, building their own solid homes and a better country. I want to believe that God will ensure--in whatever inscrutable ways--that this happens. "Nothing is too hard for you," Jeremiah prays after taking the deed [for uninhabitable and undesirable land]. I want to echo that prayer in the face of all the evidence."

Kent Annan//Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle

You haven't lived until you've experienced the moment, the look on a Jamaican girl's face, when she realizes that maybe her dreams can come true.

(Oh, you haven't experienced that? You should probably consider going to Jamaica...)

I met Jolene by chance, walking from the ocean to my home for the night: a hut on the top of a cliff. She swung on a hammock and made friends with anybody who passed by. Oh, she had lots to say. She lived there, on the compound, the only kid amidst dozens of sunburned and mosquito-bitten tourists. Yes, she was having fun. Just home from school. Only seven. Grade two, but looking forward to grade three. (She should be excited, I told her: grade three was my favorite!) She has trophies for spelling contests and reading awards. She pointed out her hut and showed me how fast she could race to the top. She took the stairs two at a time, then raced back down. She likes to bead, and that is how the story begins.

We met at her hut after dinner and carefully carried a box full of beads and fishing line and hook-eyes to the lounge. I was mostly there to keep her company--my fingers could hardly grab those little beads, and I had trouble distinguishing silver from pearl from translucent pink. I just sat and listened and talked and listened as she told me story after story, as she shared with me her dreams.

She'll call her business, "The Lovely Necklaces." No, no. She'll call it "The Lovely Jewelry," because some people will want bracelets, or anklets, or earrings. She'll save her money to buy gifts for her family and school supplies, and to help her mom when her boss refuses to pay. Someday.

She had her very first customers that night. Two custom orders from two USD students, and a total of $1500 J (curious? 1 US=86 J).

Oh, the joy on Jolene's face was like nothing I have ever seen. Her eyes went wide as she smiled and ran to her mom, holding up dollar bills, showing off the money she made and shouting plans for expansion. More beads and new clasps and employees enough to make a living. To survive. To see her dream come true.

So, against stories of families separated out of necessity for years at a time and incomplete school projects or poor grades because of lacking resources, against stories of inconsistent work and unpaid salaries, I choose defiant hope. I choose to believe in her dream, for her and with her, because it can be true. I choose to believe in making dreams become reality.

summer reading, part one

there is a post in the works about talking and listening, hellos and goodbyes, quality time, and how it all culminates for me in jamaica...it's coming, it's coming, it's coming

for the time being, let's talk about books.

through class and work and life, i've waited for some empty space for books.

they line my bookcase but have never been cracked open;

and they beg to be read, explored, enjoyed.

summer 2010 is that space.

{completed/suggested summer reading}

1. Unaccustomed Earth//Jhumpa Lahiri***

2. Interpreter of Maladies//Jhumpa Lahiri***

3. The Memory Keeper's Daughter//Kim Edwards**

4. Into the Wild//Jon Krakauer**

5. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting//Milan Kundera**

6. The Help//Kathryn Stockett***

7. Journey Into Belief//Steve McCoy-Thompson*

8. Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle//Kent Annan***

9. ...

10. ...

11. ...

...to be continued...

(also accepting your recommendations!)

***highly recommended

**only semi-recommended

*if you're looking for a book on finding God through the Catholic tradition, this is a good one :)

jamaica, a preview

for the first time in three weeks, i'm not sweating. it is, i know, not very ladylike to talk about sweat, so you can imagine my relief that it is no longer a part of my daily existence. neither is mosquito repellent. ptl. my arms and legs are covered with the marks of a three-week battle with the most annoying insect on the planet, and they still itch, just to remind me of what i've left behind and do not miss.

everything else, though, i'd take back in a heartbeat. because after only twenty-seven hours of not being in jamaica, i'm already homesick and aching to be back in the place that shows me so much of life. already, i've looked through my pictures at least twenty-six times. i scroll through them, as if looking long enough will put me back in that place, with that sweet girl sleeping on my chest, or that funny girl challenging me to a dance off, or those beautiful girls playing in the ocean for the first time in years.

i wasn't sure, yesterday, if i should hurry out of customs so that i could journal and cry in privacy, or stay as long as possible at the baggage claim, standing with the last (and few) jamaicans that i'll see in who knows how long. i just wanted to stay and let their accents linger in my ears before being drowned out by the sound of my life in america.

i'm hesitant to post pictures to facebook or update my blog and, with the click of the "submit" button, officially end the trip. friends and family can read lots of words and scroll through lots of pictures to look at three weeks of my life, as if it can be reduced to one hundred and ninety one photos contained in one album with brief captions, as if, even the third time around, the impact of this place is not so much more profound.

not to worry: the pictures will be posted, just not yet. i so want to share the place that brings me so much joy and life, but for right now, i'm savoring these memories for myself, protecting them in my heart. the stories and lessons will come, i promise, but slowly.

a preview of stories to expect:

• jolene, the aspiring jeweler
• my aversion to goodbyes
• potlucks and babies and fruit straight from the trees
• listening and talking and how i feel about both

and of course, summer updates, reading lists, recipes, etc etc are all in the near future as well!