1. Jobs
Yes, I finally found one more job to balance out my schedule nicely. There’s a quaint restaurant in town here, that doubles as a museum for Tavistock, fully equipped with train paraphernalia (old train crossing lights, model trains and letter lifters–if you actually care what that is, feel free to ask) Part of the restaurant used to be the town’s old bowling alley, and the remnants of the lanes are now the table and counter tops in the restaurant. There are also old pictures of the town all over the restaurant. I mainly work in the kitchen and help with catering. I find I’m quite enjoying this job, more than I ever thought I would (ie. working in a kitchen). The staff are really friendly, and the bosses (they are a couple) are amazing, too. They certainly put their staff first. We often have theological discussions while I am filling cole slaw cups or slicing tomatoes.

The organ playing is going really well, and I am now playing at 3 weddings. I can definately hear the “cha-ching” in my head, not because I like money, but because we need to pay off debts, so this is helpful. I still lead sing-alongs at the Bonnie Brea 3 times a month, and I seem to have a regular following of residents who are always there to hear me. One of them always brings a tape recorder and records everything I play.

My job at PeopleCare as Music Coordinator is also going wonderfully well. The choir I lead is going strong, as we always have more coming then there are music folders lately. I guess I should make some more. I could write a whole blog entry about my experiences there, and what I see and learn. Maybe I will sometime. I finally feel like I know who all the residents are now (it does take a while), and am starting to figure out ways to connect with them. For example, there is a resident who always tells me he used to play harmonica. However, I sadly noticed that there is no harmonica in his room. I happen to have found one in my piano bench, so I’m going to bring it in next time, and see if he would like to give it a try, for old times sake.

2. Roots: The mini-series that changed history
This must seem like an odd entry for a “catch-up” sorta email, but this mini-series has certainly taken up a lot of my time lately. It’s a 6-part mini-series, that takes up about 12 hours. I watched it twice. That’s a lot of hours. I wanted to talk about it a bit for those of you who have seen it but forgotten about it, and more especially for those of you who have not seen it, and maybe even haven’t heard of it. This is a mini-series (apparently among the first mini-series ever made) that was made in 1977 about slavery. It is based on Alex Haley’s book “ROOTS”, which he wrote about his family history, starting with Kunta Kinte in Africa, being captured and brought to America, and going through the next 4 generations of slavery until the abolition. Not only is this movie important for everyone to see, but it was REALLY well done. I fell in love with the characters, and that’s why I wanted to see it again. The other admirable thing about the series is that it was very contraversial and almost not made, because it’s an American made movie with white people as the “bad guys” and black people as the “good guys”. But they made the movie anyway, and it is so important and educational. Yeah, we all learn about slavery in school, but this movie makes you live it out with the characters, many facets of it.

For Example:
-We first see the life of an African tribe (somewhere around the Gambia river) and how they lived, and how many were captured unfairly from their home lands

-We see the horrors of the slave ships, the dehumanizing and desensitizing effects on the so-called Christian captain of the ship, and we see how engrained slavery is in the Americans, who only see the Africans as “cargo”

-We see the slave auctions, how the slaves were inspected like animals

-We see their lives on the plantations, and I was impressed that many slave owners in the movie were portrayed as good people. This was a reality. Slavery was so engrained in the society of those times, that even good-hearted people would have slaves without batting an eyelash. They would treat their slaves respectfully and embrace them as their own family, but they would still be slaves. This is a spine-tingling fact, that people can do evil without knowing it, especially when it is socially acceptable, and do it in a “nice” way.

-We see the reality of the slave catchers, who brutally beat, deform, mutliate or kill the slaves they caught, and slave thieves, who kidnap slaves and sell them off again, separating them from their familes. We see the violation and abuse of women by their masters, who know that their only lot in life is to produce children (with their master in some cases)

-We see an unexpected aspect of slavery, which is that rather than helping each other escape, many slaves kept each other accountable to stay, as all slaves would be punished if one ran away

-We see the abolition of slavery, and the resistance of whites to it, the beginnings of the KKK (or some partner group), and how the beginnings of freedom marked no change in the terrorizing of blacks for a long while after.

This movie sparked so many emotions in me. I know some may be thinking “slavery is SO history, why think about it today…why is this movie relevant?”, but I have a number of responses to that. Slavery has been around forever, and there are still forms of it today, although with different names. Also, the insight we can gain about humankind from slavery times is immeasurable, and still applies today. The socially accepted evil of slavery then rears its ugly head as another kind of socially accepted evils today (some more broad than others); Racial and religious profiling, driving cars unnecessarily, white supremacist propaganda, wars, over-consumption, reality TV shows, obsession with money, pop culture, corporations, fill in the blanks.

3. Our Garden
Due to much rain, our garden is prospering nicely. We have had to harvest everyday for the past couple days, to keep on top of our beans and peas. Our tomato plants are almost as tall as me now. I must say, nothing beats fresh vegtables.

4. Our MCC term
Will and I had our interview with MCC last month for a 3 year volunteer term, and we were declared eligible. So, we are now in the waiting period, to hear from MCC Akron about positions that would best suit us. Are top choice is in Belfast, working for an organization called Embrace, that deals with immigration, and other social issues. Our second choice is in El Salvador, educating pastors there in Anabaptist theology. We are, however, open to going wherever God leads us, wherever our skills best fit. We are excited about this opportunity.