Meme (what does that mean anyway?)

Saw this meme over at Sharon’s blog today and thought I’d join in. I’m so tired lately that it’s been hard to write but this is an easy way to get something down.

What is your current obsession?

Raising funds to ship 473 boxes of donated medical supplies out of my garage and to the Howard Hospital in Zimbabwe.  Also poverty in general and raising people’s awareness of it.

What is your weirdest obsession?

I have no idea. If you think I have a weird obsession be sure to let me know. Thanks.

What are you wearing today?

Jeans, t-shirt, cardi.

What’s for dinner?

D made fried rice. Yum

What’s the last thing you bought?

A pair of knitting needles and a ball of wool because my 4 year old son wants me to make him a scarf to wear in the snow on Saturday. We are going on a (long) day trip to Mt Ruapehu.

What are you listening to right now?

Rain on the roof, crackling fireplace. Hum of computer.

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

To visit family in Australia

Which language do you want to learn?

Hindi

What do you love most about where you currently live?

We are safe and warm and we get to eat every single day.

What is your favourite colour?

Pink or green

What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?

A white cotton peasant blousey thingy.

What were you doing ten years ago?

Backpacking around India with my buddy Ali.

Describe your personal style?

Um…..style? Casual. Comfortable. Practical.

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on?

Well, that’s about NZ$259 which would cover the shipping of about 16 of the 473 boxes mentioned above.

What are you going to do after this?

Sleep

What are your favourite films?

I always find it hard to answer this question because I forget movies. (Never forget a good book though!) Also I don’t tend to watch the same movie over and over so none become a firm favourite. But let’s try……I enjoyed Australia, and did enjoy Slumdog Millionaire,

What inspires you?

When people discover and make time to pursue their dreams or the thing they are best at. I really believe that every single person has a unique and valuable contribution to make to the world…a destiny or purpose if you like and there is nothing more wonderful and inspiring to me that seeing them doing it with all their heart.

Your favourite books?

How long have we got? Ha ha there are many. I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaleed Hossieni and loved it. Also loved Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Oh and The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, and The Hiding Place by Corrie TenBoom.  I love learning about how other people live and books that inspire me to action about things that are unjust in the world – like poverty and war and political regimes.

But I also love the classics, like Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Jane Austens works. I also like classic childrens literature like Treasure Island – RL Stevenson and The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Do you collect anything?

Books and clutter.

What makes you follow a blog?

I like to read blogs of people I know as it’s a great way to get to know someone better. I also like to read blogs that inspire my creativity, or about ordinary people doing extraordinary things to make a difference in the world. Sometime I follow a blog out of habit because it’s been on my feed reader for such a long time and it would seem disloyal to suddenly delete it!

Name an unfulfilled dream or one thing you must do before you die?

To visit/travel in/ live in Africa. Feed a hungry child. (I mean literally….be there, not just send money)

What’s your biggest regret in life?

I don’t really have any regrets, but that’s not because I haven’t done anything stupid, but you can’t change the past so I tend not to think about them. I dunno. A minor regret prehaps …not celebrating my 30th birthday with a big fat party.

When you were a child/teenages what did you really want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a nurse and a mother. (So far so good!)

The rules:1. Respond and rework; answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention, add one more question of your own.2. Tag eight other people.

I’m tagging anyone anywhere who wants to join in. Leave a comment here so I can come read yours too.

Loved

My man loves me,

my kiddies love me,

and that is enough for today.

D woke me this morning with toast and coffee.  He does this from time to time so while I appreciated it, I didn’t think much of it. Only later when he said “Happy Mother’s Day” did I realise he was making an extra effort. Never mind that he was a day early! Hee hee! Loved.

Right not he’s taken the kids out because they want to buy me presents. I’m not really fussed if they do or don’t buy me presents, as long as if they do it comes from their heart and not a pressured obligation to do so. Just as they left B4 comes flying out of the car and shouts “I STILL WANT TO COME WITH YOU DAD, BUT I JUST WANT TO GIVE MUM A KISS!!!” He came and gave me a big hug and a kiss and says “I love you so much Mum”. Loved.

This morning E6 woke up not feeling well and came into bed with me while I had my coffee. We chatted and cuddled together and I so enjoyed my time with her. She’s such a treasure and I’m so lucky that she wants to be with me. Loved.

R2 is just 2, so his love is of a different kind. Before they left he gave me a long hug and sat on my lap. Then a high-five! and out the door. Loved.

Thanks God.

I Like This

“Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”

~St Augustine

Poem In My Pocket

It’s National Poem in Your Pocket Day! This is the day when the Academy of American Poets encourages everyone to carry a favorite poem around in their pockets and then “share with co-workers, family and friends.”

When you are old and gray and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars. ~William Butler Yeats~

Around the World

Carien at She Laughs At the Days tagged me for this around the world meme. I’m supposed to post  5 favourite things about being a mum. Just a few things that have come to mind….there are a thousand wonderful things about being a parent though…

1) Getting to revisit childhood. Love playing with playdough, swinging at the park and reading great picture books.

2) Having a reasonably good excuse for my house never being completely tidy.

3) Something to laugh about every single day. Kids really do love to laugh!

4) Spontaneous expressions of love from my children touch my heart in a way nothing else can.

5) Seeing my kids learn.

Now to tag some people. 4maze in New Zealand because I’ve never tagged her for anything, Monica of Transplanting Me in Thailand, Katie at The Journey in Uganda, because even if she doesn’t participate you should go and check out her blog anyway…she’s amother on a completely different scale!

Now I Know

I stumbled across this song some months ago now and still sometimes the refrain goes through my mind…

“I know what I know and I can’t deny it…”

I’m glad I’ve woken up and starting to look around me… I’m glad I’m learning the truth even though it’s painful. My dreams terrify me but I can’t go back now. I feel ruined for the status quo. I hope I never forget the plight of the poor, the orphans, the forgotten and overlooked ones.

Just thinking

I’ve been brewing a bit of an idea around here…which has been keeping me busy, hence the long absence. I am going to be sharing it with my church people on Sunday morning…and so here it is for you too! It’s totally terrifying to have a dream and more so to share it. I feel like I’m really putting myself out there and it’s rather scary!

Around the time just prior to starting the Zimbabwe project, and over the months that have followed, I have been making myself aware of some of the issues around poverty, particularly extreme poverty in developing nations. I have let myself be shocked at the statistics. I mean really let myself think about what they mean. The numbers are so big that we struggle to comprehend the magnitude of the problem. When we read that 1.1 billion people in the world live in extreme poverty, do we really get it? ¹ Have we ever stopped to really think about that? What would you and I do if tomorrow and for the foreseeable future we had only $1 per day to pay for all our daily needs of food and drinking water, shelter, clothing, medical care, and education?

As I have read and become more aware of the great needs in the world, I have become increasingly convinced that it is everyone’s responsibility to address the problem of poverty.

In my opinion it’s far too easy for those of us who live privileged lives to be ignorant of the way hundreds of millions of people in the world are living. It far too easy for us to be so wrapped up in our day to day lives worried about our houses, and cars and shopping and jobs and children; and spending our days working hard and watching TV, trying to pay the rent or pay off the house, that we are selfishly ignorant of the fact that several million mothers in the world struggled to find food for their babies today.

As a mother I think ‘what makes me so different from those other mothers who face a daily anguish of finding food for their fretful hungry baby?‘ Broadly, the answer is simply circumstance. There is no other difference between us than the circumstances of our births.

It could have been me born in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 40% of toddlers die from Malaria, which by the way is a preventable and treatable disease. It costs between $0.50 – $5.00 NZD for life saving medication to treat Malaria.² But sadly for most of the people dying of malaria, it’s not as easy as popping down to the local doctor, or having a friend take you to hospital. Even if they do make it to a hospital often times the medication simply isn’t available.

I wonder what would happen if people in New Zealand started dying at a rate of 10000 per day³ of a preventable disease? Just wondering.

And lets not forget the orphans. The are around 40 million orphans in the world today. 15 million of these are orphaned because of HIV/AIDS and of those 11.6 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa. ⁴

See….the statistics are shocking aren’t they?

So as I have been considering all these things and letting myself be confronted with the harsh realities, I have asked myself what can be done. Whose problem is it? Governments? Politicians? United Nations? Charities? Aid Organisations?The Church? Individuals? And the answer I came up with is Yes to all of these. It’s every body’s problem. There are many causes of extreme poverty, but injustice is a major one. And so just because I believe it isn’t right, I believe it’s my problem to address it. And, as Christ followers it is our very mission to break the chains of injustice and bring good news to the poor.

So, essentially my vision or idea is to:

Firstly, and most importantly develop in myself and us a heart like God’s for the poor.

Secondly, to take action to support projects that directly benefit the poor, by setting up a separate fund to which we as a local church can give as we are moved to and collectively make a huge difference. Together we could save hundreds if not thousands of lives, and

Thirdly some time in the future, to make a way where ordinary people like us can go to the destitute places and get our hands dirty and really help in practical ways to bring an end to extreme poverty.

And now, something to think about.

“What, therefore, is our task today? Should I answer “Faith, hope and love?” That sounds beautiful. But I would say – courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature… we lack a holy rage – the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth… a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God’s earth and and the destruction of God’s people. To rage when little children must die of hunger, while the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and the madness of militaries. To rage against the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction, peace. To rage against COMPLACENCY. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the kingdom of God.”

~ Father Kaj Munk (1944)

1Extreme poverty being defined as living on less than $1 per day. Moderate poverty defined as living on $1-$2 per day. (The End of Poverty (2005) Jeffery Sachs pp20-21)

2http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/facts.htm

3(The End of Poverty (2005) Jeffery Sachs p215)

42007 Data. http://www.avert.org/subaadults.htm

More questions than answers

“It is not permissible to add to one’s possessions if these things can only be done at the cost of other men. Such development has only one true name, and that is exploitation.”

~ Alan Paton. (Cry, The Beloved Country. 1948)

I’ve been thinking about poverty a lot lately, and it’s becoming clearer to me that the way I live has an impact on people in a greater way that I thought before. You see…what I do doesn’t just affect my and my family, or even just my city. The way I live along with all the rest of us affects people everywhere.

I’m becoming aware of greed. You see….our culture makes us want Stuff. By that I mean all sorts of items non-essential to life. And we want more and more of this Stuff, and because we are greedy we want it cheaply. We get it cheaply on the most part, but why? When I buy my son a little pair of shoes that cost less than $10 from The Warehouse…do I really think that in that $10 price that is enough to pay retailers costs, profit for the retailer, transport costs from China, profit for the manufacturer, the cost of materials AND a decent wage for the person making them?

This has raised a lot of questions for me. I have to ask myself:

• Why are they so cheap? Is it cheap labour?
• Why is the labour cheap?
• Because in China people are willing to work for less?
• Why are they willing to work for less?
• Do they have a choice about working for less?
• Are we greedy?
• What are the people in these factories paid?
• What are their conditions like?
• If I stop buying cheap goods churned out to satisfy the west’s insatiable appetite for Stuff will it help the cause of the people who are currently making them?
• Is there that much difference between this and the boycott of sugar by the abolitionists who refused to eat sugar produced under slave conditions?
• What about Fair Trade?
• What should I do about it?

(I wrote this post months ago and just cleaning out my drafts folder. Mostly the questions remain unanswered, but I am developing an inner rage about injustice so you might just hear more about this someday soon)

I can’t go to bed early

I just can’t do it. hehehe Even though I’m just seriously wasting time doing pointless things (like finding my house and my previous house and mum and dad’s house, and my inlaws house and anyone else I happen to think of’s house on Google earth) I just can’t get it together to get to bed early.

And you know what’s kinda funny. Yesterday someone found my blog by typing

Can sleep depravity cause sweaty palms?

into a search engine. Goodness knows why it sent them here. I’m sure the word they were looking for is deprivation… But maybe I’ve got sleep depravity because I would really love to get up earlier in the morning and be well ahead of the kids, but I also want to stay up late and enjoy the peace and quiet! I have a week until we’re starting school for the year and earlier mornings would really help me get stay on top of the day. Any ideas. (Yes, I know….just get your butt into bed. Set your alarm and get up early! I know, I know…just looking for an option that happens by magic and requires no self discipline. Anything? Eh?)

Anyway… What’s going on for me? Well my husband has changed jobs and is around home much more and is so relaxed! Yay! I’m so happeeeee! He’s been working too hard for too long and I”m so glad he’s getting his life back.

As for me I’m enjoying working and I’m feeling terribly excited about the future! Nothing to tell at this stage, but I’m entertaining some dreams in my head that I thought were out of the question, but maybe they aren’t and maybe more within reach that I thought! It’s a continuance of last year’s great Coming Alive!  I wonder what will be the ‘thing’ for this year.

Never mind, feel free to help yourself

Imagine three kids in the $2 shop. I was trying to help E6 and B4 choose a colouring book. The toddler was behind me looking at the balls. He took two large bouncy balls, went outside the shop to play with them and kicked them into the car park. Then went on to the road to fetch them and was collected by a woman God bless her!

Needless to say the shopkeeper watched the whole thing without saying a word! WT????  If not for the danger, what about his stolen goods? This was the strangest thing about the whole experience.

I had to leave B4 and E6 inside while I went with R22months on my hip to fetch the balls…..I couldn’t hold them properly and they were bouncing everywhere while Ryan was whinging and wriggling in my arms. I should have known it was time to come home, but persisted in trying another shop. AAAAaaaaarrrrrrhhhhhhhhh. The boy continued to be impossible and extremely difficult. I must have looked like one of those mothers, whom I have often pitied.hee hee…must’ve looked pretty funny though. He is SUCH a scallywag.