Dream House II & III

(The link to Dream House I is here
http://notwant.blogspot.com/2011/01/dream-house-i.html)

Dream House II

It was completely jarring to feel such relief at seeing my kids smiling widely and yet to feel so awkward about them being so close to these kids that I didn’t know. Sure their smiles were endearing but their clothing, their hair, and their faces were less than clean.

My kids couldn’t understand their new friends but they were playing happily together with some kind of wooden puppet. One young man, perhaps twelve or thirteen years old, was obviously a bit of an organiser. He seemed to be gathering a crowd just below the back of our deck.

My wife appeared at the back door – half asleep and half in shock. We met side-by-side as we watched our children, she restrained herself from ordering the kids back inside as she noticed the ease at which they played with the local children.
At the orders of the organiser, a few children – some with long drums, some with puppets, and girls in dress costumes came up to the deck and assembled themselves for an impromptu performance. We were treated to an amazing performance, the children were quite skilled and they were obviously enjoying themselves immensely to have such a stage and a crowd in their own community. The colours weren’t quite the same as a Bollywood movie but the life and the energy were the same.

As the performance finished some of the key performers gave puppets to our own children. My wife and I were quietly shocked at the generosity but didn’t interfere as these experiences washed over us. I was very glad that my kids were so emphatic in their thanks and even tried some makeshift bows to show their gratitude. A spark of an idea in our oldest son quickly became a request whispered into our ears. And we were more than happy to go along with it.

We were so used to our kids’ more unattractive tones complaining about hunger and whinging for snacks, now they were busy gathering lollies and biscuits and all the leftover snacks from Christmas and bringing them out to share with everyone.

Now a middle-aged woman was moving determinedly through the crowd followed closely by the young organiser. I started to wonder about all the possible things she could be angry about.

Dream House III

I was beginning to wonder what this was all about, why this was happening. The woman spoke with the authority that all mothers have. Even without translation I knew I was to follow. I surprised myself by just going along with it as I slipped on some sandals and walked down our back steps.

The young organiser identified himself as Sanjiv. He spoke simple English clearly and confidently. He explained that we were walking to the house of a man who was very sick. Sanjiv apologised that he didn’t know the words to describe the injury beyond, ‘arm’ and ‘bad’.

We walked through alleys about one and a half people wide as we dodged the open drains. Finally we stopped and stepped inside a small concrete room. We went through and into another smaller room at the back. It was almost completely dark. A man lay next to the wall, he was obviously in pain. Another young man stepped into the room carrying a light globe which he deftly attached to the makeshift wiring on the ceiling.

The light revealed a wound that covered most of the man’s right arm. The flesh could be seen, pink and red. The movement on the surface was the tiny worms that were slowly consuming him. It was entirely disgusting. I wanted to vomit. I had never even seen anything like it. I hastily and whole-heartedly started to make it clear that I wasn’t a doctor.

Sanjiv began to translate for the woman. They were very sorry but they were even more desperate. They hoped that I might have some money so that Mukesh could be treated at a hospital. I learned that without having the money up front and purchasing the medicines and bandages yourself, the hospital did not have any means to treat you.

Mukesh’s brother took what I thought was a small amount of money and took him to the closest hospital. I was still dazed. I still felt quite overwhelmed by what I was seeing.

Now the woman had another request but this time I had no idea what it was she was asking. Sanjiv smiled and explained that she would like me to bring my family back to share lunch with her family.

There was no way that I wanted to expose my family to the kind of risks that such a lack of hygiene can bring.

Driven

Yesterday I listened again to a message by John Eldredge, he always shares about the heart and how we can be free. His messages challenge our assumptions from our culture and water the soul. The title of the message is, “The Spirit of the Age” which he identifies as drivenness.

Eldredge shares drivenness or unconsidered busyness is a significant enemy in our modern Western society. We are driven to be busy, to always be accessible, interruptible and switched on, and we just believe that it is normal, unavoidable and inevitable. We wear busyness like a badge that we accept as a substitute for real significance.

It’s like we have made an idol out of activity. We fill up the calendar. We work longer hours. We take more phone calls. We say that it is just a busy time. We keep checking email and facebook. We need to keep the kids busy. We need to watch that show. We need to write that blog. Then we complain.

It doesn’t have to be this way. If you have spent time in a culture that isn’t driven on busy then you’ll know what I mean. There’s a good chance that the laidback approach to life may even have bugged you. People take their time, service is slow, people just don’t seem to realise that you have another appointment to get to.

Here’s something that is worth exchanging, something that we can learn from our friends in less ‘developed’ nations. There is life without schedules, email, mobile phones and social networks – perhaps there’s even more life.

How do you think you would personally benefit from some time of solitude, uninterrupted by drivenness?

Excess Stocktake

While we have been doing a bit of a clean out over the last few weeks, I thought I would do a little stocktake of things we have in excess, from my (Sarah's) perspective...

Things we have in excess:
- bottles of shampoo and conditioner in the shower
- toys
- maternity clothes (going to op shop or pregnant lady in need)
- long grass
- books that we may read one day (mostly Mark's)
- tupperware that's the wrong size
- one narky rabbit
- cutlery, particularly spoons
- dinner plates and mugs
- ants that have made their home with us
- daddy-long-leg spiders, that freak the kids out
- craft that the kids have made and won't let me throw away
- magazines collected - time, notebook, gourmet traveller (if that doesn't say something about excess!)
- space in the garden
- love, compassion
- dvds that we don't watch
- bills
- don't even start me on the pantry

And that is only the start of the list, there is so much that we don't need! We have a little home that's a bit too cluttered at times. We've been making good use of our op shop lately, and I hope some families in need are getting good use of our quality goods.
Why do we collect so much stuff?! We used to be able to fit everything we own into two suitcases, and had a little bit of storage at my mum's.
What do you have in excess at your house? Have you thought about it? Do you like it that way?
Best comment gets to choose a book off our bookshelf:)
Sarah x

Wasted

½ container or rice from Thai, $1, Compost
¼ large tomato from Locky’s Dad’s garden, $0.50, Compost
Milk 1 litre, $1, Sink
Jam sandwich, $1, Compost
Biscuits, $0.20, Compost
Rice crackers, $1, Compost
Brown rice cooked, $1, Compost
Sweet potatoes x 2, $3, Compost
Butternut Pumpkin, $4, Compost

Hhmm… total of approximately $12.70 in value wasted, maybe about 5% of my weekly spend. Not as bad as I thought it would be but I was trying pretty hard – especially eating everyone’s leftovers!

How did you go over the past week?

Out of our hands and hearts

I hope this doesn’t come over like a rant.

I’m glad that I live in a democracy that is making an honest effort to make society economically efficient and equitable. But I have to take issue with one of the things I really don’t like about our welfare system.

Those of you sitting to the left are presuming I will say that we don’t do enough for those in most need. Those of you sitting to the right may presume that I want to point out that much of the money is wasted, rorted and doesn’t do enough to encourage people to pick themselves up and become ‘productive members of society’.

My issue is neither exactly and both a little. Our welfare system is very impersonal. A cut of my income is given to the government and becomes part of a massive pool ready for government spending. Some of this money actually comes back to me in the form of family assistance, education and medical costs.

The problem with it being impersonal is that it’s easy to become cynical about what we give and how it’s used. We don’t get to choose how we give, how much and what for. This process is quite separate from us.

Another problem is that we don’t appreciate what we receive as much as we could. We wonder why some get more than us and how they use it.

The interaction between need and generosity has been sanitised.

I can’t honestly say that I know a better system to make sure that everyone can be taken care of. Our system is about eliminating risks. But just imagine if I got to hold on to 100% of my income, then being able to use that money to support my family, including medical and education costs, and even chipping in for the aged care in my extended family. What if I could keep it personal?

Practically impossible in a large modern democracy but more philosophically satisfying.

Thoughts? Comments?

Responding to the floods

The news over the past few days has been completely overwhelming, and it’s incomprehensible even to imagine what individuals and communities are going through in the flooded areas.

Here’s a few of my reflections related to the flooding and this blog:

- Australia is an amazingly resourceful nation. We are strong in community, resilience, communications, and infrastructure (and many other ways too that don’t include cricket at the moment)

- Australia is incredibly financially blessed. When there is a great and felt need we are blessed enough to be able to share a lot of money. I read yesterday that $392 million was given after the bushfires in Victoria. The money for the flood victims is now starting to pour in.

- It’s easy to not see what awful things are happening beyond our shores. Not least the flooding in Brazil where the death toll is above 500! Just looking for that update I read that Sri Lanka and the Philippines currently have flooding with greater death tolls than ours.

What are your thoughts on the floods and how we can respond?

Your Global Impact

Back in the 1930s two brothers from Australia learnt how to make a difference in another nation. The Leahy brothers went to Papua New Guinea as explorers and adventurers. I learnt about the work of the Leahy’s and their impact on highland cultures when I studied anthropology in the first year of university.

The aspect of their story that stuck with me was about the value of shells in highland societies. The population of the highlands consisted of many people groups with diverse cultural beliefs and practices but the value of shells and trading in shells was something they had in common.

Shells were incredibly rare and impossible to find on the side of a mountain except through trade. Shells were dowries. Shells were power. The shells might pass through dozens of people groups through trade before reaching the heights of the mountains. With each trade, with each step further away from the coast, the shells would gain value and power.

The Leahy brothers came with a small truck and simply drove crates of shells up the mountains. It made sense to them. They could get what they needed, food and labour, easily this way. The locals were happy too. Getting the shells was easier and cheaper than before. This was a new opportunity for all involved. But of course the economy of shells and the value around it was ruined.

Nations and people groups are closer than ever before. Whenever we spend money, these seemingly small decisions are reverberating around the world. Our impact can be positive and it can be for the worse, but we will have an impact.

We can take advice from a Hebrew prophet who wrote:
“…what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Let’s act justly. Where we can let’s pay fair prices and support fair trade and always support the freedom of those who are powerless.

Let’s love mercy. Consider how we can shift the existing imbalance by sharing some of our excess with a farmer who can’t afford heart surgery for his sick child, or by investing in microlending to encourage small businesspeople in developing nations.

Let’s walk humbly. It’s so easy to be arrogant when you’re comfortable.

What other suggestions do you have?