http://mukluk.net/fiji/ en Copyright 2009 Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:30:04 +1100 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I wonder if there is anyone still out there, checking this? January is over. That is something. It has been irrationally cold. It has been dark. A change is coming, ever so slowly. Now there is just the forever of waiting for the thaw. And the dim memory that we have survived this before. We have slipped easily into a home and a routine. It's just that we don't yet feel like we are a good fit for all this. Wiser folk than us say that it takes at least a year to start feeling the fit again with home. We miss Fiji. That is certain. When pressed, it is hard to say what exactly I miss. I tried to answer casually the other day that "everything made sense there". But of course, it didn't. I miss the maddening people, the frustrating politics, the intolerable, humid heat. I miss the naked sensation of being the only one who doesn't get it. I miss moldy bread and moldy paper. I miss leaping from a manic taxi and feeling grateful for my life. I really miss the warm, blue ocean. It was my medium and spiritual home - I could comprehend the omnipotence of God while suspended there. (Stingy jellyfish-like-microorganisms aside.) There is nothing to replace that. Not yet. http://mukluk.net/fiji/2009/02/now_is_the_winter_of_our_disco.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2009/02/now_is_the_winter_of_our_disco.html Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:30:04 +1100 I don't really have more to say - I am working. I am a working schmo. (schmow? schmoo? no, I think schmo.) Yes Fiji seems far away, beautiful and hard to imagine at the moment. And snow is beautiful, but there is ever so much of it. And it is nearly Christmas, and how did that happen? Scott does a better job of this. I'll have to try again later http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/12/im_here_too.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/12/im_here_too.html Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:44:31 +1100

We're living in Winnipeg. We don't have plans to go back to Fiji or to any other overseas posting at the moment. Maybe some day, but we both kind of feel like we'd like to make some kind of difference in Canada for awhile. (Or at least eat breakfast cereal with finding ants in it.)

We're living with my parents, who are very kind and generous and hospitable. And luckily we've found a house of our own so we can get out before we reach that awkward point where the kindness, generosity, and hospitality reach their breaking points. Our new house is in the Wolseley neighbourhood of Winnipeg, not too far from my parents and fairly close to Noah's school.

Noah is going to school. He's in Grade 2 in a Grades 1/2/3 mixed class. He just turned 7 last week and had two parties; one with grown-ups and family, and then on Saturday he had a kids party with cousins and friends from school. We went to the museum to look at the dinosaur display, then played video games and ate pizza and cake.

Nanette has a job. (Her office is also close to our new house.) She's doing communications and policy for ANCR, the All Nations Coordinated Response, which is part of the Aboriginal Child and Family Services system. A lot of people get a slightly horrified look on their face when they hear where she's working, as in "Why would you want to do that to yourself?!?" It's an intense area to be working in, with a lot of struggles and a lot working against it, but Nanette's sense is that it's important work that will go very poorly unless good people give it a shot.

I'm looking for work. I've applied at a few places. Some of them I'm even qualified for. I also applied for a spot in the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, which is a summer theatre festival. Slots are chosen by lottery, so I'll know in a few weeks whether I'm going to be doing a show next summer. To tell you the truth, I'm scared senseless. I registered without really thinking, because if I thought about it I would have come up with all sorts of reasons why I shouldn't do a show for the Fringe Festival. So while part of my brain was going, "Hey, what are you doing over there?" the other part was going, "Oh nothing, never mind, go back to your Sudoku. I'm just doing something on the computer over here and ...SEND!" Yikes. I better get writing.

Upcoming "mission interpretation" gigs: St. James United, Wpg on December 7, the Manitoba Youth Centre on the 9th, Fred Douglas Lodge seniors home on the 11th, Atlantic-Garden City United, Wpg on the 14th, and then, unless I'm mistaken, we get a break until Christmas. Ah, Christmas.

]]> http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/12/where_we_is.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/12/where_we_is.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:54:54 +1100 Here I am, in the cold of December, fondly remembering the warmth of December, in an antipodal place that is somehow becoming less and less real the more I talk about it. We have four more "mission interpretation" gigs booked for this month (two with Nanette, two solo). Since the beginning of October we've been going around to churches talking about Fiji and ECREA and the role of overseas personnel, etc. We've got a spiel (which we change slightly every week to connect with the lectionary passages that are being used in worship, and to keep ourselves from getting too bored). There's something a bit weird about having a spiel. At some point the repetition replaces the reality. "I believe that what I am saying is true, not because I remember it actually happening but because I've said it five times before, so it must be true." Every once in awhile I catch myself thinking, "Is that really how it is, or is that just storytelling?" It's the same with blog entries; events and experiences and complicated ambiguous realities get shaped into something that makes sense, and in the process get filtered, or flattened, or "punched up" for dramatic effect. I wonder about the ethics of that sometimes. http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/12/the_fiji_road_show.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/12/the_fiji_road_show.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:13:53 +1100 Noah made this game with an online program. http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/11/noahs_game.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/11/noahs_game.html Sun, 09 Nov 2008 04:36:46 +1100 ]]> http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/11/this_is_not_fiji.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/11/this_is_not_fiji.html Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:12:26 +1100 So last night the United States elected their first African-American president, and even though I'm not American and he's not my president, the world does seem a little bit different. I have no doubt that Barack Obama is really smart and talented and capable, but I think the most important thing about him is his ability to attract people's hopefulness. Something about this election makes it seem like things are possible that weren't possible before. Speaking of change, I guess a lot's changed since our last post. Sorry to everyone who's been following along with our story the last two years that we didn't finish the narrative in a satisfying gestalt kind of way. You can probably safely assume that we made it back to Canada (or that our plane went down over the Pacific and we were stranded on a desert island, threatened by incongruous polar bears and mysterious fog monsters until the viewing public got bored of unresolved plot elements and moved on). But in case you're interested in our return and reintegration into Canadian society, we'lll revive the the blog for awhile. Let's see, where were we? Oh yeah, Fiji. http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/11/yes_we_can_still_type.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/11/yes_we_can_still_type.html Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:52:30 +1100 Toronto Star article (along with a picture of a really ugly jello salad. Despite the caption, he didn't get the recipe from us!)]]> http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/unofficial_handbook_gets_some.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/unofficial_handbook_gets_some.html Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:07:14 +1100 Our final article for the ECREA newsletter: It’s the end of August, and we are just finishing our extensive farewells and stepping onto the plane to take us back to Canada. We came two years ago, in 2006, as overseas personnel from the United Church of Canada, on-loan to ECREA as part of the UCC’s partnership with the organization. Our mission was to help where we could, and to learn as much as possible – about ECREA, about Fiji, about the world that we all share, and the ways in which a God with a predisposition for peace, justice, and compassion is active in that world. After a few weeks of wandering around stunned, like people who just got off the boat, we eventually set to work, trying to be helpful and learn at the same time. http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/canadians_go_home.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/canadians_go_home.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:43:38 +1100 Hey all - we are turning in our modem and holidaying for a few days before we get back to Canada. We are also getting a lot of spam right now, so we will turn off the comments function while we are incommunicado. Hopefully this will shake off some of the crud. We will take comments again in a week or two - and we hope to actually be able to talk to you all shortly! http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/reentry_blackout_communication.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/reentry_blackout_communication.html Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:19:48 +1100 And none too soon, the list closes. I'd like to thank my fans and supporters... It was a fun exercise to find 100 things to remember - and not too difficult, surprisingly. I think for educational events, I'll just post the list, and see what things people want to talk about. http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/100_things_84_100.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/100_things_84_100.html Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:17:44 +1100 It's done! (mostly) The disc finally came out of the computer at 4:00, and we screened it for the staff and executive forum of ECREA at 5:30. My plan was to have it completed at the end of July, which would give me a few weeks to do any fine-tuning (not to mention time to pack and think about leaving Fiji), so it's been a bit of a nail-biting, trying to get this beast finished. But it's finally done. 3200 years of Fiji history compressed into 90 minutes, mostly in the Fijian language, featuring the greatest trouper of all time, Master Sikeli, who did everything we asked him to, including walking uphill for five minutes while talking about the 2000 coup. My hands make a cameo appearance as the hands of Sir Arthur Gordon, governor of Fiji. I think the response to the video was good, and people are thinking about ways this documentary can be used - in communities, in schools, etc. It also made us realize that there's a whole thing about the role of Christianity and the church in Fiji, as civilizing force, as a source of oppression, and as a maintainer of the status quo. But that's another movie. Maybe they'll bring me back for the sequel. http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/private_screening_of_timeline.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/private_screening_of_timeline.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:11:33 +1100 Tomorrow is our last day of work, and Noah's last day of school. And the exclusive screening of Scott's video is tonight - in 3 hours actually - so forgive me if I proclaim "the end is nigh!" You don't have to stock up on canned goods or anything. Just go wait at the airport. http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/almost_there_7883_of_my_100_th.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/almost_there_7883_of_my_100_th.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:05:38 +1100 We are done with farewells. There are 3 more days of work left, and then we head to Nadi to begin our brief holiday with Nathan and Leanne. We ate Chinese food for 6 meals last week - not counting left-overs. This photo is of our formal ECREA farewell, where we ate lovo (traditional meal baked underground) and drank either grog or champagne - or both (eww). Now to launch that damned video, hand off the monitoring and evaluation master files, and clean out our desks!]]> http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/farewell_yagona_ceremony.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/farewell_yagona_ceremony.html Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:40:04 +1100 (I tried to post this entry last night, but the internet connection went down just as I was doing it, so here goes again.) The week(s) of goodbyes continues. Last week we went for lunch with the admin gang at ECREA, and then dinner with Chantelle, which was lovely because it gave us the chance to say how much we appreciate her and our time with ECREA in Fiji. Tuesday was the time for the people involved with the Youth Peace and Development Programme to say 'moce" (goodbye) to us. The youth reference group are about as cool and thoughtful a group of young people as you're likely to ever meet, and Wise is a good friend. I was only occasionally conscious of the fact that I should be editing. It was also International Youth Day, so the reference group took time to acknowledge the day by committing themselves and their values as youth to the cause of peace of Fiji. Wednesday will be lunch with the Economic Justice gang, and then Friday will be a farewell from the whole organization. ... And then next week, got willing and the computer don't crash, we'll be launching the dvd of the history documentary. And then I can sleep. And pack. (Perhaps simultaneously.)]]> http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/moce_ypdp.html http://mukluk.net/fiji/2008/08/moce_ypdp.html Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:12:00 +1100