Blog 6 Day Five at Kara Tepe
Blog Entry #6
April 20, 2018
Note: Above images are stock photos of Kara Tepe off the internet.
Gentle Reader,
Today began with a new assignment: deep cleaning of the Moon Kitchen.
1. Three of us volunteers gathered all the cleaning supplies we could find, donned pink plastic gloves, and began to scrub. The cooking requires using tremendous amounts of safflower oil, so the burners at the cooking stations were ready for a good scrub.
We spent two hours scrubbing stations, washing cupboards above and below, and cleaning top of vent fans. Difficult to get everything clean, as we had no clean rags. The Dutch women I worked with on this project are all about clean, so they boiled water to use to ring out rags as we cleaned.
We talked of many things as we cleaned. We discovered that each of us had experienced a loved one enduring dementia or alzheimers. I told them about my mother, whose dementia took away her ability to cook and clean. She could no longer remember how to put any food together, in spite of cooking for her family, especially my father, her whole adult life. A sandwich or a fried egg became an impossible task for her. She also forgot how to write, how to sign her name. My father tried his best to take over these duties, but much of the running of the domestic household was foreign to him.
I realized yesterday that this Mother's Day in May will be the first time I do not have a mother to call or talk with. I join the ranks of partially orphaned adults, as my father is alive and living in Mesa, Arizona. I want to honor my dear friend Therese Dawe Wood who organized a special gathering Mother's Day weekend for people who have lost their mothers. The gathering included a talk by priest Dick Preston, which was poignant and genuine in its focus on the feeling of love and loss.
As we were scrubbing, we also talked about the role of cleanliness and cleaning growing up in our individual households. My father is a former Marine, so inspections occurred before we left for school in the mornings. Sheets had to be taut enough to bounce a quarter. The sinks and faucets needed to be polished and shined, with no remnants of water droplets. Saturday morning was devoted to cleaning. We never owned a mop, as my mother felt you could clean corners much better on your hands and knees with a soapy bucket of water and rag. Any pooling of water from the rag was met with disapproval, and the task had to be done again until all was perfect. Needless to say, for those of you who know me, I have a much more relaxed approach to cleaning in my adult life...
2. Part of the afternoon was spent in the Digital Learning Lab, the DLL, again. Folks who were working were pretty independent, so I had some good conversation with two of the translators, one of whom was from Pakistan and one from Afghanistan. We were chatting about the role of Malala, and they had very different views on her life and contributions. One of the translators believe that the whole Malala phenomenon was staged and planned by her father. She even believes the shooting of Malala's face was "fake" and staged for publicity. The conversation evolved into a talk about what constitutes speech/language/communication of a Pakistani person vs an Afghani person. Tensions began to rise, so I tried to veer to other subjects.
I did let these two translators know that most Americans are embarrassed by our current president. They hear a little news about this administration, but I wanted to let them know that I was ashamed that he was our current representative around the world. He does not speak for the majority of people in America.
3. On Friday evenings, we have Sharing Circle. This is a time for all Movement on the Ground volunteers to meet for dinner and for processing the previous week. We went around the circle and shared our "highs" and "lows" for the week. I cannot begin to tell you how moved I was by what was shared. There is a trust and honesty in this group that is quite profound.
Many talked of the Clown Show as a "high" for the week. They commented on how beautifully the clowns dismantled language barriers with their non-verbal antics. Normally wiggly kids were glued with wide open eyes to their performance.
Two of the volunteers work quite a bit in the Tent Olive Grove at Moria. One relayed a story about his feelings regarding safety in Moria, after I had expressed how concerned my daughters were about my safety at Kara Tepe. Tensions are really raw and right beneath the surface at Moria, largely due to extreme overcrowding. One of the volunteers discussed a situation where here was in the middle of a young single man with a knife and another with rocks. At no time during the confrontation and the talk down did he feel unsafe. He said the residents at Moria know the volunteers are there to truly help, and they would never harm a volunteer, even in the middle of a crisis. He asked me to share this story with my daughters, to assure them that all is well, even under difficult circumstances at Moria.
Here's a pic of the volunteers from Movement on the Ground.
Warm genuine souls, all. I feel so fortunate to be working with each of them, learning from each of them every day.
As you move through your day, may your confrontations be few and authentically resolved. May you have the opportunity to receive the gift of someone's life story of dreams and hopes today...
Namaste,
Marianne
April 20, 2018
Note: Above images are stock photos of Kara Tepe off the internet.
Gentle Reader,
Today began with a new assignment: deep cleaning of the Moon Kitchen.
1. Three of us volunteers gathered all the cleaning supplies we could find, donned pink plastic gloves, and began to scrub. The cooking requires using tremendous amounts of safflower oil, so the burners at the cooking stations were ready for a good scrub.
We spent two hours scrubbing stations, washing cupboards above and below, and cleaning top of vent fans. Difficult to get everything clean, as we had no clean rags. The Dutch women I worked with on this project are all about clean, so they boiled water to use to ring out rags as we cleaned.
We talked of many things as we cleaned. We discovered that each of us had experienced a loved one enduring dementia or alzheimers. I told them about my mother, whose dementia took away her ability to cook and clean. She could no longer remember how to put any food together, in spite of cooking for her family, especially my father, her whole adult life. A sandwich or a fried egg became an impossible task for her. She also forgot how to write, how to sign her name. My father tried his best to take over these duties, but much of the running of the domestic household was foreign to him.
I realized yesterday that this Mother's Day in May will be the first time I do not have a mother to call or talk with. I join the ranks of partially orphaned adults, as my father is alive and living in Mesa, Arizona. I want to honor my dear friend Therese Dawe Wood who organized a special gathering Mother's Day weekend for people who have lost their mothers. The gathering included a talk by priest Dick Preston, which was poignant and genuine in its focus on the feeling of love and loss.
As we were scrubbing, we also talked about the role of cleanliness and cleaning growing up in our individual households. My father is a former Marine, so inspections occurred before we left for school in the mornings. Sheets had to be taut enough to bounce a quarter. The sinks and faucets needed to be polished and shined, with no remnants of water droplets. Saturday morning was devoted to cleaning. We never owned a mop, as my mother felt you could clean corners much better on your hands and knees with a soapy bucket of water and rag. Any pooling of water from the rag was met with disapproval, and the task had to be done again until all was perfect. Needless to say, for those of you who know me, I have a much more relaxed approach to cleaning in my adult life...
2. Part of the afternoon was spent in the Digital Learning Lab, the DLL, again. Folks who were working were pretty independent, so I had some good conversation with two of the translators, one of whom was from Pakistan and one from Afghanistan. We were chatting about the role of Malala, and they had very different views on her life and contributions. One of the translators believe that the whole Malala phenomenon was staged and planned by her father. She even believes the shooting of Malala's face was "fake" and staged for publicity. The conversation evolved into a talk about what constitutes speech/language/communication of a Pakistani person vs an Afghani person. Tensions began to rise, so I tried to veer to other subjects.
I did let these two translators know that most Americans are embarrassed by our current president. They hear a little news about this administration, but I wanted to let them know that I was ashamed that he was our current representative around the world. He does not speak for the majority of people in America.
3. On Friday evenings, we have Sharing Circle. This is a time for all Movement on the Ground volunteers to meet for dinner and for processing the previous week. We went around the circle and shared our "highs" and "lows" for the week. I cannot begin to tell you how moved I was by what was shared. There is a trust and honesty in this group that is quite profound.
Many talked of the Clown Show as a "high" for the week. They commented on how beautifully the clowns dismantled language barriers with their non-verbal antics. Normally wiggly kids were glued with wide open eyes to their performance.
Two of the volunteers work quite a bit in the Tent Olive Grove at Moria. One relayed a story about his feelings regarding safety in Moria, after I had expressed how concerned my daughters were about my safety at Kara Tepe. Tensions are really raw and right beneath the surface at Moria, largely due to extreme overcrowding. One of the volunteers discussed a situation where here was in the middle of a young single man with a knife and another with rocks. At no time during the confrontation and the talk down did he feel unsafe. He said the residents at Moria know the volunteers are there to truly help, and they would never harm a volunteer, even in the middle of a crisis. He asked me to share this story with my daughters, to assure them that all is well, even under difficult circumstances at Moria.
Here's a pic of the volunteers from Movement on the Ground.
Warm genuine souls, all. I feel so fortunate to be working with each of them, learning from each of them every day.
As you move through your day, may your confrontations be few and authentically resolved. May you have the opportunity to receive the gift of someone's life story of dreams and hopes today...
Namaste,
Marianne
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