First Differences

So, I’ve changed a bit ever since French Guiana, as I’ve noticed today. Working so closely with children made me prone to associate with them more comfortably.

Today was an easygoing day,  where Sarah and I went to a beach on the Atlantic ocean for the afternoon. I’ve never been on a beach with so many people and parasols in my entire life. Anyway. What do you do at the beach? You can a) swim, b) sun tan, and c) build sand castles. (ok, ok, and d) play volleyball). We swam for 40 minutes, and then there was a general feeling of “now what”?

… let’s build a giant sand sea turtle!

Here’s where it happened. While getting the general shape down, two seven-year-old boys walked up, whispering to each other: “Hey, that looks like a turtle. D’you think it’s a turtle?” – Originally, I may have just ignored them and glorified myself while thinking that, woohoo! It does look like a sea turtle, yay, we’re doing such a good job at building a sand sea turtle!

This time I looked up, said “Yeah, you’re right – it IS a sea turtle! Wanna try making your own?”

“Well, nah – we’re not that good!”

“Nah, look – it’s just a big lump with four legs and a head! It’s pretty easy! Take a big stack’o muck from the water and go from there!”

… and so on and so forth, and the next thing I knew, I spent the remaining three hours with the boys making the turtle, while Sarah had to run away from the sun before burning to a crisp (she has … very … white skin).

I would have never gone that far before going to French Guiana. Sarah and her family even went out for a walk along the beach later on and stopped by to ask me if I wanted to come or if I’d rather “stay here and play”. Before, spending time with kids felt like I had to constantly put on an act, which was tiring. This time? I decided I was having more fun with the kids (sorry Sarah ). So I stayed and played.

Confirmations 101

Some people believe in luck. Others believe in coincidence. Karma. Or even the power of positive thoughts.

Prayers take the cake.

Here’s why.

Friday morning, St-Laurent, French Guiana, 7am: Sarah and I take the little boat across the border to Surinam. All goes well. We hop in a taxi to Paramaribo, leaving at 9am for a 2 hour drive.

Friday morning, Paramaribo, Surinam, 11am: The driver doesn’t recognize the street address we give him and I don’t know how to drive around this city. At all. I just know how the guest house looks like, and have a general feel for where it is. Quick prayer and plea for help. We take a random-ish left turn on my random directions. Hey, that’s the street we’re looking for and HEY! That’s the house too!

Saturday morning, Paramaribo, Surinam, 3:15am: 3am bus shuttle to the airport isn’t showing up. Instead of panicking, a quick prayer and plea for help – hey look, the bus is pulling up!

Saturday morning, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, 7:20am: WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY 8AM CONNECTING FLIGHT IS CLOSED?!? But I just arrived via Caribbean Airlines from Paramaribo, I had no other choice but to arrive at this time!! (quick internal prayer and major plea for help) Check-in lady finally lets me check in, rushes me through the legal stuff while I chuck luggage in (please don’t lose it this time, please don’t lose it this time …).

… “Closed” flight ended up being delayed instead, giving me 45 extra minutes to go through security and reaching the waiting room in a comfortable time frame.

Saturday afternoon, NYC, JFK airport, 4pm: After waiting over New York City for a storm to pass, I land quite a few hours later. (Had I still kept that connection continuing to Ottawa, I would have missed it – it was leaving at 3:30pm from the OTHER airport in NYC, LaGuardia …) Sarah was on another flight to the same destination as me (the flight was full by the time she bought her own tickets) – and we had no tangible way to inform each other of when and where our delayed and possibly misplaced flights ended up (no, I don’t have a cell phone). Quick prayer for help before landing. Exiting the baggage pick-up, who’s standing right there waiting for me? Sarah.

And all our luggage made it safely too.

Now. I don’t mean to say that you shouldn’t do your best effort to be ready and to do things yourself – on the contrary, I’m a strong believer at being absolutely ready and organized to the best of your abilities. But when things are no longer in control, asking God for inspiration, or a nudge in the right direction, isn’t a bad idea.  … Of course that last one, with Sarah finding me, was no easy task for her. Apparently no one in the airport was helpful, there was a lot of wandering outside the airport involved … but there was one baggage claim clerk that helped her confirm where and when my flight landed, though he let her know it wasn’t his job to do this. Who knows. The confirmation from that prayer perhaps inspired that gentleman to help out anyway, allowing Sarah to find me … (there are more details involved in this one, including wrong flight numbers, landing in Philadelphia, and other such things …)

Last prayer and confirmation I have to share:

July 2007, Israël, Haïfa, the Shrine of Baha’u'llah: Prayer: I’m not sure helping out an English teacher in a private school in Brazil is the right place for me as a Year of Service, though they’ve confirmed it was all good and I was expected t arrive in mid-January. I pray intensively in the Shrine at the threshold of Baha’u'llah’s tomb that my capacities be used at their maximum, wherever that may be.

July 19th, 2007, Ottawa, Canada – less than 24 hours after arriving from my pilgrimage to Haïfa: I receive an email from the private school in Brazil saying they can’t house me, and that I should apply another year, or apply somewhere else for my Year of Service. I glance rather quickly at the list of places that asked for help. Though I’d previously seen the article on French Guiana and had though “Ack! No way! I don’t want to go live in villages, I know I can’t do it!”, this time I though “Well, I speak French, and there’s a lack of French-speaking people to help around the international Baha’i community as I’ve learned while in Haïfa …” An hour and a couple of emails later, the Canadian pioneer committee received the new list of countries I’d picked as destinations, immediately contacted Jackie in French Guiana (yep, this committee’s all about effective action, let me tell you that …!), and she contacted me back asap with thorough info concerning the country and the status of the community there. (Still in that same hour.)

No other country replied.

I went to French Guiana.

When praying, I had in the back of my mind that my capacities were mainly music – forgetting that speaking French was a capacity, and teaching how to practice a language like you practice music, being patient (to a certain degree), and other such things that I can do but didn’t realize could be useful … discovering abilities and capacities that I didn’t knew I had also happened …

Man, were my capacities stretched to the limit.

But again – my prayers had been answered.

A Last Shot at Imagery

The Twingo on Bob and Jackie's land, Wagi-Pasi, a very hilly place with a little cliff there on the bottom. (Most stressful driveway. Ever.)

How babies are carried in general. 1) Piece of cloth 2) stick baby on back 3) sling baby on back - and voilà.

Claire and Jackie on drums. Cutest little girls in Wagi-Pasi.

Philip getting his hair braided one last time. (Two great expressions there, guys ... Romaika:"What the heck?" - Philip:"SmileOUCH!")

A dragonfruit (a cactus fruit). Big. Spiky. Hot pink. What more can I say.

It’s So COLD!

And so all us youth staying in French Guiana have returned home safe and soundly (some with a little more delay than others … Philip got stuck in Jamaica for a couple of days and had a blast there …).

I would like to be able to make a statement, a resume of the whole trip, to be able to articulate how I feel about returning on North American soil … but I feel like I’m still too close to the deed, and I can’t “look back” yet – it’ll take me a few weeks to settle in and then start noticing cultural differences and to see what I have really learned and how I’ve really changed, if at all (one hopes so …!).

But the first thing I’m noticing right now is that my feet are cold. COLD! Everyone in New York and Delaware are trying to make Sarah and I comfortable (and I feel spoiled rotten), and one of these comforts is to assure us a nice cool room because apparently it’s pretty hot right now … and while everyone else is fanning themselves and hiding from the sun, here I am feeling comfortable, bordering cold. I guess it really was hot in French Guiana.