Getting Konnected...

Do you wish you could travel to Africa but couldn't because of a busy schedule? Well, do like me and join the Home Team of Kumi Konnect! This summer, a group from our church in Chinatown will take a mission trip to Kumi, Uganda, to work with the YCVM, and though I'm unable to join the team in person, I hope to live vicariously through this little blog that has just been created.

Visit the shoutbox and wish them God-speed...

Unraveled

I've been learning to knit, thanks to a great friend who happens to be the super mom, wife, sister, daughter and writer of the universe. I don't know why she likes to torture herself by teaching me to knit, but she apparently does. The first day that I held the yarn and sticks in hand, she showed me a very basic, simple thing, which I then went home and dutifully practiced. Several weeks passed, and today, she showed me how to do the 2nd step. Took me a while, but I finally managed to clumsily get it done several times. Then she sent me home with the balls of yarn and lots of confidence, which now in hindsight were completely unfounded, because I came home and promptly forgot everything my teacher showed me. I not only knotted up everything, I couldn't remember how to restart. The bit of yarn that I practiced with her in the cafe is now so frizzy that I can hardly recognize it as a string of yarn -- more like fuzz. So everything's unraveled except for the very first knot. Sadly, I even called her, plaintively begging for help. As she is an extremely busy person who is well-loved and needed by everyone, I feel terrible for adding to her burden. But I shamelessly blame my friend for introducing me to this wonderfully fun and challenging addiction. She will probably rue the day she said she'll teach me how to knit.

But, I'm loving it. It's one more thing that I can do in addition to origami. Instead of papering my apartment and my office with origami cranes, I'm going to actually do something that is worthwhile and useful. My mother thinks that I'll be able to knit her and my dad something for Christmas. I said, sure, Christmas 2012 they'll get their first scarves knitted by me. Maybe. If my teacher doesn't kill me first.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Last Thursday, I went with a few friends to see and hear Ladysmith Black Mambazo at UCB's Zellerbach Hall. They were phenomenal. Great harmonies, fun, creative, beautiful... They are amazing musicians.

Go here to read their biography. Brief info on the group:

Ladysmith Black Mambazo represents the traditional culture of South Africa and is regarded as the country's cultural emissary at home and around the world. In 1993, at Nelson Mandela's request, Ladysmith Black Mambazo accompanied the future President to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Mambazo sang again at President Mandela's inauguration in May of 1994. They are a national treasure of the new South Africa in part because they embody the traditions suppressed in the old South Africa.

The traditional music sung by Ladysmith Black Mambazo is called ISICATHAMIYA (Is-Cot-A-Me-Ya). It was born in the mines of South Africa. Black workers were taken by rail to work far away from their homes and their families. Poorly housed and paid worse, they would entertain themselves, after a six-day week, by singing songs into the wee hours every Sunday morning. Cothoza Mfana they called themselves, "tip toe guys", referring to the dance steps choreographed so as to not disturb the camp security guards. When miners returned to the homelands, the tradition returned with them. There began a fierce, but social, competition held regularly and a highlight of everyone's social calendar. The winners were awarded a goat for their efforts and, of course, the adoration of their fans. These competitions are held even today in YMCA assembly halls and church basements throughout Zululand South Africa.

Throughout the first portion of the performance, I kept wanting to listen carefully to distinguish the different harmonies, but I learned it was just more enjoyable to close my eyes and listen to the beautiful notes drifting up from the eight microphones and enveloping us in a capella melodies...

At one point, the entire auditorium joined in song with the group. For the finale, the group invited members from the audience to go on stage to dance with them. It was absolutely amazing. Go here to see if their tour will bring them to your neck of the woods...

Brilliant artist Bernice

If you've not seen, please go here to see. However, these tiny thumbnails don't do any justice... you must visit the Fourth Street Studio (opening March 28th) to view the art in person. Vibrant, incredible pieces that will amaze you with their vitality. [Just so you know, I get to work with her. Am I lucky or what?!]

Drowned in a well: drought or flood?

For all of human history, people have desired to live closer to water for food and sustenance. Water is a necessity for life, yet so many people in the developming world struggle to access a clean source of this basic element. Every day, 4,000 children die from water-borne disease. Join us in creating sustainable sources of clean water for families who cannot survive without it. (- from Episcopal Relief & Development 2009 Lenten Meditations)

I have two observations, and the only correlation is water.

A few weeks ago, I saw a segment on the History Channel's program called "How the Earth was Made." The show for that day elaborated on the Marianna Trench in the Pacific Ocean, telling viewers about the majestic system of tectonic plates and magma currents. I found out that the trench is the deepest trench in the earth's oceans, and it is the place where "old crusts" go to die, to be swallowed up again underneath the ocean floors. As the crust is swallowed up slowly over time, the ocean will slowly "shrink" and over millions of years we will no longer have a Pacific Ocean. Water will be gone. The continents will shift, and Australia will be neighboring Seattle. California will no longer have a Pacific Coast. Our earth, as we know it, will change forever, and if we don't pay attention to change our ways, the earth will be destroyed faster than the human species can evolve and adapt.

Our church supports something called Youth and Child Visionary Ministries. YCVM is a local Christian effort to care for orphan children of Kumi in Eastern Uganda. Months ago, we found out that the project to build a well was successful, but tragedy struck soon after the project was completed. A child drowned in the well.

During Lent, as we reflect on water and the suffering of no water or too much water, I'm reminded that in the beginning of Creation, "God made the expanse and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse" (Gen 1:7). With our God given knowledge, we have pushed in the dark expanse of the universe, and we have delved deep into the ocean waters. We've peered into the nucleus of the atom and we've replicated DNA. We humans have boldly crossed boundaries and borders of different kinds; we have systematically chipped away at the good separation of earth and skies; we have failed at our duty to be good stewards of this earth and this heaven. We've crossed boundaries in exciting and dangerous ways, pushing us farther and farther away from our responsibilities, and we do so sometimes with carelessness, sometimes with respectful awe. Are we ready to face the consequences of our careless destruction of God's creations? Have we forgotten what we were entrusted with? Emboldened with the knowledge to harness the powers of the earth, the skies, the waters, we must take seriously our responsibility in using that knowledge. If we build a well, we must never forget its life-giving and life-taking powers.