Job Search, take 3

I have finally settled on a job that starts Monday. I know you are all holding your breath to see how long it will last, but I am really looking forward to it. I quit the local garden centre I have been working at this week. It wasn't a bad job at all, and although the pay was not the best, it is a nice distance by bike and the staff are very friendly. One lady in particular was especially friendly and I would have liked to have stayed if not just to work along side her. However, I was hired with the understanding that is was a temporary job to get them through the busy season and that as soon as I found something more permanent I would be leaving. They may not have banked on it only taking a week to find something permanent but that is how it goes. I love working outdoors but will have to go to the thrift store to get some more work clothes. As I write this post it is snowing. Yes, snowing! The hillside outside the house is covered with Spring daffodils and yet we are still in Canada and winter has not had its last word yet. Hopefully this is it.

So the newest job is also at a Garden Centre, way out in Sidney, a good 35 minutes drive so no biking for me. It pays slightly more an hour than my last job, but has a more ECHO-feel about it. They are quite picky about who they hire and they operate very much like a family owned business, with the employees making up the family. They are more of a specialty place and focus on rare and unusual varieties of plants, including a number of native species. While they do mostly retail sales, they also supply to landscapers and do a fair bit of their own propagation. Last week, the day after my interview, I spent 4 hours grafting dogwood and Japanese maple as a special project for the owner. I think this was the hook. I have never been pursued for employment as I have by this nursery.

As I said in an earlier post, the circumstances around this job are equally as 'designed' as the last one. During the two days I was working for the golf course, I ordered plants for a project there from Russell nursery. A few days after quitting the nursery owner called me to find out if I had received the plants they delivered. I then told him that I am sure they received them but that I was no longer working there so wasn't sure. He asked me why I quit as he knew I had only just started. After explaining my life to him he invited me out for an interview that afternoon. The rest is the history of job number three.

I officially start job number three on Monday and will be spending the week dividing bamboo. As we were talking about nursery propagation techniques last week in my interview we hit on the subject of bamboo and I asked him what he used to do their divisions. The tools they use are far from easy so I suggested using a reciprocating saw. He jumped on the idea and so next week I start a new job with a new pair of work gloves, multiple layers of clothing including long-johns and a brand new reciprocating saw, hopefully in pink. (Do they even come in pink?)

The other beautiful thing about the job is that they close down the week before Christmas until the end of January. So I guess I will get to go to C.A.R. for Christmas after all. God is good!

Helping the Cause

I found an old note yesterday written by a friend who gave funds for Gamboula school kids and it said "Happy to help the cause". The note got me thinkng about what is the cause? The cause is helping the suffering, the hungry, widows and orphans. But it is so much more than a cause. The cause is real people, with real feelings of sorrow, hopelessness and joy. With our highly digitalized age of e-mail and cell phones it seems that we can stay far more connected than ever before but also be so disconnected at the same time. I hadn't realized it until the last few weeks of living in Canada. For the last six years I have been living a highly relational life. On the ECHO farm when you want to talk to someone or find out how someone is you walk over to their house, or stop and chat on the way to work or out by the pond fishing for supper. In Gamboula there are no phones or e-mail. You walk down to your friends house to see how they are. There is no phoning first to see if it is a good time or not. The face to face encounter keeps us real, keeps us humble, keeps us involved. When you look into the eyes of your friends it is much harder to forget their humanness.

I started a new job last week (I quit yesterday as I found something more permanent). I have been working at a local garden centre this week and in the get to know your colleague encounters I always mention where I have lived the last 5 or 6 years. There are three general reactions. The first reaction is the 'that's nice, but I have no idea what you are really talking about and let's not talk about it again', the second reaction is 'oh my god, I could never live there and weren't you scared for your life all the time!' and the third is ' that is so interesting, please tell me more'. I totally understand the first reaction as most people have absolutely no frame of reference for what I am talking about, or feel some kind of guilt for one reason or another. The second reaction makes me laugh because it is the same reaction members of my family have had and it is usually from a seriously misinformed individual. However, it also makes me very sad when I realize that people with the reaction of 'oh my god I could never live there' have not ever thought that people just like themselves actually do live there. The 'cause' is seeing that real people, born with the same potential as ourselves live in the places where we would never want to live. They are PEOPLE whose race does not preclude them from feeling pain, suffering, hopelessness and fear just as we would if we were dropped into the same situation. Recognizing the reality of life in other places, even in the back alleys of the places we call home, is uncomfortable, challenging and propels us into action.

Let yourself know the reality and be propelled into action.

Thank-you to the people (you know who you are) who in your recognition of the human spirit have taken a keen interest in the people with whom we work and love. Your interest, questions and kindness keep my memories alive, keep me accountable to the faith I profess and remind me that we are not alone in helping the cause.

Job Search, take 2

If I ever had fears that I wouldn't find a job in Victoria, they have now been formally set aside. Now my only worry is which job do I accept. Not such a bad problem to have I suppose.

Why am I even talking about jobs, you may ask? Don't I already have a great one at a golf course? I did, but now I don't. I quit at lunch time on day two. While I know this is totally out of character for me, I did it and I feel sooo much better for having done so. It ends up that while I can weed and mow with the best of them, there was a whole lot more landscape design and actual knowledge about the plants required than I was prepared for. Doing the golf course job well and doing my masters at the same time seemed next to impossible or at least panic attack provoking. Had I been looking for a career position in horticulture this would have been an awesome position. However, I am not looking for a new career. I already have one that I am quite happy with and have taken a short break from in order to enhance by way of further study. Which leaves me wondering, what next?

I have applied for several different jobs, most at local nurseries (which still leaves me with the problem of not actually knowing much about local plant species, this not being the tropics) who pay very little and are kind enough to inform me before the interview even starts that I am highly over-qualified for the position and "Oh, by the way, what are your salary expectations?" To which I respond, "LOW". I am a realist and I realize that in this field none of us are out to get rich, and if we are then we are seriously misled! I just need to pay the rent and have time to study. So for now, I am working at a local garden centre until I find a more suitable job. I have been offered an equally low paying job at another garden centre, however, it appears to be more promising, is full time and they won't let me go at the end of the busy season. In fact, they may even send me on a cruise. If I do take this job I will tell you all about the serendipitous circumstances of getting it. Oddly enough, it is all tied into the golf course.

I talked to Clarisse on Saturday and she is well. I do miss her and I long to be back in Central Africa where I feel so much more at home. I feel rather lost here and wish I had people down the street to drop in on. We have been spoiled for the last 6 years but I believe it is possible to find that again, we just have to look in the right places. Maybe spoiled is the wrong word. Maybe it is just that we have lived what life can be and so we long for that again.

I will stop babbling. Our life isn't that dull I suppose. We do live with 10 llamas after all!

I took all my braids out just to look 'normal' for the golf course job, only to quit two days later. I did wash it before I started so, no!, I did not go to work looking like this. Despite the volume, I did lose quite a bit of hair in the process.

During Roy's visit last week we spent an evening doing tourist duty and Roy found an RCMP to have his picture taken with.

Another Stop on the Journey

We are at another stop on the journey, and this one has us back in Victoria, where we were both privileged to grow up. Darren is attending the University of Victoria and is completing a double major in computer science and geography. This will give him what he needs to work in 'Geoinformatics', which is well beyond what I can explain and given what I saw of his math homework, it is way beyond most of the people that I know.

Darren rides to and from school everyday and is doing at least 20km a day, so he is in great shape. Roy and I went to watch him play ultimate the other night and as luck would have it they were short players so both Roy and I had to jump in, saving the team and giving them their second win (just like Vancouver days). Actually, I don't think I did much more than take up space on the field, but that must count for something! Darren is busy most evenings with homework and studying so I am looking forward to starting my courses in May so I won't be pestering Darren with, "I'm bored" statements all the time. Actually, I have plenty of my own things to work on and books to read.

I start a new job tomorrow in the least likely of places. Okay, maybe not THE least likely place, since I am not working in a mall, a fancy office building, or serving in a restaurant, but I am working at Canada's oldest golf course! Yes, I have been hired as the head horticulturalist at a members only golf club in Victoria. Why did they hire me, you may ask. I don't know. But the superintendent is a very nice man, who is very flexible, so I can work in this position all through my schooling, taking the time off I need for my residency periods (3 weeks in May, November and April), the hours are flexible and the setting is the gorgeous Victoria seaside.

What is quite cool is the way I got the job. No, it's not what you are thinking. I didn't bribe them, or use some other method picked up from my time overseas. The week we arrived in Victoria back in December we were introduced to a lady at church who had a suite for rent. The suite is 750 sq. ft. attached to their house and is on a 5 acre llama farm. Yep, those large, camel like creatures that don't make a sound but spit if they don't like you! There are ten of them and they are quite fun to stare at through the bedroom window. Anyway, so when we went to go look at the suite, we knew we wanted it right away. It backs up onto a large park and a golf course under construction. Though it feels quite rural we are only minutes from Langford, the town where I grew up and a fast growing suburb of Victoria. Even at that, we are still only ten minutes drive from Victoria. Our landlady, who I'll call Sue, was telling us about the former tenant, a fellow horticulturalist, and she thought maybe her job was vacant. So she put me together with her former tenant, we talked and the day before I left for CAR I applied for her job. Sue agreed to hold the suite for us until I got back in mid-February, (God bless Sue), which was amazing since it is very hard to find a place to rent here, and the price is much lower than what others are finding here.

While I was in CAR, the golf course guy, let's call him Steve, called Darren wanting to interview me. He agreed for me to call him from CAR and I had my first interview with him from on top of a hill behind our house in Gamboula in order to get good reception. He asked me to call him when I returned to Canada so I did, had another interview out at the course, and I start work tomorrow as the head horticulturalist. Granted I haven't worked in the temperate zone for 6 years, haven't used power tools for a while, don't remember the names of plants or the seasons (yes, we have four seasons here), I am willing to put my best foot forward. As a good friend reminded me today, just take everyday as a day to do your best, work your hardest and find someone to bless. In no time at all, the journey will have you somewhere else and someone will be all the better for your time in Victoria. Maybe that someone will even be me!

Our new home. We are above the garage.

Final thoughts on leaving...

Sunday afternoon we spent visiting Clarisse’s family, including her parents who moved back to Gamboula this January after retiring from the pastorate. In the evening the kids performed a concert for us with songs and bible verses they had each memorized. After the children’s concert we girls sang songs of parting and then headed outside for music and dancing with all the Nguebe teenagers. Half of Clarisse’s family, including her mom and dad and 4 siblings all live on the same concession. On any given day there are some 35 Nguebe’s in one place. We had a great time just laughing and egging each other on. We escorted Vicki back to the house for a good night’s sleep and I returned to Clarisse’s house to spend the night there. We stayed outside under a full moon until nearly 1:00am, dancing, listening to music and ended with a time of prayer with some of the older kids, Eloi and Clarisse. We piled into her bed and then sat up talking for another long while with Nadege before finally falling asleep. We were up at 4:30 Monday morning in order to get the last minute things packed and to be ready for the truck that was leaving at 6:00am sharp. Our parting was filled with sobbing, clinging to one another until the last minute. It was a parting of sweet sorrow as leaving Clarisse meant coming back to Darren.
I have said it before and I think it is worth repeating. Living and working in the CAR is no great physical sacrifice for Darren or I. On the contrary, we love living and working in the CAR. Despite the daily irritations, the constant threat of bandits, and the relative financial insecurity that comes with living in Central Africa, we love it. I love the people, I love travelling around visiting new people, picking up new languages, constantly being challenged. Where the real sacrifice comes in are the wounds to the heart. Even when you think the wounds have healed, the scars remain and scars remain tender for a long time. It’s not just the wounds from being disappointed by people and the church, nor from the pain and sorrow that are in your face every day (like 1 year old twins that weigh 3 kg each), but even more so for me right now are the wounds from having to say good-bye. Leaving one family behind for another. I don’ think it ever gets easy, and if it ever did I think it would be a bad thing. This is the sacrifice we make, this is taking up our cross and following Him, this is allowing ourselves to love and be loved—it involves risking being wounded, knowing that the scars will always remain tender.
The struggle is learning to be content in all things, (read: in all the places that we work and live), yet living with the longing to be near those that we love. Don’t mistake me by thinking it is only Clarisse that I feel torn leaving, as there are others who I love dearly and enjoy my time and conversations with. She is, however, my sister and friend.
Okay, more thoughts to come later.

Clarisse and I-Yaya and Gambe

Dr. WANE Emmanuel and his new computer.

Mr. Bangui! Calvin, our student in Bangui who is finishing grade 11 this year with hopes of graduating high school next year. Thanks to help from our donors, Calvin is able to attend private school this year while public school students are locked out of their schoola because their teachers haven't been paid in months. It is a tragedy.

Martino. That is his name and he is the baby I had the privilege of witnessing enter the world.

Trip Summary-Part Two

Baby Angela. This is Medard and Julienne's one year old who was born just weeks after we left in December 2006. What a cutie!

Chrysler and I giving advice to one of the cooperative members. I am sure he is telling him to clear around his trees and put mulch around them. We must have said the same thing to at least 20 villages in the course of all our travels.

Nadege and I (or is that a white Central African?) teaching a group of women about tree planting. Nadege is an excellent teacher and with a bit more practice will be on her way to teaching women all over the South West.

Vicki and I encouraging a women's group to keep up their hard work.

CAR Trip Summary-Part One

FYI: I am safely back in Victoria, setting up home for what will be an interesting and hopefully fulfilling 2+ years in the great white North. I apologize for neglecting my blog while we have been gone but we had difficulty accessing the internet so here is my feeble attempt at catching up. I think the next series of posts will be random stories and attempts at describing the last 7 weeks.
Overall, our time in CAR was excellent. Despite the chaos around us, a coup attempt in Chad, violence in Kenya and now unrest in Cameroon, CAR is still behind but I see reason for hope. Maybe not on the country level, but at least on the local level, change is slowly taking place and it is encouraging. The nutrition garden is doing better than I expected and looks better than I had hoped. There is a lot of hard work going on and Nadege is giving good leadership in the garden. She has kept records for the past year of what food goes to the nutrition centre daily as well as keeping daily work records. I have a hard time doing that. The nursery looks good despite a severe dry season and a nursery manager who is very new to the job. The new ‘Chef de Centre’, Benoit, is a very upright man who is giving good leadership to the project and his staff. Despite the usual complaints about the head of the project, the guys are very thankful for the spiritual direction that Benoit gives them. Each morning starts with prayer and devotions, led by Benoit and there are obvious signs of the impact in their lives. This was especially evident in the lives of Chrysler and Eloi, our travelling partners.

My travellingpartner, Miss Vicki

Most of our time was spent travelling around the South-West of CAR visiting cooperatives that were formed during our time in CAR. I had been to visit most of the gardens and cooperatives in 2006 so this was a good follow-up to compare how things were going. While many gardens were disappointing in their upkeep there were a few outstanding gardens and despite the harsh dry season, fruit was being harvested. Bayanga was most impressive and we definitely saw the fruit of our labour as well as that of the other missionaries that had spread fruit trees around the pygmy villages. Not only did we see trees fruiting, we saw people walking down the road carrying large jackfruits, peels on the side of the road and fruits for sale. What a joy!

Passionfruit from a coop member in Boukere--delicious!

When we weren’t travelling Vicki spent time working in the nutrition garden or with Ann in the medical depot. I spent many hours meeting with the project staff, helping plan work for 2008, dealing with worker issues and encouraging the Chef to keep up the good work. In the afternoons we visited gardens and fish ponds and even spent one afternoon in a fish pond, pulling out lily pad plants that choke out fish in the pond. We must have spent near 3 hours in the water without a thought for what else might be in there with us. It wasn’t until I got home and told Darren what we did that he asked how many leeches attacked us. LEECHES! Good thing I didn’t think of leeches or I may never have gone in the water in the first place. Yikes! Vicki goes to bed quite early so I spent many evenings with Clarisse, and we even had a couple of sleep over’s. We had a good time catching up, sharing times of laughter, crying and prayer.

Me and Anna, a year older, but still tiny as ever and still my baby!

Leaving was very hard, made even more difficult by the fact that I did not get as much quality time with Clarisse as I had hoped given the amount of travelling we chose to do. The weekend before we left I did all my packing and had all the project staff over for lunch. We had a great time eating, laughing, and trying not to cry as we said our farewell formalities. We ended our time with a slide show on my laptop of photos from ECHO and family Christmas photos. It was a special time for all of us.

Farewell lunch with the project staff.