Getting Caught Up

Well followers, its been a while since I've posted on this page. After 2 years of posting on my blog "Becoming Paraguaya" and a year and a half break while I readjusted to the US and maintained a rigorous academic lifestyle, I have returned to the blogosphere of "Color Our World" to keep you posted on the comings and goings, and travels and reflections of my life.

So what have I been up to?

Upon completing my Peace Corps service I traveled the world. Literally. Over a period of two and a half months I had been on four continents and 8/9 countries (depending on how you classify Palestine). I have been very fortunate to be able to travel and those two and a half months I saw beauty and pain. Division and healing. History and change.

Final farewells in Paraguay

Wine Tasting in Mendoza, Argentina

Relaxing and exploring the colorful town of Valparaiso, Chile

Climbing historical ruins in Jordan

Walking the ancient streets of Petra, Jordan

"Best Day Ever!" Camel Trek in Wadi Rum, Jordan

Seeing the reality of injustice and the struggle for reconciliation in Bethlehem, Palestine

 Discovering the streets of the Holy City of Jerusalem

Crossing the Sea of Galilee, Israel

Food, Wine, Cafés, and Eiffel Towers in Paris, France

Celebrating Carnaval in Venice, Italy

In February 2013 I decided to return to my birth country to transition into something new. I spent six months working in the service industry at Dunn Bros. Coffee, getting reacquainted with family and friends, training for and running 2 half marathons, volunteering in my community, visiting Peace Corps friends, and readjusting to speaking English and everything else that comes with moving back to your hometown after seven years away.

Baseball games with my other half

Readjusting to the frozen tundra

Enjoying the company of Peace Corps friends in Acworth, NH

In August 2013 I started another journey. I began a graduate program in Social Work at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St Louis. Attending one of the top schools of social work in the country is a great honor and challenge. I have had the chance to learn from some of the top scholars and have access to some of the best resources, but what I think the best part of this education is bringing together my previous education, experience, and interests to discover what I am passionate about and capable of accomplishing.

I have been able to connect my interest in community development during undergrad, my experience in community organizing at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, and my work in participatory development in the Peace Corps, with my work on an organic vegetable CSA, agriculture extension role in the Peace Corps, and growing knowledge and understanding of food deserts and the global food market to understand my role in an unjust food and agriculture system that is leaving us all poorer and sicker.

I am concentrating my studies, therefore, on social and economic development. But more specifically I am looking at Participatory methods for collective community action as it relates to food security and agriculture. Where this may take me, I am unsure. I hope that it allows me to work with farmers in developing countries whose livelihoods are unable to compete in the global market, or alongside peasants who have been displaced by unequal land distribution protesting and organizing for change, or alongside migrant farmers in the United States, or with users of SNAP benefits, or with community gardeners and dietitians.

But where is this taking me next week? That is what I hope to share with you over the next three months. I will be departing for Peru, to work with an organization called Fundación Runa. I will be completing an Participatory Community Development Planning internship, working alongside farmers and families to identify how their knowledge of local plant medicine can be cultivated and created into an income generating business. Stay tuned as I share how this internship contributes to my increased understanding of food justice, community development, and environmental sustainability. 

Neighborhood Potluck

The sky was cloudy as we set out the wide variety of dishes for our neighborhood potluck but it didn't keep the people away. This annual event is one that I remember going to since I moved with my family to this street when I was only 6 years old. Back then it was a place to meet the neighbors around me. This time I was catching up with people who I haven't seen in years, but have always been a part of my life. Whether it was taking care of their cats when they went out of town, babysitting their kids, weeding their gardens, singing carols on Christmas eve, or simply hanging out, I know these people. These people care about me. They were interested to hear what I have been up to and what is next.

I also met people and conversed with people who I don't know, or only know just a bit. The bond became stronger as we found things in common, and as we understood our differences in regards to the context that we come from.

When the rain started to come down nobody moved. Everybody was content to continue in their conversations. We wanted to be together and enjoy being in the presence of one another. The children, of all ages, continued to play together in the surrounding yards. We laughed, we joked, we listend, we spoke. We even mourned together the loss of loved ones over the past year. The mosquitos and another pocket of rain finally chased us indoors and some continued to socialize into the nights at one neighbors' house.

Amongst hearing so much criticism these past few years about the suburbs, I couldn't help but recognize that this isn't one of "those" suburbs. We aren't disconnected people sharing a space. We are a community that cares for one another.

Going to Paraguay!

The Peace Corps invited me to serve in Paraguay as a crop extensionist! Halleluya! I leave September 28th. I started a separate blog for my experience in Paraguay. http://maddieinparaguay.blogspot.com. Follow my adventures there!

Twenty three years

This summer I turned Twenty three years old. I have always thought of birthdays as welcoming another year of life, but this year I am especially thankful for being granted the past year and all 23 years of life that has been given to me. It is a gift that I have been given that I don't deserve. Life is precious and it is a joy. It is also frightening. You never know what might happen or when the Lord will decide that your time on this earth is finished. Human beings have tried to make themselves infinite with the creation of medicine. We try to extend the life that has been given to us, but regardless of how many years we will try and live, we are really finite beings that will soon be gone from this earth. I am so thankful for everyday that I am allowed to live. I welcome it with joy and thankfulness.

A ministry of reconciliation

I must admit that I am not an expert at this reconciliation thing, but as I continue to uncover what reconciliation means I desire even more to continue to pursue a reconciled life. I have recently been learning that the most important reconciled relationship is to the creator god. When Adam and Eve desired to be god and at from the apple sin entered the world and the beauty the God intended in his creation was lost. We see the results of sin in the broken structure of society. It exists through racism, the groans of creation (earthquakes), sexism, classism, etc. Christ was sent to earth to transform the society that was sinful and corrupt and he left the church to continue in the ministry. The church exists to reconcile all things back to God.

"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28

I really love this verse. It reveals many of the broken structures of society. Jews and Greeks were different races as well as different religions. The slaves and free were different classes, and males and females are different genders. God wants justice for all. These three structures mentioned are fundamental to our thinking as a society and they must be broken down so that we can experience true reconciliation.