Third Time is Not the Charm
On Friday, the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled that the current President, Álvaro Uribe, would not be able to run for a third consecutive term this year. This was not guaranteed. Having changed the constitution previously to be able to run for a second term, a referendum was put forward last year to allow Uribe to change the constitution yet again to go for another four years. Most people here would have told you they considered it a toss-up as to how the court would decide, and other candidates seemed to agree as many chose not to announce until they heard the outcome. To Uribe’s credit, he immediately accepted the court’s decision preventing him from running this year.
What this means is that there will really be an honest-to-goodness presidential race this year. It was presumed that if Uribe ran then he would win, so with him out of the picture the Executive seat is much more up for grabs. The first round of elections will be in May with run-offs three weeks later.
We’ll keep you posted…
Life is a Roller Coaster
When the song “Life is a Highway” came out in 1991 I used to turn up the radio in my little Honda and sing my heart out. I loved to have the window down, hair blowing, and thinking that I too was on the highway of life.
Almost twenty years later (wow, really?), I still love the song, but I feel like life is much more of a roller coaster than a highway. I don’t have the sense of a straight open road just waiting for me to take off down it, but rather a series of ups and downs that can be pretty unpredictable and have you laughing out loud one minute and gasping for breath the next.
In Colombia that feeling is all the more pronounced.
- We go from celebrating at a professional soccer game to reading news about a mass grave found in the town of La Macarena.
- As part of a delegation visit we listen to a displaced man as he speaks of being kidnapped three times and scraping out a living on land that has not gotten enough water this year, then we go to a pastor’s house for a despedida (going away party) where eating, laughing and dancing rules the night.
- We take part in a Presbytery planning session for 2010 with high hopes for more emphasis in service, new communities, and education after which people ruefully note that the army members accused of participating in a plot to kidnap young men in a poor suburb of Bogotá, kill them, and present their bodies as those of armed-group members killed in combat (thus reaping financial rewards) are having a spa day with their families to relax them. (Issue summary here. Article about the day of “Clowns, Aromatherapy, and Roasted Pig” in Spanish here. Google translate here.)
Colombia is clearly not the only place where there are roller coasters, but it has some big, impressive ones. I have never really been a fan of roller coasters, but sometimes it is just how things go. The two dangers seem to be getting lost in the valleys and forgetting the hilltops, or – more often here – ignoring/forgetting/erasing the falls and looking only toward the climbs. Still, whether looking up or remembering down, there is always the need to keep in mind the words from Isaiah, echoed in Luke:
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain. (Isaiah 40:4)
Roller coaster….to highway.
Would it Matter to You?
Today the head of the office of Diaconía (the service arm of the IPC), asked people to reflect on two questions.
“What would people in your neighborhood do if the bishop decided to close the local parish (read: Catholic church) because of dwindling membership and low resources?” he asked.
People looked aghast and uniformly said that it would not happen. The people would not let it happen. They would protest, complain, anything to keep their local church from closing.
“What would happen then, if we decided we needed to close your Presbyterian church in the same neighborhood for the same reason? What would the people do?”
Silence. Glances around. Some folks shrugged their shoulders. Others said they didn’t know. A few said they knew folks would be upset. No one seemed as certain as before.
“Then it seems to me that we have our work cut out for us,” he said. ”Because if we don’t matter enough to the folks who live right around us, and if we aren’t serving them well enough to merit the smallest of protests over our extinction, then we either need to change or we might as well go ahead and close.”
More silence. Some nods. A lot of thinking to do, for all of us.
How to Host a Gring@
Or, Things to Remember When Someone New is in Your Midst
- Figuring out food is a BIG deal.
- Invitations can always be declined, so don’t worry, go ahead and ask!
- Getting oriented takes a while.
- Learning names and relationships takes a while.
- Figuring out what everything means takes a while.
- Smiles don’t take long at all, but they cross all barriers.
a) A trip to the grocery store can be overwhelming. If someone else can go with you to explain that they don’t eat black beans and tortillas here so stop searching for them, then the whole experience is simpler.
b) Restaurants are not easier. Reccommendations regarding what you have enjoyed are welcome, though explaining that said dish is made from cow intestines is helpful information to include from the outset.
When you don’t have any friends or family nearby, a simple invitation to come over after church and eat a sandwich and watch television is one of the nicest things you can do. Don’t panic that your house isn’t…something. We only remember the graciousness of your home.
As in Chicago, knowing where the water is helps. As in Chicago, if I can’t see the water from where I am standing, then telling me to go “East, toward the river (lake)” is not as helpful as you might think. Please, point.
Don’t worry for one moment that you could introduce yourself too many times. The names are all different, the faces are all new, so I’m happy to tell you that I know your name when I do.
The chance to ask questions about what I am seeing or hearing is a huge help because without that space I either get frustrated or make up my own answers. Either way, without it I won’t learn what I should.
[N.B. I should be clear that folks in the IPC (Presbyterian Church of Colombia) have been very gracious and our hosting us very well. Part of the reasons I can name these helpful hints are because they are doing a lot of them!]
Uncertainty
Mamie’s post last week about learning and working in the Subjunctive case in Spanish is well beyond me grammatically, but it certainly resonates with my time living here in Guatemala. (side note – for those keeping score – I have now checked off presente, preterito, imperfecto, progressivos, and imperativos) Having a whole way of speaking that reflects uncertainty is fitting for life here, and a strong contrast to what I am used to. Uncertainty doesn’t actually seem like the best word – my life here indeed has a lack of certainty, but life here is not unsure, unfocused or lacking – instead it reflects that we people are not in total control of our lives, our surroundings, our world. We are not our own, we are not the final word on our lives.
Phrases like “God willing” and “I hope to see you soon” are common parts of speech, but they really do reflect a lack of assuredness in life here. Finances, weather, health, communication – all offer ample opportunities for uncertainty, changing plans, evolving expectations, and, always, flexibility. And that lack of certainty or assurance is not a lack of faith, but rather a living in faith, living in a mysterious dependence that is beyond yourself and your best efforts at control.
There are amazing lessons to be learned from living in uncertainty. Openness, dependence, reliance on friends and strangers, all of this ratchets open the allusions of control that a life lived in certainty creates. My head, my heart, and my hands can use a little ratcheting open, and I am ever thankful to God for the wonderful shoves of these past weeks.
As many of the students from Agape House know, I often use a prayer book as a structure for daily meditations. (It is a wonderful resource – Venite, by Robert Jenson, and thanks to Hugh Halverstadt for the introduction) This line from the midday prayers lept out today:
God, grant that we may find you and be found by you, this day
Indeed. May your day be full of finding and being found. Thanks be to God.
More of today’s none prayer below the fold…
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