An African Kind of Day

Yesterday I stopped by the church office to drop off a note for my friend Alemnesh who is trying to start an orphan home in Ethiopia – one of the pastors is heading over to see her at the end of the week. I wasn't expecting to get into a conversation with the pastor, but I did. It included a big hint that I should join Alemnesh as the admin person for this project. My heartstrings felt the tug.

From there I went to a bank to deposit a check for friends that live in East Africa. I had never been in this branch, on Franklin and 26th. As soon as I was in line for a teller I was immediately transported to the Barclays Bank I went to each month to pay my rent in Nairobi! I searched the room, I was the only white person in there: customers, tellers, security – absolutely everyone was black. I suppose that would scare some people, for me it feels like home.

I could hear conversations in other languages and ones in accented English. Some were African America, others Somali and some were from other African countries. I overheard the two large dark men at the next window asking their teller where he was from. “Liberia? Do you speak French?” one man asked. “Because we speak French.”

My teller had another guy walk up while he was helping me. That teller asked where he was from. He replied, “Ethiopia” before the other guy corrected, “which branch are you from?”

When I commented that it felt like Africa in here to the two tellers at my window, the customer on the other side of my laughed knowingly. He must have been East African too. As I left, I said the my teller, “Amesegenallo, ” one of the only Amharic words I know (thank you). I heard him comment that was perfect pronunciation.

As I drove off to my next errand I wondered if I should be considering Ethiopia more seriously. I just feel I need to finish school and get a good job. I feel torn.

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What does my Public Relations Writing Class have to do with Orphans?

My current class is called PR Writing. I love it. So it may be no surprise that I am also doing well and getting positive feedback in the class. At the start of the class we were asked to choose an imaginary small business or non-profit to write all our pieces about.

I had my friend Alemnesh's orphan home in mind. It seemed the perfect thing. She left in April to begin laying the ground work for her home in Addis Ababa. Hopefully when she does get closer to getting the whole thing off the ground I will be able to tweak the items I've written to use in a number of ways.

Since I have been steeped in Ethiopian orphan facts, media coverage of orphan issues and general orphan statistics, I am far more aware of the pitfalls of adoption. One article I read highlighted a particular family that first promoted adoption from Liberia, then adopted several children from Liberia, and finally had failures with some of their adopted kids. It was definitely written to paint Christians in an unfavorable light. The story was bad and sad. The article's author was also on a NPR show recently. She told other horrific stories of failed adoptions and heavily insinuates that Christians are driving the market for adoption needs. In other words, if Christians didn't have the “fever” to adopt, there wouldn't be so many orphans in the world.

When I lived in Kenya in the 90s I learned that Kenyans call children orphaned if even one parent is lost. They will refer to a child who has lost both parents as a double orphan. I have since noticed that this may actually be the prevailing way developing countries all talk about children missing one or both parents. Certainly this gap in understanding skews the numbers we find on the Internet about how many orphans there are in the world. However, I don't think there is a need to say any group is bad if they are trying to promote care for vulnerable children. I do not think that we are driving a market for orphans.

My heart is wrenched thinking about hundreds, even millions of children without a mama to care for and love on them. During my adolescent years I often said out loud to my mom, “I would not have survived today without you!” I meant it. My mom was strong for me in ways I knew I couldn't be as a child. It all comes to mind with Mother's Day around the corner and so many stories swirling around in my head.

I hope that you have good memories of your mother this weekend. But I also hope that you will think about those without a mother. The amount of “double orphans” in the world today is about 3,500,000 – the size of the entire Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area.

Think of them, pray for them, be grateful for what you had or have. If you want to know more about my friend, Alemnesh's ministry, leave a comment or drop me an email.

The Impact of a Positive Word

Probably more than I realize, I have been in a kind of person slump. Maybe it's the kind of thing people going through other kinds of transition face. As much as I don't buy into all the usual self-esteem jargon, and I do believe we need God-esteem, there is something to being downtrodden.

Twice in this class I'm taking, the teacher has genuinely complimented me with a specific word of encouragement. Last night's word was so powerful that three hours later when I got in my car to go home the thought of the words had me crying so hard I couldn't safely pull out of the parking lot.

This is a PR writing class. In some ways you could call it “Journalism 101” because it's basically the same kind of writing. She said to me when we sat down for a one-on-one evaluation of my last three pieces, “I really see you doing this kind of work!” She looked again at her comments written on the page. Before she said anything more she looked up again, “And you have never worked in this field?” My defense: high school journalism class. I was on the staff paper for all three years. It was taught me well back then, so I've retained it.

Today I can hardly think about her words without tearing up again. It is so significant to told by an unbiased person that you are really, really good. When your friends tell you that, it feels like they say it out of bias. I still struggle with how to put all my talents together in a way that makes me money and doesn't stress me out at the same time. But today I'm living on a little encouragement. After all, I did say I was going to school to get a piece of paper that says I know how to do what I already know how to do.

A Little Ironic

I finally came back to my blog only to declare that “Winter is Over” and then what happens? We get socked in again. Last week had me out shoveling a few times. (Tonight's forecast is for another 6-8 inches!) So far I have remained undaunted. I do not like the snow in April and I will comment about it like the rest of us. However, “winter is over” was a declaration of the end of my dark sadness of winter this year. That, I am thankful to say, has not returned. I do feel a little overwhelmed at my challenging circumstances right now, but I do not feel despair – I am grateful for that, as well.

I'm grateful for prayers to get through this job hunt and be working in something that is both fulfilling and lucrative. Thank you.

Winter is Over

It's on odd day to write that headline since last night put a thin blanket of white on my yard again and it hasn't melted as of mid afternoon. It was a dark season for me. It's just as well I wasn't writing much. I have been keeping busy with school and that keeps my writing skills active. I don't think I have ever before experienced a sort of seasonal disorder. Things looked bleak this past winter like they haven't looked for me in a long time, maybe ever. Winter is over, though.

I felt a change in the week of Easter. I'm sure the significance of this holiday had something to do with it. But also the lighter days and eventually the warmer weather. Weather that tells me this is a light and momentary snow. Even with it, I am happy to know my taxes are done, thanks to BIG help from a long-suffering friend. I'm over the half-way mark to finish school.

What I am most excited about right now is helping a friend who is leaving for Addis Ababa next week to begin the ground work to set up a children's home. My friend Alemnesh is from Ethiopia, so in a way, she is going home – even though Minnesota has been her home for about 18 years. I am helping her with the communications side of things and in the process I hope to become more informed about the plight of orphans in Ethiopia and learn how to effectively share Alemnesh's vision with those interested.

These are exciting days. I'm making no promises, but I hope to be writing much more in the coming months.

Conflicts in Theory

As usual, I'm starting to write more – just because it's the beginning of the year and I wish I had written more last year. It's like an informal new year's resolution. But it's not. No promises, but I bet that thinking about theory and analyzing how people communicate is going to make me more introspective, which, in turn, will make me want to write more. Let's see if it makes the blog.

One of the interesting things I learned about the two schools of communication theory is that they can be likened to one of scales on the Myers Briggs Personality Inventory. This was helpful since I am well read in the Myers Briggs. The scientific approach is like the sensing (S) component of the Myers Briggs; the interpretive is like the intuitive (N). There you go – no wonder I'm so torn. I have a preference in both of these areas very strongly. As in, I'm not in the middle on the S/N of the Myers Briggs, I usually test into intuitive but I have strong sensing factors built in as well. I am both a detail person (sensing) and a possibilities person (intuitive). In fact, I am so much in each of these camps that I sometimes fail to see (feel) how they are opposite sides of a spectrum. But I have read enough to know they are opposites in the Myers Briggs and commonly held that way on other scales.

I guess this further explains why I am weird. I will see how being an anomaly shakes out in the world of communication theory. By the way, my teacher doesn't believe that I am in both areas and simply dubbed that I didn't understand the continuum. Once I figure it out, I'll know where I stand.