Amazing Days

Yesterday I picked up a book titled “This Ordinary Adventure” by husband and wife team, Christine and Adam Jeske. They happen to be former Jubilee Volunteers, so they mailed a special signed copy! Today, I am already half way through the book. It’s THAT good and it resonates with a fear that’s lying right below the surface of my being. To quote the book:

 “We refused to be that couple who dried up into crusty old people who would drive their fifty-minute commutes to jobs jabbing at keyboards and checking off phone calls and never looking anybody in the face or leaving any glint of meaningful improvement on this world…. Intentionally living and tracking Amazing Days drew us out of the mundane ruts of life and into the small (and large) attempts to make the most of life.”

Our personal choice to leave our 9-5 jobs at good companies with good benefits that allowed us extra comfort in life and weekend meals at fancy restaurants, basically boils down to not wanting to get stuck in a rut of complacency and  getting too comfortable with routine and our desires to experience more meaning in everyday life. We wanted more amazing days. For me especially, my ratio of amazing days to the mundane or bad ones needed significant attention. 

Life at Jubilee, while still having its challenges (how do you dry laundry in the rain???), has produced some really great days. 

Sabrina’s Amazing Days:

• Riding bike around the property with 3 refugee kids hot on my tail calling out “Teacher… so fun!

• Getting my current 2 students ( a 7 yr old and almost 5 yr old sibling pair) to successfully stay inside the classroom for the full 2 hour class and then have them beg to stay longer

• Stopping to watch a beautiful sunset stretch across the Georgia sky and then turning to see that a whole group of Jubilee folks has gathered behind me to also take in the beauty of the night sky

• Cooking for the whole community and then receiving 30-40 “Thank You! That was delicious” compliments

• Collecting 65 eggs and having 4 of them sporting various shades of blue and green

• Singing hymns every Monday before eating lunch

• Eating lunch with Nate everyday and getting a kiss and hug from him before afternoon work time.

And today was an amazing day too! After cooking lunch (which I love to do) and receiving compliments on the hodge poge of leftovers I warmed up and added to, I was scheduled for a retreat. A retreat work slot means you have the time to do whatever you please… it’s like your boss telling you to take the afternoon off. I stopped by CVS to fill a script and found an owl friend to bring home with me (see picture below). I even had a 25% off reward at checkout! Whoo hoo! After a nice drive back to Jubilee, I am now relaxing on the dock by our swimming pond, soaking in a few hot autumn rays of sun (the south is still quite warm!) and finishing up my book. 

Speaking of the book, the Jeske’s go on to talk about how we all find ourselves in different identifying categories related to what/how we fill our days… like software engineer, mother, artist, friend. Adam Jeske says: This colors how we define amazing, as well as worthwhile, important, generous, interesting and more. And that determines what we seek, what we post on Facebook, how we live.”

For me, I was at a breaking point in my so called “career” as an administrative assistant. The job, while a very good one in a company that does a lot of good, wasn’t giving me life and energy, so I justified my unhappiness with the status the job afforded me:  a good job title, repertoire within the Mennonite community, nice clothes, money to pay off school debt, etc. Amazing for me was watching the last seconds tick by on the workday. Occasionally there were other work experiences that brought excitement to me, but mostly I was listening to be co-workers’ passion and enthusiasm for the job and wishing I felt the same…. Feeling like I must have been “missing the boat.”

I think that’s why I was so desperately seeking and craving something new. A change. What??? A change? I know, to those who know me well, I usually run and hide when change knocks on my door. But, nevertheless, I was seeking something less complicated with more tangible “Amazing-ness.” Something that would leave me energized at the end of the day and excited to start tomorrow. 

I have not a clue what I want to do when our year at Jubilee ends, but while I’m here, I can with pride identify myself as wife, teacher, chef, store keeper, gardener, seamstress, poultry tender, toddler watcher and so many more. 

I’ll close this post with a popular old story. I recently read it in a Susan Monk Kidd’s memoire and just heard it re-told on the radio today as I drove back from CVS. It seems fitting for my thoughts. 

There was a child on a beach throwing starfish back into the ocean. The beach was littered with the starfish after a storm had washed them up onto the sand. A man came along and saw the boy using much effort to throw the fish back into the waves. The man saw little point to the boys exhaustive attempts and as the boy stopped to catch his breath, the man called out: “Why are you exerting so much energy on these starfish? You will never be able to save them all. Just stop and rest!”They boy knelt and picked up another. As he tossed it into the sea he said “You might not think I can do much, but I just did a lot for that starfish.”

Much like the little boy, my hope is that my new roles at Jubilee will do good in the lives of those around me. I won’t be able to have a perfect class or delicious lunch every time, but when I can, I will have the opportunity to experience more Amazing Days. 

--- Sabrina---

 

Friday Afternoon in the Neighbors' Field

Sabrina at the Neighbor's Field.  This was taken on Sunday, not Friday when I (Nate) was working.

Friday afternoon my work assignment took me to the Neighbors' Field.  The Neighbors' Field is a fairly new part of Jubilee, which was brought about by the presence of former refugee neighbors within close proximity to Jubilee.

Prior to about six years ago, refugees that finished their 2 months at Jubilee moved into Atlanta, found jobs, began renting an apartment, and generally stayed somewhere in the greater Atlanta area.  Their first apartment was in Atlanta because the refugee resettlement organization's office was in Atlanta, and that's where their social worker was based.  After fulfilling the 1 year lease on their first apartment, they were free to move anywhere in the US, but since they'd already lived in Atlanta and likely had a job and connections, they generally stuck around.  The one exception would be if they had extended family that were resettled somewhere else in the US, they might try to move closer to them (if finances allowed).

Well, six years ago that established pattern changed.  That was about the time that the refugees from Burma started to come to Jubilee.  These people were generally used to living in very remote parts of Burma, often in the jungle, and subsistence farming and living off the land was their established way of life (before the refugee camps).  They generally didn't like the urban feel of Atlanta, and preferred the rural location of Jubilee.  About that time the housing crisis hit, meaning that houses in Comer (the town where Jubilee is located) suddenly became "affordable" for some of these people from Burma.  Fast forward six years, and there is now a fairly sizable community of Karen and Karenni (two ethnic groups from Burma), living in Comer, near Jubilee. 

Since many of these people either rent or own houses without much land, Jubilee decided to create a Neighbors' Field, where refugees who passed through Jubilee and were now living near by could have a plot of land to grow whatever they liked.  They could also have a caged area to raise some animals for meat.  At this point these plots are free, but in the future Jubilee might charge a minor fee to promote a sense of ownership.

On Friday I was helping Zac (the Jubilee staff person in charge of the neighbors' field) till the soil and plant some crops in the Jubilee model plot (a plot that Jubilee maintains to demonstrate how different crops can be grown and maintained).  Here's a shot looking into the model plot:

First we cleared away mulch and the remains of some summer crops from a large section and planted some cover crops.  Cover crops are planted instead of letting the ground stay empty over the Winter to put some nutrients back into the ground.  Here is the finished product (nothing growing yet):

Finally, we removed some mulch and other plants and planted some White Egg Turnips and another plant whose name I forget in another section of the plot.  Here's the finished product for that section (the stuff we planted isn't growing yet, we just added onto the two partial rows):

And finally, here's a picture of one of the piglets in one of the Neighbors' Field animal pens (added at Sabrina's request):

Even though farming isn't my favorite thing, spending a few hours in the hot Sun raking up mulch and breaking up dirt clods renewed my appreciation for having easy access to healthy food.  Also, doing everything by hand is a lot of work.  It's probably good I don't know too much about farming technology, so I don't actually know how much easier it could have been.

-- Nate

"Where are you from?" "I am from Thailand."

Refugees at Jubilee learn basic English, but how much English they actually learn depends a lot on their aptitude, age, and proficiency in their own language(s).  However, regardless of their English level, all refugees learn to answer some basic questions, including, “What is your name?”, “How old are you?”, and “Where are you from?"

 

None of these basic questions is as politically charged as “Where are you from?”.  During our time here I would like to do a blog post for the different countries that are represented by my students.  Currently, the answer for both of my students is “I am from Thailand.”  Neither of them was born in Thailand, and neither would consider Thailand their home country, but it is where they have both spent, most likely, the last 5-15 years of their lives.  Both of these refugees (Sae Der and Koe Jam Bee, SD and KJB going forward), are originally from the country of Burma (renamed to Myanmar in 1989 by the ruling military dictatorship, many independence groups refuse to recognize the new name, as it was not chosen by the people, simply by the ruling powers).

SD is from the Karen ethnic group, a minority group residing in the eastern part of Burma, in a very rural part of the country, mostly consisting of jungles.  Since being at Jubilee I read “Undaunted” the story of a young Karen woman (Zoya Phan) who fled here country and ultimately ended up in Europe, working for an NGO that draws attention to the humanitarian crisis in Burma.  She is from the Karen ethnic group, and her story likely mirrors many of the Karen who come through Jubilee.

Here is a brief history of the last 70 years in Burma from a Karen perspective (mainly drawing from “Undaunted” as a source).  If you don’t care to wade through the history, feel free to skip this paragraph.  In 1948 Burma gained independence from Great Britain.  During World War II, the Burmese (the primary ethnic group in Burma) supported the Japanese and the Karen supported the British.  In return for their support, the Karen were promised an independent state if the Allies won WWII.  Unfortunately, after WWII, the British left Burma as an independent country, and left their promise to the Karen unfulfilled.  In 1949 the Karen National Union (KNU) began an armed struggle after the  Burmese Army carried out attacks against Karen civilians.  This was the beginning of an ongoing time of ethnic violence against the Karen and other minority ethnic groups by the Burmese government.  In 1962 General Ne Win seizes power in a military coup.  In 1976, the National Democratic Front (NDF) is formed, consisting of a variety of ethnic groups opposed to the military dictatorship, and the KNU stops demanding an independent Karen state, and instead focuses on calling for federalism within Burma.  In 1988 a democracy uprising across Burma (led by students) topples the Ne Win regime, but ultimately results in the massacre of thousands of protesters and the rise of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), an even more brutal regime.  1990 elections are held, the National League for Democracy (NLD)  wins 82 percent of the seats in Parliament, but the SLORC refuses to hand over power.  In 2007, another democracy uprising (this time led by Buddhist monks), is suppressed by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the renamed SLORC.  After some additional elections and developments, critics are mixed on the current state of affairs in Burma, but many people say the government is making progress (though most of these critics are discussing the main areas of population, and not the Karen and minority ethnic group areas).  

On a more personal level, many of the Karen villagers fled from their homes during government bombing raids and assaults across the Thailand border.  In many cases they traveled through heavy jungle for days or weeks, constantly in fear for their lives and surviving on anything they could find.  In Thailand they settled in refugee camps, overseen by the Thai military and United Nations.  Because the Thai government is an ally to Burma, the Thai are not happy about the refugees’ presence, and this makes the situation even more difficult.  In the camp, refugees receive some basic necessities (food, basic medicine), but are prohibited from traveling outside of the camps.  Their chief hope is that they will someday be accepted by some country as a refugee.  In SD’s case, his family lived in the refugee camp for at least 10 years before they were able to come to the US as refugees.

KJB is from the dominant Burmese ethnic group (and her English is still very basic), so why she fled the country is more of a guess.  She and her 10 year old son (Anaing) are here, so perhaps she fled because her husband worked for the democracy movement.  She is also a Muslim (a minority religion in Burma) so perhaps she fled religious persecution.

Even though I may never know the complete story of SD or KJB’s time in Thailand (or Burma), I can only hope that they are able to move into Atlanta after their time at Jubilee and find enough support among other refugees with similar backgrounds to make a new life for themselves.  Even though English will probably always be something of a foreign language to them, hopefully at least their children’s future will be brighter here than it may have been in Burma.

-- Nate

Hello, my name is “Teacher”

As volunteers at Jubilee, we play many roles within the community, for example, I am the chief egg gatherer, but our primary responsibility is being an English teacher to the refugees.

Currently I’m teaching 3 bright elementary students. ANaing (age 9) is from Burma, but came to Jubilee from a refugee camp in Thailand. He arrived at Jubilee with this widowed mother, Ko Jam Bee (who is in Nate’s class and is a hoot to be around). My other two students are twin girls (just turned 10), from Burma. Day Wah and Day Htoo (pronounced Day one, Day two- yes, the story goes that one was born late at night and the other came early the next day) are identical expect for the moles they sport on either their face ( Day Wah) or neck (Day Htoo). The twins are here with their parents and two older sisters.

I love teaching and interacting with these students and it will be sad to see them go on Wednesday, Sept 11^th, as their 2 months are up at Jubilee. Every day I find myself marveling at their enthusiasm and determination to learn.

Their school day is split into two different class times. The morning class time is 9:30-11:30 and the afternoon starts at 2:30 and goes until 4:30. Each 2 hour section has a 15min “recess” break for everyone. The two hours I’m with these kids fly by and are a lot of fun. I’ve found it to be one of the most rewarding experiences here at Jubilee.

I share teaching responsibilities with 2 other Jubilee teachers, so we have a notebook we pass back and forth to record what we worked on that class period and who needs help in what area.

Our typical class starts off with a review of the calendar. This includes them dictating to me what day is yesterday, today and tomorrow, what the weather was like each day,  and writing the date in this form: 9/4/2013. Writing the date is something I started working on with them, and they have it figured out now!

Right now, as their time at Jubilee is ending, I have been working hard to get them to speak in complete sentences. Today we worked hard at the phrase “The ____ is with the _____.” We used seasons to say “The sun is with the Summer.” And then I would ask, “Class, where is the sun?” and they would reply “The sun is with the Summer.” It’s a lot of work in repetitions, but they are quick learners!

We also are working on prepositions: In, On, Over & Under. Today I got out animal finger puppets and had them place them in relation to a book. The favorite was putting their puppet IN the book. I got a little creative and had them close their eyes so I could hide the puppets around the room. The Lion ended up under the chair, the Butterfly was hanging under ceiling fan … etc. They loved that exercise and I think they are finally remembering what In, On, Over and Under mean! Whoo hoo! Teaching victory!

Most days when I announce class is dismissed, they are so engrossed in their work and learning that I have to “shoo” them out the door. They really are terrific kids!

I do wonder about their fates, though. Will they survive and thrive in a big public school in Atlanta? Many have gone before them and done well, and a few have struggled, but the school system is used to having refugee kids in attendance. For ANaing, he will probably become a man, head of the household, way before he gets bored of childhood. Despite being here for over 2 months, his mother has not progressed past a very basic level of English phrases and words. ANaing will inevitably become his mother’s voice in English speaking contexts, and I wonder how that role will affect his life path.  

Well, wherever life leads them, they certainly have found a special place in my heart. Hopefully I can keep from crying on Wed. when we say our goodbyes.

-- Sabrina

*For security reasons I will not be posting and pictures of my students, but here are a few pictures of the school and my classroom as well as Nate’s. 

My classroom- the blackboard and desk side.

My classroom- the fun carpet side

Teacher Sabrina :-)

Nate in his classroom. Note that the blackboard dialogue fits well with Nate's poison ivy bandaged arms. :-)

The teacher resource room in the school.

This is the common area in the school. What you can't see is a ping pong table and that students of all ages love to challenge the teachers to a game during break.

The outside of the school.

Our first weekend in photos

In front of the blueberry patch

Enjoying the sun while hanging up the laundry

Sabrina in the laundry room

Nate walking down the path to the laundry room

The K-House (where we are living)

Closer view of the K-House

Dining area in the K-House where we eat all the community meals

Enjoying our room

Looking in on our K-House accomodations

Sabrina added some wall art to make the room feel just like home

Headed up the stairs to our lofted bedroom

Our bedroom area, complete with a lovely comforter (thanks Holly!)