kar0ling

Party time! It's Koninginnedag. Bedeck yourselves in orange and hit the street flea market... oh wait, that'll only work if you're in Nederland. Well, no worries, you can still wear orange and raise a glass to Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands. (her birthday's actually in January, but she decided to celebrate it on the same day as her mother did because the weather's nicer.) In other news, you can now set up your blog account in Dutch. How exciting is that!

I just finished reading Infidel and I have to say I greatly respect this woman. What a story. And what a character, to have endured it all and emerged a determined, principled, passionate but not bitter or unyielding woman. A quote from her book: People are always asking me what it's like to live with death threats. It's like being diagnosed with a chronic disease. It may flare up and kill you, but it may not. It could happen in a week, or not for decades. The people who ask me this have usually grown up in rich countries, Western Europe and [North] America, after the Second World War. They take life for granted. Where I grew up, death is a constant visitor. Which reminds me -- on a related topic, one of the things that bothers me about Islam is how often its followers' reactions to offences are so disproportionate. A Western journalist composes editorial cartoons satirizing the Prophet Mohammad; violence erupts in the Middle East, including attacks on the Danish and Norwe...

I have been fascinated by Ayaan Hirsi Ali since I first heard of her in 2001 when she was already making waves in Dutch politics. I read with great interest her book on the position of women in Islam, The Caged Virgin , which came out in 2005, and I'm now greatly enjoying her biography, Infidel . As I mentioned, she's been big news in the Netherlands for years, but now with her new book (and her resignation from parliament and move to a conservative think-tank in the US), she's suddenly on bestsellers lists and making the news in North America as well. Born in Somalia; raised as a Muslim; spent her childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya; ended up in the Netherlands where she made a false claim for refugee status, trying to get out of an arranged marriage; got a university education in political science and became a member of the Dutch parliament; wrote the script for a movie criticizing the treatment of woman in Islam -- a movie which resulted in the murder ...

I had some more thoughts on community last night but it was getting kind of long, so I saved them for today! (In other news, for those of you less interested in my ramblings -- I got some of my shots today and now my arm is irritatingly sore from, hmmm, I think it's the Typhoid.) There's lots of talk these days about the importance of family. Conservative Christians in particular get really caught up in family -- family values, family friendly, family time -- are buzzwords you hear bandied about. Yes, family is important, and God does delight in family, but not for family's sake, but as a model of community. Unconditional love and acceptance. Time. Support, both emotional and material. Accountability. These are qualities we associate with "good" families. They are the qualities which make good community. I believe this is what God calls us to be; this is why He put us in families, and why we are taught to place value on families -- because they are a metaphor for...

I just had a meeting with my support group/sending team from my church tonight and again I'm blown away. I can't believe how intentional and involved they are. I'm only going away for 10 months; it doesn't seem like such a huge deal to me but they are so excited for me, so encouraging, so eager to be of help, and so full of wisdom. A significant portion of my church are former missionaries, a number of them to places in Africa, so there's a good deal of experience backing up their words, and I'm sure their input will be invaluable when I return and am all messed up and unable to cope with Canadian life. Actually, everyone I've told about my plans seems to be really excited for me. When I think about it like that, I realize I have a responsibility to those people. One thing I've always struggled with in regards to shorter term cross-cultural missions is that by the time you've worked through all the cultural, practical, linguistic, and logistic issues...

I've got tickets! In faith that all the money will come together, my tickets have been purchased. So now I have to go! There was a significantly cheaper flight option with Air Maroc that involved an overnight in Paris and in Casablanca, but I opted for the same Air France flight from Paris to Douala that Dan and Lisa will be on. Frankly, I'm somewhat relieved the latter option was available. Obviously, I must have some sense of adventure to be willing to spend 10 months in Cameroon--and I do--but it's not quite up to the former challenge just yet. I'll likely be quite wound up as it is--the last thing I'll need in my state of excitement and fretful anticipation is to spend three days alone trying to reach my destination, getting no sleep, dealing with unfamiliar languages, and arriving alone to spend a half-day cartrip down roads in less than perfect condition with a local stranger. Now I'm not saying I'm unwilling to be challenged or that any one of these ...

I finally finished Les Mis, after about 4 months of slogging through. A beautiful, moving, and profound story albeit padded with more philosophizing on history, politics, and religion than I have time or patience to give justice with a thorough read. But all that rumination produces some great lines, of which the following is one: (Of the darkness in the sewer as Jean Valjean carries the half-dead Marius to safety) "The pupil dilates in the night and at last finds day in it, even as the soul dilates in misfortune, and at last finds God in it." *Clarification: I have no experience with suffering to know this is true, but I believe that with the right heart attitude (like Jean Valjean's), it would indeed be the case.

Okay, this actually has nothing to do with Cameroon, it's just my thoughts on a particular matter. Have you heard about the chocolate Jesus brouhaha? http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2007/03/30/sweet-lord.html This strikes me as a knee jerk response from the Catholic league. I'll grant you that the bias of the story probably favours the artist, so i t may very well have neglected to fully portray the Catholic League's position on this, but from what I read, it sounds like they're offended because a) it's ugly, b) it's naked, and c) it's Easter. Frankly, I don't see any of those as particularly good reasons to get up in arms about things. Because a) beauty is in the eye of the beholder, b) like it or not, there is and always has been a lot of nudity in art, for which there are probably both good and bad reasons, but regardless, I don't fancy that is going to change soon and a handful of outraged protests will do nothing but annoy artists and ma...