Books Worth a Look

  • Little Bee by Chris Cleave - This book is a must read. Better than anything else I've read, it takes you vividly into the life of a person in the 3rd world who has no choice but to escape. It is brilliantly written & works well as an audio book. Often I've sent info about the wonderful refugees I've met in Europe. We know only so much of their plight as it is painful for them to recall much less live through again by recounting it. But over time it is clear what they've lived through. This book is excellent as you discover the horrors of their world. Somewhat how to me, it is like being in Europe near a Concentration Camp. One has an obligation to visit it. 'Never to Forget.' In this case, to have our eyes opened.
  • Garbage King by Eliz Laird - The book is set on the streets on Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia and here lives Mamo and his sister Tiggist. When Mamo's "uncle" offers a job, he soon sets out on a bus to work. Little does he know that he is actually being sold into slavery...

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Tears, laughs, and stark reality

I am home again. The last day was full of events & emotions. Busy getting food items & cooking for the dinner, all gathered around 7:15.

I wish you could have been there with the asylum seekers & volunteers. The asylum seekers, the guys I call them, were amazing. Such culinary delights with little to work with but total joy.

An Eritrean vegetarian dish that was scrumptuous.

Algerian lamb grilled with tomato halves. Wow!

Ethiopian chicken and rice dish that was plentiful, fresh and tasty.

A Senegalese beef stew made with halal beef and wonderful vegetables - fun and tasty.

and French wine!

I wish I had the ability to transport you there to feel what I sensed palpably. Here are wonderul people: engineers, tradesmen, youth, teachers ripped from family - many tortured and dead - in a land that increasingly is running from 9/11 in any guise it can conjure up.

On my way to the airport with my loving North African friend, I saw headlines about individuals complaining about not being given enough millions to manage their futbol team or headlines about who got drunk when. And next to me and in my heart are real people who give more than they get and do not complain.

Thank you for following along my journey. I hope you will be inspired by them to respond.

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REFLECTIONS & ARTICLES

Thoughts on the amazing people I get to meet.

Rich, my 19 year old friend, soon to be Franciscan and recent community member at Haley House in Boston. An article he wrote.

http://www.capuchinfranciscans.org/pdf/2008%2003%2011%20CVO%20Update%20A%20community%20of%20two%20tables.pdf