Today was Environmental Day. Four new trees were planted in the front yard in commemoration, and a turma was assigned to take care of them. I hope it happens! I promised other turmas I would help start some gardens for them, too. Not quite sure how to start that, though. Hopefully, we'll see!
After realizing that people beg here in order to receive - expecting to receive, and not just trying as we do in the States - I've made it a policy to always try and give people what they ask for, starting very recently. I've been afraid in the past, but I think people's expectation is that I won't give them what they ask for, whereas a Mozambican would. So maybe if I just give it away, I'll get less requests to give things away, as they realize they're actually begging me and not just playing around. Plus, I can afford to give stuff away. It just requires planning. I really want to teach people how to fish, but I think they need to see that I'm willing to give the fish away in the first place...
And acting along those lines makes me feel better about going to neighbors and asking for simple things like using their water tap or rolador (for making coconut milk). But mainly the image keeps popping into my head of my student who asked for some bread on the street. I retorted by asking her for her bag, and with no hesitation or change of expression, I found an outstretched hand holding her bag...
The Canadians let me borrow a Zen poetry book from their recent acquisitions, a book of poems by Ryokan. One that jumped out at me:
If THERE is beauty, there must be ugliness.
If there is right, there must be wrong.
Wisdom and ignorance are complementary,
And illusion and enlightenment cannot be separated.
This is an old truth, don't think it was discovered recently.
'I want this, I want that'
Is nothing but foolishness.
I'll tell you a secret -
All things are impermanent!
So do memories count as things? Sometimes they seem permanent. Every time I see barbed wire, I see the time in day camp when I took what I thought was a shortcut into well-camouflaged barbed wire at full tilt. I still have the scar to prove it. And I can't look at any barbed wire without seeing that image in my head, however fleeting it is.
I went to the tailor today to get a couple things repaired, including a pair of pants that has in their front pockets, holes the size of my wallet. Not a good feature for a pocket. I've dealt with this for, well, a couple years now, by being creative with my pocket usage. It even got me in the habit of using back pockets all the time. Just because there was something romantic and fun about this particular imperfection. And I'm lazy.
But I think it was the hassle of actually FINDING a tailor, going to the tailor, leaving the clothes, returning to pay, and getting them home for something I could easily do myself (but would never actually take the time to do). Now that I'm here, it's no easier, but I have less stuff and less stuff to compensate with when the stuff I have breaks. You can make things last for a very long time here because of how cheap repair is. And ubiquitous. Cars, bikes, shoes and houses all live well past their expiration dates because of the buy new vs repair gap.
Speaking of something unrelated to the subject I want to write about, I translated for the ladies at the market today. Some South African men came in today, English being their second language. After helping them with their purchases, they said they needed a receipt, which doesn't happen too often at the central market here. Somehow, one of the women had an invoice book, but had no idea how to use it. It was devoid of carbon paper or much evidence of having been used, and she didn't really know how to write. So I ended up writing "Vegetables 200,000.00 Met" and told her to sign it.
Naturally, we had a good laugh afterwards.
Peace
John
