Parade!

Yesterday I marched with my church, Wicker Park Grace, in Chicago's Pride Parade. Ours is one of the Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches.

CCWC is a collaboration of Christian churches in the Chicagoland area which welcome and affirm all persons, regardless of sexual orientation. When I moved from Evanston and was looking for a new church, I actually looked at their website to find one, even though I am heterosexual. A church's position on homosexuality, theologically and socially, is often a good barometer for other issues that are also really important to me (you know, beyond how they treat human beings). I visited Broadway United Methodist Church, which was a great place where I actually felt in the minority as a straight woman. I think my heart rejoices in that, even if the church wasn't right for me. (By the way, my church in Evanston, Lake Street Church, was really wonderful. It was just time for me to find a community of younger Christians and find different food to explore my own beliefs. Food?

At the parade we carried signs bearing the names of some of the Coalition members and handed out buttons that said, "God loves us all." I suppose that as I proceed more into Church Stuff as I go to God School this fall, I needed to walk my talk more. Sure, I believe that churches should welcome people of all orientations; sure, gay people can be ordained just as straight people can; sure, gay and straight and all in-between carry God's light in them equally. But, another part of what pulls me toward more theological education and connections with the church is the desire to welcome people to a relationship with the Divine (church or not), despite their history (and sometimes despite other believers!). I realized that I needed to show up more and actually welcome people and let them know that if they desire a church home (or even just temporary spiritual shelter), they can have it.

There were quite a few people (what a vague phrase) who wanted more information, including a fellow NC-er who had gone to Davidson (my brother's alma mater). He's only lived here for a short time (now I'm just doing it on purpose) but has been looking for a church that he and his partner can attend. Well, buddy, we got 'em.

Oh yeah! I got my tail whipped by a riding crop and some wooden paddle. Ouch!

Oh yeah again! Rebecca reminded me that it was a great chance to wear the little orange dress.

Gah

http://www.hipsternascar.com/2008/06/chicago-cyclist-killed-after-being.html

We are not alone?

Bit by bit

We mainly stayed in the riverhouse of a local community leader named Pepe Herrera. He works on a river/watershed project for USAID. He's from Honduras, went to LSU and Colorado, and returned to his pais.

The house was pretty nice, though we had a little mouse and roach issue. At first I had a hard time with this, but I got over it pretty well. (I got over most of my bug issues, in fact. I had four ticks on me and I didn't lose my gourd over it.)

Here was my office:















Past the trees is the Rio Cangrejal. The Rio Cangrejal is fed by four other rivers: Viejo, Padre, Blanco, and Yaruca. The four come together near a pueblo called Rio Viejo, which became the starting point for many of the testing excursions. I kinda liked the town. It's on the edge of a valley with a big flood plain (that picture will come later).

Edit: Here is a great map of the rivers:


(click for a bigger image. Our house was in between Los Lobos and El Naranjo)


Here are a couple of river shots of the immediate area where we lived:























This is actually up the river about 20 meters, in front of the Jungle River lodge. It was flatter in front of Pepe's.







In the first floor of the house lived a family that works for Pepe. They have theeeee most beautiful granddaughter who says an adorable "hola!" when she sees you and holds the light of the stars her eyes. I'm on the fence about having children, but I contemplated stealing this one.
Ack! Cute!

I'm back!

Lots to share, but that will come later

For now:

I drank the creek water when I was high on that mountain (we drank all our water on that brutal hike way the F up there) and am a bit sick. blech, indeed.

Yesterday I sat on a rock, high on a mountain for a long time.

Today I sat on a rock in a river for a long time.

week 2

We are having some issues with the testing. We have lost some volunteers, which we need to do the testing in a reasonable amount of time, and Nadine is having trouble finding a reliable guide. We had a trip all set up with a guy named Melvin. He was reliable, interesting, trustworthy, and start, but we had to postpone the trip because of the rain. Apparently there was a tropical storm in Honduras.

So, we are still here and haven't even gone on day trips to do more testing. It's pretty cool with me, as I am finding ways to busy myself. Today I got a mountain bike from the Omega Tours place and rode for about two hours from there to a town called Rio Viejo. Nadine says that it's more than 10k, but we're not really sure (and gmap-pedometer don't quite work down here). The mountains were pretty tough - I guess that's why it took two hours. I remembered that the only previous time I was on a mountain bike was when I was in Ecuador, but weren't in the mountains. It felt really great to be back on a bike. I met some young men from La Ceiba, one on a mountain bike, the other on a BMX. These kids had some pretty great tricks - I'll upload the pictures later. Skillz. I was sunburnt and exhausted and was really looking forward to spending the afternoon in the hammock with my book*, but Pepe had guests come over, and they occupied the porch.

In Rio Viejo there is a school, Instituto el Rey, which is run by Christians, but I don't know what kinda Christianity they do. There is also a hospital across the street.

There is a lot of space to contemplate here, even with all the testing troubles. I lied in bed last night and realized how much I am going to miss many places and people in Chicago when I go for school. It's not a forever goodbye, right?

*Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg