I have a newfound respect for teachers now that I’ve had to lead my own music class. It was difficult to decide what to teach that would be most useful to them. And what do I do about the slower students that aren’t catching on? Teaching is not easy.
I spent a couple days just peeling and polishing tucúma seeds to make something for my mom. Pastor Kim read my dad’s book and said it was the most well informed book he’s ever read and was great, except that he didn’t mention my mom anywhere in the book, other than the foreword. My mom doesn’t get enough credit. Without her sacrifices for the past couple decades, none of us, my dad, me, my sisters, would have been able to pursue our own dreams. I don’t think that I have a heart big enough to sacrifice the way she did for her family and I am realizing more and more what an amazing person she is. I love her more than she will ever know.
I look at the Amazonian villages and wonder if and how they will ever come out of their poverty. Then I remember that South Korea too was an impoverished nation, following the war on the peninsula in the 1950’s, to the point that Americans viewed and treated Koreans as some kind of animals, to be fed, encouraged into prostitution etc. Only half a century later, Korea was already one of the most modern and advanced nations in the world. Would this be possible in the Amazon?
Modernization without Westernization. É posível?
I am glad I didn’t come to the Amazon as a missionary. The other people that came on missions, sponsored by their church, are pressured to have physical evidence of what they accomplished when they return. That makes sense since the church wants to know what’s happening with their investment but I think it can actually get in the way of missions.
Politics taint everything. Even among missionaries – from the very little that I’ve heard, it seems that different denominations have established rivalries among the villages. The last village we visited was greatly influenced by a particular Baptist missionary who gave them a poor impression of Presbyterian pastor Kim – that may have been part of the reason why they were not as receptive of us, as the other two villages.
The villages are not a unique place in its poverty – There are many impoverished places like India and in cities within close proximity of our homes in the States. I have known this but the statistics are becoming real to me for the first time.
Touch is important to human relationships. I am not a particularly touchy, huggy person and was even less so, in the amazon with smelly, sweaty people. But then they think I don’t like them. And then I don’t like them much. It’s a cycle.
I have never seen such vibrant colors in my life. And stars. You will never see stars like in the Amazon in the states. They are so fantastic that they seem fake.
Can’t just give them the Word – need food, shelter etc. need money for missions
I never understood why foreign missions were necessary. God will judge the people who never had a chance to hear the Gospel accordingly so why missions abroad? Here are 3 reasons Pastor Kim gave me - the Bible says so/ as Christians, we want to be obedient to God’s word/ end of spears and other killing practices.
When I tell you stories about life here, I risk sensationalizing the Amazon. I know that I am giving a narrow interpretation, my own, of a small part of the Amazon (bordering Colombia and Venezuela & near the equator) but hope that it’s not misleading.
Things are not what they seem. I didn’t really understand why Dona Rute & Pastor Kim were so adamant about the male & female students being segregated in the seminary. People create rumors and gossip about inappropriate male-female interactions here. There’s a reason for things, even I may not see it at first.
Sharon & I thought we ate one of the chickens in the coop for lunch but it was from the market. Those were for eggs. We just never know what to think.
The villages are full of paradoxes. I saw one guy with a cell phone (don’t know if it had service though) though they don’t have running water. I saw another with earphones on although they don’t have regular electricity.
What can the village kids aspire to be? What kind of future do they have? And what of the kids of seminary students?
Equality in eating? I didn’t enjoy eating the same thing that all the seminary students ate. Oops, my American, capitalist veins are showing! Ehh…
Perspective - Sungjo JDSN lived for 4 weeks in the village of belem, in a hut infested by gigantic mutant cockroaches, with no clean water (they did bring a generator just for him to have electricity though) and no one to really communicate with. Just a man and his bible. He finished all of their rice while he was there, but still came back thinner & tanner - so tan that you could not see his bug bites. Compared to him, I was living large at IBARNE, at least having clear running water at the outside faucet more often than not and occasionally going out into the city for goods.
One night on the 17-day boat trip, we were having our usual evening service when some other boat stopped us. I was wondering what was happening until Pastor Kim casually told us that sometimes, other people stop our medical mission boat to take medicine and other supplies. That put me at ease for a few seconds. Wait, pirates?!
I saw an indigenous person version of my friend, Lynn in the first village. I wish I would have taken a picture. Just like Lynn, only a different ethnicity. Also, a seminary student, Nunes, looked like Matt Huang, only Amazonian. Have you ever seen that episode of Recess where they go play kickball at another school and that school has the same characters/roles, only different? Do you ever wonder if there’s someone just like you on another planet, country or city? This is beginning to sound like questions out of a workbook for writing assignments.
We shook everyone’s hands in every village. Some of the older men had hands so hard and rough that they were like wood. Hands of wood. Your hands reveal bits of your past.
This lady was on her way to losing her leg but refused to leave her village to go get treated at a hospital in Manaus. She was scared to leave. We won her over with 50 reais (a bit over USD$25). Only 25 dollars to save a life? I guess I better make some money then.
Pastor Kim told me to become rich and famous. I’m not particularly keen on making a lot of money. But he said not for me – to help our indigenous friends! Okay, that sounds like a good reason; I’m down to become rich, God willing. My money, before I’ve even made any, is being stretched to many places already – to the Amazon, to my parents of course, to jazz & improvised music at Berkeley, to arts education, other family members, other people, etc. Money can be useful in helping others.
