Wednesday 21 October 2009

Dominican Republic - day 2

I am in the Dominican Republic!  And have managed to get to an internet cafe so thought I´d give you a brief update on what I am up to.

We left the IOC at 3am on Sunday morning and drove the 2 hrs to Dallas airport, thankfully I slept.  We then flew to Miami, again I slept, and then after a nearly two hour delay we flew onto Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.  During the journey I managed to do quite a bit of reading so was very happy (I´m currently reading Bruchko by Bruce Olsen, a book about his life as he went to work as a missionary at 19 reaching a South American Indian tribe whose language was unknown and who were said to be savage warriors).  All in all it was a pleasant journey.  We were met at the airport by Sandra, who Mercy Ships has worked with on many occasions, and the girls from a girls club she runs.  Our wonderful bus driver, Manuel, and our brilliant translator, Dennis, had got the tables ready in our team room and the girls had washed them ready for our arrival.  This was a real blessing as it would have taken us a while to set up and we were tired after a long journey.

Monday morning we went to see the work Sandra does in Agros Negros at the school and in the various community projects she runs.  It is an interesting place.  Sandra is Dominican and is doing incredible work to develop the area where she lives through teaching the children and providing new enterprises so that people can make money, however, there is still obvious need there and many people live in poverty.  Many of the houses are far too low and every time it rains they flood.  The houses are in a disorganised order and the drains are not good.  It is sad to see such poverty but such an encouragement to see how passionate Sandra is, and how she has built a program to help the people move out of poverty.  It is a real example of successful development, as it has been embraced by the community and is improving the general quality of life.

In the afternoon we went to Villa Ascension.  This is a community that was originally set up to harvest the now bankrupt sugar cane plantations.  It is far away from other towns and has a mixed population of Dominicans and Haitians which creates some racial tensions.  However the houses are in ordered plots and all have numbers which is brilliant for helping us learn our way around!  We visited Kids Alive, the school where we will be doing our construction project and looked around the village.  I was really struck by how isolated the people were and how little there was to do in the town.

Our wonderful cook (whose name has currently escaped me) cooked the most incredible spread for our dinner and we were able to rest after a long, hot day.

Tuesday we went to Kids Alive and started on the construction.  We were moving a huge mountain of rubble from the grass into the base of the new dining room in the Dominican heat.  It was hard work but we have an incredible team who worked tirelessly to get huge amounts done.  In the afternoon I played with the children, who laughed at my accent and played with my hair (including pulling it in all directions!) and then did some more construction before going visiting, however, I will post about that another time!

I will update when I can however, time is limited here and we can´t always come to an internet cafe but I hope everyone is well.

Sunday 18 October 2009

Off to the Dominican Republic

My time in Texas has nearly come to an end, and after really settling here I will be sad to leave, however, I am excited about the adventures to come.  Thankfully the next adventure is with my Gateway class, it will be a really privilege to be able to share these experiences with these people and get to know them better prior to moving to the ship.

Sunday at some time in the early hours (i.e. before 3am) I will be leaving Texas and heading to the Dominican Republic for two and a half weeks.  During this time the Gateway group will be spending time working with a couple of organisations in Puerto Plata, in the North East of the DR part of the island (which is shared with Haiti).  The main place we will be working is  Kids Alive, a supplementary school type establishment.  The state schooling in the DR is not hugely substantial so Kids Alive run extra classes for the children.  The younger children come in the morning and get breakfast and lunch and the older children come for lunch and then classes.  Providing these free meals for the children is a way of ensuring they get at least one nutritious meal a day.  Unfortunately in this poor area many of these children are unable to be fed properly, therefore Kids Alive is very popular.  Each child who attends Kids Alive is sponsored, to provide the necessary funds to run the school and provide the meals.  Those running Kids Alive have plans to extend the scheme to more children, however, they currently do not have enough dining room space.  This is where we come in, along with providing the rest of the funds to complete the project we will be helping with the construction of this new dining room, we will also be doing some teaching in the classes, and spending time in the community.  I probably won't have much opportunity to post much whilst I am away, however, I will do an update once I return.

Some of the issues in the area we are visiting are the interactions between the Native Dominicans and the Haitians, who were originally invited to the Dominican Republic to work the land during the farming season and then to leave, however they did not leave.  These two groups live in the same town and there is a lot of tension between the two groups which has previously resulted violent disputes.

What I'm looking forward to most about the DR is spending time learning with my Gateway group, particularly getting to know them better in a setting other than the classroom.  It will also be brilliant to spend time in a country with a very different culture to mine.

I think it may be challenging spending time so closely in a group, and interacting with people who speak a different language will be difficult.  However, I believe the experience will be really good for preparing me for my work with Mercy Ships and creating stronger bonds with people prior to joining the ship.

Hope everyone is well and I will hopefully update you soon!

Tuesday 13 October 2009

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Well this question is all about perception, if you can perceive it does it therefore exist or something along those lines.  Whilst of course I spend huge amounts of time pondering these obviously crucial(!) questions in life, this one is not top of my list!  However, I do know that if a tree falls at the IOC I definitely hear it, particularly when it is a tree as big as this!

I might add that there are normally cars all along the side where the silver car is (in the second picture to the left of the fallen tree) and it was incredible that no cars were injured in the falling of this tree.

I can only presume that the tree fell down due to the torrential rain (yes it has rained more here than in the UK whilst I've been here) that we have had today.

Week 3 - Rejected Nooma Video

Well, when I shared my poem on Sunday, I didn't mention that the whole group presented something in some way for that part of the course.  They were all brilliant, but unfortunately I can't share them all.  However I do feel the need to share Keith's contribution.  To really appreciate the video you need to have seen Nooma videos by Rob Bell.  So I present to you Keith Johnson's Mercy Ships Gateway Project - Rejected Nooma Video!

"I attended a 3 week training course called "Gateway" at Mercy Ships. Our last day we had to present a project sharing some things that jumped out at us. During this training a video by Rob Bell (Dust - a part of the Nooma series of teachings) was shown to us. I figured I'd make a copy/parody of the video to share a few things that popped out to me. Couple things to know:

1) 22 out of 24 participants were heading to Africa to serve as missionaries... I was one of the two staying in the States.

2) They fed us snacks (very yummy snacks) about every two hours... sigh... I miss that.

If you haven't seen the Dust nooma video by Rob Bell the "look" won't mean as much and some of the subtle jokes you wouldn't get unless you were part of the Gateway.... but it should still be worth a view. Our family had fun making it :)"

A day full of surprises in Texas!

I was very privileged to have my birthday in Texas this year!  The day started with an early rise to get to the morning devotionals at 7:45am (I didn't mind this given I am a morning person and had had plenty of sleep the previous night).  I got up, perfectly happy and went to shower.  On returning to my room I was slightly bemused to find that the entrance had been decorated with lanterns and small traffic cones, particularly as I hadn't noticed the decorations on leaving the room. 

However, thankfully I was informed that I was not indeed going mad (although some would say that is because I am already mad), as the decorations were put up whilst I was out of the room.  The decorations did not stop there though.  Whilst I was out the night before, a fairly large group of people decided to create a couple of posters to decorate the door for my birthday.

The poster (for anyone who is not familiar with Mercy Ships) is jesting at how many people meet their future spouse on the ship.  I have to admit it is probably more funny for us here than anyone else as it draws on some in jokes which just don't sound as funny when explained, but I had quite a chuckle at the poster.

Anyway I went to devotionals, and the class sang to me.  Then we went and 'fixed' snacks for the people doing their Basic Safety Training (which I did four weeks ago), including a birthday cake which Nancy had kindly made.  We appear back in class for break, when yet again the class sang to me!

My next surprise came at lunch, when I was asked if I had picked up my basket?  Basket?  I wasn't expecting a basket and was thoroughly confused.  I proceeded to sit down with my lunch, and someone brought over a huge basket full of cookies for me, and of course everyone sang again!

(Picture shows the remnants of the cookies after the class had each had some).  Well shall we say my family had managed to organise for a bouquet of cookies to be delivered to me, although thankfully they didn't send them all the way from England!

In the evening, a group of 11 of my Gateway class headed over to Dallas to see Muse and U2 in concert at the Cowboys Stadium.  Sat up in the Gods (second to back row) of a stadium that seats over 100 000 people watching an incredible show listening to outstanding music.  For me it was a brilliant ending to a wonderful day, so thanks to everyone who made it so special.

The Cowboys stadium is soooo huge!


Sunday 11 October 2009

Week 3 (part 4) - True change takes time

As part of our assignments for this week we had to do something (poem, powerpoint, song, drama etc) about an aspect of what we had learnt over the week concerning the poor, specifically those who are the poor within the developing world.  I have to admit it took me a long time to do this as I had so many different things going around in my head and hadn't had time to process all my thoughts.  Having not written anything creative in years (I have worked with numbers and formal reports in the last four years and haven't really taken the time to be creative in a written way) I did find it quite refreshing, once I got past the writers block!  Anyway I wrote something which resembles a poem, and thought I would share it.


True change

True change, doesn’t start to disintegrate 2 hrs after the ‘missionaries’ have left.  It doesn’t fall apart at the first signs of difficulty or crumble when something doesn’t go to plan.  It’s change that develops as the community learns and can be applied to new situations.  It has the capacity to permanently improve lives, and to bring lasting growth and development. 

But bringing about true change is difficult and requires constant reliance and guidance from God.  It can’t be rushed, or forced on people.  It can’t be rote learnt like multiplication tables, or the alphabet.  It requires a complete change of world view.  But it’s hard to see where to begin for such a big change.

True change starts with love and understanding.  Loving people as created beings and meeting them where they’re at.  Initially the prospect of true change can seem impossible, as the results don’t appear straight away.  In fact, results don’t always appear even if you’ve been working with people for years on end.

But true change is not impossible.  God is bigger than any change.  He is sovereign and works in people in His time not mine.  So I choose to trust God and accept that true change just takes time.

Week 3 (part 3) - Hakini

Another powerful docudrama we watched was that of Hakini 

"Buried alive because her tribe thought she had no soul. Plucked from the grave at the last moment by her brother. Then forced to live as a social outcast for three long years until sickness and neglect brought her once again to the doorway of death...

This is the story of Hakani – whose name means "smile" – one of hundreds of children who are targeted for death each year amongst Brazil's 200 plus indigenous tribes. Physical or mental handicaps, being born a twin or triplet or being born out of wedlock – all are considered valid reasons for taking a child's life.

A growing number of indigenous people are rising up to fight this practice. But when they seek help from the government, they are told that their children are not protected by Brazilian or international law, and that preserving culture is more important than saving individual lives.

Featuring actual survivors of infanticide as well as those who have rescued them, Hakani is a powerful docudrama that tells the true story of one girl's journey to freedom and a people group's struggle to find a voice – a voice for life."



Infanticide is unfortunately a practise which goes on in some areas of the world on a more regular basis than we would like to admit.  The story of Hakini was filmed because the  tribal Brazilians wish for people to understand their culture, a culture which is heavily animistic.  Whilst they do not wish to loose the good parts of their culture many of these tribal people do  want to end practises which are not good.  However, in trying to end these terrible practises of burying children alive they have come against opposition.  This saddens me that we can value 'culture' over life.  The change in the tribal values and the push to end infanticide shows a change of world view, not a loss of culture.  The opposition to change shows a lack of understanding of the difference between world view and culture.

Week 3 (part 2) - Garbage City

As part of our classes we looked at examples of different world views, and of transformational development.

First we looked at Garbage City in Cairo, Egypt and the work of Father Samaan.
You can see the video in two parts on You Tube: EL-ZABBALEEN: The Garbage Collectors of Egypt Part 1 and EL-ZABBALEEN: The Garbage Collectors of Egypt Part 2.  I highly recommend the videos.

The people in garbage city are the lowest of the low: Egypt's untouchables. But the garbage people of Cairo are not forgotten by God.  Father Samaan looked to share God's Love and Light in the Darkness of an area forgotten by others.  He approached people with tender love and gentleness, understanding that the people had an incredibly low value for themselves.  He was not there to try to convert them, but over many years (decades) he looked to love these people and live among them. 

Some of the things that really struck me about this was the incredible love and patience of Father Samaan over many years, and his obedience to God.  Ultimately, though the community still has its problems, it that has been transformed, it has direction and purpose.  I see people who are transformed, and whilst they may still work as garbage collectors, I hope they realise their value is not tied to what they do, but who they are.  Certainly I believe that the change in work ethic is testament to this.

Week 3 (part 1) - Working with the poor

This week has been long, and I have learnt huge amounts which is very difficult to convey on a blog, however, I shall attempt to fill you in on some of what has stood out for me.

The main themes this week have been the impact of world view on our perception of the world around us.  A world view is the set of assumptions and beliefs that determine how we live and how we interpret and respond to life's challenges.

The main categories are:
  • Naturalism - where reality is viewed as ultimately physical
  • Animism - where reality is viewed as ultimately spiritual
  • Biblical theism - where reality is viewed in both spiritual and physical terms
In the West, the world view is generally naturalistic and in the developing world the world view is generally animistic.  Understanding someone's world view is key to understanding how they relate to the world.

In the context of understanding someone's world view we looked at how you go about working with the poor, and how to approach not only effective development but transformational development.  Sustainable or real change results from a change of world view, however, this takes time.  You cannot force a world view on someone, it needs to grow and develop in the individual.

When doing developmental work, it is not beneficial to a community if you come in and to try to change them, or to force on them technology and ideas which do not fit with their world view or culture.  It is imperative to understand the area you will be working in and to approach a community with love.  For instance, giving a community a shiny well with a pump is not always the answer, because if they don't have any connection to that technology, what will motivate them to fix it when it breaks?  Whereas a well with a rope and bucket may provide the same clean water, but when the bucket breaks they will get a new one, rather than abandon the well.  The community can connect with the concept of the bucket and rope, but the pump seems like technology which has been set up by the West and therefore they need them to fix it, even if this is not the case, this is the perception.  Essentially if the community does not understand what you teach them (whatever that may be, healthcare or water treatment etc) they will never maintain any change after you have gone as they have never understood or personally accepted the new idea.

Sunday 4 October 2009

Canton Flea Market

Saturday 3 Oct we went to Canton Flea Market, which is a huge market, similar to a car boot sale in the UK but much larger and with all sorts of things (including guns) for sale.  Whilst I didn't buy anything, I did get to sample the delight of funnel cake which is fried batter with icing sugar sprinkle on top (similar to a donut), and got the obligatory picture of me with a cowboy hat on!

Saturday 3 October 2009

Cowboy Church!

Here in Texas the Cowboy Church is a big thing!  I thought people were joking when they said about going to the Cowboy Church but they weren't.  The Cowboy Church idea is a church that is centred around God and the Bible, but is made up of Cowboys (ranch men) who understand each other and can reach out to other Cowboys.  I've never seen so many cowboy boots and hats in a church service, nor horses in the car park, or horseshoes making up the pulpit!  It was incredible.  The worship was country style (although I did know a few of the songs which included Do Lord, oh Do Lord, oh Do remember me - for anyone from Stotfold Salvation Army, where I used to sing in singing company (children's choir) when I was growing up), and the preaching used illustrations relevant to Cowboys, but it was really good.

Small group

During our time on Gateway we have small groups once a week where we meet together with four other Gateway participants with our small group leader.  My small group leader and her family previously lived and served on both the Anastasis (which was Mercy Ships flag ship prior to the Afric Mercy) and also the Africa Mercy.  We chat and share together and provide a smaller support group than the larger Gateway class.

Our small group leader is lovely and has us over to her house for dinner each week.  In our first week we went out for a walk after dinner...

And last week she took us out tubing on the lake near where she lives.  She drove the speed boat which towed a 'filled in' rubber ring, which we lay on as it was dragged around the lake, although that description really does not do it justice!  It was brilliant fun and I loved it.



Week 2 - Personal and interpersonal development

This week has been focussed around personal and interpersonal development.  We started by completing a DiSC personality profile to determine what our natural (most comfortable) personality type was (although needless to say people are normally a combination of the four types and can perform in a different category when necessary).

The types are: (from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DISC_assessment)
  • Dominance: People who score high in the intensity of the "D" styles factor are very active in dealing with problems and challenges, while low "D" scores are people who want to do more research before committing to a decision. High "D" people are described as demanding, forceful, egocentric, strong willed, driving, determined, ambitious, aggressive, and pioneering. Low D scores describe those who are conservative, low keyed, cooperative, calculating, undemanding, cautious, mild, agreeable, modest and peaceful.
  • Influence: People with high "I" scores influence others through talking and activity and tend to be emotional. They are described as convincing, magnetic, political, enthusiastic, persuasive, warm, demonstrative, trusting, and optimistic. Those with low "I" scores influence more by data and facts, and not with feelings. They are described as reflective, factual, calculating, skeptical, logical, suspicious, matter of fact, pessimistic, and critical.
  • Steadiness: People with high "S" styles scores want a steady pace, security, and do not like sudden change. High "S" individuals are calm, relaxed, patient, possessive, predictable, deliberate, stable, consistent, and tend to be unemotional and poker faced. Low "S" intensity scores are those who like change and variety. People with low "S" scores are described as restless, demonstrative, impatient, eager, or even impulsive.
  • Conscientious: People with high "C" styles adhere to rules, regulations, and structure. They like to do quality work and do it right the first time. High "C" people are careful, cautious, exacting, neat, systematic, diplomatic, accurate, and tactful. Those with low "C" scores challenge the rules and want independence and are described as self-willed, stubborn, opinionated, unsystematic, arbitrary, and careless with details.
I came out as expected that in a work environment people expect me to be D/C and naturally I am C/S.


We then built on this to look into how we can identify what our strengths are, and how we can ensure that we develop them and use them.  And also how we can go about setting goals and targets and putting in place strategies to achieve them.


We then went on to look at conflict resolution.  Particularly in a ship environment, when you are forced to live so closely with so many people, it is easy to conflict to arise.  However, if conflict is not dealt with the the right manner, it can be very destructive and lead to poor performance, hurt, and difficulties.  I found it really interesting to look at the importance of conflict resolution and strategies to deal with it.

Overall, it has been a really productive week for addressing things which I have not been so skilled at doing in the past and learning how to develop these skills so that they can be used in the future.