Archive for December, 2007
Accompanying Lydia
Posted on 20. Dec, 2007 by Lutheran World Relief.
The freedom of women in the west contributes significantly to the flourishing of economic life here. I’m not sure whether or not this notion has been statistically verified, but it is my hunch; namely, that even though women in North America and western Europe are far from being fully or fairly empowered, I suspect that [...]
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Hope Crushed Beneath a Boat
Posted on 20. Dec, 2007 by Lutheran World Relief.
(Now that I’m safely home and gearing up for a Christmas and family mode, this and the next blog entry are reflective of this awe-inspiring expedition to Asia.) Even though I, like many others, was glued to CNN’s tsunami coverage in December 2004 and even though I’d heard from colleagues their vivid reports of the [...]
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Traditional Acehenese Architecture
Posted on 11. Dec, 2007 by Lutheran World Relief.
In Kuala Bubon, near Meulaboh, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is working with partner Yakkum Emergency Unit (YEU) to help local builders follow traditional methods constructing new homes for tsunami survivors. LWR worked with this community to create a community develoment plan and is now working in the same community to assist with rebuilding [...]
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Fertile and Fragile
Posted on 10. Dec, 2007 by Lutheran World Relief.
We flew this morning to meet with project partners in Meulaboh. This region is days away from marking the third anniversary of that once-in-a-century tsunami that thrashed Indonesia, killing 120,000 persons and leaving 500,000 without homes. But Indonesians are never more than moments away from the next potential disaster. On average, there is an earthquake [...]
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No Lines at 10,000 metres
Posted on 08. Dec, 2007 by Lutheran World Relief.
During last evening’s flight from Davao City, Philippines to Singapore, I asked in jest, LWR’s supremely competent Asian Area Deputy Director, Joanne Fairley, to look down from her window seat. “Do you see the equator?” “Not yet,” she replied. But 10 minutes later she burst out playfully, “It’s right there and it’s red.” Of course, [...]
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At the Center of What Matters
Posted on 07. Dec, 2007 by Lutheran World Relief.
I write as our drive divides in half the southern major island of the Philippine archipelago, Mindanao. We wend our way on an eight-hour, snakelike, cliff-side, southern-ward drive. Cars must negotiate the corn spread out on the road by harvesters who actually prepare for milling by drying out their yellow produce in one of the [...]
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Fiesta Class or Siesta Class
Posted on 05. Dec, 2007 by Lutheran World Relief.
After 60 hours of traveling due to plane mechanical delays and weather detours, the very first thing our Lutheran World Relief group did upon arriving in Manila, Philippines, was catch a flight to Cagayan de Oro. These “light and momentary” middle-class inconveniences, however, were made slightly more humorous, not more bearable, when our in-country plane [...]
