I suppose it’s cheeser to write a post about all of the things that I am thankful for on the day before our national day of Thanksgiving… but I am nothing if not a cheeser. So, away we go.

I am thankful for the ways in which I am provided for – the shelter, the food, the emotional care. I am thankful for purpose and employment. I am thankful for my past and my present and the hope of my future. I am thankful to have grown up in the Northeast and the ability to gather as many passport stamps as possible.

I am thankful for family in its many varied forms. I am thankful for an amazingly diverse and fiercely devoted biological family that never allows me to doubt their love for me. I am so blessed to have grandmothers and aunts and uncles and cousins and parents and siblings who are my own personal cheerleaders as I endeavor to become the best version of myself. I love our traditions – both holy and ridiculous – that bind me to these people in ways that I can only understand in the light of other families who do not share the same emotional chemistry. Through costumes and competitions for nuts, I know more about myself and the world in light of those relationships.

I am so very thankful for the Onion. I am thankful for the way in which we care for each other’s souls and the covenants we have made with each other. I am thankful that we’ve discovered that community is best built over food and that church is best defined in life together. I love text messages summoning us in a crisis – for that is the kind of stuff that friends gear up for – and how our lives simply move in rhythms of one another. I love being a part of the raising of Bella in my own insignificant way. I love carrying the joy and the burdens of these people and I am so thankful that they have decided that mine are worthy to carry as well.

I am thankful for the other members of my Waco family. The lunches at Bangkok and coffee dates at Starbucks – during which I get to share in their lives and they in mine. I am thankful for the ways in which we enrich each other’s lives and journey towards truth together. For community created in the hallways in between classes and over intentional meals.

I am thankful for Northern Ireland, England, Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi and Ethiopia and the ways in which they are part of my past and my present. I am thankful for the people I know who call those places home and the ways in which they have enriched my story. I am thankful for the juxtopositions that I was taught to embrace and the grace that was I am thankful for the excitement and hope of the trip to India this summer and I am exceptionally thankful that Dr. Stroope found that I could be valuable to that trip.

I am thankful for Vessels who are still family after all these years. Thankful to be part of the lives of their children and to participate in their marriages; even as we increasingly realize how different our paths are. I am thankful for diversity among friends. I am thankful for my social work colleagues and the varied ways in which they are changing the world. I am thankful to have gleaned their wisdom while we sat in class together and now to learn from them as they are out in the world.

I am so very thankful for Truett. I seriously cannot underestimate the role that Truett has played in the restoration of my faith over these past few months. The ways in which I am challenged to think and discuss and defend and care and the safety which I am provided to do such things… I am deeply thankful. I am thankful for professors who care more about my soul than my GPA. I am thankful that they’re allowing me to stay for a few semesters longer so that I can wrestle with missiology in the midst of social work. I do still, however, wish that Truett wasn’t located in Waco. I am not really all that thankful for Waco.

I am thankful for the journeys I took this year. The process of Sarah & Mike’s wedding, the road towards graduation for myself and my journey friends, sojourns through Ethiopia and Malawi, the journey towards health – both physical and emotional.

I am thankful for story, thankful for ridiculous television and wonderful movies, thankful for books that make me think and change my life, thankful for joy in the midst of confusion and hope in the midst of weariness.

I am thankful that who I am now is not who I will be in the future. That I will continue to be shaped, molded, refined and used by the rhythms of grace in which I live. I am thankful for life and for love and for pain and for joy. I am simply thankful.

In my journey through life this past semester, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about poverty and wealth and the multifaceted definitions of both. Books like Bosch’s Transforming Mission and Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dillemma have required me to examine my presuppositions about reality. One of those ways is in the understanding of ‘hoarding’.

I am beginning to think that the deepest sin in the world is to hoard. To hoard ourselves, to hoard our resources, to hoard. To do so is to assume that we live alone in the world and that our actions have no impact upon anyone else. Clearly, this understanding is against my entire worldview.

I believe if we all lived more generously – with our resources, our souls and our selves – there would be more space for merriment and joy. Which, clearly, are ingredients to a better world.

In the past two weeks, very few dances have completely impressed me on everyone’s favorite dance show. After the phenominalness of the Top 20 was lauded over and over (and over and over and over) again by the judges, I was expecting to see some real barn burners. This has not really happened.

Let’s start with the Top 18 performance show, shall we? This was supposed to be a great distraction for me – the Phillies were down 3-2 in the Series and the dances were supposed to distract me from looming depression. They failed at this task (as the Phillies would fail at theirs the next night), but they did provide some entertaining moments.

You all know how much this pains me to admit – but Ashleigh was included in one of my favorites of the week. Dancing to “At Last” by Etta James, Ashleigh and Jakob did a Vietnameese Waltz acting as a couple on their first wedding dance.

We will not go into the hot mess that was most of the rest of the night (I’m looking at you, Channing and Phillip!), but can we please just all take a moment and worship at the temple of Legacy for a little bit?! Holy monkey, Batman. Dancing to “2 Steps Away” by Patti Labelle, check out Kathryn and Legacy.

I believe that no Bollywood routine will ever be better than Kattee and Joshua’s – but Mollee and Nathan managed to do a good job. Dancing to “Azeem O Shann Shahenshah” from the Jodhaa Akbar Soundtrack…

The last great routine from the Top 18 week was Elenore and Ryan’s Argentine Tango. Once again – Brandon and Jannette were far superior last year, but Elenore and Ryan did a yeoman’s job (to steal Adam’s favorite phrase). Dancing to “Violentango“  by Astor Piazolla…

BTW, for full recaps of this week – including the dances that were so bad I was in physical pain watching them – head to Tapeworthy or EW.

Now – onto the Top 16 performance show… which disappointed me even more than the Top 18 show did. Suz, Sarah and I literally yelled in frustration and embarasment several times. There were some okay moments and some really bad moments, but few truly great moments. I only really liked two routines this week.

Legacy and Kathryn are my new favorite couple. Hands down. I love these two together and I love how much they’ve both grown even in three weeks. As I said above – who isn’t blown away by Legacy!?! For reals. Dancing to “2 Steps AwayI Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)“  by Swingin’ Fireballs…

Russell and Noelle were also phenomenal this week. They brough us some Afrojazz (and redeemed the end of the show). Dancing to “Frog Dance” by Mickey Hart and Planet Drum, it’s Russell and Noelle!

I could on and on and on for a while about how much of a hot tranny mess Mollee and Nathan were and how many times I cringed during a few of the other routines, but the votes have already been counted. Peter and Pauline were certainly not awesome either and deserved to go home in a way. I do believe that Mollee and Nathan were far inferior that evening, but the teenybopper vote is a power demographic. If you don’t believe me, check with Robert Pattinson. Just saying.

HOWEVER. The Top 16 results show gave us the first group routine of the year and OH DID IT DELIVER! Head here for the video.

So, we said goodbye to all of the tappers and Pauline. I think that Channing and Victor are the next to go – but I’m open to them surprising me on Tuesday. Until then, feel free to puruse the recaps at EW and Tapeworthy.

Perhaps I’ve been watching too many reruns of West Wing, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what America is and what it means to be an American. And while I have significantly more questions and frustrations and confusions, I did come to this conclusion. I believe in the potential of America.

I’m not always at a place where I believe in its current behavior or the predominant conversations happening within the country. I do not believe in the necessity of the 24-hour news cycle or the need to refer to states as “red” or “blue”. I hate the concept of “the real America” versus the other America. I also doubt that any of those things would have fit into the original vision of this republic. I have, in the cycles of my life, found myself embarrassed by the behavior of the government or the behavior of its citizens. I do not always freely own up to my nationality while traveling abroad. And I will admit that most days I wish that the Bartlet administration wasn’t fiction.

However, in the midst of all of that, I believe in the potential. I believe in “we the people”. I believe that while we have not always been excellent at including all persons within the definition of “we” and still continue to falter in that area – the idea of “we” is one that I will throw my vote behind. I believe that we are to form a more perfect union – not a more divided confederation of individual states. I believe that we are to establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility. The whole preamble – I believe in it.

However, there have been some things that have transpired over the past few seasons in our country that are not part of that vision. I speak of the bailout of the financial markets and the misappropriation by the banks of that money. I speak of talking heads on cable networks yelling out their agendas instead of maturely and concisely debating the issues. I speak of our continued struggles with the appropriate definition of ‘defense’. I speak of apartheid schooling and declining rates of educational excellence. I speak of the belief that all right behavior boils down to sexual practice and preference. I speak of this insane belief that the constitution guarantees “the American dream” and that all people deserve to live lifestyles of the rich and famous. I speak of the growing income gap and foreclosure signs. I speak of the use of fear tactics and reactionary politics instead of honest conversation.

As Andrew Shepherd said in The American President, “We have serious problems and we need serious people to solve them.” I’d like to be one of those serious people. I’d like to have the bravery and maturity to engage the issues at hand. I’d like the ability to admit when I am wrong and that the answer that I’d prefer is not the answer that is best for the union. I hope that I can continue to learn to be a good citizen. One that sees it as her right and responsibility to question our leaders and strive for greatness. One that believes that it takes “we the people” in order to form that more perfect union. One that fights for the rights of the voiceless, while being willing to hold in tension the rights of those with voices. One that shows up.

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…”

Okay friends. I know you’ve missed my opinions on SYTYCD. While I love having a Fall season (the more Cat Deely, the better) – it does feel as though the auditions took foooooorrrrreeeeevvvvveeeer. I mean, seriously. September 9 to October 27 to get to the Top 20 performance show? Wow.

But moving on, they did take a mini-detour on the journey that I loved. On Monday night, they allowed the dancers to do group performances within their styles. It wasn’t an elimination show, so we simply got to enjoy the dancers doing what they do best. And enjoy it we did. Sarah and I whooped and hollered and giggled with glee at several points.

The opening number may be my favorite Wade and Amanda Robson piece in a long time. It was this concept of a jazz club in Harlem in the 20s with competing gangs dancing. The song is “Comanche” by The Revels.

Our next favorite was the hip-hop number with Legacy, Russell and Kevin. Choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon and set to “Beggin’ (District ‘78 Remix)” by Madcon.

While all of the other pieces were well done and showed exactly how amazing this Top 20 is, the only other dance that I have watched over and over is the last contemporary piece. Choreographed by Mandy Moore and set to Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” (which is one of my favorite songs of all time) – Billy, Victor, Kathryn and Noelle.

Now, onto the Top 20 performance show … in which 2 people I didn’t have any emotional attachment to whatsoever got kicked off.

As of right now, I’m going to step out there and say that the biggest collective weakness of S6 is their inability to have chemistry with each other. With a few examples, I felt like we were watching a lot of freshman theater majors try to figure out how to move from monologue to scene. However, saying all of that, there were a few routines that I loved muchly.

Russell’s foxtrot. Can this boy do anything wrong? EW claims no and I have to agree. After his partner Noelle had a knee injury, he was forced to dance this with the choreographer. Aaaaawwwwwwkward. However, he is a vision. Head to this link to see the Foxtrot by Tony Meredith & Melanie LaPatin – “Vagabond Shoes” by Vic Damone

Also fun? Bianca and Victor’s contemporary that was choreographed by Travis and Ellenore and Ryan’s jazz that Sonya did. And while there was something vaguely creepy about watching Nathan and Mollie grinding against each other, their Doriana Sanchez disco bit was entertaining and well executed.

Best dance of the night? Hands down, Legacy and Kathryn’s hip-hop that Dave Scott choreographed. So awesome.

So, Arianna and Brandon went home. Tears were not shed on my part. As for Russell’s presence in the bottom four, I’ll refer you to the above EW article. I agree with Kate’s theory. They just wanted to see him dance.

Until the Top 18 show, I’ll be watching these videos a few more times … but mostly, I’ll be concentrating on the Phillies. Clearly.

I just finished the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Seriously. Buy it.

The authors contend that progress is achieved through the empowerment of women. Considering that it is most likely that a developing nation will raise itself out of poverty if it spends time empowering the women of their nation, this is a valuable conversation. The authors identify three of the main categories of oppression facing women today: sex trafficking and mass rape, gender-based violence (including honor killings and rape used as a weapon of war) and maternal mortality.

The book is peppered with facts and statistics and also practical examples of women who have overcome great odds to become leaders within their community. It also highlights some truly excellent NGOs that are making legitimate impact upon the lives of people worldwide.

The truth that comes across in the book over and over again is that women have been treated the way they have been simply because they are viewed as expendable. “People get away with enslaving village girls for the same reason that people got away with enslaving blacks two hundred years ago: The victims are perceived as discounted humans.”

Discounted humans.

Women are more likely to be sexually assaulted, more likely to be marginalized, more likely to be forced to exist in a system that is designed for their failure and oppression than men are in every culture. When women are allowed to be fully functioning members of society, history shows over and over again that the entire culture benefits.

When girls are educated, they are able to make more intelligent family planning decisions. They delay marriage and the number of children they have is lowered. They are also often able to delay pregnancy until their bodies are more likely to be able to handle a healthy pregnancy. This leads to less fistulas, less malnourishment and less maternal mortailty.

When girls are educated, they are able to earn their own living instead of being entirely dependent upon the men. They are less likely to become trafficked and they are more likely to provide health care and nutrition to their children.

When girls are educated, they are able to take part in the government of the village. They become voices of power within their structure and all persons benefit. They can become part of the economic structure of the country and the entire GDP of the country is raised.

There are simple tactics to take. Microfinance is an excellent step. While it’s certainly not a pancea, it is a viable option for many. Please visit Kiva to make your own loan (minimum of a $25 microloan).

And, as said before, read the book. Join the movement to help out women of the developing world help hold up their half of the sky.

So, in a recent battle with insomnia, I was flipping through Netflix Instant View and stumbled upon the following gem: (clip inserted below)

Enjoy

OMG, Babysitters Club! God bless a 90’s childhood.

So, I went to Malawi as a photographer and consultant for UrbanPromise International. So, in order for anyone to understand the programs and the purpose, they must understand UPI itself.

For this large task, I’m going to turn to my research project for a succinct explanation.

UrbanPromise Ministries was started as a spin-off from the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE). Founded by Tony Campolo, EAPE’s mission statement expresses that it takes seriously Christ’s teaching that Christians are to seek justice for the poor and the liberation for the captives of society. In light of that ideal, Campolo recruited Bruce Main to launch an outreach specifically to children and teens in the city of Camden, New Jersey in 1988. What began as a summer camp run out of a struggling Baptist church has grown into a multi-dimensional organization with programs that run year-round and serve many facets of the community. Programs include after-school tutoring and activity programs, on-site academies for both disadvantaged elementary ad high school students and summer arts programs. The UrbanPromise brand model that has been designed and implemented in Camden has also been taken to multiple other locations, including Wilmington, Delaware, Buffalo, New York, and Mobile, Alabama within the United States, Toronto and Vancouver in Canada and several locations throughout Malawi.

One of the programs that is woven into the fabric of UrbanPromise is the StreetLeader program. Each year, approximately 80 Camden-area students are hired as counselors, teachers, coaches, and role models for children in AfterSchool Programs and Summer Camps. Many of the StreetLeaders are graduates of the AfterSchool Programs and are passionate about being part of the change that they perceive as needed in Camden. They are active participants in the mission and vision of UrbanPromise.

In 2003, a Malawi citizen named William Nyasulu traveled to Camden to study the UrbanPromise model of community development and youth mentoring. Upon return to Malwai, Nyasulu started YouthCare Malawi – a holistic attempt at empowering disenfranchised children and teenagers. Since that time, UrbanPromise Camden has been instrumental in the progress of that organization in Malawi. One of the facets of that relationship has become an intern training program, The UrbanPromise School of Entrepreneurial Leadership (UPSEL). This program is designed to attract students from around the world, including but not limited to Malawi, in order to train them in non-profit administration and community development.  Between five and ten interns from Malawi move to Camden, New Jersey and Wilmingon, Delaware each year to participate in this program.

It’s a broad introduction, but it’ll give you context for the next few blog posts – in which I’ll explain what the heck I did in Africa for the month of July.

Before I begin posting about the programs and activities that I participated in while in Malawi, I want to clarify a common misconception regarding the term “orphans”. We bandy the word about as though it always means the same thing, while, in fact, it’s a multifaceted concept.

I am unsure of the statistics worldwide regarding children considered to be “orphans”, but I know that in Malawi, there are estimated to be about 1.4 million. That’s about 10% of their population. Ten percent of their population. Imagine the ramifications of that for just a moment.

The generic definition for an orphan is someone whose parents can no longer take care of them. This term is often employed to children who have lost both parents to death. However, in developing nations, it can also mean parents who simply cannot afford to take care of their children. The children then leave the home and fend for themselves – some as young as five or six. In Malawi, they mostly migrate to Lilongwe or Blantyre and exist at ‘street children’. They may have perfectly healthy families at home, but they will now live life disconnected from them. Their only ticket back into the home is if they bring income with them. This leads many street children to lives of crime and violence – trying to find ways to survive in a culture that is invariably pitted against them.

There are so many heartbreaking nuances to this problem, of course. What kind of situations could lead a parent to tell a child to leave home when they know the existence that they’ll be subjected to? Some are stories that have been told throughout time and around the world. Famine hits the family farm and there is no longer enough food to go around. If there are multiple children within a family, many of the older children are asked to leave the home so that the meager resources and be used to care for the younger. Or a situation where the main financial provider looses their job. Or when the family has used up all of their money on medication for various family members. These are common stories that one hears throughout the continent.

In most developed nations, the government has means of caring for children whose parents can no longer do so. They’re not usually preferable means, but there are means. Most developed nations have no such program set up and so the children become part of the vulnerable population group known as “orphans”.

Now that we’ve clarified – I want to remind you of what the police officer said to my Dad and I that morning in the station. “We are all orphans”, he remarked. A nation torn apart by poverty, hunger and disease is also a nation disconnected from itself. A nation that is struggling to define itself. A nation of orphans.

This makes the community and hospitality and grace that I witnessed among the Malawian people even more of a miracle. They call themselves “The Warm Heart of Africa” and I can testify that – often despite horrific odds – they truly are.

Once upon a time, in a remote village in Ethiopia, there lived a boy named Mohammed. Mohammed’s village was so remote, in fact, that it took one full day of walking to reach a road. Once someone reached the road, it was 250 kilometers to the closest city. From that city, it was still several hours journey by bus to reach the capital, Addis Ababa.

When Mohammed was a small boy, he fell into a fire. His right leg was bent at his knee and the skin of his calf seared itself to the skin of his thigh. His foot, in fact, was attached fairly soundly to his buttock. For the next eleven years of his life, Mohammed lived life with one leg used to walk and the other leg useless.

During this time, his father tried to kill him several times – feeling that his son no longer had value due to the deformity. His mother fought valiantly for him each time – which is incredibly counter cultural – and consistently saved his life.  Upon the father’s death, Mohammed’s mother took him to the closest city, to a Sisters of Charity clinic and orphanage, hoping that someone there would be able to help her son. Having come to a faith in Christ, she trusted that the sisters would be her child’s best hope.

Once he arrived, the sisters in that city knew that his condition was beyond their skills and arranged to transfer him to the orphanage in Addis. From there, a Dutch woman volunteering at the orphanage had heard of CURE International and insisted on taking Mohammed to the hospital in Addis to get evaluated.

After several surgeries and multiple skin graphs, on July 14, Mohammed took his first tentative steps post-surgery. The injured leg is approximately three inches shorter than the other, so there is much rehab to go. But his leg – which was bent behind him – is now straight.

It was a little overwhelming to stand in the hospital and watch Mohammed tentatively walk towards us and know that a friend of ours played a chief role in rehabilitating his life. But it was also kind of overwhelming to watch humanity rebalance itself.  By that, I mean that the sheer number of people who chose to be on Team Mohammed throughout this process is kind of breathtaking. From his mother to the various nurses and doctors to the donors who make CURE a possibility – the universe conspired a little to make this boy’s life better.

In those dark moments, when I feel overwhelmed with the negative choices that humanity seems to constantly make, I plan on pulling up a photograph of Mohammed and taking a moment to breath in the hope and wonder of what humanity is positively capable of.