An answer to prayer

I have to admit I completely forgot about my blog this week. The days have kind of blurred together and I've lost track. However if I get this written and posted within twenty minutes I will still have made my Wednesday deadline.

So I've been having fun, went to a cute little gold mining town called Weaverville the other day which was fun, checked out Burney Falls which was beautiful (and we saw snow on the way which the kids were excited about), ate a hamburger so big that we shared it between two adults and two children (which came out held together by a hunting knife), hung out with someone who I haven't seen since 2002 and got news of an answer to prayer.

Last week I said we at Australia HOPE International were waiting on the Australian High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya to issue visas for our Congolese friends to come to Australia. Two days ago I received news that they have finally given them the visas so they will be in Australia in less than two weeks (that seems awfully close, hopefully I've done my maths right).

I was so happy when I heard. I can't imagine how the children who are coming would feel. These kids who have seen too much trauma already in their short lives will have a completely foreign experience, an amazing adventure.

I can only imagine their feelings going through the airports, flying in the plane, watching movies on the screens, eating food that is brought to you. Incomprehensible.

If you would like to know more about the trip they are doing please contact Australia HOPE International.

Blessings for the week

bron

In front of my nose

There are things in this world that are not fair. When I came to the States, thanks to the visa waiver system that Australia and the US have going, no one questioned why I wanted to come. For that matter when I travelled to Uganda, I paid fifty dollars when I got to Entebbe Airport for my entry visa, no questions asked.

Now I do understand that there are rules around immigration for various reasons, so don't misunderstand me, I'm not advocating for an absence of rules. Just commenting on the suggested value of different people through the ease or difficulty of the process for them to get a visa into certain countries.

For instance, I know that if any of my friends from Uganda or DR Congo want to come to Australia there is a very long process involved which despite the length can still end by being denied a visa. At the moment Australia HOPE International is involved in the process of trying to get visas for our partner from DRC and some of the children he works with so that they can come and tell their stories to people in Australia who might otherwise not hear.

The process for these guys has been long, starting with, last October, the application for passports. This took longer than your average application because, due to the unrest around the time of the Presidential election, government offices were closed for some time. After successfully getting the passports, visas then had to be applied for from Nairobi, Kenya as there is no closer Australian Embassy/High Commission. Luckily this process can be done by mail.

We are waiting to hear (and have been waiting for a while) what the outcome will be. Please join with us in believing for a good report. Not only will this trip be an amazing opportunity for these kids from what is considered to be the worst place in the world to live if you are a woman or child but is also an opportunity for HOPE to get to a wider audience and advocate for those who we are not able to bring to Australia.

If you would like more information about the trip check out THIS LINK.

While sitting on my friends comfy couch, drinking my cup of mint green tea and typing on my trusty laptop I feel quite removed from that world that I left only a month ago. I have this habit of only seeing what is in front of me. But in two weeks I will be back in Victor and after giving myself a week to recover from another bout of jetlag, will be helping to look after and acclimate our Congolese guests. So today, writing this is what I can do to remind myself that not everyone lives the same way.

Blessings

bron

Fleur de Sel

On Sunday I ate the most amazing chocolate caramel tart. It was called 'Fleur de Sel' which if I remember my high school French correctly means 'Flower of Salt'. Interesting name for it, but oh - so - good. The pastry was just as it should be, not too thick and perfectly cooked. In the bottom was a layer of caramel, which I have to admit wasn't the most amazing caramel I've ever tasted, but as it was topped by a layer of thick chocolate ganache it was definitely forgiven any faults. And then the twist. A sprinkle of sea salt. "What?", you exclaim, perplexed by this turn of events. But it worked. And it worked really well. Added to which I was drinking a pretty decent coffee at the time and it made my day.

Now for the past year I've been in Uganda where things like the 'Fleur de Sel' are not even uncommon, they are just not there. Little unique, boutique cafes for some reason, don't abound in downtown Mbarara. Maybe one reason is that people would rather feed their families than go out for coffee, which is fair enough.

I'm having a little trouble reconciling one with the other. Especially if I think about it all too much. So I try not to.

Sometimes I swing wildly between enjoying and savouring the moment, which I think is important, and being utterly convicted by the excess that is my life.

I don't like living in the tension between these extremes (hence the trying not to think about it all ploy). To always enjoy the moment means that I forget about what it is I've been trying to do for the last year. And that in that time while I was away, it didn't feel like I was making a particularly big sacrifice, I was content with what I had (for the most part). But to always live under the conviction that my life is excessive takes away a certain enjoyment that I think life is meant to be lived with. After all as a Christian I read John 10:10 in the Bible where it says that Jesus came to give us life in abundance, in all its fullness. A rich and satisfying life. Now I don't take that to mean that life is only real life if you have lots of stuff. No, I see that as having true enjoyment, real joy even when you're in the middle of tough circumstances. Or when you are eating your 'Fleur de Sel' and drinking coffee in Chico, CA. Or when you have cold and don't particularly feel like writing this blog that you've committed to. Or when you have grumpy kids to deal with, or the bank balance isn't looking healthy, or you got a great new job, or you've just started the study you've always wanted to do.

Wherever you are, whatever you do, real, true joy is there to be had.

And it's this I keep in mind when I think of HOPE and all it does. Because whether I'm the one over there doing the stuff, or I'm over here (okay so 'over here' could refer to Australia, or, my place of residence for the next month, the US) advocating for all that it does, I can experience real, true joy in every situation and circumstance.

So I have enjoyed and made the most of my experiences, whether making a dinosaur cake for a friends six-year-olds birthday party, listening to someone talk about her work with rebel soldiers in the bush in DRC, worshipping God while singing songs that I understand the words of or having great conversations with friends that I haven't seen in a long time.

And just in case you missed it, I REALLY enjoyed that chocolate tart.

Blessings

bron

Australia Day

I decided that as I was late getting my blog done I would give myself a break and have a week off. Which is why I am now determined to get this one done. Because I can't just let it slide again. Even though I am jetlagged for the second time in two weeks. Although the consolation is that I am sitting on the floor of the lounge room of my friend's house in Redding, California, USA, which means that I've had an extra day thanks to time zone changes, not that it's done me any good.

So, during the week and a half that I was back in Australia it just happened to be Australia Day. Which was a little strange in that only a year ago Australia Day was my 'Bronvoyage' farewell party. Actually being back at all was strange, I had a whole 'was the last year a dream?' thing going on, which I found a little disconcerting. Then I decided to go with it, after all, I have spent like ninety seven percent of my life in Victor so everything should be fairly familiar even if new cafes have opened.

January 26. Australia Day. The celebration of the coming together of a bunch of independent British colonies on the date that the first of those colonies was established. (I think? Seriously, does anyone know the history of Australia Day?). Of course there is also controversy surrounding this day considering the Aboriginal people were perhaps not so thrilled with the arrival of the white people.

Stereotypically celebrated with beer and sport. Stereotypically ending with hangovers and interesting sunburn patterns.

Spending the last year in a country that was not Australia I have had plenty of time to think about what it is that identifies us as Australian. It's not something that I would particularly think about usually, or even care about, but when in a country that is not your own and being asked by the locals what it is about my country that I love, I had to question my patriotism.

When asked about Australia while in Uganda, I have to admit that I made use of Google search a LOT. I'm not really bothered by the fact that I had to, it just made me aware of how much there is to know.

Like the fact that the largest cattle station in the world is in Australia. And that our largest industries are mining, agriculture and tourism. Or that in 2001, 23.1 per cent of Australians were born overseas.

It was always fascinating to me to see the reaction of Ugandans when they realised that like Uganda, Australia was a British colony and that unlike Uganda, Australia has never declared it's independence. Which is shocking and unthinkable to the Ugandans. I try and explain that there is a difference in circumstances, that as the indigenous people of Uganda they had a vested interest in becoming independent, whereas the indigenous people of Australia never had the opportunity to, as they quickly became a minority after colonisation.

Maybe their disbelief mirrors my own when I look at the history of Uganda and see not a nation that is independent but one that is controlled by poverty and has disfunctioned through a series of dictators who have come to power through violence and whether rightly or wrongly, have ruled with entitlement, through corruption or fear.

In fact, on January 26, Uganda celebrates NRM Day, the day when Museveni and the National Resistance Army took power in 1986. Which I guess will be celebrated until the next party gets in, either through democratic election, or another coup, which is not that unlikely.

I'd really like to be making some kind of point here but the room is swaying and I have typed and retyped many sentences only to delete them again. So I'll leave the point making to you. Maybe you can make some sense of it all. Or maybe there is no sense in it. Maybe it's just a crazy mixed up world where being in power means taking from others. Kind of glad I belong to a different kingdom (I'm talking about the kingdom of heaven for those of you not in the know). In that kingdom the first are last and the last, first. Which, when I see so many injustices here on earth, makes me happy.

Blessings

bron