Costa Rica Adventure!

Hey all,
I just got back from Costa Rica and had an amazing time with my best friend Jeanine! We spent our week of vacation stumbling through our spanish, whitewater rafting, rappelling waterfalls, hiking and ziplining through the jungle. It was Awesome! I promised to share pictures so... here they are. The picture above was taken at a class IV rapid on the Pacuare River - one of the top five most beautiful rivers in the world according to National Geographic. The picture below was taken after rappelling a waterfall. This is the pool that you get to jump in at the "bottom."


Rappelling the waterfall.


Another waterfall.

Again.

Our Jungle accomodations during our overnight rafting trip.

Our friend Vanessa whose family kindly let us stay with them for a few nights.
Hammocks!
Jeanine and me.
Best vacation ever!

A Fastforward Kind of Winter

As many of you know this winter is a big time of transition for me and my schedule has filled up very quickly. I am off to explore Costa Rica next week with my best friend Jeanine :) Not only is this exciting because we'll be whitewater rafting and ziplining through the rainforest but we are staying with an old friend of mine from my first few years of college. I haven't seen Vanessa in about three years so I am very excited to get a visit with her. I'm also really looking forward to spending time with Jeanine. We haven't seen much of each other since she moved up to the U.P (upper peninsula) and I moved to the absolute opposite end of the country, New Orleans, this fall. We have done a lot of exciting things together--studying the Holocaust in Poland included--and I'm really excited to share this adventure with her :)

We get back from CR in the afternoon of the 23rd which means that I have to hurry home from Detroit so I can get some sleep before all of the Christmas Eve activities take up the day. Pray for good driving conditions. After being home for about three days my parents and I are heading down to Alabama to visit with some relatives. My grandparents go down that way for the winter-they're called snowbirds where I'm from-and this may be one of the last times they go so we have decided to visit them. We'll also get to see my Aunt, Uncle, and two younger cousins from Georgia while we're there.

We'll either get back from AL on the 2nd or 3rd. I have to be in Maryland on the 8th by 10am to start my new position as a Team Leader for AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC). I'm in a crunch already--not sure how I'm going to get the packing done. Yikes.
I think that most of you--whoever you are that reads this--know what NCCC is but if not... it's a government program modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930's. It's a team based service program for 18-24 yr. olds who travel in 15 passenger vans and do service projects across the country. One of the main focuses of NCCC is disaster relief... seeing the connections now? I served with NCCC for a year between my sophomore and junior years in college and spent about 5-6 mos down south doing Disaster relief work.

I'm looking forward to a "new" experience doing something very familiar: leading people in service. Wish me luck for the packing situation, the tight schedule, and travel conditions. I'll surely post pictures after I enjoy the warmth of the sun and the rapids of Pacuare River :)

Pictures

Since my return to Michigan I have spent my time conquering puzzles, watching movies, and have spent time with my family and friends. Above is a picture of my nephew who will be two at the end of April. Apparently he didn't really want his picture taken. At the top is a picture of a friend from the local coffee shoppe. Below is a picture my Sister and me and at the bottom is a picture of a long time friend and old roommate who worked tirelessly with me on a 750 piece circular puzzle of a lighthouse: almost all of the pieces looked the same...

The week of lasts.

Okay.... I apologize for the delay and my absence from the worldwide web. I've been "home" in Michigan for two weeks now and have still not adjusted to the cold and snow. I'm happy to report that I'll be leaving for Costa Rica where it will be nice and warm in just one week and then will be headed down toward Alabama on the 27th so I won't have to suffer much longer in the cold.

My last couple of days in New Orleans consisted of packing and visiting with friends. I spent time with a friend who manages my favorite coffee shoppe, went for my "last" dinner at my favorite restaurant Mona's with some coworkers and played guitar for Terry.

I waited around for him to visit on my last full day as I knew that he was planning on stopping by. When he got there I was packing and listening to music in my trailer but saw him walking in the parking lot. I got out the new camp guitar, grabbed my music, and stood on the deck. Terry had been asking me to play these two songs for him for awhile now but I just had not made the time to look at them so he always gave me a hard time about it. So that day we sang "Jack and Diane" and "Brown Eyed Girl" in the parking lot at the village.

After we had our fun with the songs I took him in to get some food. It was Thanksgiving week and I knew that the village was busy for two days and then virtually empty for the rest of the week so I packed up a good bag for him to take. We talked about what I was going to do in the next few months and how things would be different after I left. He told me that nobody could ever replace me and that he'd miss me but that he was happy that I had new things to do and that I would be rewarded for all of the work that I do. It was then that Terry and I had our last supper. I sent him out of the door with a bag of snacks, waved, and said see you sometime to one of the many people that gave me a purpose in New Orleans this fall. I'll miss the funny conversations with my homeless friend who always locks the door behind himself when he leaves. I hope to see him again someday but it's all up to chance now as he has no real, working address, no phone, and no schedule. It's funny how people can wander "out" of your life just as easily as they wander in. I owe him a copy of the picture that we took the week before I left and I promised that I would send a letter every once in awhile that he could get via the current village managers.

I miss my community in New Orleans but know that I will see many of them again someday. It has been a great privilege to serve with PDA but I am excited to get back to service with AmeriCorps*NCCC in January. I hope you all are well. May you find warmth somewhere in this cold winter.

Quick update

I am now temporarily back in Michigan where it is snowy and cold. I have spent the weekend visiting with friends from College and conquering a 750 piece circular puzzle of a lighthouse which was very difficult. I was supposed to drive back down state today but am practically snowed in so I won't be leaving until tomorrow. I know that some of you are wondering what happened next with Terry and my return to the north... I will post about that soon. I hope all is well with my friends and family around the globe today. Stay tuned for the "end" of the story.

Terry and Me

These are pictures that Terry and I took yesterday. I thought you all may be interested in seeing him if you have yet to meet him.

Blind Faith

Tonight I find myself doing laundry, cleaning my trailer, and trying to find time to take a shower before it gets too late. It's been a challenging day but I am looking forward to this weekend. I am preparing for a visitor in my humble parking lot apartment.

Awhile back I decided to send an email to my Mom trying to guilt my parents into coming down to visit me in New Orleans. It worked on my Mom but unfortunately my Dad is staying behind to hold down the fort in MI and my sister couldn't make it either. I'll leave the details out other than the fact that I played on the possibility of regret.

My Mom is flying in tomorrow--her first time on a plane since my parents' honeymoon 30some years ago. Forgive me for not remember the correct number. As she asks her coworkers about airport security, the electronic check-ins, and checking luggage between classes at school, I have been sending groups of volunteers into the city to rebuild homes and hope, grocery shopping, preparing meals for 45, and fixing the dishwasher. It's weird that we all live such different lives.

This weekend is really special to me becuase none of my family members have ever been down here. My Grandparents have been in the area but not to see what I've been doing or when I've been here. It is really important to me that somebody understands what I've been doing with my life; I've spent a significant amount of time down here in the last three years. I know that I won't be able to take my Mom to Waveland, MS to show her the tents or state park where I stayed for months or show her the Children's Museum that I worked at but even just a little bit is important. She's only going to be here for two days. I will get to show her where I stay now, she'll get to meet some of our volunteers, experience a home dedication for a woman that I adore, eat at my favorite restaurant, go to a great coffee shop with live music, do Tai Chi at my favorite cafe, go on a swamp tour and much much more.

I am really interested to see her reaction to the devastation that doesn't even make me blink anymore. Many people think that New Orleans ought to be or is put back together by now--three years later--but it's not even close. 65% of the city was rental property before the storm. Now a 3 bedroom apartment that used to cost $650 costs $1500 making it nearly impossible for people to return. Homes have been washed away and demolished. It's still a mess and we have to still care about it--we have to care about our neighbors.

On Wednesday nights we have a local woman from Chalmette come cook for us. The main course is usually Chicken and Sausage Gumbo--the one night a week that I eat meat. She ended up cooking for us because she came with one of her best friends (one of our homeowners) to neighbor night--which we hold every Thursday--and ended up talking with me in the office after devotions. I now spend Wednesday afternoons cooking and chatting with a new friend. Last night her friend, our homeowner, told me that I should stay and live with her since her house is almost done and she doesn't want me to leave. If I didn't have plans for January I would probably seriously consider that offer.

The people down here don't care who you are, all they see is the love that you have for each other and for them, the strangers. They see the careful work that is done to their homes when people work on it as if it were their own. They see people who are so inspired by service and hope that they take a week off from work to come serve in a place that needs healing and requires extreme care. The last few months have placed me in charge of facilitating intentional community, large group cooking, being handywoman, ensuring the safety of up to 75 of my elders, and has given me the opportunity to build relationships with those who live here. When I was in AmeriCorps*NCCC we worked down in St. Bernards Parish but there was hardly anyone around. People were either living in their FEMA trailers or they simply hadn't returned yet so we missed out on a lot of the personal contact. This position has blessed me with the opportunities to make up for that. I have a great network of people down here and know where to go if I ever need a place to stay or anything else for that matter. I've had multiple invitations to Thanksgiving dinners from virtual strangers after meeting them once even though I am leaving before Thanksgiving. This has been an amazing, stressful, challenging, and once again, life changing experience for me and I am looking forward to sharing that with my Mom this weekend.

GUMBO Moments

I don't know who or how many people read this but I think it would be neat if you all could share some of your GUMBO moments with me. Leave them in a comment or email them to me at otoolece@gmail.com Don't feel pressured... just share them if you have any. Thanks.

Gumbo

The other day--to my utter shock--a homeless man bought me food. We have a guy that hangs around the village and sometimes asks for a little food to go. The other day I had lost my keys in the road and he walked up and down the road with me to help look for them which I'm sure looked odd. Sometimes I can tell that God is at work around me. Terry was worried about me because I was stressed out; he came to check on me the next day. He came back later on and had bought Gumbo for me from the place across the street. I tried to refuse it saying “I can’t take that, it’s your money, you worked hard for it, I don’t need it, don’t waste your money on me.” We argued about it until I finally agreed to take it when he was saying “I want to do this for you, I appreciate y’all and I want to do this for you after everything that you’ve done for me.”

Then he said something that made me freeze in mid sentence. He said “I can’t just get and get and get and not give” That was the key. I just wrote about that the other night in my blog—exactly that. I told him to wait so I could print it off for him. I talked to him about it and he said “Nobody ever told me that, I just feel it in my heart.” There’s something about this guy that strikes a chord in me. This isn't just a homeless man that happened upon the village long before I arrived; I am supposed to know him. Jesus is the homeless, the weak and weary, the beggar right? I can’t refuse him when I know that he’s an angel. There’s a reason for me to be here, there’s a reason for Terry, and there’s a reason for GUMBO.

God’s
Unbelievable
Moments of
Blessing and
Opportunity

My journey to New Orleans has taken many twists and turns. Opportunities keep knocking at my door and I am open to all of them. I love New Orleans and would love to stay here but I am on my way to a new, yet familiar, journey in and around Maryland for awhile. I have a strong feeling that I’ll be back in NOLA with time. I float freely and am open to the possibilities and plans that are in store for me. I’ve had a lot of time to ponder what I’m doing and what my life is worth… Everywhere I look there is a reason. Nearly every incident has a purpose and I am becoming so in tune to those signs while I am here. It’s GUMBO.

Don't be a dead sea

What happens to a lake when it has a constant flow in but no outlet? It dies. There has to be overflow even if it is through a forced leak. It can't possibly retain all of the inflowing water without redistributing some in return; it has to give in order to receive. The same goes for people. You can get and get and get without giving but it does not do any good: you have to give as blessings and service are mutual. You can't give without receiving and you can't possibly get without giving even if it's a forced leak.

The more I get, the more I want to give--of myself, my time, my talents, and my energy. I can't give enough in comparison to what I have received in opportunity, friendships, and blessings. I am inspired daily by the volunteers that find joy and purpose in the simple work of drywalling, painting, and laying tile. These are the people that bring hope to this world: servants.

I am receiving blessings at a rate that could outrun any competition and I want to be able to give more as I continuously feel blessed by the opportunities that I have had, the people I have met, and the friends and family who continuously support me. Most of all, I don't want to be a dead sea and I hope you don't either.

Don't be a dead sea.

NOLA

I am currently serving as the volunteer village manager at a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance camp in New Orleans, LA. The camp is called Olive Tree and the PDA slogan is “Out of Chaos: Hope.” After Noah got flooded, the peace dove brought the olive branch to signify dry land and hope. Get it? That’s what this village is supposed to mean in New Orleans East. This is a place that houses groups of volunteers amidst deserted and devastated homes for a week at a time—a revolving door of sorts—who come to serve God through serving others. I have been at Olive Tree for just one month but it is clear to me that this is where I am supposed to be. I am here to serve—this is just one way for me to do that. Although I do a lot of grocery shopping and paperwork, I have the opportunity to both be blessed and be a blessing to so many lives from across the country. I am not sure that I could ask for more: other than for a few days of rest.

Of course I now have a network of places to stay during my travels throughout the US but I also have been touched by the kindness of those individuals who have offered their homes, in all seriousness, to a relative stranger who hosted them for a week in a city seen as broken. It is such an interesting world that people will stretch themselves far beyond their comfort zones and reach into the depths of their being to swing a hammer and hang some drywall for a week—while sleeping on an unimaginably hard mattress. It is so much more than taking a week of vacation from work, finding a housesitter, pet sitter, child sitter; it’s about learning to live and work with people like or unlike yourself while serving the generalized “other” whom you have yet to meet. I, of course, reside in a beautiful RV in the parking lot—ah the luxury.

People often come to the Gulf Coast with the goal of fixing or helping someone who is broken or helpless but the truth is they’re just serving their equal. A person is a person no matter where you come from or where you’ve been. It is easy to believe that people who live in different places are a completely different type of person but it is not true. Many of the folks down here have been hit by an unbelievably devastating natural disaster but that does not make them any different than the folks—whose homes get hit by tornados often enough—who are coming down to work in their homes. Rachel Naomi Remen wrote an essay called “In the Service of Life” that discusses the concept of service as a relationship between equals and I’d like to quote it here:

“Service rests on the basic premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life is a holy mystery which has an unknown purpose. When we serve, we know that we belong to life and to that purpose. Fundamentally, helping, fixing and service are ways of seeing life. When you help you see life as weak, when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. From the perspective of service, we are all connected: All suffering is like my suffering and all joy is like my joy. The impulse to serve emerges naturally and inevitably from this way of seeing.” (Remen 1996)

My time at Olive Tree thus far has provided me with the opportunity to greet individuals from churches across the country who bond with other members of their congregations and return home as a strong force of mission together. People leave here with the revelation that they do not have to leave their towns to serve others; I see helpers and fixers turn into servants in the city where thousands swam for their lives.

Thursday night is usually when people experience their ah-ha moments and realize that they’re not here to hang a few doors but to attempt to understand the meaning of love and service. Whether it is the hug they receive from their homeowner, the grateful greeting in the Winn-Dixie parking lot, or even the wave from a car in the next lane; people change in New Orleans. If anything, living and working here—even for just a week as most do—puts things in perspective. “After being here, I realize all those things I was worrying about before I left aren’t really that important.” (Volunteer)

Hopefully this isn’t the first place that you’ve heard it but there is a greater purpose and a greater cause in this life beyond our comfortable homes and our decent jobs; true life exists far beyond the reach of our comfort zones. If there is anything that I could ever say, it would be that the greatest opportunity for personal growth exists outside of your comfort zone, so get out and do something real with your limited time on this earth. Live, Feel, and Love it.