make it happen

Nothing to talk about

I have nothing really to talk about this week. I’ve been looking at a blinking cursor for the past 30 minutes now and my mind is blank. I could tell you about my trousers getting stolen from my clothes line. Or that my cat moved her 4 kittens into my place… again. I could. But I won’t. I could tell you the story of Sheila, one of our little Compassion kids who came up to me with big tears welling in her eyes as she told me that she lost $1 which she was going to use to purchase a math set (compass, ruler, protractor) and as she asked me to help her, I reached into my pockets to discover them empty, just as the tears, one after another, came streaming down her face. (I gave her a math set a few days later.) Or I could tell you about Jacob finding what he thought was a tarantula next to his pit latrine. Now I could tell you that we have $17,950 raised for the Community Center thus far and that the walls are up! (http://bikeforcompassion.blogspot.com) Or I could tell you about the dinner I had this past week in the home of Przemek and Jen, my missionary friends, where 6 different countries (and 5 different states) were represented! You know, I could tell you about the book I’m reading called Mountains Beyond Mountains about a doctor named Paul Farmer in Haiti who is living a radical life and working with the poorest of the poor to treat some of the toughest cases of TB and to change their entire health system in one area of that country. (read the book!) I could tell you about getting up at 3:30 am to watch the Colts game and having to monkey with the DSTV for an hour before I finally got the stinking thing to work! I could tell you about my running club where I run Monday, Wednesday and Friday with 30 or so kids to improve their health and well being. Or I could tell you about my Life Skills classes where I am teaching kids about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, peer pressure, condom use, STDs, drugs/alcohol, decision making, etc. I could tell you about the curriculum I developed for the Compassion kids or that we’re getting ready to install the internet at Compassion for the first time ever. I could tell you about the amazing people I work with every day: Japheth, Barbra, Sarah, MacLean and Donnat. I could tell you that the Purdue group is planning on coming back again next year to work in and around this community.

I could tell you.

Maybe someday I will.

12 days of Christmas. Living like a Ugandan to save money this year for Christmas.

#10. Instead of driving yourself to work, carpool. But first, trade in your car for a Honda Civic. You’d be surprised how many people you can fit in one of those things. The most I’ve heard of was 13. 5 in front, 5 in the back and 3 in the trunk! Just think about how much money for gas you’ll save by carpooling!

posted by Brian R Dunn @ 3:47 PM