Conversations

I've been thinking about a number of conversations lately:

....with players of my basketball team
I've been playing with Nuevo Paraiso since August. My old team, San Jose, didn't enter this league. There has been a fair amount of conflict between some of the players, a number of people feeling like they don't get to play much during games (me included, but I haven't said much) among other issues. After not being contacted to play in a tournament the other weekend, I decided to stop playing basketball. It seems to cause more grief the joy. They have enough players. I'm not that good. Maybe if I stop playing basketball we can finally get a frisbee game going...... During the past few days however, a number of people from the team have talked to me about what's going on. They've asked me to continue playing until this league is over (December) and come to a meeting on Monday where we can all talk openly. I want to be a part of the conversations - I think conflict resolution is important. But I'm not sure that I want to keep playing. So I keep praying for guidance and understanding.

.....moms at school
There have been some rumors going around lately about children being kidnapped. People say that most of the rumors are from the "communities". Well, we work in the "communities" and have good relationships with people in the "communities", so it bothers me when these rumors go around.
On Wednesday, an announcement was made from one of the town's loudspeakers that an 8 year old was missing. Went to school and didn't come back. If anyone had any information, please contact......
So, I started talking to other moms at school, wondering what they thought about these rumors and if the 8 year-old was found. (He was, he's fine. He was only lost for a few minutes.)
I wanted to know what they thought of Isaiah riding his bike to school alone. I don't want to live in fear.
Their advice - take precautions, talk about being safe, but keep doing what you're doing. "You know people here, Liz, what do you think?" one mother asked. Well, from my experience, people here are very open, generous, friendly, and helpful. I get the sense that the whole town cares about my children and is looking out for them.


.....team mates about community development
These conversations have been very exciting, thought provoking, and challenging. We've started a "new chapter" as a team. We're back from a break in our routines and summer vacation. Looking forward to the new family joining us soon. Larger team relationships are healed (basically dedicated the month of August to healing work and conversations.)
So now we're taking time to talk about and read about community development. We've dedicated time and energy to analyzing what, why, and how we're doing community development work. We're going over our programs carefully and analyzing where we can make changes and improvements, based on our philosophy. It's good. Rewarding. And hard too. It feels like the more we talk and read, the more questions I have, the more complicated the issues and tasks at hand. But again, it's all very rewarding. And a journey. One in which I am grateful to be on.