Relay for Life, part 1

Last weekend, we participated in the Relay for Life to raise money for and promote cancer research, support, and education. They asked, What can you do to save a life?

I may write more later about it on the blog, but for now here are some photos.
My daughter is the little girl on friend/teammate's shoulders. He, Shawn, organized our team, which included a rocker from Sydney. The rocker's band is Sunset Riot. See lead singer, Del, reclining on the grass behind my pregnant wife. :-)

Don't Oppress me

You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

- Exodus 23:9

Spring

Sunday morning I got up before Ella for the first time in a long time.

I ate a banana and left only to realize I forgot my cell phone. I came back and got it with just enough time to pick up several guys in Port Kembla. There were five of us from the Port Kembla Men's Group offering our services at Spring into Corrimal, an event that attracted 30,000 people. Here's a photo I took about 9 AM:


We set up a make shift coffee shop next to a food stall at the top of a car boot sale. Here's a photo of the car boot sale:
Here's a photo of the coffee shop. The two guys to the right and little dog are with the men's group.

After setting the coffee up I took a tour of the car boot sale and snatched up a wicked grab. I bought a Kathmandu baby carrier backpack for $40 AUD. New would probably cost $200 AUD. It's really as good as new. Ella hated getting put in it the first time. But once she realized how fun it was to ride in, she looks forward to it with great zeal.

When I found the backpack I only had $20 in my wallet. I gave it to the woman selling it and said I'll be back. I got a loan from the men's group to pay the rest. At the end of the day I spoke with the woman's husband. They were incredibly proud they were giving/selling the backpack to a good home. They asked if I thought we might take it on a trek. I said, "Oh, yes!" I asked them if they were interested in a Food Swap at North Wollongong garden. They were highly interested. I gave them my e-mail address.

Coffee, Chess, and Relay for Life

Yesterday . . .

I showed up to Port Kembla Men's Group and was quickly recruited to make coffee for anyone. Three men in the group had been telling/showing me how to do it right over the past two weeks. On Monday last week I went with A. to serve coffee in Berkeley. He showed me how to steam the milk and that was my job the whole time besides clean up, etc. (Worthy of note: I burned my arm on the coffee machine when I picked it up hot.)

Anyway, yesterday the group needed me to make coffee because the two main baristas were preoccupied and fully busy. One was preparing and cooking chooks/chickens, pizzas, and bread in a built wood-fire oven. That was lunch for the men's group and at the same time practice for a wedding reception coming up. The other barista was out back painting and doing some work on his car to get it ready for rego/registration. The back up barista is in Ireland and traveling abroad for the next several months. So, I got my chance to practice.

One thing I've realized is that often baristas in coffee shops have served me overheated milk in cappuccinos. Also, I like the flavor of coffee, which means it's got to have the creme (sp?), all the flavor and oils in the beans besides the caffeine. So, the coffee that has a medium light brown, smooth color and texture is lovable while instant type coffee has become for me "unloved". (The way you get this lovable coffee is by adjusting the coarse-/fineness of the grounds. Eg, if you get the grounds too coarse, the hot water will run quickly past them and only pick up caffeine and some of the flavors and come out blackish. You really want the hot water to pick up as many delicious flavors as possible, running in a slow, medium light brown stream. If you can ignore the sugar and see the espresso around the cream/milk sun pictured, you'll see what I'm talking about.) There is definitely more to good coffee than bitterness, caffeine, and wasted milk.


One more note about yesterday . . . P., a Macedonian, beat me royally in outdoor chess. Apparently, I play too slowly in addition to stupidly. But P. and the rest of the advisors were kind enough not to call me "stupid," just "slow". So that's okay. One 36-year old told me I should play more aggressively when I'm down to just my king, queen, a rook, and two pawns. It sure wouldn't have hurt. That's a lot like life. When you're down and out or stuck, don't be proud or timid; make drastic changes. Or like Jesus said, if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It'd be better to thrive with one eye than to dwindle with two.

I think it was yesterday, too, that I registered for Relay for Life, a cancer support walk-a-thon sort of thing.

A Creative Day

Today . . .

Noah's Ark = shark

That's how we talk here in Australia. Well, at least with some of the guys who have to work at bushcare until they retire. We were piling and binding Elephant grass (red raw splintered hands to prove it) so it can be carried to a truck and mulched up next week. I was in various conversations with one of the guys, T., all day. We looked into the sky and noticed people jumping out of planes and parachuting down. I said, "I'd do that, but it's probably too expensive." He said, "Yeah, last I heard, it was around $600 AUD." Then, we got to talking about scuba diving in the ocean deep and how terrifying that would be. T. said, "Yeah, don't want to deal with Noah's ark." I said, "What?" He said, "You know, shark. It's how we talk."

I guess when it's obvious from the context what everyone is thinking, you don't need to use the actual word. Just rhyme it with something quite unrelated. So, bone = phone.

I got some fresh mint today and shared a leaf with Ella. We enjoyed taking turns smelling it and nibbling little bits off.

Then, I took Ella for a walk down a couple streets in our neighborhood. I stopped a couple of times to pray for God to bless the people I was seeing. I realized it made even more sense to pray for God to bless me by making me a person of integrity. I picked up a piece of rusty metal for our distressed lemon tree that needs a pick-me-up. We looked up into a Coral tree filled with Lorikeets. We walked down the hill and admired the sensory garden in a front yard. The people on the veranda there came up to the fence to admire Ella. We talked for quite a while. Apparently the man (who doesn't actually live there) was hit by a train conducted by a drunk man decades ago. None of that incident has every been reported in the news because it would've looked bad for the government and CityRail. Also of interest to me is that the home owner never had a plan for the front garden! She just went out one day and planted a few flowers here. Another day she planted some there. And now it's just a beautifully simple garden in the midst of a broken-looking neighborhood with kids tearing around on unregistered motor bikes.

I learned-or was reminded of-three things today:

Communication is creative

My daughter is in the process of being created and so am I

Creativity is beautiful no matter what surrounds it