Okay, so i took a break already! Cut me some slack!

Alright, it's been awhile but i think i remember how to do this... finger-hits-key-makes-letters-makes words. Order-words-into-thoughts-and-thoughts-into-cohesion, using-punctuation-and-no-smiley-faces. I-think-i-can-do-this!

I gave up my newspaper column AND this blog about two years ago, never intending to stay away so long, but honestly hoping that things would settle down and i would find time to write/right once again. Now my brain bubbles over with words and ideas in the most inconvenient of places, and i find myself babbling in public when OBVIOUSLY the place to babble is right here. With you. My silent friends.

I've recently given up my ADHD medicine and have chosen instead to pick back up my pen, in hopes that this trusted andnon-addictive form of therapy will once again provide the relief/release i long for. And hey, it won't harm my kidneys either!

Bye now!

"Look - they're letting me leave the country. I wonder if they'll let me back in!"

No Rest For The Weird

Well, I’m back at home in Beebe, and things are back to their normal pace – hectic. I’m not complaining one bit, no sir!

We just wrapped up a week of Vacation Bible School that the Garner & McRae United Methodist Churches did in combination this year. Julie led the summer fun, but half a dozen other folks came every night to pitch in, and we averaged about fifteen kids each evening. Awesome!

I want to thank all of the following kids for coming, and if you see any of ‘em, why you just congratulate them on their efforts: Angel Barnes, Hunter Bennett, Lolli Hill, Nelson Howell, Paige Howell, Brenda Jean Kelsey, Shelby Langley, Tatum Mixon, Bailey Mixon, Katy Pacheco, Ron Pacheco, Jasper Shores, Jacus Shores, Ryan Swafford, Riley Swafford and Rob Swafford.

These kids did an extra-special job of raising enough quarters to complete a project with Heifer International, and their efforts will go towards helping a poor family in a foreign country start a livestock project.

“Who You Callin’ Heifer?”

Now hold on just a minute! Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of Heifer International. Why, their international headquarters is right here in Central Arkansas! They just built a “State of the art” building in downtown Little Rock (right across the street from the Clinton Presidential Park) that is so environmentally friendly that it’s won architectural awards.

You want to know more? Well, go take a look at www.heifer.org.

..err, I meant “Weary”

It got rather boring in Africa, without the regular pressures of my “normal” life, and without the distractions that can so easily fill our days. When things were slow in Tanzania, the guys in my villages sat around and played “draughts”, which is the English version of checkers. I was real tempted to clear off those little, plastic bottle caps they were using for checkers, and set up my own chess pieces on their board. It was a constant temptation, but I was already “standing out in a crowd” and didn’t want to draw any more attention to myself. Besides, I don’t think they’d have taken too kindly to my interrupting their pastime.

They had a lot of that “pastime” – with an average annual income of just $250 (less than a dollar a day), and an unemployment rate estimated at over 20% (over 40% for young adults). No unemployment insurance, government student loans, welfare and only government assistance for a few critical illnesses… if you were well and without opportunities for employment, you’d have lots of “pastime” too.

Maybe that’s why I work at the pace I do. Some folks might call it “work”, but I like to look at it as “opportunities”. We have so many opportunities around us, even here in the depressed economy of the Delta, that it just seems a shame to waste them.

It probably goes back to that old guilt trip my parents laid on me when I didn’t want to eat all my dinner, “Why, those starving kids in Korea would LOVE to have those lima beans to eat.” “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

2 Timothy 2:14

“Nag”

Dictionary.com defines “nag” as a verb: “1. to annoy by persistent faultfinding, complaints, or demands.

2. to keep in a state of troubled awareness or anxiety, as a recurrent pain or problem:

–verb (used without object)

3. to find fault or complain in an irritating, wearisome, or relentless manner (often fol. by at): If they start nagging at each other, I'm going home.

4. to cause pain, discomfort, distress, depression, etc. (often fol. by at): This headache has been nagging at me all day.

–noun

5. Also, nagger. a person who nags, esp. habitually.

6. an act or instance of nagging.

With a definition this… definite, I do not believe any further example is in order.

“Nag-ative”

Now, let’s add the first suffix and see where it leads us:

Suffix -ative 1. of, related to, or associated with the thing specified.

Example: Nagative – “If I don’t get this column written on time, it will surely become a nagative”, meaning “something that i will be nagged about, or something that will add to the nagging I receive”.

A nagative might also be something that gets added to your “honey-do” list, or even something that you burden yourself with, such as an added responsibility that you are having trouble meeting. Example: “I’m having a hard time scheduling that appointment I promised to make. It is becoming a real nagative.”

“Nagativity”

Finally, let’s combine yet another suffix and see where it leads us.

Suffix -ity 1. Used to form a noun from an adjective; especially, to form the noun referring to the state, property, or quality of conforming to the adjective's description.

Are you with me still? Then you MUST be bored! But please, read on!

Nagativity must, by these clear and simple definitions, mean, “the state or characteristic of an action or idea that reflects the potential for nagging of that action or idea.”

Example: Nagativity – “The negativity of my yardwork went way down this weekend when it started raining on Saturday morning… thank you Weather Channel!”

Okay, so I elaborated there at the end. I think you get the picture.

Therefore, chores or other responsibilities can all be measured by their “nagativity” – there potential for bringing about nagging of any sort.

Beware Of Misuse

Nagativity is often misused in place of the word “NEGativity”, but sometimes the grammatical lines between the two are not so definite!

Mom: “What is wrong with you? You haven’t cleaned out the garage in years!”

Son: “Whoa! Why such nagativity all of a sudden? Like you said, it HAS been years...”

Ah, the subtleties of language.

If you have any Palmisanoisms you would like to offer, I would be happy to review them and include them in future columns… if this one makes it past the editor!

“Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.”

John Maynard Keynes (1883 - 1946)

Feeling Right At Home

After our last meeting on Thursday, a local farmer named Ibrahim invited us to his farm along the road. He had not, as many had, invested in a new cement brick farmhouse, but apparently "plowed" his money back into his farm, which was JUST AMAZING! He proudly pointed to tall trees in the distance and said that his farms were, "all the way there"! He in fact owns four different farms, including one in Bagomoyo, which is hours north of Dar es Salaam.

He also serves as a "farmer-motivator" who has received extra training from HPI in livestock keeping and farming, and in turn is responsible for providing extra training to the other farmers. He sure must've learned SOMETHING, cuz his place was fine! He had goats, as well as his own chickens, turkeys (the first i'd seen in this country), ducks, pigeons, and even two guinea hens! It made me miss my "Dream Hometown", Beebe Arkansas!

His "man" climbed several trees, and before i knew it, i was being fed fresh coconut, papaya and passion fruit for lunch, as well as given some for my travels back to Dar! "Vizuri sana!" The pictures are me-stuffing my face, Ibrahim and his wife, and the view as you walk out from the front of his house. I told him that, to many folks this would look like the road to paradise! He smiled proudly.

A Fine Time in Tanzania

I just got back into Dar es Salaam after a week in "da bush" - staying in a village about 2 hours south from here along the coast. Not AT the beach, mind you, but near enough that the coconut palms all lean decidedly west. After a few days of finding WHERE i could eat and HOW to sleep comfortably under a mosquito net, i began to feel right at home in Mkuranga, but must come in town to tap into the internet and catch up on the news. Maybe that's a mistake, eh?

The photo here is from Thursday's HPI member meeting in Hoyoyo village, where they have imported dairy goata (mbuzi) , local chicken (kuku), and fish (samaki) farming projects. The ponds for fish farming dried up during the drought of the last two years but it has since been re-dug, filled and is awaiting a new supply of fingerlings, which the locals referred to as "seed".

The bad news was that a shipment had already been sent once, but was overturned on the local highway. No one was hurt, but thousands of li'l fishies roasted on the road. Or perhaps they survive still in the pond-sized potholes that dot the roads around the city.

The good news is that, unbeknownst to the community, another shipment is scheduled for this coming week! They will be SO happy! They are a very motivated group, and even have their own "cheer", which i can't exactly duplicate, but at the end it goes, "Hoy, Hoy, Hoy!", just like something heard at a soccer game! Cool. More pictures with the next post...

A Hills View from Africa

“Hamjambo!”

Greetings to you from Africa, the home of the Rift Valley – “the birthplace of us all” as many have claimed. This is a contentious argument from people blinded by their religiosity AND science, who are missing the whole point.

Please Pardon Me

I must address this issue before going further. I will surely offend many, but my vision from so far away impels me. Please lend me what attention you may afford and I will try and be brief and direct.

Evolution + Creation = God

To digress just a bit, the Rift Valley if a long line of fertile land stretching a great length along the fertile river valleys and lakes along Eastern Africa. If you look at a topographical map (Google it, or look in any encyclopedia!), it is that green strip running north & south between Kenya and South Africa. It is where they have found many of the most ancient of human remains. For those of you who are visual learners, think of the lush veldt as seen in “The Lion King”.

Some Evolutionists believe that man developed from this region and extended its reach from that original point.

Some Creationists believe the literal, day by day creation story as relayed by God through the Old Testament prophets of the Bible. So, Man was created on Saturday, and on Sunday God saw that it was all good and took a rest. Much deserved, in my mind.

Many others find a niche somewhere in between these two concepts, while others come up with their own “truths” outside of both views. These are too many to recount and an amusement well beyond my subject.

There have been very many resources dedicated to this debate; many brilliant minds dedicated to the work, much paper consumed in the publishing of their treatises, and hours and energy expended beyond my meager ability to measure. There have also been lives lost and blood spilt over this divisive study. We will come back to this word later: divisive.

Flash News: this whole field is a big waste of time. It is not important whether you come from 6,000 year old dust from Central Iraq, or if you are a descendent of a monkey, or even an alien being born of a pod left by alien visitors. The “how” of our creation is completely irrelevant.

Do you remember the “5 W’s” of journalism? Who-what-where when-why; only at the end comes the “how”. How is at the end for a good reason.

“How” comes from man’s natural curiosity; his incessant nature to seek out knowledge. The story was related well in the Book of Genesis. Man ate from the Tree of Knowledge and has thirsted for it ever since. We want to know. That is our human nature.

From this point of seeking knowledge, our “sin nature” (translated many different ways in different belief systems – use your own filter on this term) leads us to focus on ourselves: our own desires and our own understanding.

It is these/this nature that calls us to historically struggle with our “How”, to the ignorance of the “Why”. Why are we here? “What” are we to do? (knowledge being one of them).

The “Where” & “When” of creation are equally useless questions; both regressive and wasteful. I believe the answer to “Who” is painfully obvious to each of us, although the label we place on that which we can never fully understand may vary. It is painful only in that it is so often ignored during the course of life.

It is only the “Why” that leads us forward. It is only the “Why” that gives us direction.

Perhaps I too am contributing to this wasteful thinking by spending my few column-inches on the subject. But I will say that, while I sit here, eight time zones away on another hemisphere, I have also invested in another human being. She is labeled here as a “servant”, and came to clean up the mess I have made in my room. We have shared each others language (and she is much more fluent in mine than I am in hers), and I have shown her the similarities and differences between a “caribou”, a “karibao” and “karibu”, the last being their word for “welcome”. I now believe she is much smarter than many of you in this one field.

She understands me a little better now, and she knows that I have respect for her – that she has value beyond that which her label offers. I have shown her “love”.

This is my “Why”.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31

What is your “Why”? Can you put your “Why” before your “How”, and “When” and “Where”? Can it even come before your “Who”?

I am beyond my word-count, and my time is running short. The end of the rainy season in Tanzania approaches: I can hear the thundering, ancient signals of her farewell message as it slowly moves toward my room across the tin roof drums stretching out below my window like a sea of gray and rust. The coconut palms, banana and papaya all wave their farewell, and the “how” is once again painfully unimportant and maybe even disrespectful of the creation that exists in the present. Only the “Why” can truly fulfill us and allow us to love and enjoy all that is. May each of you come to know your “why” in a deeper and ever-more gratifying way.

“Nenda kwa amani o Mungo akubariki” – Go with God’s blessing.

Reach Paul and Julie Hill at hillsview@sbcglobal.net or at PO Box 599, Beebe, AR 72012

NOTE: due to last week’s thunderstorms my internet was down when I e-mailed this column, missing my deadline. I didn’t know that it was still sitting in my computer’s Outbox until Monday! Lo, the misfortunes of multiple computers… Still a good article though! pjh

Earth Day 2007

I realize that by the time you read this, Earth Day 2007 will be past, and most folks will have forgotten to take the steps needed to defend our planet. As I sit here, my power meter is spinning as my T.V., lights, computer(s) are all running, even at this late hour… and Earth Day begins in just over an hour! By midnight I will shut this computer off a) to conserve energy and b) because if I haven’t finished by midnight I will have missed another deadline.

Caveat

Do not fret, my friends and avid readers, I will not leave my corner of the Beebe News blank for two weeks in a row. I have more than enough to say, and just enough room to say it! Ha!

Back To Our Planet

As you know, there is little I love to criticize more than the wealth of wasted air time on network T.V., but tonight I saw a show that, although soft on real science and full of frivolity (turning off the lights at the NBC building to symbolize their commitment to healing a wounded planet… during a broadcast? Please!), there was a wealth of good suggestions that everyday folks like you and me can do to really make an impact. I’m gonna list a few of my favorites right here, just in case you missed the crushing media coverage this year.

Brown Bag It

No, I’m not talking about bringing a sack lunch to your work or school (although that has several advantages for your health and your wallet), I’m referring to your next trip to the grocery store. By using a simple tote bag, you can save the planet from one of our biggest pollutants – the plastic grocery bag!

Now, I do like those little bag, and I have REUSED them for years (which is a good first step), and would often recycle them at Wal-Mart – until they quit offering that service. But better still is to B.Y.O.B. – Bring Your Own Bag!

Most trips to the grocery store could be handled by a cloth bag which could easily fit under the seat of your car or in the trunk, and the amount of landfill you are creating could be substantially reduced.

Hey, maybe you could stick your pet in there and stroll around like Paris Hilton while you shop! I don’t know if the Wal-Mall would like it, but Mr. Knight might not mind! Maybe you’d better ask first…

Did You Know?

A recent report stated that up to 75% of our home electric consumption comes from equipment which is “idling” while not in use over night. That light on your VCR? That computer standing ready for an occasional late night surf-session? Your PDA, MP3, VCR, coffee pot timer and many other gadgets s..l..o..w..l..y.. drain away at our fuel supply and your wallet.

Now, don’;t go crazy and unplug your freezer or alarm system. A little common sense is needed on this one, but it is certainly something to consider.

See The Light!

Finally (as my clock winds down), change out some of those power-sucking light bulbs in your house for some of those crazy, corkscrew-looking ones that save so much of the “Big E”. I don’t know if Knights has them, but I bet they would if you called and asked!

Next Week: 30 Years Too Late!

Reach Paul and Julie Hill at hillsview@sbcglobal.net or at PO Box 599, Beebe, AR 72012