Friday, April 4, 2014
Revenge
'Al-Shabab recruiter' shot in Kenya http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-26845185#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
Sunday, February 10, 2013
The Art of Peace
This picture was posted on the Facebook wall of a friend of mine.
Morihei Ueshiba was the founder of Aikido, which can be translated as "The Art of Peace." Morihei Ueshiba is referred to by the practitioners of Aikido as O-Sensei, "The Great Teacher".
Learn his poems and quotes (doka) to help understand the ways of the peaceful warrior.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
The Three Visit Rule
We don’t entertain too many guests in my house. The guests we do have are usually frequent visitors, so in order to keep the visits light-hearted and simple, we adopted a policy of three visit hospitality to help people feel more at home as quickly as possible.
The Three Visit Rule is simple. When you visit us the first time, we will wait on you and serve you anything we have. the second time you visit, we will still serve you and begin to show you where we keep our refreshments. On the third visit, you’re on your own. If you’d like a beer, go to the fridge and help yourself. Hungry? You now know where the pantry is. After three visits, you are completely at home while visiting us.
I found that this rule is accepted 8000 miles away in villages on the coast of Kenya. One of my favorite restaurants was in Galu-Kinondo. Mama Isabel’s Roof Garden is a pub and café on the second floor of a store and rooming house across the street from the house on the beach which our team lived in while in country. Most afternoons, I would walk across the dirt street to have a stout and some chips. I soon became familiar and expected at Mama Isabel’s.
One hot afternoon, I climbed the stairs and was greeted by young Gloria, one of the servers. She welcomed me and bid me take a seat. After she busily finished with other patrons, she brought me a stout, apologizing for the delay. I dismissed her worries, telling her that I should have served myself for as many times as I had visited. I had her sit with me to rest for a few minutes while I shared with her the Three Visit Rule of my house. She told me that my rule wasn’t new to Kenya and quoted me the Swahili version:
“Mgeni siku ya kwanza mkaribisha vizuri, siku ya pili mpikia ugali na mboga, siku ya tatu mpe jembe aende shambani.”
It basically says that on the first visit, you will be served, that all is good. On the second day you will cook your own food of porridge and vegetable (from the garden.) By the third visit you’ll be given a plow to work in the garden for your own food. This third visit would be a stretch, even for the most lazy of hosts, especially in a gracious country like Kenya. But we get the big idea.
After three visits here, you are part of the household. Please. Make yourself at home. Come on in. Grab a beer. Have a seat and relax in front of the television for a few minutes. As soon as you’re finished with your beer, we have some chores for you.
I found that this rule is accepted 8000 miles away in villages on the coast of Kenya. One of my favorite restaurants was in Galu-Kinondo. Mama Isabel’s Roof Garden is a pub and café on the second floor of a store and rooming house across the street from the house on the beach which our team lived in while in country. Most afternoons, I would walk across the dirt street to have a stout and some chips. I soon became familiar and expected at Mama Isabel’s.
One hot afternoon, I climbed the stairs and was greeted by young Gloria, one of the servers. She welcomed me and bid me take a seat. After she busily finished with other patrons, she brought me a stout, apologizing for the delay. I dismissed her worries, telling her that I should have served myself for as many times as I had visited. I had her sit with me to rest for a few minutes while I shared with her the Three Visit Rule of my house. She told me that my rule wasn’t new to Kenya and quoted me the Swahili version:
“Mgeni siku ya kwanza mkaribisha vizuri, siku ya pili mpikia ugali na mboga, siku ya tatu mpe jembe aende shambani.”
It basically says that on the first visit, you will be served, that all is good. On the second day you will cook your own food of porridge and vegetable (from the garden.) By the third visit you’ll be given a plow to work in the garden for your own food. This third visit would be a stretch, even for the most lazy of hosts, especially in a gracious country like Kenya. But we get the big idea.
After three visits here, you are part of the household. Please. Make yourself at home. Come on in. Grab a beer. Have a seat and relax in front of the television for a few minutes. As soon as you’re finished with your beer, we have some chores for you.
Karibu.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The Sixth Precept
A warrior has not the luxury for excuses.
Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust to always justify myself.” Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul’s faith in God. Don’t say, “I must explain myself,” or, “I must get people to understand.” Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.
From http://utmost.org
A wise man once said that there is a vast difference between explaining our own actions and making excuses, especially when the excuses are aimed at turning our misdeeds into virtue. At that point, we are merely rationalizing our poor behavior.
Just a thought.
Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust to always justify myself.” Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul’s faith in God. Don’t say, “I must explain myself,” or, “I must get people to understand.” Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.
From http://utmost.org
A wise man once said that there is a vast difference between explaining our own actions and making excuses, especially when the excuses are aimed at turning our misdeeds into virtue. At that point, we are merely rationalizing our poor behavior.
Just a thought.
Monday, March 5, 2012
The Second Precept
A warrior is the epitome of controlled compassion. A warrior is the epitome of controlled violence.
"It is better to be patient than powerful.” (Proverbs 16:14)
“It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities."
(Proverbs 16:32)
"It is better to be patient than powerful.” (Proverbs 16:14)
“It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities."
(Proverbs 16:32)
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Meal
While I was attending the children's Christmas Show earlier this week, I overheard the conversation next to me. An acquaintance of ours is nursing his wife back to health after a terrific car crash and is having trouble making good meals for the family with the extra work on his routine. We are going to be part of a list of people who are making meals for the family while they work through the healing time.
I'll gladly cook for them. It'll be a chance for me to get back into the kitchen after so many months of daily seeking meals and cooking for myself. I learned a lot in Kenya about the meal, the difference between a cook and a chef, and the ways that we all perceive food and eating. Preparing a meal for others will keep me mindful of the importance of this work.
We don't think about the time that is spent every day procuring food or preparing it. We have two choices. Quick and easy from boxes and cans, or time-consuming from raw ingredients. The former is the way that I used to operate in the kitchen. Even when I had bulk ingredients, they were prepared with the aid of canned broths or boxed sides. Now I am able to start from scratch with basic ingredients and put together a meal that looks simple but requires time and patience to achieve. This is the starting point for the way I'll cook from here on out.
The women, and some men, in Kenya devoted a better part of the day to the preparation of the meal. Ingredients were usually harvested from the shamba or purchased fresh at the kiosks in the village. Then the ingredients were carefully cut and chopped by hand without the aid of appliances found in our kitchens. The meals I prepare with the skills I picked up in Kenya don't have a lot of variety but if I add these methods to my other cooking, that will be remedied. It's more important now to table a simple meal that is valuable not in its sophistication but in the time and care that it took to prepare it.
With time, I will present these recipes adapted to my lifestyle in the States. Then it should be easy to present the other meals we've grown up with the same care that goes into the Kenyan meal. In the mean time, I will get ready for my turn to cook for the busy family down the road, and the meal they get from this house will have the freshest stuff I can find and will be prepared by hand with as much time as I can find.
Kufurahia chakula.
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