Too Many Firsts

This is the first time we’ve made the transition from farming (as the rainy season ends) to cultural arts programming (as the dry season begins). As in most transitions, there is an in-between time when you are forced to engage in both the old activity and the new simultaneously. That’s where we are now with harvesting still going on as cultural arts programs begin. It is truly overwhelming!

Shabuta Cultural Sundays Flyer

As our children began to approach young adulthood, I saw them become stressed out at certain times – just like us. So I taught them a technique I devised to help deal with spikes of stress in my life. I’d just write down all the specific causes of this spike of stress. Then I rated each item on my “stress list” from one to five. Each week I checked the list and, amazingly, I noticed some items dropping from the list while others were causing less stress. And I felt better! I don’t remember what I figured out caused the technique to work.

A week or so ago I began to realize that Baba and I are doing much of the work we do now for the very first time. I must admit we’re living the dream we’ve had for fifty years, yet, in the back of my mind, I still held the storybook image of children and grandchildren coming to visit a big, old house where grandma and grandpa would just do the same things they did long ago: cook the same food, sing the same songs, tell the same stories from the rocking chairs. And, instead, we’re doing all these new things.

Farming

No wonder we’re overwhelmed! It would be one thing if they were all passive first experiences. However, they are mostly very active first experiences requiring plenty of action on our part. Maybe if I just write all the specific “firsts” down and share them with you, you’ll send us some of those inspirational comments you’ve been sending, and we won’t feel so overwhelmed. Maybe some of you have even dealt with being in such a new environment that you have found yourselves dealing with “too many firsts.”

1. Baba and I have never managed more than one-half acre of land at a time. So certainly managing a ten-acre farm and cultural preservation site is a mind boggling first for us.
   

   Trees on the Land

2. We’ve managed hundreds of people for performances and workshops for short periods of time, but never all day, every day. Just managing a staff of ten people each day is a big first for us too.
3. We’ve never dealt with animals at all. I think someone gave Baba a goat once, long ago when we lived in the capital, but we quickly gave it away when we found we had to bring it inside the house at night. I guess we didn’t appreciate goat manure like we do now. And still, aside from bush predators, we’re only dealing with chickens!
   

   Chickens

4. Thank goodness we’ve kept a vegetable garden for many years, but that’s nothing compared to farming in the tropical bush. And even when we had fifty pots of plants one year, it could never compare to the multitude of tree crops, fruits, vegetables, medicinal crops, ornamentals, green manure and “of interest” crops we deal with now.
   

   Tobacco Plant Just Sprouted on It's Own

And then there’s the steep learning curve we’re facing at every turn.

1. A big first for us is that we’ve never been so old before! We’re learning to drive a stick shift for the first time and I haven’t been able to get past the abominable stretch of road that begins at the end of our local farm road.
   

   County Road

2. We prepare all our foods – even oil – from scratch) from farm to table (forget the Magic Bullet). We’re looking forward to eventually getting all the adaptors and connectors that will allow us to connect everything to the solar energy supply we enjoy.
3. So we’ve been living right here in the forest this entire year with only partial electricity, no running water yet, our Humanure toilet, and all of that is a definite first (albeit a proud one).
4. We’ve also been trying to learn an undiluted Afrikan language that requires the mastery of tones, particularly unique sounds, and very subtle rhythmic cadences. Since all the African languages we’ve learned before have been in the category of trade languages, this is a first for us too.
5. A big first is learning to live with so many different kinds of insects. There’s one that we always thought, years ago, was dust. It clings to the walls and is shaped like tiny pumpkin seeds only grey or light colored. Then one day I saw one of them moving! This is definitely the first time we’ve felt so ignorant about so many things. And I can’t find that wall creeping bug anywhere on the internet. What is it??

Not all our “firsts” are so active. Some we experience quite passively no matter how deeply felt.

10. For instance, this is the first time we’ve ever been so far away from our children for so long. Even though our youngest “children”, the twins, are over 30 years old now, we are so closely knit that it’s still like parents and children when we’re all together. On the other hand, Baba and I were actually living with them in recent years and it was more like we left the nest when we came home to Africa.

11. It’s the first time we’ve felt so happy and confident that we’re making the best preparations for our family’s and other loved one’s future. I remember admiring one of our friend’s family’s annual reunion. They all come to their family’s land in the southern U.S.A. Their parents doggedly held on to at least enough land for their entire clan to lodge for this event. At first it was just one person who cared for the site, but gradually they all began to invest in the buildings and renovations of the site. Now they have a fantastic yearly event, conducting a “Susu” where they offer scholarships to the family youth.

12. It’s the first time we’ve felt such an outpouring of love going out from us and such an acute awareness of life. Love flows out for the simplest everyday incident like the innocent look of wonder on the face of a staff member when they see the screen as we start up the computer. Or, like today, Baba and I keep saying we’re going all the way through the grotto to the water, but each time we start out, we lose courage and turn back. Today we started again and were overjoyed to see that someone had cleared a beautiful path all the way to the water. We had never even mentioned it to anyone.

Grotto

13. How do we even describe this feeling of so much life all around us? Everything is resonating with vibrant life. It can be a little scary sometimes or sometimes you just forget to be afraid because the bug (or whatever) is so beautiful, you run to get the camera instead.

Anyway, thank you for listening (reading). I feel better already!

A Bug or a Flower?

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