[Oe List ...] Mystery

Thu Oct 20 17:40:29 PDT 2022

Dick,
Thank you for sharing your amazing encounters — and for your ability to say
Yes to the mystery.  It’s quite a witness!
Nancy T

On Thu, Oct 20, 2022 at 7:26 PM Richard Alton via OE <
oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

> Airplane trip to Africa
>
>
>
> Just copied the Land of Mystery chart from Frank Knutson and then had an
> awesome trip to Kenya that manifested this mystery. I knew this trip would
> be different. Being COV19 housebound for like two years, it was a big
> decision to get out in the real world again… never know what is out there.
> It was a huge task to just get a Kenya visa. Trying to figure out how to
> get through the Kenya COV19 public health check station was nerve racking.
> But I did it and it was an amazing adventure and the people I found out
> there, made it all worthwhile.
>
>
>
> This has happened to me before when strange people just show up in my
> life: Found my Chicago seat for the first leg of Chicago to Qatar and then
> onward to Nairobi. The plane was almost full, but my window seat was still
> empty- would be a great help if the seat stayed empty. And just then a
> young lady burst through the plane door with two gigantic bags and came
> running down the aisle screeching to a stop in front of me. Hands me her
> passport- “Hold this!”- and throws one of the bags over my head to the seat
> next to me… “Be back!”. This was the beginning of a thirteen-hour
> remarkable trip with this thirty-one-year-old American school teacher
> presently teaching in Bangkok, Thailand. The stories she had to tell about
> her seven years there. The most amazing part was her side business of
> raising ten dogs of which none weighed more than 2.2 kilos- so I got to
> personally meet all ten dogs, their names and each’s adventures- photos,
> videos and awards. Much better than watching movies. Oh, yes and her name
> is Kay which just happens to be one of my daughter’s names. And this Kay’s
> mom also raises dogs- a long family history of dogs… an amazing world we
> live in that people do such things
>
>
>
> My second encounter was at the Qatar airport. Of course, we missed my
> connecting flight. The explanation was that since Qatar was hosting the
> Soccer World Cup between November 18 and December 18 this year and they
> expected millions of spectators, they had put in a huge number of new
> systems that were still being figured out like how to get people from the
> planes to the terminal.
>
>
>
> So I waited my five hours for the next flight and got in line for my
> Nairobi flight. I am pretty good at chatting with people. The African lady
> standing next to me- an older woman who had a strange looking passport- so
> asked her what country she was from. She explained that this was the new
> East Africa Regional passport. “Nice- you are from Kenya? “Yes”, she (her
> name turned out to be Charity Gathuthi) had just come back from Australia
> from visiting her daughter. “Nice. What did she do?”: “A water consultant”.
> “What do you do?” Well, I am retired in Chicago but still work on local
> community development and was attending a gathering of people to look at
> climate change. I used to live in Nairobi- Kawangware
>
>
>
> Charity looked at me really funny, like I was from another world. “Are you
> with ICA?” Yes, you win the prize for an astonishing guess. “Well, I know
> and have worked with the ICA staff, Nathan Ambunya, Patrick Mbullu and
> Henry Mpapale plus I did Kenya Cooperative consulting work for many years
> with Terry Bergdall. Have been away and have not had contact with ICA for a
> while.  But you tell Patrick, Nathan and Henry to give me a call.” Now that
> was amazing- like finding a needle in a haystack. Makes you wonder how many
> related ICA people are out their wandering the planet.
>
>
>
> Now, I told you about the Thailand Kay encounter. Kay has unbounding
> energy in relationships with other people. She was standing in the toilet
> line and started talking to a stewardess and it turns out that they may all
> look the same, but they are from different countries- part of Qatar wanting
> to be the future Global airlines. So sure enough, I found two Philippine
> stewardesses. Found out a lot about the Philippines and other countries
> like Tajikistan. So, I am sitting there reading a book by Momaday called
> Earth Keeper in preparation for presenting the ICA’s new Climate Change
> Manual- look up and there is an African Stewardess standing in front of me;
> “What a great sounding book- Earth Keeper” I am from Zimbabwe and we need
> earth keepers. I will come back, and you can tell me more.
>
>
>
> The page I was reading when she interrupted me: *“And so Great Mystery
> you who dwell in the endless beyond, you who spoke the first word and made
> of your breath the mountains and the waters, the trees and the grasses, the
> man and the woman and the child, hear me in my small voice. I am your
> thankful creature. My people and all the birds and animals are your
> thankful creatures. Hold us! Hold us in your hands and make us worthy of
> your blessing. Tell us the old stories of your greatness, that our minds
> and our hearts may be nourished with wonder and delight. Let us see your
> likeness in the stars and let us hear your voice in rolling thunder and in
> the wind and rain. Be with us forever in the sacred smoke of your being.
> These are my words, my offering to you, Great Mystery ( Earth Keeper by
> N.Scott Momaday)*
>
>
>
> And this is just one journey from Chicago to Africa. Life is amazing if
> you dare to go out and meet it.
>
> Dick Alton, Co-Director, ICA Kenya, 1980-86; still believes that one
> should write a witness on one’s birthday and mine is quickly approaching,
> so this reflection
> --
> Richard H. T. Alton
> ICA Global Fund
> Methodist Eco-Sustainability T/F
> T: 773.344.7172
> richard.alton at gmail.com
> Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2
> Won't you be my neighbor?
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>
-- 
“If you love it enough, anything will talk with you”
~George Washington Carver
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