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 "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance to the life we lead." Nelson Mandela. Second Hepatitis A & B shots, six weeks apart. Check. Typhus shot. Check. Anti-malarial prescription ordered and filled. Check. Anti-diarrhea pills. Check. Yellow fever inoculation....well, hmmm. One travel doctor consultant didn't recommend it because I'm over 65. But Oregon Health Sciences University docs and others said "Get that one! Yellow Fever is the worst." Yellow Fever inoculation. Check. lots of mosquito repellant, too, and up to date passport, so I think I'm set.. I mentioned in my Christmas letter to family and friends that in February, I am going to Burundi, a small, poor, southeast African nation below the equator. What I discovered in telling people was that many I hold dear held Africa in their hearts, too. Some through World Vision sponsorships of kids. Others by funding women's collectives through KIVA or their churches. My sister-in-law was one; a neighbor across the street who visited 22 years ago another. One of my prayer partners wrote of her dream to work in Africa since she was seven. An author friend sent a generous donation when she learned why we three from our church are going to Burundi with a representative of www.AfricanRoad.org a Portland based organization working with local Burundi people. My journey has opened up new threads in the basket of connection that I never knew were there. Tho se unknown connections are speaking to me this new year. I wonder why I never before mentioned my interest in African missions to these precious people in my life? What do we hold back perhaps thinking our wishes are too far- fetched to share? After all, our journey to the homestead certainly raised eyebrows and clucking tongues. Yet moving toward that dream changed our lives forever. This journey is shorter and much less traumatic in my mind though Jerry, when I told him I wanted to go, said he really didn't want me to, for safety concerns (it's a country who dealt with genocide in the 1990s and where restlessness and uncertainty continues in some locales. But tragedy can happen anywhere, Paris being a recent heart-break.) But he knew I wanted to go and feels well-enough to send me off. He's always wanted to take a photo train trip through South Africa, a dream that might still be realized one day. We four Americans will be taking photos but we'll be learning. We're traveling with two Burundi nationals, one is the first Batwa man to be elected as a member of parliament. We'll visit three different communes or villages of the Batwa people.We'll be traveling by van into dusty, rural villages we're told. Our hope is to weave threads of hope to at least one of those villages with the people of Bend, Oregon and First Presbyterian Bend who is helping to support our journey. I've prepared just as I prepare to write a novel. I read as much as I can about the subject, the history, politics, the people. I get shots and vaccinations, discover what clothing to bring (cover the knees and shoulders; linen and cotton. It will be hot!). I write about my intention, attitude and purpose. And I tell people what I'm working on because out of the universe arrives connections I might never have discovered otherwise. I pray. So here are a few words about the Batwa. They are an indigenous people who lived in the forests but were moved out because of rebels making camps there and because the forests are the homes of the gorillas that are now protected. Sadly, the Batwa were sent from places they knew best without identities into a country that continues to reconcile after the genocide of Hutu and Tutsi peoples. Like everyone in Africa, the Batwa need a government-issued identity card in order to marry, receive medical care, send their children to school, vote. To be known. The Batwa were never given those cards. Yet for ten dollars, the cost of an identity card - (and three cappuccinos) - a life can be transformed. A family transformed. Ten dollars is an enormous amount of money for the Batwa people living marginally on poor land, often far from water. I'm hopeful that I'll discover new insights about a people and nation; about bringing a thread we'll carry back across the ocean to weave into stories on this continent; about charity that is not toxic and purchasing identity cards for an entire village; and about myself. We'll walk beside the Batwa bringing possibilities into their new year as they bring new possibilities into ours. |
The Memory Weaver is being woven. That's the title of the book that will come out in the fall based on the life of the daughter of one of the first missionaries to the Nez Perce people. Eliza Spalding Warren was also a survivor of the Whitman Mission killings of 1847 and at age 10 was the only one of the hostages taken and held for a month who spoke the native languages. I was intrigued then about how she incorporated that traumatic time within her later life.
We're at the cover stage. My favorite thing -as my dog would say about, well, just about everything. The designer sought a Nez Perce blanket but tribal affiliated designs didn't really come into being for blankets until the early 1900s. Before then, in the 1840s and 50s when this story takes place, the Hudson Bay blankets with their distinctive black, green, yellow and red stripes on gray or white wool were the blankets of the time, woven tightly to ward off rain and snow. They lasted forever. So I think we'll have a Hudson Bay blanket on the cover, somehow. I'll keep you posted!
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 I spend a lot of time on the Oregon Trail as you all know. I remember once hearing cries and moans on our ranch and discovering my two visiting Minnesota nephews (then 8 and 9) sitting naked sharing my office chair in front of my computer. They'd just come out of the shower and were drawn to the screen before they even got dressed. "I just died!" moaned the youngest. It was 1995 and they played The Oregon Trail computer game (an MS-DOS). It was a great way to teach history. It's now available through your browser at the internet archives. Click here. along with a number of other archived games. I'd forgotten how challenging the Oregon Trail could be. And I see my nephews' interest in gaming today as having an early start right there in front of that screen. |
A Place of her Own by Janet Fisher TwoDot, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press. 2014. www.janetfishernovels.com
I write stories based on the lives of actual historical people. It's one of the great pleasures of my life. It's always fun to read other novelists who are drawn to the same fictionalizing of a family story or historical person's experience. Janet Fisher has now written about her great-great-grandmother Martha Pointdexter Maupin. Janet lives on the ranch in southern Oregon where her ancestor spent much of her life. A Place of her Own is beautifully written and it does not shirk from the hardness that Martha faced in a difficult marriage, in family schisms, in a demanding landscape. To deepen the story, Ms Fisher has also written a memoir of sorts so there are photos and what she calls Interludes. These Interludes are Ms Fisher's personal reflections on some of the issues being presented in the novel. I confess, I loved reading these interludes, but after the first one, I decided to skip them and go back to read them all together at the end. I wanted the narrative flow of the novel to continue uninterrupted. It was such a good story and the author left me hanging just enough so that I wanted to know what happened next to Martha! And while I cared about Janet's insights, I figured I could get those later, and did. Each - the novel and the memoir - are moving and poignant renderings of a woman's life. Both are stories well-told and worth telling. Kudos to Janet Fisher and to her publisher for finding a way to publish and market a hybrid: memoir and novel, and to do it so well.
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Molly Gloss wins Pacific Northwest Booksellers award for Falling from Horses. I reviewed Molly's latest in a previous issue of Story Sparks. I loved this book and am so pleased for her. Also, she will be our keynote speaker at the WILLA Literary Awards banquet on October 10th at Eagle Crest resort where Women Writing the West is holding its convention this year, in Central Oregon. Get that date on your calendar!
 And before that, think about Beachside Writers on February 27-March 1 with Bob Welch and me. Rub elbows with writers...experience the gifts of your tribe!
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If I should come to mind in February, please send traveling mercies our way and please hold my friend and her surgery in your hearts as well. And while you're at it, prayers for Jerry handling this alone-time with the dogs...well, that would be welcomed too.
We begin our year in caring and in strength. May your new year have strands of such weavings as well.
Warmly,
Jane Kirkpatrick
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Remember to check my schedule on the right bar and also on my website for my latest events!
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Note: Additional information and/or registration info can be found by visiting Jane's Calendar on her website. (See link below.)
Jane is usually in Mexico in January but this year the hurricane destroyed the hotel she and Jerry and their traveling friends usually stay in. One of those friends is having surgery scheduled for when they're usually in Mexico so Jane will be spending some care-giving time with her before heading to Burundi. February 1-12 - Traveling to and in Burundi. Portland, Amsterdam, Rwanda, Burundi. February 14 - 1:00 PM Champoeg State Park, St. Paul, Oregon. It's Oregon State's Birthday party and Black History Month. Jane will speak and sign along with colleague author Greg Nokes Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory.. Jane will talk about her latest A Light in the Wilderness and share stories about Marie Dorion, an early settler in this French Prairie region and subject of her Tender Ties historical series. February 21 - 2-4pm. Oregon Historical Society, 1200 SW Park Avenue, Portland, OR. As part of a special exhibit prepared by Oregon Black Pioneers, Jane and several other authors writing about the black experience in Oregon's history will speak briefly about their books, greet visitors and encourage a tour through this new exhibit about black history. Event is free and a fundraiser for what will one day hopefully be a Black Pioneer Museum. February 27-March 1 - Beachside Writers, Yachats, OR. Treat yourself or your writing friends to a great next step on that writing journey. It's the 10th anniversary of this fabulous writing event. www.bobwelch.net to register or for more information. March 4 - Courtyard Fountains, 2:-4:00. 2545 SE 223rd St, Gresham, OR. Join Jane as she speaks about the power of the pen and her latest projects. Visit her website at www.jkbooks.com for more information about upcoming events. |
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