Our World Community...and how you can help

Hello My Lovelies!

It has been two years since my last visit to The Seeds of Love and Hope International Society Community Center in Medellin, Colombia, and I am thrilled and over joyed to announce that I will be returning March 10^th, 2016. And even more exciting Steve and Aiden will be accompanying me for their first time! Also our nephew, Evan, will be coming with us as well, which will be such a treat.

the neighbourhood

A brief back story. This will be my fifth time going down to volunteer at the center. My first time was back in 2009, (Nathen came with me), and I my heart was ever change and truly a piece of it remained, and still remains. I did not return till 2012 as we were unable to go as a group due to the violence not only in the city but in the ghetto neighbourhood of our community center. I then went back in 2013 and also 2014 with Nathen returning with me, along with my brother and niece, (yes I am recruiting my family lol). The first two years I went I did hair services, setting up a little make shift hair studio for the children and moms of the community. For the last two years I have been conducting one on one and group sessions with the kids in our program and the women who work at our center, along with some of the moms of the kids who are in our program. I have been listening to them and collecting their stories for a book I plan to put out about this community and some of my experiences there. This year I will be my last year of interviews and also I am contemplating setting up a hair studio again as I will be going for over two weeks this time as opposed to our usual 10 days. While we are there, Steve will be setting up vegetable gardens as self-sustainability and community service is a huge part of our program down there. The garden would not be able to sustain what the center needs for the meals we provide but it will assist in supplementing the need and also it will get the children involved in learning how to create and tend to a garden as 

they will be the ones taking care of it.

a typical family kitchen

We are excited to be a part of this wonderful place 

and I am so looking forward 

to sharing my “other family” with Steve and Aiden.

 

the caretakers home at the center

So as I have done in the past I am putting a call out to anyone who would like to contribute in a financial way to this cause. What I have found since my very first trip is that always, when we are there, unexpected needs come up within the community that we are assisting. Things like emergency medical services, transport back and forth from appointments, medicine costs, housing costs, basic food needs not being met, shoes, clothing….and more. I quickly learned that having cash on hand when I go down has been a very good practice. This is where you come in, if you are interested. Your donation would come directly with me, down to the center and I will distribute it directly to the need at hand. This will be my fourth year doing this and I have collected up to $1500 from all over the world. Donations run from $10 to $100, and let me tell you, in a third world country a little goes a long long way. Some of your money may also go towards some of the supplies Steve will need for the garden start up and also maybe put toward the gifts bag that I put together every visit for our staff there…12 women 2 men….

NONE of your money will be put toward our personal trip costs! 

 

The Community Center which is behind the caretakers home...offices/classrooms and then the mess hall and kitchen

That is important for you to know. Whatever is left over will stay at the center in the hands of our very capable coordinator, and she will put it where it is needed. 

One year we were able to buy a much needed industrial fridge for the kitchen with the money I gathered from generous hearts.

There is one catch to all of  this. 

There is no tax receipt for this donation. 

So if this is important to you and you would like to contribute then I invite you to go here http://www.solahis.com/ and donate directly. 

But if you are interested in sending your money directly to the trenches and hearing back from me about where it went, then I invite you to respond to this post or email me at catscorner@telus.net and we can discuss further. 

I am even open to requests if you have something specific on your heart. I so appreciate you reading this. I also invite your prayers, good thoughts and love as we travel down. 

That our eyes and hearts be open to all that is happening around us and 

that where there is a need, 

we might rise to meet it.

Love and Light my Lovelies

 Catherine

for the stories of past trips go here:
Stories from The Hill 

The Truth about Re-Entry and Hero's....

I have been home now for 5 days...

(flowers waiting for me on the kitchen table...I have a good husband)

I arrived early Sunday morning

and crawled into my own bed, in an empty house

at 4:30am

completely spent after over 24 hours of travel

three planes

security checks

expensive airport food

and the return to the land of plenty.

I slept for a few hours...waking to my husbands text

"are you awake?"

lol

I did not mind

I was happy to hear from him

and even happier hear that he and our youngest

were on their way home 

from Vancouver Island.

This gave me a morning to myself,

time to shower

unpack

listen to music

and attempt to get my footing

in solitude.

A good thing after 10 days of never being alone.

A good thing after 10 days of constant

movement

noise

and

chaos.

A good thing after 5 days of deep stories, painful realities and childhoods lost.

I then drove out to meet my best friend for lunch...

I had to get out

the sun was shining

and the cool air felt good against my skin

The skin that was burning with emotions

struggling with elation and grief

feeling unsettled

I drove with the sunroof open

letting the cool spring air whip my hair around.

Hawk flew over me

welcoming me home

then another

then another

then another.

I felt seen and heard as the tears rolled down my cheeks.

"I can't escape this now, unless you show me how"

Re-entry for me

has always been a process

my heart is open and feels all things

and as deep as I go with those in Colombia

so is the distance I must find my way back

This goes back to childhood.

I was always the one crying when we left someones homes

at which we spent some substantial time at... 

After being prompted by my sister Rain
with the question
"Hows your heart?" 
I wrote this to her:

"My heart is tender
torn in two...residing in two earthly worlds
and trying to find it's way back
to each other
stitching itself whole in yet another new way
moment of complete contentment
and gratitude
only to be jarred into the deepest of pain...
pain enough to stop my breath
with each day it feels stronger
more whole
and yet
it will never be the same 
as it always is
when I return from Pilgrimage
Painfully Beautiful
it is all
Painfully Beautiful"

This is where I am
Edging out of the stillness
and solitude of my thoughts
and experience
Slowly stepping back into
a life of movement
and a different kind of noise.

At yoga yesterday I felt the grief
that was contained in my lower organs
and as I did my twists
I could feel that grief being wrung out...
the grief of leaving
the grief of the stories
the grief of the loss that poverty holds
and the tears rolled down my face
After class a beautiful angel came over to me
and place her small hands on my face
and said
with tears in her eyes
"Thank you for the work you do 
for the children of my country." 
We both came undone
and silently wept in each others arms.
It was good to know someone understood...
that someone knew what I had seen
knew what I had heard
knew where I had been
and understood
without me saying a word. 

Today I read this
to which I responded with this:

 feeling your words deeply today Robin....it is a season of re-birth and yet I feel I am trudging up through the mud instead of bursting forth through the soil...it is the re-entry of one world to another that has me feeling so...the gratitude of the life I returned to and the grief of leaving the lives I am bound to...
torn
grieving
loving
dancing
feeling
wanting someone to reach out to me and yet wanting to be left alone...because it can't just be anyone, it has to be someone who knows, who knows deep...
these are not the surface wounds, are they sister
they are the wounds of life, death and divinity
these are the wounds that need medicine of the ancients....medicine from the great magic....
mmmmm
I feel a stirring and must write these words down....
how ever you came to this place
I know it too
so I will grieve with you 
as my lantern burns
and the earth will receive our tears and she will grow something beautiful with them....
this I know

After reading this
 I felt inspired
inspired to be exactly where I am
without apology
without explanation

Today I am trudging through the mud
I know that I will be exfoliatedand renewed 
when I am done
but I do not know how long it will take
So till then
I marinate
I marinate in the mud and grime
of all I have seen...
I let the tear come when they need to
Through some tears I will grieve
 and through others I will laugh
But I will make no apology
instead 
I will share with you
a few of my Hero's.....

Love and Light my Hero's
oh how my heart misses you...