dk

Mellow Midsummer

Two more working weeks and I will be finish with the internship. One more project. I will spend the last days to soak in the lake and available sunshine. Though right now I'm listening to the rain that's hitting hard since last night. So peaceful. One of my friends had a privilege to stay in a home. A real apartment but it is a home. Home of a couple who are now traveling. You can see how it has been a home. The real kitchen with a complete set of dishes. Mementos from her ballerina days. Maps. Music score on top of a reading chair. Photos. All reminds me of a home. 

Back in Cincinnati one of my good friend (who also is planning a wedding two weeks ahead of me) has been soaking me with news about her garden. Okra, cucumber, tomatoes. Her compost piles. Her balcony that's full of herbs. This year I don't have that privilege, but what I have instead is something else that tells me what I don't want to do. To narrow down the list of my wants. There are just things that have to be compromised. I used to want my cake and eat it too. My dear fiance said I can still have both. He's a blessing.

The photo I took after dinner the other night in that "home" will always reminds me of Geneva. Despite all the vineyards, bike lanes, amazing lake, the smell of water in the morning and at dust, awesome transportation system and tourism network, glacier and mountains. It was the best decision we ever made, for the many limitations that we had (wedding, moving, transitions). It ended up to be what I hoped to be just that. A great filter of the many interests I have. 

The slow lane: Collonge-Bellerive

Sunflower farm and wheat field around Collonge-Bellerive, the left bank of Geneva.Collonge-Bellerive is a suburb of Geneva, and it is mostly agricultural areas. The area is actually served by TPG (Transport Public Genevois/tpg.ch), but with rare frequency. I rode the bike just to explore the area and found this lovely community. I started to enjoy my new methods of traveling without maps. I just picked up the bike and go. Though bike maps are easily to be found, it is hard to find a completely connected bike routes. You just have to live with it, to be smart on the street when you have to share with cars. Although these are rural roads, the speed limit for cars are 50-60km/hr. They went by pretty fast, and I've never seen a police car ever. Cars are aware of cyclists, and most of the time I found myself among them, anywhere I went around the lake. 

Did I ever mention that Swiss wine is pretty awesome? They are tend to be fruity than dry. I like fruity more than dry wine, so the wine in this country fits the bill. Switzerland has about 50,000 acres of vineyards, with three different terroir of wines that has their own characteristics. Geneva's right bank and lake bank terroirs are the sub-region of Geneva, where some vineyards held medals and were finalists in wine-making competitions in the last years. In the country where wine is cheaper than juice, I ought to think that I need to take advantage of getting to know a little more about wine and wine making.

I stopped at a small, if not the only coffee shop that's open that morning. There wasn't anyone there when we came in, but people tend to stop during their travel and savor the taste of sweets, coffee, and of course wine. They serve local gamay wines in three types, white, rose and red. I tasted the rose wine (which is good to savor when it's hot outside). We cycled through a traditional cemetery, old fountains, local people's houses, small bodegas, and other things that the tourist guidebooks missed.

Geneve - Yvoire

I've been wanting to go to Yvoire for awhile. It's a medieval town in France about 25km from Geneve. There are a lot of ways to go there, one of the ways is by boat, but the boats are always full of tourists. I looked at the bike lanes, and I thought I could go there by bike.

The journey was amazing, I passed about 5 different villages where I stopped, including Auberge d'Hermanche, a border town between Switzerland and France. The other are Collonge-Bellerive, Nernier, Messery, Anieres, and Venesaz. Passing farms, horse-back riding farm, apple farms, a forest, and of course, lovely houses with their own private beaches along the lake.

The bike was hilly, bike lanes are patchy along the small villages, sometimes with very narrow lanes. However, car drivers are almost all considerate and gave ways when bikers passed by. I was probably the only one riding a free-shared-bike from Geneve, while the other bikers were wearing spandex and had fancy bikes.

However, Yvoire is somehow disappointing to me. The village announced itself as one of the most beautiful villages in France, which it probably is, if it had not been transformed into a complete tourist destination, leaving nothing for imagination. I think it's a sin. It is so ashamed that there's nothing left of this village that leaves its beauty other than its architecture. The medieval town has a wall around it, mostly made of stones, as well as the houses and other structures. The village is probably beautiful from afar, which one can see when on a boat, but even a boat ride is ridiculously expensive, I concur with my enjoyment of Sunday afternoon of 25km ride back.

Samedi du velo: Geneve-Nyon

I lived in a valley for a long time (Cincinnati) to know not to trust a weather prediction. Two days in a row it supposed to be 80% chance of rain in Geneva, and it was sunny (though yes, cloudy) and a little warm! 

Although I haven't been roaming around Europe, it is my first impression through my limited weekend traveling, that I can drop myself off in any small village and it will be marvelous. These are small towns that are not even listed in the guidebooks, wikitravel, anything! The fun thing about discovering things myself and allow some freedom in adventure. 

Body of water seems to wrap up civilizations in a way that it produced places with strong characters. Or may be because it is Europe, a place when civilization was created in a small human scale manner instead of automobile-reachable manner, these places seem to have their own unique characters. From Geneve to Nyon, a small city about 13 miles away to the north east, there are about four or five villages. They were separated with farms, private homes along the rivers, and connected with the wonderful network of bike path (with sharrows!) left and right. In one area only, probably around Versoix; where it is lacking of bike path.

So we went, four of us. Leisure bikers. Without spandex. It was sunny all the way with a five second sprinkle of rain five minutes before Nyon. 

I will tell you what I saw:

Swiss houses. Flower farms. Wildflowers. Old small churches by the river. Vineyards. Castles. Small castles. Hotel. Geneva Cottages. Pseudo-beach. Coppet, a village. Versoix, another village. Nyon, a town that's not even in a guidebook. Sun Flower farm. Small houses with fruit trees. Sages on the street. Rosemary. Lavender. Boats. Sky. Clouds. Clear sky. Clear lake. Fountain water. Random stops. American Grill? Yes. Wanting corn on the cob without the cob. Poulet with potato wedges. Breeze. The smell of flowers from gardens. Uphills and downhill. Extremely strong tires that knocked out a bottle and stayed on. Helmet. Bike basket. Geneveroule. Lake. The view. Courtyard. Steps. Rooftops. Mango italian gelato. Being extremely tired. A long good nap the next day. Two of my favorite things: biking and photography.

Thank you God for the experience and the pleasure of enjoying You and your creation.

Counting..

I've been listening and thinking about how humanitarian workers do their jobs and lives (if anything is possibly left), how they missed the family life and had to die on the job sometimes (i.e. Sergio Vierra de Mello), made me think about what great sacrifice it is to choose the path. Stressful lives, if not lead to another challenge to marriage, to sanity and to what choice we must make to spend time that we assume we have in this world. 

But all of this is only one decision over another. 

Ox reminded me again that I must strive for what I love to do, not what is comfortable. (I love how he challenges me and how he supports not just to be who I am, but to be a better one.)

They are all risks that we have to calculate, but not meticulously calculate, otherwise we will end up with doing nothing at all to protect what so called our own secluded lives. I remember what CS Lewis said about love: there are two choices we have, to let our hearts become vulnerable and starts loving, with the risk of being broken; or to keep it locked in the dark of our hearts and let it be as hard as a rock and risk of not capable to love at all. May be life is like that, may be we have the choice to risk "doing" love rather than keep it our lives locked for ourselves. 

And with the many possibilities of what can go wrong in this world, there are so little that we can do to "protect" our precious lives, our precious marriage, our precious loved ones. The news I heard lately confirms that. You can have a husband with a job far less stressful or presumably less dangerous (i.e. Gov of SouthCarolina) and still being cheated. Or have a $700million wealth only to die at 50 with $500 million debts and three orphans and with a chance of leaving nothing for their future. In the end, our lives lie on how we spent the time we assume we had, doing things that we love for the reasons/motivations we want to live with. And beyond all the possibilities, we have to leave a space for miracles, since they made life more interesting that just "what we can do" because there is a power beyond ours, who can make everything "work" the way He wants it. I should just introspect and looked back into my life where I can see the evidence of His work in me; mathematical calculations of risks and benefits do not work, it will never match up. 

The windows of apartments in Le Paquis, the neighborhood I live in Geneva, when I walked around with Ox the day before he went home. I miss him already.

separuh nafasku

Literally meant "half of my breath", I would translate it as "half of my soul". I felt like it was unplugged of me when I couldn't see him anymore at the gate. Ox left today after we spent a long weekend and three great nights together. His visit seems so short, yet, I felt like I was getting used to have him around when in reality it was only been a week. I really thank him for coming to visit in the middle of his preparation to move and a whole lot of transitions in his life. Each of us is two independent people who have been so used to living with only ourselves and the next two months it will have to change. It's going to be good, yet, it will take some time to adjust. But, the time we spent together was priceless and good for both of our souls. 

We dream together about what God would want us to be. Staying and working here really gave me a space to think about my distant future (in nine months I will be graduating). And the nice thing is, like Ox said, I don't have to worry about it till then and just keep praying about it. But our distant future is not our concern, it is God's concern and we pray that He will show us where to go next. It is somewhat nice to know that He is in control of all this and all we need to be is try the best we can.

Heidiland was amazing, but none of that would be fun if I was not traveling with Ox. We're discovering small villages of the three different regions (by language) of Switzerland, visited a small country called Liechtenstein, and exhausting our fascinations with old towers and cathedrals in the city. 

I spent this week not at work, but at a class for Humanitarian Assistance track of the DukeGlobalPolicy Program (though I'm not at Duke; this program was an open competition for all graduate students in the US). It was refreshing to hear from practitioners in the field about what they thought of their work, both from the UN agencies and NGOs (MSF, Save the Children, UNICEF, UNITAR, UNHCR, OHCHR, US Mission for the UN in Geneva, etc). And somehow I have become more and more aware of where I need to go/be to avoid my frustrations in my last work. Wherever I will be, I need to be in a place where I can express my faith in my work, the sole reason why I live and why I want to do this work. Other places than that would not be sufficient for this ministry we are searching. We don't know yet how exactly that will look like, but we are getting closer. It has to be fit for both of our roles in the marriage we are envision. 

There is a place for everyone on earth with their faith, convictions, way of life. God has a place for us and we are now listening to what He has to say.

I just talked to my "half soul" and he landed safely at home. Thank God once again for that. 

be my everything

God in my living, there in my breathing

God in my waking, God in my sleeping

God in my resting, there in my working

God in my thinking, God in speaking

be my everything

God in my hoping, there in my dreaming

God in my watching, God in my waiting

God in my laughing, there in my weeping

God in my hurting, God in my healing

be my everything

Christ to me the hope of Glory, you are everything

be my everything

(Tim Hughes)

Because the question was raised, I answered. But I have no need to explain my faith and how I became who I am and continue to follow my Christ. If my parents had not decided to "convert" themselves after the wedding, I would not be here. If they had not continue to be faithful and follow what they believe while not listening to their family, I would not be here. If my mother had not taught me how to pray and to talk to God the way she is, I would not be here. If I had not experienced miracles over miracles in my life, I would not be here. If God had not saved me from myself, I would not be here. If He did not talk to me on that night on November 8, 2002, I would not even be alive. 

Scientist said prayer changes our realities. They really did a research on this, and another research to focus on how the brain changes in people who pray without ceasing is under going right now. But faith means that I don't need any freaking research to prove that prayers changes me and the world around me. It's not because I pray but because to whom I pray. It is the existence of who I am and how I can be a whole person. Only Jesus made it possible for me.

This is why I live. do. be. There is no other reason. I pray to Jesus to be my everything. It's the only way I know how to live. 

And I don't have to explain why. That is who I am

.....I felt that night, on that stage, under that skull, incredibly close to everything in the universe, but also extremely alone. I wondered, for the first time in my life, if life was worth all the work it took to live, What exactly made worth of it? What's so horrible about being dead forever, and not feeling anything, and not even dreaming? What's so great about feeling and dreaming? -- Jonathan Safran Foer.

Geneve to Russin, the slow lane.

   

Twenty CHF deposit will get you a day "rent" for a bike from GeneveRoule.ch/ with fancy baskets and a map of bike route. I went for half of it and raced back to see the boat race. The view was great, and it was not far from the city at all, about 20-25 minutes ride with some reasonable hills. It's worth getting back. Next time I think I'll have some picnic with Ox.

We went through a couple of neighborhoods, a horse farm, wheat field, and spotted a beautiful wedding. It's nice to see people celebrating love, the weird and wonderful thing God gave us. Some photos for reference. 

dream on.

There's something missing when you grow up, unfortunately. The world is not as beautiful. It's like a giant puzzle you know you will never solve. Though I know Someone has a full control of it, and I am fully aware of that. He is right that sometimes it is good to know little. 

I used to dream when I was little. Many of them I had lived in, breathe in, breathe out. Back then, not knowing if it could ever happened, all I did was pray and tried the best I can. The other day, Ox reminded me that I might have to start to do that again. The big dream. The one far away in the sky. Just one more dream. He said, that is the one thing that keeps us alive.

On Thursday, we had to attend a book signing by a photographer from the Netherlands. He went around the world to photograph child labourers in ILO-IPEC's programs around the world. It took him ten years to get the book published, in Dutch. Ten years and ten other books, he collected the profits he made to go around nine countries and documented these children's lives. Now, he got the book published in English and was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Social Services. He did his part, used his talents, to spread the word, how the public needs to support the work to end the worst form of child labour.

I dream to do the same with different issue I care more about. 

I dream that someday I could change the lives of small number of people living in slums in big cities in a developing country. Small changes as making them drinking healthy water and can take a bath everyday and can enjoy the privacy of their own bath/toilet. I dream that their children (who are also my children) will be able to play in a clean park, not a dump site. Not as simple as I thought, and my skeptical mind would be quickly to "hush" my dream. But I will continue to build my dream until it burst out my mind and all I can do is pray and go cause I won't be able to contain it anymore. Jesus, please bless my dream..with You, I can do ANYTHING.

Photo is sunset at Lake Leman, Geneva. 06.13.2009.

Celebrating those who now go to school, still fighting for those who still in slavery...

Click on this *link* to view more photos. 

I had a blast looking at children's faces. And a little teary hearing what some had experienced. There ARE things to be done. May be not IN Geneva, but FROM Geneva.