My Grandfather’s Carving

by

Didacus Ramos

(best read with Coffee Liqueur—maybe straight scotch and Double Chocolate pound cake)

“Ill drive,” she said.  I got in on the passenger side.  “Push the seat back.  The boys sit in the back and I use that seat as my office.  Oh, sorry for the mess.”  She was embarrassed—but not enough to refuse me the ride.

“No problem.  I’ll put it in the back.”

“Where to?  Arby’s?”

“No.  This is for your birthday…Let’s go down to Subway.”  She smirks.  I know she’s impressed with my debonair style.

Subway shares a row of shops—Subway at one end, a rug shop, an office, a tanning salon and Ted’s Grill.  We park in the middle of the strip.  She crosses past me walking toward Subway.  I grab her hand and pull her in the opposite direction.  I could feel her hand shiver, her eyes dart around—who saw that?

Read the rest of the story here: http://community.livejournal.com/chaos_zine/5310.html

Didacus Ramos is a native of the blue-collar small-town of Hayward, California and has created a collection of stories loosely based on his own family, friends, and childhood. He may be reached by leaving a comment or dropping him a line here: didacus90035@yahoo.com

“In the same way that a bucket of water reduces a cooking fire to ashes – a few splutters of shocked disbelief, a hiss of anger, and then a chill all the more penetrating for having abruptly supplanted intense heat – in just that way the photograph she now surveyed extinguished all her excitement.”

In Rwanda, a nation of tragedy, Gaile Parkin’s Baking Cakes in Kigali begins not with drought, starvation, or genocide, but with the disappointment of a customer’s insistence on an ugly bland cake. The author reminds us right away that even in places which grab world media coverage, many people continue to live ordinary lives full of daily, but important concerns. To baker and entrepreneur Angel Tungaraza, confection design can convey one’s national pride, creativity, culture, relationship to others – and celebrates how life can and will return to normal.

Chapter names come from various social occasions for which people request cakes, giving the narrative structure and sweetening the bitter pain behind some of the customers’ stories. Angel creates a stylish dessert for a neighbor’s wedding, affirming the good that has come out of their relationship without glibly denying the sorrow both partners must face. Both have lost many family members to recent warfare, and the woman’s own mentally ill mother sits in jail accused of participating in genocide against the man’s tribe. The young man also got another woman pregnant during the war, and although he ultimately leaves her and decides to marry Angel’s friend, Angel and her neighbors are not without sympathy for the other mother and child. She colors the yin-yang symbol on top the cake with the traditional colors symbolizing sadness (red) and joy (green) in Rwanda, reflecting the desire for balance in a chaotic country and in people’s varied personal lives, along with the international influences she experiences living so close to many diplomats, researchers, and aid workers.

In the spirit of Chocolat and the Ladies’ Detective Agency, Angel’s bakery becomes a place where people work out creative solutions to their problems, subverting both Western and Rwandan cultural norms. An American woman nervously approaches Angel and shares how trapped she feels in her marriage, as her husband believes Africa to be full of dangerous warlords and tribespeople and will not allow her to leave their apartment alone. In reality, the husband’s cultural stereotypes are coupled with the fear that she will discover his affair with another female diplomat. Angel stays out of their marital troubles, but helps set the woman up as a teacher based out of their home. Another Westerner boasts of his theft from a sex worker too afraid to turn him in to the police, and she charges him more than necessary in order to return the money.

Parkin also challenges aspects of Rwandan culture through Angel’s witty observations and actions. Reflecting an emerging expansion in women’s life choices, she mentions to a proud father that his daughter who loves airplanes might grow up to become a pilot or mechanic, as well as a flight attendant. Also, she invites a physician and fakes an entire female circumcision ceremony, demonstrating that a girl can come of age perfectly well without mutilating surgery.

In this book, people are people, Western, Asian, or African…and everyone is capable of generosity and selfishness. Not all of those from developed countries are greedy imperialists, incompetent, or snobs. Angel even stands up for some young idealistic American volunteers who are overcharged on their electric bill by a Rwandan meter-reader who assumes wrongly that they are wealthy and will not miss the extra cash. Large organizations receive a healthy bit of skepticism – the IMF and World Bank workers get teased about their inefficiency and about how and why there seems to be no realistic way for Rwanda to ever pay its international debts. But ordinary people can prove quite decent and simply try to help those in need, bring peace to a troubled land, run their businesses and care for their families.

Born in Zambia, Gaile Parkin has spent many years in various parts of Rwanda as a HIV/AIDS educator, and many of the customers’ stories in the book come from those of people she knew while working in Africa. The book clearly promotes health, safety, women’s empowerment, entrepreneurship, and development – but the gentle humor and suspense keeps the piece going and prevents it from sounding like a social studies treatise. Sometimes the humor becomes too cute and characters’ bouts of self-reflection become too long, but usually the action resumes just at that point to stop the book from becoming too sweet. Also, Parkin clearly knows Rwandan cuisine – many readers will be left wishing to try a meal and polish it off with a generous slice of Angel’s cake!

Gaile Parkin’s Baking Cakes in Rwanda is available from Random House and Amazon.com – and Towne Center Books and many other independent booksellers around the world.

2010 Visual Arts Exhibition season.

For more information, and the online application. Please visit here.

Please make sure the below materials are included in your proposal package:

    * A filled out artists application(downloaded from our web site)
    * A check made out to Femina Potens for$20.00 for our curatorial review fee. (Packages sent with out the $20.00 reviewfee will not be considered)
    * An introductory letter of interest,
    * Artist resume, bio, statement
    * 10 images of on cd and printed forreview by our curatorial staff

Patsy is also an accomplished classical musician who loves New York and high culture. She may be reached at patsyled@sbcglobal.net

Based in Southern California, Alexandra Marlin brings a gentle warmth and a sense of imagination and creative connection to the people and events she captures with her camera. You may find her online at http://www.alexandramarlin.com or email stitchmarlin@gmail.com – she can be hired for headshots and special occasions.

In practice the gift started out years ago, in a room two sisters shared; before Hans Christian Andersen weaved magical tales before their eyes; From its inception, before its place and time in history, before its most real manifestation, the gift glistened, standing apart from all other gifts; the hair ribbons, the ruffled Christmas dresses, ringlet haired dolls and pink stuffed animals.

Mesmerized by the gift, the two sisters delighted in its velvet lining, and exquisite design. With open little arms and hearts, the gift was received with unmeasured joy and expressions of child felt gratitude. The gift was a testimonial to others; children, neighbors, young and old. Adults would nod and smile, perhaps in remembrance of their own gifts, once cherished as well…. In their midst, a gift was given, taken for its true value, and like any wonderful thing it was an inspiration.

Through passages of time, and all kinds of seasons, the gift remained untarnished but the hearts of the recipients turned colder and changed colors; from the pastel shades of trusting little girls, to murky greens and competitive reds. The gift was tested, tossed about, questioned, overshadowed, and even rejected. From a serpents shore, a fog arose, attempting to blur the indelible character of the gift giver himself, so that, the sisters would in time guard their other gifts first, shifting the placement of the gifts priority to a back closet, instead of displaying it as a thing of beauty, as a child does in the hierarchy of his ornaments and toys.

For a long season, the gift was left standing in a frozen still life mode. No one bothered to go near the dying yellowing leaves that were falling off of a flourishing green tree. At this juncture, neither invested much of themselves in this gift. Weddings, and birth announcements, filled their young lives, and May to December picnics with new friends.

Well meaning attempts were made throughout the ensuing years. Phone calls, and letters of good cheer; the resounding joy that both now shared a faith in the gift giver on a very personal note. Before the dawn of their middle years, in a feeling of Christmas, the sisters realized that time was ticking.

They would look upon the gift with a  reverent gaze, and tiptoe softly past it (as a sleeping child), again lit up with the glow of that first decade of enduring memories when the gift was so new, and loved for itself; for who could forget the true glory of such a gift. One or the other would start to embrace and reawaken the gift, only to find along with the true joy, some mysterious counterfeit interior to deeper realms; places that they did not wish to visit or recreate, for different reasons; perhaps the fear of stirring up the ghost of an angry Father, or the sleeping lions of complacency.

The sisters cried out to God; one lamenting the loss of her trust, the other her full spectrum of childhood in its innocence. By the middle years, these sisters had long suffered grief, & a multitude of fools. Though thought to make one strong it was vexing to the heart. True conviction, burned silently away. After smoldering in a lake of embers, land mines would erupt randomly, & misdirected bullets from old family battles would come between each other, and the gift. This was truly a war waged in opposition to their soul’s desire.

Even so, the gift was still a gift; intact, and given from a perfect giver, the Father of lights, who spared not even the gift above all, that of his beloved son, for the benefit of his children. None could destroy a gift such as this; His beauteous gift, and plan of salvation, not made with human hands, not warranted, or earned. This gift called Jesus was not summoned by vain bids, or cajoled by promises of a return gift equal in value. He has given a multitude of gifts; among them the gift of a beautiful friendship to two sisters.

It has been sorely tested, in spirit a diamond in the fires, vibrant, and alive as ever;  In the physical realm, it appears a hollowed out jigsaw of  the greater treasure it once was in the splendor of  early childhood years when there was no forethought, guile, or jaded perceptions.

The gift will go on. Two sisters will determine its worth to themselves, and their part in a whole-hearted pursuit of its contents, the optimum blessings thereof, and ultimately the holy purpose for which the giver intended.

With all their vices and virtues, a true yielding to their Savior, and with a willingness to go forward in renewed passion, may they place the star of this gift above some others, and let it shine once again for Christ’s sake and God’s kingdom come.

Cynthia Lamanna has over the years written a variety of short and longer pieces: essays, short stories, devotionals, and work in other genres. She’s looking for opportunities for publication – freelance or agented – and can be reached at cynthialamanna@yahoo.com She would also be interested in any feedback related to self-publishing companies and/or paid freelance writing sites.

Letting everyone know about a relatively new website, MySoiree, http://www.mysoiree.net, where people may showcase, buy and sell various kinds of artwork. What makes this place unique is the cosmopolitan warm feel to the site and the way the publicists reach out and promote people’s work and the local, physical events which occur throughout the world related to this site. Many times artists will host get-togethers at their galleries or in cafes for artists and the interested public to meet each other…all upcoming events listed on the left side of mysoiree.net and they’re really social and networking events, not just unveilings to potential buyers.

The artwork is reasonably priced here – artists set their own prices and some featured pieces are pricey, but there’s work available for every budget, classy pieces for anywhere from $10 to $3000. The focus is on community and locating and finding one’s global market and becoming accessible to them.

There are a bunch of online shopping sites, of course, and many places to showcase one’s art online. But MySoiree caught my interest because one of their publicists/artists reached out to Synchronized Chaos through our Wednesday Writers Facebook group…they have a very excited, dedicated, interesting group of people who are all part of building this project and who believe in what they are doing.

Also – as mentoring and collaboration among writers is part of Synchronized Chaos’ mission and why this magazine got started…here’s a mentorship opportunity that would be great for Christians here, but I don’t think religious faith should be a requirement simply for sharing professional advice with these folks:

Inner-city Oakland’s School of Urban Missions, a ministry training college, seeks volunteer mentors to work with their students on English composition, writing, publicity and marketing, etc. Students are all passionate and driven to communicate professionally but have not all had the opportunity for much formal education.

They would love to be in touch with writing mentors in the Bay Area or elsewhere. The school is online at www.sum.edu and here is the call for mentors:

Our Bible College specializes in training urban ministry leaders.  Many of our students come from the streets.  They are solidly saved and have a heart and passion for serving Jesus Christ.  Unfortunately, many of our students also come from underserved and educationally challenged urban environments.  Some of our students did not even finish high school – they came to us with their hard-earned GED and a calling.  We do not have an English department and the teachers we have are not able to fully provide all of the English support classes and seminars our students need.  We need seminar teachers, substitute teachers and mentors for our students.   

Do you have a database of local Christian writers to whom we can appeal?  Or perhaps a local chapter meeting or guild where we can present our needs?  We are a quality, accredited Bible College with great students.  With your help, we can make them better.   

Please let me know if you have any ideas, have local contacts or know of any other local English resources for our college.   

In His Grace, 

Mark Fagerstrom

Vice President of Student Ministries

School of Urban Mission

www.sum.edu

(510) 567-6174 x120