thoughts from a friend . . . & me

Ok, fact: we are about 20 months into our first "making life work in another culture" phase of life and well, as you may have noticed (and I am not asking for confessions of this!) we have been less than exciting bloggers . . . less than informative regarding our new home, surroundings & friends over the past 8 months or so.

I have several excuses to give, but to save you the boredom of reading them, suffice it to say that we have been in survival mode for some time. There have been many adjustments mentally, spiritually and physically and some days it is all we (read "really it's just me, but sounds better to speak for our whole family" . . . you know, when mama aint right, aint nobody right!) can do to make it to dinnertime in one piece.

So, to remedy this, I have pirated our friend's blog. (when in Rome . . . )

but first, some thoughts from me . . .

My friend Tash (who's husband wrote this entry) and I were taking a girl day while her family was out of town and we walked the WHOLE day. It was refreshing...the weather was clear, sunny and surprisingly clean after a nice spring rain, so we walked . . . from 10:30 am through lunch on to about 5 in the evening. As we walked in one particular part of the city, we realized that there were tons of people alongside the rode with items for sale laid out on large blankets or tarps. At first I was excited . . . it was like a huge garage sale and there were tons of old, very interesting looking items. What a find! But my excitement quickly turned to sadness as it became harder and harder for Tash and I to hear one another . . . over the blaring loud speakers overhead shouting out "NOW is a good time to move" over and over and over again. It struck me that where I come from, those loud speakers would have been shot down after the first hour, or at the very least, the first time I was trying to get some sleep and couldn't! But these people were sitting quietly at the edge of the street, many of their belongings strewn about on a blanket, some playing cards, enjoying the weather, some napping, some eying the two foreigners strolling the street . . . but all seemingly oblivious to the blaring voice overhead telling them that it was time to move . . .

here is our friend's thoughts on it . . .

In a previous post I wrote of my unhealthy obsession with demolition. Around these parts there’s plenty of it going down and the character/word chai, as pictured below, is plastered over every part of the building within reach of the aerosol wielding “artist”. Chai means demolish.

For me the word chai has begun to symbolize my city as I see it multiple times every day. I’d become a little too fascinated with it. I had plans to turn it into art. “Chai art”. And then of course plaster it on T-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, and anything else that might sell. So I set out to make myself into the famous and rich artist I deserved to be.

I started by photographing every chai (demolish) I saw on a local six storey building only to discover that the neighbouring building was also covered in demolish and the next and the next… two entire city blocks. In all about 15 buildings each containing at least 48 homes and multiple small businesses. That’s about 720 homes. The ground floors of these six storey buildings were tagged with demolish and professionally painted propaganda slogans stating, “Leave early and stay safe” and “Live peacefully move soon”.

Demolition companies are contracted to flatten the old buildings and encourage the locals to move soon, stay safe and live peacefully. They achieve this by first knocking down community facilities like bicycle sheds, add-on storage rooms and small private markets that are out of “building code”. Once flattened the rubble from these illegal annexes is left awkwardly strewn across the common space. Then to make the environment more peaceful, loud speakers are strung up high and turned on full with a polite reassuring voice firmly reminding the locals from early in the day until late into the evening that, “NOW would be the best time to move”.

These looped announcements are so loud that it’s difficult to hold a conversation. I had some friendly yellversations with a few of the locals who explained there’s nothing they can do stop all this. They thought my country must be better than theirs… I felt sad, and they humiliated. They were losing their home.

To begin to understand, imagine a developer sending in some slack-jaw-yokel to tag demolish all over your house because they planned to buy it off you. Then to help you "understand" signs are placed all over your front yard explaining why it’s best to take the money and leave now. And then your house is blasted with a friendly looped message that reminds you to move before they cut off your water, gas, electricity, telephone and public heating pipes before the sub-zero winter sets in.

As I continued on from the demolition site a young guy handed me a flyer encouraging me buy a beautiful new apartment to be built in the same location. It was full of thesaurus English in fancy script font, which made little sense, “Harmonic living style”, “Passivity abode”, “Jubilant exist delight”.

I’m not so chai any more.

so, an interesting, albeit not so uplifting, look into our world . . .

But as I thought about it while writing (pirating) this entry, I remember a time in Decatur when the Swendsen's Florist on Water St. would not sell their property. Everyone around them had sold and had been knocked down, ready to begin the building of a strip mall that now houses my beloved Panara Bread, I thought how different it was. Then we often thought: "oh you silly people! sell it! they are already getting ready to build . . . you're not going to really stay, just sell already!" but now I see it quite differently, I suppose. I know the circumstances are not the same, and no, Swendsen's was not being threatened with loss of power/water/heat . . . but when you have settled your life in a place for years, who wants to be "bought out" so that all your memories can be concreted over to make yummy lunches for the likes of me?

It may sound, smell and taste different, but it's all still life, isn't it?