Hey Guys, I am trying this group e-mail thing out.
Geoff and Heather, I will send e-mails to both addresses; that should work. Thank you for the pics. they really cheered me up. And, unfortunately, I didn't come accross the "wondershammy" booth, although I laughed my ass off at your mention of it. I didn't tell you that I was crying on the phone when I was talking to you because I was afraid that I would lose all composure and start balling completely.
This afternoon, I went to The Landis Valley Museum with a dude named Micah who is going to Haiti with his wife. He's a good guy with a beard that he's been growing for just over a year. We listened to disc two of the Jerry Band on the way to and from the museum. Normally, I'd be bored out of my skull at a rural America museum, but Micah seemed to know quite a bit about agriculture and horsies; and he said he was a history buff. I thought it was dirty and smelled like shit, but I enjoyed Micah's enjoyment. We had a good couple-hour tour then talked with one of the employees. She was telling us that Gettysburg is only about an hour drive from here and that it is in Pa. On the 1,2,3, of July, every year, they re-enact the battle (cause their crazy) and she plays the role of a nurse. She said she loves it. She told us about General Lee's plans to attack Washington DC from the north but the burned-out bridge meant he had to backtrack and the battle of Gettysburg was never intended by the South. They won the first day, the second was a stalemate, and the third day, the Yanks drove the South back and out. I guess DC is only about a two-hour drive from here.
For dinner, about thirty of us orientees went to a real, straight-up Amish home. It was really cool; they don't use any electricity. Even the lights in the house were kerosene (maybe propane, I dunno). They had a gas stove and presumably a gas fridge. They did have indoor plumbing and decorations on the walls and all that. The food was what it was. You know me, the worse it seems, the more I say "I love it." I choked it down, basically, and kept on thinking of Marion Goode and mom's Menno bread-buying days and how I stopped eating bread for those years. There's something about that sweet taste that wants to close my throat.After dinner, the couple sang to us. They told us a little bit about themselves. They must be in their sixties, with 6 children, 27 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren, and her mother is still alive. What is that, four living generations? And all living in the same community!
She told us a story about her father's favourite song - a four verse ballad about the road to heaven and the new home there. Her father had gotten vocal chord cancer and they removed his voice-box. He had to speak through the little deal he held up to his throat. I was not about to ask how they justified that use of electricity, maybe it didn't use it, I dunno. Then she told us how, at a family dinner, her father had a heart attack and died at the table, which was good, she said, because he didn't have to die of cancer. Then her and her husband sang us this song; it was so beautiful and they harmonized so well (no instruments), I had no shame in letting the tears roll down me cheeks. Then they asked us to sing and guess what...the Doxology, although they called it "606!" The girl, Etta, sitting beside me doesn't have a Menno background either, so when they said the first line, asking if anyone knew it, we led it and sang it beautifully. After the AMEN, the one daughter (maybe forty, or so) spoke up and said we did it wrong, in fact, we had cheated and she wanted us to sing the "606." I later found out that is the number of the song in the Menno hymnal, which they still use, which goes back to the late 1500's. Hmm, I guess our family has the "wrong" tune, but we still carry on an Anabaptist tradition. The Menno's in the group sang it in rounds, by a different tune, and it was really cool.
On the way home I realized that we were passing through a community called Intercourse. I leaned over to Micah, laughing, and he told me that he was at the market and saw a big foam hat, which read "Intercourse, right in the middle of Blueball and Paradise." I asked if he was serious and yes, there are three towns named that, with Intercourse in the middle. HA Ha Ha. I wished he would have bought the hat; he said it was a degrading tourism move; I said I didn't care. We also passed the "American Military Edged Weaponry Museum." I had another good laugh. On the way to and from the farm, I sang the first six songs from Strangers and Exiles to myself to pass the time.
I was talking with the bus driver before we had left the farm and she was telling me that she is Mid-Atlantic Mennonite Conference and they are middle of the road in terms of conversative vs. liberal. They wear dresses and baskets on the head, type-deal. She said that there is no TV, but VCR's can play "educational" videos, like VeggieTales. She said they do use computers, no Internet. Her sons are not allowed to wear shorts. When I asked why, she said it was "a trend of the world." I smiled, looked down at my shorts, and said "I thought it was a trend to stay cool." She just smiled at me.
I bought Q-Tips finally and my ears are happy. I think I was telling Geoff on the phone that when I tried to buy them at the Green Dragon Market, which I've described in a previous e-mail, I think, the first layer of Q-tips had been used. Seriously!
I am going to church tomorrow with Mark and Andrea Stoner-Lehman who will be in the WestBank, starting in September. They are from Lancaster, which is near here, and will take me to their home church. I like them; which is good. They are about my age. We were in an under-thirty read-the-Bible-out-loud group last week.
This is the second time I have written this missive; the first was wiped out when I was fiddling with my address book; no worries, this version is more complete and, I feel, better.
It's twenty-to-ten and I think I will read a bit before "retiring" for the evening. If you don't want to recieve these e-mails because my choice of language in communication bothers you, let me know, and I will delete your name from my list. Geoff Birch, would you mind telling me how you send out group e-mails without having all the names take up the first lines of the letter?
And Tinworth, I have no idea which e-mail is yours, so I am sending to both in my list, let me know, eh?
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