Death

Three days this past week I got word of three deaths. Two were of older men, the father of an experienced teacher at my current school and the father of the principal of my school on Dominica. Any death is hard to bear, particularly for those close, but these two men had lived long successful lives. In such cases we tend to think of the greeting “well done good and faithful servant.” In my part of Ghana we would wear white to indicate a life fully spent.

The third death I heard about was of a younger man who taught French when I was teaching at my school in Ghana. We lived in the same compound when I served there. People will wear red to the funeral to indicate a death of someone full of life cut short.


Mr. Roland

My friend
Mr. Roland was a very dedicated teacher, a hard working man, full of life and smiles. He was friendly and helpful to everyone he met. While we can use the same saying about his life of service to ease our grief, it is harder not to dwell on the tragedy of the loss.

He died of an illness while in the hospital. I don’t know the exact details, don’t know if he had been born in Europe if he would still be alive, and I don’t know the mind of God. But my simple shortsighted mind thinks his death was unfair and untimely.

My sincere condolences to his family, friends and students. He was so young and had so much to offer. He will be missed. We need time to grieve and morn. My sympathies to all currently grieving a loss.



Teachers at the school when I was there.
Many of us have been touched by a close death. Mr. Roland was not the first, second, or even third close friend who died much too early and unfairly.

But as President Lincoln said – we need to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they have so nobly advanced. So for Roland, Theresa, Wendy, Kevin, Georgia, Patty, and all the rest I continue to try to help make the world a better place.

I am blessed to have lived these years, 60 tomorrow, and to now have the opportunity to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. As I’ve said before – each person has a unique role and opportunity to make the world a better place each day where they are – working for a corporation or for themselves, enjoying grandkids, going to school, confined to a bed, whatever. Even if we struggle to put food on the table we can make the world a little better for someone else. Is there a better way to live? A better way to be happy?


Beryl


Beryl, thanks to the cooler Atlantic, weakened rather than strengthened on its way to Dominica. It was not a major event when it passed by Dominica and Guadeloupe from what friends have said. Everyone safe and the road to Tete Morne survived fine as did the rest of the island. Some minor erosion problems, but nothing the locals can’t handle. I hope it stays that way for the rest of the season.

Apologies


Finally, my apologies for not properly publishing my post last week.  I am sometimes rushing and focused on final edits.  There is the last step of actually publishing the blog and last work I forgot that step.

Love always,
John

Comments

  1. Hello how are you?
    My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near Madrid. I am a person very interested in knowing things related to the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc., in summary, I am a person who enjoys traveling , learning and respecting the diversity of people from all over the world.

    I love to travel and know all the aspects mentioned in person, but unfortunately, since this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, I came up with a way to travel with imagination to all corners of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of stamps since this activity allows me to know in an original way some aspects such as fauna, flora, characters, monuments, etc. of all countries. As unfortunately, every day it is more difficult to get stamps, some time ago I started another collection in which my goal would be to get at least one letter from each country and territory with postal autonomy in the world. This modest objective is feasible to achieve in most countries, but unfortunately it is impossible to achieve in other different territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty, they are territories with small population or because any reason, their postal system is not working properly.

    For all this I would like to ask you a small favor:

    Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Dominica? I understand perfectly that you think your blog is not the right place to ask this, and even, it is very probably that you will ignore my letter, but I would like to draw your attention about the difficulty that I have in receiving a letter from that country, besides, I do not know anyone or where to write in Dominica in order to increase my collection. A letter for me is like a small souvenir, it's as if I had visited that country with my imagination and at the same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way of promoting a country in the world. My postal address is as follows:

    Emilio Fernandez Esteban
    Calle Valencia, 39
    28903 Getafe (Madrid)
    Spain

    I would also like to invite you to visit my blog: www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com there, if you wish you can take a look at my collection and in this way understand in a more graphic way why I make this request.

    Finally, I would like to thank you for the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my sincere wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your loved ones.

    Sincerely

    Emilio Fernandez

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pito – brewed millet

Yam harvesting

Mid-service Training