Over the past few weeks we have been given the opportunity to participate in many cultural events. However, tonight’s had to be one of my favorites thus far–we were invited to attend a funeral for one of the elderly people who had passed away in the community. Although this sounds like a sad event, it actually was very exciting.

The African culture has an interesting way of honoring their family and friends when they pass on. The entire community comes out to celebrate the person’s life, by singing, dancing, and most importantly, eating amazing food. One of unique things about this culture is that when an elderly person passes, the community will wait 40 days, and then hold a celebration for everyone in the neighborhood. They do not see the sadness in death, but instead, highlight the happiness of that individual’s life. This, I feel, is how a person should be honored when they die.

In our culture, when someone passes away, the funeral tends to be a solemn and secluded event. In the African culture, however, the person is honored by a joyous celebration and the whole community is invited. Young and old, they gathered in the basement of the Root Cellar to participate in this amazing event. The African culture is beautifully displayed throughout every part of the ceremony. It is amazing! I never thought something so sad could be so joyous. The three of us felt very privileged to share such an event with the families of the community.

Waking up at 9:45, taking a ferry ride to a secluded island, eating free lunch, and spending a whole afternoon on a beach, in the sun, on the ocean. Sounds like a pretty sweet gig to me.

Yesterday we got to spend the day on Long Island, with some of the staff of The Root Cellar. The Root Cellar is a Christian outreach ministry located near government subsidized housing here in Portland. For the next five weeks we will be working along side them doing different outreach projects like Bible Club, Kid’s Club, neighborhood dinners, and Friday and Saturday night teen centers.

Most of their ministry revolves around building relationships, so the majority of our time and the mission trip teams will be building relationships with the kids of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is made up of primarily African immigrants, representing close to 50 different nations.

We will be staying in two different locations. For the larger teams we will be staying in the Portland YMCA. Today we got to go and check out the facilities, we will be staying in a new section of the building, sleeping on the floor of a gym. For the smaller groups we will be staying at the First Free Methodist Church, just down the road from The Root Cellar. The trustees in the church have been very gracious to us.

All of the people that we have met, and have been working with are great, we can not ask for more from a location. So far it seems that Portland will be a very good area to work in. Our first team arrives on Sunday night–we will begin on Monday morning by doing some small chores at The Root Cellar, and also working on some painting in the Church. Everyone here is really excited about getting so much help this summer. We hope and pray that our presence has a lasting impact on the people we come in contact with!

Noah