Ode to Jerman Disasa

The purpose and contents of this blog is still to be determined. Mainly I'm starting this site because I want to have an efficient way to communicate with people while I'm off adventuring. Let's be honest though, I don't ever read people's blogs, I much prefer the mass email approach. So maybe I'll do both. I've been struggling with this blog because I don't want to give the impression that I think transformative and noteworthy experiences can only happen when you travel, because that is so not the case which is why I'm starting this thing a whole two weeks before I leave...

Jerman Disasa, the most incredible man on earth, has transformed my life more than any other person or experience I've ever had. So I thought a little shout out to him was only appropriate, especially since he just filled a great void in my life. I'd been trying to think of a word to describe myself and my tendency to wander a lot. Nomad and tumbleweed came to mind, but I just felt like they didn't really do the job. Then I get an email from Jerman calling me a "gypsy woman." I'd never been called a gypsy before and I always thought of it as a negative sort of word, but I'm honored to be called one. Now I just need to acquire some fun skirts and learn how to belly dance!

Seriously, though, Jerman is amazing and everyone that meets him immediately recognizes his awesomeness. He has taught me so much in the few years that I've known him. I remember in high school sitting in sunday school and this adorable little Ethopian man coming to talk to a bunch of uninterested high schoolers about a school in Ethopia. Who knew that a couple years later I would be graced with the presence of the same man running around PC's campus everyday! Oh, I'm so thankful for that. Running, not because he was in a rush, but because its good for you and he likes it, or getting to see him "struggle" in the pool in Springs on winter afternoons.

He is such an incredible teacher, he doesn't even need to use words. Those summers at CHAMPS (the most intense two weeks one can have) he would sit in GDH and compose the most random cacophony of food imaginable-eating salads topped with brownies and then topped with ranch dressing-gross! But he doesn't care about taste, he knows that the point of food is to nourish the body (and feed his wolf, what he affectionately calls his stomach.)

Always driving and caring for the "blue donkey," his old little honda. "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I can just see him riding in that little donkey making his youngest son record the number of red and green lights they pass. Always carrying around his little note pad to write down inspiring thoughts. Or turning off the water in the shower, or not using a washing machine-just little steps that he makes to be a good steward of our resources.

"It takes more than one finger to pick up a pebble," he said to me knowing that I struggle with letting others help me. So prophetic and so gentle, he is. I have honestly never seen that man not wearing a smile, even when he has a neck brace on and his wife is in the hospital. Like nobody else that I've ever met, he rejoices in each day and is thankful for it.

I'm so glad to have him as a friend!