Experts in Miscellaneous
“Dude, that guy is a liar,” our volunteer said to me as our other dinner guests drove away. “No way he has done all that stuff.”
Our friend Scotty had been regaling our twenty-something volunteers with tales of stock car racing, roasting award-winning chili peppers, jumping out of planes with the special forces, getting into Brigham Young on a dance scholarship and sailing a boat around the world.
“Just wait,” I told the volunteers. “When you get to be 70, you’ll sound like that too.”
I’m not quite there yet, but already the litany of things I’ve done in my life sounds dubious. For my coworkers who are this year celebrating 45 years as a non-profit and 30 years in Nicaragua, they’ve put Scotty’s stories to shame.
Mike, Kathleen and Sarah started the Jubilee House Community in North Carolina in 1979; Kathy and her sister Pat, who passed away in 2018, joined in 1987. Together, they are our “Founding Generation” and the nature of our work – doing whatever is most needed to help the poor improve their lives – has meant that they’ve needed to become experts in a laundry list of areas over the decades, always in response to surrounding needs.
Collectively, they have (in no particular order):
Run a propane-fueled bus on a Managua route to support bus co-op
Made and sold tie-dyed t-shirts to help fund a N.C. battered women’s shelter
Sprouted mung beans to sell in grocery stores, working with small growers
Worked double shifts on the production line of a cut and sew shop, designing, cutting & trouble-shooting, to meet organic clothing standards for women’s co-op
Developed curriculum and taught English language classes
Developed an encyclopedic knowledge of medicines & an ability to dispense them accurately & efficiently to hundreds of patients a day, following Hurricane Mitch’s destruction
Run a Chinese food truck helping to fund work with the homeless in N.C.
Become experts at starting vehicles anywhere by pushing, throwing diesel on the carburetor and/or wiggling pertinent wires
Become competent writers, editors, publishers and bookbinders publishing newsletters & a cookbook as a fundraiser for Nicaragua projects.
Those are just the fun jobs. In between, there is a litany of hard and often boring work to keep this crazy show on the road and do whatever it takes to make people's lives a little bit better:
Done millions of loads of shelter laundry to keep people clean, made millions of meals to feed folks
Celebrating 45 years as an organization has led us to reflect on accomplishments over those decades and reminisce about all the crazy schemes we've not only cooked up, but also somehow carried out.
Mike is fond of telling me, “I’ve taught you everything you know, but I haven't taught you everything I know.” While I don't exactly aspire to master the finer points of culling rotten mung bean sprouts, I take his point. While we know it's time for our younger folks to step up, we still rely on our elders’ experience and guidance. We are a multi-generational group, and there is a place for everyone.
As our Founding Generation pulls back from the day-to-day work and plays a supporting role, the cast of Jubilee House: The Next Generation is preparing for our Season One. We - Becca, Paul, Daniel, Claudia and Neil - are in the process of taking baby steps. We are planning the next five years: in 2029 the Jubilee House Community will celebrate 50 years!
Claudia, Daniel, Neil, Becca, Paul
Where will we be at our 50th Anniversary?
Stay tuned as we begin to roll out our plans over the next few months. We're pretty sure that by the time we've hit 50, you will all be saying, “Dude, there's no way they've done all that stuff.” - Becca