Thursday, March 10, 2005 - The following is a letter that I received from Yuoo about a trip he went on over the past three days. It begins on Tuesday, two days ago.
Dear diary,
I wasn’t able to write yesterday or the day before, but it is now Spring Break for me, and I am with the goodbeasts of Mortar Abbey on a pilgrimage. Early Sunday morning, we set out on a long journey, going from Loblolly, traveling south to a land called Arcadia. Arcadia is a farming place, and many creatures there are poor. Several months ago, a hurricane hit Arcadia very bad, and many creatures lost their homes. Although a hurricane is never good for anybeast, it was very harsh for those here because their houses were flimsy, and they have little money to rebuild with. Although there are many types of creatures here, most of them are Conejos. (pronounced “co-NAY-hoes”)
Many of the Conejos here travel from place to place harvesting crops, usually for really low wages, and thus many of these creatures are poor.
We came here to help out a Sister Abbey, called Orange Grove Abbey, which specializes in giving aide to Conejo families is who need it. Sunday night we arrived at an inn in Arcadia, which is conveniently located next to a Super Wal-Mart store. I believe by human counterpart has already told you the story of how Wal-Mart found a way to jump from his universe to mine. [see entry for June 18, 2004]
Anyway, Sunday evening Abbot Rains, our beloved Father badger, lead us in a time of song and worship, and he told us what we were to expect over the next few days. I have been sharing a room with an otter named Eric and a mouse whose name I do not recall. After sending a message by carrier pigeon to my friend Aurrin Lightpaw, I went to sleep for what would be a very long day the next day. After a breakfast of honey scones, boiled eggs, and fruit juice, we came to Orange Grove Abbey to help out. Orange Grove is a place where they take care of little Conejito children while their parents are out working hard. Yesterday, we helped by maintaining the abbey grounds while the little Conejitos ran around wild, playing and screaming! It amazes me to see how much energy they have. I wish I were that enthusiastic about finishing my schoolwork.
In addition to assisting the frantic, eternally-multitasking Sisters (and one Brother) of Orange Grove, we helped with some gardening and yard work, helping keep the abbey in tip-top shape. Unfortunately, I’m not used to working out in the hot sun. You might find it strange that a Fennec fox would be sensitive to the heat and sun, but you see, I never was an outdoorsy fox, and I spend most of my time at school in the alchemy laboratories, learning from books. Thus, by the end of the day, I was very weak and tired, and I had an ear-drooping whopper of a headache. Since Orange Grove Abbey is dependent on donated foods, our lunches there weren’t exactly on the same par as Redwall cuisine. Yesterday evening, we went to see the ocean. The breeze was cool, and the sunset was beautiful, but I couldn’t enjoy it as much due to the afore-mentioned headache. Still, it was nice.
I’m a bit embarrassed to say this, but I’ve met a young maid that I like, and I think she’s pretty. She’s a slender volemaid with brown fur. Her name is Sade. (pronounced “sha-dae”) Last night, I helped fix her computer. It had a few bugs crawling around in it, nothing downright dangerous but enough trouble to be very annoying, so I cleaned the bugs out and I started immunizing. Today has been much easier than yesterday because it was raining, so we helped with the Dibbuns (children) indoors. It seems that caring for Dibbuns is incredibly hard work, and even the smartest of creatures make some mistakes, but when you have love, things seemed to fall into place. The Dibbuns are having their nap time now, so I have time here to write. I shall continue this evening.
. . .
I’m sitting here at the playground in a swing. I just got finished pushing some cute Conejitos in a tire swing. I went to a site for some construction cleanup work. We were removing debris from an old building, and it was my job to haul bags to the dumpster. A couple of maids, one of them an otter and the other a Highland hare, were tossing out rusty shafts of aluminum for me to dispose of, and they decided to have a contest to see who could throw their aluminum shafts like javelins the furthest, and I, on the ground, had to trust in their judgment to keep from being skewered like a Fennec shish-kebab! :-) I guess their judgment is good because I am alive. I also disposed of bags of old, broken tile, which was nice except that sometimes the sharp edges of tile broke out of the sack and poked me.
. . .
It is now Wednesday morning. After showering, eating breakfast, and clipping my muzzle, I am now traveling to Orange Grove Abbey for what will be our last day of there. I have a feeling that I will miss my little Conejitos. This morning I ate breakfast a bit early, so I was in the company of a troupe of hares. There’s a national collegiate baseball tournament underway near Arcadia, and several baseball teams are staying at the inn with us.
Oh, I just remembered something from yesterday! Before we left for the day, there was a small building they needed us to demolish, an old smokehouse with a wooden roof. Several of us took swings at it with a sledgehammer. I took one swing at the beginning, but I mostly watched because I don’t fancy having a building fall on top of me. The monstrous beast was finally felled by Eric the otter. He knocked the last support board out of place, and he jumped away just in time as it came crashing down!
. . .
It’s about noon now and we just got back from some work; now we're breaking for lunch. Four of us went to a new place to play with some Conejitos staying there. The two males, an echidna named Matthew and myself, helped out with the two-year-olds, and the two maids helped out with the infants. My favorite Dibbun there was a little dragon whelp named Dreco. I read a storybook to him in English and in Spanish. This trip has been a good opportunity to practice my Spanish with the Conejos. In case you don’t know, “conejo” is the Spanish word for rabbit, and a conejito is a baby bunny. Please don’t think that my human is being a racist when he chooses an animal species to depict a particular ethnic group. Creatures’ species are a reflection of their personality rather than their physical appearance, although you’d be surprised how often the two coincide. The important thing is that we judge a creature by their merit and not their species.
. . .
It’s now evening, and I’m writing this here in the inn. After a very delicious lunch provided by the Sisters of Orange Grove, I spent the rest of the afternoon helping teach a class of three-and-four-year-olds. I left that classroom with my nerves frazzled and my tail in a knot. Those Dibbuns were so hyper! I have a lot of respect for those teachers who do this every day. At storytime, I tried to read them Green Eggs and Ham, and some of them listened, but others were hitting each other or insisting that I read other books. When I was helping them write thier ABCs, there was one little sugar-crazed Conejito that kept eating the crayons. In the midst of the chaos, one of the teachers called me out to help somebeast in the office order a new battery for their camera.
. . .
That evening, after saying some sad goodbyes to the Conejitos, we left Orange Grove on our last day, and we ate dinner at a nice Conejo restaurant. I had a delicious Burrito San Diego. After that, back at the inn, I tried to fix Sade’s computer a little more. I tried to summon a wall of fire to protect her system, but I ended up removing it later. That’s the trouble with students like myself. When we try to help people, we do solve the problem, but then we go overboard and tried to do extra things that they don’t really need. Still, it was fun helping, and I know she appreciated it. I also told her that I think she’s really nice. I feel a little awkward about it, but I guess that’s how things are supposed to be.
. . .
It’s now Thursday morning, and I’m traveling back to Loblolly with my friend Matthew the echidna. We left Arcadia about an hour ago, and we just dropped Mary off at her parents’ house. I plan to spend the rest of this trip musing. The palm trees to either side of the road will quickly turn into pines and oaks as the trip progresses. When I get home, I’ll be really lazy until school starts again. I did enjoy this trip. I wouldn’t say that it changed my life, but maybe it did. For one thing, the construction work in the hot sun reminded me exactly why I go to school and study! Also, I enjoyed being around new people. I’m terrible at remembering names, you see. There are a lot of creatures at Mortar Abbey that I wave hello to but don’t really know personally, and this trip helped me with that. I think the added stress was good for me too. I’m not advocating the life of a stoic lemming, but I do think I’ve been living really soft lately, and this trip was just the thing to put the brush back on my tail. My muscles and tendons are a bit harder, and I’ve gotten a glimpse of what the real world is like outside the safety and comfort of my daily routines.
Let’s see, what else? Well, I had fish for lunch one day. If you’ve read the previous diary entries written about me, you might find it strange that I brag each time I eat a piece of meat, but then again, how many vegetarian Fennec foxes do you know? Since I started school, I’ve gone through a lot of changes. I’m proud of these changes, but sometimes I resented the people who helped bring about these changes. That’s why I’m usually conscientious of appearing too extreme (eg, too liberal or too conservative) to others, even though they know I’m not.
. . .
Well, we’re about 2/3 the way home now. I’m listening to Matthew’s Beatles album. Some of their later songs are really weird, not what I’m used to hearing. I was surprised to hear their song Octopus’s Garden because I used to listen to that song on a children’s music tape all the time when I was a kit. According to my GPS, we’re only 146km from home. Yesterday, I asked Abbot Rains, “What have we accomplished here? Was our work life changing, or was it merely a token designed for publicity and donations?”
He replied, “Well, I wouldn’t call it life changing, but it was definitely much more than a token. Showing the creatures of Arcadia that we care about them is a very important thing.”
Friday, March 18, 2004 - Like the previous diary entry, today's entry will be different than usual. Usually, I write these diary entries from Yuoo's perspective (usually in the third person, but sometimes in first person, like the previous entry), but in today's entry, I think it's best if I speak about myself instead of Yuoo (as the human and not the talking fox).
Last week, after my church mission trip, I was talking with my friend. He roleplays as a fox named Aurrin Lightpaw, so I'll refer to my friend as Aurrin from now on. Aurrin is a college student who lives one state away from myself. Lately, we've become good friends, so we decided to meet each other. It was very much a spur-of-the-moment decision because it was Saturday night when I left.
Well, it's been a few days since the trip, and I don't really feel like giving a moment-by-moment account of what we did, like I did on the previous diary entry, but we had a good time doing all things foxy, you might say. :-) This is the first time I've met a chatting friend of mine face to face. When you get to know someone well enough by reading their stories, viewing their artwork, chatting with them, seeing their picture, and hearing their voice on the telephone, but there are always small subtle things that don't get filled in until you meet them. There were no huge surprises for me (like meeting someone with a hockey mask and a chainsaw), but a bunch of infinitly-small surprises have a way of integrating themselves into one big surprise. Aurrin gave me a tour of his school, a place that I refer to as Garnet in this diary. I look forward to the day when he can come visit me.
Sunday, March 27, 2005 - Happy Easter! Today's Easter service at Mortar Abbey was a special one. Everybeast there was dressed up in their flowery finest, making the congregation look cartons of colored Easter Eggs. For the occasion, Yuoo starched and ironed his green monk's habit. Toward the end of the service, a young mousemaid gave a beautiful interpretive dance. One of Yuoo's and my favorite songs was playing, celebrating the love of Aslan, and the mouse's dance seemed to express the words with motion. She was wearing a dress that seemed to blossom like a flower when she spun around, and she had pretty ribbons strung from the end of her tail. It was a very nice day. Tonight, they are having a communal meal, and Yuoo is bringing a nice salad. ;-)