• March 24-30, 2017
Poetry
Page 13
NEW PORTLANDERS, from page 7
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their four children identify more as Mozambican than American,
said Cowley.
As a family, they understand the challenges of adapting to
different cultures.
“We have been outsiders, but we have privilege because we
come with money,” he said. “So, the plight of refugees is
something we relate to a little bit, not from the hardship
perspective, but from an acculturation perspective.”
Cowley grew up a “military brat” in the suburbs of
Pennsylvania and Virginia, but was introduced to traveling abroad
when he went on a mission to Portugal when he was in high
school.
His wife, Naomi, is American but grew up in Brazil, where her
parents taught literacy to an Amazonian tribe and translated the
Bible into the local language.
After meeting at a small Ohio college in the early 1990s, the
couple married and started a family, but were both drawn to
traveling the world while working with nonprofits as they raised
their kids.
Before moving to Portland this past year, they had spent 13
years in Malawi and Mozambique, where Cowley produced a
documentary film series called “Sick in Africa.”
While living abroad, Cowley said he saw first-hand “a lot of the
handout mentality, and how that just destroyed people’s whole
way of being.”
For example, he said, donated clothing from first-world
countries had undercut and destroyed local textile markets in
Africa.
“I think the best way of helping people isn’t through giving
money, but supporting them through business or something like
that,” Cowley explained, “because there’s no issues with a
dominant versus a subservient.”
by Henry Miller
As the time slowly ticks away
I watch your life so softly fade
Thinking of all the days we shared
And all the memories that we’ve made
To lose a dear old friend like you
Is going to hurt me down to the core
But that s a selfish thought of my own
When it’s you who will hurt no more
With so very many ups and downs
Yet we could always find a smile
So many times talking of tomorrow
Thinking surely we’d have a while
But again this world will show us
How our time is a precious thing
To enjoy our friends through every day
Never knowing what tomorrow will bring
Now your soul is free to wander
Doing all you ever wanted to
As you gaze far down upon me
You’ll know I always think of you
emily@streetroots. org
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