Reflection on Be Hope To Her

Here's an inspirational piece (written in collaboration by Nuru Media) on what it means to “Be Hope to Her”:

Water.
Life.
The daily need.
Shared by all,
Humanity.

Earth.
Skin.
Cracked dry as dust.
Inescapable thirst.

Here the dividing line is drawn.
The hemispheric separation
Of faucet and family:
The many muddy miles to fill your child’s cup
A never-ending necessity.

With salted brow and weary step
As duty leads the way,
Her journey--no stranger,
The miles--no friend,
She traverses day by day

Toiling without a passing nod.
In torrid heat, dark-red-earth-sod.
Though urban streets and crowded quads:
With her, we walk.

We will walk.
Boldly, step upon rugged step,
To advocate for the millions bearing the load,
Gallon after gallon along that road.

With yellow buckets
Our makeshift crowns,
Today we walk for her.

Enduring weight
For justice’s sake,
Bringing change to her

Together in stride.
Her future our pride.
We will walk,
And be hope
To her

Be Hope To Her (B H2o+) Video

This video is only 1 min, 27 secs long. Check it out.

We Will Walk from BH2O+ on Vimeo.

long time no post

Yes, I know I haven't posted in awhile... a long while.

Here's the 411 on me: This past Fall, I was continuing to work for Nuru and also go to school half-time. Right before Christmas, I was siting in completely stopped traffic-- I mean car turned off and everything-- and read through my work emails on my Blackberry. As I read through our regular operational emails from our beloved CEO, Jake, I read that my team's rotation schedule is to change from June-December, to June 2010-April 2011. Although I LOVE living in Kenya, and I'd be so happy to live there for 9 months, it left me with the decision to either leave Nuru or FOREVER forsake my Master's degree in Counseling.

You see, the Accreditation for the Counseling Program has a rule that one must finish their degree within 5 years. I applied and was accepted in the Summer of 2007, before leaving for Sudan for a year. Then, when I returned and began my degree in the Fall 0f 2008, and then deferred it again to work for Nuru, I still planned to eventually finish my degree. The issue with the 5 year thing is that I'd have to re-take the GRE and re-apply to the Program, and re-take all of my previously taken classes once the 5 year mark was up.

So... I officially ended employment with Nuru at the end of the year. Jake understood, and so did the rest of the Nuru Staff. This Spring, I'm taking 16 credit hours, and volunteering for Nuru still. I'm planning to stay in contact with most of the colleges involved with Nuru, continue updating the @bh2o on Twitter, and do other tasks so that Nuru will still have an awesome Be Hope To Her (BH2O+) event. (http://www.nuruinternational.org/takeaction/bh2o.html).

The good side to all of this is that I now have time to make new friends, get rooted in my community here in Morgantown, and join the leadership of the 17three college ministry. Its so weird to think that I don't know the next time I'm going back to Kenya, or Africa in general. I've been spending this month thinking about what that means, and how that re-defines who I am. It probably sounds weird to some of you, but I've been "the girl who goes to Africa" for almost 3 yrs. Now I'm what? The girl who acts awkwardly around large crowds of people, and knows people, but at the same time, knows nobody at all.

Now that I have more time in life, I'm going to continually blog about my experiences in Morgantown and the Counseling Program. As of late, I have an average of 3 books a day coming to my doorstep, if that gives you a hint as to my reading load. Most of it pertains to Addictions Counseling. Not much is more awkward than reading about Alcoholism in Starbucks-- besides if maybe I read it in a bar, which, would defeat the purpose of trying to stay awake while reading.

Well, here's to a happy new year to all of you! Keep reading, I'll try to make it interesting with the awkward anecdotes that is my life!

Tumaini Counseling Centre

Here is a link to Tumaini's video on what they do in Kenya. I really think you should watch it. If you would like to know more information on how you can support these counselors, comment on my blog or send me an email. My friends, Roger and Shirley Brown need financial support before they can return to Kenya. They have been working at Tumaini for their career, but with the economic issues of the US, they have been struggling to maintain support. The work that the counselors do in Africa keeps everyone else who is working there, there.

Video:

http://tumainicounseling.net/images/stories/Tumaini.mov

I, Too

So far, while in Paraguay I have learned about humanity. While at the all girl's school up-country from Asuncion I was able to see how a poor girl from an ethnic group that was once hunted by others for being native to the land, and then hid in the forest for hundreds of years, can now stand with pride amongst her peers-- all her peers, of all colors-- as she presents her prize that she's won over all in the country. All she needed to obtain this was someone to fill her with the idea of worth and provide her with the skills needed to succeed.

This poem by Langston Hughes reminds me of these girls. The poem is about an African-American in the US, but I'd venture to say that it pertains to these Native Indian girls.

I, Too

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes, but I laugh,
Eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table when company comes.
Nobody'll dare say to me
"Eat in the kitchen."
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.




-Langston Hughes

Naval Academy Article about Nuru International

Click this link to read about how Nuru's founder and ex-Marine, Jake Harriman, fights terrorism with seed and fertilizer!

http://www.usna.com/Document.Doc?id=1254

Great article about Nuru written in Shipmate, the NA's magazine. Its exciting to see the different places we get press.

Jake was in Morgantown,WV this week for the first time in awhile (he mostly splits his time between Kenya and California), so it was nice to get to see him for a bit.

On Tuesday, I leave for Paraguay in South America with Nicole Scott, our partnerships Director, to check out a project called Teach A Man To Fish. We'll be there for 9 days (gone total for 11) to see if their most successful project, a self-sustainable high school, is something we can do in Kenya and possibly on other projects. I'll keep you all posted on how that goes and give more info. then.

Organic Farm in Kiberia

I know I know! I haven't blogged in almost a month and now I've done 3 in one day!!! Don't get overwhelmed, you have a month to read through them! Haha!

This link is to a BBC slideshow that also has commentary by the founder of the self-help group for the organic garden. Pretty pictures and interesting thoughts on organic farming in Africa's largest slum, which is located inside of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7865387.stm