This short post is mainly a way to check that everyone who has subscribed to the email notification of new posts is getting them. And also to let you know that if you want to read the 3 other posts that went up between my first announcement and now, you have to visit my actual blog at http://patricia2africa.blogspot.com
As I write this, countdown to takeoff is a mere 80 hours...final packing commences Saturday morning. My biggest trip accomplishment today was that my writer friend Tom and I brainstormed and decided upon my African name for this journey: Ahafta Goweewee. Being such a water girl, I feel an inherent kinship with the true spirit of this name ;-)
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Right in my own backyard
Less than 5 days to go...I can hardly focus on anything else! My list is slowly getting shorter, which is a VERY good thing. I went today and picked up the donations I received from The Learning Palace -- lots of markers and crayons and a huge number of pencils -- all great stuff! I went ahead and bought some sharpeners too, otherwise the pencils become alot less useful :-) I'm so grateful to them for their generosity.
I've had some amazing coincidences over the last couple of days. My old neighbor Ciel sent me a link to an organization right here in Portland called Hands to Hearts (http://handstohearts.org), headed up by a woman she used to work with. Ciel said they recently started working in Uganda, and lo and behold, they're based in the same city we'll be visiting! So I called, and long story short, I'm going to be delivering some items for them to their 2-woman crew in Uganda, and those two women are going to come have dinner with us while we're there! We're also invited to participate in one of the trainings they'll be giving the day before we leave. Hands to Hearts is focused on providing early childhood education to the mothers and other caregivers, going over basic health issues and helping them to understand their babies better -- things that seem maybe obvious to us, but are not so for women whose main focus each and every day is to collect enough water, find enough firewood, and try to somehow earn enough (usually less than $1/day) to feed their children at least one meal. Many women are caring not only for their own children but also for orphans that they've taken on due to the long periods of violence the country has suffered. I'm thrilled that this opportunity has evolved out just following a link!
The other coincidence also involves following a link provided by another friend to yet another organization in Portland, this one working in Kenya with the Maasai tribes. Out of all the tiny villages in Kenya -- a country twice the size of Nevada with nearly 40 million residents-- this organization, Jamii Moja (www.jamiimoja.org), is working with the exact same village, and the exact same woman in that village, that we are already planning on visiting! So of course I called them too, and although there's nothing I can help bring over for them, their friendly representative gave me a fascinating history of her involvement with the village, and the work that the Maasai woman Hellen Nkuraiya is doing in her village to help bring an end to the traditional practice of female genital cutting as a coming-of-age ritual, as well as helping to provide a way of making a living for widows who traditionally become liabilities and/or outcasts from the village once their husbands died. You can read more about Hellen and the work that's being done in the village either through Jamii Moja or through the village website www.majimoto.org.
So I am more than a little stoked.
I was also asked about my packing progress, so here's that update. Going over the list of what I'm supposed to bring for the trip, NEUTRAL COLORS were highly recommended for the safari portions. If you know me at all, you know I look like death warmed over in NEUTRAL COLORS. I dug through every single drawer without locating a single neutral garment in my possession. So down I trooped to my favorite resale clothes store (The Dig for you Portlanders), and emerged two hours later -- the poor, kind clerk stayed 20 minutes past closing as I whittled down my original selection of over 50 try-ons -- with two big bags of NEUTRAL COLORS, all for $50! Ya gotta love resale! I will now blend SO WELL into the background, they'll probably leave me behind, mistaking me for a pile of sand.
I've had some amazing coincidences over the last couple of days. My old neighbor Ciel sent me a link to an organization right here in Portland called Hands to Hearts (http://handstohearts.org), headed up by a woman she used to work with. Ciel said they recently started working in Uganda, and lo and behold, they're based in the same city we'll be visiting! So I called, and long story short, I'm going to be delivering some items for them to their 2-woman crew in Uganda, and those two women are going to come have dinner with us while we're there! We're also invited to participate in one of the trainings they'll be giving the day before we leave. Hands to Hearts is focused on providing early childhood education to the mothers and other caregivers, going over basic health issues and helping them to understand their babies better -- things that seem maybe obvious to us, but are not so for women whose main focus each and every day is to collect enough water, find enough firewood, and try to somehow earn enough (usually less than $1/day) to feed their children at least one meal. Many women are caring not only for their own children but also for orphans that they've taken on due to the long periods of violence the country has suffered. I'm thrilled that this opportunity has evolved out just following a link!
The other coincidence also involves following a link provided by another friend to yet another organization in Portland, this one working in Kenya with the Maasai tribes. Out of all the tiny villages in Kenya -- a country twice the size of Nevada with nearly 40 million residents-- this organization, Jamii Moja (www.jamiimoja.org), is working with the exact same village, and the exact same woman in that village, that we are already planning on visiting! So of course I called them too, and although there's nothing I can help bring over for them, their friendly representative gave me a fascinating history of her involvement with the village, and the work that the Maasai woman Hellen Nkuraiya is doing in her village to help bring an end to the traditional practice of female genital cutting as a coming-of-age ritual, as well as helping to provide a way of making a living for widows who traditionally become liabilities and/or outcasts from the village once their husbands died. You can read more about Hellen and the work that's being done in the village either through Jamii Moja or through the village website www.majimoto.org.
So I am more than a little stoked.
I was also asked about my packing progress, so here's that update. Going over the list of what I'm supposed to bring for the trip, NEUTRAL COLORS were highly recommended for the safari portions. If you know me at all, you know I look like death warmed over in NEUTRAL COLORS. I dug through every single drawer without locating a single neutral garment in my possession. So down I trooped to my favorite resale clothes store (The Dig for you Portlanders), and emerged two hours later -- the poor, kind clerk stayed 20 minutes past closing as I whittled down my original selection of over 50 try-ons -- with two big bags of NEUTRAL COLORS, all for $50! Ya gotta love resale! I will now blend SO WELL into the background, they'll probably leave me behind, mistaking me for a pile of sand.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Donations and Generosity
The countdown continues...10 days and 9 hours to liftoff! All sorts of last-minute details are emerging, being added onto The List, and some are actually getting crossed off. I've now purchased the soccer ball that is my share of the bunch of them our group is bringing as gifts for the kids at BeadForLife in Uganda -- now I just have to figure out how to deflate it to fit in my suitcase!
We were also asked to bring school supplies, so yesterday when I was out and about, I bumped into a place called The Learning Palace, an educational toy store here in Portland. I went in and wandered vaguely around -- me with no kids and no clue what was the best thing to bring -- and it occurred to me that maybe, just MAYBE, I could ask them to donate some stuff. So long story short, (which included a ballsy phone call and a very detailed email) it looks like they are going to do just that! I've asked for SMALL items, please, again for that suitcase problem. The Donations Guy said he'd try to have it together for me next week before I go. I'm so good at giving people long lead times!
I also received the sweetest note in the mail today -- snail mail, remember that? -- from Carol and Gene, part of my family in Ohio. They wanted to tell me how proud of me they were of me and that they wanted to support me on my trip, and enclosed a check for $100! Whoo-hoo! And a heart full of gratitude for their kindness and generosity, too.
My last newsy item is literally about the news-- an update on The Oregonian from my story in the first post. I was granted a meeting with the Travel Section Editor on Thursday, and brought him a sample of my writing (it was the eulogy I had written when my dog Jasper died last summer -- many of you probably received that as an email). Having seemingly passed that test, we sat over a cup of coffee and he gave me lots of pointers about how to interview for an interesting story, what types of photos they'll be looking for, and overall gave me encouragement to take the leap and write a piece for the paper. "I've never done this before -- meet with someone and give them tips like this," he said. "But most writing I see is really crap and yours at least is clear and easy to follow, so we'll see what you can do with it. I'm still not promising anything, though..." "I know, I know," I gushed, thrilled to have even gotten this far. "But I like what you're doing, I think it's a good cause, and I'd like to help you get some more publicity if I can," he concluded, standing up and bringing our meeting to an abrupt end. I grabbed my half-drunk cup of coffee and trotted after him as he strode out of the building, huge grin on my face. Another victory! So far, this is all going downright swimmingly!
We were also asked to bring school supplies, so yesterday when I was out and about, I bumped into a place called The Learning Palace, an educational toy store here in Portland. I went in and wandered vaguely around -- me with no kids and no clue what was the best thing to bring -- and it occurred to me that maybe, just MAYBE, I could ask them to donate some stuff. So long story short, (which included a ballsy phone call and a very detailed email) it looks like they are going to do just that! I've asked for SMALL items, please, again for that suitcase problem. The Donations Guy said he'd try to have it together for me next week before I go. I'm so good at giving people long lead times!
I also received the sweetest note in the mail today -- snail mail, remember that? -- from Carol and Gene, part of my family in Ohio. They wanted to tell me how proud of me they were of me and that they wanted to support me on my trip, and enclosed a check for $100! Whoo-hoo! And a heart full of gratitude for their kindness and generosity, too.
My last newsy item is literally about the news-- an update on The Oregonian from my story in the first post. I was granted a meeting with the Travel Section Editor on Thursday, and brought him a sample of my writing (it was the eulogy I had written when my dog Jasper died last summer -- many of you probably received that as an email). Having seemingly passed that test, we sat over a cup of coffee and he gave me lots of pointers about how to interview for an interesting story, what types of photos they'll be looking for, and overall gave me encouragement to take the leap and write a piece for the paper. "I've never done this before -- meet with someone and give them tips like this," he said. "But most writing I see is really crap and yours at least is clear and easy to follow, so we'll see what you can do with it. I'm still not promising anything, though..." "I know, I know," I gushed, thrilled to have even gotten this far. "But I like what you're doing, I think it's a good cause, and I'd like to help you get some more publicity if I can," he concluded, standing up and bringing our meeting to an abrupt end. I grabbed my half-drunk cup of coffee and trotted after him as he strode out of the building, huge grin on my face. Another victory! So far, this is all going downright swimmingly!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Homework
I've been trying to learn some about Kenya since it's my first stop, and followed the recommendation of our Kenya travel guide and got the book "Unbowed" out of the library. It's a fascinating, enlightening autobiography of Wangari Maathi, an amazing woman born in rural Kenya in the 40s, who started the Green Belt Movement (an environmental action group planting millions of trees in a rapidly deforested Kenya) and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in 2002. She gives both a history of Kenya from colonial times and a scathing indictment of the second administration after Kenyan independence. The amount of harrassment she received from her own government, including multiple jailings and police-sanctioned beatings, gives me not only a big dose of gratitude for our own freedoms, but also a much greater understanding of what individuals in developing countries are up against as they try to shift ingrained cultural beliefs to become a freer and more just society.
It also made me aware of a buried belief of mine that if we just sent enough aid or assistance, or helped to get enough programs off the ground, that social change would naturally follow. I'm seeing how naive and oversimplified that way of thinking is, and that the answers are not only much more complex, but the issues are deeply rooted in a social milieu that one can never truly understand from mere observation, especially from afar.
Having completed that one, I'm now on to "Half the Sky," Nicolas Kristoff's probing look at the status of women around the globe. Filled with personal stories and deeply moving, I highly recommend it for anyone interested in these issues. It's one of those books that I find myself making excuses to go read.
I'll end tonight with my funny moment of the day. I went to see a movie with some friends tonight, and one part of the previews was this beautiful photographic montage of ethereal images from around the world, soothing music in the background. Across the images rolled these words: "What is a journey?...A journey is not a trip...It's not a vacation...It's a process. A discovery... (At this point, I'm thinking WOW! I gotta put this in my blog -- this is SO much what this trip is about for me) "...A journey brings us face-to-face with ourselves...It shows us not only the world, but how we fit into it..." It went on like that a bit longer, then up on the screen pops a picture of a Loius Vuitton handbag. It was their advertisement! Everyone in the theatre first laughed, then booed. I totally joined them -- but came home and found the quote online later anyway, just to share with you.
It also made me aware of a buried belief of mine that if we just sent enough aid or assistance, or helped to get enough programs off the ground, that social change would naturally follow. I'm seeing how naive and oversimplified that way of thinking is, and that the answers are not only much more complex, but the issues are deeply rooted in a social milieu that one can never truly understand from mere observation, especially from afar.
Having completed that one, I'm now on to "Half the Sky," Nicolas Kristoff's probing look at the status of women around the globe. Filled with personal stories and deeply moving, I highly recommend it for anyone interested in these issues. It's one of those books that I find myself making excuses to go read.
I'll end tonight with my funny moment of the day. I went to see a movie with some friends tonight, and one part of the previews was this beautiful photographic montage of ethereal images from around the world, soothing music in the background. Across the images rolled these words: "What is a journey?...A journey is not a trip...It's not a vacation...It's a process. A discovery... (At this point, I'm thinking WOW! I gotta put this in my blog -- this is SO much what this trip is about for me) "...A journey brings us face-to-face with ourselves...It shows us not only the world, but how we fit into it..." It went on like that a bit longer, then up on the screen pops a picture of a Loius Vuitton handbag. It was their advertisement! Everyone in the theatre first laughed, then booed. I totally joined them -- but came home and found the quote online later anyway, just to share with you.
Friday, February 12, 2010
In the air in 18 days
It's all starting to feel very real now. In 18 days -- on March 2nd at 7am, to be exact, I'll be on my way to Kenya, and then on March 14th, on to Uganda. Yikes!
I've been planning this trip for nearly a year now, working with Marsha Wallace, the founder of Dining For Women, under whose auspices this trip is happening. I've been volunteering with Dining For Women (DFW) for over 3 years, leading a chapter first in Corvallis, now here in Portland, holding educational potluck dinner circles once a month. We take the money we would have spent going out to dinner, and pool our donations in support of grassroots organizations in the developing world that help alleviate extreme poverty. DFW supports a variety of programs all over the world --a different one each month -- that foster good health, education, and economic self-sufficiency specifically for women and girls (www.diningforwomen.org).
Over a year ago, I naively volunteered to be in charge of the travel program, and so have found myself at the center of all the planning, publicity, and general hoopla for not one but two trips, involving two tour guides and 25 travelers from across the country. It's been, shall we say, a learning experience. But with the responsibility comes the chance to influence some of the details of the trip -- this year's trip is for women only, we'll be getting to see a dance performance in Uganda on our last night :-), and we'll be staying in Nairobi at a locally-owned hotel as opposed to the "big box"-type hotel we were originally booked into. Luckily, the two tour guides we're working with are fantastic and take care of everything on the ground in each country, which would more than boggle my mind if I tried to do that piece too. Our itineraries are fantastic, and include an exquisite mix of meeting with the women in the groups we've supported in the last year, and getting a chance to go on safari to experience the wonderful wildlife. The groups we'll be visiting on this trip are The BOMA Fund in Kenya (www.bomafund.org), and BeadForLife in Uganda (www.beadforlife.org). One of the pieces I'm most looking forward to is a visit to the Jane Goodall Institute in Uganda, and going chimp tracking! I have a bit of a thing for these close cousins of ours...
So I'll sign off for today with my tidbit of exciting news -- I contacted The Oregonian (Portland's premiere newspaper) today about doing an article in the Travel section on my trip, and they've expressed an interest! Granted, it was couched with "IF what you write/photograph comes out interesting" but, hey, I get that! All I want is the opportunity. And what an opportunity this entire trip is for me! I feel so lucky, so blessed.
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