by Barbara Joye | Feb 8, 2012 | JANUARY 2012 JOURNEY TO AFRICA
It is the cusp of evening and everything around me is the color of sunset.The air is becoming cool as the afternoon heat recedes, and the sounds of night are only moments away. I am grateful for this pause between day and night, inviting me to reflect on the day and the people in it. As images rise to mind it is the seemingly small and inconsequential that now become significant. I spent the day with Alphonse, our project coordinator, sitting on the patio in a preliminary planning meeting. We reviewed the status of our water project… what has been done and what still needs to be done… and developed an Agenda for this Friday’s meeting with the Uru East Water Board. We also discussed the current and future roles to be played by this Board, the Uru community, our drilling company and by ICBD for the sustainable management of the borehole. We were joined periodically by Mama Florentina Masawe, the president of the Water Board and our hostess here in Moshi town. The discussions were thoughtful, with opinions and concerns being expressed sometimes carefully, other times more passionately. In the midst of one such conversation, Alphonse asked for permission to retrieve a fruit from an overhead tree. I looked up, noticing for the first time what I thought to be several oranges growing high above us. With permission granted, Alphonse raised a nearby rake with one hand and expertly removed two fruits, allowing them to drop one after another into his other waiting hand. As he offered one of the small fruits to me, I realized with delight...
by Barbara Joye | Feb 7, 2012 | JANUARY 2012 JOURNEY TO AFRICA
For four of us, our last day in the warmth, sunshine and red dust of African soil. Our leader Barbara Joye remains behind for another two weeks to work with the water project and their board and will continue our Blog. Your comments on the Blog have kept us connected to home. Missing our families and yet leaving behind the spirit and incredible smiles of these beautiful people, brings mixed feelings. Our goodbyes from the Acorn Women’s group included words that touched our hearts; “you cared enough about us to come and see where we live.” Song, dance and gifts brought our day to an end as Annie and LeeAnn were also able to experience the joy from the Acorn Women’s Cooperative Group. A visit back to the Kishimundu Secondary School and on to a Primary School, that teaches ages 5 to 13, we again were welcomed by the excitement and enthusiasm of hundreds of children. Their faces, their eagerness for having you reach out and just touch them, along with wanting to view every photo to see themselves, is contagious. Annie even got a pen pal; her name is Mary. Today we will pack; not only our belongings, but the incredible handiwork from the Acorn Women. Four suitcases of jewelry, artwork, bedding and textiles will be carried back to the USA for your buying pleasure! We can’t wait to share our stories and photos and to see you all; yet we leave a piece of our...
