A year since Africa

She's a young mother now; I met her and her rowdy friends when they

'kidnapped' me several years ago and made me take them through the 

jungle to a restaurant and buy them lunch.  :)

As of this month, it's been a year, but my heart still wanders back there.

In front of their elementary school, my friends are still

in their uniforms at the end of the day.

Calls from friends in Kenya, email and pictures from Ethiopia, Facebook chat with Djibouti, Benin, Nigeria, and Sao Tome & Principe; we're still connected.

Reports come regularly from our friends and efforts.  A fellow in college, more than a hundred in schools, several families and their businesses, and a community building a preschool.

Over the years traveling in Africa, I've been offered several children for adoption; by their parents, surprisingly.  They were hoping their kids could go to the U.S. and have a better life.  It broke my heart to decline, but we're past the age where we might succeed at raising children again.

Mom and Grandpa clown around with the kids.

Nice folks; thoughtful.

My first African friend and her

family pile in for a trip to the shore.

We've partnered with several families to help them step up a bit.  Home repairs, water and electricity, kid's school uniforms and fees, ... rabbits!  They've graciously included us in their families and communities.

Sitting street-side with one of my teens.  He and the rest are

grown up, married, and with kids of their own now.

Life is simple and difficult.  Education and healthcare are a long way from universal availability.  Economic opportunity is hard to find.  Even an adequate diet is hard to pull together, and many children are undernourished with the health consequences that follow.

They spend no time at all worrying about the things that are common in the developed world.  They don't worry about their 401k, their lawn, their insurance, their bank account or credit rating ... they don't have any of those things.  No careers, no job security, no choice of this college or that for their children.

They are good at community and watching out for each other, though.

With a couple dozen Africa trips behind me, it looks like maybe next year before I get to see my friends in person again.

You can call me Al; Africa sings with the world!

Mama Hope uses
humor to change
the West's view
of Africa

Nyla Rodgers is one charity official who is fed up with the way nonprofits represent Africa. Too often she sees depictions of AIDS, warfare, famine, hopelessness, desperation, and dependence on a Western hero.

That kind of concern came to the surface when she saw the “Kony 2012” campaign by the advocacy group Invisible Children.

“When I saw the Kony campaign, it made me so mad,” says Ms. Rodgers, founding director of Mama Hope, a San Francisco charity that works in Ghana, Kenya,Tanzania, and Uganda to start farms and build schools, health centers, and other facilities that strengthen communities.

RELATED: After Kony 2012: Three ways NGOs can work with Africans as equals

But long before that campaign, her charity started working to create new perceptions of Africa and to show that it is full of capable people with the potential to support themselves. Her nonprofit has released three videos over the past year as part of its “Stop the Pity” campaign, using humor to create a new conversation about the continent and humanize the people who live there.

In the first, published in February 2011, a 9-year-old African boy explains in detail the plot of his favorite movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Commando.”
In another, Americans and Africans sing along to Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al.”

... through each other's eyes ...

Few things are harder to grasp than a world in which we've never lived.

One look can change your mind forever, disassembling a lifetime of narrow thinking.  It's available for the price of a few days on the road.

You'll see and learn more than years in the finest university could provide.  Come see for yourself!

The faces in the photos are that of a young lady and her siblings whom we met in Africa. They laughingly waved me down and asked for money. It was more recreational than real begging. 

The kids took me home to meet mom and dad; nice folks, tough minded and practical. They raise goats and a few camels, generating a small income to support a family of nine.

They've welcomed me each time I was there and made a place for me in their social circle. We laughed a lot and parted tenderly at the end of my cycle of travels to their country.  I so hope to see them again.

 "Could a greater miracle take place

       than for us to look through each other's eyes

            for an instant?"  ~Thoreau

www.texasex.org

The most fun

Of the occasions in life for being happy, playing at the beach perhaps tops the list when you're young.

In the distance, tiny silhouettes... the kids have the beach pretty much to themselves today.  Big sister and grandma are watching from the shore, in case you were wondering. 






In an as yet undiscovered country, smaller than most actually, the beaches are rarely crowded and then, not with tourists.  

Local folks enjoy the beauty and moderate weather of the equatorial climate.  Sao Tome & Principe is a tiny island country in the Gulf of Guinea on the western side of Africa.

It used to be a Portuguese colony, but has been independent since the seventies.  Among the world's nicest folks.  No significant violence or crime, no really dangerous animals, and no reason to rush.

Click on the pictures; they're hi-rez.

It's a rare blessing to visit such a place.   

It's Friday afternoon, and all things considered, I'd rather be in Africa.

(just some photos from a recent trip; reminders in this cold February of what it's like to be warm)

African harvest!

Dad and daughters at the family farm;
this is what successful business looks like!
Sao Tome & Principe, West Africa

OKRA!

Our friends show off the okra on their farm. Apparently, this stuff is prolific in the right climate. Dad and daughters say they walk through the okra section about once a week to pull down a fair number of pods; more than enough to eat and to sell. It's healthy stuff, of course.

This year's upgrade to the farm; they've run a water line to the northern edge. It lets them water the plants that are sensitive to the need. The climate is fairly polite about raining when you need it, but having a water line means you can maximize the return from your work.
Okra, beans, corn (maize), manioc, and a lot of things I don't recognize. Palm oil too. My friends are hard workers, and it was entertaining for us all to walk the farm; they're justifiably proud of their success. 
Mom and baby boy (left); he's grown a bit, we notice; about 6 feet tall now.  

They live maybe two miles from the ocean. Beautiful and still undiscovered by most of the world.

I don't take most of the photos you see, by the way. The kids do, usually, and sometimes their folks get in on the fun.

Mom and girls on an unoccupied beach; if it was anywhere near my house, I'd be here instead of home most days.

 

Little hands

A child's hand prints; she politely asked for help.

A precious young lady, perhaps ten years old, came to my window as I waited at a gas station. Under-nourished like so many, she simply and politely asked for money, as children here often do. I gave her what I had and wept as she disappeared into the slums. Her dusty little hands left their mark on the window sill. That's the picture I could bring myself to take, but I can still see her face, and I can still hear her voice. It's been two years, and I guess I've chosen not to forget.

Among the places one might go, there are

some where they perhaps shouldn't.

In Africa, there are many pictures that I can't take.  The  weak and fragile are not a photo opportunity for me. I find it difficult just to meet them. The first time was a shattering experience; and afterwards, you can't just walk away.

Elsewhere, gracious folks are glad to be part of your photos. Here, cautious but friendly kids; a couple of them have the courage to wave at their visitor. This is Balbala, the largest slum in their country, and a somewhat dangerous place, we discovered. Should have paid closer attention to the area security info online, I guess.

With friends watching TV

Elsewhere in Africa with friends one evening, sitting on the floor and watching television; there's just the one TV channel in this country.  One of the kids took this picture of us. Among the world's nicest folks, they are gracious and willing to make a place for a clumsy foreigner in their midst.







Below with my adoptive family, little children enjoy an incredibly perfect afternoon at the beach; they as yet have no idea about the years ahead or the difficulties they will face. For today, sunshine and ocean, family and time to play.

In Sao Tome & Principe, a beautiful island country in Africa, 

kids bounce in the surf.