Lufthansa Flight 446… The seat-back screen in front of me tells me I’m typing this at 36,000 ft., somewhere over the North Atlantic...
The snoring of the Indonesian businessman next to me tells me I've been on the road far too long...
My heart tells me I’m getting closer to home.
I didn’t get a chance to update the blog this past week. We were immersed in our first-ever East African staff conference. We pulled together our Project Directors from four East African nations… Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and the Darfur area of Sudan.
The conference was the perfect way to end 6 weeks in Africa. I got to hang out with my new heroes of hope.
Symon
I first met Symon at our Dubai conference in May. Symon’s the kind of guy you just want to be friends with. He’s got a broad smile, eyes that light up when he’s messing with you, and he’s freakin’ smart. He’s doing development work in Somalia.
Symon shared some thoughts with the conference two days ago, and one of them haunts me. He said, “To do this kind of work you can’t be a coward. You’re waging peace in a part of the world where thousands prefer to wage war.”
He was in Mogadishu recently (the capital, think “Blackhawk Down”) and was pinned down for three hours between sudden gunfire of waring factions. Some locals tried to help him get away, shouting that he was a humanitarian worker. Two fighters leveled their AK47s and said, “Take one step and we’ll blow your head from your body.”
OK.
I’m thinkin’ I’m not bringing volunteers there anytime soon.
Symon and his team are helping villages in a more peaceful area where there’s no one else available to help. In one village 75% of the people are blind. Yes, you read that right. He’s trying to figure out what happened. There are no doctors or nurses there to tell him. There’s no national health system to investigate the tragedy. At this point there’s just Symon.
In another village he and his team have created a sewing school to help women with HIV/AIDS learn an income-producing trade. After they’re trained he sets them up three-at-a-time together in their own shop. They pay back the start-up capital in the first two years, which enables another 3-woman shop to get on its feet.
Add to the list: programs to train orphans in computer-trade skills, reclamation of water dams with the Ministry of Agriculture, and wheelchair distribution for children who’ve lost their legs from improvised bombs.
Don’t you love a guy with a heart that big?
After you catch your breath from hearing Symon’s stories, you think to yourself how he’s the kind of hero you just want to know.
The Darfur Team
I got to meet our Darfur team for the first time. It’s a group of seven Americans and a Brazillian (it’ll take a while for them to identify and train local Darfur leadership).
They're all in their 20s, with an old guy about my age leading them (apologies, Mike :-).
Six are girls. OK, I’m supposed to say “women,” but I teased them mercilessly during the week... like I tease my daughter and her friends.
They’re all highly creative and motivated, and they're doing fantastic work in Darfur. One project they started is for boys orphaned by the war who’ve slept on the streets for over two years. They created a school/training center for the street boys a year ago.
They said it took three months for the boys to learn how to smile.
One boy named Alfado (Al-FAH-do) has been especially eager. Alfado’s becoming a natural leader, constantly giving the others courage and motivation.
He was shot in the leg on a recent trip to another area, by a janjaweed fighter. But he’s mostly healed now, and more determined than ever to push himself and his friends to read and write and learn a trade.
How determined are you after you've been shot... huh?
Also, the team is helping with water and sanitation (called WATSAN in humanitarian circles). One village with 800 kids had only three latrines. So they’re teaching and helping the people build their own latrines... which, as they explain, is pretty difficult to do thru the volcanic rock.
As of the conference the village had built 14 functioning latrines, and the plan is to make 20 more. Wanna come help?? (I’m serious).
The Ethiopia Team
I’ve shared some of what’s going on under Zerihun’s leadership in Woliso. He also has teams working in the east and in the south (here's Zerihun and me):
Here’s a picture of one of the Ethiopian guys, Mattheus, who grew up in the south:
See the hole in his ear? He says it's what the elders give the boys when they kill their first lion.
Right. Their first lion.
Kenya
Finally there’s Wubshet and Habiba in northern Kenya.
My favorite moment in the conference: Habiba telling the story of how they ended up choosing Gambella to begin Global Hope Network’s model development work for northern Kenya.
She said they considered two very poor villages. When they went to village “A” the people said, “We’ll only let you come here if you bring lots of white people’s money.” Habiba said to them, “You are lazy and worthless and we won’t give you one minute of help until you change.”
Gotta love the gentle approach.
When they went to village “B” – Gambella – the people said, “We’ll do anything you teach us. We want a better life for our children.”
And the rest is history.
Things are already going so well in Gambella that word has spread throughout Boran villages, all the way up to the Borana king in southern Ethiopia. Wubshet promises me that next time I come he’s going to take me to meet the king. (OK, what gift do you bring when you meet a Borana king??? Should I give him my youngest son?)
Wubshet and Habiba are now making plans to bring other Borana leaders to our compound in Isiolo to share some of our first level Community Development Training with them. They'll involve some of the Gambella leaders in the training, and they'll take trainees out to Gambella to see the principles in practice.
How cool… little Gambella becoming a model to help over 3 million poor Borana people!
Going Home
I'm incredibly pumped to be going home now. All the Africans were teasing me this last week. "Oh, look how lovesick he is for Mary! We're going to tell Mary her husband can't live without her!"
Yeah, pretty much right.
But honestly, I'm also thrilled to get back there, maybe early in 2009, and bring more volunteers with me. Because these are the kind of people I want to hang out with.
I'm hoping a little of their amazing heart and character might rub off on me.
Come join me.
--Jeff
