Hanna

Back in Rwanda, new blog

2012-02-10T03:48:00.000-08:00

Hello! My blog will now be accessible via my website, hannastevens.com. The specific link to my blog is http://www.hannastevens.com/apps/blog.

Thanks for following!
Hanna

Hanna is going back to Rwanda!

2011-11-17T17:17:00.000-08:00

Hello!

I hope this note finds you well as we approach the busy holiday season! I am writing to update you on my post-college life and upcoming work with the Seattle-based nonprofit organization, Rwanda Partners.

You may be aware that I spent 13 weeks in Africa in 2009. I was in Rwanda studying the 1994 genocide and teaching English, Malawi working as a volunteer photojournalist, and Kenya where I worked on a dairy farm and in the surrounding communities with my father.

Since then, I completed my education at Concordia College with degrees in graphic design and English journalism. I have spent the last several months working at ChocMo Chocolate Bistro both as in-store help and as the graphic designer (rebranding the store and designing new packaging for all products). I have also stayed busy writing music and sitting in with jazz combos in Seattle on occasion.

In addition to these activities, I completed a volunteer internship for Rwanda Partners, an organization committed to fighting poverty holistically by creating opportunities for education and sustainable income, rebuilding community, and restoring hope in a post-genocide nation.

As an intern, I planned and implemented a benefit concert for our “Uniforms Transform” campaign, through which we are providing school uniforms to over 650 street children. The concert featured five bands at the Triple Door’s Musicquarium Lounge. After a successful internship, the organization asked me to return to Rwanda as a volunteer photojournalist. I will leave the second week of January for about two months.

My upcoming work with Rwanda Partners can be summed up in this phrase:

“Capture hearts and tell the story.”

While in Rwanda, I will photograph and write about the various projects, including the basket company, pineapple plantation, and sewing program. (Check out their website for more information.) Rwanda Partners will use my work on their website, emails, and more. I am excited to use my creativity to capture more conceptual images conveying need, poverty reduction, reconciliation, and opportunity.

Although I will work as a volunteer, I am also responsible for my airfare, in-country transportation, and translator fees, which total about $2800. Additionally, I must buy a used MacBook for my writing, image editing, and graphic design while in Rwanda. (A new camera will have to wait, although if you are selling any used equipment, please contact me.) If you are inclined to support my work financially, you may make a tax-deductible donation by writing a check to Rwanda Partners and putting my name on the memo line.

I would also love to earn more money toward these expenses by providing photography, graphic design, or music services! If you need holiday photos for your family, senior portraits, music for an event, or if you’d like to buy my CD (Beginning’s End), please contact me! Also, I currently have a photography exhibit at ChocMo (19880 7th Avenue, Suite 102 in Poulsbo, Wash.). I hope to sell some work to subsidize my expenses for this trip, but would of course be honored by you stopping in to see the exhibit. Lastly, I make and sell photographic cards that make excellent stationary or gifts.

In the coming months, I hope to connect hearts across geographic and cultural boundaries. I plan to post updates from Rwanda through notes on my Facebook page (Hanna Stevens Creative). Whether or not you can support me financially, know that your encouragement and interest have helped me to develop as a person, and I am forever thankful for you.

With love and gratitude,

Hanna Stevens
360.710.2414
hannastevens.com
hannastevenscreative@gmail.com
PO Box 58, Indianola, WA 98342

Rwanda Partners
206.588.8029
rwandapartners.org
facebook.com/rwandapartners
159 Western Ave W #455, Seattle, WA 98119

The poster I designed for the Rwanda Partners Benefit Concert

The cover of my CD- suggested price of $10!

Examples of photo cards: 5x7", $3 each, and I can definitely do custom orders and mail orders!

Photo Exhibit!

2011-10-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

Hello! Quick update: I graduated in May, moved back to the Pacific NW, completed an internship with Rwanda Partners in Seattle, and am working at a restaurant/bar/chocolate bistro called ChocMo in Poulsbo. I'm staying too busy writing music, making art and photographs, running, trying to attend as many music events in Seattle as possible, and taking in the beauty of this part of the world that I've missed so much over the past four years.

If you're in the Kitsap area, stop by ChocMo to check out my photo exhibit! I'm trying to raise money for my plane ticket back to Rwanda in January where I'll be working as a photojournalist for Rwanda Partners.

Also, if you use facebook, check out my page! I also have some music up on my myspace and youtube (links on my facebook). I'm working on a real website, too... We'll see how long it takes me to learn to build a website!

Love as always,
Hanna

Spain!

2010-06-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

MAY 29

This was my first day in Spain! Iñaki, Coro, Patricia, and Iñaki Jr. took me to San Sebastian. The two sandy beaches, Ondarretta and La Concha (named for its shape), line the blue-turquoise bay, with the tiny island of Santa Clara sitting in the bay’s center. We saw the queen’s old palace, which is now a music school and apparently a popular location for wedding photos. We walked along the beach and saw the town hall, adorned with flags for Spain, the Basque country, and the soccer team. On this night the team played a match that could qualify them for some kind of finals, and previously the team was horrible, so everyone was excited. Yes, they did win! No, we did not watch the match.

We walked to the end of the bay and went to a museum: “The Basques and the Pacific: A tribute to Andres de Urdaneta.” It was mostly about Basques who were important in finding trading routes between Mexico, the Philippines, and China. We went up in the Aquarium’s elevator and walked along a road on the cliff side. From here I saw people fishing, boating, doing sailing school, and I could see both beaches and Santa Clara. We visited a cathedral where Iñaki used to sing in a choir. Right outside of this cathedral is the oldest street in San Sebastian. We went to a tapas bar and got patatas bravas and calamari, both with hollandaise sauce and some spices. Patricia said that on weekends people go to town for lunch and get a little bit to eat at many different bars.

Then we walked into another cathedral where a wedding was taking place. We just so happened to walk in right before a vocalist and organist performed “Ave Maria,” one of Mom’s favorites! It was absolutely beautiful. We walked through a square that was formerly used for bull fights, so a hotel along one side of the square has numbers painted under each window because they used to be boxes for watching the bull fight! A lady grabbed me and demanded that I tell her who, between two men she was with, was more handsome. It was weird and funny, and I answered by pointing to Iñaki Jr.!

From there we went to an underground market (fish, meat, fruits and vegetables, baked goods…) to buy ingredients for lunch, paella, which included mussels and shrimp.

After lunch the family showed me around the house. Patricia and Iñaki were holding hands as I came to realize they often do, and even Coro and Iñaki were! This family is very affectionate; yay! Also yay: Patricia’s house is gorgeous. It’s secluded in the green hills behind San Sebastian, but just outside their driveway is an amazing view of the city and the beaches. They have a garden with lettuce, peppers, green beans, and onions, as well as an apple tree, cherry tree, orange tree, and olive tree. Coro showed me a bird’s nest in a hedge with an egg inside. Iñaki chased a lizard through their empty swimming pool, ended up breaking its tail off, and was quite amused by the remains wriggling in his hand! They filled the pool a couple days later, a sure sign that summer in the Basque country has arrived.

After the tour of their home, Patricia drove me back to San Sebastian and we met her friend Erika there, one of the six members of their quadrilla. We walked to one end of the bay where three Eduardo Chillida sculptures are installed. (I knew these from my sculpture class, so it was awesome to see them in person!) Then we walked all along the two beaches in that bay (Ondarretta and La Concha) and over to the third beach (I can’t remember the name) where people surf when the waves are big enough. This is Erika’s favorite beach. They told me that people choose their beach by their age; The older folks go to Ondarretta, younger teenagers claim La Concha, and people our age usually like the third beach best.

That night for dinner we had a great salad that reminded me of home, fish, and bread. Afterward we watched an annual European song contest on TV. Patricia said Spain’s song last year was terrible, but this year’s song ended up in 5th place. Germany won. I didn’t like Germany’s song. (Sorry Bekah! But for the record, I also didn‘t like Iceland‘s song.) SLEEPY!

MAY 30

Right after I woke up, I heard a very familiar tune being sung Iñaki Jr. It was “Eye of the Tiger”… in Spanish! Actually, he and his friends wrote the words and will perform the song for 800 people. I don’t know what for. Patricia’s dad booked a flight to London for me, insisting that I didn’t have enough time to visit Switzerland. He also insisted that my 21 kilo bag could be minimized to 15 kilos. I don’t believe him. I also don’t want to pay Ryan Air’s ridiculous baggage fees. We’ll see what happens…

We went to Getaria (fishing village) and Loyola (cathedral and original 16th century house), villages west of San Sebastian. In Getaria is a sort of mouse-shaped island called El Raton de Getaria. That afternoon I watched “Emma” with Patricia; every holiday, she watches this movie or “Pride and Prejudice,” so this was another sign that the summer holidays have begun. Then her three cousins, uncle, and Grandmother came to deliver 6 chickens that they had hatched in their living room! Patricia‘s family is keeping them below the garden. We played with the toy cars on the family’s race track; the four-year-old cousin drives fast and loves to crash. Uh-oh?

MAY 31

This morning Iñaki, Patricia, and I left early to pick up Ane, a girl who also visited the US three summers ago. We drove to Pamplona, where Iñaki had to do business at a factory (the first factory he worked at as a business consultant), and this is also where Patricia studies law and business at Universidad de Navarra. While Iñaki worked, Patricia, Ane, and I walked around the city. Patricia said that I was taking notice of the same things Jay noticed when he visited! We must be related or something. In the evening Ane went to the bus station to go home and we went to meet Iñaki to drive to Zaragoza. Patricia will spend two months here working at the aquarium, so the family has rented a flat. Iñaki left us in Zaragoza and went to Seville where he had work to do at another aquarium. Patricia and I had breakfast for dinner: ColaCao (like hot chocolate) with chocolate cereal in it and digestive biscuits. We had this the next morning… and night… and morning. But it was actually very good! I guess I’ve never been one to complain about chocolate!

JUNE 1

The 2008 World’s Fair was in Zaragoza. It lasted for three months, and I gathered from various sculptures that the theme was water. I’m guessing you can look it up online to see what I’m talking about since I’m clearly too exhausted to explain. Just to tease you, I’ll mention one of my new favorite sculptures: “Alma del Ebro” by Jaume Plensa, 2008, a human figure created from letters.

Today we visited Basilica del Pilar (Our Lady of the Pillar Basilica), which is probably one of my favorite cathedrals I’ve seen in the last month. We also went to Rosario de Cristal, a glass and light museum narrated in Spanish, so I don’t really know what I saw. We also visited the Aljaferia Castle, part of which is open as a museum, and part of which houses the Regional Assembly of Aragon (Aragon is the region where Zaragoza is located, I think.) The development of math in Muslim civilization is present in this castle’s construction and decoration, and the artistic decoration was always based on repetition. There are many calligraphic inscriptions from the Koran as well; artistic handwriting held the same importance as Christian religious iconography. Aljaferia is one of the greatest examples of Hispano-Muslim art and architecture. The Islamic section of the palace includes the Troubadour Tower, the oldest section of the castle, which is from the IX century.

We ended the day at the Zaragoza Aquarium, where Patricia works during the summer because of her father. (She enjoys working there, though! That’s the reason she switched from medicine to business and law one week before starting university.) This was the live, aquatic version of Musee d’Orsay in Paris hehehe. I’ll leave it at that.

Oh yeah; today we walked through Central Market. (The Central Market, not Central Market, you Washington folks!) We had our chocolate dinner and read books until we were falling asleep.

JUNE 2

Patricia and I went to a modern art exhibit in Zaragoza, La Seo Cathedral, its tapestry museum, and we ended our Zaragoza touristic activities with a visit to the Pablo Gargallo Museum, which displays many of Gargallo’s sculptures and drawings. Gargallo trained in Barcelona and also practiced his art in Paris, and now much of his work is located at this museum.

Chocolate for dinner, books till bed.

JUNE 3

Patricia and I had hoped to visit a monastery, but we had to be back in time to return to San Sebastian with Iñaki, and the bus wouldn’t arrive in time. Instead we visited all four museums that make up “Museums of Caesaraugusta’s Route.” (“Zaragoza” comes from “Caesaraugusta.”) We went to the Forum Museum, River Port Museum, Public Baths Museum, and Theatre Museum. When people started building in certain locations, they discovered Roman ruins, prompting further excavation, and resulting in these four preserved sites.

We returned to the Aquarium and went to lunch with Iñaki and a lady who seemed to be some kind of secretary. We then bought a ridiculous amount of junk food for some gathering at the Aquarium sometime and eventually Patricia, Iñaki, and I left Zaragoza to return home. We stopped in Pamplona to pick up Patricia’s friend Ludo because tomorrow Patricia leaves for a six-day pilgrimage to Santiago with four of her friends, all members of Opus Dei. Patricia is not religious, but it is not uncommon for people to make a pilgrimage even if it’s just for the experience without a religious dimension.

We returned for Rebekah’s birthday dinner, although she kept receiving phone calls and eventually left at 10:30 to go out, in true Spanish fashion… which means returning the following morning at 7:30!

JUNE 4
Iñaki, Patricia, and Ludo left before 6 for the pilgrimage and for Iñaki’s work. Rebekah returned at 7:30 from her birthday celebrations; she had a dentist appointment at noon and didn’t know if she should go to sleep first or stay up!

Coro dropped Iñaki Jr. off at school and took me to Ane’s flat. We hiked from San Sebastian to Orio, which is a lesser-traveled section of the pilgrimage. The hike was gorgeous! I think my new favorite colors are the Spanish greens and blues of today’s combined fog, land, and sea. Ane and I left a note at a certain cross, which is customary. If someone takes it they are supposed to mail it to me; doubtful, but it would be pretty neat! We took a train back to San Sebastian, had lunch on her balcony (amazing view of the beaches, as she lives right in town), and went shopping because I wanted a certain style of pants I‘ve seen all over Europe. (Yes, I bought them!) Coro, Ignaki, and I had dinner and Iñaki practiced his lines for an upcoming play at his English academy. (I think he attends after school.) He successfully completed a two-hour math exam today, has three next week, and ends the school year with sports competitions after final exams. Did I mention that Iñaki is 12?

JUNE 5

After some morning puttering, I met with Ane around 3. She and the other girls on her basketball team (including Garbine) had planned a surprise bachelorette party for their basketball coach’s fiance. Sadly, the night before, the woman’s grandmother died, and the coach told the team to carry out their plans without his fiance, which meant I got to attend. The surprise day included paintball, dinner, and going out. I have never done paintball, let alone with a Spanish basketball team. I felt incredibly stupid since communication is kind of important in team sports (especially ones that you’re unfamiliar with), but it turned out to be a pretty funny, and only slightly painful, experience. It was also strange because we were up in these rural hills with horses and cows in the surrounding fields, and we were running around in bodysuits and helmets shooting each other with paint!

The girls’ coach said that even though his fiance wouldn’t want to do paintball, she would still probably like to go to dinner and dancing. So, after paintball, we dressed up and went to the woman’s flat to surprise her and see if she wanted to join us. She was very happy and wanted to come, so we went to the restaurant at 10 pm and had one of the best dinners ever. It was a set menu with choices for each course, so it was pretty pricy… but delicious. Ane and I each chose what we wanted for the starter, the meal, and desert, and we shared half-and-half. The names of each item on the menu were very long and in Basque and Spanish; Ane said it was to make the restaurant seem even fancier, and she helped me figure out what everything was. This is what we shared, as best as I can explain:
-a crepe-samosa-like-thing with cod, vegetables, and brie; spinach and pesto ravioli
-cod with a seafood sauce; duck with grape sauce
-banana cake, apple crisp

After dinner (around midnight or 12:30 I think) we went to the bars, which is more like going to dance clubs that happen to have bars, rather than bars that happen to have a tiny place for dancing. I liked this a lot! It was fun to do something completely different and experience a typical night for a young person in the Basque Country. The music was interesting and fun, there were plenty of people-watching opportunities, and even though Spanish Circadian clocks are way later than my own, I didn’t even feel tired. (That surprised me, since Ane and I had been hiking the day before and doing paintball earlier.)

Anyway, we left the first bar around 2:45 and went to a few more to find some teammates who had split up. A few times people would say something to me because they could tell I was foreign, which was funny since I’d asked Ane on our hike if I was obviously foreign. Ane and I caught the bus home at 3:30, and a very nice drunk man was very happy to learn that I was from Washington… D. C. When he understood that I‘m from Washington STATE, he got even more excited: “Seattle?!” The bus ride was pretty entertaining.

JUNE 6

After our night on the town, Ane and I had lunch with her family, since I had only met her mother briefly. Her mother, father, and younger brother were very energetic, welcoming, and fun! We had tapas, pasta, and a special dessert that they made at home from sheep’s milk. The dessert is basically the first stage of making cheese, and you eat it with sugar. We talked about the previous night and how Ane’s brother (also called Iñaki like Patricia‘s brother and father) finds ways into the bars even though he’s only 17 and isn’t technically allowed until he’s 18. The parents joked with their kids and wanted to know if Ane had met any boys or if Iñaki met any girls. I practiced my horrible Spanish, and they actually seemed to appreciate it.

I returned to Patricia’s home to pack and spent my last evening in Spain with Coro, Iñaki, and Iñaki Jr. We drove into town and walked along the beach, back to the Chillida sculptures, and through town a bit. Iñaki wanted to go to a place called Telepizza, so we had pizza and that sort of thing for dinner.

JUNE 7

On my last morning, Rebekah drove me to the beach. I hadn‘t had any time with her alone because she is gone so often, but we had a nice walk and got to know each other a bit. Rebekah and Patricia are very different! Rebekah loves to go out, do board sports, and be social more than she likes to have quiet days at home. She wanted to study journalism, but her father said she wouldn’t be able to get a job, so she is doing marketing and business studies at university. Eventually she wants to have some sort of magazine or run a business. She also wants to move away from San Sebastian; she wants to get away from an environment where everyone is quite comfortable financially. I was really thankful to have this time with her, because her character is actually quite different than I had expected! I felt like I was more connected to the family by chatting with her. After hanging out watching surfers, she took me to a little shop she always goes to and bought her favorite snack: fruit juice and sweets. She drove me up to Igeldo (where Ane and I started our hike) to a cliff overlooking the other side of San Sebastian. It was very peaceful and beautiful, and we ate gummy octopi and drank juice while I silently said goodbye to Spain.

Patricia’s father drove me to the airport in Biarritz, France, and my bag was… 14.8 kilos! I threw one more shirt in to make it a perfect 15. I arrived at Stansted Airport outside of London, caught a bus to the city, managed the Tube, found the hostel, and checked in right as Jared and Ben were walking out the door! We went to Camden with one of Jared’s roommates, Ana, a girl from Mexico, and eventually joined Alex and Marc from Quebec, as well as some other people from California, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas. It was so good to see Jared and Ben again, as they have been gone since January! We got caught up a little over a 1995 World Atlas in a pub, got to know the other folks, and had a rainy adventure with the tube and bus trying to get back to our hostels. We had a fun night together in London and said goodbye since they had to leave early the next morning.

The hostel (Ace Hotel in Kensington) is great and I wish I had more time here! Now that I’ve done the hostel thing once, I definitely will do it again. Since I was hardly in the room, I didn’t get to know my roommates, but two guys were there on holiday from school in Maryland, two were on holiday from Australia, and I never even met the girl, so I have no idea where she was from or what she was doing. I just think it’s awesome that you can meet so many different people from different places! For example, at breakfast, there were some teachers from Holland with a ton of elementary-aged students, apparently on a field trip.

BYE FOR NOW!
Hanna

Athens and the beginning of Spain

2010-06-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

MAY 26
We arrived in Athens and took a train into the city. After checking into the hotel, we went up to the Areopagus, a rock mound just below the Acropolis that also overlooks the city. This area was a five-minute walk from the hotel! (Hotel Parthenon… go figure.) Peter lectured on the Acropolis and mythology of Athenian origins. I stayed to watch the sunset with Paul and Brianna, just as the nearly-full moon rose behind the Parthenon.

MAY 27
We started the day by returning to the Acropolis and this time we actually got to explore the site. Even though it’s kind of an ongoing construction site, it was still amazing to see the remains of the culture manifest in its architectural remains. Once again, experiencing firsthand what I’ve learned in class was phenomenal. Then we went to an archaeological excavation site, the Athenian Agora. We got to see lots of reconstructed ancient pottery, as well as fragments. Very durable fragments, might I add. Pottery can dated within about 50 years of its creation, making it an incredibly abundant and durable means of archaeological research. This pottery was used to transport wine, grain, oil, fish, and virtually anything else. It is also found preserved in shipwrecks that occurred during transport. The man giving us a tour of the site (I can’t remember his name…) said, “As soon as we put a spade in the ground, we hit pottery.” So it’s useful and abundant. But abundance has its difficulties, especially when you come across several pots broken in the same location. The dude said, “It’s like throwing together five puzzles and trying to put each one together.”

Before walking through the actual site, we saw a model of what this 5th century BC agora probably looked like. As for its purpose, it was a highly political public square during the invention of democracy. There is a marker of the agora’s boundary, and this is probably one of the locations where Socrates spent a lot of time. The Temple of Helofernes (pardon my probably-barbaric spelling…) is the best preserved temple because it was converted to a Christian church for awhile. The architecture of this temple incorporates both the Ionic and Doric orders, a sort of architectural transition.

On our way back to the hotel, I saw one of the main things I was hoping to see in Greece: a group of old fellows playing Backgammon. I first spoke to Kristos, who said it was fine if I watched. I told him that my aunt (Cathy) says the masters play in Greece, and he agreed. I didn’t tell him, however, that she had beat the Greek Backgammon masters. I don’t know enough about the sensitivity of Greek pride regarding the game to bring up her victories! I noticed that they play a little differently than I do: first of all, once the game is over (as I play), they play backwards! Second of all, the game is incredibly fast-paced, and a little… ferocious? I loved watching, though!

In the afternoon I made a quick visit to the Acropolis Museum, since I only had an hour. I noticed an incredible amount of color remaining on many statues! I was also amazed by the incredible reconstructions created from just a few fragments. To give an example of what I saw, the museum has five of the six sculptures from the Porch of the Caryatids, and most of them are quite complete, given their age. This porch was on the south side of the Erechtheion. (The sixth sculpture is located at the British Museum.) I also saw Poseidon’s chest from the west pediment of the Parthenon (we saw the original back and reconstructed chest at the British Museum). My favorite object in the museum was a marble sphere with magic symbols dating to the 2nd or 3rd century AD.

Then we gathered at the hotel to go out for our final evening in Greece, and the last night of the May Seminar. On the drive to the beach, each corner along the coast was the beginning of another gorgeous bay with the blue and teal water of the Aegean Sea. We spent some time at a beach where Peter used to hang out when he lived here. I decided that Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” was the perfect match for feet in the Aegean Sea and the rest of me watching the sun run away for the night. After dinner we went up to Poseidon’s Temple to watch the final sunset. I WANT TO RETURN TO GREECE! (Even though I only saw a tiny bit of Athens for a day…)

MAY 28
This morning I went to the airport with the rest of the class and they left for their flight home. I had about six hours to kill and some dude wanted to kill them with me, so I left to explore the airport and found a photo display of sea life. I was also surprised to run into a fellow named Peter. I think Peter should’ve told me he was going to the airport later so I could’ve slept in at the hotel and gone to the airport with him later. Boo!

Anyway, I finally got on the airplane, fell asleep, and awoke completely confused to mixed Spanish-Greek frenzy regarding some dude who was kicked off the plane 45 minutes after the scheduled departure. (By the way, I’m talking about my Athens-Barcelona flight.) Then they thought the guy left a piece of luggage on and were making sure each piece was claimed. I don’t know if they thought he left something dangerous behind or what, but it was really weird and kind of creepy, especially since I was in a sleepy haze shrouded in a foreign linguistic crossbreed. But, I made it to Barcelona, got my sunset-cottonball-cloud flight to Bilbao, and was picked up by Patricia’s parents. Patricia is from the Basque country in Spain, and she stayed with my family three years ago. A photo of me from that time was all her parents (Iñaki and Coro) had to identify me, so apparently I look the same as I did then since they found me. Yay? We reached their home in San Sebastian and were greeted by their dog (Max) and their children, Patricia, Rebekah, and Iñaki Jr.

I am very tired. I like adventures. I like learning. I like Joni Mitchell. I am about to like Spain. Goodbye for now; you can keep up with my adventures by reading my blog, since the Concordia May Seminar is technically over.

Hasta luego,
Hanna

Europe update- the end of Paris, beginning of Athens...

2010-05-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

Here is an update on things since my last post. This is also part one of my final blog because that will be due in a few days, but I have no idea what my internet access will be like then as I am continuing to travel for the next couple of weeks. So my final post will be here eventually, but here is this for now!

MAY 23
We started the day at Musee Rodin, which has Rodin sculptures in a magnificent garden. Then we went to Musee d’Orsay. My favorite painting here was by Monet, depicting a woman on a windy hill with an umbrella. There was another room I particularly enjoyed with paintings from Africa and Central Asia. I had two favorites: one of elephants in an African landscape and one of people approaching the viewer on camels in a snake-shaped line. The camels were about as tall as me and it looked like I was going to walk right into them!

-In the late afternoon I went to see Gustave Eiffel’s tower, which was built in just over two years for the 1889 World’s Fair. Over 7 million people visit the tower each year. I am now one of those 7 million people! It took over five hours to get there, get through lines, make it to the top, and return to the hotel (around 12:30 a.m.). The Paris metro system is definitely less efficient than London’s! At the tower, we got in line during the daylight, we reached the middle of tower at sunset, and finally made it to the top as night fell. I think we timed it perfectly, since we got to see the tower in all different lights. A man proposed at the top, and on the elevator down a couple was celebrating their anniversary. Hooray for love! Hooray for the City of Lights!

MAY 24
We started the day at Musee de L’Orangerie to see Monet’s Water Lilies exhibit in two completely white, oval-shaped rooms lit naturally. Monet designed the room to create a “decompression space” between the city’s agitation and his work. The paintings depict sky scapes reflected in water amongst water lilies and weeping willows. I think this was one of my favorite experiences of the trip. The environment definitely complements and contributes to Monet’s paintings.

The paintings we saw were:
“Morning”
“The Clouds”
“Green Reflections”
“Setting Sun”
“Clear Morning with Willows”
“Morning with Willows”
“The Two “Willows”
“Tree Reflections”

We finished the last class presentations, including our presentation on “Apotheosis of King Henry IV.”

MAY 25
This was our last day in Paris. I went to see the Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coure, and the Artists’ Quarter. At the Louvre, one of the class presentations was on a very small painting and Peter explained that, in order to make money, artists often completed smaller paintings to sell more at a faster rate. I was thinking about this at the Artists’ Quarter, a square where artists sell many small to mid-sized paintings, mostly of sites in Paris. Many of the artists create portraits for tourists as well, and one member of our group had her portrait drawn. I enjoyed watching the artist work because I got to see a blank paper become a beautiful portrait very quickly. One artist had a particularly interesting look, and was seated right next to a self portrait he had done. He looked like a grungy Parisian Santa Clause. I wanted to take a photo of him and his self portrait, but most of the artists did not allow photos, understandably.

MAY 26
This is the part where we go to Athens. This is the part where I'm going to leave off until the FINAL "final thoughts" blog. Here's a preview: ancient ruins. Archaeological digs. Two new sunset views. And of course, another water baby story.

Now I'm off to visit friends in Spain, Switzerland, and England. Love, hugs, and high-fives!
Hanna

The Seine: Hello, Paris!

2010-05-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

MAY 21
Our night train to Paris arrived around 10:15 am Friday. Cozy and I made a game-plan for the scavenger hunt and ended up beating Peter to the final destination, the pyramid at the Louvre. On the way there we saw Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower in the distance, and plenty of puppies and pet shops. We hung out at the pyramid and I read my guide book for a long time, choosing some places I want to visit during free time. We went to a concert at Sainte-Chapell, a string group with a vocalist from the Paris opera! Then we hung out by the Seine River to eat dinner, talk about Disney movies, and watch the integration of local Parisians and other tourists like ourselves. A half moon brightened as the sun set on the Seine.

The Seine is like the foreign inverse of the Indi dock and I absolutely love it. The river is also greenish-blue rather than brown like the Arno. I am a water baby and feel completely physically different near water. I’ve noticed this in each city (Thames, Arno, in Venice, and Seine), but it has been the strongest in Venice and now Paris. I think Paris is my favorite city so far, even though I’ve hardly seen any of the city yet.

MAY 22
We spent the morning at the Louvre. Cozy and I first found the Peter Paul Rubens room with the famous Medici Cycle. Our third and final presentation will be in this room on Rubens’ painting “The Apotheosis of King Henry IV,” which is absolutely massive and adorns the end of the 24-painting hall. We wove through crowds to the other side of the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. I was not excited at all. I have no connection to this portrait and have no speculation on her “mysterious” expression. I was excited to see a da Vinci, but it was honestly more of a check-list item than something I was looking forward to. Really, a person can’t go to Paris and not see the Mona Lisa.

Then Zach and Paul presented on the Stele of Naram-Sin, a monument I learned about in Heather’s class last fall. Once again, seeing a work with which I’m somewhat familiar was both satisfying and exciting. After two more presentations, class was over and Paul and I took some time to explore more of the Louvre. We went to the lowest floor to see excavated and preserved sections of the original palace. We also saw the “Venus of Milo,” “Nike,” and a certain Etruscan sarcophagus I was looking forward to seeing. We spied on some folks at river before Peter’s lecture on the Notre Dame façade. We did walk through the cathedral, seeing the great stained-glass windows and small altars despite the crowd. Apparently we have an affinity for going against the flow in crowds of tourists. Oops.

Not surprisingly, my initial impression of Paris revolves around the river. I feel it and I love it. Near it, I am happy. Especially because… I am homesick. I admit it. This is NOT usual for me, but I realized that I haven’t been home since Christmas and I miss my fam-bam and three best buds. But that’s okay! I will be excited to see them when it’s time to go home. But for now, I am here listening to some Esperanza and Dave and I’m going to keep making the most of every day. Especially if my day involves a body of water. :)

-Hanna

The end of Florence, Venice, and a night train to Paris!

2010-05-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

MAY 17
Cozy and I couldn’t present because the Basilica of San Lorenzo was closed for the day. In the afternoon several of us went to Michelangelo’s Piazzalla, a huge parking lot overlooking Florence. As it turns out, this is where my parents stayed in their VW bus when they visited Florence years ago! We continued up the hill to a church with yet another amazing view of the city. On the way back to the hotel we crossed the Arno just as the sun was setting, and I flipped a coin into the river for my Dad because that’s one of his memories from Florence.

MAY 18
Cozy and I presented at the New Sacristy. Eight of us went to the train station to buy tickets to Venice. We had our farewell to Florence dinner as a group.

MAY 19
One of my brothers (Jay) suggested I go to Venice if I had a chance, so I had been hoping other students would be interested in going! I found out a couple days before our free day that several others wanted to go, and we made it happen!

I want to share something my dad wrote to me in an email. He writes expressively and I love the way he can put an experience into words so poignantly.

“Enjoy Venice; it is old, sagging, and beautiful. Venice reminds me of an old person, stooped and shuffling, who has a beautiful face and amazing eyes.”

So here’s the story. Eight of us got up around 3 am to catch a train to Venice! We arrived in Venice at 9:30 am after a frenzied train change in Bologna. The weather forecast had us prepared for a cold, rainy day, but it was probably in the 70s, and completely sunny! Venice is built on 317 small islands, has 150 canals, and is connected by 409 bridges. First we took a water taxi through a main canal, seeing plenty of colorful buildings lining the waterway. An elderly couple waved at the taxi as we went by, a man crossed the steps of an old building with a guitar slung across his back, and commuters came and went as they started another average work day in Venice.

Our water taxi trip ended at St. Mark’s Basilica, the ceiling of which is covered in gold. The basilica is massive and surprisingly serene, considering all the tourists filtering through. We spent the afternoon wandering back to the train station through Venice’s little streets and bridges, taking pictures all along the way. We hired two gondoliers to take us for a ride, starting at the Bridge of Sighs! Our gondolier has worked on the canals for 15 years.

I almost didn’t go because I wanted to save the money and I thought the combination of the water taxi and watching other people in the river boats was an acceptable equivalent. However, I’m so glad I went! Riding through the tiny, watery alleys between pink and yellow Venetian buildings was completely different than the water taxi or walking on the streets. It was so quiet and cool, a relaxing time to take in the sights without dodging other tourists in the hot sun. The boats are all black and carved with beautiful ornamentation, including little figurines sticking out of the sides and ends. The gondoliers mostly wear thickly-striped shirts and flat, woven hats; many tourists had striped shirts on to commemorate the gondoliers!

After spending about 9 hours on trains and a gorgeous day in Venice, we arrived back in Florence for our last night.

MAY 20
I spent our last day exploring Florence with my camera, being creepy as usual and taking pictures of strangers. That’s just how I like to remember different places, by remembering the people that were there and what they were doing. It’s nearing midnight and I’m on a train to Paris! I can’t sit up in my bunk bed to type this, so I’m getting a little uncomfortable--I think it’s time to end this update for now. To close, here are some of my random notes from the museums in Florence that I found especially interesting:

-Symbolism in Renaissance art: a black stone on the subject’s pinky finger meant she was a widow; dogs symbolized fidelity; pearls meant fleeting earthly love; red hair was ideal, and the symbol of spiritual virtue; cornflowers meant divinity.

-Flowers were thought to have healing powers, especially for pregnant women. I have often wondered why flowers are given as gifts, and it’s unfortunate that symbols behind certain flowers are not usually known or understood.

-Memorials, whether in the form of a tomb or a portrait, often reflect how the person wanted to be remembered. For example, the Medici family tombs in the New Sacristy, or their Palace, or their commissions presently in museums, certainly convey their power and wealth. However, if there is no personal connection, I think this is completely meaningless. Interesting, but irrelevant in the way works are supposed to commemorate a person. The same idea applies to people who are alive today, like celebrities for example. No matter how charitable, beautiful, successful, or notoriously rowdy a celebrity is, the average person’s opinion of them doesn’t matter in the way it seems. Since we have no personal connection we really don’t care about them as a person, and any adoration is really quite empty. The Medici family is definitely remembered, but it is a completely empty remembrance. So how are we going to approach our own mortality?

GOODNIGHT [TRAIN]!
-Hanna

another Florence update!

2010-05-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

MAY 16
We went to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens and had our first day bordering on “warm.” Here are some of my favorite paintings in the Pitti Palace (sorry I haven't translated the titles yet):

-Francesco Gioli: “Fiori di Campo” 1896
-Arturo Faldi: “Studio di Paese” 1915?
-Galileo Chini: “Fiesta dell’Ultimo dell’Anno a Bankok” 1913
-Plinio Nomellini: “Primo Compleanno” 1914
-Plinio Nomellini: “Mezzogiorno”

I searched for a portrait my grandma Pat saw twice, but this proved to be Mission Impossible… I was really disappointed about this, but still in awe of the overly fantastic palace rooms and the floor-to-ceiling painted masterpieces.

In the afternoon I went to the Basilica of San Lorenzo to see Michelangelo’s New Sacristy, my presentation site for Florence. This is what I was most excited about for the entire trip! The funerary chapel was a little smaller than I had imagined, which I liked. It is a very intimate setting, with the focus ultimately directed toward Michelangelo’s Virgin and Child sculpture. For our paper, I used a book of fantastic photographs of the New Sacristy for reference and independent description, and the actual site was even better. The balance between polished sculptures and unfinished marble work within the whitewashed Pantheon-like chapel captivated me more than I had anticipated. This is definitely my favorite site in Florence so far.

Florence update!

2010-05-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

MAY 12

We flew into Florence through some of the most fluffy clouds I’ve ever seen; below were green hills with red-roofed houses, and I couldn’t wait to get on the ground and explore the city. We bussed to the city center, went to the 7th floor roof of the hotel, turned the corner, and were face-to-face with the Duomo. WOW! Cozy and I paired up for the scavenger hunt, which ended at the Church of Santa Croce. From there we explored a bit more, walking down to the river and returning to the hotel in the rain. I love the little curving alleys and side streets, the bridges along the river, and all the locals on bicycles.

I do not, however, love being in a foreign country without knowing the local language. I feel almost conceited by visiting a country and speaking English to locals because this presents an ignorant expectation that they speak my language, even though I am in their country. I think that’s the hardest thing for me to reconcile when traveling: this typically American entitlement that I am aware of, yet have to ignore just to function.

MAY 13

Heather taught us about two structures in the Piazza del Duomo, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo) and the Baptistery of San Giovanni. The baptistery is the oldest building in the Piazza. It is octagonal, eight being symbolic of regeneration and restoration from the dead. A person would wear a scratchy wool cloak that was symbolic of their sinful life. They faced the west and renounced their sins before removing the cloak and entering the water. The west symbolized darkness and a wood and gold sculpture of a repentant Mary Magdalene was placed there in connection with the repentant sinner. The person was submerged three times because Christ rose on the third day. They came out of water looking up at the golden ceiling of the dome, which was nearly supposed to create a vision of heaven. Thirteenth century gold mosaics tell stories and lead to the dome’s focal point, a giant image of Christ.

Ghiberti’s golden doors, the “Gates of Paradise,” are on the east side of the baptistery, facing the Duomo. The doors today are replicas, but we saw one of the original panels in a museum, which depicts the Ark of the Covenant. In that museum, we also saw Michelangelo’s Pieta, which he created as his own funerary monument.

MAY 14

Heather took us through Renaissance art in the Uffizi Gallery, which supposedly has 60 percent of the world’s most important art. We compared altar pieces by Chimabue, Duccio, and Giotto, talking about realistic qualities of the subjects and the orientation of their gazes. Gold backgrounds meant the scene was taking place in heaven, while blue was an attempt to bring a scene to an earthly level.

We saw Perro della Francesca’s 1465 double portraits of Battista Sforza and her husband, Federico da Montefeltro, who ruled over the city state of Urbino. These were supposedly painted after Battista died as a memorial of their marriage. My favorite painting at the Uffizi was by Piero di Cosima, entitled Perseus Frees Andromeda. The work depicts Perseus killing the monster Andromeda was going to be sacrificed to.

Peter presented Benvenuto Cellini’s Perseus and Medusa, a sculpture of the same Perseus from Cosima’s painting. The sculpture, located in the Piazza della Signoria, took over a decade to complete, and it was born out of extreme conflict, both politically and between artists. Michelangelo’s David and Boticelli’s David were Cellini’s competition in creating this sculpture. The subject matter of Perseus beheading Medusa is Cellini’s challenge to the other artists’ works in the square, as well as the commissioner’s challenge to his political competition.

MAY 15

Today has been another awesome, rainy day at the Uffizi and Bargello. Heather taught us about Alessandro Botticelli’s painting Birth of Venus, a mythological scene of Venus, an archetype of beauty and modesty. The painting has neo-Platonic components, such as Venus’ virtue reflected by physical beauty and the parallels between myth and the Christian religion. In the twentieth century, this painting was paired with Botticelli’s painting Primavera, a mythological depiction of abundance and love.

More later.

recap of London

2010-05-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

We made it to Florence yesterday, but this is an update on the past several days.

My presentation on the Sutton Hoo Burial with Cozy was the very first one and I think it went well, especially for not knowing what to expect or what was expected. Everyone's presentation was great. I am enjoying hearing about specific paintings, objects, and sites in depth; everything becomes more significant and interesting.

Kristin and Sarah presented Peter Paul Rubens’ painting Samson and Delilah, an absolutely compelling work telling the Biblical story within a scene. In Paris, Cozy and I will present a Rubens’ painting as part of the Medici Cycle, so I especially enjoyed an early face-to-face introduction to his work. Also, Kristin and Sarah’s run-down of Rubens’ life was dynamic and funny, and I enjoyed this part of the lecture in the same way one enjoys swapping stories about mutual friends.

Trisha and Meagan talked about the garden culture of the Hampton Court Palace. In the privy gardens, only small, short plants were cultivated; this prevented people from hiding in the gardens and listening to the King’s private conversations. We took a train out to the palace, and it was refreshing to trade the busy city for immaculate gardens for an afternoon.

I enjoyed Zach and Paul’s presentation on Nelson's Column, a monument in Trafalgar Square outside of the National Gallery that is dedicated to admiral Horatio Nelson. Zach and Paul basically told a great story of Nelson’s life using story panels on each of the monument’s four sides. Nelson supposedly coined the phrase “turning a blind eye” when he put a telescope up to his blind eye in order to tell a lie that would be beneficial in battle.

After their presentation Paul and I decided to explore the city, our cameras in hand. We stumbled upon a National Geographic store and I saw a really old photo of a suffragette standing in Trafalgar Square, where we had just been. In the photo the woman was speaking to a crowd of male voters before she was even old enough to vote, and I thought that was interesting because Nelson and she were both catalytic and determined.

We ended up wandering from the National Gallery/Trafalgar Square through the Soho district, seeing some quirky (and expensive) shops, more sculptures of elephants, and a dude with a ridiculous mustache. We stopped inside a Café Nero to warm up with some chai and then tried to find the Photographer’s Gallery, a gallery for rotating exhibitions that I’d noticed both on our maps and in my guidebook. We found the correct address, but the gallery had been moved in the opposite direction of our final destination: Drury Lane. So we carried on, bought muffins from a little convenience store on Drury Lane (we know the muffin man), and went back to the hotel before a night of theatre and Greek food.

The Tate Britain and Tate Modern museums were my favorite sites in London. At the Tate Britain, I spent most of my free time in a main room where Douglas Gordon used text to turn the walls, columns, and dome into an artwork entitled "Pretty much every word written, spoken, heard, overheard from 1989... [2010]". This 2009 commission utilizes over 80 words arranged in different phrases to create dialogue between the artist and the viewer, emphasizing the potential for linguistic confusion from ambiguity and multiple meanings. Some of the phrases were:
-Nothing has changed all over again. [written backwards]
-tell someone a beautiful truth
-I still believe in still.
-From someone lost, to someone found.
-I have not forgotten, because I cannot forget. [followed by] I REMEMBER NOTHING. [followed by] I CANNOT REMEMBER ANYTHING.

Along the same lines, one of my favorite exhibits in the Tate Modern was by Edward Rusch, who is associated with the pop art movement and uses text with images. My favorite works of his were Daily Planet, The Final End, and Hope.

I also saw an exhibit on dream and surrealism, works by Andy Warhol, Monet, and Picasso. Paintings by both Jackson Pollock and his wife, Lee Krasner, were exhibited in the same room. I really liked a piece by Niki de Saint Phalle called Shooting Picture, a post-war abstract painting. The artist enclosed bags of paint beneath plaster and had spectators shoot the panel, releasing the paint and allowing it to run to the bottom of the work.

Similar to Shooting Picture, an exhibit on Viennese Art expressed post-war emotions. I did not like this at all, which is the point. They say if life gives you lemons, add some sugar and make a fine beverage. But if life gives you war, add some history, mythology, and some pretty grotesque materials and images to make art. It makes sense, although I could only force myself to stay in that gallery for a couple of minutes.

There was also a photography display by artists who approach a topic by using multiple images of similar subject. Some were portraits classified by occupation or disability, some were long exposures of drive-in movie theaters, and the Polished Tenant series by Alexander Apostol showed digitally manipulated images where the artist removed buildings’ doors and windows.

I left the Tate, took a footbridge across the Thames, and went to see St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is in line of sight from the river side of the museum. I wandered through side streets back to the hotel, scoping out some shopping for my return to London. I caught up on some National Geographic reading at a Dutch Pancake house, took a walk, and packed for Florence.

More later!
Hanna

Europe 1-London

2010-05-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

May 5
All twenty of us arrived at the Heathrow Airport with our luggage and took a bus to the Jesmond Hotel in London. We split into groups for a scavenger hunt, which involved searching for ATMs, finding pubs, and utilizing the general kindness of Londoners to figure out the underground transit system. We met at the London Eye and took a spin on the giant wheel, some of us joking about our little pod turning into a boat on the Thames… Yikes! The night ended at a Thai restaurant, my favorite.

May 6
We spent our first full day in London at the British Museum, just a few blocks from the Jesmond Hotel. Peter Schultz started by talking about the Parthenon Galleries. Here is some info I found particularly interesting:

-Every Greek temple was a bank; if people needed money, they were actually borrowing it from the temple God or Goddess.
-The Panathenaic Festival was held every four years to celebrate Athenian ancestry and to honor their Gods. They would wrap a cult statue of Athena in a new garment, essentially a ship‘s sail wrapped around a piece of driftwood. The sculptor Andoyos made a bronze face for the statue.
-Eventually, the scaffolding of massive cult statues in temples was built straight into the ground to hold up the massive works.
-Peter said that acroteria, sculptures on temple roof corners, are “like hood ornaments for a temple.”
-The Parthenon sculptures push the boundaries of classical Greek sculptures; they are almost Baroque in detail and extravagance. For example, the sculptured Gods’ physical characteristics convey what they control; the strength of Poseidon, the god of the sea and earthquakes, is conveyed actively through musculature. This particular sculpture happened to be the first torso that was quite that heavily muscled.
-Cloaks and other drapery were included in sculpture to frame heroic figures.

Then curator Paul Collins led us through some Assyrian reliefs. In these, the King’s name, titles, and achievements were inscribed in cuneiform below the reliefs. This was the only identification of the depicted king, since all were idealized. (To depict someone realistically was to admit their mortality.) To transport the massive reliefs to the museum, they cut the text off to lower the weight, knowing that each panel provided the same information repeatedly anyway. However, Collins pointed out that the viewer was meant to experience the unity of text and imagery, so we do not see what the reliefs’ creators intended.

In Assyrian reliefs, the story order was usually beginning, end, and middle. The beginning and middle depicted conflict, allowing the ending scene of the king’s peace to exist in the visual center. However, in this way history was being rewritten selectively. Real moments and events were sculpted, but only to exalt the king. Sculptural reliefs of battles and lion hunts were some of the examples we viewed. Overall, I thought of Assyrian reliefs as early ethical journalistic issues. While the information presented was not inaccurate, it was selected intentionally for the purpose of exalting the king and the nation.

We ended the night by seeing the show “Wicked” at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in third row seats. WOW. The show rocks, and the cast, costumes, and effects were absolutely fantastic.

May 7
I started the day out with a jog… where I got to see Big Ben, the London Eye, the Royal Opera House, and plenty of locals walking, biking, and bussing across the Waterloo Bridge to work. That was pretty cool! I sort of didn’t follow my intended route… at all… but I didn’t get lost! Wooo!

At the museum, Peter’s former student Kristin Leith talked to us about bronze age Mycenaean burials. We saw pottery like I’d seen in textbooks, jewelry, and figurines. Leith especially focused on Mycenaean weaponry in connection with burials. Weaponry buried with male warriors signified the grave occupant’s identity, just as certain tools were buried with individuals to reflect their occupation. However, wealthy people could purchase weaponry for their burial, altering their identity in death for future descendents. Even wealthy women had this option, although it stopped at a certain point: boars’ teeth necklaces, for example, were only for skilled hunters who actually killed enough boars to make a necklace out of their teeth. Overall, you could rewrite your identity in death if you had enough money. Some things never change.

Then Peter Higgs spent two sessions with us talking about ancient Greece. We saw the Bassae Frieze, which depicts battles between Amazons and Lapiths. Higgs explained the visual relationships between sculpted characters, dynamic body positions, and expressive details.

My favorite part of Higgs’ lecture was when he brought up the conflict between assessing artwork based on the quality of preservation, rather than quality of the work’s artistry; less broken does not mean that a work is better quality, although it could still suite a person‘s preference. “Complete objects aren’t necessarily better, but also, your own opinion is so important,” Higgs said.

Then my favorite speaker so far, Paul Roberts, ended the day with an impossibly comprehensive history of ancient Rome. Roberts told stories connected to the British Museum’s Ancient Rome collection as we walked around to view the objects. He used sculptures to explain the role of various people and connections between them. Julius Caesar, for example, was assassinated so he wouldn’t try to become King. However, the next leader, Octavian, ended up having more power than Julius Caesar; Caesar’s assassination was basically the beginning of the empire’s fall.

Overall, I find the connection between money, religion, and politics pretty fascinating. (Like I mentioned before, Greek temples served as banks, Octavian began using currency as propaganda…) Also, when we look at historical sculptures and architecture we forget the aspect of color. Everything was painted, which totally changes the idealized images we have from models and sketches. Lastly, a main theme that runs through art and history is that these stories have survived largely through oral tradition woven through stories and speculation… how much is true?

I am also interested in burial practices, so my presentation with Cozy on the Sutton Hoo Burial tomorrow should be fun! [Except for that part where I get nervous and can't speak in front of people...]

In the sacred names of Peter Schultz and Heather Hardester,
Hanna

PS
Peter and Heather are our professors, if you didn't know. They're up there with the Greek Gods.
PPS
FOLLOW OUR CLASS ON FACEBOOK!

Anti Sex Trafficking/Empowering Women

2010-05-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

Quick photo update:

I did an independent study in photography this semester to fulfill one of my studio art credits for my graphic design major. One of my main projects was on the problems of sex trafficking, and some of the photos may be viewed in this section of my Flickr.

New Adventure!

2010-05-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

I leave for Europe in one hour! I am doing an art history program through my college for three weeks. We will visit London, Florence, and Paris, with a few extra days in Athens. In each of the first three cities pairs of students studied a work of art within a category and will teach the entire group about the work at its current location! My topic was death, dying, and tombs. In England I will teach about the Sutton Hoo burial site. In Florence, Michaelangelo's New Sacristy in the Basilica of San Lorenzo. In Paris, my presentation will be about Peter Paul Rubens' painting "Apotheosis of King Henry IV."

On May 28 the group returns to the US, but I will stay for two weeks! First I'm going to visit my friend Patricia in the Basque country of Spain. Then hopefully I'll head to Switzerland to see my friend Mel! Finally I'll end up in England to see family friends Dewi and Heather, Paddy and Jenny, and my friends Jared and Ben!

I will try to post updates here throughout the trip. As a class, we are required to post blogs on our Facebook group, so I imagine it wouldn't be too much trouble for me to post them here as well.

More later!
Hanna

new article posted

2010-03-27T12:01:00.001-07:00

"Feeding Children in Mtsiliza, Malawi"

Learning Centre Update (Rwanda)

2010-01-20T13:54:00.000-08:00

Moses Kiyendeye from the Learning Centre in Rwanda where we taught just sent us their 2009 newsletter! Here are some highlights:

-The LC has sports three days a week and music classes two days a week (piano, guitar, voice, choir, and music theory).

-"TIGO, a new telephone company, has employed many LC students for the last two weeks specifically because they speak English. The students were very surprised to be working with fluent English speakers who had confidence in their abilities."

-"We’ve received many books on English and science, and we certainly know that the Learning Centre is not exclusively a place of English lessons; rather it is a school that encourages learning in several areas of knowledge, and the development of different skill sets. Thus, we need to purchase, and set up, a well organised library that will help many of our beneficiaries who come from different areas of interest and knowledge. The installation of this library will require almost $2000 (USD). This library will play a big role in the fulfillment of our long term vision to start a private candidate part-time school of science and arts in the three stages, senior 4, 5 and 6, in addition to reinforcing the expansion of LC students’ English vocabulary. " [Maybe this is the fundraising project I am working toward!]

I still keep in touch with the students and teachers; despite the challenges of running and attending the LC, everyone seems positive and hopeful about their own progress, as well as the improvement of the LC!

Moses and me!

PS

2010-01-17T10:45:00.000-08:00

Each one of us should always have a very broken heart.
We should never stop piecing each other back together.
That's right, each other--not ourselves.

I live in process... a process often simplified to this:
GETTING OUT OF MYSELF.

Chitipi Farm/Fundraising update

2010-01-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

You may recall that the farm had about 500 pigs to raise and sell, but they all died from disease; the project was potentially profitable, so I'm glad to see that they're giving it another try. Here is an update on COTN's Chitipi Farm in Malawi:

"The weather has been hot at 11-acre Chitipi Farm, near COTN–Malawi’s Njewa Ministry Center. The staff purchased 400 chicks, but seventy-two of them died from the heat because of transportation delays. Those chicks have been replaced, and the total is again 400. Along with the chickens, the farm owns two sows and has recently hired a boar to breed them. Green maize and tomatoes are being sold, but tomato prices are low because of an abundant supply at this time of year. The farm has also been having trouble with goats and chickens from surrounding villages damaging crops. Current needs at Chitipi include a wheelbarrow and reliable transportation for large quantities of crops."
[Update in context]

As for my fundraising project, I have a separate bank account for all Africa funds. I still have not decided exactly what they will be used for. I have decided, however, that rather than donating to several smaller projects/sponsorships, I would like to continue accumulating money for a bigger project in the future. I feel that something will come up as an 'Aha!' moment. For example, Ombedde, who lives and works at the Miwani Center in Kenya, has decided to return to his home and have his own workshop. This will cost a great deal more than I have, but something similar will come up later on and I'll be ready.

Another update: I was invited to return to Rwanda in June with Rwanda Partners/Rwanda Basket Company to do photography, but the trip has been canceled. I just have to continue being patient! All in good time...

Another "another update" regarding the earthquake: No DR COTN kids/families/staff died in Haiti's earthquake. No Kids Alive children in Haiti died. My dear friend Bekah worked in Haiti last summer; no one she worked with died, either.

-H

“Stories of the Somali Diaspora: Photographs by Abdi Roble"

2009-11-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

This semester I am taking an art history class as a requirement for my graphic design major. This class has been particularly exciting to me because of the chronological presentation of artistic development. Twice during the semester we must attend a museum exhibit and submit a formal analysis of an artwork. There are several galleries and museums in the Fargo/Moorhead area, and I chose the Plains Art Museum in Fargo for this assignment because I wanted to see the new photography exhibit there. It still feels like early spring here (what, no blizzards yet?), so I rode over to check out the exhibit. Any quotations in the following text are taken from the exhibit summary and the caption of the photograph I focused on for the assignment.

Abdi Roble was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1964, just four years after his country gained independence. However, civil war drove many Somalians out of their country to a refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. Roble was able to move to Columbus, Ohio, in 1990 where he learned English and began selling cameras at Midwest Photo Exchange. In 2003 the self-taught photographer founded the Somali Documentary Project because most records in Somalia have been destroyed. “Roble’s project establishes a photographic record of and for a globally dispersed people.”

The project includes his exhibit “Stories of the Somali Diaspora: Photographs by Abdi Roble,” which is part of the Plains Art Museum’s educational collection in Fargo, North Dakota. “To capture the ethos of the diaspora from an intimate perspective Roble followed the journey of one family from Dadaab to Anaheim, California, and recently to Portland, Maine.” The display includes 55 out of his 50,000 photographs. The prints are on loan from Roble, and the exhibit is organized by Columbus Museum of Art and Arts Midwest in partnership with the Ohio Arts Council.

Roble’s style is documentary photography; he uses available light and a handheld 35 millimeter camera. “The essence of a great documentary photograph lies somewhere between content and composition, between detail and whole, between information and emotion, between heart and mind.” This is where the photograph “Walking” lies. In this photograph, “mother and daughter carry grain, cooking oil, and water back to their hut across the desert.” In December 2005 when Roble took this photograph, a family in the Dadaab refugee camp would receive 14 pounds of stale cornmeal and a few ounces of cooking oil for two weeks. The image conveys the emotional and physical tension of the subjects’ lives. Pristine museum conditions contradict the gritty subject matter and film grain of “Walking,” providing further emphasis on the image's message.

Roble conveys the political and social context of civil war, the Somali diaspora, and survival in a refugee camp in this display, and especially in the photograph "Walking." The women are covered by the sun, and there appears to be no escape. They progress and persevere, but the viewer cannot see the destination, either in location or in lifestyle stability. Meanwhile, the sun will continue to beat down on them, and they will still have their loads to carry; survival is a burden, a routine activity. The viewer almost feels their physical stress, the heat of the sun, the hot, soft sand, scratchy brush, and dry air. Roble portrays the subject matter in a style that conveys persistence through opposition.

I was drawn to this photograph in particular because of my experiences in Africa last summer, which changed my view of the strength of women. I believe in the power and influence of images, especially when subject matter can be presented to viewers who would otherwise remain completely disconnected. Roble’s photograph of these women among the other photographs especially commanded my attention. The subjects are dominant even within the harsh desert, and Roble captured their strength and determination in conditions many of us cannot comprehend; this is an example of using one's interests and talents to connect people.

Rwanda Basket Company

2009-11-16T10:31:00.000-08:00

Last school year I wrote a feature story on the Rwanda Basket Company for class; since then my parents have gotten involved with Greg and Tracy Stone (founders of Rwanda Basket Company and Rwanda Partners) by hosting basket parties and spreading news about the organization.

The latest news: they sold $3800.00 worth of baskets in less than an hour yesterday!

More later,
Hanna

Concordia Magazine Article

2009-10-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

While I was in Malawi, I was corresponding with Erin Hemme Froslie, a staff writer for Concordia's Office of Communications and Marketing. She asked me to write a story for the magazine, and helped to edit my work throughout the writing process. You can read the story and see one of the accompanying photographs HERE.

I am still in contact with some of the students at Solace; one just wrote to say that he's learning to play guitar!

Upcoming Rwanda Article

2009-10-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Just a quick update:

There is a short teaser in Concordia's Campus Buzz for October about the article I will have in the next issue of the school's magazine.

I was home for three weeks between my return from Africa and the start of the school year. Those were three BUSY weeks! I put together a photo exhibit, which is currently hanging at South Kingston Internal Medicine. I also sell photo cards, and part of the profits from any Africa cards or framed images will either go to Sizco's nursing school fund, the School for Deaf Children in Rwanda, or another sponsored child in Malawi. Finishing the exhibit was stressful, but I'm glad that I could bring work from Africa back home to continue supporting some of the people I met.

Yesterday, a Concordia group helped with a public walk to continue raising money for a library in Sudan. It's good to see different groups in the community working to build connections with people from other countries. One man pointed out that all we have to do is build the library and put books in it; the people will do the rest, as they are driven to learn. However, such a simple-sounding task really is more complex than it appears.

Once again, I want to express how much I appreciate the support that made my summer travels possible; continued encouragement and interest is also helping me to incorporate those experiences into life back at school.

More later!
Hanna

another one

2009-09-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

another form of one article

article

2009-08-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

Click here.

Margarite (Magret) is now my sponsored child! WOOOOO! Due to some confusion in-country I was worried that her sponsorship wouldn't work out, and I'm so glad it did.

Week Thirteen Already?!

2009-07-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

Each year time seems to fly past a little faster, forcing me to question whether or not I used that time well. As I figured would be the case, the summer flew by even faster than usual, but has been incredibly full of new observations, experiences, and relationships. Each country was similar and different from the others and I expect that I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to tie everything together. For now, one of my basic goals is to apply what I’ve learned here in Africa to the different context of life in America.

I’m not looking forward to leaving. I’m even more wary of adjusting back to life in the states.

I’m going to have to make a daily conscious effort to view things in a balanced way when I get back so I don’t become bitter at myself or others. This needs to continue as a positive experience, but it won’t just happen without struggle.

For more information on Part Three of this adventure, take a look:
Dad’s blog: http://drdkenyanjourney.blogspot.com/
The farm website and team blog: http://www.miwani.com/MIWANI/Home.html

moooo?

Dad on our Nandi Rock hike

Nandi Rock from below

Nandi Rock

Napier Grass

I know you were looking forward to this one.

biking into the Kenyan sunset

Miwani School

Dad reading one of my favorite books ("Sheep in a Jeep") to Karunga Baby Class

Children's Prison

I found something today. BAM.

2009-07-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

I’m at Nehemiah Farm in Kisumu, Kenya.

*****

Today I finally found one of the things I’ve been looking for. The triumph of innocence. I went to the street boys’ center where boys up to age 14 come every Wednesday to play and receive a meal. Some have no family and many chose to leave their families out of rebellion. A guard at the gate monitors who comes in and doesn’t let the boys bring in glue or weapons. Even though the boys are homeless, exhausted, tough, and high, they just wanted to play, talk, hug, laugh, and smile. And play fight. I’ve been searching for proof that natural innocence exists beneath even the thickest calluses of human struggle. I found that today.

Dad spoke to the boys. He addressed their struggles and suggested that they may feel placeless and rejected. Dad told the boys that he hopes they find safety, health, and purpose through God. He spent a great deal of time preparing his message and delivered it with kindness. Most of the boys were surprisingly attentive, even responsive; for me, this reinforced the importance of building relationships with service. People question the purpose of service travel, saying it would be better to provide nationals with the money of a plane ticket—but where would that leave us as the human race? Entirely disconnected from each other. Because Dad had spent the morning playing volleyball with the boys, chatting, and specifically seeking out the lonely spectators, they felt the basic framework of a relationship and responded by receiving his words.

*****

UPDATE ON KENYA:

I arrived Tuesday, July 14, in Nairobi and met Wolfgang at the airport to wait for Dad. While we were waiting Brother Joseph sat at a table with us. As it turns out, he was at the farm last summer to see about buying a cow. The 64-year-old Swiss man gives all his money to a children’s home in Kenya and had been here for about three weeks to visit, as shown by the black dirt under his fingernails. The silver-haired catholic wore a large, silver crucifix and thick glasses. His grey beard and leathery skin can’t attest to this man’s youthful exuberance when speaking about Kenya.

We had to leave Brother Joseph to find the Man in the Yellow Hat in the airport—Dad showed up about 2 hours after his plan landed. I ran up to hug him and, for the second time, smacked my nose on his shoulder, making for a comical and slightly bloody reunion after four months. I was laughing and crying and trying to find some TP for my nose and it was just fantastic! The next day Wolfgang and his wife, Heidi, drove us to the farm in Kisumu. Eight hours on Kenyan roads is FUN!

To make a long story short, Nehemiah is a dairy farm and also has goats, rabbits (babies were born our first day on the farm), homes, a workshop/carpentry center, gardens, mango trees, and plenty of maize, sugarcane, and napier grass for silage. A calf was born our first day (Dad named it Caffeine). I milked a cow for the first time. Dad and I read Duck on a Bike and Sheep in a Jeep to the baby class at Karunga school and Madame Idalia, the teacher, translated. We hiked Nandi Rock, about a 12-mile loop and 2,000 foot elevation gain. This was one of my most favorite hikes EVER. Not only was the landscape beautiful and open enough for constant views of the farmland below, but we walked by people living their normal lives that are entirely different from ours in the states. Sizco, a girl who stays at Nehemiah but is from Nandi, hiked with us in her nice dress to see her family. After reaching the rock we went to her home where her family prepared beans and rice for us. We also met her grandmother, who has traditional gauged ears.

We spent Monday making silage in a field behind Karunga school. Squatters (people that work on land that they don’t own) worked with us feeding corn into the chopper. Then we had Kenyan Monster Jam, driving over the silage in the tractor. Yesterday we walked to Kano Village to visit Martin and his huge family. (He has two or three wives and plenty of children.) He told me that mud huts must be repaired every two months. He has a tin roof which is pretty sturdy, but makes for more intense heat inside the home. Martin and the other villagers have been learning about practical things they can do to stay healthy. Papaya, for example, is very healthy and easy to grow. They learned about the importance of sanitation, including washing hands, and keeping land fertile by throwing used batteries away in town instead of… well, anywhere and everywhere. It’s amazing how Dad and I were welcomed there because of the relationship Heidi has built and maintained with the people in Kano.

Last night we went to the home of Sikh Indians, the Brah family, who farm sugar cane. They were some of the first customers of the farm for milk, so they’re like the Nehemiah extended family. They were having a three-day prayer book reading. Their book, like the Bible, is rewritten every 8 years. 12 priests each read for two hours each, for three days. There is always food. First we arrived with milk as a gift and Dad gave them a jar of his honey also. They were so wonderfully welcoming; I can see how someone could quickly become ‘family’! Men and women automatically sat in separate areas in front of the huge house. We ate naan bread, rice, okra, and potatoes. Then we went in to hear the prayers. We covered our heads, washed our hands, and went into a room, bowing before we sat down. The man reading wore a purple turban and brown-rimmed glasses. The priests, sticking with religious tradition, had beards. The reading is very much like a song, starting at a higher pitch and descending down to what seems like the end of a phrase or sentence. There was some smoke in the air, incense I would guess, and a fan blowing. The priest sat behind a table covered with pink satin adorned in gold thread. A canopy of burgundy and gold fabric stretched above the table and the priest. We were given a small handful of almonds, seeds, and pure cane sugar. After observing for a bit we stood, bowed, and left the room. I don’t think I would have ever experienced this part of Indian culture or the Sikh religion if I hadn’t been in Kenya right now.

It’s amazing how the pieces are fitting together…

Round Three: Kenya [and more photos]

2009-07-13T06:01:00.001-07:00

I'll be with Dad in Nairobi in about 28 hours! It's going to be hard to leave Malawi tomorrow morning, but I'm excited for Africa: Part Three. The overload of posts within the last few minutes should fill you in on everything.
Take care!
Hanna

With Gordo, Mphatso, and Chimwemwe and their mother in Mgwayi

African Princess

Chilombo Village

Mtsiliza Village

A little girl and her ball... made out of plastic bags

A common African toy- a tire

Community Treks: Colorado Venture Team

2009-07-13T05:57:00.001-07:00

When Wendy Dean was a high school youth pastor in Denver, Colo., she became increasingly frustrated with the limitations of church-specific ministry. Church kids could join any number of mission trips, but high schoolers that didn’t attend church had no such options. Dean also didn’t see a lasting impact from church mission trips, except maybe the construction of a house.

“We weren’t teaching anyone anything sustainable,” Dean said of her mission experiences in youth ministry. “There’s nothing for high school kids unless they go to church. A lot of kids won’t go to church, so what about them?”

The lack of global education in young people concerned Dean as well, and she wanted to provide students with a meaningful travel experience regardless of their religious background.

In 2006 Dean started Community Treks, a diverse community collaboration of people who want to use their gifts to help orphaned children.

“I feel like it was orchestrated by God,” Dean said. “It started from my passion to help orphans because of losing my parents coupled with my passion for high school students.” Dean’s mother died at age 14 and her father, too, passed away when she was 26.

Dean was drawn to Malawi after meeting a woman named Sandy Boucher at an HIV/AIDS conference. Boucher passed on her connections with Perry Jansen, director of Partners in Hope HIV/AIDS Project Lilongwe, and Children of the Nations-Malawi to Dean.

“We live and breathe Malawi all year long. That’s my job,” said Dean, who works from home fundraising and preparing for the annual summer trips.

COTN’s Venture Team program provides international service options for anyone with a desire to serve. Community Treks fit the program perfectly, and came to Malawi for the first time in 2006.

The complexity of the AIDS crisis, poverty, and disease in Malawi caused Dean to examine where the group could best make a difference. The foundational purpose of helping orphans morphed into a system of group work from three angles.

“It grew into a bigger vision: medical, educational, and faith,” said Dean, explaining the three ways Community Treks works to impact COTN-Malawi. “It’s a very complicated problem,” she said of the AIDS crisis that leaves so many children orphaned. Community Treks incorporates HIV/AIDS training, education, and ministry. “You can’t address one without the other,” Dean said.

Traditionally parents don’t talk about sexuality, and especially HIV/AIDS, with their children. This is changing.

“It’s a changing mindset. Because of time things are changing,” said Henry Kumwenda, Njewa Center Coordinator. “It is my responsibility as a parent to talk to my kids,” he said from the general perspective of a Malawian parent.

The Christian church is very influential in Malawi, and Dean says the church has to use that position of authority to affect the HIV/AIDS crisis. The severity of the crisis is rooted in culture.

Traditionally, when a girl reaches puberty she must sleep with an older man in village for purification. Another tradition contributing to HIV/AIDS started in South Africa where people slept with children, even as young as six, to be healed from HIV/AIDS. Cultural acceptance of witch doctors brought this practice to Malawi, and they promoted those teachings to make money.

Still today, young girls will be sexually abused and don’t say anything because culture teaches them to be seen and not heard. Now, respect needs to go both ways in a relationship. Vocalizing abuse is put in a positive light.

“You’re going to express your feelings,” said Kumwenda, speaking in the role of a parent to their young girl. “If someone has abused you, you need to speak up.”

Besides providing general care, the medical personnel of each trip work with COTN to educate church leaders and provide resources to treat HIV/AIDS patients.

Some of the COTN children are HIV+ because of their parents, but only a certain few COTN staff and aunties know who. This is because not all Malawians are educated about HIV/AIDS not being the child’s fault—the child is not immoral. The children are taken to ABC clinic in Lilongwe every few weeks for medicine. COTN handles each child as individuals with their own stories

“They will help the kid according to the problems that they have,” Kumwenda said. “Much of our culture and tradition is connected with Christianity. The church is playing a big role, even in the villages.”

The medical team from Community Treks provided AIDS education at the church in Mtsiliza Village.

“The objective would be to train these pastors so they can train other people,” said Mike Finnefrock, the assistant principal of Ralston Valley High School in Arvada, Colo.

Each trip is different due to professional specialties like education, medicine, and ministry. Physician and board certified dermatologist Nicole Annest, a specialist in Mohs skin cancer surgery and reconstruction, enabled this particular group to hold village clinics.

Annest and her husband Steve, a biology teacher at Ralston Valley, brought their family to Malawi with Community Treks. Ella, 11, and Mari, 7, helped the team’s high school girls at the village clinics. They took vital signs and wrote down patient notes with the help of interns translating Chichewa to English.

Normally only COTN children and staff can attend these clinics, but because Community Treks brought a doctor and nurse, the clinics were open to the public.

The team came with antibiotics, Children’s Tylenol, and other donations from local clinics and hospitals. People lined up early on benches and in plastic chairs in front of Nurse Charity’s home in Chiwengo Village, which is also the clinic. Babies with diarrhea were some of the most critical patients. Adults came with back and muscle pain and eye problems. Mothers brought their children who were sick with malaria. The team had no malaria medications, but they paid for transportation to the nearest regional medical center where the patients could receive free treatment.

In just two days Annest saw over 160 patients.

“It’s been meaningful for me to have a team of people, none of whom are medical doctors,” Annest said. “We have teachers and counselors and high school students all of whom came together to be just as important to the medical team as I did.”

Librarian Amy Lengyel acted as the team’s pharmacist. Rachael Friesen, a social worker at Freemont Elementary School, took notes for Annest as she talked through exams. Pastors John Anderson and Clark Vestal became optometrists with an old eye examination chart and a table full of donated eyeglasses.

“It allowed us to be efficient,” Annest said. “The most significant part was the contribution of everybody else and the willingness to stretch and do things they don’t normally do.”

Annest had to treat some patients alone, though. Jordan McKinley, a senior at Ralston Valley, sponsors Alex, who was treated by Annest. 10-year-old Alex was wearing a new shirt from McKinley as Annest prepared the young patient for his procedure.

“He had a large mass just behind his right ear and it’s called a keloid,” Annest explained. “It’s a scar that has sort of gone crazy. Sometimes in Africans they can have a small acne scar and the scar will bubble up like a volcano.”

He had it removed nine months ago, but it grew back.

“The key for him is going to be following up,” Annest said. “The spot needs to be injected with medicine to keep it from coming back.”

Alex’s caregivers will have to take him to African Bible College Clinic nearby for the injections. Annest wrote up the operative report and follow-up plan to take to the clinic. She also gave him the medicine for injections to simplify the recovery process as much as possible.

After the procedure Alex saw a spot of blood on the shirt McKinley had given to him. McKinley said his expression was sadder than any she had seen yet in Malawi. He also fainted twice and vomited due to stress from the surgery, which Annest said is not uncommon. Despite the day’s discomfort, McKinley hoped Alex wouldn’t remember the day as being frightening and painful, but as a day that changed his life.

The connections Community Treks has developed with the medical community in Lilongwe should continue to allow Dean to facilitate these clinics.

“I feel like Community Treks is kind of on the radar,” Dean said. Connections with Perry Jansen and COTN are building credibility in Malawi as well as in their community. While Community Treks doesn’t have a lot of money, the whole community now helps to provide scholarships and supplies for COTN-Malawi and support for team members.

Student Meggie Anderson started the ‘WHOA’ club, ‘Warm Heart of Africa,’ in 2007 at Ralston Valley to fund scholarships for Malawian students. Last year WHOA raised about $5,000, enough for two college scholarships at ABC and four high school scholarships. This year the group has $4,300 of scholarship money to donate. They interviewed eight students during the trip and will choose scholarship recipients this month.

Senior Ryan Finnefrock and 2009 Ralston Valley graduate Cassius Kellogg have been members of WHOA since the beginning. Finnefrock joined WHOA because his parents had pioneered Community Treks with Dean and went to Malawi with the first group in 2006. Finnefrock and Kellogg came to Malawi with Community Treks for the first time this summer.

During an evening debrief meeting, Kellogg told a story from his day at Faith Christian Academy in Mtsiliza. He watched a girl take a test; she was doing extremely well. Her scratch paper was her hand, but she ran out of space for the last math problem.

“She did the last problem on my hand,” Kellogg said. “It was a double-digit multiplication problem. She was the first person to get 61 out of 61 on the math test. I started clapping for her when she finished.”

Part of Dean’s reasoning for reaching out to high schoolers is the that kids get sick of being entertained and want to do something meaningful with their lives. Both Finefrock and Kellogg reflected that their time in Malawi was purposeful and impacted not only the Malawian children, but also themselves.

At the Mtsiliza feeding program Kellogg scooped nsima in bowls for the 565 children who receive supper every day. Kellogg, who occasionally plays a joke on buddies by temporarily convincing them that his grandfather invented Kellogg’s Corn Flakes cereal, has a new take on the importance of nutrition for impoverished and starving children.

Finnefrock washed the children’s hands before they received the meal.

“It was weird to see the kids that weren’t in the program that didn’t get fed,” he said.

No matter how many people you want to help, some won’t benefit. But instead of feeling discouraged and giving up, this drives organizations like Community Treks to continue their outreach.

Dean recalls mission trips from her days in youth ministry.

“It wasn’t relationship-based,” she said. Tasks were elevated above relational connections. With Community Treks, Dean aims to do service for the purpose of building relationships.

“We’re in it for the long haul,” she said. “We’re in it for the relationships.”

For example, the group has been preparing medical records to promote efficient medical care.

“We finally delivered them to Yobbe [Lung, COTN-Malawi country director], who is going to give them to ABC once there’s a doctor there,” Dean explained. “It’s taken us four years to get to the level of relationships we have.”

Children will benefit from these medical records, like McKinley’s sponsor child Alex and the follow-up care from his procedure. What’s more important though, is the connections made through face-to-face contact. The high school members of Community Treks’ summer 2009 venture trip take their experiences home.

“When you get to talk to the interns and hang out with the kids, you take that with you wherever you go,” Finnefrock said. “You can tell how thankful they are.”

Americans can get stuck in feeling dissatisfied, especially when living habitual lifestyles. The members of Community Treks believe in the need to choose to do something different. COTN Venture Team experiences help participants to find deeper significance in their lives through service.

“COTN creates an environment where everyone can work, everyone can help the kids,” Kumwenda said. This is especially true for non-exclusive organizations like Community Treks.

“Every year we’ve brought tons of different people from different religions or no religions,” Dean said. “It’s our second home, those of us that keep coming back. It does feel like a family to come home to, even if it’s not often.”

Chilombo Village Partnership

2009-07-13T05:55:00.000-07:00

Children of the Nations’ partnership with Chilombo Village began in 2007. In just two years villagers of all ages are better off due to material support and the gift of love. 66-year-old Lilian Khofi, who lives with her husband, 72, and their four grandchildren, noticed changes in the village since COTN’s arrival.

Khofi’s granddaughter Maria, seven, is their only sponsored child.

“At first she received a blanket,” Khofi said. “She is receiving soap, a mosquito net, clothes, rice, and school materials. She also participates in Christmas parties provided by COTN.”

COTN builds relationships in the village at gatherings like the Christmas party. This is where Khofi has seen love becoming part of village life. Her grandsons Lifeyo, four, and Evance, 11, also attended the Christmas party because gatherings are not exclusive to COTN children. Sporting events and Venture Team outreach programs include all who attend, and COTN is a strong force of positive change in the village.

A team from Summit Church in Orlando, Florida came to Chilombo in June. Their first experience in the village looked like a parade as singing and dancing Malawians led their guests into the village.

“We are so excited to see you,” said Khofi as she recalled the warm welcome for Summit. “That’s why we were running and dancing. Without love we wouldn’t receive you. You have taught us how to love each other.”

Summit team experienced the two-way transmission of love during their stay. Families welcomed small groups into their homes for a taste of village life. The Floridians and Malawians sat together on a bamboo mat and talked about their cultures, food, and lifestyles. The group was completely willing to leap outside of familiarity and try Malawian dancing in a circle of energy, motion, and smiles.

Summit devoted the afternoon to learning traditional Malawian roles of men and women. The women stayed near the four-room mud hut to shell corn, draw water from the well and carry it on their heads, smear clay floors, and pound corn into maize meal for nsima. The men left to water the garden. While returning home and munching on juicy sugar cane, the men joined the women and children at a futbol pitch where Summit team members were shooting goals to the enthusiastic cheers of children.

Summit’s first day ended where it started: on a bamboo mat at the home. Nothing but the location was the same; the team’s enthusiasm for a normal day of Malawian life was their first step to show and receive love in Chilombo Village.

Summit member Cayenne Dansby is a wife, mother, and teacher. She and her husband, Scott, came to Malawi, but couldn’t bring their daughters Molly and Mia, ages four and two. She spoke to a group of 30 women, including widows, about being a strong woman and a strong mother.

“They have to be strong,” she said. “Their children see that in them. Their children appreciate everything they do.” She also emphasized the importance of being a strong Christian to set an example for children. “It was the biggest spiritual jump of my life,” she said.

Dansby also felt changed by the children, who braided her hair and brushed dust from her skirt.

“I’m here to serve you and you’re braiding my hair,” said Dansby, connecting the experience to her students in Florida. 90 percent of her students receive free or reduced lunch, yet they donated school supplies for the Malawian children.

Dansby realized that both groups of children share what they have even if they struggle to obtain basic needs like food.

“They know that they’ll all benefit from it,” said Dansby, who saw Malawian children sharing small handfuls of nuts or short stalks of sugarcane. It really is quality over quantity that counts in a relationship.

“To make my husband, my family and my students happy, I need to give them more of me and more of my love,” Dansby decided.

After interacting with the children in Chilombo and other villages, Dansby has more confidence as a teacher. She’ll be able to provide for her students even if their school is not as well-off as other schools. She said they discard textbooks because of damage or the release of a newer edition.

“These kids are still learning the same essential things that we are teaching our kids,” she said.

Dansby has taught for eight years and knows how to entertain kids with simple things.

“I didn’t have any bubbles, but I had a Sharpie,” Dansby said. Dansby improvised and drew happy faces on the kids’ hands in blue ink. “They would wipe it off and come back to get another one,” she said. “They just wanted the contact.”

Saturday was celebration day and the team arrived in full force with games for the morning and adrenaline for the afternoon futbol game between COTN and Chilombo. Several children carried younger siblings on their backs as they played. Some couldn’t participate because of their tiny burdens, but stayed to watch their friends. Sometimes children must carry out the responsibilities of adulthood prematurely, especially if a parent has died, but this day was a celebration of community through recreation.

Kids of all ages filled the field and rotated through stations of tag games, coloring, and jump-rope. Bubbles had been lunch hour’s big event during the week, so the team devoted one station to blowing bubbles. The older children especially enjoyed small games of netball and football with the Americans.

Summit team followed the children’s lead and adapted to their energy. Duck-Duck-Goose became tag, which morphed into freeze tag, tunnel tag, and finally blobs of children chasing each other. Exhaustion was not an option for Summit Team. They quickly grew to love the children and wouldn’t trade those sticky hands and bright smiles for a break.

Later, Summit women became chairs for children during the afternoon futbol game. Villagers lined the field to watch the COTN-Chilombo competition. Malawians mingled with Summit members and joked in Chichewa about American attempts to speak their language. Chickens scuttled about while cows and donkeys meandered through a nearby field.

The Chilombo players sprinted throughout the game, the white stripes on their blue shorts like jet streams above their bare feet. In the end, COTN’s team of Summit men and Malawian staff won, scoring three goals to Chilombo’s single point. The villagers and Summit women gathered around both teams to celebrate the day’s events and continuing relationships.

Reflecting on Summit team’s visit as a part of COTN’s continued outreach, Khofi’s wise face spread into a smile brighter than her yellow headscarf.

“There is love among the children. There is love with the guardians of those children,” she said, speaking also of her own family. Five years ago Lilian Khofi and her husband, Chirwa, began raising their grandchildren.

“The mother was beating her children almost daily,” the translator explained. Their father abandoned his family, so their mother also began to look for other men. The grandparents took in Evance and Maria, ages 6 and 2 at the time. After Lifeyo and Mirriam were born their grandparents felt responsible to take care of all four children.

“The children were literally naked, so she used two chitenje to make clothes for them,” the translator said. “Now that COTN has registered all the children, she is lifted. Everything is going on well. For example, the sweater she is wearing is from COTN.”

Khofi also wore a chitinje Summit team gave to show her respect when they cooked a meal with her family. Providing needs, like clothing for Malawi’s chilly winter season, along with community and love are components of COTN’s ministry in Chilombo.

While Maria is the only sponsored child in the Khofi family, the other three children also receive support through COTN’s partnership with Chilombo village. A village partnership means that food, education, and supplies may be provided for registered and sponsored children, but shelter is not.

On June 9 the Khofi grandchildren and other registered children gathered to receive bars of green soap after singing songs with COTN-Malawi staff members Chikondi Kadongola and Davie Kamzunguzeni. They chanted, “Up, up Jesus!” after Kadongola shared a short message.

The four children received soap at this gathering, but also spent time with other villagers and COTN staff to build the growing relationships. COTN shows love by providing necessities along with fellowship.

“They gather for messages from COTN,” said Khofi, speaking of her fellow villagers and their children. “COTN has promoted love in the village. Love is from God and the way people come in the village to share.”

Chilombo Village Team playing against COTN members

Mtsiliza Feeding Program

2009-07-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

Jailos Lungu sits in a dark room lined with shelved bags of rice as a mob of children rushes toward the room next door for their afternoon meal. Lungu is the Mtsiliza store clerk, and he oversees Children of the Nations’ feeding program in the village.

“The program is designed for the children,” says Lungu, as he shares a plate of nsima and meat with his son. Children always get rice or nsima, along with cabbage, fish, or beans, unless it’s Friday—Friday is meat day.

Lungu clearly remembers the 2002 drought in Malawi when so many died of starvation. On one drive to the Kasungu district where COTN’s Chiwengo village homes are, Lungu saw 80 people dead.

“Children were dead. Parents were dead. Children had just been thrown away—neglected by their parents,” Lungu said.

Now, even Mtsiliza children with no parents receive badly-needed nutrients through COTN’s feeding program.

565 children, both sponsored and unsponsored, receive supper every afternoon. That number includes 250 children between ages two and 10 who also receive breakfast daily. Some of these children are orphans. Others may not receive enough food, even if they are lucky enough to have one or both parents.

“Some children eat here; that’s all,” Lungu said. “They trust the feeding program like it’s their mother.”

In mid-June COTN enrolled four dying children in the feeding program. They were close to death from starvation and malnutrition. Now, just two weeks later they are looking more normal due to daily feeding.

“With COTN, those coming into the program have survived,” Lungu said.

The program lifted a burden from their father’s shoulders, as he was also very sick. Now he can eat because the children receive food from COTN.

“It is very important for the betterment of the children who are orphaned or needy,” Lungu said. “Without COTN’s feeding program most of these kids could have lost their lives.”

COTN Widows' Program: Mtsiliza

2009-07-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

Women pour into the Malawian sunlight singing, dancing, and clapping to welcome their visitors at Mtsiliza Village. The words “Kudalira chikondi cha Yesu,” meaning “We need love from God” resound as the women give the gift of their music and rhythm through praise. The fullness of their smiles does not reflect the emptiness these widows once felt after their husbands died.

Malawian women, especially widows, face unimaginable obstacles as they work to survive and care for their orphaned children. Cultural practices that contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS, death, and poverty threaten women. Many widows see only a bleak and unstable future for their families, but the widows of Mtsiliza Village are finding hope through Children of the Nations’ Widows’ Program. The widows receive spiritual teaching, fellowship, and skills training, which directly benefit their children.

Children are the future leaders, but today’s orphans and their widowed mothers are trapped in a tunnel of confinement. Njewa Center Coordinator Henry Kumwenda said these problems are HIV/AIDS and poverty of basic needs and education.

Culture and tradition contribute to HIV/AIDS in Malawi. For example, a “Chief’s Blanket” or “King’s Blanket” refers to a woman who will be with a man during his business trip. Also, women cannot refuse their husband and don’t know whether or not he is HIV positive. If their husband has been engaging in the cultural “Blanket” practice, he may be HIV positive. For widows, if their husband dies another man in the family must have sex with the widow so that evil spirits from the husband’s grave will not torment her. Even though AIDS may have led to the husband’s death, the widow cannot refuse and may become infected or be widowed again.

Regarding the poverty of mind that Kumwenda sees as a major problem, women who are widowed have an even greater disadvantage if they have not been educated. If a widow has a garden, she may not be able to take care of it because she needs to work to feed her children that day. A man may offer to buy the land and because the woman needs money now she accepts, not understanding that this is worse for her family. The widow now has no land. Her illiteracy enables the man to take advantage of her finances and land.

Certain aspects of Malawian culture combined with the threats of HIV/AIDS and poverty of basic needs and education further serious problems in the country, especially for widows. Kumwenda said the two answers are Christ and education, and by teaching faith, fellowship, and skills training, Mtsiliza widows are bringing their children out of the tunnel into an open future.

After their husbands died, the women could not provide food or clothing for their unsponsored children. COTN started the program to teach widows income-generating skills and to provide fellowship in the face of grief and loss. The women learned to knit, crochet, and sew clothing and accessories, both to sell and also to keep for their own orphaned children.

One woman proudly displayed a spring green baby coat she just completed. Others worked at sewing machines. All were converting their new knowledge and skills into beautiful work, building hope and security with their profits.

Davie Kamzunguzeni, COTN-Malawi Sponsorship Officer, sat with the widows and translated their Chichewa to English. Wezi Silanga’s story began in 2005 with the death of her husband.

“The time when my husband passed away, I tell you I was lost and I was finding many, many problems,” Silanga said.

When COTN visited homes in Mtsiliza near Malawi’s capital city, Silanga and her children had no blankets, clothes, or food. Silanga joined the program to find hope and healing. Now her children are sponsored and go to school. Through the widows’ program she has learned skills to generate income for her family’s basic needs.

“I am well. My children are well. Everything is going well now,” she said.

Silanga opened a bank account to save her earnings from selling crafts. This widowed woman is creating a more stable life for her orphaned children because of the COTN Widows’ Program.

“Especially being a mother, I know how hard your job is,” said Cayenne Dansby, a venture team member from Summit Church in Orlando, Florida. “You are living examples that God will always provide.”

Dansby, a teacher and mother, admired the versatile drive of the widows who care for their children, work, and run small businesses without the support of a husband. “Business and commerce is definitely not something that’s traditional for women, but these women are working and doing these non-traditional Malawian roles,” she said.

In December 2008, COTN’s Widows’ Program graduated 36 women, including Silanga. COTN loaned the program 25 thousand Kwacha. By graduation, each widow repaid their personal loan and had opened a bank account for their small business earnings.

Digrace Chipofya played a prominent role in the success of the first class. The death of her husband in 2004 left Chipofya with seven children. Only two were sponsored. Her involvement with the widows’ program began in 2006 and she now serves as the chairperson. Chipofya told her story through a translator.

“God used COTN to bring her here,” the translator said. The first group of women learned crafts along with the Word of God. “They started to work together to make jerseys for children.”

Even though only two of her seven children are COTN sponsored, Chipofya can care for her family. Her leadership of the other widows teaches strength, dedication, and faith.

“In Malawi there are a lot of widowed women. Before this program started, we were discouraged because we lost our husbands,” Chipofya explained. “Children of the Nations introduced this program so that those widowed women can learn different skills. They can stand on their own in the future, but we have first to fear God and encourage one another.”

The widows study The Bible together for fellowship with each other and with God. Dansby commented on the strength of these women and the importance of finding that strength in God.

“There are so many strong women in The Bible,” she said. “God makes it very apparent that women are strong people and need to be loved and respected. By believing in him they were able to overcome huge obstacles.”

As determined as the widows are to study God’s word, they only have one Bible, and this proves to be a huge obstacle in such a large group. Chipofya held the hand-sized blue book inscribed with the words “Chipangano Chatsopano,” or New Testament, and talked of their need for Chichewa Bibles. Besides practical skills training for financial development, the widows place great value on their relationships with each other and with God, especially after losing their husbands.

Like Chipofya and Silanga, Asiyutu Bunaya’s husband died, leaving her alone to care for their seven children. With only one child registered with COTN, Bunaya could not feed the others, so she began to attend the widows’ program for skills training. The program not only enabled her to take care of her orphaned children, but also acted as a place of fellowship and healing.

Today Bunaya is grateful for the discipline, love, and encouragement of the COTN Widows’ Program. She used to sit alone only to think about her husband, but now she is free. “She has no worries about her husband,” Kamzunguzeni translated.

Dansby also had no worries about her husband since Scott Dansby also came as a venture participant. “God put him in my life for a reason. With Scott being such a strong Christian I am a better Christian,” Dansby said. Her position as wife, mother, and educator made Dansby observant of all aspects of the widows’ program. “The fellowship through COTN is helping them to compensate for not having a husband,” she reflected.

The deep-seeded grief planted in death is often permanent, but COTN has given widows and their children hope through training in financial independence and faith. Women like Silanga, Chipofya, and Bunaya give hope to other widows as they raise their orphans against the odds.

Erina Nankwenya, whose children aren’t sponsored, said, “I have hope. These skills help me to start generating business activity to sustain my children,” she said. With radiant confidence Nankwenya proclaimed, “I can do anything now. There’s hope for the children and there is hope for me.”

Standing in front of the widows, Silanga expresses her gratitude. “On behalf of my friends, I would like to thank the people of America for the support they send,” said Silanga, knowing that her peers can continue to cultivate independence of finances and spirit.

Chitipi Farm

2009-07-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

After unprofitable chicken sales and a disease that wiped out 500 pigs, Chitipi Farm is picking itself up. Chris Adare, Children of the Nations-Malawi intern coordinator, works closely with the farm.

500 pigs used to provide income for the COTN farm, but they all died of swine fever. That significant loss in profit together with irrigation problems were major setbacks for the farm, and Chitipi is just now recovering. “It’s on its way back to profitability,” said Adare. “Sustainability is really the goal.”

Chitipi bought 300 chicks at the end of May. After six weeks the farm advertises the chickens by placing a sign next to the road. Community members and local commuters stop to buy the chickens, which cost 750 Kwacha each.

This is the farm’s third attempt at raising chickens for profit. The first time, the project expenses and profits broke even, partly because feed was expensive. The second time the farm produced chicken feed, but didn’t have enough. Some of the chickens died, and again the project rendered no profits.

Now the price of chicken feed is lower and Chitipi has more chickens to sell. “Profits should come up,” Adare said. The costs for transporting the chicks initially and buying feed are the same, but he hopes for higher profits by selling more chicks.

“Part of it is establishing the market so the community knows Chitipi has chickens for sale every other month,” Adare explained. Instead of relying on random passersby, he hopes to increase Chitipi’s reputation for agricultural diversity, including their chicken sales every other month.

All crops that Chitipi’s 37 children eat are grown either at Chitipi or Chichere Farm. Maize, beans, soy, and groundnuts all come from Chichere. Chitipi crops include maize, tomatoes, onions, Chinese cabbage, and carrots. Oranges, lemons, bananas, and papayas are also produced.

Almost all of the children are busy with school, so they can’t contribute much help to Chitipi Farm. However, they are learning to farm through their own project.

“They’re designated with their own garden,” Adare said. “The children together grow about two acres. Currently they’re growing their own vegetable garden.” During this year’s rainy season they grew maize.

Besides fruits and vegetables, the children are given milk and meat, and much comes from the farm. Adare said that one of the goals is to diversify the livestock aspect of the farm. To do this, he pioneered an idea of his own.

Adare started a rabbit husbandry project at Chitipi in February 2009. Adare is originally from Spokane, Wash. A graduate of the University of Washington, he came to Malawi in 2006 and eventually returned to live at COTN’s Njewa Campus near Chitipi Farm. Years ago he learned to keep rabbits in Boy Scouts and brought that experience to Chitipi to breed rabbits for food.

“I wanted to add value to the farm without adding overheads,” Adare said. “With rabbits there’s no upkeep costs. They can eat greens that are around the farm.”

The children were struggling to keep the rabbits healthy, so Adare moved half of the original stock to Mzumala Village nearby. Now the rabbits are healthier because they receive more food and are kept the Malawian way, rather than in Western-style rabbit hutches. Malawians keep rabbits in small brick houses on the ground with a roof. They also have outdoor space fenced together with the shelter.

“They get dirtier,” said Adare, referring to the dirt floor rather than a wire floor. “One of the challenges is to keep the food clean, the water clean.”

Despite the challenges, the rabbits are healthier now than before the move. “The benefit is that they are housed together,” Adare said. “The rabbits are friendlier and are more comfortable. They’re able to keep warm and dry, which is difficult with cages that are outdoors.”

In addition to rabbits, Chitipi farm has 2 cows and a calf for milk and meet. They first got Janet from another farm, and she is the mother of Jonathan and Jessie. Janet was given on loan from another farm because she wasn’t producing milk, but could still be used for breeding. Chitipi returned Janet’s first calf to the original farm as payment for Janet.

The children who live at Chitipi enjoy helping to care for the livestock in addition to their vegetable garden. Because they live on the farm, the Chitipi kids have different responsibilities than children in other COTN-Malawi homes or village partnerships.

“Kids at Chitipi are more responsible in general whereas kids especially at Mtsiliza are irresponsible and they face a lot of peer pressure,” Adare explained. He compared the situation to American children who grow up either in a city or a rural area.

“At Chiwengo, because of the makeup of the village, it has the same kind of influences that a city might have,” he said. Other children in Chiwengo Village are quite privileged and COTN kids tend to mimic their behavior and attitudes. The COTN kids also are privileged, but their circumstances are different.

“The kids at Chitipi benefit from growing up in an environment where they have to work hard,” Adare said. “Many of them have a good work ethic.”

Summit Church: Meal at Chilombo

2009-07-13T05:43:00.000-07:00

Three thousand Kwacha. A grocery list in Chichewa. Six Floridians and two Malawians. Taking live chickens on a tour bus. Let the games begin.

On June 18, a Venture Team from Summit Church in Orlando, Florida split into teams to tackle the Malawian market. They had half an hour to find and purchase items like flour, rice, fire wood, onions, and a live chicken. Later that day each team would join a family in Chilombo Village, part of Children of the Nations’ village partnership program, to cook a meal village-style and build relationships with the family.

With the help of Davie Kamzunguzeni, COTN-Malawi Sponsorship Officer, and Moreen Chikawoneka, COTN national intern, Summit’s Team Six navigated the market with few roadblocks. The team returned to the tour bus with all needed groceries and a few more items like relish greens, salt, soap, and a chitenje to show respect to the grandmother.

Chase Fults held the chicken in a plastic grocery bag, the chicken’s head peeking out of a hole in his temporary home. The bumpy bus ride to Chilombo lulled most teams’ unsuspecting chickens to sleep, a last peaceful rest before they would rest in peace.

Team six met Grandma Lilian Khofi and three of her four grandchildren outside a brick house to prepare the meal together. Lilian’s teeth were practically as yellow as her head scarf, but not as neat and tidy. Her fiery spark, humor, and laughter kept the team and children entertained as they prepared the meal.

They bid farewell to their poultry pet, and Peter butchered the chicken by standing on its wings and holding its head still. He was fully prepared for the task, armed with his own sharpened pocket knife.

“We’ve got chicken skills,” said Peter after the chicken stopped wriggling in the dirt. He worked for 20 years in a church program called Rangers that is similar to Boy Scouts.

Meanwhile Grandma Lilian helped Amanda Whited light a fire to boil water. Three rocks surrounded the flames and acted as a stove top for the pot of water. The freshly-slain chicken was plopped in the pot and the team began plucking its white feathers off. Chase held it rotisserie-style over the fire to singe off its remaining feathers. Then 18-year-old Moreen directed the dissection. Davie works closely with the village children, and teased the 40 young onlookers by pretending he intended to eat the innards.

Finally the chicken crucifixion ended in a watery grave as Sheryl Johns stirred the bird over the fire. Lilian, her grandchildren, and the team washed tomatoes to cook with the chicken and also prepared the relish greens.

But the meal would be incomplete without Malawi’s staple food, nsima, a maize meal patty. Moreen and Grandma Lilian started by throwing the nsima flour into a pot of boiling water and stirring swiftly with a cooking stick. Nsima thickens quickly, which doesn’t help a beginner to whip the wooden stick through the heavy paste.

Peter, with intense concentration focused on the cooking stick, stirred furiously to the sound of cheers. “Eh-Haaayyy!” shouted Lilian’s grandchildren and the crowd of kids standing by. Chase took a turn stirring the nsima while Davie and Peter yelled, “Faster! Faster! Faster!”

When the team had ladled the nsima into hand-sized patties, they gathered with Lilian, her grandchildren, Moreen, and Davie on a bamboo mat next to the fire to share their meal.

Two were missing, though. Grandma Lilian’s husband of 52 years was gone working in the fields and their youngest granddaughter Mirriam, 2, had malaria. Fortunately, she had been taken to the clinic for medicine, so the family could eat in peace knowing the baby was being taken care of.

After finishing the meal the team took pictures with Lilian and the children, a new portrait of the extended family. They also presented the spunky elder with her gift, a blue-patterned chitenje. As Grandma Lilian walked away wrapped in her new chitenje, she carried the remaining food in a bag on her head for Chirwa and baby Mirriam. She high-fived Sheryl and called back in Chichewa.

“She is very thankful for what you have done, like helping her to cook,” Moreen translated. “She knows how to dance, so when you come back she will dance for you.”

Jaklin and Margarite

2009-07-13T05:41:00.000-07:00

Jaklin Sikisipesi and Margarite Chimwemwe sit in an empty brick classroom in Chilombo Village. The benches are clay mounds. Gaps in the room’s brick walls act as doors and windows, providing only natural light to those inside. Malawi’s winter wind whips through the windows and both 12-year-old girls are barefoot and wrapped in thin zitenje for protection against the wintry air.

Beneath the chitenje Margarite wears an aqua dress with French blue and cream-colored flowers. She is beautiful. Her dress is not. The grimy brown trim, which is supposed to be white, leads your eyes to the garment’s left shoulder. Completely torn, the fabric is nothing like Margarite’s spirit. Lipstick accents her wide smile, a slight clue of the day’s significance. Today registered and sponsored children get their picture taken and Margarite knows she’ll speak with the camera-toting visitor.

Jaklin huddles on the floor and rests her head on a clay bench, her brown chitinje like the cocoon of a bright and tiny caterpillar. It’s hard to believe she is 12. A blue skirt with pink roses hangs loosely on her tiny frame, leading to bony ankles and callused feet. Only bright red toenail polish reflects the spark in Jaklin’s eyes, a reminder of the young girl within a work-roughed body. Her youngest sister, Disunge, is with mother Likisina today instead of on Jaklin’s back. The break from her sisterly duty does not seem very important to Jaklin.

“I’m used to getting her on my back,” Jaklin says. “When mom is not around, I take care of her.”

Margarite and Jaklin are classmates in Standard 2 and live similar lives with their families in Chilombo village. The girls attend school Monday through Friday. Jaklin explains that absences require reasons; otherwise they are in class every day.

66-year-old grandmother Lilian Khofi, one of the older residents of Chilombo village, sees children encouraging each other to go to school. “There is development, especially education,” says Lilian as she thinks about changes in the past two years since COTN’s partnership with Chilombo.

Both girls hope to combine their caring spirits and education to pursue medical careers. “I wish to finish my education and become a nurse,” Jaklin says. Taking care of her two younger sisters is part of daily life. Jaklin also cared for her younger brother, who was six, until he passed away this spring.

Similarly, Margarite’s responsibilities include caring for her four younger siblings. She recalls that her old sister, Develiyasi, had eye problems and stomach pain. Remembering her sister’s recovery, Margarite wants to bring healing to others.

“I want to gain knowledge. I want to be a doctor to help the sick,” she says. In school teachers help students like Margarite to explore their interests. Chikondi Kadongola, village partnership facilitator in Chilombo, explains that most children envision one of three future professions.

“They want to be a teacher. They want to be a driver. Some want to be doctors,” Chikondi says. “There is no other profession they know.”

Children are exposed to teachers through schooling, drivers through the large COTN groups that visit, and doctors through the common illnesses, like Margarite’s sister.

That’s all they have to strive for, even if they might be interested in something else. “We have to transform and change the mindset,” Chikondi says. Margarite and Jaklin too hope to pursue medical professions because of their experiences caring for younger siblings and their exposure to death and sickness.

Before going to school in the mornings, the girls complete chores. They draw water from the well, wash dishes, and sweep their huts. Families use green bars of hand soap to wash clothing and dishes. To sweep, the girls splash water from a plastic cup onto the hut’s dirt floor to keep the dust down. Bending low, they sweep ashes, grass, and dirt into the head of a shovel
and dump the refuse into a grave-like hole nearby.

When Jaklin and Margarite return from school, they finish any remaining chores and prepare food like nsima and beans. When they complete their duties at home, the girls join friends for games of netball and jump rope. “Sometimes we come together as girls to teach one another how to cook,” Jaklin says.

COTN sponsors gatherings and sporting activities for the children. “The sporting activities are for everyone. Sometimes school materials are given to all the students, not just the registered ones,” Margarite says. Even though the girls both come from larger families, support from COTN’s village partnership program and child registration helps their parents to provide.

Margarite used to be registered, but her information was lost among the other 266 children. Now Develiyasi, 14, is the only registered child in the Chimwemwe family. When she was registered Margarite received blankets, soap, and clothes. She felt good about how she looked. Margarite takes pride in her appearance, as evidenced by the red lipstick surrounding her slightly gapped smile. Confidence in her looks is just as important to Margarite as it might be to other preteens, even considering her parents’ struggles to provide enough food for their six children.

“The guardians fail to provide because they lack formal employment. They don’t harvest enough to sustain them,” says Chikondi, who knows Margarite’s family. They grow maize, groundnuts, and soy beans, but lacking fertilizer reduces production from the land.

“After harvest, they may have enough food, but they lack other basic needs. They sell some of the produce to buy other materials,” Chikondi explains. Registration even for one child subsidizes the family’s needs.

Like Margarite’s sister, Jaklin is registered with COTN. She receives soap, blankets, and food. Without being registered she may not even have soap, like many village families. About half of Malawian children are stunted in growth because of malnutrition, and it’s surprisingly cold in the winter. Jaklin’s sister Febe, 15, is also registered, but baby Disunge and Likisina’s fourth daughter Linese, 3, are not. Receiving food and blankets helps Jaklin’s single mother to provide for her four children.

“I’m very thankful for the COTN village partnership program,” Jaklin says.

Chimwemwe Phiri

2009-07-13T05:37:00.000-07:00

Malawi is known as The Warm Heart of Africa, but what happens to a child’s heart when their parents die? Chimwemwe Phiri, a 16-year-old girl, can tell you.

Chimwemwe’s parents died when she was five. Her step mother also died and she went to live with her grandmother and her baby brother. Although Chimwemwe cannot remember her parents’ names, they were constantly on her mind and cemented in her empty heart.

“My life was not going well,” she said. “My grandma was not able to take care of me. She was so poor. I was feeling like I was at home, but not much better.”

Chimwemwe, whose name means ‘joy,’ felt like she had nothing, especially not joy. With no opportunities to attend school or church her future seemed bare and hopeless.

“I was not participating in what my friends would do,” she said. “Sometimes I was sick with diseases like sores in the mouth.”

Because of her poor health and poverty, Chimwemwe was taken to live at a COTN home in Chiwengo Village in the Kasungu district. She began to make lasting friendships with the other girls who lived in the House of Joy. In 2004 Chimwemwe and five other girls moved from Chiwengo to COTN’s Chitipi Farm near Lilongwe. The following year the seventh girl from Chiwengo moved to Chitipi, completing their group. Life continued to improve at Chitipi, the House of Peace. Chimwemwe was going to school, learning to farm, and finding a place in her new COTN home.

Today Chitipi is the home of 37 children, three aunties, and two house parents. The Chitipi family grows much of their own food, including tomatoes, onions, maize, carrots, oranges, lemons, bananas, and papayas. Their two cows, Jonathan and Janet, have a calf named Jessie. Chimwemwe and the other children also raise chickens and rabbits.

At school Chimwemwe enjoys learning about English and the Bible, even though classes are difficult. “COTN helped my life to go to school to learn some things which are very important,” she said. COTN aunties and uncles help Chimwemwe to study.

Chimwemwe also receives support from her sponsors, Tamara and Charles Beckwith, who send clothes, school bags, and shoes. COTN also helps their children to maintain connections with home villages and living relatives. If a child doesn’t know where their original home is or if they have no living relatives, they can accompany other children on their visits. Chimwemwe’s little brother still lives in the village, so she occasionally visits him there. Unlike Chimwemwe, he is not registered or sponsored through COTN.

Through sponsorship that supports her life at Chitipi, Chimwemwe has been able to explore interests outside of school. She likes to read books and to play card games and netball with her brothers and sisters at Chitipi. One of her sisters, Tapiwa, is mentally disabled and the children take care of her. They help her to exercise so that she can stand and walk. Tapiwa also attends physical therapy.

“As for now, she is improving,” Chimwemwe said. Her interactions with Tapiwa reflect more than Chimwemwe’s caring spirit and love for small children. “I will be a doctor for small children,” Chimwemwe declared. Her school examinations will be in July and Chimwemwe said with confidence, “I think I will do well.”

Her best friend is Margaret, a schoolmate in standard 7. “We tell joking stories,” Chimwemwe said. “In class we do group work.” Chimwemwe speaks frequently of her friends at school and at Chitipi and believes in her abilities to finish school and become a children’s doctor.

“I could be living a terrible life if COTN had not helped me. I like to go to school and I have friends, too. I feel more free and joyful,” she said. “The thing that changed me was the love of God.” Chimwemwe’s earthly father died, but Esther Lungu, her house mother in Chiwengo, told her that she had another father: her heavenly father.

Although Chimwemwe has discovered joy, she still misses her parents deeply. She says people who have experienced death should forget about their grief so they don’t feel the sadness that she does. “They should forget about when their mother or father passed away because if they think about it, they can cry so much,” she explained. COTN staff members, like Chitipi house parents and aunties, talk with Chimwemwe and help to ease her sadness.

“I am here because of the grace of God,” she said. Each night Chimwemwe crawls under her mosquito net and reflects on her own life with a feeling of peace. “I think about the God that can protect us,” said Chimwemwe, explaining her thoughts before falling asleep.

“I can thank God for what God has done in my life,” said Chimwemwe as a peacefulness settled on the face of Joy. “He has changed my life.”

Sponsorship

2009-07-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

Please pardon the tangents and rambling—things are a little crazy and my brain is ready to hibernate…

*****

I recently finished a book called “As We Forgive” by Catherine Claire Larson, based on the documentary I mentioned earlier. If you are interested in learning more about the Rwandan genocide, I suggest you take a look at this book. It is not just a bunch of horror stories. It is not a history book. It IS applicable to the human race and how we relate to each other. See for yourself.

*****

This week (and probably half of next week) I’m taking the sponsorship photos for all COTN-Malawi children except those who live in Chiwengo. I wrote their first and last names and ID number on a piece of computer paper. The first day required 266 for Chilombo. I just finished another 537 for Mtsiliza. Whew! It took a long time just to make those papers, but I have to remember that each represents a child who is either sponsored or registered (waiting to be sponsored). My family has sponsored children, so I know what it’s like to receive updated photos; even if you never meet your child, I think the photos provide very important connection. Once the photos are updated children receive their old photos. We have stacks of photo albums from the days of film and online albums chronicling every aspect of our lives; these children hardly know what they look like. Receiving a photo of themselves is a big deal! It doesn’t matter that I’m not a ‘photographer.’ It doesn’t matter that taking pictures is just something I enjoy. What matters is the child, their family (or potential family), and this visual link between the two.

Through this process, the sponsorship program is taking on a whole new meaning for me. I’ve gotten to know some children more personally and I see how COTN really is helping to improve the quality of life, both materially and intangibly. I spent yesterday afternoon with Jaklin and Margaret, both 12, and also with Grandma Lilian talking about their lives in Chilombo, their families, and what has changed since COTN began partnering with the village two years ago.

Regardless of your religious beliefs, COTN really is making a difference in Malawi (and the other three countries, but this is my firsthand experience). You can’t argue with the needs of these Malawian families that become increasingly problematic; supplies COTN provides through the sponsorship program can fight malnutrition, lack of education, and disease. Even registered children like Jaklin and Margaret can receive soap, blankets, and food, among other things. (It’s not common to see soap in an average village home, most children look younger than they are because of malnutrition and poor growth, and it’s surprisingly cold in the winter). The COTN gatherings, sporting activities, and community events change the communities, whether or not you look at the religious aspect of the organization. Grandma Lilian, for example, talked about the idea of love.

“There is love among the children. There is love with the guardians of those children. COTN has promoted love in the village,” she said. “We are so excited to see you. That’s why we were running and dancing [when greeting teams]. Without love we wouldn’t receive you. You have taught us how to love each other.”

I could go on about this (and probably will later), but I think we need to consider what holds us back from contributing to needs of others. If a religious label, like ‘Christian organization’ really throws you, look at what they’re doing, the reasons, and how they go about it. Also, I’m not writing this because I’m working with COTN. At this point in my life I do not consider myself particularly religious and choose not to label myself as such. This note is not at all about converting people or raising money for COTN. The purpose is to share what I’ve learned about these people in need and how their lives are different because of sponsors and volunteers.

As many of you know, I am able to be here because of sponsors. Only later in my life will I see the deeper significance of these experiences—I am an example of the incredible gift of sponsorship, and cannot adequately express my gratitude to the many people who have sponsored me and encouraged me. That’s another reason that I am gaining a new perspective on child sponsorship through organizations like COTN.

After day one of sponsorship photos I visited some COTN girls that attend secondary school outside of the village and therefore live on self-boarding—they are responsible to pay rent, buy food, and find clothing and blankets. 5 other girls at their school are pregnant and COTN staff is worried about their girls making similar choices and losing their chance at finishing secondary school, not to mention the great risk of disease. No girl from Chilombo has reached Form Four (the equivalent of our 12th grade). These girls have no role models to follow. They are responsible for providing their own basic needs, yet have no income and are therefore more likely to look for support from men.

When we reached their home, I was asked to talk with the girls about those issues. I am in no position of authority, especially because I’m not Malawian and have never lived life the way they do, but as a young person I believe that these girls and I see similar situations in our social cultures. In short, I talked about the importance of strength and independence, especially as a female, and that we need to rely on our capabilities to live with the future in mind. Making decisions just for the moment can get us in trouble (as some of their schoolmates are learning), and because these girls live in a hut together they need to support each other and encourage healthy decision. Again, the issue is very deep in ways I will never know, but friends and family in my life are models of strength and balance, so I could share those thoughts without being culturally insensitive.

Even in the midst of new challenges (like on-the-spot motivational speaking!) and feeling a little stressed, there are possibilities for positivity and growth and I don’t want to miss out.

Nighty-night!
Love, Hanna

WHOA! (Warm Heart of Africa)

2009-06-29T23:39:00.000-07:00

COTN’s theme for the year is “A Place to Belong.” As kind and welcoming as everyone is, I felt a little isolated for the first couple of weeks. When the first team of 33 Americans arrived, I struggled to adjust and at the same time, missed my family and friends. This proved to be good practice for my return home in August, and since then I am seeing COTN-Malawi as a place to belong. People constantly say “You are welcome” and “Feel free” wherever I go, which supports Malawi’s nickname, ‘Warm Heart of Africa.’ I have always believed that the word ‘home’ applies not to a location or residence, but to the quality and comfort of existence among a group of people. Malawi is starting to feel like home. However, I only have two weeks left and so much left to do! I just found out that I am going to update all the sponsorship photos in Mtsiliza, Chitipi, and Chilombo, which is a big job. At the same time I am honing down my notes and planning more interviews. I suspect that the next two weeks will fly by.

A condensed version of the past week: I accompanied Summit Team to Lake Malawi, which is huge and beautiful. At the market I spent some time with Julius and Kennias as they made a small wood carving. We stopped for dinner on the way back to Njewa and I had pizza and ice cream for the first time since… I’m not sure when, actually! So that was weird, unexpected, and great. A medical and education team from Colorado arrived last week and I spent a few days with them at Chiwengo. At night we had dinner in the House of Joy and the House of Love and talked with the house parents. I finished a story on the widows’ program at Mtsiliza and another on Chimwemwe Phiri, a girl who lives at Chitipi. This weekend I went on a safari with the Colorado team. WOW! We saw impala, baboons, a hyena, two crocodiles, hippos, and elephants. It was an absolutely unforgettable experience and I’m still trying to convince myself that it happened.

I spent today with the interns in Mgwayi village. Grades 1 and 2 are offered at the government school across the highway, but the students are too small to cross. A group from Canada started Big John’s School for these children and funding covered the costs of private school tuition so students could still attend for free. (Government schools are free at the primary levels.) The money ran out in April and the school closed because these families can’t afford tuition. Today was the first day of school since then because the interns are teaching for free. In the afternoon they had community outreach involving games, sports, and a short lesson. Now I’m trying to gear up for the next two weeks!

*****
Every morning I watch the sun rise. With it, Malawians wake up to start another day:

Glide through African clouds
Pale pastels of early morning air
Dawn creeps away with the rising of a deep red sun
Forcing the subtle morning to become a direct, belligerent presence
People emerge from evaporating clouds
Exposed and open
Let the day begin

*****

Let Life Begin!
Hanna

Summit Team Week

2009-06-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Fathers’ Day, dads and grandpas! When I talk with people my own age here and in Rwanda, I never ask someone to tell me about their family because many of them do not have parents due to the genocide or diseases. Ten percent of Malawi’s population is made up of AIDS orphans and most of the students at Solace in Rwanda are genocide orphans. Sometimes a student would ask me, “Do you have parents?” and I felt guilty saying yes. Now that guilt has morphed into something else: my being here is due to the support of many people, especially my parents, and if there is anything positive I can give to these children it is because of what I have learned from my parents. I’m not really sure how else to explain this, but I thought today would be an appropriate day to mention it.

*****
Margarite, an 11-year-old girl from Chilombo, wears an aqua dress with French blue and cream-colored flowers. She is beautiful. Her dress is not. The grimy brown trim, which is supposed to be white, leads your eyes to the garment’s left shoulder. Completely torn, the fabric is nothing like Margarite’s spirit. A previously pastel-colored scarf around her neck slips slightly as she extends a work-roughed hand. She hands me a letter in Chichewa with blue ink gracefully applied across dusty paper. Her smile tells me the message—a request for friendship without material things.

*****
I have spent the week with a team from Summit Church in Orlando, Florida. We went directly from the airport to Mtsiliza (where COTN’s widows’ program is and where the COTN feeding program serves about 565 children). The children put on a welcome program, including scripture recitation, singing, and acrobatics. One boy was clearly the star, diving through a cloth ring that as lit on fire, doing gymnastics from a ceiling beam, and balancing other boys on his shoulders. The children, as usual, were excited and welcoming and the team didn’t want to leave.

The next day at morning devotions Yobbe Lungu, the COTN-Malawi country director, explained the more relaxed pace of life in Africa saying, “The reason is that we want you to enjoy life.” I’m starting to get used to this a bit more. Later at Chilombo village I joined one of the Summit teams for a home visit where the women shelled corn, carried water from the well, smeared clay floors, and made maize flour for nsima. The men watered the garden and ate sugar cane. Both groups congregated at a futbol field in between the family home and the garden to shoot goals, and the Malawians cheered wildly for the Americans each time they scored. The following day I joined another group. We went to the market to buy bananas, cooking oil, flour, rice, fire wood, tomatoes, relish greens, salt, onions, and a live chicken. We spent the afternoon learning to cook a meal with Grandma Lilian and three of her grandchildren. Lilian’s teeth are practically as yellow as her head scarf, but not as neat and tidy. She spoke only Chichewa, but Davie translated and her wisecracks couldn’t have lost a bit of their humor!

I’ll spare you the chicken crucifixion photos, but here’s a funny quote from the ordeal: Peter said to Amanda, “Props to you for eating a mouse, but I did slay a chicken.” (Amanda had part of an African sausage between the airport and Mtsiliza their first day.)

I visited the widows at Mtsiliza again with Summit team and also saw the COTN Nursery school, which is incredibly different from Wisdom school in Rwanda. The teacher, Elsie Kumwenda, said that it’s important for the kids, ages 2-5, to come to school and socialize with each other. “Sometimes they are vulnerable. They come from poor families and need to come here and play,” she said. The students learn Chichewa, some English, and math, among other things, in combination. For example, they will pretend to shop for food to learn counting and math. Another school in the village is for students in grades 1-12. I met Mercy Davie, a 17-year-old in grade 11, who wants to be a journalist to help others to learn information that they do not know. She values knowledge and truth and intends to incorporate both into her future profession. “If you write false stories, it can cause problems,” she said. She also wants to change poverty by helping people to work hard for themselves.

Yesterday we had a ‘celebration day’ at Chilombo. The children rotated through stations of games and activities like freeze tag, blowing bubbles, coloring, netball, jump-rope, and futbol. Many young girls were carrying younger siblings on their backs as they played. Some couldn’t participate because of their tiny burdens. The children look much younger than they are because of malnutrition, but they must carry out the responsibilities of adulthood prematurely. In the afternoon the COTN men (including a few Malawians) played futbol against the Chilombo village team. Half of the Malawian team was barefoot. The sidelines were crowded with spectators gnawing sugar cane stalks and commenting on the game in Chichewa. I wish I had been able to play, but that’s just not done in Malawian culture.

*****

I have also been learning about HIV/AIDS in Malawi and other problems that widows face. For example, “Chief’s Blanket” or “King’s Blanket” refers to a woman a man will be with during a business trip. This is a cultural practice viewed completely differently than we would view it in America. Also, women cannot refuse their husband and don’t know whether or not he is HIV+. If their husband has been engaging in the cultural “Blanket” practice, he very well may be HIV+. For widows, if their husband dies another man in the family must have sex with the widow so that evil spirits from the husband’s grave will not torment her. Even AIDS probably led to the husband’s death, the widow cannot refuse and may become infected or be widowed again. A “carpet interview” is when a woman goes to a job interview and to get the job she must sleep with the boss not knowing if he is HIV +. If the woman is widowed and/or has children, she is probably in great need of the job and therefore won’t refuse. If a widow has a garden, she may not be able to take care of it because she needs to work to feed her children that day. A man may offer to buy the land knowing they can cultivate it, and because the woman needs money now she accepts, not understanding that this is worse for her family. The widow now has no land. Illiteracy plays into this as well, which makes it easier for businessmen to take advantage of a widow’s finances. Certain aspects of Malawian/African culture combined with issues of illiteracy, poverty, and AIDS/HIV are furthering serious problems in the country.

*****

When I visit a village here I feel like I’m being guided by children. They take your hand and pull you along, showing you what you need to see and experiencing their environment the way they see fit. I can look around while I walk without worrying about tripping because they know the roads. They are so young and fragile, yet so incredibly strong and brave. COTN works with orphans and impoverished children to raise national leaders, and this is apparent early-on in the way the children carry themselves, each other, and me.

Love, Hanna

Get going! Get growing!

2009-06-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

Something else I wanted to mention about Rwanda was an art exhibit I loved on display at a hotel in Kigali. The artist was Sandra Idossou from Ghana, and on the exhibit pamphlet she writes, “Life is all about starting continuously new things that challenge our comfort zones.”
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_18i2VqNdJU4/SgW_7KhrNXI/AAAAAAAAAKU/jm5JWsXYDys/s320/IMG_2670.JPG

Also, if the walk to the School for Deaf Children wasn’t exquisite enough, walking the back to Elie and Bernadette’s home from the school was mind-blowing. WOW! Half of the walk back is slightly downhill so I could see much further, including the tops of farmland and the layered volcanoes surrounding the area. If I could go back and do one thing it would be to ride a bicycle from Kinigi (beyond the deaf center a few miles) all the way home. I’m pretty sure I would start flying. There is much more that I could say about my experience in Rwanda, but this will have to do for now. It’s time to move on to Malawi!

*****

Malawi is known as ‘the warm heart of Africa.’ It was rated the second most peaceful country in Africa because it has maintained peace since independence 45 years ago. Nsima, a maize meal patty, is the staple food and is eaten with sauces, meat, or vegetables with your hands.

It is winter here so most of the vegetation has died and it’s pretty cold, especially after dark. Rwanda is very green and some things reminded me of home, but Malawi reminds me of school. You probably know that I’m not too keen on the Fargo/Moorhead area, but Malawi is still so beautiful that I think I’m starting to appreciate FM more. The sun rises at 6:10, and on Friday the clouds on the horizon were bright pink and the moon was still visible. Today it was pretty foggy and smoky and the sun itself was a bright pinkish/orange. Almost every night has been clear so far and I’ve never seen the stars quite this glorious. The moon rises and looks gold to an extent I’ve seen only on a rare occasion from the Indianola dock. I’m a night person and love the night sky, so this is really awesome for me. I’m forcing myself to become a morning person which is great since I also love sunrises.

*****

This has been COTN-Malawi orientation week for me. Each day I traveled to a different site to get a better idea of the purpose and location of each village, home, and farm. What I have seen so far is an incredible contrast to Solace, Wisdom, and the Deaf Center in Rwanda. Things seem to be funded more sufficiently and also organized. I know the organizations and schools in Rwanda are very different from COTN and have different goals and purposes, but I’m very excited to be living and working here. I am a person who likes to have organized goals with some sort of finish line or check point, so I’m a bit more at ease here than I was working in Rwanda.

On Tuesday I went to Chitipi home and farm for a quick tour since almost all of the 37 children were at school. The home is called ‘House of Peace’ or Ntendere in Chichewa. In the afternoon I went to Chilombo Village Partnership to hand out soap to registered and sponsored kids. The Malawian staff started by playing games and doing chants and songs with the children. The staff explained to me that the difference between their partnership and full-care is that COTN only provides certain things at partnership sites, like food and some education. Full-care, like Chitipi means that everything is provided through COTN, including shelter, food, clothing, education, and other forms of support.

Chiwengo Village is another full-care COTN site. I spent Wednesday and Thursday in the village where COTN rents nine homes. Malawi’s first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, built the village 30 years ago for his relatives. When he died the relatives couldn’t afford to stay in Chiwengo, so they moved out of the village into huts and rented out their homes. Everything else Kamuzu built was named after him, including the airport and stadium in Lilongwe and the prestigious Kamuzu Academy. The school gives scholarships to two students from each district every year, and COTN children David and Miriam currently attend!

The COTN houses are named House of Hope, Love, Joy, Power, Purity, and all COTN Chiwengo children are sponsored. House of Power and House of Purity are the teen boys’ and teen girls’ homes, which follow the Malawian tradition that teenagers live alone or with aunts and uncles, not parents. These homes have only aunties and uncles while the other homes also have two parents.

At night the children put on a welcome program for me. I am considered a ‘team’, but I am a team of only one, and the children do a welcome program for every team that arrives. Wow! A teen girl named Meekness led the program. They sang two songs led by Chisomo (her name means ‘Grace’) and they sounded so good. They even danced, sang in harmony, and had someone playing a traditional drum. Four kids recited scripture, a few people spoke, and I introduced myself and explained what I am doing here. It was a wonderful night.

I talked with some of the other staff members about Malawian family values. Henry told me that even if someone doesn’t work or acts irresponsibly, their family has to take care of them. We talked about cultural differences in family values, such as the care of elderly people. There are no nursing homes in Malawi, but sometimes elderly people in the US have to live in nursing homes without even being visited. I was so proud to talk about the example my own parents have set in loving and respecting my grandparents! I have so much pride in my family and the values that they have taught me through actions.

To change the subject, Henry asked me if I ate African sausages and I told him I would if he did, not having a clue what they were but guessing it was something weird. On the drive back to Njewa from Chiwengo some kids were selling them on the side of the road so we pulled over to have a look. African sausages are not just mice; they are a family of mice in a nice little row shoved through a slit cut in the width of a stick! (How’s that for prepositional practice!?) So that’s neat. He said he doesn’t eat them though, so I’m not too worried!

On Friday morning I visited Mgwayi Village, which is right behind Njewa Campus/Salima Village where I stay. I met twins Chimwemwe (‘Happy’) and Impatso (‘Gift’). Their mother’s first husband left her after having her first son. She got married again and this husband left when she was 8 months pregnant with the twins. The mother and three children live with the grandmother in a two-room hut: one room for the goats, the other for them and the chickens. A young girl guided me through some typical duties of Malawian women. With Chimwemwe tied to my back, I shelled corn, got water from the well (a hole in the dirt), washed some dishes, and swept. To sweep a mud hut you first splash some water on the ground inside the hut so the air doesn’t get too dusty. Then you sweep everything into the head of a shovel and dump it into a grave-like hole. Spending time with the women and getting a taste of Malawian village life was an incredible experience that I never thought I would have!

In the afternoon I went to Mtsiliza Village to see the COTN Widows’ Program and Feeding Program. In Malawi there are many widows. AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are just some of the diseases that cause the death statistics. I sat on the floor with the widows while they knitted, crocheted, and sewed, and interviewed them through a translator.

Digrace Chipofya, the leader of the program, said, “Children of the Nations introduced this program so that those widowed women can learn different skills so they can stand on their own in the future.” Wezi Silango graduated from the widows program last December, but still attends. Silango’s children used to be without blankets, clothes, or food. Now in their home they have those things because of COTN. She said, “I am well, my children are well, everything is going well now.” Silango has opened a bank account for the money she earns from the skills COTN taught her. She said, “On behalf of my friends, I would like to thank the people of America for the support they send.”

I also asked the women how the word ‘hope’ factors into their lives now that they have joined COTN’s program. Erina Nankwenya, whose children aren’t sponsored, said, “I have hope. These skills help me to start generating business activity to sustain my children. I can do anything now. There’s hope for the children and there is hope for me.” The women find hope in their fellowship with each other also, but they have only one Bible: Chipangano Chatsopano, which means ‘New Testament.’ They need Chichewa Bibles!

On Saturday I went back to Chitipi to meet some of the 37 children and to take some photos. Esinati is the youngest, a beautiful girl almost a year old. Steven is next; he is super rambunctious and funny! He’s three and I’m pretty sure he will make dance aerobics videos when he grows up. Tapiwa is a mentally-challenged girl at Chitipi. The other children help her to stand and walk and they take her to physical therapy in Area 23. “As for now, she is improving,” said Chimwemwe, a 16-year-old girl whose parents died when she was five.

I spent most of the time with Chimwemwe (which means ‘happy’ or ‘joy’). She seemed shy and reserved, but I was stunned at the amount of information she offered about her past. When her parents died she had joy and could not think about her future; she knew nothing since she could not go to school or church. She can’t remember her parents’ names, but she does remember them, because she misses them. She is still very sad about the death of her parents, but the aunties, uncles, and house parents understand and they talk about it. Talking helps her feel better.

Now she says she has friends and can go to school. “I will be a doctor for small children,”
Chimwemwe said. “COTN helped me to go to school to learn some things which are very important. I could be living a terrible life if COTN had not helped me.” Her sponsors, Tamara and Charles Beckwith, send clothes, school bags, and shoes. She does have a mosquito net, but she is one of the few. Mosquito nets are badly needed, as malaria is often untreated. Chimwemwe will be 17 on July 20, but will not receive a birthday gift. “They don’t have money to buy gifts for the birthday people,” she explained. “We just know that as for now we are growing up.” I was blessed to talk with this mature young woman and was encouraged by her strength in the face of terrible loss.

*****

For a variety of reasons, I usually do not go to church or spend time doing religious activities, but since COTN is a Christian organization that will not be the case during this time in Malawi. Today I went to Flood Church with Maureen, Lezitah, Annes, and Dorica. Pastor Sean preached from a scripture that talks about finding rest. “Jesus is saying ‘come’ and that invitation is for the purpose of finding rest,” he said. You probably know that I’ve had problems related to sleep for over eight years now. I have manipulated my schedule, body, and life in general trying to live in the most effective way possible considering my sleeping problems, but have had little success and much discouragement (to sugar-coat it). As I listened to Pastor Sean’s message I compared his words to the idea of rest and weariness in my life. He also talked about routines and how if a person is used to finding rest somewhere it’s difficult to change that pattern, even if there is a better way.

There were some other things the pastor talked about that I did not agree with, but if I believed everything someone in a position of authority told me I would be a very weak individual incapable of asking questions and thinking for myself. There is almost always something personally applicable to take from each situation, but not everything can be true for every person. Take what you want from these words; they are just some of my own reflections.

*****

Here in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, I live in the dorms at COTN’s Njewa Campus with four Malawian interns (about 18 years old). Three (Aness, Lezitah, and Dorica) are from Chiwengo and Maureen (my main ‘tour guide’ for orientation week) is from Mtsiliza. We cook breakfast and dinner together and they spend a lot of time teaching. I’m constantly meeting new people and trying to learn names, and more national and international interns will start to arrive.

I will be a busy girl working with the various teams and interns at different places, but I’ll try to continue these updates.

Love and Hugs,
Hanna

Last Rwanda Update

2009-06-09T03:12:00.000-07:00

May 22, 2009

Rising higher on one of Rwanda’s thousand hills brings a divine view of below. The pieces become more whole and every vista is new and worthwhile. The red dirt is everything. Rhythmic vibrations of my windbreaker sleeve, Rwandan Style beats pulse up my arm as the bus bumps past people who will never ride it. The ground is like artwork—rivers weave around the garden plots that are spread in patterns and accented by the colors of women and men working, the tiniest of children playing nearby. I'm noticing so much so fast; what is this river called? Were bodies floating here in 1994? Red dirt road ribbons lace and race along the lives of the living that carry memories of the dead. I’m going to Musanze.

June 9, 2009

Last Wednesday I returned from Musanze in the north part of Rwanda. Each morning we taught at Wisdom Nursery and Primary School and we worked at the School for Deaf Children in the afternoon. The schools are run by Elie and Bernadette as a part of Fair Children Youth Foundation. I was curious, nervous, and excited to work with the children since I have had almost no experience with kids and absolutely no experience with deaf and disabled children.

Wisdom school includes Baby Class (the nursery school part) and four other classes with students between the ages of about 3 and 10. There are so many students and only five teachers. Teachers Vien, David, Joane, Sylivia, and Olivia must have a deep sense of care and compassion to overcome instincts for impatience. It’s hard to believe how many students are in each classroom. We mostly worked in Teacher Vien’s room with the oldest/most advanced kids. Some students were quite advanced, but others seemed to have copied meaningless symbols on paper and don’t understand what they are supposed to learn. The school just seems too big and students cannot get the individual attention they need to learn well. From this experience I learned that all you can do is try to work effectively within a system that you cannot change, even if you are frustrated. I do think that the students are learning as much as the situation permits.

A woman named Gabi from London was also staying at Elie’s home and working at the deaf center. She has been there since January. She is the kind of person I admire entirely because she acts on her passions now; no ‘later’, ‘if’, or ‘maybe’. She sees beauty where most don’t and applies her motivation wherever effort is needed. Gabi had an idea to start a rhythm class with the deaf children. One of the instruments she wanted to use was coconut shells, so we went to the market to buy coconuts, cleaned them that night, and started the class the following day with the other instruments she had prepared. The students loved it because they could dance and count and feel the sounds the instruments were making (like shaking rice in an empty water bottle). Also, she wanted to help the children start a vegetable garden, so she walked the half marathon in Kigali to raise money for the garden. This is Gabi’s last week in Musanze and she planned to spend it making the garden with the children.

The walk to the deaf center was so beautiful. We walked towards the volcanoes along a winding dirt road that basically goes through a Rwandan residential neighborhood. Goats were tethered near mud and brick homes separated by farmland. Louie, Noella, and Rose teach the children at the deaf center; most are deaf and some have other disabilities. They taught with patience and understanding, and the students were so friendly, perhaps because they have to learn to trust and depend on others more readily than other children. Because we are not trained in Rwandan sign language, we spent the afternoons coloring on construction paper (which is impossible to buy here), playing with legos and puzzles, looking at books, beading, and playing outside. Julienne taught me how to count in sign language. I spent a lot of time with Jeremy and Mishel, two boys who can hear but have suffered brain damage. African women carry their babies on their backs, and when Mishel was two weeks old he was dropped. Jeremy had a sickness when he was young that caused brain damage. Hospital bills are too expensive for most families, so most of the children are not diagnosed and some could even live more ‘normal’ lives with hearing aids. It’s hard to realize that basic western medical care could have prevented many of the illnesses that caused hearing loss in these children. I was drawn to Jeremy and Mishel as they watched the other play outside but would not join in. They both love touch and hugs, and it was very difficult to say goodbye to them.

Something that continuously surprised me was the presence of genocide memorials and open discussion about the genocide. At Wisdom, Teacher Vien said only political leaders of genocide (people that planned it) are sentenced to life imprisonment; all others are tried through Gacaca (‘Gachacha’) courts, a community-based trial. Reconciliation often takes place during these trials and criminals are reintegrated into Rwandan society.

Gabi had a documentary about Rwanda that we watched on her computer. “As We Forgive” is about reconciliation between criminals and survivors and moving forward after the genocide. It focused on two individual stories of women who had been affected by the genocide. Rosaria lost husband and 4 children and Chantale’s husband was injured during the genocide and died shortly after. She and her brother are the only of 30 family members to survive. Chantale said she does not even want to meet people who killer her father: “I won’t have patience. I’ll just cry.”

In the end, both women met with the men who had killed their families. Even if they were not able to forgive the men that day, they both eventually did so. In 2003 President Kagame released 40,000 genocide criminals, saying that “forgiveness could even be achieved.” He said that forgiveness is the choice a nation has to make in order to progress. After watching the documentary we talked about the people we walk past every day on the way to school and we have no idea how the genocide affected them. For all I know, the man on a bus next to me could have killed someone or had family members killed; it just depends on where they ended up in space and time. On one hand I can’t judge anything related to the genocide because I’ve never been in someone else’s exact position. On the other hand, I can only imagine that if someone killed my family or friends, then I would not only be unwilling/unable to forgive them, but also I would have taken revenge. But I can’t possibly know… The forgiveness I saw in the documentary is impossible for me to grasp, yet I can still learn from what Rwandan people do to move forward.

Some final thoughts on Rwanda: Rwandans know what needs are and don’t judge based on appearance or possessions- everyone is handsome and beautiful, and it’s normal to talk about that. Things aren’t made to be more complex than necessary and I think many of our conflicts and disappointments happen when we make assumptions-face value is okay sometimes! The idea of ‘African Time’ has much more to do with enjoying relationships than it does with being late. Rwandans spend time together, while I think we in the United States are much more expectant of things to be timely according to individual desires. Also, the value of country, culture, and history is very visible in Rwanda. In America the most noticeable manifestation of national pride is often wrapped up in political games and labels. I have been given the gift of seeing a fullness of life unclouded by distractions.

I am now in Lilongwe, Malawi at the Children of the Nations Njewa Mission Center. I’m staying with four Malawian girls around age 18 who are COTN interns this summer and teach at different COTN villages.

Thanks for reading this long update! I miss you all and love you very much!
Love, Hanna

Leaving For Musanze

2009-05-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today I’m going to Musanze with Jessica and both professors. This is where the primary school and school for deaf children are located, and we will stay with Elie and Bernadette, who founded the schools. Here is a last-minute update on the past few days and some other random things.

Monday and Tuesday were jam-packed and very significant. I can’t explain enough here, but I’ll try. On Monday we took a mini bus with 24 people to Butare, then another to Gikongoro and then we took motorcycles to the Murambi Genocide Memorial. Here 50,000 people were killed at a technical school where they had sought refuge thinking they would be safe, as the Butare region had been relatively calm. Bodies were exhumed from the mass graves in 1995 and preserved in the rooms of the school. You can see missing body parts and cracked/crushed skulls, and the bodies are laid out in same position they were found—basically, however they landed in the mass graves; many are contorted like circus acrobats. Standing at this memorial and hearing the near-silence corrupted only by the sounds birds and cows, I realized that 15 years ago it probably looked and sounded very similar to the very moment I was experiencing. The difference was that the bodies in each room were fresh corpses, not preserved artifacts of lost humanity.

On Tuesday we went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, which is a museum as well. There were several different rooms with walls covered in text and photographs, and many showed the aftermath of genocide in places we have already been. Women and children were targeted to prevent a new generation of Tutsis from developing, and rape by HIV+ men was referred to as “a genocidal weapon.” A section of the museum was devoted to children, the lost generation. A plaque on the wall said, “Children, you might have been our national heroes. . .” Huge photographs of individual children were mounted on the walls, accompanied by their names and survey-like lists of interests and personal characteristic:

Mami Mpinganzima
Age 12
Favourite Food: Chips with mayonnaise
Enjoyed: traditional dance
Favorite song: The Beauty of Woman
Last word: “Mum, where can I run to?”
Cause of death: Shot dead”

Because I see children everywhere we go, it was frightening to think that they may have been killed had their lives began just 15 years earlier. The most moving section of the memorial for me was a room where families had submitted photographs of their dead relatives. For me, photographs are much more than an image on paper, so this impacted me very deeply. Also, seeing Rwandans taking in the information and images, many of them grieving, added to the significance of this experience.

“We remember the victims of the past because they were our family and friends. . . They should still be here. We also remember the events of the past, it is a terrible and unavoidable warning for our future if we do not take active steps to avoid it all over again.”

There is much more to say, but I’m short on the time and eloquence this topic deserves.

A few more things:

We had to say goodbye to our classes at Solace Learning Centre on Wednesday and Thursday, which was really hard even though we will probably return once more before leaving Rwanda to say a final goodbye.

In 2010 Rwanda’s first public library, the Kigali Public Library, will be finished: http://www.kigalilibrary.org/ If you want to make a purchase from Barnes and Noble or Amazon, go to the library website and follow the links to the other businesses. If you buy through the library website, some of the money will be donated to the library! As my professor Amy Watkin wrote, “We've been told many times this week at The Learning Centre that ‘Africans don't read,’ though we've seen lots of evidence that that's not entirely true. They certainly don't have access to a lot of books, so a library would be a much bigger deal here than in the U.S.”

If you want to write while I am in Malawi my address is as follows (just for letters):
Hanna Stevens
c/o Children of the Nations
P.O. Box 1205
Lilongwe, Malawi
East Africa

Thank you for taking time to read these updates!
Love, Hanna

Week 1: Solace Learning Centre

2009-05-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Our first week of teaching is already over and we have only a few days left at Solace Learning Centre before going to Musanze. On the first day I was nervous because not only is teaching new to me, but the culture and students are completely new as well. The teachers and students at Solace are welcoming, communicative, and friendly, so I quickly became comfortable in the classroom and now I just want to stay and talk with everyone!

I was very surprised by how much English the students already know. Students encourage each other to try speaking and writing on the board, even if they aren’t sure of the answer. Francoise writes their wrong answers on the board along with the correct answers and asks the students, “Is this correct?” The students fix mistakes together and keep asking questions until they understand. Because the students are so advanced, sometimes their questions are quite complicated, so I am learning right along with them.

The students asked Jessica and me what other languages we speak, and we told them that we speak a little bit of Spanish; they started asking more questions, and we started teaching Spanish words to Rwandan students who speak French, Kinyarwanda, and English. These students learn for the sake of knowledge.

In addition to these languages, many of the students are learning the language of technology. Learning about technology can be complicated enough without a language barrier, but students are progressing quickly. In the afternoon computer class we are teaching the students how to use Microsoft Word. In just a few days the students have already learned how to open, close, and save a document, how to format text, and how to create columns and tables. They are beginning to understand how this is useful for them individually. Imaculee made a table that she wants to use as a grade book when she is a teacher. Mike used columns to simulate a newspaper. The main obstacle for the students is that they cannot type well; I think that some of them were using a keyboard for the first time this week. Hopefully they will be interested enough to continue practicing.

Besides the English classes and computer classes, we also teach an adult English class for Solace employees. The first day we had six students. The second day we had one, a middle-aged man named Alphonse who works as a cleaner. He paid to study English for two years and is coming to class to practice speaking and understanding what he hears. He is much more advanced than we realized, but was still happy to have a review of speaking basics. Alphonse was so enthusiastic and friendly and told us all about his family. He and his wife, Paulina, met in 1984 and now have five children, two girls and a boy between the ages of one and 15. He said that they do not get to eat meat every day, but he likes to cook beans and potatoes. The kids like to play football (soccer) and cannot afford one, so they made their own out of banana leaves (as do many children here).

Eric, one of the teachers, has five younger siblings and works at Solace to pay for their schooling. He’s only twenty years old and is a former students at Solace. Eric studies math and economics at night; he says that is the only way to get a job, even though it’s not what he wants to do. He loves literature and writing and dreams of becoming a journalist, as is true for at least three other students I have spoken with. People here like Alphonse and Eric work hard to support themselves and their families while still making time to learn.

I’m so excited about the students and teachers we get to work with—their motivation and friendliness is awesome and I love having chances just to converse with them. I wish I could have written down what I’m learning about each person. I still can’t believe how short of a time we have had at Solace and how fast the rest of the time will go…

Amahoro n'urukundo,
Hanna

Welcome Home

2009-05-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

Muraho and Happy Mothers' Day!

I decided that this would be the easiest way to keep everyone updated this summer. As you probably know, I have the privilege of spending the summer in Rwanda, Malawi, and Kenya! Today was only my fourth day in Kigali, Rwanda, and I already feel like I’ve been here for much longer. Perhaps this is because I’ve been anticipating the trip for so long. It’s strange finally to be in a country I’ve been learning about, but have never experienced firsthand. Here is a summary of the trip so far.

We arrived late Wednesday night after a 31-hour trip (Fargo-Minneapolis-Amsterdam-Nairobi-Kigali). On Thursday we met Moses and the students at the Solace Ministries Learning Centre. Everyone has been so gracious and welcoming, regardless of our age and experience as ‘teachers.’ Each intermediate student that we met stood to introduce themselves. They also had a specific career goal in mind! One girl mentioned that she wants to be a singer, and she stood up and sang for the whole class! Moses said that the Rwandan students like to learn, but they don’t like to read. He gave the example of a Rwandan on a plane in contrast with another passenger, who would probably read, while a Rwandan would just relax. Later on we visited Cards for Africa, a greeting card company owned by a young woman named Suzanne, I believe.

Then we visited Jocelyn and Richard Jelsma, missionaries who have lived here for seven months out of their five-year commitment. They have four children and work at the Wellspring Academy (http://www.thewellspringfoundation.com/). Jocelyn told us about the rising cost of living in Kigali and how many people are displaced and cannot rebuild elsewhere, even if they are compensated. It’s just not enough. Also, a bottle of prenatal vitamins costs 36 USD! Jocelyn (a midwife) said that some of her patients are in dire need of these vitamins, and that one in five children dies, usually within one week of birth.

On Friday afternoon we returned to the learning centre to meet with Moses and the other teachers, Eric, Francoise, and Hildebrand to discuss our first day of teaching, which will be tomorrow. They told us what the students had already learned as well as what they want us to help teach. Eric (20) teaches the intermediate classes and Francoise (41) teaches the beginning classes in the morning. Hildebrand (20?) teaches the technical/computer classes in the afternoon. We ended up just joking and laughing with each other, asking questions about each other’s families, and learning about general differences in relationships in Rwanda and in America. Francoise, a widow, said, “These days, marriage is a problem. There is no love.” People marry because one can provide security, such as a house. In the past, it was about liking each other. Now genocide orphans marry early for companionship, refuge, etc.

Saturday was a huge day for me, and was my first time trying to take notes and photographs at the same time. (Sidenote: there are not many appropriate opportunities to take photos; we had permission on Saturday, but it still felt completely wrong… That’s another issue.) We first met Jean Gakwandi who founded Solace Ministries, which involves not just the learning centre, but also orphan-headed households and farms for widows. He said that widows needed jobs to support themselves and children who had lost parents and homes needed education and living accommodations. Regarding the orphans of the 1994 genocide, “He thinks he’s a child. Although he is responsible, he is victimized,” said Jean, explaining why they are called ‘orphan-headed’ and not ‘child-headed’. Children even as young as 11 had to raise families and are now grown up. Jean talked about his own experiences, numbness, and healing to explain the fear of self that keeps Rwandans from voicing their experiences and healing their wounds.

We also visited genocide memorials. Statistics are hard for me to grasp; frankly, ‘one million dead in one hundred days’ affects me differently than a single, specific person’s story. Seeing/meeting/hearing people who were personally affected by the genocide puts it in a different framework for me. The genocide is seeming less like a distant (both in time and space) horror story and more like a common, shared, yet personalized experience of each Rwandan person. Seeing the churches with clothing and skeletal remains has allowed me to think about the genocide in the context of each individual person and human resilience and healing. I had to imagine each church full of people watching other Rwandans entering with intentions to murder. In just these two places of safety/spiritual gatherings, thousands of individual stories were cut short. Seeing rows of skulls made me focus on one at a time, reflecting on each as a representation of one life story and all its outward connections. Each was a single person walking down the street-a stranger, but a valuable human that was just different. And just being different in the eyes of extremists (also because of complicated history) was enough reason to destroy that person and put their skull in a row of unidentified souls.

Today half of our group (Camie and Rachel, students, and Bill, professor) left for Musanze to work at the nursery school and school for deaf children. Jessica and I will stay here with Amy, the other professor, and teach at the learning centre. After two weeks the groups will switch.

Some general observations/thoughts: Rwanda is a beautiful country of beautiful people. I love being in a culture where it is completely normal to greet strangers. Hugs, high-fives, handshakes… I love this. It is so different from other places I’ve been/lived in America where even saying ‘hello’ or waving out of a car window can draw a confused or condescending glance. We are learning some Kinyarwanda and a couple words in Swahili, and it is so neat to try using them! It’s very warm here during most of the day and the temperature and humidity vary throughout the day with rainfall. The contrast between fancy cars, clothes, and houses against other living situations within Kigali is so drastic and visible. A ten minute walk up the hill from the SOS Training Centre (where we are staying) puts us in a completely different world that looks like some ritzy California neighborhood in places.

Amy just told us that people were wearing winter coats in Fargo yesterday. HA! Also, we bought Mediterranean Pringles yesterday and Bill said, “I love the aroma.” Amy said, “Stop making fun of the Pringles!” I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for your encouragement and support that is making this summer possible. I’ll try to keep these updates going!

Love, Hanna