I am here at CAMP GLOW this week. The camp is a week-long leadership camp for Namibian youth. (I will post photos as soon as I can.)
One interesting discussion we had was about gender equality. Women in Namibia, especially in the village, sometimes have limited control over their sexual relationships. For example, if a woman asks her husband to use a condom and he says no, she often has little control over this. Thus, the HIV/AIDs pandemic is strongly related to gender equality and poverty. Not only are women constrained by gender inequalities and society and media-dictated power imbalances, they are sometimes economically reliant on their partners and thus unable or unwilling to walk away from a relationship. This is the reality in some parts of Namibia, and many other places in the world.
Men and women should work together as brothers and sisters working together towards this goal. This is ALLYSHIP – it is the CORAGEM (courage) that Nancy Bacon wrote about recently on her “Social Change Collaboratorium” blog. We must seek to build bridges and cross them together, to seek compassion and love. Again, as Alice Walker says, “Anything that we love can be saved.” The issues of gender equality are simply too important to be ignored. The very future of our world and harmonious and productive societies depends on it.
In terms of gender equality, our society is on a journey to heal. We must work to move forward in an empowered, progressive, manner. We must face the difficult discussions and welcome the much-needed societal transformations. There is no safety in silence.
Perhaps indicating the best aspects of camp, when I asked one of the girls what was the most important thing she learned that day, she responded that it was “how to speak out for myself.” YES YOU CAN!!
Recently, the Bemidji Pioneer published an article about St. Bart’s Church and their partnership with a kindergarten in my village. The article references Professor Joel Ngugi, who is one of the great teachers of my life. His wisdom is great, yet what part of what makes him a great teacher is also how he expresses and allows the limits of being human. Through his guidance, a group of his students formed the Kenya Human Rights Group. Professor Ngugi had some favorite sayings which we learned a lot from; among them:
- “The personal is professional.”
- “I can only join you in the mat you are lying on, and stare up at the stars in the sky with you and wonder if the stellar constellation above is a cryptic spelling for “HOPE.”
- He urged us to avoid the “anxiety of implementation” – meaning not to let the complexity of human rights work deter us from doing ANY work whatsoever
- “Embrace the complexity.”
Perhaps one of my favorite Ngugi quotes was “The revolution is in the every day.” He told us about this idea one day in class, admitting that when he was younger, he had waited for the revolution to come. Later, he realized that it may never come, but that the revolution is here amongst us, in our everyday interactions, conversations, decisions, and actions. It is true; the revolution is in the here and now - in every thought, word, action, interaction, choice, plan – in all that we do. Each small though or deed has a ripple effect on the planet – like a drop of water in a still pond extending rings far beyond itself. We all have a big impact on our spheres of influence. We should not underestimate the power of this.
We are also not safe in our silence. And as Oriah Maintains Dreamer states in her book The Invitation, “there are choices we must make…yet if we can be still enough with what is, we can find the place Native Americans call Chui-ta-ka-ma, the place of choiceless awareness, the place where it is clear which choice is a choice for life, where we can make no other.” These choices are life vs. death, and mean choosing spiritual growth and rebirth vs. stagnation.
These words and mindset may seem foreign; they are foreign to me even as I write them. It is easy to assume this dreamy stance in a quiet, remote African village. Conversely, I easily remember the hectic pace of life in the U.S.. Contemplating these two very different worlds, I consider the challenge before us: to remember the concept of Chui-ta-ka-ma, to be true to ourselves, to work for today’s simple evolution, even amongst our insurmountable “to-do” lists, pressures, worries, and humanity. John Heifetz wrote a book called Leadership Without Easy Answers; but perhaps it is the simple act of being human, of finding a gracious way to live and interact, that also does not come with easy answers. But despite all of this, despite the complexity, the challenges, the pain, the difficult and the joy, let us move forward; let us find a way. There is a new Alice Walker quote that I love, “Anything that you love can be saved.” So it is - we love life, we love each other and our communities; thus we can be saved. Thus we can master Chui-ta-ka-ma, this elusive concept.
Here is the article about my PC service: http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content/bemidji-native-peace-corps-volunteer-africa
And Nancy's site: http://socialchangecollaboratory.org/2012/02/23/courage/
I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
Of falling or catching fire
I choose to inhabit my days
To allow my living to open me
To make me less afraid
And more accessible
To loosen my heart
Until it becomes a wing
A torch, a promise
I choose to risk my significance
To live so that which comes to me as seed
Goes on to the next as blossom
And that which comes to me as blossom
Goes on as fruit
- Adapted from poem by Dawna Markova, Author and Editor, Utah, USA, found in Prayers for a Thousand Years: Blessings and Expressions of Hope for the New Millenium
This weekend I participated in the facilitator training for the Camp Glow program, which will happen in April. Camp Glow is a 6 day camp for Namibian students in middle and high school. The theme is youth empowerment, and each day has a theme: health, character building, career and futures, leadership, gender equality and team building and self discovery. The camp provides a unique experience for the students to explore themselves, build confidence, and to chart a course for their future. For many of them, it will be the first time that they are in a big city. (Last year, a group of the campers wanted to ride up and down the escalators in the mall on an outing because they had never seen one before and were absolutely fascinated by them!)
The impact that the camp has on Namibian youth is tremendous. Many campers from previous years return to be facilitators; I was very impressed with the group of Namibian facilitators that were at the training. The power in this type of work is the ripple effect; each camper, facilitator and volunteer has a sphere of influence. So as we embark on this journey together, there is no way to measure the positive influence that it is having on Namibia and the world.
For more information, here is the Camp Glow website:
http://campglownamibia.weebly.com/
If you are interested in supporting our Camp Glow, you can donate here:
http://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/camp-glow-2013
I am including some photos from the training below:
Our training was held at Katutura Youth Enterprise Center (KAYEC). Katutura is a large location (township) surrounding the city center of Namibia’s capitol, Windhoek.
In Katutura, fences are necessary…
I loved this shot of morning sun bursting through the trees at the center…
We had fun camping and “roughing at” at KAYEC:
Our training concluded with the “trust fall” activity where someone falls backwards into the outstretched arms of support people below.
The training was a success, and I cannot wait for CAMP GLOW! Stay tuned!
I wasn't able to attach the photo to the recent blog post - here is the giraffe photo. It was a team building activity at a recent Peace Corps training.
I woke up this morning and suddenly, without warning, winter had come to Namibia. Usually you sweat through the night...but today, the cool morning was welcoming. I put on a sweatshirt to greet the day. The change in termperature reminds me that we have come full circule, of time's passing. I have now been in Namibia for eight mnths. The time before I left, staging in Philadelphia, training here in Okahandja - all seem like a lifetime ago. Namibia has now become home; I feel comfortable here, have developed a Namibian family and community of friends, and began to know the contours of the culture and norms.
I feel happy here, and grateful for this time. There is a quote, "It is no mistake that we have been brought here together; what we have will help each other." And I see that with every stage of life.
So now I look forward to the next 18 months of service. What can I hope to learn? To accomplish? Where can I best be of service? I look forward to the challenges, complexities, and joys that lay ahead. As the title of Jon Kabait-Zinn's book suggests, "Wherever you go, there you are."
In a recent blog post, I referenced Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, a Martin Ennals award winner, and truly amazing LGBTQ activist from Uganda. Check out her speech here: http://amnestyicm.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/a-reality-check/
