The people

This has to be one of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken. His eyes go right through me every time. His picture in the center of my “Africa” wall.

There are times when his sweet little face comes to mind. Those eyes overwhelming my heart, just thinking about it makes me teary. He’s beautiful. I don’t know his name. He was too shy to tell me, he never said a word. But when he warmed up to me, he gave the sweetest hugs and had the brightest smile. I imagine he’s only 3 or so, however I could be way off. Due to the overwhelming malnutrition in Africa, he could be 5. I don’t know his story, but his eyes look so sad. He’s not alone though. When I was in Liberia, I met dozens of children. Most ran to me and wanted to touch, play, or pull my hair, while others weren’t so sure at first. I understand the fascination and the fear. I am a white girl with blond hair, not a very common thing in Africa, especially Liberia. I loved on and played with kids who probably only had one meal a day, if that. Their parents probably couldn’t afford school and they definitely didn’t have running water. In fact, I watched one little boy use bathroom in the same water a little girl drank from and a woman washed clothes in. It was devastating.

You know those dramatic commercials asking you to sponsor a child? They show a child playing in trash, filthy, and crying. They make some claim like this 9 year old boy is raising his siblings. They don’t bring in trash and make the situation look bad. The situation is atrocious. I’ve stood in the middle of the largest slum in Africa. Over one million people living in a tiny area built and surrounded by trash.  Not everyone in Africa lives like that, but just one should be enough to disgust anyone with a heart. Knowing that children live like that should bring you to your knees. You can’t imagine it and you can’t begin to comprehend it if you haven’t seen.

According to World Vision in 2009, 30 children died every 2 minutes from preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia. Twenty-four thousand died every 24 hours. That means 8.5 million died in one year from preventable causes! PREVENTABLE CAUSES! 

In Liberia, we met with health officials and they told us that a major cause of infant death was tetanus.  Tetanus is generally caused from an infected wound, that’s why if you step on a rusty nail, you need to get another shot. If you think about it, how would an infant get tetanus? Well in the rural parts of Liberia, it is believed that stuffing the umbilical cord with dirt or feces will protect them. Open wound + diseased substance= tetanus.

There’s a tribal group in Ethiopia that throws their children in the river if their top teeth come in before their bottom teeth, because they believe the children are evil.

Although the statistics are astounding, these are just the reported ones. These aren’t statistics though, these are children, families, people.

I don’t mean to get on my soapbox, but it’s not just that all these people I’ve written about love Africa, they hurt for the people and that’s what it’s all about for me. The people. And this picture reminds me of that.

Recommended Organizations

I’ve gotten several questions on how you can get involved with organizations in Africa. I understand. It’s hard to find places to trust sometimes, with the way the world is, which is so wrong and sad I cannot even begin to write about it.

There are several organizations I’ve been involved with over the years.  You can also get involved with organizations that I’ve mentioned in previous posts like Brighton Their World (www.brightontheirworld.com) or Amazima Ministries (http://www.amazima.org/).

Compassion International is the one that I sponsor Musa through. I’ve been involved with the organization since 2004 and they are really great.  What they are most known for is the sponsorship program.  When a person sponsors a child, they get to choose the country, gender, and generally get a choice of several children. You get to read a brief history on them and see a picture.  It costs about $32.00 a month. This covers the child’s schooling, clothes, and food. You can also donate money for Christmas and birthday presents. One thing I love about how they do Christmas is they compile all the money and divide it equally among all the children, regardless if his or her sponsor donated any money. If you can’t commit to monthly contribution, they have several other opportunities to get involved. You can find out more about Compassion on their website www.compassion.org

Invisible Children is an organization started by a few college aged guys who traveled to Uganda and found a 20-year-long war going on that few in the United States knew about. What is especially unknown about this war and most in less advanced nations is the use of children.  Child soldiers are quite common and it is unusual for the boys to sign up for this.  What generally happens, for the war particularly, is the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) invades and village and kills numerous people. They kidnap the young girls and boys and might also kill the children’s parents in front of them to scare them into submission.  They beat and force the boys to kill until they are brainwashed and use the girls as “wives” for the older soldiers.  It’s appalling and an far too less known evil in this world.  Invisible Children was started to stop the LRA from their use of children, inform the United States of the war, and bring the war to an end. 

You can get involved several ways. There is a chapter here at KSU if you want to get involved.  They do screenings about once a semester and generally have someone from Uganda that speaks as well. You can purchase merchandise like shirts and bags to buy.  And finally, you can sponsor a child so they can go to school.  Here’s Invisible Children’s website http://invisiblechildren.com/

Other organizations that I’ve been involved with and trust are:

Charity Water: http://www.charitywater.org/

Samaritan’s Purse: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

World Vision: http://www.worldvision.org/

Some of these organizations are involved all over the world so you can choose where you want your money to go and generally what you want it used for. The most important thing is to get involved. We live in the richest country in the world even in an economic crisis. Don’t just sit there. Do something.

Katie Davis

I’ve never met Katie Davis. I feel like I know her very well. I’ve read her blog for some time and am in the midst of finishing her book Kisses from Katie. I highly recommend this book if you would like to be inspired, hear crazies stories, and blown away by her story. She graduated from high school in 2007, the same year I did. After begging her parents, they allowed her to spend one year in Uganda teaching kindergartens. Four years, she’s still there. I have no idea where to begin with this girl’s story, it’s so crazy.

            I have no doubt that the Lord wants me to adopt from Africa. What I’m not sure about is if He’ll ever want me to move there. It would be a difficult process, but after reading her story, I’d go for sure. She lives in Uganda and loves Africa for the same reasons I do. She loves it for the people, the need, and non-American instant gratification, money obsessed way of life. Most are grateful for everything they have and incredibly selfless.

            While she spent her year teaching, she lived in a tiny shack on the property of the school/orphanage. She taught 106 eager, beautiful children. However she noticed a big problem, many other children were not in school, because their children could not afford it.  Katie could not sit by and watch to she used some of her savings to pay for some of the children’s school.  And a few more. And then a few more after that.  Soon, she realized she needed help with paying for children to go to school so she consulted her parents and started Amazima Ministries. To have a non-profit, she needed a real address and not a tiny shack. She bought a large house with running water and electricity, a rarity there and went to work. The house was rather large for just one person, and she wasn’t sure why this house was the one for her. However, the Lord revealed to her shortly after it was meant to filled with people and children. Katie is the kind of person who stops on the side of the road to help someone. She’s also the type of person who would walk 13 miles to help someone.  She has done both numerous times.  During her first year, she brought into her home, three little orphaned girls and she decided to adopt them, at the age of 18. I told this is a crazy story. What gets even crazier is over the four years, she lived in Uganda, she’s adopted 11 other little girls. 

            Her journey to stay in Uganda after that first year was not an easy.  With a desire to obey her parents, she went college after the year she went to Uganda and struggled the entire semester. As much she Katie loved her friends, family, boyfriend, etc., she ached for Uganda. America was not longer her home. Her home was with her ministry and daughters in Uganda. After five months, she flew home and has lived there ever since. She has watched young child and old grandparents die. She’s watched families lose loved ones and she’s lost a lot of people she loved. She continues on. She never turns someone down and brings sick, diseased people into her home and cares for them. She’s one of kind and I truly admire her for what she believes, how she loves and lives, and her courageous spirit in spite of what others think. 

This is the website for her ministry: http://www.amazima.org/

(By the way this ministry has grown to house over 400 orphans and provides for all of them and other students to go to school.)

This is her blog address: http://www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

The Hoffmans

Please watch this: http://vimeo.com/27995418

The video link above is of one of my favorite families. The video was made by a friend and documents this family bringing home their newst daughters, Mebrate. I can’t watch it without crying. Maybe it’s because I love this family, I’ve been around them through the process of adopting her, or I want to adopt so badly.  Whatever it is, I love this family a ridiculous amount.  They have a non-profit to send formula over to two partner Ethiopian orphanages.  The Hoffmans have a unique, heartbreaking, and inspiring story. I met Laura when I signed up for a Bible study and she was the leader.  It wasn’t too long before I knew Laura very well and I knew she was someone I wanted to be like.  Laura and her husband had an adopted daughter from Africa and were beginning the process of adopting another little girl when I met them. Meron, their daughter, however was not the first child. After Tymm and Laura found out they would be unable to get pregnant, they excitedly pursued the chance to adopt. They found an adoption agency, filled out the massive amounts of paperwork, participated in a home study, and waited anxiously.  Then one day, their whole lives changed. They received their referral for their son, which means they got the name and picture of their child.  His name was Brighton and he was an orphaned infant in Ethiopia. They were ecstatic, but the joy was short-lived.   At 76 days old, Brighton passed away, most likely from malnutrition in combination of poor living conditions. 

            Tragically, infants and young children passing away is not a rare occurrence in Africa. In fact, it happens every day.  Laura and Tymm were devastated, but they were not going to wallow in self-pity and after spending a lot of time praying and researching, they decided on sending formula.  They choose formula for several reasons. First, the formula in Africa is very low quality, incredibly expensive for orphanages and has few nutrients. They prefer powdered formula over liquid because it weighs less and feeds more.  Finally, sending formula is a tangible way for people here to get involved. Individuals can go to the store and buy the formula that an orphanage will actually use.   They named their organization Brighton Their World (www.brightontheirworld.com) and have sent over 40,000 bottles worth of formula since they started.  To say their organization is growing is an understatement. It began by just telling their friends, but it has since expanded. It is not unusual to receive an email from a stranger saying, “Hey, I’m driving through Atlanta and have a car full of formula, can we meet up so I can give it to you?” They’ve driven to Texas and back (and other places) over two days to pick up formula to send it over to Africa. They generally get it to their partner orphanages by “mules” or individuals heading to the area. Laura and Tymm will buy an old suitcase from Goodwill, pack it with formula, and pay for the extra baggage fees of the individual. Customs can be tricky to get through in almost every country in Africa so recently they’ve had to buy formula in-country. While it’s not ideal, the children certainly receive more than they would without any formula. 

            I’ve had several people ask how they can get involved with helping people. This organization is an excellent way.   I personally know this family and have been around them for two years.  You can do several things.

Donate: you can donate money and they will buy formula with it. 100% of the money goes to helping the children. 

Host a party: Host a formula party. With the holidays approaching, instead of giving gifts to one another, have everyone bring a can of formula.  You can contact Laura and Tymm on their website to get more information or to help you.

Spread the word: Tell your friends, family, anyone about what they are doing.  This organization has grown by word of mouth.  They have a Twitter and Facebook that you can link up to as well.   They also have a blog they update daily about their life and family (http://littlehoffman.blogspot.com/) and as you can see from the video, their daughters are beautiful and they are just as sweet too.

Sammy

I remember when I went to Kenya in 2007 so well. I was beyond excited to finally be in Africa and it was an incredible trip. I had been sponsoring Musa for four years at that point and although I wasn’t going to the country he called home, I was right next door. I went with my high school ministry at church.  We went for two reasons. The first reason was to interact with high school students and talk to them about HIV/AIDS and Jesus. The second reason was because my best friend and the guy I was dating at the time had raised around $20,000 his senior year to build a well in Kenya. We were going to meet the community where the well was going to be built. In total, twenty-two people went on the trip. Eighteen of us were students and four were adult leaders. 

Buses and large vehicles are not that common in Kenya and so we had four safari vans with drivers. Our drivers were awesome. The one my group often rode in was with a guy named Francis. He spoke very little English. For example, if we said stop, he went into reverse; or when we asked him what animal that was, his answer was always gazelle. Even if it was a monkey-type creature.  We affectionately named his van and the experience, the Fran Van. There was one driver, in particular, I wanted to talk to. His name is Sammy and he was the leader of the drivers. He owned the driving company. Typically, it was Sammy and one other driver, but because we needed four drivers, he brought in two more.  Sammy was one of those people you instantly wanted to be friends with.  He laughed a lot, but he didn’t say much. When he did speak, everyone listened. He was very wise and I just wanted to know about him.

One day, when we were traveling to south Kenya, we stopped at this restaurant. It had the tallest, most beautiful waterfall I’ve ever seen.  For some reason, my best friend and I were a little late to sit down and so we sat at the drivers’ table. I began to talk with Sammy about Kenya and the AIDS epidemic came up.  My last semester of my senior year (I had just graduated from high school) was spent researching and writing a paper on the AIDS epidemic in Africa.  I had plenty of knowledge about the subject, but what I didn’t have was perspective. The kind of perspective from hearing about the impacts from someone whose life is greatly impacted, from someone who has seen the devastation with their own eyes. I didn’t want to know because I was curious, but because it’s heartbreaking. Sammy was very open about what he had seen and whom he had lost. He also understood a lot about the disease as well. The way he talked about Kenya, you knew he had great pride in his country.  He loved it.

This is Sammy

What saddened me the most was that he was so surprised someone like me would care or want to know about his country or the epidemic. What Sammy didn’t know what was that only deepened my love for this continent.

This is Olando. He was my driver for most of my time in Liberia. He's 19 years old and lives alone. His mother lives with her boyfriend and his 14-year-old sister lives with her boyfriend. He lives his house every morning before the sun rises and comes home every night after it sets. Like most Liberians, he has no electricity due to rebels from the war destroying there power plants.  He's lucky to eat one full meal a day. You can't see in the picture, but on the left side of his face is a giant scar. When I asked him where he had gotten it, he had fallen on a stick as a small boy.  He was one of my favorite people that I met in Liberia. I always knew I was safe with him. Liberia is not a safe country. It is quite dangerous, even more dangerous for fair-skinned, blonde girls. There's no way for someone like me to blend into this country and pretty much everyone thinks white people= America and money. My group and I were pulled over twice for the week I was there and at one point, we were pretty sure we were about to go to prison. I cannot express to you the fear of thinking you are about to be taken to an African prison, you could literally disappear and no one would have a clue where you had gone. Anyways, Olando protected me. He shooed people away from the car and constantly looked around to make sure we were never in danger. Two things absolutely broke my heart about Olanda.  He had only a second grade education and could not read. The second thing is something he told me. We were sitting in the car waiting one day talking about America and Liberia.

Side note: Liberia is the country the US founded after the civil war was over. Freed slaves were allowed to go back to Africa if they chose and that is how Liberia started.

Anyways, we were talking and he said, "Liberian men love America and American men love Liberia." I didn't have the heart to tell him that a large majority of Americans didn't even know that Liberia existed, where it was, or its history and ties to our nation. I also didn't have the heart to tell him that even those who knew about Liberia, well most probably didn't care.

I wanted to put a face and name in front of you today. Of someone who is real, lives in such heartbreaking conditions, and isn't just a picture on a TV commercial. In many ways, he is nothing like us, but in many others he is exactly like us.
He knows the hardships that war bring. His uncle was murdered by rebels. He watched his village be taken over by them. And as a young boy, he watched other young boys carry around machine guns and  brutally murder people.
However, the scar on his face is from something most little boys and girls have done. Fall. He has to work for a living. He loves to laugh and he wants to get married and have a family one day. He gets embarrassed but won't tell you if you start talking about something.

He loves his country. He is someone who makes Africa real to me. His picture is on my wall and when I think of Liberia, I think of him. I have no idea where he is and how he is now. I'll never see him again most likely, but I'll never forget him.

Katie and Africa

I'm obsessed with Africa. An entire wall in my room is covered with African art, figurines, pictures of African children, and maps. I plan on adopting at least one child from one of the countries there. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

This time last year, I missed a week of class to travel to Liberia, the country. It’s in West Africa and if you don’t know, the country was formed for former slaves after the Civil War. The country was once a fairly successful country, until greedy warlords took over in the early 80’s and it went through several leadership changes. This continued until a civil war broke out. The war lasted for several years and ended once the women banded together and then elected the first African female president to office. The country is still in dire conditions. It is one of the poorest nations in the world, has one of the highest mother/ baby mortality rate, and child mortality rate. I’ve been to several poor countries; this was the worst, by far.  It was heartbreaking. Believe it or not, this is only a part of my story of love for and focus on Africa.

Let me take you to the beginning.

There I stood with his picture in my hand, a tiny, quiet high school freshman. He was small, innocent, and thousands of miles away. I was at a Christian summer camp and they had shown a video of African child and I knew I could do something. I began sponsoring Musa in July 2004.  Regardless of the fact that I did not have a job or any money, I agreed to pay $30 a month so this precious 3 year old could have clothes, medicine, and education. My love and obsession for Africa began that day and for the past 7 years it has only grown.

My senior year research paper in high school was on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I spent all of my high school graduation money on a mission trip to Kenya. The learning community I took was all about the One Campaign and we focused heavily on Africa, which made my recent trip there impact me more than I ever imagined and sealing my commitment to this country forever. I hope to travel to Kenya and Uganda for two weeks following graduation, visiting orphans. I’m just trying to figure out how to pay for that. Experience after experience Africa etched itself on my heart more and more, not only because of the sheer need this continent has but the beauty I seen in its people. To say these people are all the same is an atrocity to their unique cultures and struggles, but there is a certain bond they possess.

So what exactly am I writing about? Well, it’s actually who I am writing about.  I am writing about people who, like me, love this continent. I hope to bring to life that there are people out there for love this place, not because it’s trendy, but because they can’t help it. They are from all different walks of life and have a variety of experiences. Some will be heartbreaking, some will be beautiful, and all will be inspiring. I thought I’d start off with my own story so as you read, you know this is written by someone who loves these people, but has also spent time with them.