Mali: and a tale of my clients

My grandmother never really understood my job.  I'd explain it to her over and over again but a perplexed look would still come over her face.  Nonetheless, she'd brightly exclaim encouraging somethings like, Well that certainly sounds useful!  But I could tell she never got it.

I once met a woman at a cocktail party.  She told me she was in Morocco on a research assignment.  I pressed her for more details and she gave me the look of someone who had been avoiding questions.  Then she answered that she was studying mule sperm {!}.  Frankly, I think my grandmother would have been satisfied with that answer:-)

I'm currently working in Mali on a civic education project funded by USAID; the project touches over a million people.  We partner with community radio hosts and traditional communicators (professional story tellers and messengers) to promote messages of peace, tolerance, women's participation and good citizenship.

Here is a glimpse of some of my partners and project beneficiaries.

Have you ever been to Mali?  To Africa?  Would you want to go?  

Mali: and a tale of beauty and architecture

I’ve never been a fan of Bamako.  The streets caked with dirt, the piles of torn plastic bags, the pollution.  Almost comical is the ubiquitous 1970s-style overstuffed furniture sitting by the side of the main streets – waiting, waiting to be sold to lovers of brown velour.

No, I’ve always preferred to get out of the Malian capital and drive hours away.  There you can see clusters of tidy huts, fascinating in their organic precision. 

Or buildings with elements of Malian grandeur– spires and towers. 

Or perhaps most beautiful yet, the carved structures,brutalist and yet elegant with their sinuous lines and geometric cut outs. 

Can you imagine {really} living differently than you do?  In a yurt?  A camel hair tent? A mud hut?  The world through those windows might be so different.

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PS Just a few days left for free shipping on carpets & textiles at Red Thread Souk.  Take advantage of it while you can!

Some places: and a tale of the unbearable truth

I'm a woman who looks for beauty wherever I go.  And I always find it.  But I see the rest, too.  The poverty, the sadness, the dirt. The malaria, the pollution, the crime. Sometimes {almost} the only {and best} beautiful thing is the people.  It's the unbearable truth for me in Bangui, in Dhaka, in Bamako, and in Addis Abbaba.

I left last week for Mali.  Here a glimspe of the beautiful people.

PS It's a special day for me tomorrow and I'll have a special offer.....Oui!  So please come visit! 

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: and a tale of the weavers

In Addis Ababa, they’re everywhere.  The weavers. 

With their warps and wefts a pristine white, the weavers’ hands move smoothly across the looms.  Their shuttles whirring back and forth are silent but efficient.  But it takes time for the pattern to emerge -- there are no shortcuts. 

I’ve returned from Ethiopia.  I’ve brought back with me many lessons.  About people, about work, about life.  There are things I won’t soon forget.  There has been beauty but there has also been pain.  There were moments where I felt alone and moments where I felt misunderstood.  And as I sat in my hotel room with a long distance phone in my hand, I sometimes wondered if it was all worth it.

But I’ve learned from the weavers that there are no shortcuts.  And despite the broken strings and the blistered fingers, faith in oneself is often rewarded...

with goodness, with truth, and yes, with beauty.  

If not this time, then the next.

I hope I will remember that.  And I hope that you will, too.