Not Trying To Save Africa

I first traveled to Lesotho in 2005 with Wittenberg University.  As for many, the trip opened my eyes to a different culture, a different way of life and and different definition of community.  The taste of Africa I received on the Lesotho trip led me to return to Africa, to Tanzania in East Africa, and next up, to Botswana in Southern Africa with the Peace Corps.

As I have pursued a career in international development, I am constantly searching for the best approach, being very mindful that we are not here to "save" a country, a people, or certainly not an entire continent.  Africa is rich in resources - with it's greatest asset being its own people.  It is easy to come to a community and impose your own ideas of what and how things should be done.  What I enjoy so much about working with Bloom Africa is that this organization "gets it."  Our job is not to "save" a community, but to empower a community.  We work closely with the people in Roma at Leratong Community Center, and soon hopefully other communities, to listen to how they define their challenges and how they see solutions.

To implement the community learning centers, we will need patience, determination, strong partnerships and support.  The aim is to be local solutions to local problems, and we simple help facilitate and empower those doing the work.  We are not the heroes or the miracle workers - the members of the Leratong community are.   We are not trying to "save or change" the world, but the experience certainly does change us.

Khotso,

Erika Franz

Erika currently serves as a Board Member with Bloom Africa. 

A Request and a Promise

As a medical student, I have learned about the health impact of HIV/AIDS for the individual patient. I have learned about the anticipated disease course, treatment regimens, preventative measures, and support groups for patients and their families. In the United States, an HIV diagnosis has a troubling prognosis but has improved greatly in the last three decades since the disease emerged. The medical research community may be years away from a vaccine or cure, but HIV may be considered a chronic condition in some patients. However, the impact of HIV/AIDS on any individual, regardless of country or wealth is tangible and dramatic.

HIV/AIDS has dramatically changed the landscape and culture of Lesotho. In a country of 1.8 million, there are an estimated 160,000 orphans and vulnerable children. The impact is noticeable in every village, despite improvements in detection and treatment. The need for change and improvement is apparent. The problem-solving (and public health) part of my brain wants to assess communities and villages, design programs in collaboration with the villages, and record results and improvements in the outcomes for these orphans to celebrate their successes. However, my motivation and passion to improve the lives of Basotho children is not driven by the analytical part of my brain. My motivation and passion comes from my heart and a promise to a young mother in Lesotho in 2009.

On my second trip to Lesotho in 2009, a brief conversation with a young mother changed my life forever. We were at the Baylor Pediatric Centre of Excellence, a treatment facility for HIV positive children, to play and interact with the children while they waited for their appointments at the clinic. It was relatively quiet near the water tap and I was taking a moment to enjoy the smiles and laughter around me. The mother approached me with her youngest child on her back, secured by a Basotho blanket. We exchanged greetings and I explained why we were at the clinic. Then she asked me one of the hardest questions I’ve ever had to answer, “Will you take my child back to the United States? I’m HIV positive and I can’t take care of her.” I fumbled over my words and held back tears as I tried to explain that I couldn’t take her child. A laundry list of reasons and excuses ran through my head, but they all seemed insufficient. So in that moment, I did the only thing that seemed to do justice to the young mother’s request. I promised that I would finish my education and work as hard as I could to improve the lives of Basotho orphans and vulnerable children. I could not make an individual promise to the young mother and her children, but I could promise to never forget her children or her country. It wasn’t enough for her that day, but it is the best I could do.

Every morning I am reminded of her face as she made such a challenging request and I work tirelessly to fulfill my promise to her. I have a few more years of medical school ahead of me, but I am able to work on my promise by volunteering with Bloom Africa. Bloom Africa has allowed me to accomplish more than I ever could as an individual, a true example of Ubuntu. “You cannot do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good you can do” (Anonymous).

Khotso & Lerato (Peace & Love),

Betty

Betty Cheney currently serves as the  Secretary of the Bloom Africa Board of Directors. She is a medical student at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

We Took A Chance

We took a chance. We went.  Because we went, we saw.  Because we saw, we felt.  We felt deep pain and innocent joy.  We questioned with struggles too complex to answer.    We served, we laughed, we cried, we sang, and we danced.  We danced a lot.  But above all, we loved.  And in this love formed the truest bond between two different groups of people from two different counties and two different backgrounds.  We had different skin color and we spoke different languages.  We had different opportunities in life based on the family we were born into.  And yet, we were all the same. 

We are all the same.  So now we talk.  We teach.  We tell.  We find ways to advocate and we embrace in the hope of a another chance.  A chance to make a change in a country that so badly deserves an opportunity.  An opportunity to live.  To be healthy.  And an opportunity to sustainably live in a country devastated by poverty.

So we serve with Bloom.  We write.  We dream.  And we raise funds to support the most vulnerable children of Lesotho.  We communicate.  With the people in our country and the people in their country.  We continue to serve alongside. 

But we cannot do it alone.  

So we ask for your help.  Because you can make a difference.  A small one.  And together our small acts of love will transform.  Into a bigger change.  A greater change.  Centered around the love that was started from a chance. 

Ka Khotso,

Katharine         

Katharine is a senior at Wittenberg University and intern with Bloom Africa.

Savor the World

At the age of nineteen, I encountered the country of Lesotho in a state of wonder. How could such simplicity be so beautiful? How could we provide hope amidst so much brokenness? How did I get to be born into a comfortable lifestyle while other children lacked education, health care, or even an actual pair of shoes to play outdoor games? It was four weeks of an emotional overload of images; there were trees visible because of the outline of stars behind them, there was Scott Hospital in Morija where patient after patient presented symptoms of tuberculosis resulting in a chest x-ray resulting in an HIV test, there were children laughing on a playground while they waited to be called into the Baylor Pediatric AIDS Clinic for their appointment, there were conversations around a fire where college kids tried to make sense of the world they were witnessing each day. 

Almost two years later I still find myself struggling between trying to save the world and trying to savor the world. Every day it seems I pick up lessons that make the work done in Lesotho more worthwhile. The Wittenberg trips led by Dr. Rosenberg, as well as Bloom, truly do service the right way in how they work directly with the Basotho to learn their needs and then build projects that address them rather than having an outside agenda that they to implement on the country. However, recently through a few community service reflections sessions I have been a part of, I’ve begun thinking of our time there in different ways. One professor labeled service as a way of interrupting death; there are people in this world who humanity has written off and declared dead in a sense, but through service sometimes we have the blessing to interrupt that and remind the individual that he or she matters and has a role to play on this earth. Another professor spoke of the importance of viewing service as a healing of loneliness rather than trying to fix something. Lesotho cannot be overwhelmingly changed by one group of Wittenberg students travelling to the country, but we could show love and heal through that, and we could create conversation in ways other than spoken language to remind a child that we are all the same.

I hope every person can get the chance to witness the gentle beauty of the Mountain Kingdom. When I returned home from the trip, a friend from school interviewed me about the trip for a writing assignment for class. After listening to me, he simply entitled his essay, “Magnificence.” It was the best four weeks I’ve had the chance to live. I feel absolutely blessed by the opportunity I was given through Wittenberg, and continually blessed by what Bloom has continued to do in this nation. There is life without love but it is not found in Lesotho, and I have grown to believe it is not found in those who spend time in that country as well.

-Evan Cameron

Evan is studying medicine at Wittenberg University.

The Chance To Be A Child

It is safe to say that I think about my experience in Lesotho every day. Even though it has only been two months since our trip, I feel like it was yesterday that I was living in the beautiful Mountain Kingdom. My experiences, the people I met and the friendships I made will forever be memories that I hold close to my heart. One experience I would like to share with you, is about our morning spent at the Baylor Pediatric AIDS Clinic. It is tradition for the Wittenberg trips to go to Baylor and throw a carnival for the children waiting to be treated. We have tattoos, bubbles, a parachute, bracelet-making and more. My brother, Zac Daniels, went on the Wittenberg trip in the summer of 2011 and told me about how impactful, yet hard the day at Baylor would be. I started off at the bracelet-making station, which is where I met someone very special. A young girl, around 9, came and sat down next to me and started picking out beads for a bracelet. However, her hands and body were shaking so hard that she could not hold the thread steady enough to add beads. I began helping her by holding the thread, but even after completing a bracelet she was still shaking and had not cracked a smile yet. I decided to take her over to the bubbled station to see if I could break her out of her shell. I began by showing her how to blow the bubbles and her face was filled with wonder. I offered the bubble wand to her and as she blew her first bubble, I finally saw her smile. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever experienced.

We spent the rest of the day playing with bubbles, the parachute and on the playground.  I swear I have never seen a child so happy in my life. The transformation I witnessed from a scared and shaking child to a happy, carefree, exuberant little girl was incredible.   She didn’t speak one word of English, so I never even learned her name, but she became one of the most important people I’ve ever met. This young girl reminded me about what it means to be a child again and how to have fun without a care in the world.

Every day I spent in Lesotho was memorable and life-changing, but my experience at Baylor AIDS Clinic with this little girl will forever be one of the most important days of my life. Leaving her at the end of the afternoon was one of the hardest things I have ever experienced. I think about her all the time and hope that experiences the wonder of bubbles and the enjoyment of being a child every day.

Ka Khostso,

Kenzie Daniels

Kenzie is a student at Wittenberg University

Alongside Community

As I sit here at O.R. Tambo International airport, I am filled with that intense feeling you get when you leave home.  After an amazing ten days in Lesotho and South Africa, it’s time to head back to Chicago.  (And a 60 degree difference in temperature! Ouch!)  So much of the last ten days revived feelings, tendencies and even vocabulary words from my time as a volunteer in South Africa.   My long walks up the steep dirt paths of Lesotho brought me back to a time of enchantment and discovery.  Once again, I felt vibrantly alive.  I was home.

Admittingly, we didn't take as many photos during our trip this year as we usually have.  (Don’t worry, we still captured all of those awesome High 5 photos!)  The main reason for this was because, for the first time really, we were really part of the community.  Instead of being outsiders from America, fascinated by the intricacies surrounding us, we were members of the communities we were in. 

We walked alongside friends as we learned of new villages.  We danced alongside Team Lesotho as we celebrated a newfound friendship and partnership.  We sat alongside members of the community as we held our first pitso, (community conversation) in Roma.  We laughed alongside children who found our goofiness contagious.  We drank tea alongside old friends and family as we caught up on life.  We asked questions alongside those we wish to serve.  We were wholly, fully, in community with those we are serving, and what an incredible realization it was for us.

I cannot wait until the days when we are amongst the Maluti mountains once again.  I firmly believe the seeds of hope have not only been planted by Bloom Africa, but they have now been watered.  Our new and passionate volunteers in Lesotho will help cultivate the empowerment and hope that these seeds will provide.  I cannot be more excited about the possibilities that rest along the horizon of the future. 

Thank you to everyone who joined us in our journey and supported us through reading our blog, following us on Facebook and Twitter, or who simply wished us traveling mercies.  You are our fire and we will continue to strive for an empowered Lesotho together.

Ka Khotso, (In Peace)

Andrew

The Village in the Sky

Our last two and a half days were spent in Ramabanta, a village about 45 kms up into the mountains from Roma.  It’s a village high up in the Malutis, overlooking gorgeous mountain peaks and waterfalls below.  We didn't witness one cloud in the sky the entire time we were there.  Only blue skies at day and crystal clear constellations at night graced our views.  We have been to Ramabanta on a number of occasions in years, past, and we had to go back.  Over time, we have developed a love for this very special place.  It’s as if there is nowhere else on Earth as peaceful and beautiful as this secluded area in Lesotho.

 On Thursday morning, we went with Tsili, an employee at the guest lodge and friend of ours, to his home in Thaba Bosiu.  We wanted to see his newly established piggery, where 14 new piglets were recently born.  It was fascinating to learn how small pig farming can produce some serious profit for a family.  After spending some more time at his home, we headed up to Ramabanta.

Ramabanta is such a peaceful place that it is hard not to take advantage of the natural surrounding beauty.  We spent some time fishing that evening in a nearby river, which we unfortunately did not catch anything.  We also enjoyed the cool mountain breezes as we sipped our 5 Roses tea and breathed the fresh mountain air.  But it wasn't all R&R for us while we were there.

Fishing for trout in Ramabanta

We spent a day in the village, meeting as many peoples as we could.  Our friend, Lerato Nkesi, is the eldest daughter of the village chief.  She walked us through the village and helped us understand the community better.  We visited some small farms, piggeries, library, a primary school and even met with the village chief to explain Bloom Africa’s vision.  We also stopped by the newly built medical clinic, and had time to ask the nurses their questions about the health issues facing the community.  We spent an afternoon with the principal of the local primary school, and discussed some ways the school and a Community Learning Center could work together. 

High 5!

An exciting development is also taking place.  Later this afternoon, Lerato will be meeting with the Principal Chief of Ramabanta, who has political and traditional jurisdiction over a wide span of land.  She will be discussing our organization and vision of empowerment for the community in Ramabanta.  These are some of the initial steps in a very promising partnership in the years to come.

Lerato walking us through her village

We will soon be heading to South Africa, where we will be attending a special church service in the morning, as well as meeting some young adults who are interested in developing their own NGOs.  As always, we’ll keep you posted along our journey.

Thanks for your continued support.

Ka Khotso,

William & Andrew