Arusha, Tanzania:
I have written before about Emusoi and its work educating Maasai girls. You can find that post from about year ago here:http://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/emusoi-arusha-tanzania.html
On my recent trip to Africa, I had the privilege of visiting and meeting first hand the girls and the women who educate and care for them. What a joyful experience!
Happy me and the girls!
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I wanted to let you hear these happy girls sing and see them dance, but Google won't let me upload my two-minute film, so you will have to wait until I can put it on YouTube.
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| Here they are the next day, with Mama Salome, the matron who is surrogate mother to them all, watching my film of the performance. |
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| Saturday Chores: a trio of young cooks |
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| While there, I stayed with the sisters in their convent. The
milk for my morning coffee came out of this bottle. I called
the photo "Still Life in the Convent." Sister Maureen Meyers
response: "Yes, there is still life in the convent."
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| The sisters who run the school and one of the seven dogs that they have rescued. |
Without Emusoi, the girls you see in these pictures would have been sold into marriage somewhere around thirteen years of age, in exchange for goats or cattle or, in one case, for a truckload of beer. Often their mothers or grandmothers have suffered awful violence for helping their daughters and granddaughters to escape so that they can finished their education. Many Emusoi girls have gone on to become nurses and doctors, teachers and lawyers, accountants who serve in the Tanzanian Ministry of Finance. Many return to their villages and serve their communities. One of them, was part of the Tanzanian delegation to the recent White House Conference on Africa.
Please join me in support of these brave girls and the generous women who help them. You can do that here:
https://www.maryknollsisters.org/catalog/?pid=8&cid=
Annamaria - Monday
We have come so far... we have so far still to go. Thanks for sharing, Annamaria!
ReplyDeleteHas anyone told you (recently) how just plain wonderful a person you are?
ReplyDeleteI'm speaking to Annamaria, Evka.
Never fear, Jeff, I'd never mistake a compliment from you as being aimed at me (unless I had clear and present evidence that you were either seriously drunk or suffering from Alzheimer's...) Thankfully, you appear to be suffering from neither. Besides, I fully understand the special "in need of a room" aspect of the JAmA relationship.
DeleteI think I shall now and forever more think of you, EvKa, as "PAJAmA".
DeleteDearest JeSi and EvKa, thank you both for your lively repartee. And Jeff, it's Emusoi and those girls who are wonderful. I merely reported what I saw.
DeleteWhat a moving blog. Right now I am so affected by mothers and grandmothers who will sacrifice themselves rather than their daughters and granddaughters to changes that have to come about. Perhaps those smiling boys in the photos will help usher in a new era of male attitudes toward women. I can't wait to hear more about your trip and whether some of this will get to be part of your new series.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, I knew you would respond to the plight of the mothers and grandmothers as I did. What I learned in Africa about Maasai girls and women will play a role in Book 3, which I will begin as soon as I get the edits of Book 2 off my desk. Being with those lovely girls so inspired me.
ReplyDelete