Since my trip to the Nile, i have
been pretty mellow as I returned back to the kin house compound. Upon arriving
late night in the dark bumpy trails on back of a boda nearly falling off a few
times as my 50lb pack weighed me down…I sighed in relief as open arms of my
family embraced me…I was home again. What a nice feeling to experience when you
are so physically distant from the place of your rearing. This is where the
strength of the community lies.
As soon as I entered, children some whom who had newly arrived and never met me
encircled me hugging saying welcome home sister. I couldn’t even see who was who,
immediately these frail bodies worked nearly four of them as they peeled my pack
from my back took my satchel and hauled them to my room. The night was well as I lay back on my comforting bed in the
comforting compound in the comforting community of KIN HOUSE.
I’ve since been working hard to create our website, which is
now near completion, my perfectionist way will probably keep me updating on a
regular basis however. Check it out… kininitiative.org . I also purchased a ugandan style guitar, really its just an instrument with strings they call a guitar, from a boy in jinja...im trying to perfect it, its rough.
Last week we had visitors from the USA who were traveling
for safari and vacation. They surprised Kin by coming to our compound for a
tour and gave out beanie babies, art supplies, balls, and other needed items for
the Kin kids….I couldn’t take a proper photo to display the excitement and joy
in their eyes. I understood these children rarely saw that thing we call a toy. A
gift for them is usually receiving a bar of soap, a new toothbrush, or a pair of
plastic slippers….this was a day they would remember for ages…they screamed and jumped in chaos all 30 of them rejoiced as a happy family brought together
with a bond of gratefulness. To show appreciation the kids closed the visit
with song and dance and truly let their voices ring with gratitude. I am
blessed to be in their presence.
We have begun teaching the children a sustainable art project
which they are getting excited about. Saturday I taught them how to make paper
beads which I then purchased from them for an amount per bead. With those, I will
make jewelry and sell them to individuals and groups, like my caring
grandmothers club “the red hat society” who will be purchasing some of the art.
When the purchase is made, the children will then receive the profit in the
form of school supplies, hygiene items, clothing, and basic needs based on
their desired choice of purchase. Most of the children traveled to the local
market to get food once receiving their payment while others chose to save it
for a rainy day.
I plan to continue this project so that I can teach the
children how to create art that can be sold in market, to volunteers and
guests, or the future online store I will create. With the recent donation from
caring Americans, I have contacted an artisan who will be coming to teach the
kids how to weave bowls from banana fibers, and created woven mats (rugs) from natural
materials. The confidence gained by these skills is priceless and the bonding
of empowerment leaves me speechless……
Want some art from African kiddos…let me know, we can create
bracelets and necklaces with custom color schemes, the red gold and
green theme
is our favorite, and we’re also working to teach the children to dye
fabrics
and paint material in African style. We can make it work for you needs! All art is purchased without a price, search your heart for what you can offer us. Much love.
peace
sister kena achieng
i have been reading more than ever here in africa and picked up some great knowledge through words... continue reading if the computer has not yet warped your brain...taken from the book of prophet kahill girran
Love
Is for growth and pruning, it
ascends to your height and caresses its tenderest branches that quiver in the
sun, it also descends to your roots and shakes their clinging to the earth not
seeking only loves pleasure, if only to seek its pleasure it is better to pass
where you shall not laugh all laughter or weep all your tears
Marriage
Love one another but do not
make a bond of love, let love me moving like a sea between shores of your soul.
Fill each others cups but do not drink
from each others cups, give each other bread but share not the same loaf, the
strings of a lute are separate yet the quiver the same music, the oak and
cypress grow not in the shadow of one another
Children
They come through you but not
from you, give love but not your thoughts, for they hold their own, house their
bodies not their souls, you are the bow which your children as living arrows
are sent forth, he loves the arrow that flies but also the bow that holds
stable
Giving
Possessions are empty, give
yourself and you truly give., those have nothing yet give it all are truly
believers of life, those ho give in pain and believe pain is their baptism, to
be over mindful of debt is to doubt generosity, who has the free heart knows
the earth for mother and sun for father
Work
Keep pace with the earth to
be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, keeping in labor you are
loving life, it is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap harvest with joy even
if you beloved were to eat the fruit, if you cannot work with love but only
distaste it, it is better to not, if you bake with indifference you bake a
bitter bread which feeds not hunger
Sorrow and joy
The deeper sorrow carves into
your should, the more joy you can contain. Is not your cup of wine the cup who
was burned in the potter’s oven?
Buying and selling
You shall not want if you
know to fill your hands. Exchange earths gifts with love else it will lead to
greed and hunger. When in the market meet weavers, potters, gatherers and
dancer, for are food for the soul, leave the market being sure no one leaves
empty handed
Laws
What of cripples who hate
dancers, law makers who stand with the back to the sun and see only their
shadow, what are they but a caster of shadows, walk facing the suns and travel
with the wind ignoring mans laws, you can muffle a drum and loosen the strings
of the lyric but who can command a skylark to sing not
Reason and passion
As two guests in your home,
you would not honor one above the other, when you sit cool on the hills sharing
peace and serenity rest in reason, as a storm comes and wind shakes the forest
move with its passion
Teaching
A teacher does not guide you
to the house of wisdom but leads you to the threshold of you own mind
Speaking and talking
You talk when you’re not at
peace with your thoughts, in talking our thinking is half murdered, though is a
bird of space that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cant fly,
come talk in fear of loneliness some speak without knowledge or understanding,
some speak not but hold truth inside
Pleasure
It is a pleasure for the bee
to gather honey of the flower but also a pleasure for the flower to give it, a
bee is a fountain of life and flower a messenger of love, this is need and ecstasy
Religion
All reflections who can
separate faith from action or belief from occupation, who can say this for god
this for self, he who wears morality as his best garment is better naked, he
who cares of ethics cages his song bird, he whom worshipping is a window to
open and shut has not visited the house of his soul whose windows are open from
dawn to dawn
Death
How can one find death
without knowing life, they are one, like seeds beneath the snow you heard
dreams of spring, a fear of death is like of a shepherd trembling as he stand
before a kind intending to honor him, for who is to die but to stand naked
melting in this un, when you drink from the river of silence you will and up
reaching the top of the mountain you will begin your climb and when the earth
claims your limbs you shall truly dance!
