Archive for February, 2009
Bandiagara Cliffs
Posted on 17. Feb, 2009 by Lutheran World Relief.
Awakened by waves of Harmattan wind Sweeping new dust through boulders, revealing Children, full of grace, from Banani who Cry though smiling with mimicry, while they Shoulder impassable poverty and Trade francs for shrieks of Ave Maria. Ah, with chagrin, palimpsest of pilgrims, Rewrite, please, this kind guide’s dead sentiments, Or else foredoomed be the [...]
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Taking Half the Road
Posted on 11. Feb, 2009 by Lutheran World Relief.
One of my favorite cultural customs in Mali is the elegant way departures happen here. There’s nothing hasty or unannounced about them. When visiting a community, we don’t merely get up and leave. We request permission to “take the road.” If one’s host has enjoyed the visit, she or he will say, “You may take [...]
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Free to Go to School
Posted on 10. Feb, 2009 by Lutheran World Relief.
Freed from scraping for scraps to survive, families will send more children to school. That’s a basic premise and promise of Lutheran World Relief’s development work. Rather than children being forced into working the fields, parents can now afford books and clothes and school supplies. In community after community we’ve heard this story. “My children [...]
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A Hero Named Hadizatou
Posted on 06. Feb, 2009 by Lutheran World Relief.
What’s new in Hadizatou Makole’s life? She stands alongside LWR’s Africa Director, Dr. Evariste Karangwa, outside the storage facility and offices of the Hanzari Women’s Group in Dogondoutchi. In the past four years Hadizatou has a newly improved knowledge of peanut oil processing technology. Despite personal circumstances leaving her as the primary provider for eight [...]
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Celebrating in Niger
Posted on 05. Feb, 2009 by Lutheran World Relief.
All cultures express hospitality. Perhaps none are as lively as these communities in West Africa. Dancing on the ground’s hot sand, drumming on percussive instruments that seemed to sing, ululating, blessing—yes, loudly voicing their benedictions upon us as we walked by. At Konni, the community opened itself to include us in their inner circle of [...]
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The Backbone of Black History Month
Posted on 04. Feb, 2009 by Lutheran World Relief.
February is Black History Month in North America. Fittingly, this is my second consecutive February in West Africa. Last year’s visit to LWR projects proved so personally transformational that from Burkina Faso. I text-messaged LWR board chair, Kirk Betts, with an invitation to join me in February 2009. Within two minutes he text-messaged me back, [...]
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LWR Board Sees the Hands that Help
Posted on 03. Feb, 2009 by Lutheran World Relief.
Oversight and governance constitute key duties for the members of the Lutheran World Relief board. These 13 women and men, 8 from the ELCA and 5 from the LCMS, take seriously their stewarding of the mission, vision and fiscal operations. Three times a year these dedicated generative thinkers come together to meet from California, Illinois, [...]
