From Congo

And this is life in Goma

2012-01-22T12:36:00.000-08:00

Mapendo sitting on one of the few things she still owns, her wooden bed frame. It is covered with sheets since she no longer has a mattress.

3 weeks ago thieves entered the house where Mapendo lives while she was at the shop working. They stole pretty much everything she owns, except the wooden frame of her bed. She came home to discover that everything was gone, except the clothes on her back.

This is how the new year started for Mapendo. For 3 weeks she has worn the same clothes everyday, because she has no others, and slept on the wooden slats of her bed, since the thieves stole her mattress.

But it is worse than that. Those thieves made off not only with all of her possessions but also all of her earnings for the month of December. Mapendo normally wouldn't keep money at home, but she had been preparing to send money to her mother who has been sick, and to take care of the many other family responsibilities that she carries.

Mapendo with her nieces and nephews, who she helps care for since their father died.

The irony is this. Just that week Mapendo had called in a carpenter to take measurements for a new door on her bedroom. In a country with little security, strong doors matter a lot. Trying to be prudent, Mapendo had set aside her own money to have a new door installed. And she thinks it was this very action that drew attention to her and led to the robbery. In the irony of Goma, the very act of trying to make yourself even slightly more secure, and protect the very little that you have, can make you a target.

Mapendo spent the first 3 weeks of the new year with no mattress, no clothes and no money, and I had no idea of what was happening. I have been busy with the new baby and Mapendo was embarrassed to tell me. When I found out I gave her enough money to buy a new mattress and a few pairs of clothes. But she still desperately misses the rest of the money she lost, money that should have gone to help her family and buy food for the month. The beautiful reality of SHONA is that the money each artisan earns touches the lives of so many. But on the flip side, when that money get lost, so many people feel it.

I asked Mapendo what she has been thinking these past three weeks. She answered, "nilifunga roho". Literally that means "I closed my heart", it carries with it the idea of hardening oneself/steeling oneself for difficult times.

This is life in Goma, where too often it is necessary "kufunga roho"...and yet the people of Goma open their hearts and carry on, again and again. As for Mapendo she is anxious to get back to work, and to start again.

I'm in the process of listing our new stock in our store, so please check it out, and consider buying something from SHONA this month, in support of Mapendo as she gets on her feet again. Or if you'd like to directly send a little money her way click here.

New Stock thanks to Baby Claire

2012-01-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

Three cheers for Baby Claire, who slept for 3 hours in the afternoon, letting me get most of the new SHONA stock photographed.

Keep your eyes on our website for the new stock posting in the next few days, along with a great sale! (And if you're curious about some of our new cloth colors and designs take a look at the photo below!) OK, I better run...Baby Claire is no longer sleeping!

The challenge begins

2012-01-10T08:20:00.000-08:00

This is Claire Neema. She arrived on December 27th. She is doing great, at nine pounds, and is super chill and sleepy all day, but ready to party all night!

And these are 2 packages from Congo. Filled with SHONA merchandise. They arrived on January 3rd.

They are also doing great. Except that they are still sitting in my apartment untouched. I only opened them so I could take this picture.

So begins the challenge. Claire is a beautiful new addition to our life and we love her infinitely. But I am also a bit sleep deprived and fuzzy at this point, finding it rather difficult to accomplish...well...much of anything beyond keeping Claire fed and clothed. Well...mostly just fed. Her grandmother seems to have taken over the "clothed" part...delighting in the huge array of outfits we have been given. If it were up to me, Claire would still be in a diaper and t shirt everyday.

At some point I will actually get some pictures of these new products, that the SHONA ladies work so hard on, and you will see me announce new stuff in our online store. I'm not sure if that will be a day from now or a month from now. But at least you'll know the effort that went into getting those new pictures online, in the midst of all the pauses.

So far my experience of having a child seems to be a lot like an African rainstorm. In Africa, you glance at the sky from time to time, and sometimes you see the clouds rolling in. You know it will rain soon, and so life just pauses. If you are out walking, you stand under an overhang and wait for the rain to pass. Often you end up crowded under the overhang with a random collection of people that were passing by. And so you make new friends. Or if you are out visiting someone, they put on another cup of tea, and you settle in for a slightly longer visit. And if you were at home getting ready to go somewhere, you just wait. You put your feet up, listen to the sound of rain hitting a tin roof, and enjoy the pause in the middle of the day.

Now, my days seem to have many of these pauses. Not because of rain, but because of Claire. Claire decides she is hungry and starts crying, and my whole world is put on pause.

The African rain was one of my favorite parts of Africa. It slows life down, and reminds us that we don't really run the world according to our own schedule. Seeing the clouds roll in, and hearing the patter of rain on tin roofs, helped me to enjoy the moment, even when it isn't exactly what I planned to do. It gave me permission to surrender myself and my time.

And so here I am now, with Claire. And I hope that I can cherish these pauses as well. These breaks throughout the day (and mostly the night!!) where I put down my hands full of work and sit in a rocking chair, listening to the quiet breathing (and snuffling) of this little baby...these breaks are precious too.

In fact I've taken 2 of them, just in the midst of writing this one blog entry. So if my blog entries seem fewer and farther between, and my product photos take longer to get online, you can know that they are punctuated by the cry of a little one, who just like the sound of rain on a tin roof, helps to remind me that life is made richer because of these pauses in the midst of our days.

Final Holiday Specials!

2011-12-12T09:28:00.000-08:00

The holidays are nearly upon us and this is our final Holiday Offering! SHONA truly makes great gifts for the holidays. Check us out.

**Order your holiday gifts by December 15th and we will make sure they arrive before Christmas (within the US).

**Plus we're offering FREE HOLIDAY WRAPPING. Just leave us a note in the comments box at check out requesting FREE HOLIDAY WRAPPING and we will wrap your gift for you. And if you want, we will send the present directly to your loved one, just let us know the address!

*Check out our holiday packages!

Matching Apron and Table Runner: Celebrate the colors of the Season!
$29.99 for the set!

Set of 4 Shoulder Bags for the price of 2!
These bags make great stocking stuffers, gift bags and meaningful holiday gifts for teachers! Choose the colors you like!
Set of 4 for $29.99

Matching Apron and Placemat Set:
Celebrate the colors of the Season!
$34.99 for the set!

We Wait...

2011-12-08T05:29:00.000-08:00

At 39 and a half weeks pregnant I feel as though my life has become something of a waiting game.

Waiting for this baby to come, waiting for our whole world to flip upside-down, waiting for a change that I can't really imagine.

It strikes me that this is actually meant to be a season of waiting, this advent season. There is the lighting of the advent candles at church each week. And each week we sing "O come, O Come Emmanuel".

I have tried encouraging this little baby inside me along similar lines.

But in general the Christmas season has rarely seemed to me to be much of a season for waiting. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is impossibly short. Too short for getting the holiday decorations out ahead of time; I'm lucky if we have a tree up on the 24th. And by that I mean a NY apartment size Christmas tree, that most of you would probably laugh at. Too short for all the meaningful holiday gifts I plan to find, leading to last minute trips to big box stores which I despise. The lighting of the advent candles each week seem to generally provoke in me a reaction of "Oh, no, we're that close to Christmas already? But I'm not ready!"

I am not ready for Christmas this year either, but at least I have got the spirit of waiting down this time. I know that I am impossibly ill-prepared for the baby's arrival (don't ask about a name) but I've given up the frantic rushing around, in the knowledge that nothing I do will adequately prepare me. So, I'm just waiting. And we'll see how it goes.

Perhaps I should surrender to this spirit of waiting at every Christmas as well. Surely Christmas isn't really about having all the decorations in place. After all, Christmas is the celebration of a king born in a stable. I'm pretty sure Mary had different plans for that birth, plans that didn't quite work out. It is about surrender to something that is in fact beyond us.

The Congolese people are also waiting right now. They cast their votes last week for President. And now the votes are being counted. Results were promised on Tuesday, but have yet to come. And in Congo, it is truly a spirit of waiting. I ask my Congolese friends how things are in Goma and they respond "tunangoja tu" (we're only waiting) The SHONA women have piled up two cartons of SHONA products that are ready to ship, but no one is ready to ship them. The guy in charge of getting our cartons on a plane out of Goma, says there are no planes right now. "You have to wait until we see what happens with the elections," he says.

There is a great fear that when election results are announced, the losing sides will take to the streets. There have already been promises along those lines.

I guess waiting can come in many forms, both good and bad. So as I sit here today, looking out at the people rushing past my window, bundled in coats and headed off into a busy world, I will enjoy this time of waiting. For me, it is the privilege of waiting for this little one's arrival. No matter how much I worry that I am not nearly prepared, I know her arrival is a blessing.

For the people of Congo, I wish I could say the same. They wait for news that their country will somehow manage to hold together. Or news, that it won't. They wait for peace which has proved elusive for far too long, and yet which is hard to imagine to this day.

In this season of waiting, it is perhaps important to remember all that we have. And all that the rest of the world continues to wait for.

A gift of Joy! And Free Shipping!

2011-12-03T10:01:00.000-08:00

Give a gift of joy and hope
this holiday season!

And shop today to enjoy free shipping!

This is Argentine with her youngest sister.
Your purchases empower Argentine
to provide for her mother &
7 siblings.

Her family lives in one of the
most violent regions of Congo, with very few resources. Before
Argentine started sewing none of her
siblings were in school, and there was barely food on the table.

Today, with your purchases,
there is food on the table
and there are children in school.

Your purchases make all the difference in the world to their family.

www.shonacongostore.com

Congo in The Holiday Season

2011-11-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

It feels a world away.

I am 38 weeks pregnant, in a nice cozy apartment with family and friends who drop by for a visit.

And all week I've been calling Congo, only to listen to empty phone lines and French recordings declaring that the party I am trying to reach is not available.

Phone connections are always unreliable in Congo. But it makes me nervous because the viability of cell phones in Congo seems also to reflect the general viability of life there. When things are calm, and life is somewhat stable, cell phones seem to work. When everything is falling apart, good luck getting a hold of anyone.

And things have been tense in Congo these past weeks. Presidential elections are coming up on Monday. These are only the second presidential elections that have been held in Congo in about 40 years. A lot of violence has already been surrounding the lead-up to the elections, and no one knows what will happen when the elections take place.

Finally, I did reach the SHONA women. They are doing fine, but report that things are not good in Goma. Everyone is tense. Last week Goma nearly disintegrated into rioting and looting when a popular singer was kidnapped in town and held for days. The event had political overtones as he had produced campaign songs for some of the opposition candidates. Eventually he was released and the tensions calmed a bit but still there is a lot of random shooting and violence and everyone is more or less holding their breath to see what will happen next.

And sometimes it feels a little surreal. Because I remember what that feels like in Goma, and yet I am here. And in these past few months I have been doing a lot of talking about the SHONA women. I've been trying to hit as many holiday fairs as I could before the baby arrives (she's due in about 2 weeks now!). So it seems almost every weekend I go to a nice little church and set up a table with SHONA goods. We did a good job at stocking up and preparing for the holiday this year and we have a great collection of brilliant colors. So I'm proud of what I put on that table, and of who made each item.

But sometimes it is hard to connect these brilliant bags and the smiling photos of the SHONA women, with the tension they live in the midst of. It is hard to imagine that they sew these items in a workshop without electricity, surrounded by the rubble of lava and poverty. And sometimes as people pour over the beauty of the bags, I struggle to find the words to communicate the world from which these bags come. A world which might go upside down at any moment.

And yet, I know I can't isolate the beauty of these bags, from the realities on the ground in Congo. To tell the story of these amazingly inspiring women, and the beauty they create, I have to tell the story of Congo, and all the struggles it entails.

Sometimes, I worry that story doesn't jive with the blaring holiday music and the spirit of "relentless cheer" that sometimes invades our holidays.

But isn't that dissonance what this season is really all about? Yes, it is a season of hope and joy. But set in a manger, in poverty and homelessness. And it is by embracing both sides of that coin that we see most clearly the beauty of that hope.

So please do read up on what is happening right now in Congo. I know it doesn't seem like good holiday reading, but when we have a whole country holding its breath, we should pay attention. And then go check out the brilliant colors and handcrafted work that continues to come out of this country. Check out the stories of the SHONA women and what they choose to do with the money they earn from your purchases. I guarantee that their work will shine brighter than anything you can find in a department store, coated with glitter and holiday lights. Because to see the true beauty of this season, we can't close our eyes to the fact that this world is in the midst of incredible turmoil, and people, the world over, are suffering. It is when we find ourselves in the midst of this reality, that we see most clearly the hope that rises above it.

So today, even as I nestle into my comfy apartment and drink a glass of eggnog, surrounded by an incredible life, I will make that phone call back to Congo. And listen to the stories of a world that sometimes seems a million miles away. And then I will turn to the SHONA stock and count tote bags, label purses and calculate exactly how much money I can send back to Congo this month.

And in the midst of all of that, a brilliant color on one of those bags will catch my eye, and for a second I will marvel how that color has traveled so far, and still shines so brightly.

And I will remember that this is what real hope looks like.

Thank You

2011-11-09T09:01:00.001-08:00

Thank you to all the many loyal customers and friends who have supported SHONA in this past year. Whether you have bought a SHONA product, made a donation or a loan, or simply liked us on facebook, you make a real difference.

You make everything we do possible.

Check out this 3 minute slideshow.

Holiday Purse Set: 4 purses with matching change purses for only $20

2011-11-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

Many of our customers have been stocking up on our tote bags, using the Special Sale we are offering on our holiday tote set. It is a fabulous deal where you get 4 tote bags (your color choice) for less than half price!

But maybe it is our travel size purses that you have your eye on. After all they are super cute, with beads attached to the zippers and matching change purses inside.

So now we are offering a Special Holiday set of Travel Purses. You get a set of 4 purses for only $20! That's a great deal! and you can choose the colors yourself! Just drop us a note at check-out to let us know what colors you would like.

And remember we also have great table runners, placemat sets and aprons that are perfect for Thanksgiving!

34 weeks and counting...

2011-11-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

I am 34 weeks pregnant. Well, I guess it is close to 35 weeks now.

I'm well aware that in Congo, I often saw women selling peanuts in the market, or carrying a baby on their backs and buckets of water on their heads. While they were probably 39 weeks pregnant.

Because someone still has to make the money, or carry the baby, or fetch the water. No matter what you are carrying on the inside as well.

But as for me, I'm a little tired.

It has been a busy season, trying to get in as many craft fairs and SHONA events as I can before the baby comes. In fact, I still have two more scheduled.

And in the meantime I have also been trying to wrap up the English classes that I teach.

Our house still looks exactly as it did 6 months ago. As in, we have not exactly established a baby's room yet.

Which is ok with me. Because I also seem to remember the homes of almost all my friends in Congo, did not exactly feature baby rooms. Even though they definitely featured babies. As I leaf through the magazines in the doctor's waiting rooms I am strongly convinced that we are being told that baby's need far too many things.

And I'm sure that is true for moms as well. So far I have managed to get away with only a few purchases from a maternity store. Of course, I am not exactly sure what I will be wearing in the coming weeks, but somehow I'll make it.

But, like it or not, one thing I am pretty sure that I need more of is time. And I'm sure this is just a shadow of how I will feel after the baby arrives.

So, all that to say, how about a shout-out to the SHONA women? They are still working as hard as ever, we have a great stock for the holidays, but we need your help getting the word out. Right now our store is offering 10% off all purchases! And we have a half price sale on our holiday totes sets. PLEASE TELL PEOPLE ABOUT US! On facebook, in an email, or any other way you can.

When it comes to the holidays, I'm sure you have lists of things to buy. But I am sure there are also plenty of question marks. SHONA bags, aprons, table runners, and placemat sets make really great gifts for the holidays. Because they are totally unique and because they mean so much.

So as I wander through the next weeks, no doubt with many surprises along the way, I'll try and keep you updated. But remember that your voice (and your purchases) can play a real part in making sure that the SHONA ladies stay strong. They are amazing women, and I find them an honor and a joy to share with others. I hope you will too!

Holiday Tote Set (Half Price!)

2011-10-30T19:38:00.000-07:00

Set of four amazing SHONA Tote bags for only $24. That is only $6 a bag!

You can even pick the colors yourself. Just include a comment at check out with the tote colors you want! Or, if you can't decide, surprise yourself with our selection!

Either way, these bags are perfect for the holiday season!

Keep them on hand for last minute gifts, that come with a story, and with real meaning.

We all know it happens. At least it happens to me. Those last minute runs to the Walmart, or the pharmacy or anywhere that is open. Desperately looking for something, anything, that will somehow seem like a reasonable gift.

This year you can support amazing women in Congo, making a real difference in their lives, and at the same time, have a meaningful gift on hand, for anything that might pop up.

These bags are also great stocking stuffers, or fill them with goodies for a special holiday gift bag.

And don't forget all those teachers on your list this year.

Whoever you give your bags to this year, they can go online and leave a message for the artisan. They can watch a video and see who made their bag. They can make a real connection to women half way across the world.

What other holiday gift did you have in mind?

Not sure how long supplies will last so get your holiday tote set today!

Steve Jobs. Our Hero?

2011-10-09T18:16:00.000-07:00

In interest of full disclosure, I have never owned an Apple device.

So maybe I am just missing something.

But the current conversations about Steve Jobs are starting to get under my skin.

I know he was a great business man, and that he built not just Apple, but also Pixar, into very impressive companies.

And I am sorry for the loss, to his wife and children and to all those who loved him.

But I am a bit bewildered by the fact that everyone seems to have loved him. Of course, I would expect to find that on the business page of the New York Times, or in eulogies by technology experts.

But I'm talking about regular people. For example, I am surprised at how many of my Facebook friends have posted very personal and passionate messages about about his death.

People are saying that we have not only lost “a great visionary”, but “a leader who completely changed the way we interact with our world”. I mean, these aren't media quotes, this is what regular people are saying. And feeling. That Steve Jobs somehow personally changed their lives.

I've read some of the speeches he has given and he was a wise and well-spoken man. I could understand that people might mourn the loss of Steve Jobs as a role model, a businessman or an innovator to emulate.

But the vast majority of people aren't even talking about that. They are talking about the products Steve Jobs (and his company) created. They're talking about this man with deep love, because he was the creator of commercial products that they love. In essence it is a celebration of iPods, iPads and iPhones. As though our lives could never have been the same, nor nearly as rich, without these products.

Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, died a few days before Steve Jobs. She was a woman who fought to literally reclaim our environment, by planting trees. Moreover she sought to empower local, grassroots communities to re-imagine their place in the world and their ability to enact change in the world around them. In the words that have been used to describe Steve Jobs she “completely changed the way people interact with the world around them.” And by that, I mean the real, physical world, this planet on which we live, and the power structures that often overtake it.

Yet, suffice it to say, I have seen far more comments on Facebook about the loss of Steve Jobs than the loss of Wangari Maathai. That is true even among my African Facebook friends. Most of whom, I'm pretty sure, have never owned an Apple device. And more frighteningly, I have seen more celebration of the “amazing, brilliant, world-changing work” of Steve Jobs than of that of just about anyone else.

Is this what makes a hero in our society? Brilliant commercial products? It this what we've learned to love and celebrate? Apple products are cool and trendy and innovative. They offer some real advantages. But I have also heard many news pieces citing the fact that Steve Jobs was amazing because he took a product, the iPad, that researches insisted the public simply did not need, and made it popular. Is this really to be celebrated?

Apple products are highly priced, heavily branded, and certainly part of our tendency toward conspicuous-consumption. Each new Apple release is surrounded by so much hype that one can hardly help but believe they have reinvented the moon. And each new release inspires endless talk from friends about whether they should upgrade to the latest version of the iPhone. Really? I'm just not convinced that this is the kind of “world-change” that I am looking for.

Most of Apple's products are produced in China, in factories that have come under serious scrutiny for high suicide rates, unsafe working conditions, and unreasonable working hours . No doubt this is an issue that applies not only to Apple but to the companies that make much of what we consume, whether it is electronics, clothing or food. Still, it seems to me that in some way we have become so enamored with the Apple's much-lauded effect on our digital worlds that we are willing to overlook Apple's effect on our real world.

The people who make Apple products work in the real world, in conditions that we are largely unaware of, and should be opposed to. Meanwhile, our own country is spiraling toward higher and higher rates of unemployment. We are angry with the government for not fixing the economy, but what about all of the companies that despite massive profits, choose to have their products manufactured outside this country in pursuit of ever lower wages and lax regulations? And ultimately, what about all of us, the consumers, who are so willing not only to embrace these products, but to celebrate them as world-changing?

The digital world is amazing. I appreciate blogging on it. I appreciate its ability to bring the SHONA women to you. But if your purchases from SHONA helped the women only in a digital world, and not in their real physical world, would you really be so excited about your purchases?

Our effect in the digital world has to connect to our effect in the real world. I have no doubt that Apple products are beautiful examples of technology. But we must start to demand more of the products we consume and the companies we lionize. We must start to examine their effect in the real world, both here and abroad.

Right now, the Occupy Wall Street Protests are slowly starting to spread and gain momentum. I think there is a lot to be said about their demand that we hold corporations accountable. But ultimately we also have to hold ourselves, as consumers, accountable. When we find ourselves falling in love with consumer products, and turning their creators into our heroes, perhaps we should reassess our own values as well.

Great new tote Bags!

2011-10-06T06:08:00.000-07:00

Come and see the full collection now!

Child-size aprons!

2011-10-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

What is your little one wearing?

How about a SHONA apron! Introducing our all-new child size aprons.

These aprons are great for those little kitchen helpers (and we sell matching adult aprons so you can cook as a team if you like!). And think of all those arts and crafts projects that get a wee bit out of hand. Use these aprons as a painting smock and the colors your child adds will blend right in to this vibrant African cloth.

So we are offering a special deal today. Buy a SHONA child's apron. Then snap a picture of your little one wearing the apron. Give us permission to use the photo on our website (either with your child's smiling face, or cropped from the neck down, however you prefer) and we will give you $20 of SHONA bucks. Completely free! SHONA bucks can be used for any purchase in our store, and let me just point out, that at SHONA $20 actually buys a lot! The holidays are coming and this is a great way to start stocking up!

This apron is a good size for children ages 6-10

Meanwhile, all you grown people should come and check out our beautiful new stock! Like this...

Join us for some great opportunities!

2011-08-31T12:55:00.000-07:00

Do you run? Or walk? Or maybe just shop?

Come and visit us at The Run for Congo Women in New York City on September 24th! It is a great event, and the money raised benefits Women for Women's Congo program which I have seen on the ground in Goma doing good work.

You can register for the run/walk here, and even if you can't join in on the run you can come out, cheer your friends on, and take advantage of a rare opportunity to shop SHONA goods in person! I know SHONA definitely has friends and customers in the New York City area and I'd really love to meet you in person! SHONA will have a table at the starting point and at the reception area, and we would love to see you there!

Or come and enjoy an evening with Eve Ensler benefiting Congolese women through the City of Joy and shop at the SHONA pop-up boutique there. This fabulous fund-raising event is organized by Women of the Congo.

Not in the NY area? Can't make it to either of these events? We also attend a variety of craft shows throughout the fall and are always looking for more events to attend. Let us know your ideas! We'd love to make more friends.

And in the meantime, we can definitely use your help getting ready. I attend these events in person (keep in mind I am already 6 months pregnant!) In fact I spend a fair amount of my Fall weekends at events like these trying to represent the SHONA women well. It is super exciting to get out and meet some of our customers, and is a great opportunity for SHONA, but it is also a bit exhausting transporting our stock and setting it all up (Many thanks to my husband and parents who always lend a hand!) But remember, we don't get paid and all those little expense just to get us there often end up coming out of our own pockets, as we try to squeeze every cent back to the SHONA women.

In that respect, our display could definitely use some upgrading, but I'm afraid we just don't have the cash flow. You would be amazed at the difference it makes for the SHONA women's work to be displayed on a new table cloth or on a nice clothing rack. The last event I went to was outside, and I must admit I spent a fair amount of the day trying to keep our little stand from blowing over, and our already humble display got a bit bruised. Having the right equipment would be great! And it will be used again and again throughout the fall and in years to come, helping us to represent the SHONA women with pride. So if you are interested in making a small donation to our display upgrade we would be very thankful. Here is what we need...

Tablecloth $10

Bag rack $30

SHONA Banner/Poster $30

500 Brochures $35

Portable Folding Table $50

You can click the donate button here and choose the amount you would like to give. You can also specify which item you would like to purchase with your donation. To be honest, these are purchases we probably will simply forgo without your donations, so we really hope you will consider it.

As a small token of our thanks we will add your name to our wall of thanks and we'll email you a photo of our new display in action, so you can see exactly what you contributed toward.

Rethinking the hurricane

2011-08-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

Maybe I shouldn't say this.

I understand that hurricanes are dangerous and that people are worried.

But why is everyone shopping?

How has mass consumption become the solution to every disaster we face, whether it is a hurricane or a recession?

Here, in New York, the grocery stores are packed. People are pushing around huge grocery carts full of bottled water, soda and juice, nearly colliding with each other. Piles of batteries and ready-made snacks line the checkout counter, as people murmur to each other "at least time is on our side and we can prepare."

Exactly what are we preparing for? And where do we think we live?

We seem to be provisioning for a doomsday scenario in which we might need to live off our household supplies for months at a time, completely out of contact with the rest of the world.

The reality is that yes, the power might go out for a few days. And yes, we should have some water set aside, and a couple days of food.

But take a look at the average American kitchen. I keep an extremely poorly stocked kitchen, and I still counted at least 8 cans of beans/chick peas/tomatoes not to mention a number of canned soups. I have peanut butter. I have oatmeal and bread and potatoes. It might not be a party, but we are not exactly likely to starve in this house any time soon. Even with a pregnant lady on board! :) The one real thing we need is water. And that was easy enough. We just took some buckets and other large containers and filled them up with water. You know, that stuff that comes right out of the tap.

If you have ever bought something from SHONA (and many, many thanks if you have!) I would like to pause here so that you can go look at that item again. That item was sewn in a workshop that has no electricity. Ever. And no running water. Check out the stitching, the attention to detail. And let's pause to consider the amazing strength and talent of these women who live in quite literally in one of the most disaster-prone regions of the world, without any of the security with which we live.

Because it is is not just that they don't have running water or electricity or stores of food in their kitchen. They live in a town that sits beside an active volcano. National Geographic called it "the most dangerous city in the world". When the volcano erupted in 2002 not only was there no clear evacuation plan, but many Congolese fled to the Rwandan border, only a few miles away, only to discover that Rwanda had closed the border and for a while stranded them inside. There is no doubt that the volcano will erupt again, with even more strength, and yet the city continues to grow larger by the day. Why? Because despite the natural threat of an active volcano, Goma still seems safer than the surrounding countryside where a war that has killed millions in the last decade continues to this day.

When we lived in Congo, there was a time when the fighting got so bad, that shooting and pillaging swept into Goma, forcing everyone to lock themselves into their houses. And no one had any idea how long that would last.

So, here in NY, I am thankful. I am thankful for a government that is responsible to the public. That issues evacuation orders, provides shelters, and monitors safety. I agree that the transportation system should be closed in New York City this weekend and activities should be canceled. This is a storm and it is dangerous.

However I refuse to believe that this is a call to shop. To stock up on the ridiculous amount of resources that I already have access to. Because, to tell you the truth, I can live without electricity and running water for a few days. And perhaps, I should have to. It is the way much of the world lives everyday.

I guess that is why all this shopping seems particularly obscene to me. Most likely, our society's over-consumption has played a significant role in the global warming which has caused extreme weather to increase. Yet we see a hurricane and flock to the stores. We have got to find a way to live with less. And to understand that most of the world does live with less everyday.

Instead we are sticking our heads further in the sand. Reassuring each other that we somehow have a natural right to live in a world where we never have to stop, where the lights never go out and the water never stops flowing. When things become scarce we simply buy more.

You know what? It may be a hell of a storm but our electricity will come on again. Our water will flow. Our government will send people to clean up the streets and treat those who are injured. And very few of us are likely to starve. There are an awful lot of people in this world, who live with worse conditions everyday.

Sure, we can be scared of the hurricane. The power of nature is awesome and terrifying.

But let's not pretend that shopping is the cure for all of our woes. If we do face real danger, it is because we are in a flood zone or because a tree falls or a roof crumples. It will be, because some things are out of our control.

It will not be because we didn't buy enough snacks or batteries. We probably already have too many anyway. And perhaps we should use this time to consider those who live everyday with none.

PS: If you do want to shop, how about supporting the work of these amazing artisans, and helping to share a few of our resources with those who can only dream of them.

Come see our new fall stock!

2011-08-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

Just in time for Fall, we have a beautiful new stock!

Come check it out! Your support makes a huge difference to our amazing craftswomen, who can use a few more sales this month, and at the same time you will get a FREE TRAVEL PURSE with your order (this week only!)

Microfinance

2011-08-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

Would you be willing to make a small loan to SHONA?

To make a loan just click the button. You can enter any amount you choose. We will record the date of your loan and return the money within 3 months. The money can be returned by paypal or by check, whichever you prefer. And of course if you actually prefer to make your money a gift, rather than a loan, just let us know in the comment box at check out. Many, Many thanks for all your support!

Would you consider a 3 month loan?
of $20. Or $50? or $100.

We don't want you to give it to us.
But would you consider letting us borrow it for 3 months?

Think of all the times that money just sits in the bank. And what do they do with it? Where do they invest it...and for whose good?

How about turning the tables just a little? How about taking a tiny amount of your savings and investing it with these amazing women.

Of course we can't offer you interest on your investment, but it is a deeper type of investment, in dignity. And really we are just borrowing the money. In three months you will have it back. Guaranteed.

And in the meantime you will have invested in some amazing women. In their hard work and in their future. Your money will allow them to buy cloth, sew it and ship their work. So that it is here for the holiday shopping season.

Big stores have a huge stock going into the fall season. They know this is the most important time of the year for retail. We are tiny and without you, we can't have much of a stock. But with your help, we can represent the beautiful and talented work of these four women. I will start going to fall craft fairs next month to represent the SHONA women. And I hope to have a full stock that represents all that they are capable of. Will you invest in that?

It will make a world of difference to us.

Words for Aunt

2011-08-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

In Swahili it seems there are a million different names for “aunt”. Of course all of them mean different things. On your mom's side you have “mama mkubwa” (big mother) if she is your mom's older sister and mama mdogo (little mother) if she is your mom's younger sister. On your father's side the word is usually shangazi. At least, I think.

I used to get frustrated all the time in Goma, trying to learn the various names to identify different family members. Where English might offer one sort of generic word like “aunt” or “cousin”, Swahili would offer a very precise word, a description of each person's exact relationship to you. To me it always seemed a bit over the top, and I often resorted to generic words like “ndugu” (relative) or “jamaa” (family). But my Congolese friends rarely referred to their own relatives in such generic terms. The specificity was important.

Yesterday morning my Aunt Pat died. She was a strong and independent woman who I admire deeply. She was incredibly loving and generous, in a way that everyone felt like her little house was home. She was at the heart of every family gathering with her love of card games and Trivia Pursuit, her voice that carried from one room to the next, and a hearty laughter that belied the fact that her body has been giving out on her for years. Even when she was very sick, she never stopped welcoming people into her home and into her heart. As one of my cousins said, she was the aunt who has always watched over all of us, and who still does.

As I was telling the SHONA ladies about my aunt's death, I suddenly got it. Speaking in Swahili, the term Shangazi suddenly sounded so much better than “aunt”. There is a weight to it. Something about specifying the relationship makes it more personal. While in English an aunt might be distant or close, the term Shangazi automatically carries with it the understanding that this is a second mother. This is a woman who as a young child herself, probably took your father under her wing. And when you were born, did exactly the same for you. The term just carries that sense of the wise and strong older woman, who has cared for a generation.

And that indeed is my Aunt Pat. She never had children of her own, but to all of her many nieces and nephews she is Shangazi. Or actually, to be exact in good Swahili fashion, to some of us she Shangazi, to some of us she is mama mkubwa and to others she is mama mdogo. You see it can get confusing with all of these names.

But Perhaps it is not actually the specific name that matters so much. But the value it communicates. The African understanding that family is infinitely important, and that each member is specific and irreplaceable, each relationship unique.

So maybe I will go back and learn all those different classifications for family members in Swahili. I've always been lazy on that front. But at least for now, the term shangazi seems to stick in my head. And I am thankful to have one more word to help me describe my Aunt Pat, a woman for whom there are never quite enough words. She was a woman who we all admired. A woman who we were each shaped by. A woman who we all will carry with us forever.

And that, also, is why the Swahili sounds right. In remembering that she is both Shangazi, and mama mukubwa and a thousand other names too, each one to a different person, I realize what she has meant to so many people. In good Swahili tradition, she deserves not one specific name, but a thousand, for each of the hearts she has shaped along the way.

An Uncommon Thread

2011-08-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

Check out the beautiful review of SHONA on the website An Uncommon Thread . And while you are there, take a look at all the great information on the site. Do you try and shop ethically? This is the place for you. The website offers real reviews based on actual products that they have tested. We all know it is important to buy ethically, but sometimes it is hard to know exactly what products are truly ethical, and whether they are worth their price tag. This website is a great place to start!

Free Travel Purse Set

2011-08-04T12:47:00.000-07:00

Summer Special!

Receive a FREE TRAVEL PURSE SET this week with any order!
This won't last long so visit soon
And please spread the word!

Our Travel purse set is the first item SHONA ever sewed and remains one of our most popular. With its long, cross body strap, zipper closure with beads attached and matching change purse this set is hard to beat! And now you can get it for free!

And the winner is...

2011-07-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

Ryan and Hannah! We'll be sending you the deluxe satchel bag that you wanted to check out!

In case your wondering: This is from the give-away that we hosted last week. We went to random.org and got a random number to pick the winner of our give away. The website gave us number 6, and that is how Ryan and Hannah won! Congratulations!

So maybe you have been out on the beach, or somewhere else on a lovely vacation. And you missed our give-away. Sorry about that!

But you should definitely still come check out SHONA's fabulous summer colors. Really, what can capture summer better than brilliant African colors? We're down to our last few summer wrap skirts. Check out this super cool blue swirl, and this beautiful red and blue wrap. There are only a few left and there is nothing better in this hot weather than these great wrap skirts!

We've still got our free shipping offer posted, so come and take advantage while it lasts!

Loss and Hope

2011-07-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Solange

The child was named Asante. What a beautiful name. In Swahili it means "thanks".

Unfortunately this was the child that I mentioned earlier. The child of Solange's sister. Solange has only 1 sister and 1 brother. Although she is only 20 herself, Solange is the eldest in her family. Her parents died years ago and her younger siblings have had a hard time of it. For a while they were living in a refugee camp. During which time, Solange's sister had a little boy and named him "Asante".

Eventually they moved back to their family home, in an area that has been all but deserted because of ongoing fighting. That is where they were living, way out in the bush, and in the midst of insecurity, when Asante became sick. Medicine didn't seem to help. They had no money. They took him to a "kishenzi" doctor. That is a "traditional doctor" or an "herbal doctor".

I am sure there is a place for this type of medicine, but I also know that these are often the doctors of last resort.

When there isn't a hospital nearby... when no one knows what is wrong with you... when you think someone is poisoning you... or when you just don't have much money...

you go to these "doctors".

You get the idea.

The Kishenzi doctor gave Asante some form of treatment. But he died. And now the family owes $50 to the doctor anyway.

But what other options did they have? Doing anything feels better than doing nothing.

When Asante died, Solange was summoned by her sister and brother before she had a chance to get a hold of me.

She had no money in her back account because all her savings went into the small plot of land that she bought 6 months ago. She is still waiting to save more money to build a house on that plot of land, so her brother and sister can live there in safety.

She planned for Asante to live there too. But he didn't quite make it.

Solange went back to her rural home, full of shame, because in Congo it was surely her duty to contribute to the cost of a funeral for this little child. And yet she had nothing, but the promise of some land she bought for the future. They couldn't bury Asante for 2 days (a long time in Congo) because no one had the money for even the simplest of burials.

I can't think of a more clear example of what it is like to live in Congo. There is an endless, unimaginable balancing...where somehow you have plan for a future when the present is barely hanging on by a string.

Do you save money to buy the land and build a little house, so that a year from now your family can live in safety? But what happens in the meantime?

Or do you cover the emergencies that arise each month, shelling out month after month, but building nothing for the future. The tyranny of the urgent, leaving you just as destitute next year as you were the last.

It is a balancing act. Solange has now paid for the medical debt to that kishenzi doctor. And she remains with the promise of a small plot of land. If only she can find the money to build upon it, her brother and sister could have a safer place to live. It may seem a small consolation to the loss of a child, but it is also the best way to avert the next disaster, before it happens.

A tiny house in Goma, can mean a lot. It means better security, and better health care, and it means hope to continue forward. It is SHONA sales that bought that land and it is continuing SHONA sales that will allow Solange to build upon it one day.

I wish for all the world that Asante had a different life, the opportunities he surely deserved.

But I remain forever impressed by the strength of those who face these losses, often too many to count, and still believe that a different future is possible.

Please buy SHONA products and reward that hope. For Solange and her family your purchases really do make all the difference in the world.

Having Children

2011-07-13T05:48:00.000-07:00

In case I haven't mentioned it, I am pregnant. 21 weeks. It's a girl!

We're of course very excited. As are the SHONA women, who have been wondering for quite some time why we don't have children.

So far, I have been feeling quite well and things seem to be going ok and the baby looks fine. But as I am sure anyone who has been pregnant here in the States will probably tell you, pregnancy seems to involve a lot of numbers these days. Especially here in New York, it seems there is a lot of blood screening and testing of various sorts. The results of these tests are often statistics. You have a 1 in X chance of having a baby with this problem or that. Sometimes those statistics can be reassuring, and sometimes not. But in any case, I am often left with 2 realizations.

1. It is fascinating how much they can learn through a blood test or see on an ultrasound
2. And yet there is still so much about life that can't be seen...

At my most recent ultrasound I was thinking how I would describe an ultrasound to the SHONA women. There are no words. I don't think they would believe me. Or else they would believe me wholeheartedly, and assume that we must be able to see and control everything about this baby.

But it is hard to describe this middle ground where our fancy machines can help us know so much, and yet still leave us guessing.

I'm thankful to be pregnant here in the US with the benefits of medicine and technology. And I wish that women in Congo had these same benefits. But I am also aware that in many ways, no matter all the technology, pregnancy is a reminder of all the ways we cannot see or know the future. And in surrendering to that, I understand a little bit more, the resilience of Congolese women.

When It Rains...

2011-07-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

I received a number of phone calls in the middle of the night last week. That is not entirely unusual, since the middle of the night here, is morning in Congo. Yet usually the women will call me once, all of them together. This time it seemed each woman was calling on her own.

When I finally talked to the ladies they said "problems zilisha kuwa mingi" which means something like "Our problems have become many." Don't worry, the ladies will survive, and they are still eager to buy new cloth and get back to their sewing ASAP, but in the meantime they and their families could also use your prayers. It does seem that when it rains...it pours.

Mapendo is in the hospital right now. She had what sounds like a boil, or some other kind of swollen bump, which grew to unreasonable sizes. The hospital operated on her last week, and she started to get better. But then it appears to have gotten infected and now she is back at the hospital so that they can keep her on IV medicine for the next week.

Solange's 2 year old niece died. This was the only daughter of Solange's younger sister. The little girl had been in and out of the hospital with malaria. She had just been released from the hospital and seemed to be getting a little better, when she died. Solange has gone back to the rural village where her brother and sister live for the funeral.

Riziki is also visiting her family. Her mother is back in the hospital and Riziki is there to help take care of her.

Argentine's father was recently arrested and put in jail for marrying a 17 year old girl.This was despite the fact that he is still married to Argentine' mother, not to mention the father of 6 children who barely have food to eat.

2 More Days!

2011-07-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

...To join our free give-away. Just read this blog entry and leave a comment, to win your choice of a free SHONA product delivered to your door.

And please help us get the word out about SHONA by sharing this link with others!

We've got a bunch of things happening right now in Congo, with the SHONA ladies, which I'll write about soon, but in the meantime come out and support the work of these amazing women! We really appreciate it!

Sticky Summer

2011-07-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Recently we had a free shipping sale, and many of you came out to shop! Thank you! Your purchases allowed us to pay the SHONA ladies and ship the work they had completed. That is huge, and we couldn't have done it without you.

But we didn't quite have enough money to buy new material. So the ladies have been waiting. Anxiously, of course. I've told them wait until we sell a few more things.

So we've decided to extend our FREE SHIPPING for 1 more week, to help us get those last few dollars to buy new cloth. Just select the FREE SHIPPING option at check out!

To be honest, the summer is always a little bit sticky for us. Everyone goes on vacation and gets busy with summer plans. There is less shopping and more barbecues. Of course I fully support that type of a world. But the thing is we need your help to keep going through the summer and get ready for the winter. We do great in the months leading up to Christmas. In fact we sell out of most of our products by December and wish we had sewn many more.

But you see we can't sew many more, because NOW is when we should be sewing our stock for the winter. And we don't have the money to buy the cloth!

I consider myself anti-consumerism. I do not want a world where we shop MORE, but I do want a world where we shop better. I want us to buy meaningful gifts and meaningful clothing. And I want us to choose purchases that have a positive effect on the world.

One way to do that is to shop early. Consider it a little Christmas shopping in the middle of July. Just tuck your purchases away and in December I promise you will be happy to have them! That way your purchase is a double blessing. It is a blessing because it supports the woman who made it. And it is a blessing because it buys her more cloth to sew.

If you already took advantage of our free shipping week, maybe you can help us out by sharing this link and telling people about our sale!

And don't forget, we have a free give away going on right now. Right now, you have a 1 in 5 chance of winning a free product from SHONA. So spread the word!

Give-Away!

2011-07-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

Would you like something free?

Would you like to win a summer skirt? Or maybe a shirt? Or a travel purse, or placemat set?

Just enter our lottery below and in 1 week we will pick the lucky winner! The winner will choose any product from our online store for free!

Here is what to do...
1. Go to our store and choose your favorite item.
2. Leave a comment on this blog post telling us what your favorite item is
3. If you want your name entered twice (double the chances of winning) spread the word! Mention us on facebook, twitter, or your blog and we will enter your name in the give-away twice! (Just be sure to let us know about it!)

We'll assign each comment a number, and on July 12th we will pull a random number from a hat. We hope you win!

Free shipping this week!

2011-06-20T06:42:00.000-07:00

Great stock in our store and
FREE SHIPPING THIS WEEK ONLY!!

Take a minute to check us out!
And please take a minute to tell a few other people...online or in person! :)

I went to a summer festival here in NY this weekend. It had some great artists and fabulous music...and not very many people there...

There were hardworking vendors, selling handcrafted work (including us!), but there just weren't many people walking by. And there were truly awesome musicians, playing with all the heart, to an empty street. And it reminded me again, how hard artists work, plugging away at their craft and trying hard to get it out there...and sometimes that means playing to an empty street.

And for that, I am deeply thankful to all of SHONA's friends. Because without you, sharing links, telling people about us, and buying our products as gifts for others... we too would be playing to empty streets! The internet is a vast world, and easy to get lost in. We have no marketing budget, and no brand recognition. And each of you, helps make it possible for new people to find us everyday, and not just find us, but stop and listen.

People check us out, because you vouch for us. And we really can't do it without you! Many, many thanks to our loyal friends and customers and Please DO take a minute to post a link and let others know that we have free shipping this week!

Insecurity

2011-06-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

One of the hard parts of life in Congo is the "insecurity".

We use this term often to talk about the sense that Congo somewhat teeters on the edge of violence. Fighting could always break out, armed robbers could always show up at night.

But the insecurity amounts to more than that.

We have a friend who is a poor farmer, in a rural region. He owns a small piece of land next to a big piece of land owned by an important person. And so he stands always on the brink of losing his small plot of land, his only livelihood.

Last week, people came onto his land and began taking his crops. He complained. And so he was put in jail for a week. He just didn't have friends on the right side, and someone else did.

His extremely poor family then spent the week buying the guards beers and handing off cash trying to get this elderly man moved to a less harsh prison.

Eventually they borrowed enough money to pay the system off, and get him out of prison. What will happen with his land is unclear.

And this is precisely the insecurity with which many Congolese live everyday. That which they have can always be taken away.

In the grand scheme of things, all that anyone has can disappear in an instant. None of us are guaranteed tomorrow. All of our lives are in fact, teetering on the edge.

But here in the US, we live with the illusion of security. And with some sense that only God, or a huge natural disaster or some other force beyond our control, can rip out of our hands that which we believe is ours.

It is a different type of insecurity to know that the people living next to you can do the same.

Check out our all new summer stock!

2011-05-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

We can't fit all the pictures here.
So check it out at www.shonacongo.com

The New Workshop!

2011-05-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

Check Out Our New Home!

It is a humble little workshop, but one we are very proud of!

The SHONA women saved their money and bought this land.
(Only the part up front! That is a school yard back there!)

And together, with your donations, they have built this workshop.

It has cement floors, wood walls, and a tin roof.

We prioritized buying good windows and a decent door, both for security reasons and to let in the light, since the workshop does not yet have electricity.

You'll notice the entrance to the workshop has a cement ramp, making it easy for the women to walk, and the outhouse is also easily accessible.

Whenever the women try and rent space, they face serious challenges finding space that is easy for them to walk without falling. So it is a special blessing to build their own place, because even with very limited funds, they can make the small alterations which make a big difference to them.

We are deeply proud of this workshop. The fact that the women were able to save their money on their own and buy this land is visible proof of their independence, wisdom and determination to create change in their own lives. They are amazing women and they are quietly re-imagining what is possible for young women in Eastern Congo, not to mention disabled women.

We are also deeply proud of this workshop because it represents what we can build together. We could not have built this workshop without the donations of our friends. In the midst of a difficult economy, you have chosen to support a very small group of women half way around the world.

Thank you for your support!
It fills us with hope!

Our future

2011-04-15T04:57:00.000-07:00

The bad news is that the SHONA women are homeless again. Almost.

The good news is that we have a plan.

But we need your help.

We need to build a small workshop right away. The SHONA women are being forced to leave their current home and workshop within the next week. I know, I know, they just moved into that space. And they loved it. But this is the problem with renting in Goma. The landlord decided he wanted to build a hotel there and told them they need to leave "tomorrow!!"

Without your help they will have no where to work.

But you can play a huge part in our future by helping us build a workshop. You can put a roof of their heads, literally. You can buy the wood that will build the walls. Or the door that will keep them safe.

Here is the great news: this workshop will stand for years to come. It will be built on land that the SHONA woman have already purchased, through the work of their own hands. It is a small piece of land, but they bought it themselves. It will be a humble workshop, but one we have built ourselves.

100% of your donation will be used to cover the construction costs are listed here.

Sometimes we have to stand for the things we believe in.

If you like what we do. If you believe in the SHONA women

Please support their future.
Check it out here.

A Little Shorter

2011-04-11T04:58:00.000-07:00

" Tuko na problem"
"we have a problem.

You can imagine the sinking feeling in my stomach, when Mapendo started out the conversation this way the other day. She went on to say...

"We think you made a mistake. Remember how you told us to shorten those wrap skirts? We tried to shorten them, but it just won't work! They are already so short! I tried one on..."

At this point Mapendo burst out into embarrassed giggles as she recalled the scandalous length of our summer wrap skirts. The ladies were sewing knee-length wrap skirts for the summer, but every time I thought we had agreed on a nice, summery knee-length, the skirts started creeping a little longer. Inch by inch, they were becoming more like 3/4 length skirts.

It reminded me of the teenage girls on the subways in New York, heading off to Catholic school in their plaid skirts. Every time you glance back at those girls those little plaid skirts seem to get shorter and shorter. They do it so gradually it is hard to be sure. But I am guessing when those girls walk out of the house in the morning, those skirts look quite modest, and by the time they are well into their afternoon commute, the skirts have become nothing short of scandalous.

The SHONA ladies, who are barely more than teenagers themselves, are fighting that same battle. Except in the opposite direction. And on your behalf. Although I have explained to them that a knee-length skirt is still quite modest in this country, the women are concerned about your reputations and eager to cover up those knees a little bit more!

At any rate, after serious promises that our skirts were by-no-means considered short in this society, I extracted a promise that the ladies would resist the urge to add an inch or two here or there. So come and check out our collection of "summer length" skirts and wraps. They really are great for the warmer weather, and we're pretty sure that, thanks to Mapendo, your knees won't be too scandalized.

A New Documentary

2011-03-28T04:37:00.000-07:00

Teaching English to adults here in Brooklyn, I work with mostly Spanish speaking immigrants. Then I go home and call the SHONA women in Goma. The transition from Spanish to Swahili, can be a bit confusing sometimes. In the past year, I think Argentine and Mapendo have heard me increasingly throwing in words like "bueno", in the midst of a sentence in Swahili. It never seems to throw them though. Congo, if nothing else, is a country quite comfortable with mixing languages, even unfamiliar ones.

But mostly I find the connection between my students here and the women in Congo surprisingly close. They're all trying to find a way to build a better life. For themselves and for their families. I suppose that is what we are all doing. They've left their homes, their comfort zones, and each step forward also poses a new question.

Which is why I am looking forward to watching the new documentary on PBS tomorrow night.

It is called "Pushing the Elephant" and it follows the story of a Congolese refugee, a woman who fled to the US with 9 of her 10 children. It follows her story years later, caught between here and there. Moreover it follows her story as she is reunited with the daughter who was left behind.

It seems to me that all of our lives are part of this struggle. This struggle to merge the past with the future and come out with a world that we can live in.

Pushing the Elephant was made by a program called Women Making Movies. I haven't seen it yet myself, and from the trailer I can see that there are difficult political and ethnic questions bubbling under the surface. But it poses an interesting question and I will definitely be tuning in.

Check it out Tuesday night, March 29th, on Independent Lens on PBS.

Our Wholesale Order

2011-03-16T05:40:00.000-07:00

As some of you may have noticed, I seem to have disappeared.

Sorry about that. I have not actually so much disappeared as I have been trapped in my house, literally. There have been so many boxes, as we have been assembling our first large wholesale order, that I could barely see my way out of the apartment.

But finally we have been able to ship the boxes on to our wholesale customer, and that is who I would like to introduce right here.

Check out www.globalgirlfriend.com and you will find an online, fair trade store. The store was started in 2003 by a woman named Stacey Edgar. It sells fair trade items made by women around the world and is a great way to support small projects with all kinds of different purchases.

I must admit I am a cynic. People often mistake me for an optimist because I do things like start SHONA, with nothing but what appears to be blind hope.

But actually, when it comes to "do-gooder" operations I am often the biggest cynic of them all. I have seen a lot of programs that don't do what they promise to do, and a lot of broad claims about changing the world that translate into something else entirely on the ground.

So I am happy to recommend Global Girlfriend to you. They started as a one woman project, and have grown to over a million dollar enterprise. Yet still they are interested in working with us, as tiny as we might be. In fact Stacey Edgar herself has more or less bent over backwards to work with us, to help support us.

So check out their website and buy something that truly does support women around the globe. Or buy Stacey's new book which even has a small section on Argentine (check out the beginning of chapter 2, to see Argentine make her print debut!)

And send our many thanks to the people at Global Girlfriend for taking a chance on small group of women in Eastern Congo!

Shipping update

2011-02-16T19:01:00.000-08:00

As you may recall we are waiting (anxiously) for our shipments from Congo. They were sent by US priority mail a month and a half ago and are somewhere in transit, caught up in the new "homeland security" regulations fiasco.

Today I received a message that went something like this. "Your shipment arrived in Germany ( a halfway transit point). Then it went back to Africa."

Of course the message was in Swahili so we may be missing some of the nuances here.

But somehow I get the general sense that we are not moving in the right direction here. Grrrrr...

And the great irony here, is that I think it really isn't Congo's fault. Or even Africa's fault. Of all the countless things that could go wrong when shipping from Congo, as far as I can tell, none of those has happened. It seems the packages arrived perfectly fine in Europe, as they were supposed to. No one ate them along the way, no wars broke out and stranded them. No, no...in the end we are foiled not by the whims of Africa but by the United States. The only problem is that the US has decided to make it ridiculously hard to ship packages by plane. For fear of one blowing up. So Germany didn't want to take our packages, not because of where they come from, but because of where they are going. It is just to dang hard to ship to the US right now.

Now I am all for security. And I am always scared on airplanes, so I support anything that makes them safer. But it does appear that we have a tendency to base our whole regulatory procedures upon whatever the latest bomb scare was. And unfortunately for us the latest scare was a cargo package.

So now our packages sit in Ethiopia awaiting some solution. We really do need these packages to arrive. And we also need a shipping system that we can continue to rely on. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Shipping Nightmares

2011-02-05T15:06:00.000-08:00

Have you wondered what we are up to?

Admittedly, our shelves are getting a bit bare. (But we still have some great stuff. Check it out!) And perhaps you have been wondering if we at SHONA have simply decided to take an extended vacation.

Perhaps we are on a beach somewhere?

But no, the ladies sewing machines are still whirling and have been for quite some time. And I am still here, in New York, teaching ESL and keeping up with SHONA from this end.

For the past 4-5 months we have been working on a wholesale order for a fair trade website (more on them soon!) They ordered hundreds of skirts, dresses and tote bags. WOW. We're small and to us that is a plenty big order.

It has been quite an adventure, our foray into this type of wholesale order. Fortunately our customer is extremely wonderful, and has bent over backwards to work with us. And the sewing has gone along fine, it is all the other logistics that are slightly nerve wracking. Ok, very nerve-wracking. Our order is finally finished and in transit.

Which could be a good thing.

Or a bad thing.

We ship from Congo to the US through the international arm of the US priority mail. We've been using them for years and we haven't had any problems. But of course the problems start now.

You remember that bomb scare on the passenger plane in November? After that, the US put in increased regulations covering all packages coming into the US by air. That's us. I don't even know how one would go about shipping a package from Congo by boat, but I have the distinct impression it would be difficult. So we count on airplanes to carry our packages to the US.

And our packages appear to be sitting around, somewhere between here and there, waiting for clearance to board a plane and enter the US. Or perhaps at this point they are waiting in line at customs in the US. That would be nice.

But the most nerve-wracking thing is that we just don't know exactly where the packages are.

The tracking numbers from Congo don't work. They never have with any of our packages. I've been on the phone with the boss in Congo, who generously called Europe to try and locate our packages. He assures me that our packages boarded a plane from Europe to the US last week and are probably stuck at customs now.

But then again, what would he say if they had lost our packages? Or if someone had eaten them? Probably the same thing. We have found this shipping service to be extremely reliable and professional and they have never yet disappeared one of our packages. And we can see in many online forums that many, many people who are trying to ship by air into the US are experiencing the same delay as us with the US postal service. So we are somewhat comforted.

But in the end, shipping from Congo to the US has always seemed somewhat miraculous to us. There are indeed so many things that could go wrong.

So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we (very!) anxiously await our packages, which contain not only our wholesale order, but also our new stock for our online store. And keep in mind that as we hold our breath and wait for this wholesale order to finally be finished (and paid) it is your purchases that keep us going. We're sorry we don't have more on our shelves. It's not because we haven't been working, or because we have forgotten our faithful customers. And in fact come check us out. There is still plenty on our shelves, and small donations to help us buy cloth are always very welcome as well. It is each little purchase and donation, that keep us going. Truly.

What we do is small but it is extremely real to the craftswomen and their families. Thank you for your support!

Black History Month and African Clothes

2011-01-19T18:07:00.000-08:00

"Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others."
Rosa Parks

What do black history month and the SHONA women have in common?

Quite a lot actually.

While living in Congo, and working with the SHONA women I taught them about Harriet Jacobs. We talked about this courageous young slave woman, who ran away from her "master" and hid in a crawl space above a house for 7 years. She hid in a space where she could not stand upright, literally depriving herself of the ability to stand or walk.

The SHONA women too have been deprived of the ability to stand and walk. For Argentine, Riziki, and Solange growing up with polio meant that they could only crawl. Today, finally, with the help of the handicapped center in Goma, they can stand with metal braces and crutches. But for a long time that was impossible.

They have also all had the experience of hiding. Growing up in the midst of war zones, and even today when they return to visit their families in rural areas, they are only too accustomed to the sound of gun-shots, the bolting of doors, and the hunkering down.

Harriet Jacobs' story resonated with the SHONA women.

But perhaps what struck the SHONA women most was the book itself. I showed them Harriet Jacobs' book, with her own words inside. Harriet Jacobs came out of slavery to write her own story. You could see the glimmer in the ladies eyes as they passed their hands over the cover.

Sometimes, as an American living abroad I have deeply regretted so much of the American "example" to the world...the war in Iraq, the corporate greed, the growing gap between rich and poor...

And surely slavery is one of those terrible examples. But I am thankful for the countless African-American lives who have reclaimed that story, and turned it into one of struggle and triumph. Surely those many African American voices are some of America's greatest strengths.

I am thankful for black history month. For the opportunity it gives to reflect on the struggles that have been fought over generations, and the powerful voices that have been forged in the midst of those struggles.

If you wear African clothing as part of your celebrations, or simply as part of your life, would you consider wearing clothing sewn by the SHONA women, women who are still struggling to find a way to make their voices heard, but who definitely have a story to tell. Your purchases make a huge difference to them.

Visitors from Congo

2011-01-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

This week we had a friend from Congo visit us here in New York. It is funny when two worlds collide. When people from one part of your life, suddenly appear in another context...when a guy you have only seen in Goma, in short sleeves, appears in NY in the middle of winter, bundled in a winter jacket and hat.

Alain is a young Congolese man. He was student of mine at one of the universities in Goma. But he also became a friend, who continued visiting the SHONA women, long after I left, and in fact helped take pictures for SHONA, and translated for our visitors on occasion. In August, he came to the United States to study and this was his his first visit to NY.

While he was here, we called the SHONA ladies, who were clearly overjoyed to hear his voice, and fascinated by the fact that Alain and I were together, half-way across the world, speaking Swahili, and thinking of Congo. All of us, throughout our lives, carry those we love with us. We all have "homes" that sometimes seem very far away. But we also have the joy, on occasion, of seeing our lives come together in surprising ways. Of building bridges between people that we love, and occasionally glimpsing a world where we are all together. It's great to have visitors from other parts of our lives, and it is great to see the ways that our lives still come together in the midst of it all.

Here is a blog entry that he wrote about his visit...

I am in New York since last night. I am staying in the Shona Congo, New York base for a few days. This is a wonderful opportunity for me to be able to experience Shona from the United States after living it in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In fact, I know Shona since very long, since I was in the Congo. Mapendo, Roy, Riziki, Argentine and the rest of the team are like my brother and sisters. They are wonderful people with so much courage and strength notwithstanding adversities. I have worked with them as translator, photographer and have had some fun time with them.

I am so happy for the impact Shona has had in the lives of these brothers and sisters of mine. They are really blessed to have learned craftswork for their lives would have been so different otherwise. In my country, handicapped people are usually neglected by society and even by their own family. They do not have access to education and therefore not to employment. The result is that handicapped people end up begging in the streets.

All my passion about collaborating with Shona is from my joy to see how these people have had a chance to live better, to help their families, to have access to basic education and to pay for school for their relatives. I have been telling people in Congo about Shona and how they can help it grow and in that way help the Shona team in their effort to live from the work of their hands.

I came to the United States five months ago for College. I have been meeting people who are interested in my country and in Africa. They want to know how life looks like, what is going on out there these days and so on. To those who have asked me if there was a way to help with little means, among the so many possibilities I know of, Shona Congo is where I direct most of them because I have been on the Congo side of the fence and I can testify of the impact of any purchase anyone does on Shona's online store or any donation they do.

Have you ever made any impact in some one's life?

Huge New Year Sale

2010-12-29T21:00:00.000-08:00

For 2 days only (until New Year's Day), get a WILD 40% off everything in our store.
Just enter new year sale into the discount code box at check out and you will receive 40% off your whole order!

How about stocking up for all those little occasions that come up throughout the year? SHONA makes a great, meaningful gift to have on hand. Or what about a African pillow or table runner to bring a fresh new look to your home in this new year.

In the end, nothing beats starting the new year by helping another person. Your purchases at this time of the year, make a huge difference to these amazing women. Your purchases make it possible for them to continue to work, support their families, and change their worlds. How about starting the new year with that?

"Married to Amazement"

2010-12-27T10:35:00.000-08:00

I found this poem on Everyday Epiphanies
and am taking the liberty of stealing it in honor of the new year.

Who doesn't want to start the new year by stealing something good?

In the past year, I have settled my feet on the ground in NY, after 3 years in Congo. For my husband and I, coming back to this country, in the midst of an "economic downturn" with no money under our belts and no jobs lined up, was not exactly a prudent move. Let's just say the health insurance debates, and unemployment statistics, were very real to us.

But this year I have been amazed.

Somehow, in the midst of it all, I have been able to continue working with the SHONA women. And they have astounded me with their strength and commitment. For over a year, they have plugged away, month after month, making good decisions when bad ones would have been so much easier. Being reliable, despite the fact that nothing in Congo is reliable.

I have been amazed at my students and friends here in the US, adults who dearly want to learn English, and who daily count this country as a blessing. Too many of them celebrate Christmas far from their own families, and unable to visit. They work in the back of restaurants on Christmas Eve and ride bicycles in the midst of a blizzard to deliver food. They are an honor to teach and to live beside.

And I shake my head.
At the inexplicable blessings on my own table.
And how quickly I grow accustomed to them.

As this poem says,
I want to live my life "married to amazement",
because truly this life calls for it.

When Death Comes
by Mary Oliver

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;

when death comes
like the measles-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,

and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

What are you giving this holidays season?

2010-12-17T20:08:00.001-08:00

How about the gift of cloth?

Holiday Specials!

2010-12-13T05:52:00.000-08:00

SHONA is a great gift to give this holiday season. Our fabrics are brilliantly colored. Our designs are handcrafted with care. And the women behind this work are unforgettable.

Not sure what to give?

How about a gift of hope?

Now you can make a special donation to the SHONA women in the name of a friend.

We'll put their names on our "Wall of Thankfulness" and you'll receive a special SHONA notecard to put under the tree. Or if you prefer, you can download an electronic version of our notecard, and print it out right away.

100% of your donation will be used to buy cloth for the SHONA women to sew in this new year. There is no greater gift you can give these talented and determined women than to put cloth in their hands. That cloth triples in value as they sew it into beautiful crafts. It puts food on the table of families which are desperately poor. It builds houses for refugees. It sends children to school.

But most of all, it turns the table. It puts the power to create this change into the hands of these talented young women living in the midst of incredible obstacles. It celebrates their dignity and hope.

With your cloth they can sew a better future, for themselves, for their families and for their community. This holiday season consider giving this gift of hope.

The needs we can't meet

2010-11-28T17:18:00.000-08:00

The art of living.

Mapendo has faced a ridiculous amount of pressures lately. Barely into her 20s she has become the primary breadwinner for a struggling family. Her brother-in-law died recently, leaving her sister nearly homeless with ten children, and her mother is getting kicked off the land she built her house upon. It has been a particularly rough couple of months for Mapendo.

Mapendo playing handicapped sports.

But then again this is life in Eastern Congo.

What amazes me is the juggling of it all. Right now, through her sewing, Mapendo has more resources than anyone else in her family. But those resources are still very limited and the needs seem limitless. So how do you divide up the money you earn, for a family whose needs stretch far and wide? How do you give today, knowing that more needs will arise tomorrow?

In the non-profit world, they talk about "donor fatigue". It is hard to continue giving over and over again when problems seem never ending. We all like to give, when problems seem finite and manageable, when it seems that our one gift will make a world of difference, and there won't even be a need again next year.

But I've never heard a Congolese person talk about donor fatigue. And if anyone deserves to, it is probably them. Every Congolese person who takes one step out of poverty, is probably paying school fees for countless family members, buying medicine for at least a few people who are sick and being asked for no shortage of "loans". They know someone will come knocking on the door each night.

So what strikes me, is the way they open the door, time and time again, whether there is anything to give or not. How quickly I get fatigued and frustrated when the needs are too great or I have too little to give. To be honest in Congo I stopped answering the door sometimes, and here in the US, I switch off the news. And indeed, we can't meet all the problems of this world, nor fill every hand that is outstretched. But neither can they. The challenge is the living in the midst of that knowledge, without shutting down or shutting it out. And that is what I admire about so many people in Congo.

Mapendo has chosen to buy land for her mother to live on. A small piece of permanence for this family which has too long been refugees. It's a tiny piece of land on the outskirts of town but it's a beautiful act, and an incredible accomplishment. It deserves celebration. But Mapendo's sister and 10 children are still close to homeless and there are still so many more needs. And that is where life is, in the midst of that tension.

Where it goes

2010-11-19T06:03:00.000-08:00

I believe in paradoxes. According to the Christian faith, "the first shall be last and the last shall be first". Of course, that is a promise for another world. But such reversals of fortune happen in our world as well. And there is beauty, and some kind of truth, in them.

The SHONA women were expected to be burdens on their families, at least financially. For poor families, in a war zone, a child who cannot walk, is going to be a struggle. She can't go to school, she can't carry water, she can't work on the farm, and she can't run from danger.

So it is an amazing accomplishment, when these young women go on to live independently and support their families. In fact, they have become the main breadwinners for their large families.

Suddenly they are the ones carrying the responsibility for their mother and father, brothers and sisters. It is a heavy responsibility, but they carry it with grace. I think that is the beauty of paradox. The person who has been carried herself, is in fact the most likely to carry others.

Instead of spending the money they earn on themselves, they buy medicine for countless family members, put children in school, and keep a roof over their heads.

Here are a few of the things SHONA women did, through your purchases, just this month.

*Riziki paid for a hernia operation for her younger brother. He was waiting until she got paid because there was no other money in the family to pay for it. Riziki also paid for medicine for her mom who is sick.

*Mapendo gave her mother money to rent a new parcel of land. The land that she was living on had been reclaimed by the government for road construction, and she literally had no where to go.

*Argentine paid the school fees for 4 of her younger siblings so that they could return to school. Argentine never went to school as a child.

*Riziki paid the school fees for 3 of her younger siblings so that they could return to school.

*Solange rented a small house by the road for her 2 younger siblings. Solange and her siblings are orphans, and the area they grew up in remains unsafe. Her younger siblings had been living in a refugee camp, and then had returned to their rural home to try and farm the land. However it is so unsafe in that area that the population farms during the day, and hides in the forest to sleep at night. Her siblings were literally sleeping in the forest. Solange rented a small house in a more secure area by the road so that her siblings would have somewhere to sleep.

*Argentine started saving money for a new set of metal leg braces for herself. The metal leg braces that all of the women wear have to be replaced every year and they are quite expensive for them. The women were previously able to obtain them for free, but now, because they are seen as successful women, they have to pay for them. Argentine started saving for her own leg braces...
but only after paying her siblings school fees.

Business in Congo

2010-11-10T05:28:00.000-08:00

In all the furor over "conflict minerals" coming out of Congo there is a point that often gets missed. The point is why are "conflict minerals" practically the only thing coming out of Congo?

Okay, many raw materials, not just those listed as "conflict minerals" do come out of Congo. But the point is, they come out as raw materials. Where is Congo's industrial sector?

Obviously there are a variety of different answers to that question. But it is an important question to ask. Because as long as there are so very few viable industries in Congo, not just in terms of export but in terms of any production at all, people will be exploited. They will choose to mine in dangerous, unhealthy conditions because it is the only way to make a living. Young men will continue to become young men with guns, and young men with guns will continue to plunder the local population, because...well...everyone's gotta eat.

Congo Siasa has a great little post entitled "the agony of doing business in the Congo" citing Congo's current ranking as 175th in the Word Bank report of on how easy it is to start and operate a business around the world. In other words, it is easier to start a business in Iraq or Afghanistan than it is to start one in Congo.

I am not really the business type, and had I not lived in Congo, I might have skimmed over this whole report as something for MBAs. But, having seen the Congolese economy in action, I know that this report does reflect a huge problem for the average person in Congo. There just aren't enough legitimate businesses in Congo. Because it is soooooo dang hard to make it work.

Everyday that the SHONA women are able to sew, and ship their handiwork, I consider it a small miracle. Not because of the work they do, they are talented and committed and it doesn't take a miracle for them to produce beautiful work. Unfortunately it takes close to a miracle for them to be able to share that work with you. We have been fortunate only because we are very small, and we keep things very local.

Check it out for yourself. Google fair trade crafts from Congo and see what you come up with. When I tried it, links to SHONA were in the first nine spots. Now of course that is awesome and I would love to claim some talent at "Search Engine Optimization" which has placed us there. But the reality is there just aren't many other groups out there. Congo is a huge country, full of talented artisans...where is their work????

Snakes

2010-11-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

I called the SHONA ladies this afternoon, which is evening in Congo. Only to discover that the women were already tucked into bed. On the table.

It seems there was a snake incident. Apparently some snakes have appeared in the SHONA women's house. After a long, convoluted story about these snakes which seemed to involve references to burning the snakes and digging holes (keep in mind this conversation was in Swahili over a long distance phone connection!), I established that three of the women are currently tucked into bed on top of the large table that they normally use for cutting cloth and eating dinner. I tried to establish why it was that they thought the snakes would not be able to climb up the table (or drop down onto the table), but it seems there was debate about precisely this question. You see there are actually 6 women living in the SHONA house, the four SHONA women plus Mapendo's niece and Riziki's younger sister.

Three of the women had decided that they had to leave the house all together. They went to sleep in the new apartment that we have just rented right next door (they haven't officially moved in yet, as the owner is still fixing the apartment, but apparently they decided that an empty apartment under repair is significantly better than a house with snakes). The other women appear to have decided that a house with snakes is better. As long as you sleep on the table, that is.

I have tried to give my strong opinion on this issue, and hopefully they will abandon the table tactic. But then again, nyoka (snake) is a very broad word in Swahili, and perhaps they have more information than I do about the situation.

Either way, we are very anxious for the SHONA ladies to move into their new home. Hopefully the repairs will be completed and they can move this weekend. Beyond the snake issue, their old home has also started leaking, and it really is time to move.

We have paid part of the required 5 month deposit on the new apartment already, and the landlord has generously given us a few extra weeks to come up with the rest. Please do continue shopping with SHONA and take advantage of our SALE this week (10% off everything!). Your purchases will help to make sure that we can pay the full-deposit, and the ladies can stay in their new home. This new home is very important because the ladies current house is being torn down (not to mention being taken over by snakes), and finding a safe, clean place for the women to live and work, with access to electricity and bathrooms that they can get into with their crutches, is not so easy. This apartment will give them all of that. And besides they won't have to sleep on the table!

Do It Yourself

2010-11-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

The aid community is up in arms. The cause? Nicholas Kristof. It is truly amazing how much indignation this New York Times columnist seems to be able to stir up.

So what did he say now? He wrote a piece about "Do-It-Yourself foreign aid". In this piece he was talking about the current trend of Americans (and people around the globe) to start their own aid projects, rather than work with big, established aid organizations. It seems that thanks to the internet and social media more "regular people" are learning about large, global problems, and then feeling empowered to actually start a project to address that problem themselves. This is what he means by a do-it-yourself approach to foreign aid.

The aid community has come back talking about the importance of professionalism and accountability.

But I'd like to talk about something else. Don't you think we're misusing the term "do-it-yourself" here? When we take on a do-it-yourself project isn't it usually in our own homes? We work on our kitchen sink that won't stop leaking, or remodeling our bathroom. And yes, the problem with do-it-yourself projects is that we aren't professionals, and we don't usually know exactly what we are doing. But then again, that's OK, because it is our house, and when we remodel the bathroom and discover that new tile is all crooked, we can debate the value of taking it out and starting it over again. And when that sink develops another leak in a month, we can go back in and try and fix it again. Usually we have to live with the results of our own do it yourself projects. And that makes us both invested in the project, and uniquely qualified to decide whether bright pink is really the right color to paint the bathroom wall. And for precisely that reason, do-it-yourself projects tend to be more like open-ended discussions, where the wall changes from pink to blue to beige, as the years wear on.

I'm not really sure about the idea of do-it-yourself projects in strangers houses. I mean who really proposes a do-it-yourself project as a way to get to know random people, or to make friends? At best, it would be an incredibly awkward way to start a relationship.

So I think there is often a contradition in the term "Do-It-Yourself" foreign aid. D0-It-Yourself probably shouldn't be done in a place we consider "foreign". I agree with Kristof that we have become too dependent on big companies and big organizations, and we have lost faith in our own abilities to affect change, indeed our own responsibility to affect change. But that responsibility to affect change starts in our own communities and in our lives. Sometimes it is easier to go global. The problems that exist in hot spots around the globe can seem overwhelming but they have a unique power to motivate. Because the further away a community is, the less experience we have of the community, the easier it is to romanticize the problems and simplify the solutions. And the further we live from that community, and the fewer real relationships we have in it, the easier it is to believe our own publicity and fool ourselves about the successes. Do-It-Yourself does have successes but it also has a lot of failures and a lot of changes to make along the way. And when we are working in a community that we learned about on the internet, and visited for 2 weeks, chances are we aren't well-equipped for the long haul.

That is not to say we can't affect change in the global community. But instead of surfing the internet for the next hot cause, we could stand to look carefully at our own lives and the inequalities that exist in the midst of them. Ultimately we'll find that we do have real connections to our neighbors, both across the street and abroad. The way we shop, where we choose to live, the way we treat the environment does matter to real people around the globe.

Tales from The hood mentions Greg Mortenson (3 cups of tea) as an examples which is often used of "do-it-yourself-aid". Indeed Mortenson is an interesting example. He went half way across the world not because of altruism, or because he was inspired about some problem, but because he wanted to hike a mountain. And he got to know the people in a small village because he fell sick and they cared for him. His project was born not out of some big vision, but out of a promise he made to some friends he made there. And it was born not out of altruism but out of relationship. He had no idea what he was doing, and was certainly not professional. In fact he came back to build a school only to discover that what they really needed was a bridge. But he had the investment in this community that had first cared for him, and a sense of responsibility to those people. Wherever we find ourselves we have similar responsibilities.

Our responsibility to our fellow man isn't reserved for professionals. In fact it is a responsibility we have no right to hand off to professionals. But that responsibility should be born out of our long-term investment in communities and in relationships.

To tell you the truth, sometimes I get frustrated. Sometimes I wonder why SHONA doesn't get the spotlight. Why couldn't we be the next Oprah guest or whatever? But that is the point. Is that really what SHONA is? I work on SHONA because I have a responsibility to my neighbors in Goma, to these incredible women who daily remind me what it means to live humbly. If I have given them the tools that I have, and they can now stand on their own and create change in their lives, that's enough. We are "do it yourself". And this is our home. We don't have to build a mansion or give neighborhood tours, to make what we do valuable.

I'm not a professional, but then again I don't have to be. Because this isn't "foreign" aid. These are my friends and my neighbors, and no one needs a degree for that.

"Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." —
Mother Teresa

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." — Mother Teresa

Thank you! (and please keep shopping)

2010-10-31T18:13:00.000-07:00

A big shout out to the AWESOME customers who turned out this week to do some holiday shopping at the SHONA website and to help make it possible for the SHONA women to move into a new home. The women haven't moved yet and we are still trying to raising money for the deposit on their new home, but your purchases have made a huge difference and we really appreciate it! Thank you!

If you haven't yet stopped by the SHONA website , we hope you do sometime soon. We think you can find some great, meaningful holiday gifts, and to be honest, right now, your support is more meaningful than ever. The SHONA artisans face a lot of challenges these days, and yet they are working diligently to complete a wholesale order we received. They could use a little encouragement and support along the way, and truly what better way is there to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season?

Home for the Holidays

2010-10-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

The SHONA women need to move. Their home, as pictured below, is about to be torn down. As you see the house has blue, wooden walls, and is built against a lava rock wall on one side.

It is a humble home. But it has been their home for more than a year. And in many ways it is a proud home. 4 young disabled women in Eastern Congo have rented this home through the work of their own hands. It is hard to explain exactly how amazing this is. Young women rarely live independently in Goma, and least of all, those struggling with disabilities. The fact that the SHONA women can rent their own home, and live and work in it, is in fact quite astounding. But not only that, their home has been an open one. They have taken in younger siblings and other relatives, who needed a place to stay.

None the less, their home is being torn down. This happens again and again in Eastern Congo, where small shacks are routinely thrown up on top of piles of stone and dirt, only to be taken down as soon as there is a little more money to build a bigger building. And so poor people are pushed further and further to the outskirts of town.

For the SHONA women, that is a risk they cannot take. The outskirts of town are insecure, prone to armed robberies. The outskirts have virtually no access to running water or electricity. Moving to the edges would put at risk, both their own lives, and their work. So for the past few months the SHONA women have been looking for a new home that is both a safe place to live and a reliable place to work. They are not rich, and they are no longer so extremely poor. But in Goma there is very little in between.

Fortunately the women have found a good option. It is an apartment in the same compound where they live now. For the first time in their lives they will have running water in their own home. They will be able to go to the bathroom at night, without stumbling with their crutches, in the dark, over rocks, to get to a public outhouse. It is not a fancy apartment but it is a solid one. I know it is a good apartment, because in fact, it is the same apartment I lived in while I lived in Goma.

But the women need your help. Renting a home in Goma generally requires at least 5 months rent up front. Although the women can pay the monthly rent, they don't have the money for this kind of deposit up front. It is a lot of money, and comes at a time when many of their families are experiencing very significant struggles of their own.

So would you consider making an extra special purchase this holiday season? We've taken some of our favorite household goods and made them even more. When you purchase one of these special household items, you will not only be purchasing a beautiful handcrafted item for your home, but you will be making a donation to the SHONA women's new home. You will be sharing the gift of a warm and safe home with these amazing young women.

We also have a special section of items that the SHONA women have donated freely in order to raise money for Mapendo's sister's family, a family with 10 children, who recently lost their father, and who are also fighting to keep their home. Even in the midst of struggling themselves to raise money to move, the SHONA women have chosen to donate some of their hard work to a family who deserves a little more help. Thank you for joining hands with us!

The Small Battles

2010-09-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

I never realized how important ironing is, until I worked with the SHONA ladies.

In sewing, it's indespensible. Cloth gets ironed, cut, ironed, sewn, ironed, packed. In the cloth business, it is hard to do much of anything without ironing. Or at least, it is hard to do it well.

And ironing, takes electricity.

But in Congo, that is hard to come by.

In Goma, and throughout Africa, the solution is a charcoal iron, which doesn't depend on electricity. It is basically a hollow box of iron, with a handle. You can open it, pile charcoal inside and close it again. Then you push it along the cloth, just like an electric iron. Except of course that the heat is a tad bit hard to control. First you have to start a fire, and heat your charcoal, which incidentally does not come in neat little bricks like it does here. In fact, it looks remarkably like exactly what it is. Chunks of wood turned black and ashy. It is light-weight and prone to flaking. So the charcoal iron, unless you are very careful, can get soot and ash all over your carefully sewn work. It also goes from too hot to too cold in a matter of minutes. For the SHONA ladies, whose work will be rejected if there is a single black spot on it, the charcoal iron is not their friend.

So we need electricity. In Goma, electricity comes and goes. The SHONA ladies have been known to leap out of their beds in the middle of the night, when electricity finally arrives. They carefully plan and re-plan their work, around the appearances and disappearances of electricity.

For the past three days there has been no electricity in the neighborhood. Why? because three days ago a fire started down the street. It burned down eight shops, and those businesses lost everything (no reported deaths thankfully). What caused this fire? A gas lamp, a charcoal fire, a cigarette? Nope. Too much electricity.

Ahh...in the city of Goma, there is never enough electricity, until, there is too much. The power surged in the neighborhood, started a fire, and then was cut off completely. Sometimes you just can't win.

On the edge

2010-09-15T05:27:00.000-07:00

It's September and I am back to teaching.

As you may know, since we returned to the US, I have had to work. I mean, do a job that actually pays me. Life here is simply too expensive for me to spend all my time volunteering on SHONA for free. So I work 25 hours a week teaching here in NY, and spend my remaining time on SHONA.

Other than the fact that it is somewhat impossible to balance these two tasks, and find any time left to breathe, I love it. I love my job teaching English as a Second Language to adults. I really love my students, many of whom are undocumented immigrants. Having also taught high school in the public schools here in NY, I greatly appreciate how hard my adult ESL students work...and the fact that they don't throw papers across the room! :) Many of the people I work with live on the edge of society here, much the same way that the SHONA women live on the edge of society in Congo. Sometimes people ask how I deal with the contrasts of my life, working with disabled artisans in Congo and Spanish speaking immigrants here in NY. But to me they seem more like the common threads woven throughout. It's true it can be hard to go from life in Congo to life in the US. It can be hard to go from the poverty and insecurity in Goma to the relative comfort and security we live in here.

But its the people who keep me sane. In Goma I was asked the famous question at least once a day "why don't you have kids?" Of course most people here in the US, would never dare such a question, we love our privacy. But my Spanish-speaking students have quickly taken up the slack, same question, same laughter when I respond in an exaggerated tone "But kids are sooo much work!!"

When I was living in Goma, nothing crossed language and cultural barriers faster than food. Ugali, a common staple, is a kind of sticky paste that you pick up with your hands and dip in sauce. Meals centered around a big pot of ugali and another of sauce, with everyone digging in. Nothing seemed to make my friends in Goma sadder than if I refused a meal, and such a refusal was usually followed by the SHONA women eyeing me up and down and discussing why I needed to gain wait (I really don't!) and why I might not be eating. This discussion would of course take place with me standing right there. Likewise, my students here feed me all the time. They bring me coffee in the morning, with a Mexican roll. They bring me tamales and mole and guacamole. All homemade. Neatly packed for me to take home to my husband. Clearly, while they think I'm a good teacher, they are not so sure about my talents as a wife! This too is a common theme from Goma! Let's just say I'm not really the "home-maker" type.

My students declare parties all the time. Another favorite activity in Goma. And those parties are a big deal, involving intense negotiations and secretive plans. And most of all, lots of laughter.

My point is that if my students here, and the SHONA ladies ever met, they might not be able to speak a word to each other, but they would have a rocking party. They would love each other. And so I switch from Spanish to Swahili, making a fool of myself in both languages, but knowing that underneath there is a common language. There are people in all societies who live on the edge. And, I, for one, believe they throw the best parties.

Note: Don't get me wrong. Life's not easy on the edge, and people work incredibly hard. Harder than I'll ever know. But consider the music. Much of the greatest, most exuberant music in this world comes from the poorest, most difficult places. Have you heard Congolese music? The music and laughter doesn't erase the hardship, but neither does hardship erase a person's capacity for joy. In fact to me, it seems to make it greater.

Labor Day

2010-09-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

As a teacher I am quite familiar with Labor Day.

It means the end of summer vacation.

To teachers (and students alike) it means that 2 month stretch of summer possibility is over.
Those endless summer days that we imagined, and never quite materialized, have slipped out of our grasp for another year.

Among parents, I swear there is a collective sigh of relief. Yes, I know you love summer. And I know that gearing up for the school year is hectic to say the least. But I have heard no shortage of mother's murmur a word of thanks for the start of a new school season. We all know that routine can be a good thing.

Somewhere in the midst of my musings on the importance of Labor Day as an end-of-summer celebration, I do occasionally remark that the holiday is named "LABOR day"

To be honest, this seems completely normal to teacher and students. Who wouldn't associate the end of summer with the start of labor?

But of course that is not its real meaning. According to the US government, Labor Day was founded as a "workingmen's holiday", a celebration of labor and labor unions. It was a celebration of the working class, at a time when the working class was celebrated as "the creator of much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership".

Ahh...how far we've come.
Fallen... I mean.

The working class are no doubt still with us. Though in smaller numbers it seems. Or maybe simply with less fanfare...and less voice.

But it is no wonder that we have recreated Labor Day as a celebration of the end of summer. We have to recreate it as something.

How ironic would it be to continue celebrating the working man in an era where the working man has become increasingly hard to find, not only because he (and she) is fewer in number, but because we've all come to believe that we are something else. I've worked at vocational schools where "the vocation part" was being phased out. Why? Because all students are college material, our government says so. We are all on career paths. And we've got the Bachelors, masters and PHDs to prove it. And the debt as well.

What happen to celebrating working men and women as the backbone of our country? How have so many of us become managers, consultants, experts, academics, social-entrepreneurs, bloggers...

Or how have we come to redefine ourselves this way?

How many of us would define yourself as working class? In the real traditional sense?

In an era where unemployment is high, but equally high are the number of hours that Americans work each week, we've somehow ceased to define ourselves principally as workers. And we've certainly ceased to unite as such.

Labor Day (and even more so the International Workers Day around the globe) was a celebration not of the individual workers, but of collective workers. And there in lies the rub. Today, we all might define ourselves as hard-workers, but it is on an individual scale. Few of us see ourselves as part of a collective group of workers. This is where the American working class has gone. It's not that we've all gotten lazy and stopped working, it's that increasingly, we are all in it on our own. We jump from job to job, change careers, put it long hours, chase the American dream, largely on our own.

"Social-Entrepreneurship" is one of the hot new majors at university. This myth of the individual entrepreneur, kind of like the pioneer of a different century, fits perfectly with our ideals of the American dream as something that we chase individually. It's interesting that we've come to see entrepreneurship as a solution to our social problems as well. As though even our collective problems, will be solved not by group action but the brilliant ideas and energy of a few. Indeed we've created a form of social activism that comes complete with its own "rock-stars".

In honor of a different "Labor Day", one with its roots in collective action I am quoting again Marge Piercy's poem (that I love so much).

"I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real. "

Grand Opening Party!

2010-09-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

It's the grand opening party for our new store and for this weekend only we're offering 20% off everything!!

Come and celebrate with us!

Use discount code "newstoreparty" at checkout to receive your discount!

New Store!!

2010-09-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

After what seems like FOREVER...
We have a new online store, and we are super excited!

The SHONA ladies have been sewing up a storm and I've spent weeks staring at HTML, taking photos, counting our stock, and adding lots of new features to the store,

And we have two new shipments in, with bags, aprons, placemat sets, table runners, throw pillows, blouses, boubous and fabulous skirts. Check it out today!

Tragedy and Community

2010-08-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

The message went like this...
"Shemeki wa Mapendo alikufa bila kugonjwa. Tuombeye."

Translated, that is
"Mapendo's brother-in-law died without being sick. Pray for us."

I promised the SHONA ladies that I would pass along to you this request for prayer. So there it is.

Here is the backstory...
Mapendo's brother-in-law died suddenly. He had not been very sick, although he also had not been feeling particularly well as of late. He went into the bedroom to lie down, and when family came in later, he was dead.

He leaves behind his wife (Mapendo's sister) and 10 children (8 of their own and 2 orphans they care for). The oldest child is 20 years old and the youngest is a year and a half old. This is a huge responsibility for Mapendo's sister to bear.

Inevitably, this responsibility will come down not only on Mapendo's sister but on Mapendo as well. One of the children was already living with the SHONA ladies. You may remember that she came to help the ladies around the house. Their sewing has paid for her to go back to school.
Mapendo's sister will struggle to provide for these children. And in one of the great injustices of life in Congo, she will also face attempts to take away her home, or anything else that she might have. When the Bible talks about fighting for the rights of widows, I never really took it literally. I didn't realize precisely how vicitmized widows can be in cultures, even today. But in every death that I have seen in Congo, the widow has faced an onslaught of pressure and the fear of losing the little that she has.

In addition to all of this, this idea of "dying without being sick" has a particular undertone to it. When people die of no clear cause in Congo, they are often assumed to have been poisoned by someone. This is a particular tragedy in Congo, where healthcare is extremely low, and the ability to actually diagnose illnesses is very limited. While there are real incidents of poisoning in Congo (and around the world) there are also many, many incidents where people just die. When you have no medical equipment to diagnose problems, and no investigative police to diagnose crime, the two are often confused. In a world where tragedy hits so often, we grab onto any explanation we can. And unfortunately, the poisoning explanation is often the most readily available. It may be hard to prove, but it is also hard to disprove.

Congo can be a hard place, full of inexplicable tragedy, and uncertain fear.

But it can also be a place of beauty. Where a community comes together to carry burdens. The SHONA ladies have been sleeping at Mapendo's sister's house for days now. Mourning with them. They heard of the tragedy, put down their sewing materials, and went. This is a common Congolese response.

You notice that in their message they say "pray for us." This is not a selfish "us", as though they are the ones who need prayer. It is an inclusive "us", a recognition of their place in a community, a community whose responsibility it is to now carry this family, and bear their burden together.

I rarely say "pray for us". In good American fashion I say "pray for them". As though a person's loss or struggle is somehow separate from my own. I should practice saying "tuombeye"("pray for us"). Perhaps it will serve as a reminder to myself that, in reality, we are all in this life together.

Sharing our burdens and our joys.

A house built on faith

2010-08-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

This is Roy's house. A couple weeks ago he had to pick it up. And by that I mean...actually pick it up and carry it somewhere else. His family was forced to leave the land they were living upon. They had to take apart their home and carry it to a new location.

When we talk about insecurity in Goma, we think about war and armed robbery and the general chaos which can overtake the region.

We don't necessarily think about picking up houses.

But this too is part of the insecurity of life in Goma. The vast majority of people in Goma live in this type of perpetual non-permanence. This awareness that at virtually anytime, you may be told to move. Even if that means picking up your house.

Roy built this house about a year and a half ago, on top of this pile of lava rock. He paid about $10 a month to rent the land on which he built his house. That worked out for a while, until the owner of the land decided he wanted to take back the land and build on it himself. And so Roy's family had to move. As in, they had to move the house. So they looked for another piece of land to rent, they dismantled the house, and carried it on their backs to the next location.

So now they are living in the same house, on different land. And you can imagine how long it will last this time. If they are luck another year? People in Goma get used to picking up and moving a lot.

True, there is nothing that shocking about the transitory nature of life in Goma. Goma is a city, largely composed of people who have fled there, from the surrounding areas. It is full of people who have had to pack up and leave, again and again. The city itself has been overtaken by soldiers, rebels, and lava at varying points in the last ten years. In Goma, one most always stand a bit poised on the edge of departure.

What I find most striking is that Roy built the house in the first place. He could have rented a a similar house. But he chose to build a house on land that he did not own. Of course options were limited. If he could afford to buy land, he surely would have.

But think about it for a minute. Imagine renting a plot of land and building your own house. With your materials, your own money, the sweat from your brow.

No one does that in America, because who would take that risk? We build on land that we own, or we rent a house on land that we don't. No one goes through the work of building a house if they can't own the land.

It gives me pause.

Roy knew that building on borrowed land was a risk. But what in Goma isn't a risk? Actually it was more like guaranteed non-permanence. You build knowing that in the not-so-distant-future you will have to take it down again. Or maybe the volcano will erupt again before that happens, and cover your house with lava. Or maybe the war will explode and you will be forced to leave your home and flee. You see, when everything is a risk, it almost becomes beside the point to try and calculate risk at all. What's built today, what stands today, is really all that you have the energy to think about it.

So Roy, picked up his house and moved it to a new plot of land. Let me not understate this. By no means was this an easy process for his family. Yet he will probably face it again next year, and the year after...

It is a living example of the insecurity of Goma. The poor move again and again, as landowners try and turn a profit on their land. Community breaks down when a population is constantly being forced to move from one place to another.

But it is also an example of the extraordinary sense of hope and determination in Goma. Even if you are simply too poor to buy any land, you'll start by buying the materials to build. What greater evidence of hope is there? Maybe you will own a roof and walls, long before you ever own a place to rest them upon. But in that there is a determination to believe in a better future.

In Goma, where the ground is constantly shifting, you learn to build your home on moving ground. It's not blind faith that the ground will stop moving. It's the knowledge that that it never does. And the determination not to lose hope in the midst of it. I suppose, in the end, that is the type of faith we are all called to.

"What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway."
Mother Teresa

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

~ Hebrews Chapter 11 Verse 1

Conflict minerals debate

2010-08-05T05:34:00.000-07:00

Check this post, plus the comments which follow, for a good view on some of the misconceptions involving "conflict minerals" in Congo.

Want to be more involved?

2010-07-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

SHONA is the most grassroots of organizations. We are just a small group of women joining hands. Determined to do what we can. Making the world in front of us better.

But it is amazing what we have accomplished. What we are accomplishing. What many of you have helped make possible.
It is real change and real lives.

And we can't do it without you. SHONA's growing and we have lots of exciting things on the horizon. But we are looking for a few more people who want to get involved. We're not looking for donations, or even sales (although we always appreciate them).

What we are looking for is a few people willing to donate some time, some energy, some excitement to these amazing women.

Don't worry about what skills you have. The question is do you love these women? Those are the people we are looking for. If you have got that, and some time you are willing to share, we'd love to hear from you.

"Be the change that you want to see in the world"

Please email us at dhurley@shonacongo.com and we'll get back to you soon.

It truly is amazing what we can accomplish together.

2010-07-20T05:36:00.001-07:00

Here is an excellent piece on some of the dangers of focusing disproportionately on one aspect of the complex problems in Congo.

Conflict minerals and Conflict Capitalism

2010-07-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

I have recently been writing a series of blog entries related to "Conflict Minerals".

It could be that I am just trying to drive traffic to this blog and cash in on what has been termed one of the "biggest buzz" words of 2009.

But I believe strongly that our focus on the conflict mineral trade deserves scrutiny, not because it is inherently wrong, but because it is incomplete. Our concern about the way that minerals are sourced in Congo needs to be part of a larger concern about the way products are sourced, produced, and distributed around the world. I would argue that in the same breath that we talk about conflict minerals we should be talking about conflict corn, conflict fish and conflict cars, but more on that in my next entry.

For now one reader takes it even one step further with a look at our whole economic system and describes "conflict capitalism". If you think this position is taking it too far, check out a fascinating excerpt from the book Hoodwinked.

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts. Shall we take that popular buzz word and go global? When we talk about Conflict Minerals should we also be talking about Conflict Corn? Or shall we drop the specification all together and talk about "Conflict Capitalism"? Is the focus on one particular product positive, in that it gives us something that we feel we can actually do to change the system? Or is it negative, in that it ignores the larger problem? Check out the thought-provoking comment below and I'd love to hear some more voices weigh in.

"What you are identifying is that the issue is really "conflict capitalism"--the division of labor of the world's economic system depends upon inequities and relies on supply chains which are often exploited by state and non-state entities to extract surpluses either by explicit force or its implication. We in the United States, but also elites throughout the world, are often the ignorant beneficiaries of these supply chains.

The recent emphasis upon "fair trade" or the desire to expose the blood adhering to diamonds, coltan or other conflict minerals, are simplified means of alerting people in the west to the moral implications of their consumer choices. This is not a bad step in the wrong direction, if it offers a wider critique of the conflict inherent and inevitable in the way in which goods and wealth are distributed world wide. In other words, if we don't feel that by buying "fair trade coffee" or not purchasing "blood diamonds" we have done our part.

What the focus upon "blood diamonds" or conflict minerals does, and what your blog reveals is that it misdirects attention away from not only the local complexities of deeply intractable conflicts, mostly for the purpose of assuaging western guilt and to encourage simplistic fund-raising calls, but these approaches misdirect the attention from the underlying conflict which must and inevitably will result from neoliberal international policies which enrich us at the expense of the matatu tout, the water carrier, the coca cola vendor on the street, the second-hand clothing peddler, the coltan and diamond miner, the coffee producer, and on and on." (Thanks for the comment Dean!)

Are we simplifying the debate about Conflict Minerals?

2010-07-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

Recently I posted a few entries on Conflict Minerals. I still have one more entry on the topic to post, but that entry will have to wait until next time. Right now I'd like to take a few minutes to share with you what I consider to be a very interesting discussion. In my previous entries I was discussing ways that advocacy campaigns like the Enough Project sometimes over-simplify the complex issues related to the conflict in Congo. Here is their response...

“No one is trying to over-simplify the issue, Shona. See our report on a comprehensive approach to dealing with conflict minerals, which offers policy recommendations on key security, governance, and livelihood issues. http://bit.ly/15jWDn

Security sector reform, diaspora support for ... (armed groups) and land issues are also among the keys to dealing with the war, and those of us leading the conflict minerals campaign raise these squarely with policymakers. But dealing with these issues requires political will, something that has been lacking to date. But this political will can be generated through attention on conflict minerals, since everyone owns a cell phone and has some piece of Congo's minerals in their phones and laptops. The armed groups also generate far more money from minerals than they do from taxation of agriculture, as commanders have confirmed to us in meetings several times.

As former policymakers, our targeted aim is to generate the right momentum for a real solution to the war in eastern Congo, not offer silver-bullet straw-man solutions. Thank you.”

Thank you for your response, Sasha.
I appreciate that the Enough Project has published extensive reports on the many, complicated issues in Congo and solid, thoughtful suggestions for addressing some of the issues related to the conflict in Congo. My suggestion was not that advocacy campaign such as yours, do not understand the complex realities, but that unfortunately those complex realities are not always communicated in the “talking points” created around such campaigns.

You said that no one is trying to over-simplify things, but you didn't address the quote that I was referring to.

The quote I was referring to was from the Enough Project's website and the comment is attributed to John Prendergast, the co-founder of the Enough Project. He says

“Our demand for cell phones, laptops and other electronics is ravaging the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congo is rich in the minerals that make electronics work, and the battle for the resources has left over 5 million dead. Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped in the Congo, making it the world's most dangerous place to be a woman or girl.
We, as consumers of products made from Congo's "conflict minerals," hold the key to the solution.

Although you say that no-one is trying to over-simplify the issue that seems to be the result in comments such as these.

I believe it is an over-simplification to state that “the battle for resources has left over 5 million dead”. The conflict in Congo can't be boiled down into a battle for mineral resources, as you are quick to agree throughout much of your research.

Likewise, I believe it is a large over-simplification to state that we as consumers hold the key to the solution to the conflict in Congo. As you well know, there are many complex factors involved in the conflict, most of which the average consumer in the US is unlikely to hold the solution to. You point out that most of these issues require political will that is currently lacking, and so by mobilizing consumer support for conflict mineral trade reform, you can then use that leverage to press other issues politically. I understand this strategy and I think it has some merit. But I think we need to be honest in its implementation, and in our eagerness to get people's attention, we still need to careful to reflect the situation accurately. Portraying consumers as holding the key to the solution crosses that line.

In its campaign geared at students, the Enough Project states

“If students use their collective power to pressure companies to stop buying electronics components made with conflict minerals, rebel and militia groups will no longer have funds to terrorize the civilians of eastern Congo.”

Wouldn't it be wonderful if it were that simple? If by cutting off funding we could put an end to groups terrorizing civilians all around the world. No doubt cutting off funding helps. But I am sure that you know how sadly little money it takes to terrorize civilians around the world. and I am sure that you know that cutting off the funds related to the mineral trade, even if it is possible, will not result in an immediate end to the banditry, armed robberies, pillaging and general disorder which ravages Eastern Congo.

In your policy paper you state
"There is no silver bullet solution to Congo’s conflict minerals. But if the Congolese and regional governments, the international community, and the private sector can align their efforts on the common goal of a revitalized legitimate mineral trade in eastern Congo, it would have a major impact in resolving the conflict”.

I appreciate the honesty of that statement. That is a lot of ifs, and unfortunately it is the reality. Bringing together all of those players in an honest commitment to reforming the mining sector is a monumental task, especially since most players are benefiting from the current system.

Encouraging students to demand “conflict-free minerals” is one piece of a large puzzle, and we need to be honest about that. Promising them that this lobbying for conflict-free products at their schools will end the conflict in Eastern Congo is misleading. And in the end where will that get us?

What happens when students succeed in their lobbying and the war and chaos in Congo does not end? If so much energy is to be spent on “raising public awareness” of the issues, it is imperative that the awareness reflect a genuine understanding of the issues or it will disappear as readily as it has come.

On Enough's blog there is an excellent piece by Laura Heaton, on the recent assessment of the failures of the Kimberly Process and the lessons that it can offer Congo. If there is one thing that the Kimberly Process has demonstrated it is how complicated the idea of “conflict-free” is and how lengthy and difficult a process it is to create effective change. 10 years into the process, Zimbabwe's diamonds are still not certified as “conflict free” and abuse and exploitation is still rampant.

On the Enough blog, you say
“The Brownback Amendment that is currently part of the financial reform bill will make companies accountable for making sure they do not source minerals from conflict areas. Companies that source from Congo or neighboring countries will have to conduct an audit to make sure that they did not source from a conflict mine. This tracing and auditing is possible - Intel and Motorola are already starting credible audits on one of the minerals, tantalum. Moreover, the process is inexpensive: the audits will only cost one penny per product, according to electronics companies...
But the real question that Americans asked themselves last week was: Is one additional penny for a cell phone really too much to pay for accountability? A clear majority said no...”

This, again, is a frustrating simplification. Unfortunately, as the Kimberly Process suggests, accountability is not easily bought and certainly not with a penny. The Brownback Amendment is one small step in a rather large battle. Effectively holding companies accountable for their supply chains is a long, and difficult task, but one which we should engage in with all companies not just those related to electronics. Identifying mines within Congo as "Conflict-Free" would be at least as difficult as it has proven in Zimbabwe. Your policy paper calls for establishing conflict free mines by “Properly integrated Congolese security forces—supported by MONUC and international military observers—should secure these mining sites and the transit routes associated with their trading chains, including select airfields, ports, and border crossings. To the maximum extent possible, this should be carried out via negotiation and with positive incentives for commanders willing to relinquish their hold over these sites and enter into DDR programs.”

Anyone having spent much time in Eastern Congo is aware how difficult such a task would be. In 2008 Congolese security forces and MONUC struggled to simply hold Goma in the face of advancing rebel troops. Legitimately securing mines across Congo in an orderly, non-corrupt way, so as to be able to certify those mines as conflict free, would be an incredible feat, and should not be glossed over as a simple and obvious step that we can ensure simply by paying a penny.

Ultimately I believe that using consumer products to draw attention to a larger issue is good. But I think we need to be careful not to commodify our call to activism. We, as consumers, and more over as global citizens have a responsibility to ask hard questions about where our products come from and to buy ethically made products. We shouldn't need to be promised that it will only cost a penny, or that we will single-handedly stop a war. The issues are complex. I know the Enough Project is willing to engage with those complex issues but I wish that you would expect the same from the consumers that you are trying to reach. By watering-down some of your communications to consumers, you may find that it is easier to draw attention to the issues, but is this really the type of sustained, thoughtful attention that such a long and difficult process will require?

Part II:Conflict Minerals in Congo

2010-07-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of my previous post. Please check it out here.

So what is it that bothers me about the lobby against "conflict minerals in Congo"?

I think it is the specificity of the argument.

By making the argument so specific, we are lying to ourselves about complex realities both in Congo and in our own backyard.

Myth #1:Congo Conflict=Mineral Trade

Enough Project claims...
Our demand for cell phones, laptops and other electronics is ravaging the Democratic Republic of the Congo...the battle for resources has left over 5 million dead...We, as consumers of products made from Congo's "conflict minerals," hold the key to the solution."

The conflict in Congo can not be boiled down to a battle for resources. The situation is far more complex than that.

The Enough project knows better than this. In other places they are more careful to state that the conflict minerals trade is one of many factors fueling the conflict.

But that is precisely the point. They know that the situation is far more complex. But that doesn't make a good advocacy campaign. Mobilizing support and outrage here, requires a simple villain. And a solution that we can control. So there it is... let's call them “conflict minerals”...or perhaps “blood phones” (hat tip to Lynn).

By doing this we lie to ourselves about the complexity of the situation in Congo, and about the types of changes that are needed to create real peace in Congo, and unfortunately we make the quest for peace far easier than it actually is. Besides which, even if controlling the mineral trade was a concrete solution to the conflict, this US legislation is unlikely to get us there. It relies on the idea that there can be meaningful verification, documentation and monitoring of mineral resources within Congo. This assumes the existence of structures that simply don't exist in Eastern Congo at this time. You have to build the structures first, or the paperwork is meaningless in Congo.

That is not to say that the legislation isn't important.

Legislation here in the US, requiring companies to be more transparent about and responsible for their supply chains is important and , and so is pressure for companies to produce and trade more ethically . But by limiting the problem to “conflict minerals” we make the argument so specific as to pretend that the larger problem doesn't exist. The supply chain problem isn't a Congo problem, and we aren't the heroes rushing in to save the day. Our corporate systems, our regulation systems, the types of products that make it to our shelves, and the amount of information we have about those products is deeply broken. By reacting in horror to the unjust, exploitative and irresponsible ways in which minerals are sourced, somewhere in the back of our heads, we assure ourselves that the rest of the stuff we buy doesn't have the same problem. This leads us to...

myth #2: The problem is limited to minerals.

But I'll be back next time to talk about that.

Conflict Minerals in Congo

2010-06-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

Conflict minerals is a term that I never heard in Swahili. Of course I heard about minerals (generally in relationship to whether I might like to buy some). And I heard plenty about conflict. I just didn't hear very many people in Goma put those two words together.

But now that I am back in the US, following the hot celebrity trends and flashy advocacy campaigns, and conflict minerals is all I ever hear about Congo.

Well, besides the fact that Congo is "the rape capital of the world" of course.

So is it true?

Are there minerals in Congo? Absolutely. I could watch young men sitting around a water tap and washing off coltan from my balcony from time to time. (coltan's that mineral that makes our cell phones work)

Is there conflict in Congo? I don't think I even need to answer that question.

Are the two related. Of course. The mining of minerals helps fund many of the armed groups in the region. But so do truck loads of cabbages traveling from farm to market. Road blocks on the insecure roads throughout the countryside in Eastern Congo are used by various armed groups to demand money from anyone and anything needing to pass by. Including cabbages. Roads are a valuable (and scarce) resource in Congo, and just like the minerals, they are seen as a revenue stream for no shortage of armed groups.

And that I think is why I never heard much talk about conflict minerals in Congo. Along with the fact that I hung out with women who were far more likely to be talking about the best way to prepared ugali (a food) than the best way to mine minerals.

But primarily, I think I never heard much about conflict minerals because it would kind of be like talking about conflict cabbage. It's not that it is incorrect, so much as it is incomplete. The reality is that most of the produce you can buy in Goma probably paid a roadblock "tax" at least once to get to you, and part of the price you pay for those goods, is going to support the armed men who demanded that money. There is little in Congo, that the conflict hasn't touched in some way. If people in Eastern Congo started adding the "conflict prefix" to every applicable word, where would it stop?

And yet, Western consumers don't buy conflict cabbages. And they do buy products made from conflict minerals, especially trendy little devices like iphones, hence the suddenly popular use of the term.

There is a bill in congress aiming to reduce the use of "conflict minerals" by requiring electronics companies that trade on the stock exchange to identify the source of their supplies.

I am all for shortening supply chains and making them more transparent. I believe that one of the great evils of our times is that we have become so disconected from the things that we buy, and the ways that they are produced.

What we buy does matter, and the fact that we buy from very large companies, who in turn outsource many stages of production, makes it ever more difficult to know exactly what we are buying and how it was produced.

Any move to demand greater accountability from international corporations, and greater responsibility for all levels of the supply chain, is good.

So in principle, how could I argue with the conflict minerals legislation?

But still there is something that bothers me about this whole movement, and I just can't let it go.

I think it is the ease with which "conflict minerals" rolls off the tongue. It's like it was ready-made for a marketing campaign. Or maybe it is the fact that I never really did hear it roll off the tongue much in Congo.

While in Congo I would often ask people what they believed the solution to the conflict was. Most people found this question extremely difficult to answer, and would often remain silent or respond "Mungu anajua" (God knows)

So when I read this statement from the US based advocacy group behind the push for legislation, I start to get nervous...

"Our demand for cell phones, laptops and other electronics is ravaging the Democratic Republic of the Congo... the battle for the resources has left over 5 million dead. Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped in the Congo, making it the world's most dangerous place to be a woman or girl.

We, as consumers of products made from Congo's "conflict minerals," hold the key to the solution."

I'm glad we have all the solutions. Especially for such a complicated war. It is quite convenient and all.

But just in case there might be a few more words that need to be said on this topic...I'll be back tomorrow for the second half of this blog.

2010-06-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

When the days get a little long

And the weather gets way too hot.

I often think of the Argentine, Riziki, Solange and Mapendo.
And how much they love playing "sit-ball".

How they dive for the ball and race around the cement floor.

Loving every minute of it.

Thanks to Molly Feltner for befriending the SHONA ladies and for donating these awesome photos!

Voices

2010-06-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to show you a beautiful video. It is a video I made with my ESL students here in NY. My students are Spanish-speaking adults. Most of them have extremely limited English (although they are getting better by the day). We made a video of them talking about their dreams. It is beautiful. The dreams that they have are the same dreams we all have.

But I can't put it up here. Many of my students do not have documents. And so I cannot show you this video today. But here are some examples of what they said...

I have a dream that...
One day I will speak English.
I will see my children grow up with good hearts.
One day my family will be all together forever.
One day everyone in the world will know God.
Some day I will have a good job.
The world will finish violence.
One day I will return to my country and help people.
I will have documents.

You see what I mean? People are people. And we all have dreams.

We can have many different positions on immigration reform, but what we cannot lose sight of is the fact that we are all brothers and sisters.

So I am sorry to have to cut the video and silence my students' voices.

But I have good news as well.

This week we are introducing tweets live from Congo. We are receiving tweets directly from our craftspeople in Congo and publishing them on twitter in Swahili with translation.

The topics our craftspeople will be tweeting on will be limited. They can't comment on the ongoing conflict in Congo, but they can tell you a bit about their own lives. The tweets will provide at least a glimpse of their lives, their words, and their voices. They will tweet about what is going on from week to week, and some of the joys and struggles in their own lives.

Too often I take my own voice, and my own freedoms, for granted. But many people, throughout this world, live in situations in which their voices are often either silenced or unheard. So check out our website, where we are posting our twitter updates, or join us on twitter, in one small attempt to bring a few more voices into the global community? And remember you can sign our guest book, and send messages directly to our craftspeople! Both your voice, and their voices, do matter!

New Summer Stock!

2010-06-08T17:46:00.000-07:00

What is summer for?

If not for African colors?

We are celebrating summer with a special gift!
Make a purchase in the next 3 days and receive a free SHONA TOTE BAG with your purchase!

Visit our store
or take a peak below to see a few of our brand new designs!

Check out this patchwork throw cloth. What's it for? You decide. You can throw it over a table or a chair. Take it on a picnic or to the beach. Throw it over your shoulders or wear it as a sarong. No matter what you decide to do, it's the perfect summer companion!

And we've got funky new aprons, with contrasting cloths on the pockets and straps to add a little spice to your life!

We love this beautiful new shirt. It's cool, light-weight and super comfortable, with amazing embroidery!

And we are super excited about this all new product. There can't be an easier way to add an artistic African accent to your home. This short and sweet patchwork cloth is the perfect size to throw on a coffee table, shelf or desk. Or make it the centerpiece of a larger table, you won't be disappointed with this beauty!

And my personal favorite. Our knee-length summer wrap skirt is fun, flirty and super comfortable. It easily fits a variety sizes, just throw it on with a t-shirt and it looks great!

Talk to us!

2010-06-04T05:03:00.000-07:00

We have a brand new guest book on our website and we hope you will visit!
You can visit our website

or go straight to the guestbook.

We are a small organization and we heavily depend upon encouragement from SHONA friends. Will you come and be the first one to sign our guestbook?

Not only that, but we are offering a cool new way to connect you with our craftspeople directly. If you are a SHONA customer, we invite you to send a message directly to the woman who crafted your purchase. Just include her name, and a brief message to her, and we will translate it and send it on to her through text messaging. You can send words of encouragement, or even a question about her life, and we will post her response back to you on the guestbook, in Swahili with English translation.

How cool is that? How often do we hear about women in Eastern Congo? How often are they described as victims? They are not. They are beautiful, talented young women who have a world of things to say. Send them a message today!

To Be of Use

2010-06-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

"...I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

~ Marge Piercy ~
(Excerpt from the poem To Be Of Use)

I find very little to say, that isn't better said in this poem.

I have spent the last year 6 months exhausted. I teach ESL classes to Spanish-speaking adults during the day, and to Russian-speaking adults at night. The classes couldn't be more different, and yet in the end they are the same. Honest people, hard-workers, determined to embrace a culture and a language that is not their own. We talk about the difference between "work" and "walk", and why Americans insist on using articles before nouns. And we talk about our families and homes and dreams.

Somewhere in between the two classes I often get on the phone, and switch from English to Swahili, to talk with the SHONA ladies half way across the world. This time my language is stumbling and theirs is fluent. But still it is the same. We talk about the cut of a cloth, and the length of a stitch. And we talk about families, and homes and dreams.

Sometimes I feel that SHONA inches along. You may notice that umm...I haven't been doing a great job at getting new products up in our store or getting publicity out there. That is not to say it's not coming, but I am sure a different person would be out there networking and "advocating" and tweeting up a storm by now. Sometimes I believe that the SHONA women deserve a louder voice, or a more connected friend. There are people that would probably have them on Oprah by now.

And here we are in the mud, "the work of the world is common as mud". And we inch along slowly.

But the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

And when I look at the faces of those standing beside me,
I am thankful for work that is real.

Stolen cloth

2010-05-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

People often ask me where the cloth we use comes from, and how the craftspeople get it.

There is a "cloth district" in Goma which contains 30 or so shops like the one pictured above. However this picture probably gives you the wrong idea. This shop looks quiet and peaceful. But these shops are invariably crowded with women pushing in the door and yelling out their cloth selections to the people behind the counter. These are wholesale shops, where the market ladies come to buy the cloth they will sell. Each woman is calculating in her head, the price she will pay and the price she thinks she can sell the cloth for. And the trick is that there are tons of varieties of cloth, including a number of knock-off cloths, that often have the name of a high quality brand written on them, and demand close inspection to determine the true quality.

So you can picture Argentine and Mapendo in the midst of this. Pressed in on all sides, and determined to inspect their cloth with a sharper eye than anyone else.

Last week they went home crying. They had lost two vitenge (about 18 feet of cloth each). Or rather someone had stolen those cloths. Someone took advantage of the crowd and the hustle and simply ran away with two of their cloths.

We can replace them. The loss amounts to about 28 dollars.

Of course 28 dollars is nothing to sneeze at, but I think there is a more important story behind this loss.

The cloth district is located in the worst, dirtiest and most chaotic part of Goma. I used to shop there as well, and I always felt like I had to have eyes on the back of my head to keep up with half of what was going on around me.

Our craftspeople go there all the time, with crutches and metal leg braces. They haggle with vendors, buy cloth, and figure out a way to get it home.

In all of this time, they've never lost a piece of cloth, or a dollar. I think they deserve congratulations. It is no surprise that someone stole their cloth, sadly. It is more of a surprise that it didn't happen sooner. But the story that deserves to be told is not of the shameless people that would steal from these young women on crutches, but the strength and determination of those women who have braved this crowd week after week.

I used to come home from the cloth district exhausted. I can't imagine doing it on crutches.

Sometimes I talk about empowerment and forget what it looks like. I forget about the sweat and blood that gets us there. I talk about empowerment as though it is a beautiful statue I can keep on a shelf, but for the SHONA ladies empowerment is a living and breathing reality. Empowerment throws them headlong into the hustle of life

And they jump in astonishingly well. They do so well, that sometimes it leads me to wax poetic. Empowerment is beautiful. But it is also covered in the mud and sweat of everyday life. It means going to that market month after month to choose your own cloth. Empowerment doesn't separate us from the realities of life, it throws us into the midst of them, and asks us to swim. The SHONA ladies have been doing just that, sometimes they come back covered in dust, but they never once have considered sending someone else to the market. They rely on having the best cloth to sew, and they can think of no one more qualified than themselves to choose it. Isn't that what empowerment looks like?

Joy comes in the morning

2010-05-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

This is Argentine's mother. She looks young doesn't she? But she has lived through no shortage of obstacles. She has 7 children, Argentine is her oldest and the three-year old standing next to her is the youngest. In other words, there are five more, between Argentine and Pascaline. Argentine's mother has raised those children more or less single-handedly, in a rural village that has seen too much fighting and not nearly enough peace.

Remember that before Argentine came to Goma she could not walk. Her legs were curled up underneath her, the result of childhood polio.

This is the mother who carried Argentine on her back for all those years, with all those younger children to care for as well.

How beautiful to see them here together again. And Argentine standing so proudly beside her mother. I am sure there were many times when both Argentine and her mother wondered what the future could possibly hold. Who knew it would hold so much joy?

Kristof's gamble

2010-05-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

"It’s a blunt truth that is politically incorrect, heartbreaking, frustrating and ubiquitous:

It’s that if the poorest families spent as much money educating their children as they do on wine, cigarettes and prostitutes, their children’s prospects would be transformed. "

Wow. That is quite a claim from Nicholas Kristof. It makes me wonder if he has done any tallies of his own expenses recently. Does he really feel that confident in the way he uses his own money?

Because frankly, I can't imagine it. I can't imagine the self-confidence it takes to publicly judge the way someone else uses their money. Especially someone who lives on less than 1/1000 of the income you live on. I mean...really? Can you be so comfortable in the way that you use all of your money, that you can criticize the way the poorest people in the world use theirs?

I find it shocking because I've been there. When I lived in Congo I lived well-below the standards of most of my fellow ex-pats. We lived in a local apartment, our neighbors were Congolese. We had no hot water and often no running water at all. We really did live quite modestly on most accounts. And still we lived WELL ABOVE the standards that most Congolese are able to live in. And that haunted me. Sometimes we ate out at restaurants, or went to the beach, or bought bootleg American movies, or played tennis. Because sometimes we just needed a break. And I can state without a doubt that the average person in Goma would not dream of spending money on those activities... Except maybe the bootleg movies...

So I'd be really interested to know what hotels Kristof stays in and what restaurants he eats in as he travels the world writing about poverty. Does this never haunt him? Does he never glance at the price of all those plane tickets he uses, and wonder if it is the right choice?

My point is this. It is a grey area. We all make choices with our money and our time that aren't always the most reasonable or the most far-sighted. Sometimes our choices are just the only way we can face tomorrow. And sometimes there is a good reason for our choices, even if it isn't visible.

Now I'm not saying that wine, cigarettes and prostitutes are good uses of anyone's money, poor or rich. But I think Kristof is missing the whole picture there. Cigarette smoking is not particularly prevalent in the parts of Africa I have seen, and the people who do it are generally young men, soldiers. Likewise, prostitutes seem particularly prevalent in areas where soldiers congregate. Of course there are heads of households who probably waste much-needed money on prostitutes and cigarettes but I would not say that this is so common that it is stalling the future of Africa's children. There are many other influences at work there.

Drinking, on the other hand, is a big one (but let's be clear on the use of his term wine...no one is drinking merlot here...we're talking beer and local brews) Still, too high a percentage of poor family's incomes does get drunk by the male head of household. It does happen too often. But it is not a ubiquitous truth. For every man that drinks too much, there are men who don't.

I have sometimes judged people, like Kristof does, although I am ashamed to admit it. I have seen very poor families with cell phones or television sets, and wondered at the choice. I have shaken my head at the festivities for "Women's Day" where it seems every woman buys a new outfit, no matter whether she can afford it. I have arched my eye brows at the many women in Congo who pay $5 to have their hair braided.

In fact, in Congo people love festivities. Women love to dress up and march down the street. It's an escape, and a chance to relax. I do the same thing. But it's easy to judge more harshly the way poor people spend money. They have limited resources so it is easy to make the argument that they are using precious resources unwisely. But should we really judge them more strictly just because they have less resources? Do we get a pass on how we use our money, just because we have more of it? It seems a little unfair. So perhaps we should begin with the question of why any of us spends money on non-essential items. The money I spent on this computer could have paid the school fees for 8 children for a year. Why don't we just pack up all that extra money and make schooling free for everyone? I mean who really needs that vacation, those clothes, that cell phone, that car...If we really thought we could just pack that money off and end poverty in the world, I think a decent percentage of people would consider it. But it's not so simple eh?

Which leads us back to Kristof's primary suggestion. He suggests that if poor families spent less money on wine, cigarettes and prostitutes "their children's prospects would be transformed".

If only that were true, I'm sure that almost every family would jump on board. The fact is that all of the families that I knew in Goma heavily prioritized school fees. They struggled to pay them consistently, but they were always trying. And it wasn't just the school fees, it was the school uniform, the shoes, the notebooks, the pens...

Times 6 or 7 or 10. Because everyone I knew was struggling not only to pay school fees for their own children, but for various other family members as well.

And, if we are being honest here, how often does that struggle really pay off? The schools in Congo are terribly overcrowded, the teachers are terribly underpaid and therefor under-qualified, there are no books and the opportunities for employment when you finish school are minimal.

I am a teacher. I am not arguing that school is not important or in fact transformational. But just squeezing out those extra dollars to pay that school fee is hardly a promise of transformation. The quality of the school does matter. And It takes years and years of squeezing out that money each month, for not just one child but many. It takes electricity for them to study at night. Water for them to wash up in the morning. It takes the ability and the time to help them with their schoolwork, work that you perhaps know nothing about. It takes hoping that they won't get sick, and you won't get sick, and fighting won't break out, and the teachers won't go on strike. And it takes hoping that somehow when that child graduates ten years from now, that there will miraculously be a job for her, even if she isn't the right tribe and she doesn't have the right connections. That sounds like quite a gamble.

Yes it is a gamble they should take, and is certainly a better gamble than cigarettes or wine or prostitution. But it is not an easy road, and sometimes we all need a break.

Yes you are right, it would be better to not waste a cent. Or a franc, I guess I should say. But which of us really follows that?

Perhaps Mr. Kristof does. I guess they probably bring him free drinks on all of his flights. Good thing he gets to fly.

SHONA on the big screen

2010-05-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe just on You Tube.

But this is our debut on You Tube and we need your support.

The more you visit, and tell others to visit, the higher we will show up in searches.

Vote with your feet. Come visit us on You Tube

Celebrate Spring!

2010-05-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

Enjoy Spring with us!

Mother's Day Gifts from Africa: Celebrate women around the globe!

2010-05-02T20:29:00.001-07:00

Every SHONA item has a story behind it. Not just the story of a craftsperson, but that of her whole family.

If you look closely at the work of Argentine and Mapendo, surely you will see their mother's eyes glittering back at you. Because it was their mothers who carried them this far.

And now, each item these young women sew, helps support their mother's back in the village. In fact, as I type this, Mapendo is there right now, in the village visiting her mother.

So for Mother's Day, we invite you to celebrate with us. We invite you to celebrate the victories of Argentine and Mapendo and the mother's who carried them and believed in them.

We have some Mother's Day Specials posted in our store, and I hope to post a few more tomorrow. Each of these specials features handcrafted work of either Argentine or Mapendo, and goes to support both mother and daughter.

Mother's Day is only one week away, and SHONA would make a beautiful gift. We are offering free gift wrapping on request as well as a special Mother's Day brochure with the heart-warming stories of how Argentine and Mapendo are now supporting their mother's through every item they sew.

So come and buy something today!

What Compels you?

2010-04-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

I recently got into a discussion on another blog about the writing style of New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. In case you haven't run into him lately, he covers places like Congo and Sudan, and he often tends to focus his columns on shocking stories of suffering from those regions.

He was speaking to the Columbia Journalism school and was asked this question.

Question: How much of the year are you traveling? Don't you get compassion fatigue?

Answer: ... I'm leaving to go to Sudan... try to find most compelling story I can within limited time. Somebody will tell me about some heart-rending story about a 30-year-old man, and frankly, I will know that I can do better as an anecdote... if I want to get middle-age man in my lead [sic], readers will tune out...

maybe it's going to be a 9-year-old girl with soulful eyes - some story that will get readers into the column....

I'm sometimes kind of embarrassed that I have to say - it's terrible that you were shot in the leg, but I will go off and find someone that was shot in both legs... I really want to find the most compelling anecdote to get readers into the story....

Kristof believes that shocking stories of suffering are what compels us.

But he also believes that writing about certain kinds of people helps make his stories more compelling.

In a blog entry he writes
"Readers sometimes ask why I often write about outsiders, like Lisa (The American woman who started Run For Congo), rather than about the innumerable local people who are doing extraordinary work — often at greater risk...

But it’s already very difficult to get Americans to show any interest in a remote, distant conflict, and if everyone in the drama is Congolese it’s that much harder. An American protagonist in the column creates a connection to readers, I hope, and leaves them more engaged in the topic. That may not be fair, but it’s the reality....."

So he thinks that stories about people similar to ourselves, doing something good, helps to compel us.

Leaving aside some questions about whether this is good journalism, I have a different question.

Does it work?

Now this is a totally honest question. And I really would love to hear some responses.

Do stories of shocking suffering compel you? Do stories of people like yourself compel you?

In fact what is it that compels you?

Because we all care about many things, in a general sense. But we live full lives, busy lives, and most of our time and attention goes to the people who fill our own lives. This is as it should be.

Yet occasionally some need, some cause, some project, or some person outside our normal circle catches us. Compels us. Maybe we volunteer, donate money, write a letter, start a blog, sign a petition, go to a meeting...

We are all confronted by a barrage of needs every day. But which ones compel us to action? And why?

Is it something about the way the message is communicated? Or who communicates it? Is it the problem itself that calls you? Or is it a particular type of solution?

It is often observed that people are far more likely to respond to needs after natural disasters, like the earthquake in Haiti, than to those that are man-made and on-going, like war? Is that true of you?

Today there is a wave of advocacy for all kinds of causes, using all kinds of media (this blog is a perfect example). Most of it we tune out. Or smile and nod. There is no way we can respond to it all.

Yet occasionally something compels us into action.

What compels you and why?

This is not a rhetorical question. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

One step closer

2010-03-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

This is my dream. My dream is to bring you and Argentine together. I know your lives are a million miles apart. And she lives in a place that you can barely imagine.

But you and she have more in common than you may realize.

She sews beautiful bags that you have gone out of your way to buy. And the money you spend on those bags, is helping her to create real change in her own life and in those of others.

I can't wait until she can tell you about it herself.

Because in the end it is not about bags, no matter how beautiful they are, but about creating connections between people.

So check out our store today. We've got brand new stock, but more importantly we're bringing you and Argentine one step closer together...or maybe it is Mapendo you want to connect with. Or Roy or Solange or Riziki. The choice is yours.

Because now you can search our store by craftsperson, and check out the unique talent of each individual.

You'll see that each craftsperson has a unique story, and also a unique talent. Remember each person goes to the market, no small feat on crutches, chooses her own cloth, cuts it by hand, and sews it herself. Each bag she creates is an extension of herself, her beauty, her story.

So try it. First, pick a craftsperson, and go back and read about her life again. Then go to our store and click on her image. You'll see all of the work of her hands. I guarantee it will inspire you.

We're busy working on more ways to connect you directly with these amazing individuals. Pretty soon you'll be able to read a tweet from one of them, instead of from me. And leave one of them a message, instead of me.

Because, we shouldn't live in a world where the stories of the poor and the vulnerable are are always told by other people, no matter how well meaning we are. Doesn't everyone deserve a chance to tell her own story? And, for that matter, to sell her own bags?

This is just one step. But I am celebrating because it is a major step, and one which took a lot of preparation. You see, it is easier to just throw everything together and slap on a corporate logo. Just look at how everyone else does it.

But I am committed to putting in the extra work, so that our craftspeople truly sell their own work. Because a world in which Argentine can sell her own bags, and profit from them, is one where her voice matters. And a world where you can choose whose work to support with your purchase, is a world where your voice matters more. So take a minute, if you can, and check it out. Support our effort to bring us all one step closer together.

Thank you

2010-03-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Just a quick, belated thank you to all of our friends who came out and supported us during our last online sale. We were offering a 2 for 1 deal and hoping to raise enough money through our sales, to buy new cloth for the month. Our craftspeople had literally been sitting with no work in their hands, and they were desperate to buy new material and get started again. You all came out and supported us whole-heartedly, we were able to stock up on a full month of cloth and our sewing machines our whirring again.

Thank you for choosing to make purchases that truly give life to others. We know that in this economy, no purchase is made lightly. We consider it an honor that you continue to shop with us. There is no greater compliment to our craftspeople. Thank you!

Whose name is on your bag?

2010-03-21T16:53:00.000-07:00

Whose name is on your bag?

Luis Vuitton? Christian Dior? Or maybe you are more of a Vera Bradley type?

Living in New York I get to witness this strange obsession with brand name bags all the time. On a sidewalk in New York, a young man will suddenly stop in the midst of a crowd. He will glance from one side to the other, scanning the crowd. And then spread out a sheet on the ground. Next he will line that sheet with bags and purses, all the time mumbling "Luis Vuitton $40, Christian Dior $30". As though the name and the price says it all. And maybe it does.

These knock-off bags appear to do a banging business in New York. Except when a cop appears and the young man shoves all of his goods inside that sheet and hoists it over his shoulder, like a crazed-santa, and starts running.

The knock-off bag business is so popular because brand name bags are so expensive. But is a Luis Vuitton bag really worth $200? Or is it the logo we are paying for?

Now, I can see some of you laughing smugly. Happily pointing out that you have never bought a knock-off bag, or paid a ridiculous price for that brand name bag. But take a look inside your closet. I am willing to bet that you will find no shortage of names and logos on your clothes and shoes.

Surely this has to be the greatest coup in marketing history. Remember how logos and brand names used to go on the inside of clothing? On little tags that could be easily ripped out or ignored? How is it that those names have become part of the very fabric of our clothing, emblazoned on the outside as though a logo were a medal of honor? So maybe it isn't Gucci that you are wearing, but is it Northface? J Crew? L.L. Bean? I'm guessing someone's name is there.

How is it that massive companies have convinced us to donate our bodies as billboards? Not only have they found a way to get some of the most valuable advertising space in the world for free, they've got us paying extra for the privilege of wearing their publicity.

I'm sure Nike and Lacoste appreciate the donation of your body.

But would you consider donating your body to a slighly smaller operation? No, we aren't even going to do that.

It may be ok for massive companies to use you as a billboard, but we, at SHONA, expect better of ourselves... So, we are adding our logo to SHONA products, but only on the inside.

We've decided that the outside should be for something more important. Like an ACTUAL PERSON.

Instead of wearing names like Luis Vitton and Vera Bradley or even SHONA Congo, why not wear the name of a real person? In fact, why not wear the name of the person who sewed your bag?

She went to the market and chose that cloth.
She carried it home, despite the fact that she walks with crutches.
She measured and cut it by hand.
She sewed it with a hand or foot powered sewing machine.
And she will feed herself and her family with the price that you pay.

So let's create a better world.
A world where we stand for people, not corporations.

Click on our "made-by campaign"
And wear a bag with your craftwoman's name.

Stand for Someone Today.

'Made by' campaign bags feature a cloth ribbon that reads
"made by Solange Made in Congo" or
"made by Mapendo. made in Congo"
They are currently available for a select group of Mapendo and Solange's bags. Both these women have incredible stories and truly, by wearing their names you will be standing for someone who deserves to be a celebrity.

Only available while supplies last. So make your statement today!

Buy one, Get One Free

2010-03-09T15:55:00.000-08:00

Buy 1, Get 1 Free!

Joy is meant to be shared,
and so are SHONA bags!

For this week only, with every bag or purse that you purchase, get a second one Free!

So treat yourself to your favorite cloth, and then choose a second one for a friend.

With both bags, you will literally be putting work back in our craftspeople's hands. There is no greater compliment to them, nor is there anything they want more than the ability to continue to support themselves and their families.

Our shelves in Congo are currently empty and our sewing machines are silent. The craftspeople can't wait to get back to working, but first we need new cloth. Each bag that we sell allows us to buy a new yard of cloth. Your purchases make all the difference in the world to us.

Rain in Africa, Snow in New York

2010-03-03T16:47:00.001-08:00

This season of my life has been way too busy. I am exhausted. I miss Africa and the afternoons spent drinking tea. The evenings spent looking up at the sky. Ok, ok. I probably didn't actually do those things all that often. There were always cell phones ringing and emails waiting.

But often the internet just didn't work. And the phones went dead. And the power went off.

And if I was lucky it would rain. In Africa wherever you are and whatever you are doing, when it rains you just stop. You stand at the door and stare as the rain comes pounding down. And you know that you have stolen back a few minutes of your life. No one is coming to the door. And you can't go anywhere. In fact the rain pounding on the tin roof means you can't even hear the people who are in the same room with you. Nor can you hear the radio, or the television, or the cell phone.

All you can do is stop and look at out the rain.

And so here in New York I love the snow. Because New York doesn't stop for rain, but we do a pretty good job at stopping for snow. And we have been blessed by two beautiful snow storms this February, just when I needed them most.

Because sometimes life just needs to slow down.

New Photo!

2010-02-23T20:07:00.000-08:00

Check out the awesome new photo on the front of our website!

And while you are at it, let me point out that the purse featured in the photo costs $6.99 and comes with a free change purse. What better deal can you find?

For 1 week only: 20% off everything!

2010-02-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

How about brightening up your winter with vibrant colors and one of a kind designs?

For one week only we are offering the biggest sale of the year, with 20% off all our designs. Check it out here!

These are the toughest months for retail, and more than ever our craftspeople need a consistent income. How about doing your holiday shopping early this year? SHONA bags, tableware, and aprons make great gifts to stash away.

Your purchases always mean a lot to our craftspeople. But right now, in these months and in this economy, your purchases are more meaningful than ever. We hope you will come and check out our store this week. We greatly appreciate your support!

On a cold day

2010-02-06T04:59:00.000-08:00

January 29th was one of the coldest days in New York. It was the type of day that makes you want to curl up with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book.

It was most definitely not the type of day when you want to hang out in Central Park. Standing still. Looking pretty.

And yet that is precisely what this young woman was doing.
While wearing a SHONA bag, you see. This young woman is named Vanessa. And that is all I can tell you about her. Because, believe it or not, I have never met her, or even spoken to her. She has never been to Congo, nor meet any of the SHONA craftswomen. And yet there she is doing a favor for women thousands of miles a way. Just because she wanted to.

And the truth is that there is another incredibly generous soul behind that camera. And talented. Have you ever tried taking pictures of people in the freezing cold? And getting them to smile?

I've met this photographer once. He has a full-time job, as a social worker. He has a wife and children and runs his own photography business on the side. And obviously he is a talented artist. But for reasons somewhat inexplicable to me, he read an ad I put on craigslist, asking for volunteers. And threw himself into SHONA.

This was his first SHONA shoot. Since then he has done two more. So stay tuned for more beautiful pictures from Jose Figueroa soon.

In the meantime I wanted to give a shout-out to all our friends out there. Without people like Jose and Vanessa, and many others of you, SHONA would be nowhere.

Many thanks also to Paul Stetzer who continues to help me improve our everyday product photos, the ones I take on a headless, legless mannequin. Trust me, it is quite a task. And he, like Jose, is a talented artist who has donated his own time, his own equipment and his own endless enthusiasm to the project. Many thanks to you all.

Looking for a few good people

2010-01-12T05:04:00.000-08:00

As I have mentioned earlier, I recently got a job. This is a good thing since it will allow us to eat. It is also a good thing because I love the job. I get to teach English to a group of adults that really want to learn it. They are mostly women, and many of them have lived in NY for many years, and yet they have never been able to learn more than a couple words of English.

This is not because they do not want to learn. It is because life runs away with us all. They come to the US with full lives, with children and husbands and they work hard, often in jobs that do not expect them to say anything. Politics aside, can you imagine living in a country in which you can not speak the language? I know that sometimes it seems like Spanish has become the second language here in the US, and especially in NY. But the reality is that even here in NY, without English, a person is extremely limited. I have been there. When I moved to Congo I spoke neither French or Swahili. That basically means I could talk to no one. I know what that feels like. And how hard it can be to change that. So I love working with the students that I have, and teaching them English.

But I am also still running SHONA. The craftspeople are doing a fabulous job. They sew constantly, ship regularly, and can't wait to continue expanding.

And here I am with boxes upon boxes. Each new product has to be photographed. And then I have to actually get people to come and see our products in our online store.

This is the trick. There are a million things we can do online to help people find our website. There are a million things I should do. But I am here trying to figure out how to get better photos of our products, and there just isn't anymore time.

Before I took this job, SHONA was doing really well. For 4 months in a row we were 100% self-sufficient. Of course the holidays helped with that, but mostly what helped was that I was going to craft fairs and getting our name out there.

Now our name is...err...very, very small. So I thought I would put a general invitation out there. Is anyone out there with a little extra time on the computer? Is there anyone who likes to surf, twitter, etc. and would like to do it to help a good cause?

And while I am at it, is there anyone in the NY area that would like to be in some photos? We've got a fabulous photographer lined up to take some photos for us, but we need people to model. Don't be shy, I know you're out there.

And I might just as well say this. Is there anyone that is interested in helping SHONA in any way? Everyone has gifts and talents. I'd love to talk with you about ways we could partner with you and use your skills to hep us. We are very small, but our craftspeople are truly incredible people. I'd love your help in better representing them to the world.

Thoughts? Ideas? Please feel free to comment here or send me an email.

Africa is more than a drum beat...

2010-01-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

Africa has become trendy. The NY times recently led their style section with an article entitled "Designing to an Afro beat". The article argued that African clothing, or perhaps "African-themed clothing", is on a rise.

They said "retailers like Barneys New York, mass marketers like American Apparel and (various) designers... embrace pan-African influences, responding, as if in concert, to some far away drumbeat."

The article also cites the costumes in Avatar.

Clearly Africa is moving up in the world.

But the article only considers a small portion of the ways in which Africa has become trendy in the fashion world.

Little did the author of that article realize, you don't even need the those leopard prints to sell Africa to the fashion world.

All you need is an African orphan, or child soldier, and you've got your next trend in the making.

Take, for example, this group. They are making whistles. Stylish ones, of course. For $30 you can buy a regular whistle, or upgrade and for only $10 more and you can buy the "gunmetal whistle". And for one hundred you can get the gold whistle (read the fine print. It is brass.)

Kind of pricey? Don't worry, you don't just get a whistle, you get a story, in the form of the Falling Whistles Journal. Apparently the young founder of this organization traveled to Congo briefly and heard a story about a child who was too small to carry a gun, so they sent him to the frontlines with a whistle...

A number of questions come to mind, and much has already been said about this on the very interesting blog Wronging Rights.

But Falling Whistles is just one of a growing number of companies/organizations selling African charity as fashion. The organization Common Threadz offers to donate a uniform to a needy orphan every time you buy one of their $38 t-shirts. They even have a line of t-shirts called the orphan line. Catchy title, I suppose. The "orphan line" shirts were actually designed by African orphans they tell me. Ok, "designed" might be a stetch. But they did have children draw the pictures.

Yes, it is slightly alarming to have t-shirt lines called the orphan line, but really where is the problem? All of these organizations donate money, or goods, or services, to Africa.

But can't we do one better?

Because, whether we believe it or not, Africa has actual clothing designers and jewlery makers. Where do you think these t-shirts and whistles are made? I'm willing to bet that it is not Africa.

Why do we seem to dream-up products here (and produce them, somewhere else) and sell them in Africa's name? Who are we doing the favor to? Africa probably has one of the highest populations of tailors and seamstresses in the world. They are talented. Given half a chance at fair import/export regulations and decent infrastructure, Africa's sewing industry would take the world by storm. Not to mention their craft industry.

So let's think twice about creating any more products to sell as African charity. Africans don't need our charity. They need us to open our markets to them. They need us to buy their products.

It is nice the way we have figured out how to market charity, and make it trendy. I believe there is a lot of good will behind it. But charity isn't always what people need.

Support the incredible talent of Africa. Visit our store and check out our new products!

BIG NEWS

2009-12-22T15:10:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Christmas, SHONA has been given a wonderful gift. There is a full-page article on SHONA Congo in the new edition of BBC's Focus on Africa magazine. Yes, that is it, right there, the impressive magazine pictured above. We are in there!!
See that? Well, maybe you have to squint a little, but that is Argentine sewing.

What? You don't believe me? You want to see it without squinting? You want to actually read the article? You can subscribe to Focus on Africa's digital edition. They offer a free trial edition but I recommend that you splurge on the annual online subscription, which is a fabulous deal for under ten dollars. Either way you will be able to read the article, and a whole collection of other fascinating articles. Focus on Africa is an excellent magazine. It is a great way to read about many of the issues facing Africa today, from African perspectives, in an extremely readable and interesting format. I promise I would recommend it even if we weren't inside! So check it out today. You won't be disappointed!

We deeply thank Nam Kiwanuka, whose column we are featured in. Not only is she a columnist for Focus on Africa, but she is a talented free-lance journalist, director and producer, not to mention a celebrity in her own right. A while ago, SHONA caught her eye. Since then she has worked tirelessly, determined to find ways to tell our story. Thank you, Nam, for believing in us.

SHONA bloopers

2009-12-19T20:18:00.000-08:00

Interesting cloth, right? Nice and bright. Very eye-catching. Look...it has little people on it....wait a minute. Exactly what is going on here? Are those scantily clad young women on a bib? Are they serving beer? Yes, I believe that is the famous African Primus beer, to be specific.

Perhaps there has been some mistake. What is this item anyway? Surely it is not what I think it is...a baby bib.

And yet, indeed, it is. This must be the only bib in the world, made out of Primus beer cloth, for your umm...beer guzzling toddlers?!?!?!

Welcome to the SHONA bloopers round. When I asked Roy, one of our craftspeople, to sew some children's bibs, I suppose he thought he was being.. well... thematic. You know food and drinks go together, beer bottles and milk bottles... Or maybe he just thought the design looked snazzy.

I do not think this was his idea of a joke. I am quite sure he sewed these in all earnestness. But I have been giggling for days, imagining the horrified looks I would get if I tried to sell these. Actually I am probably getting horrified looks just for including this in a bloopers round on my blog, but I just had to share it.

One of my favorite parts of working in different cultures, are the inevitable bloopers that result, on both my part and others. I mean if we can't laugh at all those things that didn't quite translate as planned, we'll be in for a long road.

Here is another one...

Last month I opened my latest SHONA shipment to find quite a surprise. Nestled amidst the tote bags and purses was a curious and yet familiar sight. A two pound bag of rice, fresh out of the Goma market.

"Oh no!!!" I exclaimed. "What am I going to do with a bag of rice! I'll have to create a whole new category in our store for "food items"...no that will never work. What about eBay. People buy all kinds of crazy stuff on ebay. Maybe bags of rice from war-torn countries are a novelty item of some sort.... No, probably not."

I mean it. This was a bag of rice, straight from Goma. Well, actually probably originally from Asia. The rice is still mixed with rocks and dirt, so that you can tell it is authentic. I suppose there is no market for it, even on ebay. Certainly not if I mark-up the price to cover what it cost us to ship it. I would have to mark it up at least 10 times over.

And yet my craftspeople sent me a two pound bag of rice. And when I translate it, it turns out to be be just about the most precious of bag of rice in the world.

You see the SHONA women knew that my husband and I returned to the US without jobs, and they knew that getting jobs isn't easy in this economy. They knew that I had been doing everything I could to keep SHONA going, while at the same time relocating and looking for a job. And they knew that we miss Congo. And so they sent us a little rice from Goma, to help along the way. This is the most normal thing in the world to them. They would have done the same thing for a neighbor in the next house, or a relative in the next town over. They share what they have. I am just a little further away.

And I cherish that , because in Goma I often struggled with NOT being like other people. By virtue of my skin color and my passport, I was often seen as the rich American, and to tell the truth, I often was the rich American. I often did have more money than others, and I certainly had more resources. And yet I struggled to communicate to people that I was just another person, like anyone else, that I could run out of money and that I too could get hurt and bleed.

Argentine and Mapendo sent me rice. So what if it cost a ridiculous amount of money to send? Don't worry, I won't be selling it on eBay anytime soon. That two pound bag of rice, which looks exactly like every other 2 pound bag of rice in Goma, is one of my most prized possessions. Everytime I look at it, I smile and am thankful again.

(However if you have any suggestions for what I can do with some beer bibs, let me know!!)

( I must point out that these beer bibs are also incredible examples of hard work at SHONA. Do you see how perfectly centered those scantily clad women are? This is not a naturally occuring phenomenon, this is the result of me insisting time and time again that the design must be in the center! Apparently I never thought to mention that the design should not involve beer bottles on a child's bib. Alas. )

New Crafts

2009-12-14T18:21:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends of SHONA,

Just in time for the holidays, we have a treat for you!

Not only do SHONA crafts make excellent holiday gifts, we now offer "one-stop shopping" for all your holiday needs.

How would you like a African Batik Christmas card to go with your SHONA tote bag? Or some Kenyan earings to go with your SHONA dashiki? Or a handcrafted Rwandan basket to go with your cloth placemat set? We have it all and more!

At SHONA we are introducing a new line of crafts called "ONE FOR ANOTHER". Here you can find crafts from Rwanda and Kenya that we have bought in the local markets and are selling to help support SHONA Congo.

We invite you to come and check us out. And give the gift of hope this holiday season!

Merry Christmas!

Dawn, Argentine, Mapendo, Solange, Riziki, and Roy

Preposterous

2009-12-11T07:20:00.000-08:00

Christmas is the season for the preposterous.

A king born in a manger.

And so I believe it to be SHONA's season as well.

SHONA started as a preposterous project.

I don't know why I thought it would work.

Who starts in internet-based business in Eastern Congo, on an internet connection that makes dial-up look fast?

Recently I visited a bookstore and looked at the business section, where I found all of these guides for starting small businesses and organizations. They contained chapter after chapter of carefully organized plans, to be created BEFORE starting the business.

hmm...

In fact we are in the business of the preposterous in almost every way. SHONA started by making small cloth bags. I assure you that the idea of shipping small, handcrafted cloth bags out of Eastern Congo, does not strike the average Congolese person as clever. Congo exports gold and coltan, and other precious minerials. Things that are worth their weight in gold, literally. Cloth bags? Not so much. In fact I have hardly ever seen a Congolese person even using a cloth bag. Almost all of the bags used in Goma are plastic bags from China or Western hand-me-down bags.

And so we embarked upon a rather risky venture. And we embarked with some of the most "unqualified" people in the world. I knew nothing about starting a business, and nothing about sewing. And our craftswomen, while immensely talented and determined, are handicapped young women who had never been to school and were easily taken advantage of in other groups. That's it. That is all we started with. There was no funding, no studies, no managers and directors. Just us.

And here is the kicker. Almost three years later. We are still going in precisely that fashion. We still have no outside funding (except a few gifts from friends) and no managers. Each item you see is truly the work of our hands.

Four months ago I returned to the US, with the plan that my husband and I will be based out of New York for the next couple of years. We loved Congo, but we need to be closer to family for a while. And in many ways, in order to continue with SHONA I need to be on this side for a while.

But it was a risk. I left the craftspeople in Congo to stand on their own. The test of a project, is not what happens when the "founder" is hovering over it, but what happens when she is not. Many, many people advised me that I needed to leave a manager or director, a boss of some sort, but I wanted to see each craftsperson operating as her own small business. I think that is the best way to empower the craftspeople and the best way to avoid many of the issues of corruption and mismanagement that doom many groups in Congo.

And the craftspeople have exceeded all expectations in terms of taking ownership for their work. I speak on the phone with them often, but almost all of the details of our work are done through text messaging, believe it or not. The craftspeople are far from computer literate (although this is a goal for the future) but they are well versed in text messaging. So I text message an order to each craftsperson each month. She goes to the market, buys the cloth, works for weeks to sew the order, calculates her earnings for the order in a simple accounting book, and submits that total plus the shipping cost to me via text message. And so it goes. Preposterous, except that it works. Really well.

Of course there were years put into making it work. My relationships with the craftspeople were built over years of living next-door to them and working with them daily, not through text messaging. Without the courses I taught them in math and writing, and without the skills they taught me in sewing and Swahili, this would not have been possible.

But my move back to the US was a risk for another reason as well. I need to work. I have spent the last three years of my life working on SHONA full-time for free. I was able to do that because my husband had a job in Congo and we didn't need much to live on. But life in the US is a tad bit more expensive, and I knew that I would need to find a job, at least a part-time one.

And for that I am sheerly amazed as well. I have just taken a position teaching ESL to women in cooperatives (they have a nanny cooperative and a house-cleaning cooperative). The goal of this organization, as you might imagine, is to empower these women through employment and education. Sound familiar? In many ways SHONA has been a wild divergence from my expected career path, and yet it comes together in surprising ways. This job is a combination of my teaching experience and my experience working with SHONA. In fact my experience with SHONa is probably why I got the job.

And it is a 25 hr. a week job, leaving me time to continue working on SHONA. This is precisely what I needed, but hadn't really imagined that I would find.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of blood sweat and tears go into SHONA. Things don't always line up right the first time around. But I have to say this: I am amazed at how much is possible, in ways that I never would have dreamed. I am, indeed, thankful for this season of the preposterous.