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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

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.