Where it goes

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.

Want to be more involved?

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.

Voices

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!

One step closer

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.

On a cold day

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

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.

New website and new shipment

I can scarcely believe it myself!

We have a new website, a new logo, and and a brand new shipment!

Come and check out the awesome work that NT Global did on our website. Some of you may remember that a while ago I wrote a despairing entry about technology. In a nutshell I said "ahhhhh...I am never going to be able to do all of this!"

To which I promptly received a number of offers of help. Imagine that!

NT Global does business and technology solutions. Just what we needed. They have donated their services to redesign our website, and they have done a marvelous job. So check us out and check them out.

On our website you will see our new logo. That was designed by another company that has donated its services. Rena at Ali Pro Services has designed our logo, as well as designing all new brochures and labels for us. She has an amazing eye for design, and is fabulous to work with. So check her out as well.

And of course come and see what our craftspeople have been working on. Our new stock is in, but it is going quickly!

And I almost forgot to mention our new blog. Don't worry, I will still keep writing this blog as my personal blog, but our website now has an official SHONA blog. I wrote an inaugural entry there, and am not sure if anyone is going to find it, so please do stop by and leave a comment.

Many thanks to NT Global, Ali Pro Services, and all of you.

Grassroots organizations

Here is the next question...

My first question is this: when you first arrived, was there any hesitation to receiving a foreigner into the community? Did it take time to gain the people's trust or was it easier than you expected?

I would also would like to piggy-back off of "Mama Rena"'s question: I have many friends who are strong proponents of grassroots organizations in comparison to international orgs. coming into the country and attempting to solve their problems. What is your position on this issue? Should both types exist in order to aid international ties for future development, or is it best to have a solely grassroots initiative?


Ok Jacqueline, you managed to sneak a lot of questions in there! I'll do my best!

1. Congolese are very welcoming people. They like to talk and are quick to joke and laugh. I appreciated this very much when I first came here because I found it easy to engage the culture.

People here are particularly happy to talk to people who have come from Europe or America. I can not count the number of conversations that I have which go like this...

"where are you from?"

"America"

"oh that is GREAT...I LOVE Americans...Do you have a husband? oh...that's ok...how about a younger sister? Oh...how about a friend I could write to in America?"

People are anxious to have any connection they can to places they see as offering a better life. Additionally most Europeans and Americans who are here work with aid and development organizations or churches. And who wouldn't want to have a friend in high places, especially one that has come here to "help"?

I also found Congolese very friendly because I was trying to speak Swahili. When I came here I didn't speak French or Swahili. I decided to learn Swahili first (and I am still stuck on French). But the fact that I was trying to learn the street language here really made people happy. Even though I would butcher the language, they loved to see a "white person" trying to learn their own language.

Other than wanting to learn Swahili, I didn't think too much about trying to build people's trust, probably because they are so welcoming.

What I did spend a lot of time thinking about was how to break out of the box that people see me in. People trusted me, but they often trusted me as a white person, a foreigner who might help them out or give them something. The same thing that makes people want to talk to me, sometimes makes them see me in only one light. That said, I have been honored by the many people who have pushed beyond that. Sometimes I feel that the very people who have the right to ask the most from me, are the ones who have never asked me for a thing, and instead have given me the most. The SHONA women are some of my closest friends. They call me "Dada", which means "sister". When we marched in the women's day parade last year, I will never forget their reaction. As we marched together, people on the sidelines would often call out "mzungu" (white person). This is a common event here in Congo, and happens to me many times a day. But they truly seemed surprised by it. It was as though they simply couldn't understand why people kept calling me mzungu. To every single person they would calmly and earnestly answer "she's not a mzunugu; she is our sister".




On to the second part of your question...
2. That is an interesting comparison: between grassroots organizations and international organizations. Of course my natural inclination is to cheer for grassroots organizations. But unfortunately from what I can see here, many grassroots organizations and international organizations tend to have the same problem. They are often looking for funding. The constant search for funding tends to consume vast quantities of money on its own, creating top heavy organizations with people in offices getting much of the money meant for programs. The eternal quest for grants also tends to create organizations that take their shape based on whatever grants are currently available. For example when a lot of publicity is given to raped women in Congo (rightly so), grants for programs working with these women suddenly become available. And the next thing you know, you have a whole lot of organizations whose goal is to work with these women. But what were these organizations doing before? Whatever that program was, it is too often forgotten.

So I guess in both local and international organizations, one thing that I would look for is an organization that is driven by commitment to a specific goal (and by specific I don't mean "saving the world" or "ending poverty") and is committed to that goal long-term.

And perhaps more importantly I would look for organizations that have low operating expenses. This is perhaps my biggest frustration with international organizations. They often seem to consume so much money!

But one word on behalf of international organizations:
There are some roles that I believe the international community needs to play because local people can't. For example, organizations that research and publicize human rights abuses act as a watchdog in many countries where it is simply impossible for local groups to speak out. I wish that we, as an international community, would spend more time asking ourselves what exactly we have to offer. I do believe there are roles for the international community to play, but it often seems that we think we should play all the roles. when we take over responsibilities that can and should be held locally, I am not sure exactly what we are accomplishing.

But on the other hand...

There are MANY local NGOs here. I have been approached by many of them. They thought I might like to donate. Or have friends who would like to donate. For example, one day I was approached by an anti-smoking youth association, who also believe in helping the environment. What do they do? Well, nothing yet. But if they could just find some funding...

There is a strong belief here that no organization exists without outside funding. When I tell people about SHONA they say "oh, and you have found some good funding for this in the US. Perhaps you can help me find money for my organization". When I try to explain that we have no outside grants and operate largely on the money from our sales, they just don't believe me.

What is missing in Goma, are true community-based grassroots organizations that are led and funded by the community. These are the type of organizations that would be best suited to see and respond to the true needs of the population in a long-term, sustainable way. I often ask myself why they don't seem to exist here. Perhaps they once did, but when they saw the lifestyles of international NGOs and the possibilities of international funding, they changed course. Or perhaps the level of corruption in Congo makes it difficult for such organizations to exist without becoming simply one more way for the people on top of the organization to make a buck.

But I do believe this is one thing that Congo truly needs. I see the level of insecurity in Goma and wonder why people don't form community organizations to create security in their own neighborhoods. I see how strong the women of Congo are and wonder why they can't band together and use this strength to create real change in their country.

The women of SHONA attend weekly education classes. The courses cover basic French and Math, skills they need to succeed in this world. But we always have one class that has a wider focus. We just finished a course in "Faith and Action". We studied Harriet Jacobs, Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa and Wangari Maathai. I don't know why more community groups don't exist here right now, but I believe that change is possible.

This is no time to panic

I will not panic.

The volcanoes have not erupted. The gas in the lake has not killed us all. The war has not escalated. The bandits have not arrived at our house. In fact we are all perfectly fine.

It is just that I feel a tad bit stressed. Somehow I started this venture called SHONA without having any idea what I was getting myself into. Which is good, since otherwise I would not have done it. And I usually proceed in precisely this same manner, never realizing exactly how far I have to go. I just work on posting the next item, developing the next product, or writing the next blog.

And look how far we've gotten!

Except that today I looked at too many other people's websites. They all looked beautiful, and highly professional. And then I looked at mine...which is...well...mine. Don't get me wrong there is tons of good info on there and lots of great photos and you should definitely check it out www.shonacongo.com . It is just that, in case you can't guess, I made it by hand. I didn't realize there were google websites and the like, which offer nice prefab. templates. No, I typed the html into "HTML pad pro" and then my free subscription ran out and I typed the rest into a text document. Talk about doing things the hard way, especially when you start out knowing zero about HTML.

So today I started looking at some other very professional looking operations. And it made me a bit panicky. HOW are we ever going to get there??? There are only so many balls that I can juggle on any given day.

But today I refuse to panic. I will remember how far we've come.

I will remember that...

I work with an incredible group of craftspeople.

They have mastered all of our current products and are entirely self-motivated and self-directed, something that I was told was impossible for young handicapped women.

They are working hard to learn math and French, and are becoming quite good at managing their income.

We have a ton of cool new products coming out soon.

We have loyal, supportive customers who make everything possible.

We have a video. Check it out here.

We are on twitter. Join us here.

We are on facebook. Join us here.



So what if none of our "faces" on the Internet are quite as good as I want them to be. We're here. That is what matters right?

Victory

Sometimes it is the small victories that mean the most.

Yesterday Argentine (one of our craftspeople) got sick. She and Mapendo (another craftsperson) live on their own. Argentine began violently throwing up and was unable to stand or dress herself. Mapendo dressed her, went out in search of a motorcycle taxi, half-carried her to the taxi and brought her to the hospital. Remember these are two significantly handicapped young women, who struggle to walk with crutches on the best of days.

Hopitals here are family endeavor. In the hopstial there are doctors and nurses to conduct examinations, administer shots, and perform surgeries. They are not there to clean up after you, take you to the bathroom or bathe you. You, as a patient, must bring your own person to take care of you. Your person is expected to sleep at the hospital with you, usually sharing a bed or sleeping on the floor. This person is almost always a member of your family. Likewise there is no food at the hospital. Everyone must bring their own. THis means that the portion of the family that did not accompany you to the hospital will remain at home and cook for you. Daily they will send pots of food to your bed at the hospital. And they will be sure to send enough food not just for you, but for the famiy members taking care of you.

Argentine has no family in Goma except a younger brother whose school fees she is paying.

Yesterday I did not go to the hospital to see Argentine. After being assured that she was getting better I decided to wait, partly because I had too many other things to do. But partly because I wanted to see how Argentine and Mapendo would do on their own.

I arrived today to discover Argentine doing better and a large plate of beans and rice on the table nearby. Roy's wife (roy is another craftsperson) had brought them food and was keeping them company. And all was well.

So let me put it this way. A young handicapped woman is expected to be dependent on her family even when she is not sick. Everyone in Congo is expected to be dependent on their family when they are sick. Argentine has no family here in Goma to take care of her. Mapendo is talented at sewing, but she is young and often unsure of herself. Yet on her own Mapendo dressed Argentine, cleaned up after her, decided to take her to the hospital, and admitted her to the hospital. On her own, Roy's wife (who is neither family nor tribe) decided to bring them food. On their own, the craftspeople of SHONA have taken care of eachother beautifully. And I did absolutely nothing.

Not only that, but Argentine and Mapendo have both been saving money for healthcare emergencies. They will be able to pay her hospital bill themselves.

After three years here in Congo, these are the victories I am most proud of. The ones where I did nothing.

Finally!!

Finally the shipment has arrived! After a ridiculous month of theatrics, DHL has finally coughed up our package. Apparently intact. THis is an amazing feat since the package spent over two weeks in Kinshasa.

So now I have stacks and stacks of shirts and outfits and bags ready to be sold. If only they were posted in our store. You see I was so busy demanding my package, I seem to have forgotten to prepare for it. Or maybe it was just a bit too hard to prepare for a package which I assumed was lost forever. So I have the list of inventory and I have the raw pictures, but getting everything uploaded is no small task, especially on my internet connection.

Thank you to all our customers for patiently awaiting the phantom package, and to all our friends and supporters who kept our spirits up when it appeared the package had taken up permanent residence in Kinshasa. I will be posting our new stock over the next two days. And will post an announcement here when the stock is officially complete.

Vacations all around

For those of you SHONA shoppers who have noticed that our stock is low and that I have been promising the arrival of a new shipment for weeks now...
our new shipment has still not arrived.
Alas.
And for those of you who are the praying sort, you can pray that it arrives soon.

Our shipment appears to have taken a vacation in Kinshasa. We ship with DHL which offers tracking numbers where you can check the status of your shipment online. Our shipment appeared to have stripped and run off in Kinshasa. Kinshasa is not the type of place where this type of behavior is recommended for either people or packages. The tracking info showed that the package had arrived in Kinshasa on the third of April, and never left. AFter a week of theatrics of all sorts, I have been assured that our package was found in Kinshasa, and had merely been set aside because the mailing info had fallen off (that ranks on the believability scale somewhere between zero and negative 10). However I have been assured by DHL officials both here and in the US that the package has now arrived in the US and is sitting in customs. God willing, the package will actually make it through customs at some point, and by the time it arrives at our stock location it will still have something inside it. Vacations in Kinshasa tend to take a lot out of you. Literally.

So for all of you who are waiting to see our new shipment, I'm afraid the wait will continue a little while longer. However please do bear with us as we work on expanding our stock in the next couple months. We have grand plans, it is just that sometimes they take a while to shape up.

While our package was on vacation in Kinshasa, I was on a short vacation in Rwanda. We went camping in the game park. That has always seemed like a bad idea to me. Game parks are where you go to see wild animals, like lions and elephants. Camping is where you sleep outside. Does anyone else notice a problem here?

This is probably the third of fourth time that my husband and I have endeavored to camp in the game park. It is also about the third or the fourth time that we have spent the majority of the night in the car instead of in our tent. One time the tent didn't work, so that wasn't really one fault. And one time a rogue elephant was stomping around our campsite. So you can't really blame us for that either. But this time we didn't see any animals stomping around our campsite and our tent went up quite fine.

We had a friend with us, who happily hung a hammock and spent the night swaying in the breeze with apparently no problems. However as my husband and I huddled on the ground in our little tent, there was an awful lot of growling and crying coming from the surrounding darkness. Hyenas and leopards do exist in the park and so off we went to spend the night in the car yet again.

The campsite was absolutely beautiful though, and I'll try and post some pics soon.

In the meantime I would like to point out that my husband and I have already returned from our vacation. And we are back to work. It is long past time for our wayward package to return from its vacation as well.

Hopefully you will see it in our shop soon.

Saving

The concept of "saving" is hard here. Or perhaps it is just the reality of it. The SHONA women are currently learning about how to estimate their expenses for the coming month and set aside enough money to cover their expenses and any emergencies that might arise during that month. It is a long process, which involves way more math than one might think. I didn't realize how many calcuations I make in my own head, until I tried to teach the concept to someone else, who never went to school. So we are still drilling away at multiplication tables and learning to calculate wholesale costs. But we are getting there pole, pole (slowly, slowly) as the women say.

But the math is only half the battle. Just because you can calculate the correct amount that you need to save, doesn't mean that you will do it.

I have always been a "saver" myself. I remember the cupcakes that children would bring in for their birthdays in kindergarten. I always ate mine from the bottom up, saving the icing for last, long after my classmates had torn through theirs. My hallowen candy always lasted 'till Christmas and my Christmas candy lasted 'till Easter. Literally. Ask my parents.

My husband is the exact opposite. If something good is in the house, then it certainly should not be left to sit there on a shelf. It should be eaten right then and there, because who knows what tomorrow will bring?

I have often been told that my tendency to save food comes from growing up without siblings. I've been told that anyone who grew up in a large household knows that you sit down to the table ready to gobble down whatever you can right away and reach for seconds as quickly as possible. Saving is a luxury. It is for those who live in a world where their carefully hoarded treasure will not be trampled by a younger brother or stolen by an older sister.

And for that reason, the concept of "saving" is hard here. Responsibilities stretch far and wide. Extended families are huge, and often anyone from the same village as you will also be considered family. And if you have any kind of income at all, no matter how small, it is perfectly normal and expected that any member of your large, extended family will ask you for money, food, transportation, school fees, medical fees, or a place to stay at any time. And, as an African, you can't really refuse. So money goes fast.

I find this to be both a beautiful part of the culture here, and a deeply frustrating one. On one hand I have to recognize that the US culture is overly individualistic and isolating. Most people are probably more likely to ask a bank for financial help than a family member. And look at where our credit culture has gotten us. I appreciate the sense of duty to family here. But it truly is extremely difficult for anyone to get ahead here. As soon as you take one step up the ladder the number of hands that pull on you are infinite. Small businesses fail here all too often because the owner feels compelled to answer the increasing demands for help from all sides, only to find that there is no money left to buy new stock.

I once had a conversation with two fairly well-off men. I asked the one how he was doing. And of course he answer "Hakuna...njala"( there is nothing...only hunger). I answered in a surprised tone "really?" as I glanced at the nice car he was driving. And his friend behind him began laughing and agreed "Don't believe him. Everyone says they are hungy here, whether they are or not."

SO how could you possibly expect anyone to save? The person who puts half his income away for a rainy day will only find that ten of his friends and relatives have all arrived with a rainy day in hand. And how can they refuse?

Yet as much as anybody, poor people in Congo need savings. There is no safety net to fall back on here. The SHONA women were incredibly excited when they opened their own bank accounts for the first time. They desperately want to save, and they are managing it, "pole, pole".

But everyday it is a balancing act. Mapendo's mother needs a new house so that she can move out of the refugee camp. Argentine's younger siblings need school fees so that they can return to school. Elda's brother is getting married. Roy's newphew and niece have fled their rural village and need somewhere to live. Quite literally the list could go on all day.

Like most of life, we must find a way to live with this tension. To accept the pull, without being dragged under.

SHONA updates

Many thanks to all our friends and customers who have taken advantage of our spring sale, and to all of you who have emailed our sale coupon to others. I guess sales really work! We've had a great turn out. It has been fun seeing some of our earliest customers again and seeing some new customers who appeared out of the blue. Thanks to all of you no doubt.

For those of you have no idea what i am talking about, check out the sale info here. There are still 5 more days to take advantage of 20% off.

And don't forget, if you find that our stock is running low, come back in two weeks for our new shipment's arrival. We have some all new products like APRONS, with matching child sized aprons!

On that note...PLEASE help us. We are constantly developing new products based on the suggestions of customers. Right now we are working on children's clothes, cloth shopping bags and skirts. What do you want in a cloth shopping bag? What do you want in a skirt or in children's clothes? And what else do you suggest we sew?

We have just added a short survey to our website. Please come try it out. And while you are on our website, check out the newly updated Goma page and the all new "challenges" page. It has some good pics.

Or since you are here, leave us a comment on our blog. Leave your product suggestions in a comment right here, and we might start a whole conversation! We love blog comments.

Anyway you do it, we love to hear from you. And bring those suggestions for shopping bags, children's clothes and skirts ASAP because we are quite literally developing them right now and your suggestions will be incorporated immediately!

Thank you all for bearing with the blog entries about our store. I promise I'll write something else soon.

SPRING SALE

Dear Blogger friends,
I just sent out a special invitation to our loyal customers.
But you are our loyal readers, and we want to invite you too. So here it is.




Spring is in the air. And we need to make room for a new shipment coming in.

For one week only , we are offering an amazing 20% off everything in our online store. This sale is available only with the special coupon code below.

You can redeem this coupon during checkout. Just enter the code in the box provided, and click on the redeem button.

The coupon code is 341cba

Your purchases make a world of difference to the craftspeople we work with. Come visit our store and take advantage of this 1 week sale! And spread the word!

Visit our store at www.shonacongo.com

To you this looks like a man sewing...

To me this looks like hope.

If only you knew that this man owns his own sewing machine for the first time in his life. And that he has been given the money to rent a small workspace, and table and chair to go with it. If only you knew how many children this man has, the struggles they have been through, and the conditions they live in.


If only you knew how very good at sewing he is, and how much he can do with this small machine.

I recently added a donations page to our website. I posted it with some serious misgivings. SHONA is about what we can accomplish through the work of our own hands, not about asking for donations. But I had received several requests from generous souls who wanted to know how they could give to us, and I realized that we cannot do it all ourselves.

That is a hard realization for me. I am an only child, a bit hard-headed and accustomed to thinking that I could rule the world on my own. I will do something and fail fifty times before I will ask for help. I'm sure my husband will be happy to confirm that for you! I think he considers one of the most telling examples of my personality to be the way I played a video game with him when we were in college. It was a video game that I knew nothing about, not being a video-game fan myself and I can no longer even remember the name of it. But somehow he talked me into playing it. (Obviously this must have been before we were married!) The first step seemed to involve running and leaping at just the right time to avoid being run over by a boulder that is coming right toward you.
I made a sprint for it and got run over,
tried again, got run over,
tried again, got run over...
I think after about the fiftieth time of watching me run head-long into the boulder without once requesting any advice on how to get around it, my future husband concluded that I might be a difficult woman. Fortunately he married me anyway!

But the point is, I like to do it myself. Even if it means getting run over in the process.

Perhaps it is an American thing. I am all about the work of our own hands. Especially in a culture like Congo that has become heavily dependent on foreign aid, I feel it is important to "empower" people to create their own miracles. You know "teach them to fish".

But I have been thinking a lot lately about how nothing we do ever is truly the work of our own hands. It is the work of a thousand hands that have helped us on our way and shaped us into who we are.

Certainly that is true for myself. Sometimes people ask how I can do "this". I am not like my husband, who grew up out here. He is used to moving around and being a stranger in a foreign land. I grew up in a small town in Connecticut, in one house, and in one school. But it is precisely because my family is so rooted that I feel able to be here. It is because they are at home, that I can be away. Home is still there waiting for me, strengthening me. Without their hands, I couldn't do it.

So I posted the donations page, in recognition that we can't do it by ourselves. The Craftspeople of SHONA have done an incredible amount through their own hands, but they have also received your help, in a thousand ways. As soon as I put up our donations page, I was honored and humbled by a donor who gave Roy a sewing machine, a table, chair and workspace. But she didn't want me to tell Roy anything about her, only that this was a gift from God, not from herself or her family.

And so perhaps nothing is truly our own. Not the work we do, nor the gifts that we give. The clothing that Roy is sewing will bear labels with his name as the craftsperson. But if we were to be truthful, the label would need to be much larger, to carry the names of all those who have brought us this far.

Stay tuned for an update to our website soon with pictures of Roy and his family, and the story of their lives. Perhaps you read my earlier posts about Roy's little girl being molested.

At the time I recall being disgusted at what one person can do TO another.

Today I am amazed at what one person can do FOR another.

Perhaps in the end, this is why God chooses to work through human hands. It is a way of redeeming our hands. In a world where we are too often forced to confront the suffering that is caused by human hands, it is a way of reminding us of the good that is possible.



Thank you to all our loyal friends and customers who continue to inspire us.

Islands of achievement

Last week was not good.

Nothing was working. Well, except the SHONA craftspeople, they were working fine.

But that is only half the battle. The other half requires selling what they have made.

We recently opened our own online store, which was exciting, and ever since then I have been wading through information trying to figure out how to attract traffic to our website and to our store. This seems to involve completing a million tasks which may or may not ever bear fruit. I spent days registering with search engines, writing metatags, joining forums, and trying to figure out how to get people to link to our website. And I may never know if it made any difference. You just have to throw it out there and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, the electricity kept disappearing. And when the electricity was on, my internet connection kept disappearing. And I kept asking myself who in their right mind tries to run an online business in a place with unreliable electricity and internet speeds that the US hasn't seen for at least ten years.

So I felt a bit isolated.

But today I received an email from a woman who wrote to inform me of her research on "islands of achievement"...and that phrase really resonated with me. Perhaps not the achievement part, but the island part. While working on her Master's Degree, she researched “islands of achievement within failed or fragile states” and she realized that there were a lot of local people around the world rebuilding their lives and their communities in the midst of larger chaos and conflict. After she finished her masters degree she was struck by the fact that many people haven't had the chance to hear these stories, and she started a website to bring people together and tell these stories. She was writing me to inform me that she had just written an article about the SHONA women and it is posted on their website, along with over 400 other stories.

We are an island of achievement! Visit her website, not because we are there (although that is good also) but because it is a fascinating place to see what regular people are doing throughout the world.

Their article on SHONA

The main page of the website: http://hopebuilding.pbwiki.com

And then she informed me that she had compiled her article from an article about us on
ITnews africa.com. We are on the front page of their website right now!. And we didn’t even know it! I guess something I did last week worked after all. Check it out!

www.itnewsafrica.com

I deeply appreciate the willingness of both these website to seek us out and share our story. I appreciate the chance for SHONA to be “seen” by others. I would like to believe that I am humble, but I have to admit that it is really hard to work on something day after day and feel invisible. And I do start to feel like an island.

But what I found most inspiring was the opportunity to visit the beautiful "hopebuilding" website and read the stories of so many others. Because if we are all doing it, then we aren’t really isolated after all. And that is the gift of this website…check it out!

What is International Women's Day?

March 8th is International Women's Day. Have you heard of it?

Somehow I had never noticed Women's Day until I came to live in Africa. I'm not sure if we celebrate it in the US and I just wasn't paying attention or what.

But here it is a big deal. Prices for cloth skyrocket this month, just as flowers probably cost more around Valentine's day in the US. Every group of women that could possibly exist in Goma, comes into existence for Women's Day. They might be a church group, an association of some kind, a neighborhood group...the possibilities are endless. They might not meet again for another year. But in the weeks preceding Women's Day, all the stops will be pulled out. They will meet, contribute to a group fund, and buy matching cloth for every woman in the group.

Then on Women's Day, they will parade around town. Literally. Groups of women in matching outfits, carrying a banner to declare themselves start lining up at dawn to get the best place in line. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if the ones in front slept there all night just to get that position.

By the time my group got there last year the line already stretched for many blocks. And then around 10 the parade begins. Don't get me wrong, this is not a parade with floats and marching bands and antique fire engines. This is a parade of women. In matching outfits. And that is about it.

I hated Women's Day last year. And I vowed never to participate in the parade again. My group of handicapped women, wanted to participate last year, so we went. And we were cut in front of, pushed out of the way, and practically run over as other groups tried to get closer to the front of the parade. I'm not sure where they were rushing to. But they never got there. Eventually it started pouring rain and the parade disintigrated into a display of women pushing eachother to get under the nearest overhang, already crowded with people. You see, it would be a disaster to get all the beautiful new matching outfits rained on.

I found it heartbreaking. This is Congo, and this is the day for women to show their unity. And it has devolved into a runway to model your new clothing, with each group trying to outdo the others.

If there is anywhere in the world, where women deserately need to stand together and show their strength it is here in Congo. The incidence of rape in Eastern Congo is the highest in the world right now. And if there is anywhere that they could speak out, it is here in Congo. Congolese women are strong; they are not timid. Certainly they were not timid as they jostled for the best place in line. I understand that there are some places in the world where women are simply unable to stand together and make a statement. They are too afraid to raise their voices. But this is not that place.

And so I found it heartbreaking when I began to calculate the amount of money women spend to buy cloth for this one day. And I considered the power that a group of women this large could have, if they decided to tackle an issue that women here struggle with. So much could be done on this day.

I suppose it is not unlike our many holidays in the US which have lost much of their meaning and their power.

But I invite you all to consider making International Women's Day meaningful in Congo this year. Staying in the Congolese tradition of buying something beautiful for this holiday, why not buy something from us? A purchase from SHONA celebrates the real strength and power of women in Congo. And it would make a real difference to us. We won't be out there parading this year. Two of our women will be playing "sitball" at a handicapped sports event. The other two will be sewing. The women have been working hard lately; trying to expand our inventory, studying 3 courses (Math, French, and "Faith and Action"), and supporting their families. Somehow parading around in the latest fashion doesn't seem particularly appealing to them. But they would be thrilled if you would wear something in their honor.
www.shonacongo.com

Roy Part II

I met this morning with Roy and his beautiful little girl. They were on their way to testify at a hearing for the man that attacked her. I admire this little girl and her father in their determination to see justice done. Justice requires money here in Congo, perhaps everywhere, but certainly here.

So what can be done for Roy and his family? I have decided to add Roy as the fifth craftsperson with SHONA. He is a man. And so far, I have worked exclusively with women. I believe that handicapped women need to be empowered here in Congo, and when they are put in groups with men, they tend to take the lower position.

But I also believe that Roy's daughters and wife will continue to remain extremely vulnerable as long as he has no means of supporting them. And it seems such an incredible waste for such a talented man to lack work. So Roy will be our fifth handicapped craftsperson. He will rent his own small shop, and work independently from the women.

So we expand in a way that I hadn't planned. But it fits well with the stage that the women are at. The women too are renting their own space and opening their own shops. They have chosen to work in teams of two. It is an exciting stage. As they rent their own workspace and begin to set up shop, the work becomes theirs. And this in the end is the goal.

Roy often says "I'm already getting old and I have nothing to show for it. Nothing to give my children." Hopefully SHONA will allow him to start to build a life, for himself and for his family. Mapendo, our youngest member, recently began building a house for her elderly mother, who has been living in a refugee camp. There is something beautiful in a nineteen year old handicapped woman building her mother a house. There is something equally beautiful in a 40 year old father building his little girl a house. I think the heaviest weight of poverty, is not the price it exacts on us, but the price it exacts on those we love.

For Roy, the price has been heavy. I watched this man leave my house with his daughter in tow, and imagined how hard it must be for both of them to testify. But Roy walks with a lighter step now. He is eager to take on as much work as I can give him, to finish his debts and begin building a life. His little girl has tested negative on all sexually transmitted diseases, she is back in school, and next month Roy will have sewn enough to pay her school fees.

I am always amazed by the small scale of hope. Given the incredible difficulties Roy has faced in the past two weeks, I might expect him to need so much more. But his wife and child are home from the hospital, his little girl is doing ok, and he will be able to take care of them. That is all the hope he needed.

Technology and all that

Many thanks to all the loyal SHONA customers and friends who have visited our new store and updated website. www.shonacongo.com

And many thanks for the technology which has brought us here.

The SHONA women were taken advantage of in the past. Before they joined us, they were part of a sewing group where the manager ate first, and then the men and only at the end were these young women given a cut. But where else could they go? They had no resources to open up their own shops. They had no strong legs to circulate through the market, looking for work. And to be honest, they would have found it hard to convince many customers of their abilities. People see first that they are handicapped, not that they can sew.

But through the miracles of this age, the SHONA women have been able to land themselves in the middle of one the most promising markets of all. the internet. Without having to pay off ten people in the process. The reality that we are able to set up shop online, that we have customers that somehow find us, that we have people across the world who read our stories and care...it is a reality that I wouldn't have dreamed of ten years ago.

Think of all the things you buy everyday. What percentage of the profit from those sales goes to the person who made that item? What percentage of the things you buy are made by a person at all? With the warped speed of technology, in many ways we have lost the personal. Too often our food is cultivated by machines, our clothes are made in assembly lines and when we answer our phones we find machines on the other end. But in another way, the internet has made the world infinitely more personal. I can read status updates on facebook and discover that my friend went to bed at 11:00. I can read status updates on all my former high school students and be scandalized...again and again! I can see pictures of people I went to grammer school with. And you. You can come and visit us, here in Congo.

So please do. Keep reading our blog. Visit our website. www.shonacongo.com

As I exhault in all of this technology, I must admit that I have spent this past week banging my head on the keyboard. As we open our new store online and move away from ebay, I have to figure out how to get traffic to our site. Don't worry there are plenty of resources online. An infinite number of resources with infinite lists of all the things I should do to publicize our website. There are inlinks, outlinks, metatags, search engine submissions, trackbacks, blogrolls...and that is only the beginning.

After a while my eyes start to glaze over. And I go and get a cup of coffee and sit on my balcony for a while to listen to the sounds of Africa and remember where I am. And when I drag myself bag to the computer I remind myself of why I do this. It is so I can introduce you to some incredible women, who deserve this one break.

And I know that if the internet can do anything, it is because it brings us together. SO that I am not really alone staring at this computer wondering how to write a metatag.

So won't you join us? Please share the link to our website! www.shonacongo.com Post it on boards, put it in emails, blogs, websites...As I have come to realize, anything that shows you are reading our website will lead more people to us. And that is all we need.