Returning to Self...

The brisk Autumn air is awakening my senses once again although this time feels incredibly unique to me.

So many Autumn's in my life have been faced with dread and a sense of sadness. I believe they have a term for it, it is referred to as "Seasonal Affective Disorder" I have it or so I've been told.

What I had was actually a lack of Faith. There is in fact a name for that as well, though it is far less acceptable to use and also neglected to be written about in any Medical journals..."Spiritual Bankruptcy". I think I'm safe in saying it is past it's "flu" stage and now it is most likely a "Pandemic" in the world. A word that can send millions of intelligent people into a frenzy of buying vast amounts of surgical masks, rubber gloves and bottles of sanitizer in bulk. Yet when was the last time you heard of a rush on Bibles?

For me Autumns turning leaves signify a crisp, colorful and magnificent call from nature that is saying look at me, take a last glance before I go to rest for a season. It has already started and is being framed for me as a time of Spiritual renewal. A time to nourish and yet slowly release this process here openly, my passion for The Lord and everything that emanates from there, for that is my home and my very soul.

I have allowed myself enough of a laziness over the middle of Summer to be pulled away from my process a bit more than I had anticipated. Discipline comes hard to me as I have mentioned a few times before, it is something that i am being taught because it is a necessity to see this dream become a reality one day. I can talk my passion here but I can not live it on these pages unless I am summing up a day for you a day spent doing my life's work. Oh how I pray and wait for that day. The waiting has become less difficult because I am learning to move at my God directed speed. I have also achieved a patience I never had for patience is possible when you walk in true faith...On a wing and a prayer has always struck me as a beautiful term even before I consciously understood the meaning of the phrase.

I had hoped to be in Africa by now. I have spent countless hours looking in to how that might happen with the many, many issues facing me as a single Mother of a six year old child.

Much to my chagrin and at times what can only be described as a deep disappointment, the blues would settle in as if to stay. There have been weeks where I put little into what had become my well formed dream and complete commitment to the work of my heart, the journey that would lead me home one day. I have been sidestepping the work I had started here. I found myself for financial reasons without a telephone for nearly three weeks this past month...not too far into this period I realized it was truly God's will. I know now to call upon that newly shaped discipline to step in and keep me patient, to envelope me in the certainty of HIS love. It is he that has full knowledge of my purpose. I am simply trying to live within that beautiful Peace he has created for my soul.

As of now it looks like we are a few years from Africa, I have absorbed the pain this brings and it is in fact a big part of what has kept me away.

I have through prayer and many insightful and enriching conversations with Maji, my "Anam Cara" in Gaelic {I'm Irish and it's a beautiful term besides!} talked non-stop about Africa and possibilities. Maji is a scientist and an all around radiant Christian that loves everyone and in turn she is greatly loved and respected. Maji also happens to be my soul's sister...together we have grown in our Faith in leaps and bounds and had days of laughter that would make anyone's ribs ache.

When we meet the person in our life that comes accompanied by a mirror from which to view your most authentic self, hold on and don't let go...it is one of the keys to the Kingdom. I thank the Lord I had those "eyes to see".

So we will go forward from here and I will resume blogging and discussing the tragedies, the sufferings and the joys of the people of Africa. They, just like us have all of these moments...The joy of a birth still exists in the human heart even if there is no food eventually to keep that child alive. Africa is at the absolute heart of so many matters and we can all be at once a part of the sadness and a part of the joy. It is still and with even more fire in my heart, where I long to bring my unique gifts. Every time I drink water from my faucet I am reminded what a privilege it is.

I missed these pages deeply, I missed sharing and I missed calling out from what at times feels "the wilderness" for deep human contact within the honesty of who you are...

Mimi Nakupenda,

In great Love,

Malaika~

*With great thanks to Maji, when I write you come through my fingers as well~

Blog will resume on September 9th 2009

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for coming back or if this is your first time I would like to extend my welcome to you. The Summer is wrapping up and I can hardly wait to devote much of my time to these pages once again. God has been so very good to me and it has been a glorious Summer, filled with joy and wonder. I hope and pray your's has been enriching as well.

See you soon,

Love and Light,

Malaika~

AIDS Vaccine Trial...

SAfrica stops funding for AIDS vaccine research By MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press Writer Michelle Faul, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jul 20, 9:23 am ET CAPE TOWN, South Africa – South Africa has stopped funding research on an AIDS vaccine, a leading scientist said Monday, even as a major vaccine trial on humans began in the country ravaged by the world's worst AIDS epidemic. Anna-Lise Williamson, an AIDS researcher at the University of Cape Town, told The Associated Press that the clinical vaccine trial that began Monday would continue with U.S. money. But she said South Africa's Department of Science and Technology had stopped funding her research this year and the utility Eskom's contract for funding ended last year and was not renewed. Even though South Africa's science minister appeared at a ceremony launching the vaccine trial with Williamson and lauded her research, neither he nor Eskom immediately returned calls seeking comment about funding. At the ceremony, one of 36 healthy volunteers was injected Monday before officials and journalists in Cape Town's Crossroads shantytown. The event was also attended by American health officials who gave technical help and manufactured the vaccine at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. "For vaccine development presently, the South African AIDS Vaccine initiative has no money," Williamson said. "If we do not continue working on this, we will never have a vaccine... it's incredibly important that we keep working." The South African vaccine, developed at the University of Cape Town, targets the specific HIV strain that has ravaged South Africa. During nearly 10 years of government denial and neglect, South Africa developed a staggering AIDS crisis. Around 5.2 million South Africans were living with HIV last year — the highest number of any country in the world. Young women are hardest hit, with one-third of those aged 20-to-34 infected with the virus. AIDS vaccine researchers have met so many disappointments some activists are questioning the wisdom of continuing such expensive investments, saying the money might be better spent on prevention and education. A new report says HIV vaccine research funding worldwide decreased for the first time since 2000, with investments of almost $1.2 billion in 2008, down 10 percent from 2007. South Africa was also the site of the biggest setback to AIDS vaccine research, when the most promising vaccine ever, produced by Merck & Co. and tested here in 2007, found that people who got the vaccine were more likely to contract HIV than those who did not. South African scientists working on the latest vaccine had to overcome deep skepticism from their political leaders, who had shocked the world with their unscientific pronouncements about the disease. Williamson said South Africa, at the heart of the epidemic, must press ahead with trials to test the safety of the vaccine. "We have got the biggest ARV (anti-retroviral) rollout in the world and still hundreds of people are dying every day and getting infected everyday," she said. Williamson's vaccine also is being tested at a trial of 12 volunteers in Boston that began earlier this year, said Anthony Mbewu, president of South Africa's government-supported Medical Research Council that shepherded the project. "It is being very well tolerated, no adverse events, so it is going very well," Williamson said Monday. The trial started in the U.S., partly to allay any criticism that the United States was collaborating in an AIDS vaccine that would use Africans as guinea pigs. The government decided it was important to develop a vaccine specifically for the HIV subtype C strain that is prevalent in southern Africa "and to ensure that once developed, it would be available at an affordable price," Mbewu said. Some 250 scientists and technicians worked on the latest vaccine project. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and a leading AIDS researcher, said the South African scientists received more money from his institute's research fund than any others in the world except the U.S. The U.S. had paid to produce the vaccine. He called it "the most important AIDS research partnership in the world." But he warned "There are extraordinary challenges ahead," referring to the years of testing needed now that South Africa has reached the clinical trial stage. At an international AIDS conference in Cape Town, Vice President Kgalema Motlanthe emphasized Sunday night that the clinical trials were being held "under strict ethical rules." Mbewu said the crisis in South Africa more than justifies the expenditure on AIDS research. AIDS strikes men and women alike in Africa, where the epidemic is fueled by the many people who have sex with several people at the same time. In the 1990s, South Africa's then-President Thabo Mbeki denied the link between HIV and AIDS, and his health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, mistrusted conventional anti-AIDS drugs and made the country a laughing stock trying to promote beets and lemon as AIDS remedies. Williamson, a virologist, said the scientists had to fight constant controversy, including international organizations that tried to stop the state utility Eskom from funding the project. Eskom gave "huge amounts" regardless, she said. "International organizations told Eskom that this was a terrible waste of money, that putting money into South African scientists was like backing the cart horse when they need to be backing the race horse," she said. Even her research director told her she was wasting her time. "Most of them just made us more determined to prove them wrong," Williamson said. ___

Strip away the worldly...

Right up until the time Jesus died on the cross he was clear and resolute, he had no fear. Not only was he without fear but he willingly took the cross when he could easily have asked his Holy Father to intervene. As I grow in my Faith there is a push pull that occurs sometimes it starts out subtly other times, I don't have a minute to think...my Faith is put to the test . My blind and unqualified acceptance of this process is an integral part of defining what Faith actually means to me. Saying the Lord is my beginning, my end and everything in between is one thing. Saying that my love and reverence for him is the single most important ingredient in my life is still yet another. Alas without action and courage these words ring hollow. In following my God I must take responsibility for my actions not only toward another but toward myself as well as the world as a whole. This is what God expects of me and it is, at times incredibly hard. As the entire world spirals downward with such swiftness it is nearly impossible to avoid it's pull completely, my convictions must remain strong and every bit as resolute as that of Jesus. When I kneel and pray at night I pour out my heart, every trespass whether against me or perpetrated by me I give to God with deep sadness and remorse. The fact that I know he will not turn his back on me regardless of my transgressions often humbles me to the point of tears. This love for my Father is far beyond what I knew one could feel. It colors my entire world and lets me know all things are possible through him. I am in this human vessel full of imperfections by his design, this I know. Learning to hold my head high and trust myself has been a long time coming and encompasses a life time's worth of lessons. Only when I surrendered to the Lord in total Faith knowing that anything put in my Path is put there to either test or reward me and that the two are synonymous...only in this have I found peace. I thank him for the trials as I thank him for the rewards. Yes, today's world is harsh and it is equally twisted as well. Reality TV has become an obsession and the churches are near empty and many are even closing. THIS is a very frightening reality. This is a world in need of love and yet wars are waged often due to greed and ego carrying all kinds of elaborate excuses and disguises. Peace and kindness are seemingly hard to come by. I make it a point as I have mentioned before to be a foot soldier for Christ rather than to give in to this apathy that permeates the thread of communities. So the personal tests come and they go much like the tide and I often feel the swiftness of what feels like a massive ocean wave. When I choose to fight this powerful force it is like that of scraping against sharp rock and blinding sand...when I let go and let the roll of the wave carry me, trusting the Lord I soon find I have been brought to the surface for air as the wave uncurls and calms as promised. It is not always this simple, there are times I falter, times I am tempted but for me there is no turning back now. I can turn things around again and again in my head even making what I know is wrong seemingly right, this is Satans snare and I know it. Often times my beloved Father will even throw a gentle reminder my way...most recently it was a gentle little ladybug that landed just above my heart while inside there was a battle waging. My eyes now see and Ican not look away from my Fathers gentle guidance. Every day these private battles wage some are won and then there are those that are lost. As difficult as it is, I choose to do my very best to remain steadfast and true to the Lord that has loved me so. As his child I have had every opportunity to succeed and every opportunity to fail, my success has been a gift to him, my failures as well for they brought me to my knees where he has surely witnessed and wiped away my tears. I am indescribably grateful to bring it ALL to him now as he is forever my loving and forgiving Father. It is with this strength of spirit and love for him I venture forth each day for now in the city and later in Africa if he see's fit. It is a wonderful feeling to know I can strip it all away,worldly goods that weigh me down and distract me from what is important. I have decided to get deep into Bible study and see where that takes me. Through prayer and with open ears and eyes as well as a fully open heart I am being urged to "root" for a bit longer until my path is crystal clear. Readying my mind and disciplining myself further will make me more prepared and also enable me to bring more teaching to this project that I see in my head every day, yes the colors are every bit as vibrant and the lovely Duma still calls to me as well. Project Shepherd, Project Maji and more lie ahead... Mimi nakupenda as always, Malaika~ Teach me your decrees O Lord; I will keep them until the end. Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions; I will put them into practice with all my heart. Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. give me an eagerness for your decrees; do not inflict me with love for money! Turn my eyes from worthless things and give me life through your word. help me abandon my shameful ways; your laws are all I want in life. Psalm 119: 33-37, 39

A truly beautiful song that I feel helps put things in perspective, enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDSh5wUtXt4

SWAHILI....ASANTE!

We have managed to learn 29 words in Swahili in just a little over a month!

I don't know about you but we are feeling quite proud of ourselves and having a great time with this fun and spirited language!

We will be FLUENT by the end of the Summer!

Wewe Nakupenda,

Malaika & Pesa Ndege {little bird}

as she now prefers to be called ;)

What can I say the child knows her mind...

SWAHILI words of the Day with Madison and I...

Mother is...Mama

pronounced- MAH-mah

Father is...Baba

pronounced- BAH-bah

Practice makes perfect!

SWAHILI Words of the Day with Madison and I...

"God bless you" is....Mungu Akubariki

Pronounced- moongoo akoo bahreekee

"God" is Mungu

pronounced-moongoo

Asante sana Mungu!

Mimi nakupenda,

Malaika~

Please take a few minutes and watch...

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/06/19/ac.angelina.jolie.intv.cnn

Murk...

I am at my barest self a Christian a Mother and a writer. Although I have dabbled in photography, I am surely NOT a photographer.

Being a writer, I write...I write because it is my way of truth telling, my way of speaking. I speak for, against and mostly out!

This is the first time a photograph has moved me to write...a somewhat backwards process for me. Generally I write as moved and then find the right picture to express my emotion and hail you the reader with an image to go with the string after string of words.

This photo has changed me yet again, as a profound photo will do, the photographers job is to do just that and he has done it well.

This image will not ever leave me for it has brought even more urgency to what we are hoping to accomplish here. Let us bring the ugliness out of the shadows, let us allow ourselves some real truth. Let us be moved to act as the kind and compassionate human beings we were created to be.

I am a single mother and have been for many years. I am stubborn in many things I do and stubborn about my convictions so I do not do well married. I do better as a mother than a wife.

I know poverty and I know pain. I know the frustration of loving a child that needs shoes that have to wait a bit too long at times and snacks that aren't there but hopefully dinner is. I am in comparison to so many a very fortunate human being and I never lose sight of that.

I have a roof over my head and that of my child, I have food in my refrigerator 90% of the time, I am spoiled in comparison to millions upon millions. I thank God for my food at night and again in the morning. I take nothing but his love for me for granted and truth be told I don't take that for granted either, I rather trust in that.

The concept of people wearing $600 shoes while this boy drinks from a filthy, mosquito infested puddle is one I will never come to terms with, I am not capable.

Material things that held allure for me years ago had threatened to rob me of my sense of what is right and eventually of my soul had I let it. I am an enormously grateful and wealthy woman living well below the poverty level.

The tug on my heart becomes more ingrained and stubborn for every disturbing photograph, article or piece of information that finds me. There is not the thought of turning back ever as Africa has it's hands on my heart now.

God Bless us all...

Malaika~

"A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair"

ARTICLE from Huffington Post by Jim Luce

In 1995 I visited an orphanage in Indonesia and was so moved by the need to provide better care for orphans in the developing world that I went on to found Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW). I also brought home a ten-month old son, Mathew James. I did not know then that a parallel effort was underway by an extraordinary woman whose path I would not cross for another decade: Dr. Jane Aronson, founder of the Worldwide Orphans Foundation (WWO, 1997). Jane Aronson, a renowned specialist in pediatric infectious diseases and adoption medicine, has dedicated her life to working with orphaned children. WWO's parallel mission is "to transform the lives and enhance the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual well-being of orphaned children throughout the world." Hers is a holistic approach, attending to the needs of the whole child - Medical, social, developmental, educational. I first met Jane last summer over brunch, and then heard her speak at my organization's World Congress at NYU Medical Center in the fall. She is a dynamic woman as cheerful as she is bright and dedicated. Her organization's programs are addressing the needs of the most vulnerable children from Azerbaijan to Viet Nam. Whereas I have one adopted son at home, Mathew, Jane has two: Des and Ben. Matt is ethnically Chinese from Indonesia. Des is from Ethiopia and Ben from Viet Nam. My son, Mathew James and Jane's two sons, Ben and Des. Jane's Early Intervention ("granny") programs in Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Viet Nam, and Ethiopia match retirees from communities with orphans in local institutions. These "grannies" work under the direction of a psychologist, one-to-one with a child - five hours a day, five days a week. They play with, sing with, hold, feed and encourage their child, and the little ones respond with tremendous developmental advances, better growth, and most importantly, by learning how to love and be loved. The missions of our organizations are similar. OIWW's is "Raising Global Citizens," while WWO's is "To transform the lives of orphaned children by taking them out of anonymity and helping them to become healthy, independent, productive members of their communities and the world." But neither our organizations is involved with international adoptions. In addition to leading WWO, Jane is herself an international adoption medical expert with a private practice. Adoption, we both agree, is not the solution for the world's needy orphans. According to UNICEF, there are 133 million orphans in the world. She views adoption as a "small option, not a solution." The number of children adopted in the U.S. from international countries, less than 20,000 per year, is miniscule: 0.02%. Jane states, "Work with orphans is for and with the local community. Adoption is not the solution, community support is." Jane was born in Brooklyn in 1951 and grew up on Long Island. She attended Hunter College in New York City and taught school for ten years. At 30, she fulfilled her life's dream to become a physician and entered the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey at 35. Jane completed several residencies, including a pediatric residency and chief residency in New Jersey, and a fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Columbia Presbyterian/Babies Hospital in New York City. "The Orphan Doctor" Jane Aronson seeing patients around the world. Between 1992 and 2000, she was the Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Director of the International Adoption Medical Consultation Services on Long Island. Since July 2000, Dr. Aronson has been in private practice as Director of International Pediatric Health Services, in New York City. She is Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and has evaluated well over 4,000 children adopted from abroad as an adoption medicine specialist. She has traveled to orphanages in Bulgaria, China, Ethiopia, Romania, Russia, Vietnam, and throughout Latin America. Jane's Worldwide Orphans Foundation (WWO) documents the medical and developmental conditions of children living in orphanages abroad in order to identify their immediate health care needs and to advocate for their well-being. The WWO's Orphan Ranger Program acts as a "Peace Corps" for orphanages by commissioning university students and healthcare professionals to live and work in orphanages. 'Rangers' who speak the native tongue work with staff to improve the nutritional and emotional health of abandoned children. Those without a native language travel, contributing their skills in medicine, physical therapy, psychology, etc. The new Global Arts Ranger program integrates arts, music, theater, and dance to the children's lives. Since 1997, Jane's Orphan Rangers have worked in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, India, Ecuador, Viet Nam, China, Serbia, Montenegro, and Ethiopia. To encourage American youth in the habits of philanthropy, the Service Ranger program sends families with teens to work in project requested by various orphanages. Recently, E.J. Graff, a journalist, wrote a series of articles in Foreign Policy and other prestigious journals claiming that international adoptions are somehow fueling an underground baby-trading industry. This is counter to everything I myself know to be true as founder of Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW), with over fifty humanitarian trips to visit orphanages in the developing world. Jane's response: "The recent media coverage of E.J. Graff's investigative reporting is a gross mischaracterization of thousands of legal adoptions that take place worldwide every year." "International adoption is an enormously complex issue. It is emotional and highly personal and should not be dismissed in the broad generalizations and harsh tones of these various articles and interviews." "Behind every question that involves children or orphans," she adds, "the main objective should always center on how to help those children in question to become successful, productive, socially inclined individuals. Due diligence must be taken by investigative reporters not to generalize a system on the basis of a few bad seeds." "Simply indicting and criticizing selected parties on various issues only results in undermining the very children who were already in crisis. The issues then are no longer centered on them. They become faceless and arbitrary in a battle of wits and interpretation, where even if one side wins, the children all lose." I agree that accusations and indictments concerning the definition of "orphan" are not constructive, either for the kids or for those advocating on behalf of them. It makes no difference, I believe, if there are 133 million orphans, 13.3 million, or 1.3 million. However many there are, we must all do 100% of what we can to help improve the lot of all of them, and work cooperatively towards ways to improve future generations of orphanages. To begin with, even the best orphanages are a second-tier solution Family care - or 'in-family' foster care - is a far better solution. My own goal, stated at OIWW's World Congress last fall and in a recent HP blog, is to see an eventual end to orphanages in the developing world - akin to the end of orphanages in North America, Europe, Israel, and Japan several decades ago. I have stated that 2050 is our target date. Dr. Jane Aronson with Dr. Sophie Mengistu, WWO Country Director, Ethiopia. In our most recent discussion, Jane and I outlined the enormous task before humanity: caring for the orphans of the world. Jane immediately referenced the 'Starfish Analogy.' Two men walked along a beach strewn with floundering starfish, dumped by the tide. One man was throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one at a time, the other was thinking he was crazy. Finally, the amused man says, "What you are doing does not begin to solve the problem! Your actions do not matter!" To which the first replied, "It matters to the starfish." "Too many orphans? Actually, there are probably far more than 133 million, anyway," Jane said. "The question is not," I interjected, "can we really grasp the idea of 133 million orphans?" "Right," Jane responded, "The question is: How do we, in a thoughtful way, organize ourselves to be able to work collaboratively to create models - 'tool kits' - to make orphan care culturally appropriate and replicable?" As a child advocate, Jane has decided to become more public in her thoughtfulness, producing policy papers on orphans, their care and future. "President Obama rose from grassroots advocacy," she noted. "The old-fashioned way is efficient and can be modernized with Web 2.0 applications. The field of child advocacy needs to be modernized." Early intervention is key, says Jane. "To hire 'grannies' - retired school teachers and child care professionals - to come into our orphanages, helps to increase developmental skills, to move our kids from 'outcast' into general society." Early Childhood Development (ECD) programs are as important to Head Start and No Child Left Behind as to orphanages in Ethiopia, Bulgaria, and Viet Vietnam. Although "orphans" are often seen as "bad" or "other." Jane's goal - through therapy, education, and enrichment - is "to transform orphaned children into our world's future Thought Leaders." I hope the orphans we are Raising as Global Citizens in my own organization grow up to be as thoughtful as Dr. Jane Aronson. Edited by Ethel Grodzins Romm

Project Shepherd...New Direction same Divine Purpose

When I think of the word "shepherd" I smile...I believe it to be a pretty amazing word and even more amazing as a verb versus a noun. The meaning as listed by Webster is as follows: 1. One who herds sheep n. 2. Religious leader v. Clearly this is explained in the simplest of terms given the fact it is after all out of a dictionary. Does the shepherd that tends to his flock and has since time began not have equal value to that of any religious leader? With all men and women being equal in God's eyes it is this author's opinion that this is a uniquivical truth. Therefore a shepherd is a shepherd... A simple and beautiful word for a person with a very important purpose. What if we take the two and put them together, what then? My heart, my conviction and my public declaration seems to be urging a few people to ask about me Africa's plight, many for the first time ever. It has been a beautiful thing to see people want to become involved in something that needs and deserves so much attention. Many people seem to want to give of themselves on a deeper level than usual given the apparent lack of satisfaction with the status quo these days. It saddens me deeply that there appears to be such a separation of "camps" ...when talking about the plight of humanity. There are people that want to be a part of the change and people that throw up their hands and say "what's the use"? This is merely an observation not a formal poll or a judgement just an observation on my part. How can we not realize that evryone can do something and clearly something is better than nothing at all. What started out as a personal calling is taking roots as a "project" as more friends or just people I meet take what appears to be a personal interest. I seem to have people cross my path randomly that have knowledge they openly share and that has been inspirational and affirming as well as profound for me. What started as a solo mission is starting to take on a life of it's own using me as it's messenger and I couldn't be happier. I started this Blog with no real objective other than to chronicle my feelings and intentions and eventually my travels...now it is starting to take shape and to root...it is taking on a real solidity and direction I didn't even know to pray for... To think that it is turning into something bigger is quite wonderful and has taken me by surprise and yet, why should it? There are so many of us that want a plate to step up to at the right time in our lives. It would be purely egotistical to think that there aren't many just like myself that have too, been called during this time of great need. So, in accordance with what appears to be a divine plan I am now looking at transitioning into more of an interactive Blog in the hope of gathering information that is much needed as I work further and further into the specifics of where this is all headed. This will be somewhat gradual as my technical aptitude is quite average, nothing more. The power to change is within us all and the darkest enemy of change is surely apathy. The human race can no longer afford an attitude of apathy, it is simply and yet blatantly out of place in today's world. Apathy and judgement are a big part of what got us here to begin with. I am hoping those of you that read this will share whatever you feel you have to share...I am very interested in hearing from people that have volunteered in Africa or in other Countries that have similar circumstance whether it be poverty, widespread AIDS,the needs of children and any and all related issues. I am also hoping to hear from anyone that would like to become involved in this project as it takes shape, perhaps you are meant to help shape it yourself ? Only you can answer that. My original objective was to go to Africa to volunteer indefinitely, now I am considering far more than that. There may be a time in the future through a solid,long time friend where there may be a "Water Project" in the works which is exciting beyond comprehension. Intent is a beautiful thing as you never know just how powerful it can turn out to be, especially when the motives are pure. As a "team" starts to develop there is so much to learn...Can land be bought? Can a Camp be established? CAN one stay in Africa indefinitely? What is needed to start a not for profit organization? There are many, many questions as I said...There are answers out there and with work and an indomitable spirit they will all be unearthed in time. I believe through FAITH, PERSEVERANCE, DEDICATION and hard work...the sky is the limit. Search your heart, is there a place for you here amongst this group that is slowly starting to form? I am open to all human beings that have great love in their heart and a desire to better this world even a little bit. As a Christian woman I also see myself bringing Hope and Truth through the teachings of the bible. As a young child I knew I would one day do this work. My original calling came at a young age and was dismissed by my parents as the musings of a child, sadly. In the opening of this Blog I let you in on the fact that only in the reckoning of near death was I instilled with the deep and burning conviction that would this time refuse to loosen it's grip regardless of anyone else's input. That for me is all about the Lord and shall remain so until I leave this earth. Aside from being a Christian however I am simply a human being. My desire to help is a very intense and deep longing way into my bones, into my soul. I can not change that nor do I want this changed. This "project", this endeavor is open to anyone that has a sincere desire to comfort, help and eventually empower people to be lifted up on many levels be it physically, emotionally or Spiritually, preferably all. We are all different and yet we are the same, we are humanity and therefore connected to each other through that tiny thread that is undeniable. That which takes one down eventually reaches us all on some level... Please do reach out if you have the desire to do so. Input and questions will help to build this to whatever magnitude it is meant to attain. It is becoming my hope and my vision that it may be a forever growing entity. Prayer is always important so please keep us in your prayers as we move forward, it is greatly appreciated. Mimi nakupenda, Malaika~ "I have one life and one chance to make it count for something . . . I'm free to choose what that something is, and the something I've chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands -- this is not optional -- my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference". Jimmy Carter

The Price of Worship...

{Live link please click}

A Massacre in a Kenyan Church

How can I in good conscience not inform you of the atrocities the people of Africa face day in and day out? I went to my church today without fear of it being barricaded and burnt to the ground with me praying within it's very walls.

The heart's of the African people need hope and it is my opinion that as a collective it is our responsibility to help provide it. There are so many things that can be done, some requiring only time...maybe the most important time you may ever spend...

I will revisit this later...God Bless us all

“Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.”

Helen Keller...

SWAHILI words of the day with Madison and I...

Sorry {to sympathize} is "pole"

pronounced....po lee

wewe nakupenda!

Malaika & Pesa Malaika~

An Honest, heartfelt testimony from a clear perspective...

Written by Matthew Parris for The Times... As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work. It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God. Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good. I used to avoid this truth by applauding - as you can - the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It's a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith. But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing. First, then, the observation. We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall. At 24, travelling by land across the continent reinforced this impression. From Algiers to Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, then right through the Congo to Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, four student friends and I drove our old Land Rover to Nairobi. We slept under the stars, so it was important as we reached the more populated and lawless parts of the sub-Sahara that every day we find somewhere safe by nightfall. Often near a mission. Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open. This time in Malawi it was the same. I met no missionaries. You do not encounter missionaries in the lobbies of expensive hotels discussing development strategy documents, as you do with the big NGOs. But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians. “Privately” because the charity is entirely secular and I never heard any of its team so much as mention religion while working in the villages. But I picked up the Christian references in our conversations. One, I saw, was studying a devotional textbook in the car. One, on Sunday, went off to church at dawn for a two-hour service. It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man's place in the Universe that Christianity had taught. There's long been a fashion among Western academic sociologists for placing tribal value systems within a ring fence, beyond critiques founded in our own culture: “theirs” and therefore best for “them”; authentic and of intrinsically equal worth to ours. I don't follow this. I observe that tribal belief is no more peaceable than ours; and that it suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition. Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders. How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds - at the very moment of passing into the new - that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old. But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it's there,” he said. To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It's... well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary's further explanation - that nobody else had climbed it - would stand as a second reason for passivity. Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosophical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates. Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted. And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.

AIDS Education showing marked results in South Africa

The statistics discussed in this article and the FACT that the tide is turning is a beautiful reminder that every SINGLE person dedicating themselves to the serious issues facing Africa, matters! It always starts with an individual...

Thanks and prayers out to all of the devoted missionaries and agencies working hard every day to educate South Africans about AIDS prevention, you have made a difference!

By CLARE NULLIS, Associated Press Writer Clare Nullis, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 9, 12:11 pm ET CAPE TOWN, South Africa – The number of new HIV infections among South African teens has dropped significantly, prompting hope that national efforts to tackle the epidemic have finally turned a corner after years of denial and delay. A report by the Human Sciences Research Council released Tuesday said that although young people continue to have multiple sexual partners — which drives South Africa's epidemic — they are increasingly heeding advice to use a condom. "There is clearly light at the end of the tunnel," said Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. "There is real light." Motsoaledi, a respected medical doctor, became health minister last month. He must overcome the legacy of former President Thabo Mbeki, who denied the link between HIV and AIDS, and his health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who mistrusted conventional anti-AIDS drugs and promoted beetroot and lemon. "Unfortunately we spent a lot of time fighting each other. I am quite sure that we are going to stop fighting each other and start fighting the disease," said Motsoaledi. "I am hoping that in the next few years the results will be much more encouraging than this," he said. During nearly 10 years of neglect, new HIV infections reached a peak of 1,000, with nearly 1,000 deaths from AIDS every day. The council's report estimated that around 5.2 million South Africans were living with HIV last year — the highest number of any country in the world. The report said that HIV prevalence in children between 2 and 14 fell from 5.6 percent in 2002 to 2.5 percent last year, mainly thanks to the spread of drugs to prevent women passing on the virus to their children. Young women continue to bear the brunt of the epidemic; nearly one third of women aged 20 to 34 are infected with the virus, the report said. Infection rates peak later in men. The survey of more than 23,000 people was entitled "A Turning Tide Among Teenagers?" In rare good news, it said that HIV incidence — the number of new infections — among teens was falling. For instance, incidence among 18-year-olds halved between 2005 and 2008 to 0.8 percent. In 20-year-olds it decreased from 2.2 percent to 1.7 percent. Olive Shisana, head of the research council and one of the report's authors, said this was because of an increase in condom use among young males aged between 15 and 24, from 57 percent in 2002 to 87 percent in 2008. In females of the same age, there was also an increase of condom use, from 46 percent to 73 percent. Condom use among males aged 25 to 49 doubled and among women it tripled. "Young men have made a decision that they are going to run around, but they are going to use a condom. They have made a decision that they will have a lot of sex with a lot of different people, but they are going ... to make sure they are protected," she said. Every year the government distributes many millions of condoms free of charge as part of its anti-AIDS campaign and — to loud applause — health minister Motsoaledi indicated he would be willing to increase the condom budget further. But on the downside, the survey showed that messages that young people should abstain, delay their first sexual encounter and have only one partner, were falling largely on deaf ears. This was the approach traditionally promoted by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which is the biggest foreign donor of South Africa's anti-AIDS drive. Funding from that plan paid for the survey, the third conducted since 2002. It said the percentage of 15-59-year-old males who had more than one partner in the past year increased from 9.4 percent in 2002 to 19.3 percent in 2008. It said there was an increase in the problem of teens having older partners who would buy them food, clothes and pay for transport. This is particularly risky because older men have a higher HIV rate than teenage boys, and often the teenage girls do not have the bargaining power to insist that they wear a condom. Shisana said that in poor areas, girls came under pressure from their families to stay in such relationships despite the risk. Even more worryingly, the survey showed a decrease in the proportion of people who understood about HIV prevention from 66.4 percent in 2005 to 44.8 percent in 2008. More people understood the need for condoms and the need to dispel previously widespread myths that sex with babies cured AIDS, but this was offset by a big increase in the people who thought there was no risk in having multiple partners. Motsoaledi said the government would try to strengthen its AIDS prevention campaigns — long weakened because of bureaucracy and mixed messages in the health department. "It is clear our work is well cut. We can't pretend that we don't know what to do," he said.