No wonder we are puny
Saturday, August 29, 2009
From: aristarchus munish
Subject: Things are Getting Better
To: “Nirvana Cable”
Date: Saturday, August 29, 2009, 6:45 AM
Hello,
GCA’s ATT [Global Community Africa, Alternative Thinking Training] is indeed a journey. Sometime back I saw you wearing a T-Shirt and on it was inscribed the words, “Not all who wander are lost.” Looking back some two-and-one-half-years ago, one would have easily brushed off the ATT concept and the direction we were bound. The destination was uncertain, to say the least. However, if there are still any who doubt the power of ATT, then I bet him/her to accompany us in our work. Nirvana, some of the results we are now getting are far beyond anyone’s imagination.
Kilonzo, Nderitu and I are just from a training in a place called Maungu. We had split the team into two because the trainings were arranged to run concurrently.
The youth in our training had given up on life. This was evident from the sharing they had, with a vast majority confessing they had resorted to drinking to hide away from the harsh realities of life. As this life is addictive, we needed a strategy to deal with this. And yes, we got one. What was readily available was a quick flashback of our own lives right to the point you introduced ATT to us. Personally I remembered how addictive my former lifestyle was and how I managed to put that past in the past. I also realized that, in dealing with such tough situations, one needs to drop (give up) one thing and pick up a new one. You simply can’t drop and move on. You must fill the space created by dropping down something [by filling the space with something to replace what is being dropped].
Sharing the challenges they were facing, they mentioned unemployment, lack of capital, poverty, witchcraft and poor education as some of the impediments to their success. Then Nderitu led them to picking the main problem or identifying the priority. They all shouted, “Of course, poverty is the main problem.” “How do you feel when you think the thought, ‘I am poor?,’ he asked them. One by one they poured out their hearts, “miserable”, “weak”, “devastated”, “a nobody”, “I have no say” and “powerless”. “Up to date, up to now, that’s what has characterized your lives,” he told them, “However, there is good news!” All eyes were wide open, all ears attentive, with everyone curiously waiting to hear this one, good news. And as though this was taking forever, they simultaneously asked, “You mean something can be done to ‘repair’ our lives?” “Yes,” we answered. “How many are willing to live different lives?,” I asked them. Instead of raising their hands, some stood up while others shouted, “Me, me, me,” as though they were competing.
We noted down on a black board all they had said. Then I told them, “That is your past life. I want you to create for yourselves what future you envision for yourselves.” “A satisfying life where I enjoy plenty,” one said and the rest nodded in agreement. Another added, “A life where all live in unity is ideal for me”. One participant who was holding his cheek captured my attention, and I asked him what he was thinking. Shaking his head and referring to the list of how they feel when they think they are poor, he said, “I’m staring at what I have been carrying all along my life. I can’t carry anymore these truth!” ”No wonder we appear skinny, it’s because we are overburdened by these poor thoughts!,” implored another.
Thanking GCA, one youth said that they have realized that “the youth are picking excuses for who they are. Yet they make who they are by carrying such poor thoughts.”
One realization the youth woke up to is that the catalogue of their woes has one seamless thread that binds them: their woes are, to a great extent, man-made and trying to blame unemployment, rain scarcity and leaders, for example, simply won’t do. They all committed to living differently.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
One youth proudly shared what he is witnessing in his community following the training we offered in May. He said now in his community there are over 4 women who have started vegetable farming and set up small shops and over 8 women who have started Mandazi [donuts] baking to sell to the community. All these women were depending on their husbands before our training. When they went back they said, “We can no longer sit and wait for our husbands to provide for us. We must be responsible for our lives and compliment on what is given to us.”
The youth will take us to visit these women after this week’s programme.
Talk soon.
Munish.