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Issue 00580 |
August 15 - 21, 2009 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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Society |
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Places
UAACC Watoto and the Nane Nane Fair Our 18 ‘grands’ (which is how we refer to the watoto living at our newly established Leaders of Tomorrow Children’s Home here at the United African Alliance Community Center UAACC) attended the opening day of the Nane Nane Fair and what an adventure it was for them. My husband, Mzee Pete O’Neal, founder and director of UAACC, accompanied the children on this excursion along with other youth from our UAACC family of volunteers. I wasn’t able to attend as I was in rehearsal for an upcoming music performance at Maasai Camp on August 16 featuring Mama C and Dunia Truth!! Don’t miss it!!!
When thinking about this, I at first felt some dismay that they weren’t telling me about all the new products and processes and tractors and huge animals and such that they had witnessed. Then I realized that none of that stuff was really new in the experiences that these children from disadvantaged backgrounds have experienced in the few months that they have been living at Leaders of Tomorrow Children’s Home. After all, they have not only seen airplanes at the Kilimanjaro International Airport but they have actually been inside a jet at the invitation of a kind pilot! They have seen the beautiful wildlife that Arusha Region has to offer at national parks; they have rode the elevators to the top of Arusha’s tallest building at AICC (“is this where God lives”, one of them asked in wonder) and learned about computer networks at Arusha Node Marie. They have eaten in fancy restaurants and tasted all kinds of food from Indian to Chinese to Ethiopian to Kansas City style barbeque chicken wings (their favorite cooked by Mzee Pete, whom they all call Babu.) They have become comfortable meeting and interacting with people from all over the world who visit here at UAACC and they have grown in confidence and courage and ability to the point that it’s hard to imagine that these are the same children who had never even ridden in a vehicle before and expressed in wonder the first time that they did, “Look! The trees and the ground are chasing us!” These are children who are constantly told how talented and beautiful and smart they are and they have internalized these affirmations which have buoyed their spirits and made them know that they are capable of doing anything positive in life that they aspire to do. They are confident in themselves and their abilities to the point where when an interviewer from CLOUDS FM radio asked to do an interview with them at the Nane Nane Fair, they were not shy and afraid. On the contrary! They took to the microphone like ducks to the water. One of the little girls looked the interviewer squarely in the eye as Babu has taught them and spoke up in her strongest, most confident voice, “I am Halima and I am from UAACC!!” And, I am Mama C and I am so proud of these watoto, our Leaders of Tomorrow!!
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