Interlude & Reflections

While in Togo we visited an existing well that needed our support
to refurbish, decontaminate and  develop additional
infrastructure including building bathrooms

Each day I have been posting the daily giving reflection from my e-book along with the journal exercise that accompanies the day. When the post publishes it goes out to a wide variety of social media and I have no idea who reads the post nor how many. The reach is greater than I thought as was evidenced by a note I received the other day...the day I shared about "small gifts, huge impact."  A Rotarian friends of mine from Togo, whom I have not seen since 2005 responded. Dear Bibi Azaria Akue, you made my day when you responded to my post, but it was the reason that you responded that touched my heart. After 8 years, our friendship is cemented in bathrooms...border crossing bathrooms to be specific...between the countries of Togo and Benin in West Africa.

Who would have known the day that my Group Study Exchange team was stranded in "no mans land" between Togo and Benin in 2004 without any facilities that a plan would be dreamed, hatched and implemented. Thousands of people spend time in the land between the countries of Togo and Benin (known as no mans land because neither country owns the land) and yet there are no bathrooms, in fact there is nothing but barbed wire fences, clay soil, lots of sun and people and nothing more. We were stuck there for hours while our paperwork was being processed. While the wait time was unusually long because of the circumstances, we were the few US citizens traveling in West Africa and our country had just invaded Iraq two days before...so there were a lot of eyes on us and suspicions may have been aroused. But we were with Rotarians who were determined to help us fulfill our mission of international goodwill.

Without getting into the gory details (your imagination can take over here...) being stuck in no mans land for hours meant that at least some of our group would need to use the facilities, of which there were none, so we had to take turns turning our backs to give at least an appearance of privacy, and even then - it was quite a sight. So needless to say that when I was invited to help build border crossing bathrooms between the two countries the following year - I jumped at the opportunity.

On the Togo side of the border crossing
meeting with the partners

The work required that I go back and visit with all of the partners, raise the funds and vet the project all while working with a number of Rotarians on the ground in West Africa. They hosted me, protected me and supported me and my team as we negotiated the property, construction and financing. Once all was in place - Rotarians in West Africa made it happen and the border crossing toilets were constructed. Eight years later, Bibi Akue from Lome. Togo responded that indeed the impact had been huge. Wow, that voice from the past took my breath away and reminded me that we never know the full extent of our impact - thank you so much Bibi Akue for sharing!

Each day of the 100 Days of Giving includes a daily reflection for you to consider. Today, is an interlude so I would like you to fill in your own blanks...reach out, give to someone, anyone and give something, anything and everything. The most important part is to do something...and as one of my favorite mentors Yoda said, "There is no try, only do." Each day in 100 Days of Giving offers you an opportunity to read about alternative giving options as well as some questions to consider...

Please feel free to write about your experience in the comments section, share with someone else, or keep to yourself...whatever works for you, just keep in mind that one of the most important part of giving is being open to receiving and the more you share with others, the more you will receive in return. As difficult as receiving may be for you, it is an essential part of giving, so challenge yourself and give receiving a try, or a "do...there is no try, only do."

Now that 100 Days of Giving is available as an e-book you can purchase it for $3.99 at Smashwords: 100 Days of Giving e-book at Smashwords and get all of the daily experiences, journaling exercises and stories.

To read about all 100 days's giving experiences you can download the e-book in a variety of formats at: 100 Days of Giving at Smashwords
or through Amazon for your Kindle: 100 Days of Giving e-book at Amazon

Day 76 ❦ Thank someone with a gift

Day 76 ❦ Thank someone with a gift

The Gift: An African Skirt and Matching Jewelry

Have you ever had someone come into your life fleetingly who in the end made a life changing impact? So many of the people who have come in and out of my life have changed me in a myriad of ways, I can’t imagine what I would be like without each and every person’s influence.

As a child many of the adults I relied on and who surrounded me were not kind nor caring and I have grown to appreciate the lessons I learned as a result of their influence. They helped me build character, compassion and resilience and I know that I am the person that I am today because of those lessons. They helped me identify and connect with those angels who came into my life early and who helped me live through some very dark times - I am the person I am today as a result of their influence. I am alive today because of their care.

As an adult, I am continually amazed at the number of people who on a regular basis influence and change my life dramatically and impact me in ways that they will never know and today I am going to thank one of those important people who came into my life for a brief moment and changed thousands of lives as a result.

I grew up with an itch to travel. My grandparents would go on trip and I would be one of the few grandchildren who would willingly sit and look at every single slide they had to show of their travels and adventures, over and over, and over, and over again. My Uncle and his friends loved to travel and he sponsored my family to come to New York City to see him off when he went on a cruise on the Queen Elizabeth II (I believe it was the QEII’s final voyage). It was magical to ride in a carriage around Central Park, go into FAO Schwartz’s and my favorite magical memory of that trip was going into his stateroom with him for the first time and seeing his luggage already there, ready to be unpacked and meeting the gentleman who was waiting for him so that he could unpack his luggage. To this day, I fantasize about traveling that way, although I come pretty close when I get to hire a driver for my trips to Africa, okay, that is another story. But actually, this story is about the person who selected me for my first trip to West Africa, Karin Treiber.

Inspired by the travelers in my family, at a very young age, I would get on a bus and go downtown (actually singing that famous song, “Downtown”). I loved seeing where it would take me and my favorite memory was that one of the routes I loved to take took my by a Planter’s peanut shop where I could stop and get a bag of warm peanuts, salty and delicious...I can still taste them today. I did get in trouble one time when I thought it would be fun to go to Boston and got there at the end of the Boston riots in the 70's. Then I discovered trains and realized that they could take me places faster and expand my adventure horizon - allowing me to slip out of school on Wednesdays, get to NYC in time to buy a half price matinee ticket to anything, and get back in time to not be missed at home. Washington DC, NYC, the world began to open up for me.

My Grandfather was one of my biggest supporters and when I graduated from High School gave me $500 and told me to “go have an adventure” I bought a plane ticket to England where I spent three weeks, mostly alone having all kinds of adventures. My first international plane ride. Lots of lessons learned.

In 2003 I was selected to be a Rotary Group Study Exchange Team Leader, which meant that I was going to be leading a team of four young professional non-Rotarians to Ghana, Togo and Benin for five and a half weeks to live, work and interact with Rotarians in those countries to build goodwill and fellowship, develop international friendship and study alternative vocational methodologies and strategies. Our experience was beyond words and my team was the best, and although most GSE Team Leaders say that, I really mean it; they continue to be the best GSE Team ever. Karin Treiber was the GSE Chair who was responsible for helping us prepare for the experience. During the training, she gave me the name of a Rotarian in California who had recently traveled in Ghana and Karin thought connecting with her might be useful. The day Karin gave me that phone number, thousands of lives were about to be impacted.

I did connect with Kay Bliss from Ojai, California at Karin’s request and Kay shared some of her passion and care for Street Girls Aid, an organization she visited while in Ghana. This story will fill another book, but all of the subsequent work that I have done at Street Girls Aid in Ghana is a direct result of Kay’s passion and Karin’s sharing a thought. Today I am honoring the impact that Karin has had on thousands of people’s lives by giving her a skirt I had made for her while In Ghana and some matching jewelry. Not even a close way to thank her, but I am also aware that even this simple thank you will overwhelm her. Her humble graciousness abounds and she will never know the impact her one action will have on thousands and thousands of people, nor will I.

❦ Today, just thank someone because you can.

Day 28 ❦ A simple gift can influence world peace

Day 28

The Gift: Three Deecha Dolls

Deecha Doll (Dee-cha)
A child's imagination takes shape...
...outside the lines.

Deecha Dolls were first introduced to me in the fall of 2002. Created by a woman in Wisconsin, they are soft cuddly creatures that resemble children’s depictions and drawings of themselves and their favorite animals. My Rotary Group Study Exchange team used them to make connections between Minnesota/Wisconsin and Ghana school children. Just before we left in the spring of 2003, several of us took the Deecha Dolls into third, fourth and fifth grade classrooms around the state and asked school children to tell the Deecha Dolls stories of their lives and to write those stories for the Deechas to pass along to children in Ghana. I have some spectacular pictures of third graders holding the Deechas in their laps while they read the stories of their lives to the stuffed creatures.

We took the hundreds of stories with the Deechas to Ghana and shared the stories and Deechas. The Ghanian school children then wrote their own stories for us to bring back and share with the students here. All of the stories are moving and this exercise really opened my eyes to the ease of solving world tensions. I have several Deecha Dolls left from the experience that I use when I do public speaking engagements about my experience.

This afternoon, my daughter Shannon invited Julia (the girl from yesterday’s story) to come over and play. After a while there were several little girls running all over the yard, laughing, screaming, running and playing. Watching Julia and the other kids was very emotional. I decided that I wanted them to remember this closeness and bonding and when they came back inside - I gave all of the girls playing in my yard a Deecha and asked them to share the story of this day with the Deecha as a witness to happiness and an oracle for peace.

❦ A simple gift can influence world peace