Filled by His Joy: Mwedo

Today we had the opportunity to visit Mwedo, a NGO for Maasai women. Mwedo is based in Arusha but works with women and girls in the surrounding 150 miles. It was founded in 2000 by African women who saw a need for the marginalized Maasai women and wanted to help them. Their organization is centralized on three main categories: education, economic empowerment, & maternal/HIV health. It is a membership organization that can be joined in groups of women from their villages. 80% of the proceeds go straight back to the women and 20% go to administration costs. The women come to Arusha every once in a while to bring the crafts they made at home to get paid for them. The journey usually takes at least a whole day there and then another day back. Mwedo pays for their transportation & lodging while in town and also provide the supplies for their crafts. Mwedo started a school for secondary girl students where they can continue their education for a cheaper price along with an adult literacy program (swahili--most of them only speak Kimaasai) for the women in each of their villages. They currently have 5,000 women as members of their organization and send 1,600 girls to school.

We first walked into their shop and I was blown away at the very, very fair prices on all of their products. They had everything, belts, shoes, ornaments, necklaces, bags, earrings, bracelets, wooden carvings, bowls, walking sticks, and blankets. I also got a good laugh out of the fact that they had 3 big pictures of Bush visiting their organization. Texas pride right there.

"President Bush greets a tall Maasai women while recivieng a gift... Feb 18, 2008"

We then went outside and met some of the ladies who have been in town for a week learning new crafts to make and trading in their hand made goods for money. We then walked over to a big awning where we listened to one of the directors of the organization answer our questions and tell us about Mwedo and what they do. We then were able to leave or sit and visit and learn how to make these crafts. I chose to stay with about 5 other girls and Nick and truly enjoyed sitting there laughing and singing and dancing with these women. It was just the breath of fresh air I needed. They attempted to teach me Kimaasai as I attempted to learn how to dance and help them with their crafts. These women are tough but yet full of laughter. Each time I have the opportunity to spend time with the people of the bush, I have a deeper and deeper sense of respect for them. I would attempt to sing their songs and make the noises they make for percussion and each time I did, they would all start hysterically laughing. I told one of the women I liked her armband (kinda like cleopatra's snake around her arm but it was maasai beads). She took it off and put it on my arm, I felt like that was a tiny step of acceptance. (I of course gave it back to her). Then we were doing the traditional dancing of moving the shoulders up and down and slightly moving our heads so the earings would jingle to make a beat. Each of them had about 3 sets of earrings with tons of jingles on each of them and I had one pair of earrings with 2 jingles on it. They were trying to get me to make my earrings sound like theirs but then i showed them no matter how much I moved my head, they didn't make as much noise as theirs. They thought this was absolutely hilarious. I truly enjoyed my morning with them and am even more inspired to continue seeking a place in a rural village where I can serve and learn about their culture.