Toni and Mary Lou begin their journey today. Their plane leaves Lambert at 11am. They will be meeting CJ in Atlanta. They will be traveling approximately 40 hours till they reach their destination, Nairobi, Kenya!
Dear Companions of the Spirit,
Sr. Toni is away at her religious community’s meetings these days but dictated her portion of this first message to our African email community. First of all, she sends thanks to all of you who have supported us. She loved this quote from one of her Sisters: “Some people give by going; others go by giving.” It could not be more true for us with Microfinancing Partners in Africa. We take all of you with us in our hearts and will let you know as soon as we can what is going on. It is your amazing generosity that makes possible this dream of eradicating extreme poverty for our sisters and brothers.
Sr. Barbara Schlatter, Toni’s sister in community, wrote this poem in July 2006 and it is something I wanted to share with all of you as the flavor of this marvelous mission we are doing together.
In my past life, I must have been African
for Toni
From half way round the world
she heard Africa
its heart a drumbeat of rhythms
pulsing through her fingers,
a primal memory
of women round her campfire
talking of children and farming
asking for no more than light;
of meeting an elephant’s charge,
lions bristling at her touch,
gorillas gazing through brush.
Now half a world from Africa
people hear
a drumbeat in her laughter,
stories told in the night.
They wander toward her light
with fuel for burning causes.
They see her pictures of women
planting seeds and sewing
making chairs and weaving.
From halfway round the world
They hear Africa.
So, dear friends, may you hear Africa in her enthusiasm.
I have some thoughts to share as well. Excitement and scattered focus are part of these days as we pack our suitcases with our African gear…safari hats and lightweight pants for quick drying, cameras to gift as well as cameras to record, books for the loooooooong flight to Nairobi and an empty journal for tales about “our” people there. We are weighing our suitcases to get them just under the limit! So many of you helped us fill them with school supplies and medicines, with gift cards and t-shirts…thank you and we will feel your presence in the joyful carrying of our treasures.
Toni and I will leave on Friday morning, earlier than expected. There was a glitch in the flight schedule and Mary, Toni’s travel agent, did an amazing job to get Toni and I and Sr. CJ Willie, who is coming from New York,
on the same flight out of Atlanta. We land in Paris (sadly just to breathe the air there) and go on to Lagos,
Nigeria. From there we will fly into Nairobi, arriving on Sunday morning. Vanessa, the young and beautiful college companion, will join us from Italy the next day.
It is a time of poetry. A few weeks ago, I wrote my imaginings and share these with you.
On the great dusty savannah
where life began
and moved to its myriad glory
There waits a space for me.
In the treeless stretch of earth,
trampled,
bleeding of hopes and hungers
there opens a way
of hands holding freshness.
In the stacked shanties
of tin and darkness
fetid with teeming overload
there breathes an air
that stirs the weary wasted bones
in me.
I dance in this Africa
with the tough ones,
the wee ones,
the old ones,
My ancestors coming toward me
with a mighty feast.
Dear friends, send with us your spirit of power to get us there and to meet with our hearts and ears all whom we have the privilege of meeting there.
Bubbling over,
Mary Lou Bennett (and Sr. Toni from her CPPS meeting)
Update from Africa: August 3, 2009
Dear Friends,
Mary Lou and I have safely made it back to St. Louis. We had a safe trip home. Mary ... Update from Africa: July 29, 2009
29, July 2009 African update (via poor phone connection to Uganda)
Greeting from Kampala! We are happy to know that Heidi ... 
