Day Five: Green Belt Movement, Living Positive, and Small Christian Communities

Today we visited 3 places!
For my environmentalist friends, you'll be happy to know that the first was the headquarters of The Green Belt Movement . 

We met with an employee who used to work directly with the Green Belt Movement's founder Wangari Maathai . He said that she has been known as one of the most powerful women in Kenya for having stood up to Kenyan politicians and officials in defending certain pieces of land.  This woman has changed the ecology of Kenya and saved so much of it's forest land it's unbelievable.  In addition to this feat, the organization tackles the issue of poverty, specifically with women.  To celebrate the Nobel Peace Prize that she was awarded, she planted  this tree:

And this is a chameleon that was hangin out.

After leaving The Green Belt Movement we made moves to Living Positive Kenya , an organization that provides group support and skills training for women who are HIV+. I could only do so much not to purchase the beautiful jewelry and sewn goods they sold there. The walls inside are lined with posters from US AID about what to do if you have been raped. This may sound stupid, but I kind of wish there were signs that just told men not to rape in the first place. That aside, the women here were so beautiful.  They were absolutely inspiring in what I would describe as a positive attitude if it didn't incur the hint of a pun; I suppose I could say they're optimistic, confident, powerful, and upbeat women. We were greeted with hugs, kisses, and handshakes by each individual woman, and then they sang a song for us as we filed into one of the main rooms. They each told us their names and how many children they had and bits of their stories. We shared about ourselves, and then they toured us around the facility, the slum behind it, and back. We were shown the gift shop where I spent lots of money and then we headed out.  

From there we paid a visit to the Maryknoll priests of Kenya . This was boring to some of my colleagues but I was intrigued to hear about Small Christian Communities (or SCCs) from Fr. Joe Healy who has written extensively on the topic. I've been looking for more gender-equalizing and autonomous forms of worship and have had a hard time finding it in the Catholic Church (for obvious reasons that I don't feel I need to delve into here). But as Fr. Joe described the SCCs, I was happy to find out that they are the part of the Church that is doing exactly those things. I plan to stay in touch with him about them as there are only something like 1500 in the US and 35,000 in Kenya (or maybe Eastern Africa in general, I'll have to double check my facts on that).

And with that long post, I shall head to bed.