2020 was a very hard year for me, to the extent that i lost hope in myself and my studies. Being the only girl in a family of five, and the first born child ,the one is expected  to be a role model to my siblings.
When 2020 began, i was excited because it was going to be my last year at high school, the year i was going to write my  O'level examinations, my last sitting before college. The first  problem  i faced was the shortage of money for registration of my November examinations. The registration price for the subjects i was going to sit for were expensive. My mother could not afford the registration fee. She was the only one who sustained our  daily expenses with money she got from doing part time jobs in and around  the city, washing clothes and cleaning people's homesteads.

At times  i would wake up each and every morning,  going from street to street, selling  bananas so that we could get some money not to sleep on an empty stomach.

My dad divorced my mom in the beginning of my  third year in high school. He left us with our mother and left without a trace, with some of the  home property. At that moment i dropped out of school to attend to my mom and siblings. My father was the bread winner of  the house, so he had provided everything we wanted  and now that he was gone, i could not carry on with my studies. I had no one to pay for my school fees and  I was in fear of putting my family in debt with the school.

As days moved on, my mom in grief made three sucidal attempts because of the  desperation  of losing father.  Her first attempt was to hang herself. I was lucky enough to arrive at the scene before she had  tied the rope on her neck. At that point and time i shouted for help and all the neighbours gathered and assisted.

After this we had asssisatnce from some of the church members in my community. They went through our school adminstrations and assisted with them to put us back in school . During that time my mom was going for conselling sessions from time time. Sometimes they were administered at our house and other times at the church.
Having experienced all this pain, my grades at school began to drop, but at that point I never gave up. I kept my head held high and kept on working hard .
After some months, my mom got better. She could not go back to her old self, she was still broken inside i could see her pain every time I looked in her eyes.They were some cooperative programs which were offered at our church and workshops to sustain single mothers. She attended all of them and became  a member. Each and every time she went there, she kept growing strong. From there on, she moved with being a part time maid so that she could get income to sustain us.

So now the exams where around the corner and I  still could not afford the registration fee. Looking  my mothers income, i asked her if i could skip the exam sitting for that year but she insisted that i shouldn't. So after the exam fee was declared by the education ministry that it had to be affordable for all, my mother payed my registration fee in february. Beginning of March, we then hear rummors about a deadly virus. After it was confimed and
nations were to be put on lock down  with restrictions, this sititation struck us deep because my mom had to stop her daily work.
Without any other form of income to put food on table, we were left in a very dark age, but we survided because we thought it was  a 2 weeks problem. We never imagined it was only the starting point  of another promblem. We had to endure  for months, nearly to a year.

I had been disturbed in my studies and this time, I lost hope of  ever achieving my dreams because it seemed like they where shuttered for life. I had no text book or even a cellphone for internet access, nor a daily tutor. I had to survive with only that using i had learnt at  school. After 6 months, some lockdown restriction measures were removed.
We were now at  a level where essential  services we  able to be accessed. We had to go back to school, finish our O'level and sit for exams and although we went back, not all the teachers were available because people in a single facility had to be reduced.  
Quite a number of teachers were under qurantinee and some had received the last calll. Despite all of this, end of December 2020 to January 2021, I was able to sit for all my eximanations  and later received my results. My results were quite average and standard, with some fails but more chains of Bs and Cs.
​With this, I will  always thank The Almighty for moving with me each time and strengthening me as a woman. A big apprecitaion is for my mother, who never gave up on me nomatter what.

Are tablets really a good thing….?
I was having a conversation with a respected teacher, explaining the work of Midzi.org. He is an amazing, natural educator. One of the things I enjoy when I talk to him, is that he tends to prod my thinking from another perspective.  His question when I explained that Midzi works with schools to provide laptops and tablets to students was, “Are tablets really a good thing?”
I paused, and immediately understood what he was saying. The African experience that both he and I know, runs at a very deliberate pace.  A year truly feels like a year. Maybe longer. People eat together for meals, whether it is breakfast, lunch or dinner, primarily at home. Africans make the time to prepare food. There is no hurrying.
The concept of “fast” food only happens if you are outside the home… When in Africa, I would normally wait until I got home to have a meal.
As a teenager, I sometimes grimaced at the saying: “There is no hurry in Africa!”
Not everyone has a car! Many people walk, ride bikes, or used public transportation to get from A to B.  Time is a guideline, but one is generally not ruled by a clock. In fact, it is rude to look at a watch if one was socializing… one pays more attention to an event… and less attention to how long the event is, or what time it officially starts. I will give another example.
When in Africa, if my mother asks me to meet her in down-town at 11am, there is a chance she will show up at 2pm! And yes, she still expects me to be there.. waiting at the agreed-upon rendezvous. This is not because she does not care about time. If she is coming from her house… she might want to make sure she has done what she deems important before leaving her house. Possibly watering some vegetable plants in the garden so they don’t wither in the sun. Likely she might cook a robust meal to make sure she has the necessary energy to make the trek into downtown. Then she will pretty herself up appropriately for a trip into town. No casual jeans. I don’t believe she has ever owned a pair. And then of course, she needs to navigate her way to a street intersection, and wait for a public taxi or bus. Deliberate pace. It is not about the clock.
Is this a way to run a society? There is a mindfulness in this way of living and being. And also an awareness others.  If I have a conversation with a friend about something she thinks is important… I do not worry about the clock and how I am scheduled to be at another place. The clock does not rule. I pay attention to the event (the conversation) until the event is over. If necessary I might tell my friend that I am expected elsewhere, but even extricating myself from the conversation is a deliberate process, a ritual.. it would be rude to do so without first making sure my friend was ok, and I was parting when we both were satisfied we had concluded our event.
There is an awareness of what is going on around you.
People are outdoors, every day. The outdoors and meeting people, are way more interesting than staying indoors. You neighbors are outside too, so likely you will make the time to talk, gossip… share tips on how to best accomplish mundane tasks. Laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more. I have said this many times: the funniest people I have ever met, are in Africa. When everyone has relatively so little, happiness is less in what you own, and more in simple things, like a good laugh. You laugh at each other. You laugh at yourself. You discover laughter in the most unexpected places, even in tragic situations.
Taking a computer tablet to a culture where there is joy in simple things; relationships, events, family… would a tablet add to the joy, or would it isolate people? Or make kids whose games are normally dodge ball, running or climbing trees, turn to digital streaming?
Yes, I understood what my teacher was saying. Yes, tablets will bring technology and more education to places where “education” is dodgy, but on a scale… between unfettered happiness, and being ruled by a clock, which would you choose? Between being deeply connected to the world around you, and being connected to the “world” through the internet, which one would you choose?
Can there be a balance in both worlds? Or are things so off-kilter that once one is introduced to the digital world, there will inevitably be a break down of what holds old societies together. What do you think?
​

Our relationship with money….

Minutes ago, I was reading a news article about a California couple that has been living with their young children in a box-like structure, composed of plywood, for four years, in the California desert. They lived without electricity and running water. The couple has been arrested on suspicion of cruelty to their children. Living in an “unsuitable environment” was deemed as an act cruelty. Doesn’t cruelty involve an underlying intention harm? Were these parents purposefully harming their children?

My thoughts? Society should not arrest people because they are poor!

Without a doubt, if the adults in this story had more financial resources, they would choose to live in better conditions. I do not know this family, or what led them to where they are now but it is clear that they have held together as a family. It is likely that once the adults are jailed, the children will end up in a foster care system. These parents may have to jump hurdles in order to get their children back.

What do you think?

On moral grounds, do you think these parents deserve to have their children taken away? Do you think the children are better off in a foster care system? It makes more common sense that if society cares, the system should provide temporary housing for the family, versus sending parents to jail. The children have gone through enough hardship… and now the system is taking away the only family know.

The “system” is not an ogre. It’s intentions are not evil. So how can people be jailed for not being able to afford something… in this case, accommodation? Are we judging this family for not having it together? Are we easily accepting the jail solution because they are poor? Is there a part of us that is taking the high ground, thinking that they deserve to have their children taken away since they cannot financially support them?

Many people in other parts of the world cannot afford accommodation that has electricity or running water. They cannot afford plywood! They build houses out of mud, or straw! And yes, sometimes we do turn our eyes away from these images too.

What would be life-changing for many people, would be to spend a week, two weeks, living in a remote “poor” village, living as “the natives” do. Yes, it will make any person appreciate the material things they have, and the conveniences they take for granted. But a person may also discover how rich life is, even while having so little! The focus turns away from material stuff, to simply appreciating the other bouquet that the Universe has laid out for everyone… the sunrise, the sunset, the smell of the earth, surrounding vegetation, the air we breathe, people and community!

I will likely come back to this topic over and over again… our relationship with money. It touches all of us. We as humanity , seem to show a lack of compassion and understanding because of material stuff. Our values are upside-down. With our values skewed, we are not grounded, but get lost… especially among the stuff that we value too much. What is your relationship with money? I can hear many saying “well I don’t have enough of it!”. But beyond the jokes… how do you think money has made you just a little less human?
​

The world is no longer the way it functioned 40 years ago. 
A young man with an eighth grade education did not have to look far to find a job! As long as he could read reasonably well, and make basic calculations, had good character and a desire to work hard to earn a living, he could provide for his needs and the needs of his family. 
 
Many of us look to education as the answer to financial freedom!
But it's no longer an eighth grade education that will cut the grade, and it's not a High School certificate, and in growing communities, it is not a basic college degree. The standard keeps rising! There are now more educated people in the world than there were 40 years ago, and more working people trying to eke out a living while competing with the convenience of technologies that can do the equivalent work of twenty people within one hour. 

“There is more than one way to skin a Rat….
This is just one way out of many, but boy does it make sense!"

There really is a need to shift education towards practical applications to everyday life. Young people in under-industrialized communities should be learning about practical ways they can bring about wholesome economic and social growth or changes, in areas where there is need for further development. They live in their communities and more understanding of what they need, and the best ways to meet those things within a culture.
 
For example, young people should be studying how to harness self-sustainable solar energy so that their communities are not so dependent on importing oil. Students should be exploring ways to harvest clean water, in a safe sustainable fashion. 
 
The educational model of learning, getting a diploma, yet having no practical skills to apply toward the community's viable needs is self-defeating. 
 
Online education removes the limitations in what we learn!
One can learn nearly everything that is suited to personal needs, the needs of a community, and the talent and interests of the student. One is able to explore the world's information highway... and then carve out an appropriate path. 
 
Education is still the path to financial and economic freedom.... but we are sticking to an old paradigm of education versus shifting with the times. 
 
Are you ready to make that shift? What role are you willing to play, to make it happen? If you are reading this, you are able in very small and in big ways, help shift the learning paradigm... and directly and indirectly, give lasting impact on the globe.
 
To see how we can help you, or how you can get involved, send us an email at [email protected].