Be grateful for your tampons.
In Kenya, I had the great pleasure of visiting a school in the outskirts of Nairobi. This school is roaring with excitement, laughter, eager faces left and right - an orphanage for some of the younger children. It was particularly special to me because of the older students present. I've not yet had a chance to work with teenage students and was very impressed by their focus, and moved by their circumstances... the girls, the beautiful, eager loving, wise young girls... they don't always make it to school. Why? Lack of money, lack of food, lack of transportation? No, not only those hurdles so many have already jumped, but also -- a lack of tampons. "It's a real problem. When they're menstruating and have nothing to use, it's not easy to make the journey and they can't always make it to school." "But, we are working to figure this out," I was assured. My God, how fortunate we are to have something as trivial as tampons, I thought. Maybe not so trivial after all. We can be tough and say "find something else to use -- make it to school,"... but really, ladies, would you want to just "find something else to use"? Men, need an equivalent? How about getting sick and going to the bathroom, no toilet paper, no shower, and a several mile walk to work or school in very hot temperatures? My intention is not to be gross, but to get us to empathize.
They are working to handle the situation and, last I learned, are creating a tampon program that will help these girls get the supplies they need and therefore the education they deserve. And boy, do they want one. They'll work very hard for it. I have faith in this program, because I have faith in the woman seeing it through. But, what if we had to miss our opportunities in life - our interviews, our auditions, our classes, our gigs, our lessons... because we didn't have the simple supplies to get ourselves moving? It would hurt. Big time. We can't underestimate how lucky we are to have those little things that keep us moving every day. The basic things that allow us to be educated, to work, to move, to live.
What "trivial" things are you grateful for today? In times of frustration, stress, etc., what do you often overlook or forget to appreciate? Our education is a blessing, and so are the gifts that have helped us to attain one. For those who missed the word, yes, we did reach our goal to feed the Tanzanian students for all of 2012! Thank you to all who contributed and took part in this mission. You are bettering our world and I can't thank you enough! Let's keep on moving!
