07/05/2012
Wednesday, July 4 in Arusha - Oh what a day!! It just keeps getting better. Today we met with a women’s co-op group. We sat in the yard, passed around one of the women’s baby, and gave our presentation. Seth did a great job of presenting what wills are and why they are important. The women were fiery and spunky. The energy was so positive. We all (the women and us) agreed that we must get the men involved like we did the day before. However, that didn’t stop each one of them from drafting a will! I explained to them that we are there to empower women – that the cycle must be broken and they must understand and realize their rights. That to protect their children, boys and girls, for the future, they must act now. We are picking up more and more steam now! I can’t wait until next year.
In the late afternoon/evening, we met with women from a local women’s right NGO. We did our presentation and one of the women adamantly refused to draft her will stating, “I am just not interested!” The leader of the organization then lectured all of them of the importance of participating and that this was part of the very reason they were organized! The woman finally relented and it turns out she had the most to lose if she didn’t write a will! In the end, all of the women drafted a will and that pushed us to 70 wills drafted!!! That’s 140% of my original goal! As it turns out though, we were drafting wills in the dark (thank goodness for Iphone flashlights – but it was soooo worth it!
We were invited to dinner by Professor Roland Adjovi. He is the Director of the Arcadia Center for East African Studies at the Nyerere Center for Peace Research. We ate dinner at the students’ compound. It was nice to hear about what the students are studying. I’m looking forward to collaborating with Roland in the future. He wants to come to Miami and give a presentation (he goes to the US twice per year). Fantastic end to an amazing day!
