Working with an HIV-AIDS Affected Kenyan Community

I met Ken Ariri (right) and Joseph Ouko (left) - both orphaned by HIV-AIDS at a young age) at the Holistic Community Kenya monthly Noodle Soup Meeting last year. They made a presentation of their school for HIV-AIDS orphans in Nyanza Province in Kenya. I was deeply touched and inspired by their story, and their dedication to educating orphans at Hill Breeze School. I told them about my work with tsunami orphans in Sri Lanka. They asked if I could do similar work in their community. I told them I would be honored to, and promised I would come as soon as I could work a visit into my schedule. I would do my work under the auspices of the Holistic Community Kenya (HCK) Outreach Program.

It took me a while, but true to my word, on September 29 and 30, 2011, I flew to Kisumu from Nairobi, and took a taxi to Oyugis, the town closest to Hill Breeze School. Sheila Otieno of HCK accompanied me throughout my visit. We spent the night at her mother's house. It was my first experience of rural Kenyan life.

During my visit, I observed the children's activities, met some School Board members, took photographs, and shared the Creative Holistic Integration (CHI) Wholeness Exercise (WE) with the teachers, an HIV positive Womens' group and two Oyugis-based youth groups (including YES who do street theater and puppetry for AIDS education). I plan to go back regularly to continue sharing holistic self-care tools with this community.

I gave the Hill Breeze School a gift of a Kodak digital camera with which they could create a visual history of and document the school's evolution and progress.

Before I returned to Nairobi, I promised to create and administrate a blog on their behalf to tell the world their story. To read the blog, click on the URL below: http://hillbreezeschool.blogspot.com

Stepping into My 7th Decade

On August 22nd this year, I opened the door to the 7th decade of my life. I am filled with gratitude for the people, experiences and opportunities I have been blessed with in the 60 years that I have spent on this beautiful planet. To all who have been part of my life thus far, I send love and thanks. In the mirror of your eyes I see myself more clearly. In my interactions with you, I experience myself more fully. Without you as a part of my wholeness, I would not be who I am.

I try to live life well: I do my best to live up to my potential, to use my creativity to make my life fuller and to help make the world a better place, to take every opportunity to learn new things, an to share what I learn with others. Curiosity and creativity have been my greatest gifts. They make my life fun and interesting.

I have come to know my body as a messaging system that my soul communicates through. I have come to recognize everyone and everything as mirrors that show me truths about myself that I may not be able to grasp on my own. Much of this I learned in the past decade, in the process of learning to heal myself.

When I ask what I have to learn in the next decade, the word that pops into my mind is BALANCE: between BE-ing and DO-ing; between BE-ing with myself and BE-ing with others. between DO-ing for myself and DO-ing for others; between giving and receiving; between my upper and lower chakras; between being body, emotions, mind and spirit. Balance will be good to have.

So as I step into my 7th decade, with gratitude and grace, I hold the intention for balance - for myself, for you, for all humanity for all beings and for Earth - for the highest good of all.