In 2018 I was contacted by a long time friend asking to please film something for him in Tanzania to which I said 'YES' without hesitation as I had been begging him for years to take me on a trip into Africa. My brief was to capture the stories of 7 Men we were due to collect.
We embarked, traveling from South Africa to Tanzania which took us 6 long days by car. We went through Botswana and Zambia to get there, the roads are very bad in some places so we had to take is slow.
Little did I realise that this trip would change my life.
So who were the 7 Men we went to collect in Tanzania?
And who is 'the Boy in the Orange T-Shirt'?
The 7 Men had a calling to reach out to people from impoverished communities in Africa. They had spent 3 months in Tanzania teaching Conservation Agriculture (a practice where the soil is not ploughed) and making new friends as they moved around.
We spent a week in Northern Zambia capturing mind blowing stories of new friendships that were made, overcoming difficulties and traveling around teaching with minimal finances.
Witchcraft is prevalent in this area and being a white woman, the children were terrified of me, especially because I had a camera with me. It is believed by the local people that if any part of their bodies are photographed a piece of them will be removed forever. While walking with my new found friends I could hear the children shouting 'Hello' from behind bushes and rocks, I knew they were shouting to me as it is assumed that white people speak English.
Regardless, we had fun getting to know each other, laughing and showing the children by my interactions with the 7 Men, I was of no threat.
We decided to go into the village on the 5th day to sing songs with the children. They slowly began to emerged from their hiding places and tolerated me filming them from a distance.
Then all of a sudden this boy in an orange t-shirt came up my camera with a mischievous glint in his eye, held the lens and pulled it towards his face, which landed up being the opening scene to the video I created. He then pointed to see the back and that was the moment he came closer to me and let me open my arms around him and have him investigate further. We had a moment where I think both of us paused, as trust developed.
Before any of this I had build stone walls around me to protect myself from a hurtful past, one where I believed not many people loved me. I allowed no one new in.
In this moment, before I knew it I had so many children around me, all wanting to see what I had in my hands. My cell phone was passed around amongst them to see how it operated. It was in this moment my heart began to soften.
It became time to leave, we made our way back down to Livingston in the South West of Zambia for 2 nights and stayed at a campsite situated alongside the gorge below the Victoria Falls.
It was here in the campsite that I told my story of abuse from past relationships to the 7 Men, where words and actions had cut so deep that hurt and mistrust was all I had being carrying around with me for many years, where all I thought that men were after was sex and women were nothing more to them. When ever I had told my story before, I was told to get over it, things happen and we must move on. But the opposite happened on this day. These guys, all of them came to put their arms around me and their words to me were 'Dada (Sister in Swahili), we love you'.
In that moment, I realised what Love was really all about, it was about being there for one another, supporting each other, connecting.
We did a final walk together that afternoon over the bridge that connects Zambia to Zimbabwe. In that moment I knew I had found something that would last.
We are all still extremely close to this day, supporting each other through life, bound by this unconditional love for one another through experience and understanding.
So what am I most grateful for for?
I am grateful for learning to love again.
I am grateful that my heart has softened.
I am grateful that I am loved by such extraordinary people.
I am grateful for my friends that these same people have become part of my family.
But I am most grateful for having received love so great I am able to leave love behind, with every step that I take, because love is the most important gift of all we can give to someone else.
Ladies of Hive Community Contest #64
Thank you to my friend @jim-crypto for helping me get started on Hive a few short weeks ago and to @chociscorpipro for introducing me to #ladiesofhive.
Me gustaría invitar a @pinkgirl4 a la comunidad de Ladies of Hive (I would like to invite @pinkgirl4 to Ladies of Hive). Lo siento, esto es solo en inglés, soy nuevo en Hive y aprenderé cómo hacer las publicaciones en ambos idiomas. Encantada de conocerte :)
This is such a beautiful experience
And I loved the pictures
Thank you for sharing this with us <33
@kaerpediem It is a pleasure for sharing, thank you so much for the comment :)
Hi @serowa, welcome to Africa where you hear lots of weird stories and cultural beliefs, and about the road, that is one sad reality we have been forced to get used to over here.
I can only imagine how emotional this must have been for you, did you cry? because I would have cried out my heart if I were in your shoes.
I am glad you are happy, love remains the greatest healing balm.
Thank you @bimbo45 :) I am originally from Zimbabwe and grew up in South Africa but was predominantly in a white culture. I have traveled a fair amount in Southern Africa itself but this was my first time going cross culture and I feel like I found my home.
When those men listened to me that day I cried my eyes out, it was the first time in a long while I felt like I could breathe without having to have my defences up.
Love has carried through and I went to visit 3 of these men in #Botswana, November 2021 for a wedding where I was welcomed into families as a daughter and sister. I was even gifted with the name Libu meaning Grateful in Tswana which meant the world to me.
This is really sweet to read, I am glad I found you here on hive. Have a beautiful week friend.
Oh, my. Tears of joy flow when I see these men hug & support you. Thank you for sharing your heart @serowa It's stories like these that change the World. Thank you for opening up like you did. I'm certain many hearts were healed that day.
I love stories like this and I hope to hear more.
!LUV
@lizablove(1/1) gave you LUV.
@lizablove it is an absolute pleasure 😍 It was an absolute pleasure to be able to share this, may so much love come your way.
@serowa thank you for your sharing. I could feel it must be difficult for you to pen this down and I appreciate you braving through your old wound for any of us that needed the inspiration. I pray you find love and peace within yourself and able to radiate it ☀️💛💛
@mysterycrumb Thank you so much for your comment. It is a story I tell quite often but this is the first time I have penned it which took me quite a long time I must say. I miss my friends so much when I am away from them and with Covid we have not seen each other as much as what we normally would. We did manage to get together this last November which was amazing, I felt so complete again.😍
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was teary eyes while reading your story.. made me question myself what love really is but I'm grateful for those 7 men to love you unconditionally because of that you learned to love again.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful story
OMG, @serowa! I am in tears 😭
I'm so glad you were awarded 2nd place as it meant I could read this post!!! How I came first, I do not know. How you only have $1.30, I do not know. What I do know is that I adore your courage. I adore your story. And I am so freakin' grateful you wrote this post. Thank you darling, thank you. It was... beautiful.
With !LUV, Caroline xxx
@consciouscat(2/4) gave you LUV.
@consciouscat I was so happy to read your post as well. Congratulations to you over and over. I have read so many of the posts from this challenge and just love them all so much. I love this community of positive women building each other up #LOH #LadiesOfHive
🙏❤️😘
Thank you for sharing your story with us.
Must have been an amazing experience… the photographs tell the story well.
🤗🤗
@littlebee4 It is a pleasure. The experience was truly life changing :)
I can imagine… @serowa. Had life changing experiences myself so know what you mean.
🥰
Such precious moments you had. Looking at the pictures again after reading, it's not hard to see love overflowing. Amazing the trip was able to change a perception you had. I'm happy and rooting for you.
@wolfofnostreet I am so glad that came through in the post, love is the most amazing gift.
Wow what a magical and extraordinary journey that was for all of you- even the villagers that you became friends with.
I am going to send this post to Tracey, a friend of mine from here in Melbourne who (usually) lives in her own boma in Longido/Arusha in Tanzania as she has a water Charity called Testigo Africa https://testigoafrica.org/projects/impact there for years and teaches the locals permaculture and all sorts of other empowering skills- especially for women.
I have been trying to get her onto Hive since I first discovered it 18mnths ago as she blogs on FB regularly, but would have so much more of an impact if she were to blog here instead, so maybe seeing you on here will encourage her to join in our fun too.
@chocolatescorpi this is amazing, thank you. I have been trying to set up an NPO in Zim for an area that desperately needs help, World Food Program were there the last time we were there. I also met 2 orphans and began teaching them Conservation Agriculture, similar to Permaculture. This trip in 2018 was a game changer for me when I saw kwashiorkor for the first time, my life literally turned around. I will make contact with Tracey, it would be lovely to see her on Hive. A person can make a difference, a team can make a miracle. Together we can all do so much more.
Yes please do contact her as I wholeheartedly agree that there's strength in numbers to have a much greater impact and I'm there right beside you guys too!
I have an idea- such a massive, multi layered idea, but I need to win some serious lotto money to get it going...
https://www.facebook.com/tracey.l.sawyer
And I know that her universe will open up so much more than just the effect that she has using FB...
Anyway, lets keep in contact for sure!
Do you have whatsapp? Skype/Zoom?
And actually did I ever tell you about Melbournian (Aussie) Damian Mander?
https://www.iapf.org/
@chocolatescorpi I do have Zoom but I have no idea how it works, I do use Whatsapp a lot, it would be wonderful to connect more. This week I began talking about the idea of rabbits I work with to make a greater impact in Africa.
You didn't tell me about Damian Mander but I just looked at the website, this is awesome. We have been working in a few local communities to help better their food production and it has made a massive difference! I see why these guys poach, I would do it too if my children were starving which helps to drive me in the education we do.
I sent Tracey a FB request :)
Lets whatsapp sometime!
send me an email with your no. on it.
[email protected]
And so glad that you sent Trac a FM request!
I'll send her a message and let her know that I sent you.
I'm not sure if Damian is back in Australia (pandemic) but I don't think so.
I think it would be fantastic if you connected with him too as I'm sure that you guys could somehow help each other out!
Such wonderful photographs with your truly heart warming story @serowa. To open your heart to the children by simply allowing them to slowly overcome their shyness and fears.
And then to open even further by telling the 7 men about why your heart had been closed and to feel the unconditional love from them, which in turn could be given back to them by a transformed you.
Love the photograph of the boy in the orange t-shirt gazing up at you and the photograph of all the tree huggers. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
@allyinspirit Thank you so much, kids are such a blessing, they can teach us so much. And those men, wow I miss them, we have all become such close friends.
Children sure are a blessing. Show us how to be more in the moment. Yes such friendships will always endure even if we never see each other again. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
You received 2 LADY(LOH) tokens for entering the Ladies of Hive contest!
We believe that you should be rewarded for the time and effort spent in creating articles. The goal is to encourage token holders to accumulate and hold LOH tokens over a long period of time.
@hive-124452 Thank you for the unexpected #LOH #tokens :)
wow what a wonderful experience you had and what beautiful pictures you took, thanks for the invitation and I will review the community and how can I adapt to it
@pinkgirl4 It would be awesome to see you here 😁
This is a powerful beautiful story!
I am super grateful that you shared it with us!
After reading the whole story, I went back to see again the look of the boy in the orange t-shirt with your arms around him. It took a totally new meaning, tenderness and trust!
Wish you all the love in the world :)
Thank you so much, I am so glad you enjoyed :)
I wish you the best of life
I enjoyed reading so much.
@farahtheawesome1 Thank you so much and I am glad you enjoyed the read. It is one of my favourite stories I share, so glad I got to share it with the #ladiesofhive :)
@ladiesofhive I am enjoying reading the articles from other women so much. #Empower
I so loved the stories and photos in this post! What an amazing experience! 😊
@thekittygirl Thank you so much for the comment, I enjoy sharing this story, this being the first time writing it 🙂