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Just Joan: 01/04/2007

Sonoma women help make miracles in Africa Joan Huguenard Amazing “miracles” littered the pathways as the three Sonomans we wrote of on Nov. 30 traveled about eastern Africa last month. For Dr. Linda Lea, it was far and away her most deliriously productive trip to that distant and mysterious land. For five years, Dr. Lea has been visiting annually to connect with educators and students and to manage the scholarship program for secondary school girls she created in 2001. Currently, each visit culminates in a major education forum in Arusha, Tanzania, organized for networking and exchange of ideas, thus promoting the work of the scholarship program. This year, the annual forum was preceded by an unprecented conference in Kenya of more than 500 rural women from 10 African countries. Dr. Lea and Michelle Woodward, the Napa life coach who functioned as Linda’s able assistant throughout last year’s trip, expressed overwhelming joy and amazement about their experiences. By choosing to present at the conference her annual leadership workshops designed to prepare scholarship students for the Forum, Dr. Lea was able to include both Kenyan and Tanzanian students. Learning of each other’s cultures opened new horizons of understanding and connection. For the Maasai girls from Arusha, these workshops were particularly life-enriching because they introduced new ways of communicating and the skills of leadership. Can you imagine how you would feel if you had spent your entire lifetime believing you were unworthy to look into anyone’s eyes and someone suddenly announced quite convincingly that you are actually a powerful woman? How scary would it be to begin to lift your head high when you had always walked, talked and even eaten with your chin on your chest? Does it stretch the imagination too far to believe that after a single two-hour workshop such a person could powerfully introduce herself to an audience of more than 200 people? This was the experience of the six Maasai scholarship students. As she has continually searched out new ways to build self-confidence, last year, a brilliant new technique shoved itself into Linda’s consciousness. This time she had the girls evaluate each other along the path to finding their voice. After each attempt, she asked the other students a question such as, “Do you think she gave it her all?” Her gentle coaching led to noes that bespoke encouragement rather than defeat and each student tried again and again with greater conviction and louder auditory tones. When the Education Forum later assembled in Arusha, with attendance numbering more than 200, each of these six young Maasai women confidently proclaimed who she was and how she intends to change her world for the better. Two years ago, only a few of the students had been able to stand up before the audience and speak. And that was with tiny, squeaky voices. Paulina, one of the six, was a genuine star. “I learned in Kenya that everyone is a professor. So I am a professor!” Later, as Dr. Lea conducted the closing circle, the formerly quiet and shy Paulina bounded out of her chair to say, “These words are great, but they mean nothing if we don’t take action! So take action, all of you!” Because Dr. Lea had forwarded an agenda for last year’s Forum to African educators, she found to her amazement that she had little to do when she arrived. With responsible Africans taking charge, Linda had only to bask in the achievements of the program. An amazing conversation ensued as Linda sat next to a member of Tanzania’s Parliament during the forum. “We didn’t take you seriously at first,” he admitted. Now, however, the two of them discussed potential construction of a “Center of Excellence” for her work. “There is government money available,” he assured her, “for such a center to support training, empowerment, leadership, domestic skills and vocational guidance for our girl children.” Dr. Linda Lea, seemingly just one more “ordinary” citizen of Sonoma, California, is confident such a center will emerge from this, her third Education Forum in Arusha, Tanzania. After the forum, she and some of the other women from the U.S. had the opportunity to observe the first-ever graduate of Linda’s scholarship program now teaching mathematics in a primary school. To these visitors, the math seemed to be at a very high level for the age of the children. Yet the kids were fairly jumping out of their seats in eagerness to answer the teacher’s questions. For the first time, Dr. Lea enjoyed the luxury of quality time in the medical clinic and outreach division of her program. While she found it hard to see such very sick children, she was mightily heartened by the counseling, testing and innovative programs of the outreach center designed so all ages could understand. “What really hits home for me,” Dr. Lea states, “was how happy these people were. They showed astonishment that we would come all that way and see them as powerful and whole human beings.” In a future column, we’ll offer you more news of Safari miracles observed at the Conference attended by our three Sonoma travelers and rural women gathered from 10 African countries.

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