Light

 "It must surely be a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit that even a small number of those men and women in the hell of the prison system survive it and hold onto their humanity."

-Howard Zinn

We visited another familiar place today, the Women's Prison. This is our third year visiting the women there. When we arrived I was given a job right away. A knife and part of a cabbage were passed over to me and then I had to start chopping it up. I think it was a test to see if I would do it and how I would interact with the women. After about two minutes one woman came over and sat next to me, she said, "do you want me to assist you," and I replied with a resounding "yes." I didn't have the right technique and I think she wanted to talk to me and get to know me. I had big sunglasses on and she told me she liked my shades and that back home she used to wear sunglasses all of the time. She has a daughter back home and she's been in the prison for seven months.  We have no idea why the women are in the prison, nor do we ask. We're there to teach yoga and bring a little light into the space. 

After prepping their meal the class began. 

The women filled up the space with laughter and supported each other in the beautiful practice. 

There was dancing and singing. Joy and love.

"In some countries, it is a widespread means of torture to constantly subject prisoners to artificial light..."-Natascha Kampusch

Africa Yoga Project brought real light, light from the heart, light that can only be created from a space of deep compassion and care.

Grace

It all begins with communication. Today I led a communication workshop for all of the Africa Yoga Project Teachers. We focused on what culture around communication the teachers want to cultivate. 

They came up with an awesome communication manifesto:

Openness 

Trust

Non-judgemental communication-acceptance

Generous listening

Clear and simple communication

Requests instead of commands or demands

Love

Compassion

Realizing that different people have different ways of communicating

Patience

Communicating in a fair way, not treating folks differently based on their role or level of power in the Africa Yoga Project

I'll be following up with a few teachers to offer them a conflict resolution training and set them up as mediators to help resolve conflicts as they arise. 

Then we headed to one of our favorite places, Gracious School. Jeff has taught music there for the past two years during our visits and ambassadorship with AYP and I teach yoga when I'm at Gracious.  The children love Jeff and his musical games. He's an awesome music maker and teacher. 

"You put your stomach in, you put your stomach out", Jeff's rendition of the hokey pokey.

And we reunited with Teacher Happiness who is the head of Gracious School.

 And this one, this little girl named Marcy is my heart. I was so happy to see her. I fell in love with her last year and when she saw me this year she walked up and said, "hi" with the sweetest smile on her face. Love, love, love Marcy.

"Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors."-Wm. Paul Young

Loving an animal

"They say somewhere in Africa the elephants have a secret grave where they go lie down, unburden their wrinkled gray bodies, and soar away, light spirits at the end."

-Robert R. MCcammon

We visited one of our favorite places in Kenya, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Each year we've gone to see these orphaned elephants. In the last three years we've adopted four elephants at the Trust and this year we learned that one had been released to the wild. After three years the elephants go back into the wild to create chosen families. Many of the elephants mothers have been poaching victims or died from starvation, lack of food and water.

We adopted an elephant named Susawa for our friend whose birthday is coming up. Susawa came to the orphanage about five months ago and her mother was a victim of poaching. Her keeper who took this photo of her for us said she was very traumatized when she arrived but that she is acclimating now and is much better and more sociable.

This is  KITHAKA, we just adopted him yesterday, he's silly and was making his keeper laugh a lot.

We also managed to see these amazing four legged, long necked beings.

We visited the Giraffe Center and got to feed the Giraffe. 

This is Ed. He is awesome. 

Back to work tomorrow. It was nice to spend the day with a different kind. 

What if our religion was each other

What if our religion was each other

If our practice was our life prayer, our words.

What if our temple was the earth,

If forests were our church, if holy water our rivers, lakes, and oceans.

What if meditation was our relationships,

If the teacher was life, if wisdom was self-knowledge,

If love was the center of our being.

-Ganga White

I got to teach 230 people yoga today. It was beautiful. 

Power

"The most common thing people do to give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."-Alice Walker

Much of the day was spent at the Shine Center, Africa Yoga Project's studio. I began the morning by teaching a flow class to the male teachers and then followed up with a workshop on Trauma Sensitive Yoga.  The teachers are going to be integrating some of the Trauma Sensitive components into their outreaches. It was awesome to teach fifty males yoga. In my classes back at home I usually have 1-2 men in class so fifty men felt totally different. Their energy was different then my experience teaching the women's class. Not surprisingly, they express their power in different ways than the women. It was beautiful to see men practicing yoga and connecting with the breath and the capacity to transform. 

 

 Jeff headed to the old home of the Africa Yoga Project's classes, Sarakasi Dome, to take some photos for social media outreach.

 We ended the day at an outreach in a Social Hall in one of the slums. The class was taught by four teachers and again, mostly male participants in the class.   The teachers adapt their teaching based on the population they are teaching to and in this class it was all power and more.  The teachers really pushed people and I understand now why they make the class so hard and why students respond.  It makes the students feel powerful, it makes the students connect with their ability to push through and to do more than they think they can do. And the reason it works in this setting is because folks need to feel hopeful and need to  connect with their power to make the changes they want to make in their lives. It was a beautiful practice to witness and be part of. At the end of the class a circle was created to share feedback. I would love to incorporate time into my classes to have feedback and sharing. It really builds community.

And on a side note, we are totally in love with Billy and Paige's creation, Penzi. She is beautiful, connects through her smile and is an awesome dancer.

"Live in rooms full of light"-Cornelius Celsus

Be Dazzled..

I'm happy to report that Jeff and I had the honor of running with one of the Africa Yoga Project teachers this morning. He met us at 7:00am and we went for a sweet but hilly run. It was a wonderful way to began the day. Then we headed to the Shine Center so I could teach the women a yoga class and lead them in a workshop focused on Trauma Sensitive Yoga. 

After the workshop and lunch we headed to Muthare Special which is a school for children and young adults who have disabilities. What I appreciated the most about this class is that there was much going on a once. The students were very involved and it didn't matter if they were on a different side than everyone else or even in a different posture. 

The Africa Yoga Project connects with communities that wouldn't otherwise be offered yoga let alone be seen as people who could practice yoga. The project is powerful because of it's assumption that everyone needs yoga and can practice yoga. The practice might be warrior one, playing a game with the children, singing, dancing, or bringing juice or milk to the outreaches.  I am constantly inspired by the Africa Yoga Project and they are definitely leading the change. 

"Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled-to cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world."-Mary Oliver

Fear

"Fear doesn't shut you down, it wakes you up.

-Veronica Roth

Our second day in the outreaches was beautiful and heart opening. Kenya feels like home to me and I find myself wanting to spend more time here.  I'm torn between my amazing community and love of Carrboro and North Carolina and the rich vibrancy of Kenya and the Africa Yoga Project.

Believe it or not, I got two hours of sleep because I am totally jet-lagged and off center regarding time so I went for a run. The elevation is something to get used to here and I couldn't run outside of the neighborhood because it isn't really safe for me to do so. I ran up and down a hill and it became a meditative practice. The security guards kept looking at me with wonder trying to figure out what I was doing running up and down the same hill.

We headed to an outreach and it exemplified everything that I love about Kenya. There were acrobats, folks riding unicycles, yogis, kids, and random people hanging out.  Handstanding was happening all around us and it really made me realize the folks I witnessed in that social hall aren't afraid to fall. They were practicing acrobatics and yoga on a hard, concrete floor with no mats or props and yet they didn't show any fear. They were playful which reminded of how much playfulness and curiosity allow the heart to open and fear to dissipate.

We had a sweet lunch at Sofia's house and then headed to Mercy Care. This outreach took place in the dead end of a road in a slum called Huruma. The kids were ready to practice and they stood outside in a circle and practiced, connected, inhaled and exhaled, and laughed.  The practice concluded with Jeff and I teaching the chicken dance. We're expanding our reach and soon children all over Kenya will know both the hokey pokey and the chicken dance.

This little girl caught my eye as we were leaving the outreach. She wasn't really sure about me, hence the look of fierceness on her face. 

The evening ended with us cooking up a feast after an exhilarating yoga practice. Salad with almonds, apples, and cheddar cheese, roasted potatoes, and beans and maize.

Joy lessens suffering and I am completely full of joy.