If you’d like to help out, the school she works for (the Robert Muller Life School) is accepting donations.  All of the proceeds go directly to helping the students and their families rebuild their homes.

Related posts:

1. My New Job

In two weeks my parents are going to Kenya to help start a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. Their hope is to eventually create a farm where the recovering addicts and alcoholics from the Nairobi slums can learn how to grow their own crops.

I’ve been put in charge of researching slum life in Kenya, and it’s been heartbreaking to sift through photos of children sniffing glue or playing in rivers of sewage. But while clicking through youtube news clips, I stumbled upon an uplifting documentary about a ‘women only’ tribe in Northern Kenya.

During the late 80′s and early 90′s, hundreds of women were raped by British soldiers who were training on a nearby military base. The women were blamed for their rapes and banished them from their homes. 15 of these women then decided to ban together and form their own village. And what started out as a means for survival, turned into a safe haven for victims of rape and domestic violence. Thanks to the women’s resourceful, resilient nature and the ensuing media attention, the village has thrived. They’ve built a school and created a profitable jewelry-making business. Tourists from the neighboring safari park come to tour the village, buy necklaces or even camp along side the women.

Meanwhile, the men have been left to fend for themselves. And without the women to cook and clean for them, they’re struggling to survive. Their roofs are thatched with garbage and their livestock are dwindling. They’re angry at their ex-wives, and bitter and jealous of the women’s success.

What’s wonderful is that other ‘women only’ tribes have begun to spring up in other areas of Kenya, too. Women are going on strike, so to speak. They’re speaking out against female circumsicision and domestic violence and have even filed lawsuits against their rapists.

There’s an excellent 20 minute documentary that I believe originally aired on Dateline. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let me embed this video into this site but if you click on this link, you can watch it on youtube. It’s entitled “Kenya – Where Women Rule”.

Here’s a seven minute clip from a french documentary, just to give you an idea.

For more information on their cause, you can visit their website:

http://www.umojawomen.org/

I’m going to email their organization right now to see if there’s anything I can do to help. Even if it’s only to donate a little money, I’d love to support them in any way I can.

Related posts:

1. Are North American Women Really THAT Bad?

The madhouse that was Yoyogi park last weekend. It was Woodstock-crowded.

I had the best weekend. This was due to the fact that my weekend revolved around some of my great loves in life; music festivals, picnics, cherry blossom trees, and Japanese hippies.

I think Japanese hippies are hilarious. They’re like the cleaner and better- dressed version of the real thing. I went to a Peace festival yesterday at Yoyogi park and saw Japanese hippies camped out everywhere, playing guitars, drumming on empty wine bottles and free-style rapping about the preservatives in convenience store food. For some of them I think that being a ‘hippie’ is more of a style trend than an actual way of life, judging from some of the designer-brand ‘Aladdin pants’ and clip-on dreadlocks that I saw. My friend and I ran into a girl we’d met in a club two weeks ago, and together we danced, sang and watched as several of the hippies attempted to communicate with extraterrestrial, using a device that looked like a cross between a 1980′s cell phone and a stereo.

The end of the night found us near the front of the main stage, in a giant mosh pit. The lead singer of the band “Doggy style” was sans shirt and wearing a loincloth and everyone was jumping and flailing around in drunken excitement. Every few minutes I would have to scream and duck to prevent a crowd surfer from landing on my head. Somehow though, I still ended up getting kicked in the ear and I lost both of shoes in the process (“now you’re a real hippie”) but I had a blast anyway.

Just to put it out there, I’m not a hippie. But my parents are and I went to a hippie school growing up, so they’ve always sort of held a special place in my heart. I guess that’s how I ended up donating money to the one of their causes, “Save the Shimokitazawa”.;

Shimokitzawa is Tokyo’s equivalent to NYC’s Greenwich village. If I were to ever live in Tokyo again (and if I could afford the high rent), I would definitely chose to live in Shimo. It has a lot of trendy boutiques and coffee shops and because it’s a few stops outside of the city’s center, it’s quieter and has a more laid-back vibe.

Unfortunately, like with much of Tokyo, the-powers-that-be have decided that it’s best to build some high-rise buildings and a highway directly through the middle of the neighborhood, which would essential destroy it.

Supposedly people are protesting this. But because this is Japan, I somehow doubt that their protests involve loud, marching pickets or sit-ins or human barricades in front of the bulldozers. From what I’ve read, the most the protestors have done is design some t-shirts, record an album and give some politely-worded speeches at a few town hall meetings.

I have a feeling that this will end up being a losing battle.

Here are some photos of the neighborhood that I took a couple of weekends ago…

Related posts:

1. Five Ways to Save Money in Tokyo
2. My Sorry Attempt to Save the World…
3. Its Not All That Bad, Really