The Second Trip To Africa
By Kiro
In January 2004 my friend Mara Jones and I went on the second trip to Africa for THE MOSES FUND. I was really excited to go, and I have to say, one reason was personal. My cousin Zayo was going to be married. It was as fun as I expected. Everyone was all dressed up.
There were Drummers of Burundi for entertainment and, like all weddings, people brought gifts.
And like other weddings, the bride was beautiful and the groom was beaming.
After the wedding I went to work and that was good too. I think it is really important when I go to Africa to make people feel good. I want them to know that even though I live in the US now I love them just as much as ever. I touch them and take pictures of them and spread my joy. One thing I love about Africans, if you give them a chance they are usually pretty quick to laugh.
I met with orphans and tried to make them feel good and then I hung out with other people and did the same thing all over again.
Natty Dread, a Reggae musician, and I met each other after months of emailing back and forth. Then my friend Jimmy, another Reggae musician, and I made music at night on the street and talked to people about hope. Africans need hope.
My sister Zaujiya and Mara and I went to the radio station to be interviewed. Zaujiya told about going from house to house telling women the importance of being tested so if they have HIV they can prepare their children.
I visited people in their homes and hung out on the steps of the market.
I got people to help me build shoe shine boxes for homeless children for THE MOSES FUND. Then I had to explain to the young people why it was important that the signs reminding people to protect themselves from AIDS stay on the boxes. People didn’t like the signs and the kids were afraid so I bought them sodas and snacks and we would sit and talk about people needing to change how they think about AIDS.
We saw more Drummers of Burundi. Mara received the special honor of a girl dancing for her.
I had a great trip. Mara and I both had a wonderful time in Bujumbura where these photographs were taken, in Butare where we met Cyrus at D’Ushishozi which is a center that trains people about HIV, in Kigali and, of course, in Gisenyi at UMUBANO III Primary School.