I probably over-use my 23 year old limit of omg, o.m.g., oh. ma. ga., so on & so forth. BUT THIS, this is a top OMG moment.
Due to my space travel a few weeks ago - I failed to update my lovely blog readers about some of the best news (or the best news) I've heard in weeks, months, maybe even the last year (that is - after gettin' hired).
Khalda had her baby*!!
Anwar sent me an e-mail titled, "you invited to chair our happyiest moment". Wasn't expecting ... "As I told you the doctor told us the baby is girl, but surprisingly the baby is boy." It looks like Sarah Jeanna is out of the name game, but oh well, Ahmed Anwar probably sounds better anyway.
Immediately I splurged on some Skype minutes & called my sister up! Thinking I was being sneaky ... Khalda didn't think twice about it (note, we haven't heard each others voices in over a year) she just goes, "Oh HI. You hear the news? Jeanna - I SOOOO happy."
We chit chatted for about 10 minutes & I can't even begin to explain how happy it made me. Hearing her voice/laugh was meaningful enough, but to be able to share in such a happy moment. BEAMING. SMILING. GLOWING.That's all I've got, I can't form sentences.
Welcome to the world baby Ahmed. You've got yourself an amazing mum, & an excited American Auntie.
PS: I keep pestering the woman for pictures, & she keeps reminding me that I should cool it- she just had a baby. She wins. Updates to come. xoxo
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Homebody Weather
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Friday, October 15, 2010
InstaFan
It's just that! Informational & Beautiful.
Check out the website & I can guarantee you'll learn something without straining your brain. Awesome? Yes. 
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Burma: It Can't Wait
30 pages deep into Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo soooo my head is filled with an anti-celebrity aid talk, but my heart still says whatever works, works. Be entertained, learn something. xo
now
"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second-best time is now."
- African Proverb
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Ready for a Rant?
DISCLAIMER: If you're not in the reading mood - skip to the second half.
Tonight. I* almost didn't go. I'm tired of being alone. I'm tired of venturing to events alone. For paying for parking alone. I'm tired of being the loner the corner. Tired of creeping people out by attaching too quickly - talking too much - trying to force/flatter people into being my BFF - & if not forever, at least the evening.
I almost didn't go. I went in circles around Dinkytown trying to find free parking. It was a failed attempt. I was going to have to fork over an hour of pay for a mere two hours of parking.
I almost didn't go because I walked in the wrong direction. With my phone (aka safety net) sitting where I accidently left it - the driver's seat of my car.
I paid an hours worth of pay for parking. & I was arriving late (from walking out of the way) to an event where I knew full well I'd be the girl hangin' solo in the corner.
But, Alhamdulillah I went to the Not for Sale sponsored event at Bordertown Coffee to listen to James Stewart lecture on what it means to be an an abolitionist. The twist - Stewart is a historian and his claim to fame is expertise in the US abolitionist movement during the transatlantic slave trade. Back in the days of the civil rights movement when he was 23 and in college - he asked - how did we get here? How did we get to this movement? & has spend the last 45+ years figuring it out. & has been quite successful.
So why is Mr. Stewart is a bit annoyed? Because he has spend his entire career studying the grassroots and political movements that eventually abolished slavery ...no regrets... BUT today - there are double the amount of slaves in the world in comparison to time of the transatlantic slave trade. Yes, I said DOUBLE. 27 million enslaved people today. So this guy - abandoned the Historian way - and started using his knowledge of history to bring awareness/progression to the future. Because even if you don't understand modern day slavery - we must question - where are the lines between slaves and oppressed persons?
Are you catching the drift that I love anyone who motivates me? Therefore, I love this man. His humor. His drawl. His analogies. e.t.c.
Stewart asked as all to become abolitionists. Not half hearted abolitionists. Not tomorrow. But today. This is where I wish I could quote/would have taken better notes - ready for ramble? He said that in all his studies, all his books, travels and research he found it was the committed, full on abolitionists that found success. The people like Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and John Brown weren't all that different from you and I - but they, they woke up abolitionists. They brushed their teeth as abolitionists. They wanted slavery to be abolished yesterday.
He asked us to look at the person next to us - and truly imagine owning them. He asked us to close our eyes and imagine being the forced prostitute, child solider, enslaved laborer - and attempt to feel owned the way in which they do. Afterwards, can you really feel comfortable with what's going on around the world?
Maybe it was easier back in the day. Slavery was visible. It was acceptable. There were records. There was something/one to fight. Today, the average person cannot stand up to a trafficker, we're dealing with the secrecy of the Internet, there is no opposition, the industry is HUGE, slavery is not in our faces. But slavery is in our world, in our state, in our city. It is in our products. Our chocolate. Our coffee. Slavery is still everywhere.
Welcome Non-Readers:
So what? What do you do? How can you even start to end something so gigantic. & the answer is - what you're good at. This is where I got excited. Because it doesn't take someone powerful and famous to make a change. Anyone can be and act as an abolitionist. Because the only way modern day slavery will ever come to an end - is if we can create a movement. If we can start seeing human beings. It can end if its demise is engrained in our everyday. If we can agree - that it should have been obsolete yesterday.
Some people, can go out and be committed lawyers for victims of human trafficking. Others can write heart-wrenching/warming pieces about slavery today. Myself - I can educate my blog readers & refugee co-workers/clients & beyond! You - could choose to read a book on modern-day slavery. Or donate a book to a library, a high school. Not a reader? Watch a documentary on modern-day slavery - then pass the title on. Watch it with friends. Are you an artist? Create. Are you teacher? Teach. Are you a crazy person? Do something crazy. Bring your talents and abolitionism together. It's possible. & together - everyone teamed with their passions/talents - can create a movement. We can end it. Because we've done it before.
& so. When I left. I wasn't alone. At least my parking spot was an hour's pay rather than a week, or the value of my sold body. I left part of a group. A movement. & with that friends will eventually come. & until then - at least I have my voice and freedom. & some energy. Come on. Call yourself an abolitionist.
Tonight. I* almost didn't go. I'm tired of being alone. I'm tired of venturing to events alone. For paying for parking alone. I'm tired of being the loner the corner. Tired of creeping people out by attaching too quickly - talking too much - trying to force/flatter people into being my BFF - & if not forever, at least the evening.
I almost didn't go. I went in circles around Dinkytown trying to find free parking. It was a failed attempt. I was going to have to fork over an hour of pay for a mere two hours of parking.
I almost didn't go because I walked in the wrong direction. With my phone (aka safety net) sitting where I accidently left it - the driver's seat of my car.
I paid an hours worth of pay for parking. & I was arriving late (from walking out of the way) to an event where I knew full well I'd be the girl hangin' solo in the corner.
But, Alhamdulillah I went to the Not for Sale sponsored event at Bordertown Coffee to listen to James Stewart lecture on what it means to be an an abolitionist. The twist - Stewart is a historian and his claim to fame is expertise in the US abolitionist movement during the transatlantic slave trade. Back in the days of the civil rights movement when he was 23 and in college - he asked - how did we get here? How did we get to this movement? & has spend the last 45+ years figuring it out. & has been quite successful.
So why is Mr. Stewart is a bit annoyed? Because he has spend his entire career studying the grassroots and political movements that eventually abolished slavery ...no regrets... BUT today - there are double the amount of slaves in the world in comparison to time of the transatlantic slave trade. Yes, I said DOUBLE. 27 million enslaved people today. So this guy - abandoned the Historian way - and started using his knowledge of history to bring awareness/progression to the future. Because even if you don't understand modern day slavery - we must question - where are the lines between slaves and oppressed persons?
Are you catching the drift that I love anyone who motivates me? Therefore, I love this man. His humor. His drawl. His analogies. e.t.c.
Stewart asked as all to become abolitionists. Not half hearted abolitionists. Not tomorrow. But today. This is where I wish I could quote/would have taken better notes - ready for ramble? He said that in all his studies, all his books, travels and research he found it was the committed, full on abolitionists that found success. The people like Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and John Brown weren't all that different from you and I - but they, they woke up abolitionists. They brushed their teeth as abolitionists. They wanted slavery to be abolished yesterday.
He asked us to look at the person next to us - and truly imagine owning them. He asked us to close our eyes and imagine being the forced prostitute, child solider, enslaved laborer - and attempt to feel owned the way in which they do. Afterwards, can you really feel comfortable with what's going on around the world?
Maybe it was easier back in the day. Slavery was visible. It was acceptable. There were records. There was something/one to fight. Today, the average person cannot stand up to a trafficker, we're dealing with the secrecy of the Internet, there is no opposition, the industry is HUGE, slavery is not in our faces. But slavery is in our world, in our state, in our city. It is in our products. Our chocolate. Our coffee. Slavery is still everywhere.
Welcome Non-Readers:
So what? What do you do? How can you even start to end something so gigantic. & the answer is - what you're good at. This is where I got excited. Because it doesn't take someone powerful and famous to make a change. Anyone can be and act as an abolitionist. Because the only way modern day slavery will ever come to an end - is if we can create a movement. If we can start seeing human beings. It can end if its demise is engrained in our everyday. If we can agree - that it should have been obsolete yesterday.
Some people, can go out and be committed lawyers for victims of human trafficking. Others can write heart-wrenching/warming pieces about slavery today. Myself - I can educate my blog readers & refugee co-workers/clients & beyond! You - could choose to read a book on modern-day slavery. Or donate a book to a library, a high school. Not a reader? Watch a documentary on modern-day slavery - then pass the title on. Watch it with friends. Are you an artist? Create. Are you teacher? Teach. Are you a crazy person? Do something crazy. Bring your talents and abolitionism together. It's possible. & together - everyone teamed with their passions/talents - can create a movement. We can end it. Because we've done it before.
& so. When I left. I wasn't alone. At least my parking spot was an hour's pay rather than a week, or the value of my sold body. I left part of a group. A movement. & with that friends will eventually come. & until then - at least I have my voice and freedom. & some energy. Come on. Call yourself an abolitionist.
*my apologies for the whinny I I I I I talk, but it got better, right?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Especially Now
"I love that feeling. You know, the one you get when you take a deep breath and suddenly everything feels like it's going to be okay. When you're hopeless as can be, and life is going nowhere, there's those moments we have every now and then where we just stop, and we get this feeling, that can't be described, but you just ... you just feel like everything really is going to be okay. Like the world stopped spinning for a second, and everything was clear. I need more of those moments."
- The X
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Mr. President
Adjusting to KOM has been challenging and patience-trying to say the least. But howling laughter in the halls & little tid-bits like this "Letter to the President" have made me fall head over heels for the Karen already.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Where There is Joy There is Henna
A few weekends ago my dear friend Jess came up to visit & because it's 'what we do' - there were many adventures involved. Including, but not limited to: a 5 mile Kayaking trip down the Cannon River (the next weekend I did a 12 mile with Mike - still sore), an authentic Turkish meal at the Black Sea (even after a few appetizers & main courses we found room for baklava/Turkish coffee), & most notabily a trip to Minneapolis' own SomaliMall for henna.
Henna is a plant native in some regions of Africa, southern Asia, and northern Australasia (I had to look it up too). Since umm - forever* it's been used to dye skin, hair, fingernails, wool, leather, and silk. The earliest texts link henna skin dying with celebrations of a woman's marriage/fertility.
Henna is a symbol of luck, beauty, and joy - and the most detailed and exquisite patterns are saved for brides to be. Today the hands and feet of many husbands to be are dyed as well. This pre-wedding celebration is sometimes called 'The Night of Henna'. It is not uncommon to see women with simple henna designs on their hands and fingernails daily. But intricate designs are saved for weddings, holidays, and celebrations.
Henna can be a great way for women to make money too! At Karmel Square a young woman named Hawa decorated Jess and I. She was trained by her older sister Halima, and together they were apprenticing their niece Eda. Business women?!
It's the beauty of henna that really gets me.
The small shops & spaces where women come together to be decorated with henna - are truly magical. You can feel girl power. It breaks through all differences of background, race, language, religion, etc. Be it in a hotel room in D.C. with girls from Tanzania and Nigeria, Khalda's living room, a hole in the wall beauty shop, or a small space in Karmel Square (Somali Mall) - henna brings women together & makes them feel good!
Henna is a plant native in some regions of Africa, southern Asia, and northern Australasia (I had to look it up too). Since umm - forever* it's been used to dye skin, hair, fingernails, wool, leather, and silk. The earliest texts link henna skin dying with celebrations of a woman's marriage/fertility.
Henna is a symbol of luck, beauty, and joy - and the most detailed and exquisite patterns are saved for brides to be. Today the hands and feet of many husbands to be are dyed as well. This pre-wedding celebration is sometimes called 'The Night of Henna'. It is not uncommon to see women with simple henna designs on their hands and fingernails daily. But intricate designs are saved for weddings, holidays, and celebrations.
It's the beauty of henna that really gets me.
The small shops & spaces where women come together to be decorated with henna - are truly magical. You can feel girl power. It breaks through all differences of background, race, language, religion, etc. Be it in a hotel room in D.C. with girls from Tanzania and Nigeria, Khalda's living room, a hole in the wall beauty shop, or a small space in Karmel Square (Somali Mall) - henna brings women together & makes them feel good!
*for more detailed information on henna click here.
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