Meet Wendy Stone: Photographer for Beatrice's Dream

Photo Presentation
WENDY STONE, PHOTOJOURNALIST
PHOTOJOURNALISM IN AFRICA: 1988-2015

Nov. 4th, Wednesday, 6 pm
The Metropolitan Opera Guild
The Rose Building
165 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam, 6th floor
Free for members of PWP, $10.00 for non- members to pay at the door

 

Wendy's remarkable, compelling photographs of Children in Africa captured my imagination and led to our collaboration that turned into the book Beatrice's Dream.

If you are anywhere in the NY Metropolitan area on November 4, 2015, this presentation is a must.

Wish I could be there!

Read more about Wendy:

Photojournalist, Wendy Stone, has been working in Africa covering
international aid and relief work for 27 years. Her clients include
UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR, WFP, The Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller
Foundation, Centers for Disease Control, The World Agroforestry Center,
USAID, Project Concern International and many others.

During the 1990's she worked as a news photographer and covered the war
in Somalia, the war in South Sudan, the story of the Lost Boys, famines
and droughts in the horn of Africa and the AIDS epidemic in eastern
Africa.

She has also photographed colorful traditional ceremonies and
the indigenous people of Kenya including the Maasai, Turkana and
Rendille peoples. She has worked for many years in the slums of Kenya,
photographing the programs of non-profit organizations.

Her first children's book, "Beatrice's Dream: Life in an African Slum",
was published in 2011 by Frances Lincoln Press, in London. Beatrice is
the story of a 13 year old orphan living in one of Kenya's largest
slums, Kibera.

Wendy will be the guest speaker on November 4th at the meeting for
Professional Women Photographers, where she will be showing her
photographs and speaking about her work. All are welcome.

Diversity Inspires and Heals

 These responses to Four Feet Two Sandals were drawn by 2nd graders in an ESL class.

Newcomers to an American school, they are from the Chin State of Burma.  Their English is limited but they understand what it means to share and care.  They relate to the characters and the story told in this picture book even though it is not a story of Burma.

Four Feet Two Sandals is about two refugee girls from Afghanistan in a refugee camp in Pakistan.

Refugee children around the world can relate to loss of country, home, family.   Perhaps a story they relate to will help them find their place in a new home, a new world.

Let's hope they are welcomed in their new schools by new friends.  And may their classmates be caring and sharing, open to learning about the world they come from, the world we live in.

We need more books with diversity for all children!

Moon connections and the Peace Corps

This is the view of the beginning of the "Blood Moon" super lunar eclipse on Sunday over our back fence.

We live on the Navajo Reservation in Chinle Arizona.  Clear skies, unobstructed horizon.

Our youngest son Jonathan is in Paraguay with the Peace Corps.  He happened to be on What's App.  We shot him a photo, which reminded him about the eclipse.

He went outside to watch the sky and see the moon disappear into a pink haze.  Two different worlds, same moon.  We watched virtually together.

I clicked photos frustrated that I could never capture the beauty knowing there would be thousands of photos on social media all better than mine.  Tried to remind myself to be in the moment and not experience it through the lens.

Meanwhile our daughter in Cincinnati quips on another app, "the gods have forsaken us!"

In typical Jonathan fashion we get a brief virtual history lesson from his part of the world,  " I think a Mayan or Aztec chief saw a lunar eclipse in his dream.  He took it as an omen.  Shortly thereafter the Spanish arrived.  Is this eclipse an omen of my arrival in Paraguay? "

This is the way our family rolls.

Another sibling in DC wants to know if Jonathan is alive or has his heart been sacrificed to the blood moon.

I am beginning to wonder if this virtual togetherness is enhancing the experience or detracting from it.  But we are spread all over the world and we are experiencing a significant moment together.  Different worlds, same moon...sharing.

I couldn't help remembering when Steve and I had just arrived in Malawi, Africa more than 30 years ago.  We too were in the Peace Corps.  I was a new mother.  I was away from home and family.  I was homesick in a world so very far away and so very different from home.

I held Peter in my arms and looked at the full moon(no eclipse that night) and took comfort that my family could see the same moon.  No virtual sharing then.  It took at least two months for mail to go out and return with a response.  If I had written home that night, by the time I received a response I would have been settled into life and the adventure, on to new concerns, new joys, new news.

Forgive my motherly sentimentality here.  But I could not help thinking as the moon turned a gray-pink:  Different worlds, different means of communication.  Connecting us.   Always changing.

The moon?  May change phases but it is the same moon connecting us in some small way.  We were lucky to share the moment.

Peace Corps Proud.

This week we sent our youngest off to the Peace Corps in Paraguay.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!  He came by this choice honestly.

Steve and I were Peace Corps volunteers in Malawi more than a few years ago.

Jonathan's brother, Christopher and sister-in-law, Laurie returned from the Peace Corps in Mozambique two years ago.

But wait!  His cousin, Kayla was in Panama for 2 years with the Peace Corps and her mom, Robyn was in the Peace Corps before her.

So this weekend found us celebrating.  Thanks to friends and family who were with us for the send-off party.  Where we tried some recipes from Paraguay.

This cookie cake with chocolate and caramel was a hit.

But what is a party without the traditional?

And the chance to share some mate...an traditional infused tea from Paraguay. 

So the party is over and Jonathan is on his way to a new adventure.

We are proud that Jonathan will offer his skills and knowledge to a little part of the world as a volunteer in the environmental studies program in Paraguay.

But mostly we know that he will likely gain more than he gives and life will never be quite the same after the Peace Corps.

If you want to follow his adventures check out his blog here:

http://jonaguay.weebly.com

Exciting News!

I am honored to have been invited to be a judge for the Young Muslim Writers Awards.   

The young writers are age five to sixteen.  The mission of the organization based in the UK is to "raise standards of child literacy and creative writing.  To enable young people to be confident communicators to help build a vibrant society.

The top five entries for both Poetry and Short Stories will be chosen for the award. They will be published in the anthology of the Young Muslim Writers Awards. 

I look forward to reading the shortlisted entries and helping to chose the finalists.  Stay tuned!

And have a look at the website.   https://ymwa.org.uk/about/

My Name is Sangoel and Americanah

My Little Sangoel has been paired with Americanah by Chimamanda Ngoci Adiche for the Greenwich Connecticut Read Together Celebration this October.  

WOW!  What an honor for Sangoel, for me.

I might even get to go to Greenwich.  Not far from where I grew up, another connection.  stay tuned to this blog for more about that.

Just when an author least expects it her books make new friends and connections in unexpected places.

See more about Americanah, a story about race, immigration and identity and the Greenwich reading Celebration here:

http://www.greenwichlibrary.org/GreenwichReadsTogetherAdichie.aspx

And a big shout out to Greenwich teachers, librarians, parents and community for promoting READING!

The Tale of a Beach Tail

Thirty years ago my husband, Steve and I were at the beach in New England with our son Peter who was five.  We told him he could play in the sand but he could not go in the water without one of us.

We settled back on the beach blanket to watch him build castles and throw rocks into the ocean.  And we saw the exact moment when he looked back to find us and then the sudden moment when he panicked and began running wildly down the beach.  From his vantage point all the umbrellas and towels and blankets must have looked the same.  Steve jumped up and ran down the beach to "rescue" Peter.

So 25 years later I had a story idea, something about a child who finds his way home or back on the trail by being observant.  The original draft took place in the woods but it wasn't working.

Then I remembered Peter on the beach.  The rest is history.  Except any writer knows it is not that easy.  It took some time.

And now Peter has a son who is five.  We spent some time at the beach recently.
This beach was in Hawaii.   Back at the house we took a break from sand and sun and ocean and I read A Beach Tail to my grandson, Ethan.  What a joy to share this tale inspired by his dad to my grandchild.

But then something else happened.  That afternoon back at the beach I gave Ethan a stick and suggested he write his name.

He did and then...

He drew a lion.   (A nod here to Floyd Cooper)

 And then he drew a tail!

He followed it back to his lion.

Later he read A Beach Tail again.

An unexpected pleasure for this Grandma who had not carried this tale so far when she first wrote the book.  An author never knows whose hands her books will end up in and what they will inspire.  What a journey we take when we begin on a fresh page for a new tale..
 

And what pleasure!