Tha Artivist Known As Imani, Respect Her Fresh!!!
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| Darline Cheers, left, pauses with daughter Imani at the poster for "Hotel Rwanda" at Magic Johnson Theatres. |
| Photo Credit: Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post |
Imani Cheers is an Art Homie and fellow Artivist of mine who I befriended during "my residency" at Wash U in St. Louis…She has achieved a lot artistically and personally in such a short period of time and I am very proud to call her my sister comrade…She's a photographer/ film maker and humanitarian currently on a relief mission in Tanzania...Check out her message and photos…Get inspired and lifted!!! -R2C2H2 Tha Minista of Information
Homies:
Okay some of you are new to this list and others have been on since the beginning. Today marks 4 weeks that I've been in Tanzania and I have another 4 weeks to go. I'm loving the culture and the people I've met have been incredible. I especially love the Peace Corps volunteers I've met (shout out to Adam living it up in the DR!) and the Fulbrighters. They have such a different perspective on the country living in the villages versus living in the city like me. We bond over red wine and Indian food regularly! Plus I met this South African couple this past weekend (Sarah and Urlick) who I'm convinced we were separated at birth, Sarah and I...two kindred spirits! God has truly blessed me to be in this amazing opportunity and although its rough at times dealing with the craziness of working for the Foreign Service, I wouldn't change the experience for anything in the WORLD. This is a life changing summer and I'm embracing every second that I get the opportunity to met people and talk with them. As most of you know I can TALK so it's just lovely when people respond so positively and I get to share my experiences!
Enjoy...these are pictures from some of the wonderful kids I met on Sunday in Zanzibar. The beauty of these children just moved me...they are so innocent and not corrupted by the pressures of materialistic wealth. They don't need soccer balls to play with...they use ANYTHING, including cardboard boxes! So resourceful! These kids truly inspired me, especially Naimaa. She is 9 years old, doesn't speak a word of english but we had this amazing connection. She followed me around for a while and in my broken kiswahili we tried to communicate. She loved looking at the digital image on the back of my camera after I took a picture. She has the most incredible smile I had ever seen. Her eyes just lit up her entire face. Now I don't know GW Bush and his Malaria Initiative plan sounds good on paper...but I do know that Naimaa's village now will be sprayed with insecticide that will kill mosquitoes that carry malaria. If that means her mother, sisters, brothers, friends, other family members or she won't get malaria, then "Go GW! Thank you for finally using your power for good and not evil!" So my assessment of the weekend's activities...Naimaa's village will hopefully be healthier this year and for me, that's all that matters. I have 3 stories with captions on the USAID/Tanzania website. Check out http://tanzania.usaid.gov ...They don't believe in giving photo credits here for whatever reason so my stuff are the first three stories on the site...let me know what you think...more to come...
~Cheers
P.S.
The other pictures are of dancers from the PMI (President's Malaria Initiative) campaign launch!
*Important Note : All the following pictures are the copyrighted property of Ms. Imani Cheers...Please contact her at imani_cheers@hotmail.com if you are interested in her gorgeous pictures!!! Thanks!!!*
I remember way back when, but do yall remember what it means to be a kid???
World Cup Fever!!!
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