The Present

Its "The Present", its suppose to be a suprise, pull the big ribbon and unwrap "The Present". Whatever is happening now is "The Present".

Coming home from Africa where oddly I experienced joyful smiles from thousands of orphans who are now in my dreams every night. There bright eyes looking at me wondering. I dream up solutions, classrooms, menues, dormitories, libraries, hugging clinics, art rooms. When I awake I am struck by the weight all that has had on the rest of us. Calling many of my friends after a month of travel to find each of them in a painful and perplexing state of expectations not met, with lovers, finances, health, career, holiday plans, spouses, children. Each including myself more daunted by our particular dilemas than a parentless child who has barely rags to cover them or rice to sustain them. The pain is palpable here on such a different scale. In crowded Africa survival seems primal and oddly they seemed resolved to the stuggle. Here its climb, aspire, desire, need in a cycle also unsustainable that never has satisfaction in the vocabulary. I feel quite viscerally the pain of each, take on the symptons and I admit that it is very heavy on my heart. I live in a beautiful place which affords me many comforts, food, water, clothing in abundance. I think of sponsering a few of the kids from the orphanage to come and study and am caught short of breath from the fear that they will feel lonliness, isolation, the pain of plenty, the cultural affliction of never enough. I remind myself of the teachings, there is suffering, there is joy, there is a bottemless bowl we all swim in and try to reconcile our particular journey. Even with all our great fortune and our many instructive mishaps we are confronted by ever new challenges of survival. Each of us on the psychic ride of consciousness with occaisional hairpin turns and brake problems. A sport really of constantly becoming stronger and more agile as we confront new challenges. On this holiday I truely want to acknowledge your ride both the glory and the pain. I thank you all for your courage and your lessons. As I push the walls of my house out to meet you in all parts of the world I find myself in very good company and none of us are alone, we are all relatives gathering wood for the hearth. My lips burn bright as I kiss your flaming hearts.
Yours, Daisy

The West, dear John

Ahh its 6:3o AM or so in Amsterdam heading home from Nairobi. I have been throwing Christmas parties for orphanages in Tanzania and Kenya. The disparity of resources and comforts is unbelievable as I settled into my business class seat a few short hours after serving bowls of rice to three hundred HIV orphans in rags. I managed to give them all some clothing and school supplies and get them dancing and singing. I left medicine and pencils and money for food but it will never seem like enough. They sleep on cement floors in their classrooms the delapidated desks and chairs piled a way each night. Two large pots over a wood fire on the roof are the "kitchen" and they eat meals standing up between piles of delapitaqded desks and what not. They wrote me poems and songs and made me drawings which they delivered a bit before my departure and at that point I could barely hold back the tears. The school the other day was a small shack with rocky floor 100 kids with no place to go and two woman with hearts of gold. We gave them a party with juice an I gave them each a cup and a pencil and they clung to them as they ate and colored so not to loose what little they have. the kids never seem to cry or complain.
I have taken lots of photos and hope to make a book on blurb.com to help get them sponsorship.
I also took amazing photos in Rwanda and Egypt. We shall see how it all comes together. We are working on a shool in Egypt to be paid for with Papyrus paper. A very interesting international group has come around that project. French architect, Persian Fresco painter,South African neurologist, Belgian teacher, Egyptian Taxi driver donated land, Me, and a pile of illiterate mothers on the west bank of Luxor.
The Masai teacher is being paid for with bead braclets. One braclet per child per month in school. Any one want to buy a braclet I need to sell 1200 of them. A few of the kids died while I was there as they were left with out water and drank sheap dip. Another of the Masai came down with Typhoid. I saw all the dead Wildabeast on the edge of the river and that night the rains came and I knew it was to late to get word to the villages downstream in Tanzania that the water was deadly. A bit more research revealed that NOTHING had been done to help them. So many small children with huge buckets of contaminated water that they carry miles to their home. By the grace of god one survives here and they smile brightly regardless.
In the slums of Nairobi it is expensive and there are no trade skills to speak of to help them develope trade. We might be able to make a CD of thier songs. It would be so nice just to get the BY GRACE orphans a place to sleep and relax a little. Just outside the door raw sewage runs filled with filthy trash. I saw a small baby sitting in it putting things in her mouth as adults walked by without noticing.I was not allowed out of the car, the slums are dangerous and I am not allowed outside with out a guard. At night I was locked in the house with two guards outside which was very disconcerting. Well obviously I have a bit to process having met thousands of empoverished children in a months time. A dose of antibiotics and a month or so to process this I am sure I will be ready to embrace the challenge . Love daisy

Buy a Pencil, a Pill or Fun for all.

If you would like to sponsor some of or add to the things we brought to By Grace Orphanage please contact Daisy 310-213-4320.

Additonally our goal is to raise $50,000 for By Grace to put a dormitory in the neighboring building. This covers beds and one year of rent. We would also like to raise $5000 for the little place in Arusha to have school uniforms $10 each x 65,School books and supplies, boards to write on and monthly food drops for the kids.

Some affordable things you can contribute below.

36 packs of 24 pencils $36
Pencil Sharpener Metal Wall mount $5
Monthly rent per child $20 x 12 months $140yrly
Food $3 a day $84 a month $1000 a year
Bunk beds, mattress, sheets $200ea
12 packs of 64 crayons $24
12 packs of antibiotic ointment $24
1200 asprin $25
800 ibuprofen $40
4 first aide kits $40
Anti itch cream $12
12 boxes Anti Diaria meds $24
Scotch tape $5
1000+ band aides $35
finger cots $5
Loaded Ipod & Speakers $450
300 tooth brushes $200
200 tubes of paste $200
200 condoms $45
24 pregnancy tests $24
250 bright hair bands $30
250 temporary tattoos $10
300 fun stickers $10
Huge make up suite gloss shadow etc. $25
1 big blow up durable ball $10
Wooden blocks $10
Bingo game $7
Sewing machine and accessories $15-45 used
Cotton underwear all sizes $100 Donated by Daisy
300 items of clothing donated by Fred Segal, charming the world & friends.
10 pair of sneakers $100 Donated by Daisy
School Books $360 Donated by Daisy
1000 Sanitary Napkins $180
Blow up Globe $10
Four Giant Suitcases $80 each

School in Arusha

Possibility in Education

The day before a little school I visited had kids outside the windows pressing to be included. You will not believe the conditions in which these kids survive. Hard to take it all in its beautiful and devasting at the same time. I do believe education is the only hope we have for a real shift in this crisis. I have been getting portraits bios and doing needs analysis along the way. That part is really easy they need everything, water, food clothing love a place to sleep. They have great songs, unbelievable smiles and eyes that will melt any heart. You can't believe this situation is really happening. 5 year old kids walking in boiling sun with 5 gallon pails of dirty drinking water on their heads. After a few thousand of these sightings I am left with nothing but a prayer during the nights I lay wide eyed under the stars of the Serengeti night. The lions call gods attention outside the tent and I am sure I have been heard. As vast as the plains these populations thrive against every possible odd and you wonder why and how and to what end this mayham will come to. What is the right action? To observe bewildered, to know one name and carry it to health, to add grains of rice to millions of empty plates. Dusk has come, I'm out of malaria meds so am going to crawl under my mosquito net and think about it.

Beautiful and Devestating

Here it is sad so many kids alone their parents having died of HIV or dirty water. The slums are rediculously filthy. Children crawling around in sewage and trash gleaning it. To watch kids cling to small gifts of pencils that they wont put down when we give them crayons and paper to color with. Today we painted and drew, incredibly sweet. Tomarrow I dole out the clothes sanitary napkins, school books, shoes, hair ties, etc. here at by Grace in Kyoli Nairobi. Yesterday I threw a party for a small orphanage in Arusha the kids assembled in a shack with a dirt floor in rags. I gave them each their own cup and pencils and crayons cookies etc. We colored for an hour or so in the little yard and they were so careful to stay in the lines. We sang songs and I asked what she needed she said prayers. At the end the woman who runs it gave me a scarf and I burst into tears to think they were giving me something beautiful when they have really nothing. The day before a little school I visited had kids outside the windows pressing to be included. Hard to take it all in its beautiful and devasting at the same time.

Rwanda was great again thousands of filthy kids everyone carrying stuff on their heads as they walk long distances, everythig from grass sugar can livestodk to table ans sewing machines balanced upon their heads as they stroll along. Babies seeme to be strapped to their moms backs until the minute they can walk they put a bucket of water or a bag of sweet potatoes on thier head and have them walk to market. I was privledged to visit the Susa family of Gorillas it is the family Dianne Fossey made famouse. I have pictures of the only known gorilla twins swinging together in the vines. We hiked about 2.5 hours in a thick bamboo forest to get there and then suddenly in a clearing the gorillas lounging before thier lunch of bambo shoots. I spent about an hour with them. Powerful.

Just Breath even if smoggy

Africa continues to unfold tragedy and beauty. We are very very lucky to have food and safe homes. Saw a baby in raw sewage and trash today. People walking every where as this tiny child was eating something she found in that very disgusting stuff. William said it wasnt safe to get out of the car, nothing to be done he said. It is everywhere people are hungry, homeless, orphaned, drinking bad water. The kids made paintings today. Great artists. They sang songs about being HIV orphans and I held back the tears till I got home to my room. I am ready to get out of Africa for a bit it will take awhile to process all of this. Nairobi they say will be dagerous during these elections so I am happy to be getting out. Rwanda was facinating I have some great photos of twin gorillas playing in the vines.