Last week I shared with you my story of Jane Kahima, a rural woman in Mbarara district in western Uganda, who found that she could use her midwifery skills to build her own home based domiciliary. Now I’d like to share the story of another woman who is setting an example of positive change in her community

Monica Muhozi, a home-base flower gardener, is also an example of how a rural housewife turned into a successful business owner.   Read more...

Bruce Lansky has written a marvelous version of Cinderella. (Lansky, Bruce, ed. 1995. Girls to the Rescue, Book I. New York; Meadowbrook Press) Instead of the insipid version that Disney has cursed us with, he introduces the concept that Cinderella should be an active participant in shaping the events of her life.

This take starts off with the fairy godmother suffering from overwork. She is about to take a long vacation. Before leaving, she passes on her responsibilities to her assistant. So, in other words, the work is shared.   Read more...

I was sitting in my friend’s living room wearing sandals while she had bundled herself in a sweater, coat, and blanket. We were watching a South African gospel concert on DVD. After the customary greetings, I asked her, more informally, “How are you?”

“Actually, I am on leave. Sick leave. They found TB.”   Read more...

Many years ago, my life reached something of a drastic crossroads. My then husband and I had a son who died the day he was born, and we had some life-changing choices to make. The paths that we’d thought were going to be ours, it turned out, weren’t to be ours at all. We decided, in those inexpensive gasoline days, to take a drive. We found the vista of the open sea at the beach near our home relaxing and insightful. Our little red Subaru seemed to know it; she took us right there.   Read more...

My community tourism work takes me through many areas in rural Uganda. I get opportunity to meet and interact with the ordinary people. The majority perceive their villages and homesteads as poor and backward and themselves as without opportunity. The unfortunate trend is for able people moving to towns and cities in search of economic opportunities, leaving behind mostly women and the elderly.

Due to lack of knowledge and exposure, they do not see the potential hidden within their surrounding environment, indigenous knowledge and cultures. All is not lost, though amongst the community there are some who have not given up and are not waiting for government or donors to improve their circumstances. In a bid to survive, they have become innovative.   Read more...

I’m seeing it everywhere on the planet. All sorts of people are catching a bigger vision in all sorts of arenas. The most personal one I’ve had recently was about health insurance.

A friend left her job for better opportunities. Because her last post was in academia, her insurance lasts till the beginning of this school year. She’s spent a lot of this summer getting all her various physical details checked, measured and serviced before her insurance runs out.   Read more...

In my introductory bibliography I wrote about how I was looking forward to what my unknown future had in store for me. I also mentioned T’ai Chi, artwork, and Japanese. But even though this current essay is a bit personal, I feel it is an important addition to what I initially submitted. It gives a more complete picture of who I am. And hopefully, what I am experiencing and learning will be of benefit to others in similar situations.   Read more...

For several years, I presented training programs in problem solving at various corporations. I taught the classical four step problem solving process that has long served the industrial revolution: 1) identify the problem, 2) search for root causes, 3) explore and evaluate possible solutions, and 4) put an action plan in place. My classes always went well and people appreciated learning the process.

Then came an experience that eventually brought me to a whole new mind set on problem solving. I had been doing some manuscript reviews for Berrett-Koehler Publishing, and one of the manuscripts was about Appreciative Inquiry, a change process that approaches problems from a positive perspective rather than from a negative one. At first I felt that AI was ignoring the long history and success of the classic model for problem solving, but slowly I came to see the incredible value in AI.   Read more...

Nowhere I’ve been is more paradoxical than South Africa. Yes, it’s a country of wealth and poverty, a country of freedom and oppression, a country of exuberance and despair. But these extremes exist universally—they characterize nations and local communities and even, you might say, the individual experience. But to me, the contrasts are especially glaring here.

For example, compare these two descriptions of a wedding.   Read more...

This morning's news headlines brought word of a new video of Osama bin Laden that has been posted on the internet. I didn't seek it out nor did I watch it. I didn't need to. The press had done it for me.

What I did instead was conjure up an image of dear Osama--not exactly hard to do--and I prayed with him. He's the general of an armed militia and he and his men need prayer.   Read more...