Finding Momentum

Sure, Jack Bauer sniffs out ter­ror­ist sleeper cells to save the world in 24 hours, but did you know…

Zhie heads a wom­ens’ empow­er­ment project in Maun.
Zhie har­vests maize and peanuts and guavas in her back­yard.
Zhie has pro­vided fos­ter care for a local child.
Zhie sin­gle­hand­edly raises at least three kids at home, at least one of whom is an adopted rel­a­tive.
Zhie is a com­mu­nity orga­nizer, vis­it­ing folks, mak­ing con­nec­tions, inform­ing them of local events.
Zhie is the cool mom all the kids wish they had.
Zhie has the coolest back­yard in the neigh­bor­hood.
Zhie goes four-wheeling to get to houses out in the remote bor­oughs.
Zhie does most of the con­struc­tion in her home by her­self.
Zhie knows every­body in Maun (or at least seems to).
Zhie dreams of start­ing a busi­ness of her own.
Zhie is a social worker, get­ting fam­i­lies the food they need, doing coun­sel­ing and advis­ing with folks in the com­mu­nity that need it.
Zhie prob­a­bly needs a vacation.

Need­less to say, Zhie’s pretty cool. We got to hang out with her all of today after church. First we made some sand­wiches for lunch. Then we got to work, fix­ing up her dresser drawer that was com­ing out. Sarah and I put together a heroic effort to get every­thing together before storm clouds began rolling in.

Here, Mike and me show ‘em what it took to fix up that dresser.

Not long after that, we walked over to a local back­pack­ers’ camp, where we shared some sodas.

Zhie and Sarah on the road.

Finally, we enjoyed a tra­di­tional meal under the clouds and stars. We had a blast laugh­ing, swap­ping sto­ries, talk­ing pol­i­tics, and watch­ing light­ning elec­trify the whole sky.