Before COVID, part of Theresa’s already very full job description included taking photos so we could post updates from Kantolomba. As you can imagine, with the 10,000 other responsibilities, it was sometimes a stretch to make that happen.
Then COVID arrived, and like everyone everywhere on the planet, team members in Kantolomba shifted their focus to what mattered most in the moment: basic necessities, survival, getting through the day. Photo updates understandably fell away.
When gathering together became possible again, something new emerged -- the Reporting Team! A group of young women, graduates of the Girls Program, capable, steady, and ready to take meaningful roles within the project, began to take photos, write captions, and send them to us.
Very quickly we saw that this was more than a practical solution to the “who will take the photos?” question. It was a learning opportunity. The more feedback the photo team receives, the more their skills sharpen. The more attention we give to their captions, the more alive and creative the stories become. As they grow as photographers and writers, we get to grow, too—our understanding and our connection with the culture deepens, and the updates become something we truly look forward to reading.
That kind of feedback requires consistency and wholehearted attention, which was becoming a challenge. Then last fall it dropped in: We have an entire Sangha.
We reached out to the Practice Stewards, and what has formed is extraordinary. We now have a team of seven Africa Stewards. Together they will provide feedback on photos, offer comments and guidance on captions, prepare the content for the web, post it, and even categorize and archive each photo into our database so it can be found and used later. What began as one person trying to squeeze in an extra task has become a shared practice of attention and care.
It takes a Sangha.
If you don’t already regularly visit the News tab on the Africa Project website, it’s a heart-opening way to receive good news in your day. If you’d like to be notified when a new post goes up, you can opt in here.
And the next time you scroll through those photos and read those captions, you’ll know: Behind each one is a circle of young women learning and growing, and a circle of practitioners getting to practice Awareness as they contribute their time and presence.
In gasshō
jen