That dream is coming more and more real to me after having such a wonderful experience with Vanessa and her friend, Denise. This woman is awesome and I mean awesome. She has had such a rich and fulfilling life. I couldn't believe I was sitting across from an African American woman that started a school for girls in South Africa. I heard this and cried right in front of her. I couldn't believe that the tears just came so quickly so unexpectedly. Why was I crying? She was helping my family that was left behind hundreds years ago. My blood line was there in Ghana Africa where my family roots begun on this planet earth. I quickly saw people being grabbed and taken away. I could hear women crying and I could feel their fears. Just as we were sitting there and she was sharing her story of how she and others came together to start a school for girls. One of those girls maybe related to me I thought and that's why the tears fell. Just knowing that she was apart of rebuilding a country that lost so much.
She shared with us the beauty of the country and how kind and helpful people were there. She gave us suggestion on places to visit while we were there and most improtantly she gave us an idea of how much it would cost. What a relief. I was imaginig at least two to three thousand dollars depending on where we will stay. My heart began to jump up and down because I was thinking over six thousand dollars now I can really plan. I began to sing "I'm going to Africa." Why does this mean so much too me? That's a very long story which sense I'm the only one reading this I can share.
When I was a very young girl maybe around 9 or ten I meet a missionary that had been to Africa. He lived over our church and only had one leg. That frigten me as a little girl seeing a man with one leg. I was told to go and help him out around the house a couple of times. He was a very small stucture man but very talkative. I was so what afraid of the different artifats he had in his small place. I didn't like looking at heads of people that were so black. They would always have ear rings in the heads or eyes were like diamonds. I would walk pass these artifats very slowly afraid that were evil and were used for voodoo. I had seen many of Tarzan movies and would see Africans holding these in their hands always dancing around and saying words I didn't understand.
He talked constantly about being in Africa and the people there being so kind and loving. That not what I was seeing on televison. He would that Africa was beautiful with water surrounding the land and everything was so much better there than in our country. He gave me a artificate of a zebra it too was all black. I loved that zebra it was so smooth to the touch. I took it home and held it and looked at it and then began to dream. I was dreaming of Africa. He would tell me all the time its such a beautiful place to see when you grow up he told me "visit Africa".
I grew up and I really forgot about the little man with the one leg. I don't really think I thought about him after he died. I did think of him once when I was a young adult around twenty when I met some really together African Americans that stressed the improtance of African American excepting our hertage being proud we were from Africa. I thought of him and his storeis of Africa. How much he loved being there. It helped me to ease into being proud of myself being black.
I didn't start really dreaming of Africa until I was in my forties. I had a friend that moved to Nigeria and became a missionary. Her mother and I were good friends and her mother had gone to visit her twice and she would tell me about how beautiful it was there. That brought my dream back again and wanted to go and see it for myself. I began to dream of Africa. What deepen that dream was learning about four years ago that our family roots are from Ghana Africa. I then long to see the "Mother Land." The more I learned about my hertage the more I wanted to see the place in which my blood line began. I have friends that are Italian, Greek, Finnish and they talked so highly of the country in which their bloodline began and several have visited those places. I wanted to have the same emotional feelings towards the land my people come from.
Now I'm working towards my dreaming coming true. I'm going to see Africa. I'm going next year my dream is going to come true. I will visit Africa. After talking to Denise I know now that it will come true. The work will have to begin selling books and doing Bag Lady again so that I can raise the money for my trip to Africa.
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