it's happening.
it's happening today.
okay...so maybe africa is always happening...but today it is happening to me.
for anyone who has spent more than a few minutes with me this is probably not that surprising I guess since I have been in africa in part of my heart for what seems like always. The vision and dream and desire of being there was so strong in me that I have often forgotten I haven't already been there.
more than just going to africa, I get to go to do the very work there that inspired me to study Dance/Movement Therapy and to challenge myself to return to dance after years of thinking that part of my life had ended. Dancing and moving with the children and families who have experienced so much that is foreign to me in a place that is so far removed from the places I call home will go from vision to reality in the days ahead.
this is humbling and exciting and overwhelming because in the visions and the words spoken over me, people were healed of hurts, discovered their innocence, reclaimed their childhoods, saw the separation between who they were and the things that had happened to them, they understood their value and preciousness to God, THROUGH THEIR DANCING...their dancing with me.
part of the inward journey that has been graduate school as been a desire to be "a beginner" to be the one who has the most to learn, who isn't in any way the leader...i haven't been able to find that place completely in these two years...until now. in this amazing group of people with whom i get to travel...i am the beginner in so many ways. not only that, i feel no pressure to be more than that. this is where i will crawl. and this is also where i will grieve. this is where i will forgive and let go.
very few things scare me. but i am afraid.
this opportunity is a divine appointment between my exact hopes for how a trip to africa would be structured and the very edges of my faith and trust, in myself and in the Lord.
i have decided to be there. and today i take the first steps from which there is really no turning back.
i absolutely do not have what it takes to finish this month according to the world, physically, emotionally, professionally, financially. i have less money, less experience, less training, and less muscle than most everyone i will be with.
suddenly i sound like every other odd character that God has ever used to do something incredible. something just.so.God.
this, more than anything maybe, is exactly why it feels so right to be going now and in this way and with this group.
this, more than anything maybe, is why i am afraid.
for anyone who is interested in learning more about what i am doing where here is a little rundown:
We will join drama therapists and fellow students in urban and village settings in Kenya and Uganda, where we will exchange knowledge and techniques with African theatre practitioners, counselors, social workers, and other group leaders who help heal and transform their communities. Using applied theatre and drama therapy methods, our work with community leaders will focus on several outcomes:
In Nairobi, Kenya, working with the Amani People's Theatre ( http://www.aptkenya.org www.aptkenya.org ), we will focus on street children in remand homes.
In Budondo village, Uganda, working with the Atua Theatre Troupe and Budondo Intercultural Center ( www.budondo.wordpress.com ), we will focus on women’s reproductive health.
In the Great Rift Valley in northern Kenya, and villages near the coast of the Indian Ocean, we will focus on preventing election-related violence.
In Northern Uganda, we will focus on rehabilitating and healing trauma in child soldiers after 20 years of war.
Another group we will be working with is the Rifiki Participatatory/Forum Theatre Troupe ( http://www.rafiki-theatre.org ).
ultimately, these people and groups recognize the power of movement, drama and music as healers and tools for communication and change. they see them as particularly useful to their cultures who live so immersed in these forms already in their daily lives. as such, they have invited us to come and to work with them to share the resources we have about how to take these art forms and make them part of the healing and growing process for body and spirit, individual, family, community, nation, and continent.
we are humbled and honored to share and eager to learn from all the wisdom they have to offer as well.
it feels important to thank everyone who has honored my heart's desires by supporting me and those who have honored my heart's desires by challenging me and asking the hard questions, those who have understood my crazy lack of schedule or plans, those who store my stuff, those who watch my dog, those who have given me grace for not returning phone calls or emails, those who have put up with excessive phone calls or emails...there are so many ways people have loved me into this place.
each of you have been part of why i believe i will be able to do this and that it will be right and good. and hard. and scary. and fun. and strange. and awful. and beautiful. each of you who will hold me in your heart for even a moment are part of the magic and the holiness of this with me.
thank you.
i hope to have some internet access and to keep people at least mildly updated but you can expect a flood of caseystories once i land back on this side of the pond.
you may wanna get some floaties.
ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE EMAIL UPDATES SHOULD CONTACT ME AT cnichols3@antioch.edu AND I WILL DO MY BEST!
ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THIS WORK AND MY OTHER WORK TO OFFER HEALING THROUGH DANCE IN THE US AND IN HAITI PLEASE VISIT www.muchministries.org OR ME AT THE ABOVE EMAIL
ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT ME IN THIS WORK AND AS A HUMAN BEING THROUGH PRAYER DOESN'T HAVE TO CONTACT ANYONE...BUT I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT IT!
