Author: 8hummingbirdway

I'm Annie Breglia and I'm on a mission to help heal the planet one soul at a time. The ancient way. The way of the shaman.

Beka from Uganda

by 8hummingbirdway

Looking back to Africa

This man’s name is Ntende Beka Isabirye. I called him Beka (pronounced Bayka). He lives in the city of Jinja in the east of Uganda.

This man is following his vision to help others in a very significant way.

Beka brings forth the future of Uganda through technology.

I reached out to Beka recently in an email and received his warm response 5 hours later …re-igniting the fire and excitement of the time I spent with him and his team. I actually got to be ON the team!

Beka’s passion is to bring laptops to remote village schools without electricity, and to teach the middle school students there how to use laptops. He usually teaches 60 students at a time in 6 sessions. I was blessed to go along and assist a group of 6 students during my visit to Uganda in February. Beka started by introducing laptop terminology, the difference between a laptop and a desktop computer, including mouse vs. touchpad, how to turn it on, etc. Once the students have learned the basics about how to use the laptop and understand about charging and conserving electricity, he teaches them to use Word. The students are completely engaged by him and the lesson.

I do not know the specifics beyond the first lesson; Beka did mention enabling students to do research.

Beka and his team travel to the schools near Jinja, a city in the east of Uganda. Their intention is to give this generation of students the tools to succeed in today’s world, to attend college some day, and to do it all without having to emigrate to the USA. They want to keep the best of this generation in Uganda – to help them move forward and to support them to use their increasing wisdom and knowledge at home in Uganda.

Now they will have a leg up. They can produce a research paper! Perhaps they will be able to teach their friends. By the end of their series of classes with Tech Reach Africa, Beka’s organization, they will have joined the ranks of students who can have a hope of being accepted to college, as computer skills are necessary.

Beka and his team are changing the world.

When I was planning my trip to Africa, a friend said to me “What gifts will you bring?”

I had not thought to bring gifts. By the time I got home that day I had thought of my laptop in a box at home and found a person in my town to give it new life. Into my backpack it went and now it is among the laptops that are employed in the greater Jinja area. Here is a later photo of Abraham (adult on the left), who I worked with, and another adult getting in on the lesson – with the laptop I brought and a group of students at another school without electricity.

(The ICT label on the computer will eventually be Tech Reach Africa, a new name.)

Seeing the laptop in use and thinking about Beka, the work he does, and the time I spent with him as our host brings joy to my heart and soul.

I have more to share about Beka in another post. It this work excites you, please think about supporting Tech Reach Africa in their work with a donation, large or small. A small number of American dollars goes a long way in Africa. I expect to post an avenue to do this in the future.

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More about Bienvenu Kamwendo, our Congalese host

by 8hummingbirdway

Looking back to Africa

I’ve found a short video of Bienve, our host in Democratic Republic of Congo, that I would like to share with you. This man is remarkable. He suffered from the lack of reliable adult presence and guidance early in life, and he managed to turn his challenges into blessings later on – blessings for others.

I recently spoke with Bienve about his personal story. Bienve never knew his father. His mother was not able to care for him for reasons I do not know. He lived with several families in childhood. When he was able, he worked selling fruit and taking photographs of tourists and selling them for pennies.

Bienve’s ancestors are from the Nande and Hera Tribes.

I don’t know all the details of his journey, but I know that he managed to go to school and become an attorney in adulthood. He shared with me the fact that he adopted 3 children well before he was married, children that needed guidance and support. One of them, Sarif, lives with his family still, and works for Remember Youth for Change, the non-profit organization he founded in Goma. As does his wife, Clarisse.

This man is a remarkable and outstanding human being. I stand in awe of him. His vision is all about helping others. Through his nonprofit and with the help of his staff, he provides pathways for young Congolese people to learn sewing, business, leadership, computer skills, and carpentry. He provides opportunities for them to engage in art and music. He provides activities and school shirts for children in multiple refugee camps. He rents fields for refugees to grow their own food.

All of these offerings are changing lives, healing wounds, and opening the future for others.

Something that touches my heart most deeply is that when hospitals in Goma find children with war injuries, they call Bienve. Knowing that these children received their injuries because of being child soldiers, and cannot return home to their villages, that they are societal outcasts, they call the man who can help them. Upon their release from the hospital, they are folded into Remember Youth for Change. They develop new selves with purpose. They find purpose in helping others, and training is available to them in carpentry, painting and agriculture.

Here Bienve tells about Remember Youth for Change in his own words.

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More about my sacred pipe

by 8hummingbirdway

[Back in early February, I started to write this post. It links back to a prior post about the Native American leg of my spiritual journey in this life I’m living. I have thought often about finishing the story, but it was hard to write. I did not navigate events in the way I would have liked to.

If you want to know more about my religious background and my starting place, you can also read about my early experience with Christianity.]

My spiritual search began in my late 20s. I was drawn to Earth-based spirituality, and I knew enough about the practices of those who inhabited this land before us that they honored Earth, Nature, the cycles of the seasons and of the sun and moon, as well as animal and plant spirits. I researched and studied about various tribes for a couple of years.

It turned out that my destination was not to align fully with Native American spirituality, as you will see. However it gifted me with a sacred pipe ceremony. I learned (from the book Return of the Bird Tribes by Ken Carey) this ceremony and a beautiful story of it’s origin in my 30s brought me a way to connect with my deepest self, and to make decisions with an awareness of “All that is.”

This is the part of the story I didn’t share earlier, about how I moved on in my 30s from the Native American chapter of my search …

I shared this sacred practice of the pipe ceremony with friends and family. It was a beautiful way to navigate life and to approach decision-making and sometimes even to speak difficult words or resolve disharmony. Read more about my experience with the pipe and the pipe ceremony here.

Eventually I extended myself to share the pipe ceremony with more people. I arranged with a friend, Steve, who offered a space for classes and small concerts – to offer the pipe story and ceremony there. In the small empty carpeted room I constructed a circle with branches and marked the 4 directions, each person entering at the East, the place of beginnings. We all sat on the floor and I read the story of White Buffalo Calf Woman bringing the pipe to the Soiux …then we smoked the pipe together as the ceremony instructs.

It was lovely. I met a neighbor who I hadn’t known and about 8 or 10 other people showed up. Afterward we talked and then people dispersed.

I had a jar for donations and I raised about $12 that went toward paying my babysitter that evening.

I decided to do it again and Steve advertised in the Hartford newspaper that I would be sharing the pipe ceremony for donations. And the trouble began. A non-native was making money from the sacred tribal traditions.

I knew that people had co-opted native practices, such as sweat lodges and vision quests – and capitalized upon them. I didn’t perceive myself in that light, but I can see from where I now stand that there is a fine line …and who knows where I was going with this?

The descendants of the people my ancestors and their leaders betrayed saw yet another betrayal. People started calling me in concern and anger. Some people were openhearted and listened to my explanation of how I came to share the pipe with others. The pipe-carrier of the Mohegan Nation and I had a very long talk and he was fine with what I was doing.

Some did not want to know what I had to say. Suddenly I was facing anger and threats against my family and my home.

I managed to turn the advertised sharing of the pipe ceremony into a meeting with some tribal leaders in the Hartford area. I was young and did not navigate this meeting well. I was afraid and did not speak when I could have.

Later I realized that I should have led the meeting, explaining my journey to the pipe (as I had with the pipe-carrier). But the threats had frightened me. I sat and waited, disempowered by my fear. I was told that a chief was here. I was made to understand that he was wasting his time. Later I understood what happened, and I have forgiven myself for my lack.

I did not attempt to share the pipe again with others not close to me, although my relationship with the pipe continued for many years after I left Connecticut.

I was looking for a spiritual home, but this did not show up as being a path for me. I did not find a person who would share with me, or invite me to share in Native American spiritual gatherings or experiences. I assumed they were closed to outsiders because of my experience, but I don’t know that it was true. With all that occurred on this continent I would not blame them if it was true. Or maybe I was simply too scared to ask.

I cannot recall who told me that I should turn to my own heritage, but that’s what I did.

Later, a teacher of sacred ways of some earth-based European traditions said to me that we were born on this soil and we live our lives on this soil and some of the voices and elements that speak to us carry Native ways. This helped me to make peace with myself and what had happened with attempting to share my pipe.

I didn’t understand until writing this post, how deeply this experience aligns with and informs my current orientation about tribal ways, the ancient ways that have gifted me with a way to heal and to help others. I am grateful now for my experience with the Mohegan community in CT. And I acknowledge this experience as a part of my path and understanding of the healing.

Since I am living on this continent, I expect that my studies on tribal experience and ways will focus to some degree on the tribes of this land, as well as on the African connections I now have.

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Child Soldiers in Africa

by 8hummingbirdway

Looking back to Africa

My introduction to the existence of child soldiers was when I learned, perhaps 10 years ago, that one of the largest Literate Earth Project libraries was in Northern Uganda in a refugee camp for child soldiers and other refugees.

[Literate Earth Project was founded by my son when he was in college. This organization built the first libraries in Eastern Africa.]

This was not a matter I could bear to study or learn about, but it has persisted in creeping into my awareness.

I read several times that child soldiers are forced through beatings and rape to do as they are told, including harming others. I truly cannot think of any travesty worse than this.

While in Africa I learned that this theft of young males from their beds often occurs during a fire set by soldiers in remote tribal villages for the purpose of “enlisting” them. I also learned from one who experienced this abduction, that when a child soldier succeeds in escaping or is injured and is left behind, their ordeal is far from over. These children can never return home. They are outcasts; their are ostracized after their ordeal of living a life in which they were forced to to live a life that included killing and raping others. Their families and villages do not want them back.

The plight of child soldiers has impacted my heart and soul. I learned before my journey that our host in Democratic Republic of Congo has made it his work to come to the rescue of child soldiers. This is one of the reasons I was drawn to go to Congo despite the warnings and despite my husband asking me not to go.

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My new sliding scale starts at Zero

by 8hummingbirdway

I want to say first that I am struggling about what to write and when to write. My tendency has been to write first thing in the morning, with the best energy of my day, but I get stuck then at the computer, which is not for my highest wellbeing. My energy dissipates and fizzles out and I have a hard time feeling well and balanced. I am working on solutions for this. It feels important (for my soul) to write. There is a journey here for me that is significant.

As far a what to write, my point of view is not always comfortable for others, or even for me to write about. Also it changes as I change. I am unsure at times where to draw the line and what truths are important to share.

I am so grateful to you, my readers.

This morning has been significant. I realized several things as I sat at my altar, most importantly that I want to assist more people and that I want to have my sliding scale begin at $0. This includes current clients. I want to allow those I help to determine the value of my services and what they want to or can provide in return for my time and help.

I am open to barter.

This has been percolating within me for some time; I am grateful to put it in place.

Private sessions are offered in person and remotely by phone or video conference. Contact Annie to book a session, host a workshop, for sliding scale rates or to discuss barter arrangements.

Thoughts of Africa

by 8hummingbirdway

Looking back to Africa

This morning as I gradually came to full consciousness, my thoughts were of Africa and of the 2 men I met there who are using all their resources to help others in need. These others in need are displaced persons, including child soldiers, who populate refugee camps in northern Uganda and in eastern DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo).

My time in Africa has a hold on me, and I am deeply grateful for this. I would not want to return to a self who carries no awareness of the need in Africa … and of those who rise to help. It lives in me – and today it has risen to the surface.

I am disappointed to report that the instruments I rounded up will not make it to DRC until another segment of my family visits Goma next year and brings them as luggage items. The shipping expense was prohibitive and I learned that I can pay 6 months rent for a field that is used to grow potatoes and cabbage and more for that amount. This is what I have chosen to do.

I pray that they will get to the hands they are meant for – despite world events. I know the healing that music can provide.

This week I sent $100 using the new website for Remember Youth for Change – which I will share here as soon as I have confirmation that the funds have arrived. This is the monthly rent for the field I mentioned. Or it could go to training for child soldiers. I’m unsure whether I will ask Bienve to use it in a specific way or allow him to decide. I’m sure he knows better than I – and I would be most pleased to help in any of the expenses he has shared with me, which also include meals and activities and school shirts for the children of the refugee camps. So the decision is made. I will trust Bienve.

$100 does not seem like much, but it goes a lot farther in DRC than in our world. The meal we provided for 400 children cost $300.

Bienve reported these annual expenses for me to consider donating to:

  • $3000 for training fees in carpentry, painting, and agriculture for child soldiers, also sports and music activities
  • $5000 for all activities in both refugee camps and communities
  • $1200 land rental

There may be more areas to donate to, if you are inclined. Soon the website.

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Keeping Our Minds Supple

by 8hummingbirdway

I’m posting this message from a daily inspiration email I receive because it aligns with my heart and soul.

(See below to explore or subscribe to DailyOM Inspiration.)

Being open-minded means that we are willing to question everything, including those things we take for granted.

A lot of people feel threatened when they are questioned about their cherished beliefs or their perception of reality. Yet questioning is what keeps our minds supple and strong. Simply settling on one way of seeing things and refusing to be open to other possibilities makes the mind rigid and generally creates a restrictive and uncomfortable atmosphere. We all know someone who refuses to budge on one or more issues, and we may have our own sacred cows that could use a little prodding. Being open-minded means that we are willing to question everything, including those things we take for granted.

A willingness to question everything, even things we are sure we are right about, can shake us out of complacency and reinvigorate our minds, opening us up to understanding people and perspectives that were once alien to us. This alone is a good reason to remain inquisitive, no matter how much experience we have or how old we get. In the Zen tradition, this willingness to question is known as beginner’s mind, and it has a way of generating possibilities we couldn’t have seen from the point of view of knowing something with certainty. The willingness to question everything doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t believe in anything at all, and it doesn’t mean we have to question every single thing in the world every minute of the day. It just means that we are humble enough to acknowledge how little we actually know about the mysterious universe we call home.

Nearly every revolutionary change in the history of human progress came about because someone questioned some time-honored belief or tradition, and in doing so, it revealed a new truth, a new way of doing things, or a new standard for ethical and moral behavior. A commitment to staying open and inquisitive in our own individual lives can lead us to new personal revolutions and truths — truths that we will hopefully, for the sake of our growth, remain open to questioning.

I hope to keep my mind supple and to be open to questioning and changing my beliefs and perspectives. I have recently experienced a fair amount of “rewiring” regarding relationships, the nature of love, the nature of reality, and more. I find I sometimes have to be figuratively “hit over the head” by reality multiple times to budge about some things I think I know.

Its my plan to remain open to new perspectives and information – not always easy!

DailyOM Inspiration website https://www.dailyom.com/inspiration/

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Welcome the Spring

by 8hummingbirdway

Oh glorious Spring we welcome you with our intentions and our gratitude!

I planted some lettuce last week and it’s up in the greenhouse that my husband built over the winter, along with the spinach he started. A small fig tree that we bought at the local arboretum in the Fall has new leaves.

Other seeds are on the counter, waiting for a new home in the ground – peas, arugula, herbs. And there are more plantings to come.

We both love plants and working in the dirt, and recently secured a space in the local community garden, too – so we can have a stand of corn there.

Do you have plans for this new season of life?

Go outside!

Open to what calls to you!

Bring forth fun and activity and connection!

My husband and I will be back on our bicycles again soon!

We will sit on our back porch and smell the fragrance of the woods again!

We will be auditioning for the summer play at a local community theater organization in a couple of weeks!

I hope you find fun and engagement too, and connect with that which calls you and excites you.

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Baraka means Blessing

by 8hummingbirdway

Looking back to Africa

The young man who stayed close to me for my protection when we visited the Bulango Camp is named Baraka. I felt completely safe with him as I lingered behind the others in the group to greet and connect with the women and children who had been displaced. He is one of Bienve’s close helpers. He drives others, protects, and I don’t know what else. Baraka has my heart. Language barriers prevented us from exchanging information, except for my gratitude. I hold him in my heart.

I remember this photo being taken on our last day. I have wanted to see it, to have it, to share it, but it wasn’t with the 2 batches that were shared with me. Tonight I found it, looking again at the expanded collection.

Beautiful. It holds all I remember of our connection. I’m grateful beyond words. My heart is full.

I remember looking into Baraka’s eyes in this moment of our photo. His gaze was steady and warm. It was hard for me to sustain our connected gaze. I had to look away, felt I should be posing, looking at the photographer. There was another shot taken where I am looking away. But here the moment is caught when I am fully present, receiving and giving love.

And so I have it still.

I wish there was something I could do for this young man. He was taken from his village as a child and forced into life as a soldier. I don’t know how long this lasted or how old he was or how he found his way to Bienve and the organization he now serves – Remember Youth for Change. (Website almost complete!) I do know he is very fortunate. So many who have walked the path of child soldier do not find safe harbor or work. They are outcasts for reasons that are not spoken, that I can guess.

It has been suggested that it is better to donate to the organization than to give to individuals, and I’m certain that is true. Still, I will let Bienve know that if there is ever a need – for education or other help for Baraka – to reach out to me. Everything is a great deal less expensive in Congo, and I might be able to make a difference.

Thank you for sharing this moment with me, and for indulging my heart.

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Total Eclipse

by 8hummingbirdway

The eclipse is coming!

We hope for sunny skies on Monday to witness full visibility of the total eclipse a couple hours away from home.

[My husband and I were fortunate to be gifted with a stay in North Carolina during the 2017 eclipse by some friends who had a change of plan. The total eclipse then was stunning! It was the most powerful natural phenomenon I have witnessed in this lifetime.]

Perhaps this year will be even more remarkable – with solar flares to be seen during totality!

My delightful stepson is joining us on Monday.

Totality can be seen in the Rochester, in Burlington and other NY and VT locations.

This event on the afternoon of April 8th will be the last total eclipse in the USA until 2044. The next one in NY is in 2079.

I have heard several reports that this eclipse brings forth and portends change for the better on our planet.

I have been made aware of channel Ann Tucker, speak of changes before the end of the year that include transformation for humanity. Here is her most recent offering. Channeled: Important Details about What’s Coming! (youtube.com)

Astrological reports have similar information.

I enjoyed this report from astrologer Molly McCord. You might enjoy this message from her. Aries Solar Eclipse – Rebirthing Through A New Sense of Self-Awareness and Ongoing Healing Process (youtube.com)

I don’t understand everything she says; I do feel drawn to learn more about astrology.

I’m hoping life will allow me to learn more about this area of knowledge while I’m here. Molly’s focus is more on greater impacts for all of us, rather than reports on romance, wealth, etc. Often she speaks of planetary as well as broad aspects of what is at play.

There are additional talks about this upcoming eclipse, by Molly and by others. Sri Pune offers this message of change on my friend Norlen Linn’s website: https://norlenlinn.com/2024/01/27/sri-pune-speaks-on-frequency-of-change/

I have listened to and read reports of predicted change since my 20s and I hope they are upon us. I am ready for change. I believe the change ahead, whenever it comes, will be challenging as well as uplifting. I embrace any change that is aligned with God/Creator/Spirit and will help us move forward to maximize our potential.

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