Okay fine, here’s the real story. This is why I do these women’s projects.
First thing’s first, its got to be an awesome project. Don’t get me wrong. Volunteering in an orphanage, providing dental cleanings, or teaching women to bead souvenirs to sell is great. It doesn’t make it less important. It’s just not for me. First, I am not interested in working with the human body. It’s why I’m a banker for god sakes. I barely got through my kids diaper years. Secondly, I could go teach English to orphans for 4 weeks but then what? Now they are masters of English and it changes their lives? Unlikely.
No, for me it has to be something that I think will leave behind some kind of legacy, something longer than the 5 weeks I am there. Is that selfish? Yeah, but humans are selfish so I figure I am going to follow my natural instinct, hopefully others can benefit too. This is my self-care regimen. Plus, it is a great way to see the world on a small dime. There are even grants and scholarships available for volunteers here.
The real story is that the projects I choose have typically impacted a part of my life that I do not like to talk to people about but hit me somehow. It’s not that I choose not to talk about this because I am embarrassed or ashamed in any way. It’s because one of two things happen 100% of the time:
- When you tell people your mother was trafficked, you are a product of some dude fueling her drug habits and that her life would not have sucked if she hadn’t been trafficked, people look at you with puppy eyes. They have pity and assume you must have baggage or be damaged.
- When you tell people you got pregnant by the Mr. Wrong at 19 and had to bust your tail to feed your son, they look at you like you are trash and destined to trash forever. (I am trashy, proud of it and prefer that I get to declare that about myself, not other people).
The Hustle
So no, I do not give shots to babies or build schools in rural third world countries. I do the only things I know I am good at…. hustling when you have a problem to figure out NOW. I have been doing that my entire life and it is something that I can help other people attack piece by piece. I work with women in terrible situations and show them how to hustle for their babies or for their safety. I mean, come on, what are you going to do, lay down and give up? PSHHH.
People who work with me in my normal career would say things like, “She has the gift of gab,” or “Rachael can talk to anyone.” That is not the case. I was shy in high school, and downright avoided people. I mean, come on, I’ve been freakishly tall since 4thgrade, wished every birthday for boobs so people would know I was actually a chick, and I have some poppin’ eyeballs. I couldn’t will my body to grow boobs and every time I try to make my eyes look normal sized, people think I’m plotting some crazy scheme. Talking was something I could learn, change, and have control over.
I talked my way into a job I shouldn’t have gotten and decided I better figure out how to deliver. Not because I loved the job, but because I had to feed that baby. Then it just became my thing. Today, I enjoy using my voice to make people laugh, inspire, and teach people to ditch their “Itty-bitty-pity-party.” You know the one. The party in your head saying you suck and you can’t.
Somehow, I didn’t become a statistic. Well, not yet anyways. I guess there is still time. Mom with some bad habits and knocked up young myself? It wasn’t looking super great about 10 years ago. Oh and Mr. Wrong, he was gone pretty soon after the baby came so looking back now, it seems like fighting gravity. At the time, it’s just today. Today is what I can control. I can make sure I don’t screw up this day. Before you know it, it seems like someone else’s story you vaguely remember.
Strong just needing some direction.
These chicks in Tanzania though, they have all that multiplied by 1200. They are up against it and there aren’t a ton of people throwing them bones right now. Tanzania has made some constitutional changes in the last couple years to try and level the playing field, but girls just do not get the same access to education as boys do. Out of all of the challenges, everything comes back to this one thing. If you are someone like me, 19 with a baby to support, you can go get a job. I didn’t go to college when I should have but I had made it through high school. Often, you can find a job to get by, even if it’s barely or a little short each month. Try doing that if you had never gone to school.
I mean, really think about that for a second. If you had never gone to school and knew you needed to buy food this week, what would you do? Well, the oldest profession known to humans is trafficking. No wonder. It’s the quickest hustle where the less experience you have, the more money you can make!
For a lot of the women I will be working with though, they had partners and were married. However, during the 1980’s, just like in Europe and the United States, there was a huge epidemic in HIV/AIDS. They found their first case in 1983 and by 1985, every region of Tanzania was reporting major cases. It was spreading through blood infusions, heterosexual transmission, and mothers were passing it on to their babies. Anyways, these women in Africa are often left widowed without a ton of options of supporting themselves or their children.
That is where the group I will be working with comes in. I will be at a nonprofit helping these women get the education they need to not be out there hooking or whatever they can to survive. I am a banker so microfinancing and financial literacy education comes naturally to me. This is a huge part of their future success. More importantly, we have to teach them a new hustle. One that is sustainable, offers opportunities for their children to make out better than they did, and is SAFE
.
I need some help. So I am recruiting you to put the vibes out there for me. I am putting out the call now. I am looking for some lady bosses that had their own reasons for finding their hustle. I had mine and I bet yours are different. At the end of the day, I can relate to these chicks. The details are not the same but that get-your-butt-in-gear mentality because you have to….it’s always the same isn’t it?
Are you a female and nervous about making a big journey like this on your own? First, look at this. Then, just know, you’ll be rolling with me! Are you a mom and just “totally cannot do it because you have kids?” Stop it. Your kids will benefit so much from you involving them.
Check out the upcoming trip here!
