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BIOGRAPHY:  Trudy Perry Anderson

I am a Canadian citizen by birth, a U. S. citizen by naturalization, and a global citizen by spirit.   I am now in my 8th decade.  I believe deeply within my heart that we are all one human family and I choose to live my life in alignment with this belief.

I was born in Wildwood, Alberta, Canada on January 20, 1936 into a bi-racial marriage. My parents divorced when I was one year old, so I do not remember my father.  Mother moved with me to Vancouver, Canada when I was six months old.  Mother remarried a black man when I was five, and had four children with her second husband.  I felt more connected to my Black Seminole heritage in this environment and still do.  Mother had to work very hard and I took on a big part of raising my brothers and my sister. I admired my mother very much and when she said she was working “in service.” I decided that I wanted to work in service when I grew up. This has been a guiding principle in my life.   I recall how much I loved my siblings.  In addition to taking care of them, I picked berries and beans and gathered cascara bark. 

I fell in love with the French language when I was in junior high school and decided to be a French teacher.  A large part of this was because my first teacher, Monsieur Doubinsky, made the class so interesting and exciting!  I tried to emulate his style when I was teaching.  At 17, I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the U.S., and lived with an aunt, my mother’s sister.  I worked in various office jobs and enrolled at the University of Minnesota. I majored in French and English.  I recall joining the campus chapter of NAACP and was Publicity Chair.  It was my responsibility and pleasure to invite Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak at the University.  I was dismayed to see a largely empty auditorium when he spoke but appreciated his vision and graciousness.

I met Sandy Perry at St. Peter’s AME Church in 1956.  He had moved to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis, St. Paul) to work with the Urban League.  Six months later, we decided to marry.  I continued my studies at the University of Minnesota.  Our first child, Anne Noel, was born in December, 1958.  Shortly thereafter, we moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where Sandy continued to work with the Urban League.  Those days in Omaha were challenging due to the discrimination that was so strong.   We both worked to alleviate this.  I was completing my Bachelors degree. However, we decided that I would not complete work for my degree and start teaching because Negroes were only allowed to teach at the elementary level and there was no demand for French teachers in elementary education.  Our son, Adam, was born in Omaha in 1961.

I loved being a mother and I found great joy in raising my children.  Life was full, busy and rich being a wife, mother, and homemaker, and volunteering at nursery school.  Also I was an active member of the Urban League Guild.  There were swimming lessons, piano lessons, karate, tennis, etc.  When Anne was three and Adam was one year old, we moved to Philadelphia, PA, where Sandy worked on his PhD in social work.  We lived at a Friends Housing Co-operative in the center of old Philadelphia.  We found the community very welcoming. I remember teaching French to a group of the residents while living there.  We lived very simply and appreciated the diversity represented in the neighborhood. Our main outing was shopping for groceries once a week.

We moved to Chicago from Philadelphia and lived for several months at Hull House in old Chicago before finding a home in a housing cooperative in Lombard, Illinois.  I joined Jack and Jill’s, an organization of African-American women focused on enhancing the lives of our children.  I volunteered at the York Center Nursery School that Adam and Annie attended.  I became a U. S. citizen while living in Illinois after intensive study and obtaining all the required references.  I believed becoming a citizen was necessary to become a teacher.  Later I learned that I could have dual citizenship, and plan to achieve this by the end of 2009.

We moved from the Chicago area to Syracuse, New York, where I completed work for my degree at Syracuse University.  I graduated with a B. S. degree in French in 1967.  From there, we moved to Buffalo, New York and I began teaching French.  During my second year as a French teacher at Southside Jr. High, there were so many students taking Spanish that I was asked if I could teach a first-year Spanish class.  Fortunately, I had been enrolled in an in-service Spanish class for teachers, so I was qualified to teach the class.  I was delighted to teach Spanish and my interest in mastering the language continues to this day.  I helped form a French Club, organized numerous fundraising activities to be able to take students on four field trips to Quebec.  I also served on the Curriculum Committee of the Buffalo Board of Education. I joined the Buffalo Chapter of Links and was an active member for four years.

I enrolled in a Masters Degree Program of New York University in 1972.  It was a three summer program, including two summers in Paris, 1972 and 1973, and the third summer, 1974, in New York City. I earned my Masters Degree in French Education from New York University in February, 1975.  Sandy and I were divorced in October, 1977.

I completed the “est” training in Toronto in 1978.  It was a two-weekend personal development program that made a big difference in my life.  I also learned of the work of The Hunger Project, THP, an organization of people who believe “The end of hunger is an idea whose time has come”  The commitment was that hunger could be ended globally.  I participated in Hunger Project Briefings, which are seminars to inform people of the presence of hunger around the world.  I had become a long-distance runner and coordinated a race for World Runners, an organization begun in Britain, affiliated with THP.  We wore T-shirts with the Logo, “The end of World Hunger, An Idea Whose Time Has Come.”  I would be reintroduced to The Hunger Project much later, in 1998.

With my enthusiasm for running, I trained seriously and won many trophies.  I completed the Skylon Marathon from Buffalo to Niagara Falls in September of 1979. As a result, I received an award as “Woman of the Year” from the running club “Human Energy East.”  I also became very interested in dance, studying African dance at the African Cultural Center and Middle Eastern Dance at my health club.  I took several workshops, and taught dance classes in my home.   I began to feel a sense of wanting to change my career while teaching French in the Buffalo School system. One evening some friends told me about their cousin, Ruth Joselson, who lived in Johnson City, Tennessee.  Ruth, who had a PhD in speech pathology had been very successful in Mary Kay cosmetics, and was looking for other women to do the business part-time.  So we connected, and I began as a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant part-time in 1980.  I found Mary Kay a very positive endeavor, and quickly became very successful, achieving the level of Sales Director.  Ruth’s Mary Kay unit was called “Ruth’s Rainbows.”   Ruth came to Buffalo to help me build my business and later to celebrate my attaining directorship. I left teaching French after two years in Mary Kay to make Mary Kay a full-time career.   I attended a convention for Mary Kay in Atlanta, and concluded that I would like to move there.   I consider Ruth one of my main mentors in life and a lifelong good friend.  I worked actively with Mary Kay for four years.

I decided to leave Buffalo in 1984 and move to Atlanta, after my children were grown and in college.   I answered an ad when I first arrived there that stated “If you have a good education and you love children, this may be the perfect job for you.”  The ad was for a Nanny with a company called “Nanny Poppins.”  I worked as a nanny for four months and then I found a full-time position teaching French at Morehouse College. I also tutored a group of medical professionals at Morehouse School of Medicine who were preparing to work in French speaking countries.  I worked as a Concierge at the Omni Hotel during the summer to supplement my income. I continued to train seriously as a runner, winning several trophies.  I participated twice in the Peachtree Road Race along with 30,000 other runners! 

During my second year teaching at Morehouse, I started to think deeply about what I might do next.  On the way to my classes, I passed the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, with the inscription “If we do not learn to live together as brothers, we may all perish as fools.”  I spoke with a fellow French professor who had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal and he told me he thought I would love the Peace Corps. He said I had a global attitude and related well to all people. Because of my lifelong desire to be of service, I applied to be a volunteer. My Peace Corps service began in 1987.  I hoped to be sent to a francophone country in West Africa in order to use my fluency in French. I received a call from the Peace Corps informing me that they more urgently needed my skills in Morocco, in North Africa.  I prayed about it for two days.   I called them back to say I would be willing to go to Morocco. I was told that I would be teaching ESL to Moroccan university students who were preparing to become English teachers.
 
I had radical foot surgery on both feet three months before leaving for my Peace Corps service.  The surgery was required to straighten hammer toes brought about by wearing much too small shoes with pointed toes.  I had to wear canvas sandals with Velcro closures during my first three months in Morocco.  My feet hurt most of the time. It was during these three months that we had intensive Arabic language and cross-culture training in Rabat, the capital of Morocco.   I found the Moroccan Arabic language easy to learn.  We took weekend trips outside Rabat for orientation to the culture.  I visited El Jadida, the city where I would be working.  While I was there, I was shown around by Andy Anderson, a Peace Corps volunteer, working there as a rural water engineer. 
I was assigned to teach English to university students majoring in English at Hassan II University in El Jadida.  It was a beautiful, coastal town about 80 kilometers south of Casablanca.  I rented an apartment that was more expensive than I could afford by myself, so I found two Moroccan teachers to share expenses of housing. This not only allowed me to afford the apartment` but gave me an opportunity to improve my ability to speak Moroccan Arabic.  The faculty and administration used French, and in my ESL classes I spoke only English with my students. Outside of class I spoke a little French, but mostly Arabic.

I remember working very hard during my Peace Corps service.  I worked to set up the first English language laboratory at the university. At the request of the university faculty, I sang American folk songs, accompanied by a Moroccan guitarist, to produce a cassette tape to be used with the textbook, “Steps to English.” Teaching was delightful!  My students were very polite and serious.  I remember singing with them “Free Nelson Mandela” as well as one of the first popular rap songs.  My mode of transportation to and from the University was a moped.  Peace Corps volunteers were required to wear helmets.  Before I left the U.S., I was told I would never be able to run again after having the foot surgery.  I was determined to make that untrue, so I started jogging, and was running about 10 kilometers each outing.  Each Peace Corps volunteer was encouraged to take on a secondary project. I had long been interested in fitness and running, so my secondary project was organizing a 10-K race for women and girls. At first, I was told that it couldn’t be done in that culture, but with perseverance, we held the race.  Andy was very helpful during my training, and also helped with planning the race.  Andy and I were married in August of 1988.

Upon completing our Peace Corps service we went to Buffalo.  We bought a van, and traveled around the U. S. for four months visiting family and friends.  We settled in Washington, D. C., where we used the Peace Corps office facilities in determining our next steps.  We knew we wanted to go back to Africa.  We did thorough research concerning volunteer work overseas, and worked for a temporary job agency to support ourselves. At two of my temporary jobs I was told that I could gain permanent employment there but this did not interest me.  I was determined to return to Africa! We were impressed with the work of Habitat for Humanity (HFH), so decided to apply to them.  We had a long phone interview during which we were accepted, and were invited to come to Americus, Georgia for training.  We trained three months to become International Partners with HFH.  I continued running almost daily, and did the 10K Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta again.  Training for HFH was intense learning about appropriate technology, including making bricks, Lingala Language, Habitat Principles and Methodology, and Project Accounting.  Upon completion, we were sent to Kinshasha, Zaire, Central Africa.  Our training continued at the National Office in Kinshasha. 

We were on our own to learn the culture and language, so we took a boat trip on the Congo River for nine days (a “five-day” trip). The trip was fascinating!  There were only 13 non-Zairians on the boat, one of whom was a photo-journalist from National
Geographic magazine.  We were pleased he was on the trip as we were reluctant to take pictures.  When his article was published, we had plenty of pictures of the voyage.  There were 5,000 people on the trip. The boat consisted of one powered boat with five
Barges tied to it! After the boat trip, we spent a month visiting HFH projects in Mbandaka, Bikoro and Gemena.  In Kinshasha, my job was Education Officer and French-English translator for the National Coordinator’s Office. I set up the first National Partner Training Program to train Zairians to do the jobs the American volunteers had been doing.  Eight men took the training.  We were in Zaire one year and then decided to leave. We felt the Zairians were more capable than the American volunteers of managing their projects efficiently.

Andy and I lived at a Habitat project in one of a cluster of houses that was built with Habitat sponsorship. The house was a simple four-room structure.  We used filtered rainwater for our drinking water and for cooking.  We had an elevated rain barrel with a spray attachment that we used for showers.  We had no electricity but did have a kerosene-driven refrigerator and gas stove. The complex was retained by HFH as a place to have retreats and to host work camps from the United States.  One of our assignments was to maintain the facilities and welcome and entertain visitors.  We joined in the Habitat community life, participating regularly at church services and going to the local markets for our food and supplies.  We enjoyed being with the people very much.  They taught me that a very simple life could be very fulfilling.  Specifically, the people in the community, especially the women, were full of joy and love, even though they had very little worldly goods or money.  We particularly enjoyed the church services, the brilliant colors, and the singing, dancing, and drumming!  I remember singing a solo, “His Eye is On the Sparrow” (in Lingala) at church.   My ankle was broken in an accident, and I was homebound for a month.  This happened while we were returning from a trip to Kikwit to present Habitat philosophy.  I stepped out of the vehicle into a ditch.  I immediately felt the pain and the next day I realized I had broken my ankle.   The ladies came to visit me daily, praying for my healing.  They spoke to me in Lingala and in other languages.   Even though I did not know the words in the other languages, I keenly felt their prayers. 

The warm sense of family in this culture was remarkable!  To illustrate this, each woman or girl was referred to as “Mama”, a term of respect, and each man or boy was “Papa”.  They found Trudy hard to pronounce, so they replaced “Mama Trudy” with “Mama Esengo” (Mama Happiness).   There was also great respect and feeling of the presence of Nzambe (God) and our Bankoko (Ancestors).  My experience in Zaire profoundly influenced my feeling that we are all one human family, influencing me more than any other place I have lived!!  Habitat had produced a video titled “Building a Global Village.”  As French was spoken here, I believed the video should be made in French.  So I set out to do this, locating speakers of French to dub the script.  This was a very challenging task and took a tremendous amount of time and work to coordinate the audio and the video.  The other people who worked on the project and I did get it done and it is titled “Construire UnVillage Planetaire.”

We returned to the U. S. in 1991.  We purchased a home in Eugene, Oregon, and settled down.  Andy went back to work as a Process Engineer, and I began a network marketing business that marketed health products.  In 1992, I learned about a program which was an outgrowth of the “est” training I had done in 1979.  The program was called “The Landmark Forum.” My business associate told me it was the best thing she had ever done.  Upon her invitation, I attended a guest event.  I enrolled in the Forum, and did the entire “Curriculum for Living.”  Then I trained to lead guest events for Landmark Education, the producers of the Forum.  I was an Introduction to the Forum Leader (IFL) for two years.

I became very active as a community volunteer.  I served on the Board of Directors of Mobility International U.S.A (MIUSA), an organization dedicated to the empowerment of people with disabilities globally.  We were a home stay family when volunteers came to the U. S. for exchanges and leadership training and I made some good friends.  One of my dearest friends was a young woman from Mauritania, Diariata Coulibaly.  We are still in touch and she now works with UNESCO in Paris.  Diariata was the first person to speak to me enthusiastically about the upcoming Fourth World Conference in Beijing in 1995.  The preceding global women’s conference had been in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985.  When I attended board meetings of MIUSA after learning about Beijing, I encouraged other people to go to Beijing.  At first, there was doubt that we could do it, largely due to the expense, but I felt determined and said, “I know we can raise the money we need.”  So we got busy fundraising, and 23 of us from Eugene, Oregon attended the conference in Beijing.  We spent three weeks in Beijing.  Being with women from 189 countries, all advocating for human rights, global peace and justice, was deeply moving.   I recall being in a huge stadium that had been built in hopes that the Olympic games would be held there in 2008 (a dream later realized).  We sang, “We’re gonna keep on moving forward, never turning back, never turning back!”  While in Beijing, my friend Margaret Theisen, who was also on the MIUSA Board, met a Kenyan woman, Naomy Esiaba, who was a teacher in her village. Naomy had polio when she was a child.  Naomy is a very significant person in my life.  I will speak of her later.

I volunteered with Holt International Children’s Services and helped organize their 30th year celebration.  I modeled in their fashion show/fundraiser to raise money for the celebration in Eugene. My business at that time was The People’s Network, a positive television network marketed by independent associates and provided through a satellite TV network.  The network was acquired by Pre-Paid Legal Services (PPL) in 1998.  I continue to be member and business associate with PPL as I strongly believe it is an excellent service that brings lawyer services within reach of people with modest incomes.

In 1996, I traveled to Nairobi, Kenya to attend the International Black Summit, a gathering of people of African descent who had done the “est” training and/or the Forum.
Before going to Kenya, I was planning to meet with Naomy Esiaba in Nairobi.  She had undergone surgery, and was not able to make the trip from her village, Kakamega, Kenya to Nairobi.  So, on two occasions, she sent students to meet with me in Nairobi.  In her notes she said she had a dream of starting a school for girls to enhance their self-esteem. At the airport, I wrote to Naomy and told her “You can achieve your dream!  It is possible.”  Four months later, I received a large package in the mail and inside was a 40-page manual.  On the cover it read “PROJECT PROPOSAL, TRUDY ACADEMY”.   I was stunned!  Naomy had formed a group of women called the Bunyore Development Group – “The DEG” and they were meeting regularly to create the school for girls.

My volunteer activities continued in Eugene.  During the years we lived there, we attended the Unity of the Valley Church.  I enrolled in a course called the 4-T Prosperity Program.  Part of our assignment was to give off our time to others, and I began to volunteer with St. Vincent de Paul.  I told the supervisor that I thought I would like to volunteer at the prison.  She suggested that I meet Sister Margaret Graziano, a long-time correctional facilities pioneer who had set up art programs and programs for children of inmates.  She is an internationally recognized leader in prison reform.  I met with Sister Margaret for coffee and began volunteering with her.  She became one of my most important friends and mentors.  When she turned 80 years old, she invited me to sing at her celebration.  I sang “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”  It was a huge party!  So many people came to thank Sister Margaret for starting them on a new path of dignity and possibility. We were all moved deeply!  In 1997, Naomy Esiaba visited Eugene for a women’s leadership conference sponsored by MIUSA and we met for lunch.  I asked her why she had named her school after me and she said, “Trudy, you were the woman who awakened us from a deep sleep and showed us that we could work together as women.  That is why we named our school after you.”  A video was made of Naomy and me discussing this while she was in Eugene.

In July of 1998, I received a call from my friend and business associate, Cynthia Greenawalt, in Florida.  She excitedly informed me that she had just been on a conference call with The Hunger Project (THP).  The call announced the African Women Food Farmer Initiative.  THP (www.thp.org) had begun honoring African leaders in sustainable development for the end of hunger in Africa in 1987 with the “Africa Prize.” The prize was presented at an annual fall celebration in New York City.  The 1999 prize was being awarded in honor of 100 million African women food farmers.  I became so excited that I wanted to be a part of this.  Cynthia agreed to send me a tape of the call.  When I heard it, I decided that I wanted to invest in THP, to attend the annual fall event, and, furthermore, to visit Africa where THP was working.  I attended the Africa Prize event in NYC along with my friend, Sister Margaret Graziano.  Then Andy and I became Global Investors (GIG’s).  A global investor commits to invest at least $5,000 annually to THP.  We then visited Benin, West Africa with a delegation of investors from seven countries.  We have continued our commitment and investment in THP.   We invest at our highest appropriate level. Each fall there is a major fundraising celebration of THP in New York.  Since 1999, I have attended seven of these celebrations.  In addition, I have gone on four investor trips to Benin, Senegal, Ethiopia and Oaxaca, Mexico.

Life in Eugene was good.  It was a lovely place to live.  We had a healthy lifestyle, spending a lot of time outdoors.  We had a lovely home and garden.  Andy was working full time and I was enjoying my business and volunteering endeavors.  One day in 1999, we started thinking about what else we might like to do in life.  We started to consider that it would be great to take a trip around the world for a year.  We thought we could rent out our house.   Then we recalled some of our Peace Corps friends who had left their homes to join the Peace Corps, and the concerns they felt about the welfare of the homes while overseas.  So we decided to put our house up for sale and sell it before leaving on our world tour. 

We began planning our trip. Andy and I went to Benin for our first investor trip and witnessed the “passing of the torch (Africa Prize)” by a woman food farmer from Burkina Faso to another in Benin.   It continued from there to eight African countries.  Then THP announced that the second leg of the circuit was Senegal, the first African country to begin work with THP.  I decided to go on this investor trip planned for this stop of the Africa Prize.  While I was in New York waiting for my flight to Senegal, I got a phone call that our house in Eugene had a buyer.  Andy faxed me the papers while I was in New York City – and our house was sold!   We visited several projects in Senegal, and celebrated and danced with our sisters and brothers there.  After visiting the THP projects, we were taken on a field trip to Goree Island and the slave caves.  When we were shown the caves, I passed out when I saw where the small children had been separated from their parents before the parents were sent away on slave ships.  One of our investors, Martha, was a nurse, and she helped me through this traumatic experience.

Returning to the U. S. after this investor trip was a busy time, holding garage sales, packing up, and setting out on our world trip.  Our Peace Corps, Habitat for Humanity and THP experiences had made us eager to see more people of the world.  We left in mid-September, 2000, visiting 16 countries and 65 cities (and in essence, experiencing 65 different cultures).  We returned to the U. S. in August, 2001.  We traveled very inexpensively with just carry-on luggage.  Because we traveled this way, our lodging was most often in the downtown area. This allowed us to be in the midst of the people and culture.  I especially loved the markets!  This was a great adventure, like an intensive college course, which reinforced our belief in the oneness of the human family!!  
Upon completion of our world tour we decided to settle in Port Angeles, Washington, which was close to Canada.  I was pleased to be living close enough to easily visit my Mother in Surrey, B. C., Canada, a trip that included a short ferry ride.  We purchased a nice, modest home in a retirement community called Monterra and settled in.  We enjoyed the lovely area in view of the Olympic Mountains and the San Juan de Fuca strait. Victoria was in sight across the water.  We worked in our garden, did fitness activities, and joined a community center, where I taught a weekly belly dance class.  We attended the Unity Church in Port Angeles. Also I joined a French-speaking group that met once weekly.

In June of 2002, I received a call from a woman in Australia who was coordinating the 25th anniversary celebration of THP.  She informed me that this year there would be globally televised satellite broadcast showing the work of THP around the world.  She invited us to host an event in Port Angeles.  I immediately said YES.  Our community, Monterra, a community of 150 families, had a monthly newsletter called The
Connection.  I called Jane Simoneaux, editor of the Connection, to ask if we could place an announcement about THP’s 25th anniversary celebration.  Jane said “The Hunger Project!  I’ve been an investor in The Hunger Project since the early 80’s.”  Truly this was one of those magical, wonderful moments for me!  We held the event on October 26, 2002 at the public library, which had a satellite dish.   It had not been working but they had it repaired so we could have the event there.  Sixteen people attended, and we were all moved and inspired to see the people in countries where THP was working.  Andy, Jane, and I formed a fund-raising team.  We got a video of the event, and began to use it and hold investment gatherings.  One of the people at the event was Suzan Zurcher, a journalist from the Peninsula Daily News.  She met with me after the event and asked if I would let her do an interview for the newspaper. She wrote a feature story about me in Peninsula Woman.  She entitled it “Trudy Anderson, Living her Passion.”  The article highlighted some of my life experiences, and the work of The Hunger Project around the world.

At each investment gathering, we would invite people to invest at their highest appropriate level.  We realized that on our retirement income we were not investing at ours.  So Andy decided to go back to work.  He began to look for work in the area, but did not succeed in finding a job or even doing minimum-wage work (perhaps people were reluctant to hire an 80-year old).  Since going to work might necessitate a move, he decided to go on the internet and seek a job in his area of expertise, engineering.  The job he found was on the opposite side of the country, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.  This meant we would need to move again.  So we sold our house and moved across the country to Kittery, Maine in 2004.  It was a beautiful area, and we lived about 8 minutes from the ocean.  As the cost of buying a house was so high, we rented an apartment and settled in. We were blessed to connect with a group of THP activists in Maine.  

I enjoyed going to the beach early in the morning and dancing on the beach.  Kittery is located just across the bridge from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  I joined Ocean Spirit Yoga in Portsmouth and frequently attended classes, where I met many wonderful friends.   I joined a French-speaking group that met weekly, and also began tutoring young children in French.  I also joined the International Women’s Club of New England (IWCNE) and met lovely, caring women who were eager to make a difference in our world.  While living there, I was a hospice volunteer for two years, and found it very satisfying.  Andy and I were happy to become high-level investors in THP ($25,000 annually).  While living in Maine, in January, 2006, I celebrated my 70th birthday.

One day when Andy was approaching his 84th birthday, he came home from work and informed me that he was ready to retire.  We agreed it was a good thing to do at that time.  We did not know where we would like to live.  My son Adam said “Mom if you and Andy need a place to stay while you’re deciding where you’d like to live, you are welcome to come and live with me in Buffalo.”  So we moved from Maine to Buffalo, and stayed with Adam for five months.  We researched areas we might move to. North and South Carolina met our primary requirements. We had vacation time shares which we used to look at places in those two areas. After two weeks, we chose to relocate to Morganton, North Carolina.  We moved in June, 2008.  We enjoy living here in our small house near the center of the town.  We have a garden and feel this is a good place for us.  I am studying Spanish and speak Spanish whenever possible.  We continue to support and invest in The Hunger Project at our highest appropriate level.  I continue to dance, and held a belly dancing workshop at my home. The town is picturesque, located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I enjoy gardening, fitness activities, reading and writing poetry.  I am making friends here.

I believe my purpose in life is to promote justice for our sisters and brothers in the human family.  My task is to do what I can to make a difference in the world.  My dream is that we live in a safe world where women and men are equal and we share the abundance God has given us.