[Dialogue] Fwd: Maasai

[Richard Alton]

*The Smoke That Thunders*

The ICA has tried to have a global conference in Africa for many years and
now we have finally done it. People from 20 countries (10 from Africa)
gathered in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, to look at how we all are responding
to the times we are living in. At these conferences one is always shocked
by the people one meets and the projects one visits. Although the Falls,
the smoke that thunders, is amazing.

 I was struck on the first day by a Maasai women fully dressed in her
tribal garb.  We broke into our working groups, and I found we were in the
same group, Climate Change.  Her name was Josephine Ndirias from Kenya. She
turns out to be the Executive Director of the *Mukogodo Girls Empowerment
program*. It turns out she is from Nanyuki, Kenya. I had been to Nanyuki to
visit the ICA Canada project, ilnqwesi, and had lunch with one of the
Maasai leaders, Saaya, who turned out to be Josehine’s cousin. “My
goodness, what a small world.” It turns out that Josehine’s work is the
continuation of the Maasai work started by by Asha Spencer and Miriam
Patterson many years ago. Asha and Miriam were there in Nanyuki for a year.
We spend the next couple of days chatting about people we knew- Josehine’
still talks with Miriam Patterson on a regular basis. And we went through
all the people I use to know: the late Vice President Biwott who use to
demand money and vehicles from ICA if we cared about our lives. I was
totally startled by Josphine and our meeting. We could have spoken together
for the whole Conference. Conferences do that for you- the people you meet!
Over 100 people to meet in person. Wow, 4 from China and one from Hong Kong
plus 15 from Nepal.

But not only the people but the projects you visit! We visited *Ele
Collection* (www.elecollection.co) whose purpose is to Remove all Plastics.
They have women plastic bottle collectors all over the Town/Park collecting
bottles. They pay them by the pound. The Ele-Collections says its goal is
to clear Victoria Falls and the National Park of Plastics.  Ele processes
the plastic bottles into building and road material which they sell. This
all came about from the owner and a friend walking in the National Park and
being attacked by an elephant. The owner’s friend was killed. They finally
killed the elephant. When they opened the elephant’s stomach, they found it
was full of plastic bottles. No wonder the elephant was mad! Ele Collection
is about saving the animals from the scourge of plastics. Ele is a business
who gets a lot of support from local companies and is constantly expanding.
We were all struck by the methodology and skills shown. They claim they are
the only local plastic re-cycling system in the world. We had to come all
the way to Victoria Falls to find them.

On the way to Victoria Falls I read two books. Just finished Paul
Kingsnorth book, *Against the Machine, on the Unmaking of Humanity*. He
points out that we are facing “increasingly impossible lives in the
high-tech globalized world that has resulted from the consumer economy”. We
are slowly being capture by a world that is unreal and losing a sense of
being human. This second book, *Inspiring Transformative Change*, is on
image shift and its focus on enabling group processing is what will allow
us to rediscover the real world of personal interaction and human
consciousness. The *Change* book is written by Elise Packard and Jane
Stallman. It will come out in early 2026.

Great Conference- the people and projects were worth it. Conferencing is an
amazing way to find the Human Element in Global Development! Go Africa,
where we all find our roots!

Dick Alton, lives with ICA’s Greenrise Community, helps manage ICA USA’s
Global Fund and way too involved in the Methodist Church’s Net Zero by
2050. Getting ready for his 84th birthday.








*Southern Africa is gifted with *

On Sun, Nov 9, 2025 at 10:29 AM Richard Alton <richard.alton at gmail.com>
wrote:

>

-- 
Richard H. T. Alton
ICA Global Fund
United Methodist Creation Care
The Last Chapter
T: 773.344.7172
richard.alton at gmail.com
Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2
Won't you be my neighbor?
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