GlobalGiving Contest Standings

Hello Everyone,

“Rebuilding to Remain” has just made it to the top 10 in the GlobalGiving.org competition with $9928 in donations.   If 70 more people give in the next 2 hours, we could reach FIRST in the “Most Unique Donors” category… we’re 5th right now. Your support, large or small, is a tangible endorsement that will open doors =)Please GIVE NOW :

How can I show you the amazing energy of Mayor Haj Sami’s village?   Let me try …Imagine you are staying in the “Al Aqaba Guest House for English Teachers and Visitors.”  Welcome!   Will you recognize the Mayor’s voice in the pre-dawn call to prayer?   You may drift back to sleep only to be awakened by the sounds of birds and a tinkling, clanking sound like wind chimes, only moving from here to somewhere … the bells on the goats herded out to the hills.The sun rising over the hillside is my favorite time to walk, explore, say hello.   Walk down the ramp of the guesthouse, and up, up the stairs to the third floor of the Kindergarten building to visit the early-rising Al Aqaba Sewing Company.  Then out the door, past the new sports pavilion (!), up the street along the new mural outside the mosque with the double minaret (like a peace sign, or a victory sign … or a sign of victory through peace!).

Keep going past the new building for the Rural Women’s Association.   Two professional designers from Australia were just here, Hana Hakim and Kathrin Wheib, to help the Rural Women design their Cheese Factory, professional kitchen (to feed the international delegations now visiting every other day), and future roof-top cafe with ice cream machine!

If we head right, the Jordan Valley beckons to the east, with the twinkling lights of Jordan in the distance.   Quickly you’ll reach the trenches scarring Peace Street, making this road to the kindergarten impassable once again.  Thankfully the road funded by the Norwegians is still open, a splendid hike or jog up and down the hills.

Turn left instead.  A new shelter is up for a villager’s black and white cows.  And just down the street is the brick-making factory with new machines churning out the very first cement blocks that will build this town.  Turn left by the big pine tree and you’ll see a “Rebuilding to Remain” home.   What a light-filled and welcoming design Architect Hani Hassan created!  (When he gave his speech at the Global Donors Forum in Malaysia, he said he was surprised how assertive the women of Al Aqaba were in the design process!)

Now look around.  Three “Rebuilding to Remain” homes are in construction and some six other families are also building too!   An unexpected vote of confidence.

Neighbors beckon and invite us to join them for sweet tea with Nana (mint).   This is where school bus driver, Othman, waves to join him, driving over to do chores at his future home.  He hooks up the hose from the cistern pump (each lot in Al Aqaba already has a cistern installed for their future homes), and heads up to the roof.  The cement, still drying on his Rebuilding to Remain home, must be watered each day to prevent cracking.

Othman’s English is now better than my Arabic. He smiled as he told us that daughter Shahad and her brother Shadi insist upon playing at their new house every day, without fail.

Dreams made real.

Thank you so very much,
Donna Baranski=Walker
Founder & Executive Director of Rebuilding Alliance

P.S.  To learn more and give, just click here