LittlePurpleCow Productions

Emanual was the first entrepreneur to greet us outside his home when we arrived to Mlima Sioni village in Tanzania with our friends from local non-profit BEST (Business and Entrepreneurship Support Tanzania). Smiling, he shook our hands gently and shared his family with us. "He makes bricks," Praise, the manager of BEST explained. "It's his profession."

I think of this man's pride and that too-short visit to Mlima Sioni village often. I wonder if his maize has grown. I wonder if his children are well. I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to go back and tell him how much I've grown as a result of just standing in his presence. I hope.

What struck me most about the students at Shepherds Junior School in Arusha, Tanzania was the width of their openness and honest desire to consume and embrace all things new... instruction, friendship, laptops, hands and hugs, e-mail, lunch, questions, paper airplanes, Twitter, Crayons, digital cameras... bubbles. I don't recall a shadow of fear or hesitation.

He could have been nervous. An ocean away from home and most things familiar. But it didn't show. Quietly, Carter (Jen's son) moved with the natural flow of things during our Picture Hope visit to Shepherd's Junior School in Arusha, Tanzania. He could have insisted that he sit beside his mother on that bus. But he didn't. Trusting and content in the middle, he found his place.