Longer days mean more time for day dreaming. In the early cool June air, there is a feeling of possibility, of adventure. And not matter how old we get, this time of year is tinged with the nostalgia that school is almost over, and freedom just around the corner. Dreaming comes easily to some—especially to children. But for Sara and myself, we work hard to maintain our freedom to dream. It is that youthful wanderlust that led us to Kenya, to the tea fields, and to the people we now call family. Our best dreaming comes with evening chats on the porch over iced tea. Right now, we are dreaming of a summer camp for our 30 sponsored students in Kenya. We are dreaming of replicating the Ajiri model in other parts of East Africa. And we are dreaming of a leadership training program for our women.
If there is anything our Ajiri children have taught us, it is to dream big and to dream fearlessly. As one of our sponsored students explained to me years ago, you need to look your dream right in the eye and have your dream look you right in the eye, and tell each other that you are real. So this is what is real: Derrick will become a pilot. Shila will become a politician. Felix will become a teacher. Eucabeth will become a nurse. They have already dreamed themselves right out of their present environments. Our kids don’t need long June nights to dream. They just need encouragement and more importantly, education.
So we can’t stop dreaming. We must work toward our student’s expectations of the future. Mandela says, “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” We can’t thank you enough for continuing to choose Ajiri Tea, and by doing so, reimagining a world where a child can grow up in a safe, warm, and encouraging environment. Thank you all for helping to keep this long June light shining all year. Your support, your kind notes, your encouragement, it all keeps us going.
Dream big,
Kate and Sara
Joyce wants to become a lawyer
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Angela, Wesley, and Damacline were now hopelessly off course. They had managed to scale that final fence and were walking down toward a forest. I wanted to run to them, set them on the right course, explain scale and direction and how they should put the compass on the map. But instead I watched them from the top of the hill. They were now making pretend owl calls to each other, quite literally hooting from one group to another and then bursting into laughter.
See, there is this tip-toeing around issues in business. No company should align itself too "political" for fear of alienating customers. But to have opinions and emotions—well, that's just human. As a society, we've become too corporatized—too sanitized to believe that companies shouldn't have a voice. Of course politics affect our business. Tariffs on tea! The war in Iran means higher costs of shipping our tea. The elimination of USAID and its direct impact on our community in Kenya. But more so than something directly affecting us and our business, we still care about policies that affect our neighbors and people across the world.
At Ajiri, we feel so lucky to be on this earth at the same time as all of you. Your purchase of tea holds a lot of that elusive power of art. Sure, your purchase is the transference of physical money that goes to support women and children. But your purchases of tea, time and time again, transfers this feeling of belief. You believe in these women. You believe in these kids. You believe that the world can be a better place.
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