Lest you think I talk too much on the subject of dreaming, here i go again.

Last night Ben and I saw Alice in Wonderland. We thought it was just wonderful and beautiful and fantastical and whimisical and adventurous and all the words my friends say I overuse.

At 20 years old and on the cusp of an arranged marriage to a nasaly, red-headed boy, Alice finds herself back in Wonderland. She is convinced it is a dream and that she controls what happens, because afterall, it is her dream.

At a point early on in the "dream" Tweedle D. and Tweddle Dum get snatched up by some scary bird. What happens immediatley after that is significant. For the first time in the movie, the perspective of the filming changes. Alice, for the first time, is no longer the star and we no longer see through her eyes. All of a sudden, we see an arial view of Wonderland from the perspective of the two fat, weeble boys, hanging helplessly from the claws of the Red Queen's evil avian minion. And consequently, Wonderland gets a lot bigger.

I was struck by how strong my reaction was to this (seemingly insignificant) perspective change. For me, it signified that this new world is in fact another realitiy, not merely Alice's dream. Because as much as I love night-time dreaming, there is one shortcoming. You are always the star. I don't know about you, but I have never had a dream from another person's perpective. In my dreams, the 'realities' of those around me relate back to me somehow. Nothing happens in my dream that I am not aware of, because after all, I am creating it. Although I am not limited by the things that limit me when I am awake like gravity and logic, I am limited by myself. Nothing can happen outside my own imagination. The world in my dreams, as wonderful and fantastical as it, only stretches as far as I can see.

The thing that I couldn't stop thinking about for the rest of the movie was how beautiful awake dreams are in that they are so much bigger than the dreamer. I love thinking about this tiny piece of the world that Sseko is creating. That right now, in Uganda, there are 7 beautiful women sitting together, having conversations and and laughing about things I will never know. They are experiencing life and seeing things that I might never see. They will go on to lead lives and impact their communities and country in ways I could never imagine. I love that Sseko is now a part of Julie's dreaming and adventuring. That she will look back at the time in her life when she up and moved to East Africa to run a company and love some girls. To think about the role that this season of adventuring will play in the journey of her life. To think about people around the country, even world, that have been touched in some small way by the dream of Sseko and are now having conversations and dreaming and schemings of their own. That from a small spark, they will go on to create and dream up things I never could.

That is the beautiful thing about dreaming when you are awake. You dream. And then you let go and the dream gets bigger than you. And that dream gives way to other dreams of other dreamers that you will probably never know.

And the best part is there is no waking up, because you are awake and the dream lives on and the dreaming gets bigger.

{from Julie}

In the past couple of weeks, Mercy and I have had the chance to visit the International School of Uganda.  The only thing we love more than getting up at 5:45am is getting to hang out with a bunch of fourth graders to talk about Sseko!  The fourth grade classes at ISU are currently doing a 6-week unit on businesses and the marketplace.  The central idea is: business arise and evolve to meet the needs for the community.  As employees of a small (but rapidly growing!) company here in Uganda, we were thrilled to talk about our experience.  The group had tons of questions ranging from market surveys to finance/ accounting to why don’t we make a sandal for boys.  We thoroughly enjoyed the interactive discussion about things that work, things that don’t work, and what we’ve learned along the way.  After leaving, Mercy and I both commented on the students’ eagerness to learn.  Any worry we had about boring the students or running out of things to say was quickly forgotten.  Shortly after our first visit, we went back to take some pictures with the young women of the class donning our product.  And here they are!  Thanks to the fourth graders of ISU for welcoming us and being enthusiastic with us about our company! 

no. i am not talking about my most recent bout of malaria (Boooo! Hisss!)

i am talking about Sseko. we here at Sseko eat, breathe and drink Sseko. yes, if Sseko was a baby, i would be that mom. you know, the one with a whole Facebook album devoted to a 60 part series of pictures of baby eating Cheerios. (my mom actually refers to Sseko as her grandbaby. seriously. i think it is cute. and great because it buys me some time before she wants the real deal.)

that being said, i dream about Sseko.

a lot.

not only the daytime dreaming and scheming i usually talk about, but also just good ol' fashion nighttime R.E.M. dreaming. in fact, while in Uganda, Julie and I would wake up a lot of mornings and compare what brilliant (read:trippy) ideas or things we had accomplished in our dreams that night.

i just recently had the BEST Sseko dream I have ever had. since i share a lot of my daytime dreams with you, i thought i would do the same with this sub-conscious gem.

it was pretty simple. but basically, we discovered a rare tortoise-like animal. this animal shed its shell (similar to a hermit crab) and moved into bigger shells as it grew. well, when you took a little hammer and chisel and cracked open the shell of this Sseko creature, inside was a star-like shape comprised of 7 perfectly made, beautiful pairs Ssekos. (the smaller the shell, the smaller the size. just in case you were wondering about the logistics.)

the next scene of the dream involved Julie and I and the seven Sseko girls all dressed in old-school safari gear, hunting for abandoned Sseko turtle shells.

i woke up and told ben, we HAVE to find this animal.

i was disappointed when he informed me that i was, in fact, dreaming.

(but secretly i will keep looking)

Sseko had a pretty great weekend down in College Station, Texas at the first annual Masterpiece Conference. Our all-star lead ambassador, Cameron Crake, did some major crowd control. One girl tied another girl up with a Sseko strap to make sure she got her size before they ran out.

Just kidding.

But it was pretty crazy. There was a section of the conference called "Part of the Solution" that feautured Sseko and several other awesome groups to help raise awareness and support for women's issues across the world. It is so exciting to be a part of a growing generation of young women excited and determined to make a difference.

Thanks to all the wonderful women who put on this wonderful conference and let Sseko be a part of it. If you live in Texas, make sure you sign up for next year.

 {...and if you know of--or attend--a similar conference or gathering...we'd love to hear about it!}

Here is a little snippit of life with the Sseko ladies from Julie. Enjoy!

There are a few things I miss most when I’m living or traveling abroad.  The first is obviously my people- Pa, Ma, friends (shout out), etc.  The second is probably Subway chocolate chip cookies (straight from heaven, folks).  And until February 28, the third is the Olympics.  Winter Olympics are not, as you may imagine, very popular in this place.  So when I had the opportunity to watch some highlights on a real live tv this week, I jumped at the chance. 

As it so happened, Mercy was spending the night with me, so the lucky girl got to come with. What followed was better than I ever could have imagined.  Mercy had never seen any winter sports before, so as much as I casually tried to prep her, she had no idea what she would be watching.  Throughout the night, some of my favorite quotes were as follows:

“WOW! Maybe I should start training!  I could do school, Sseko, and training if I had some ice.”

During a partners figure skating routine, the man lifted the woman and: “What?!  Is that REAL??  Or MAGIC?!”

During figure skating again: “I thought it was cold in there—how can she be wearing that??”

After she learned the rules of downhill skiing and the blue line outlining the course:  “That man went outside the blue line!  PUNISH HIM!”      

And lastly:  “Where are the blacks?  Why are all these people white?”

The rest of the time was filled with gasps, tons of laughter, and questions.  Watching the Olympics with someone for the first time is as good as it sounds, especially when that someone is Mercy.  It was a perfect night.  I think I also gave her more chocolate that night than she’s had…ever.  But watching the world’s fittest people perform extreme physical feats wouldn’t be the same without a Cadbury bar being shoved in your face, right?