Maasai Girls Education & Empowerment with Juliet Cutler

Today we're talking with Juliet Cutler, a teacher, author, and Serenbe resident, whose memoir, Among The Maasai, documents her time teaching English at a Maasai girls' school in the late '90s and she addresses the challenges inherent in tackling issues of extreme poverty across vastly different cultures. In this episode, we talk about the power of educating women and girls, how Juliet has continued to advocate for Maasai girls over the last 20 years, and the importance of having a community.

Juliet Cutler is a writer, an educator, and a designer of award-winning exhibits for museums, parks, and cultural centers throughout the world. Her teaching career began in Tanzania in 1999, and since that time she has been an activist for girls’ education worldwide.

Cutler’s literary and professional publications now number more than two dozen, and she has taught writing in many settings including as adjunct faculty for the College of St. Scholastica in Minnesota. Her first book, Among the Maasai, has received critical acclaim through several national and international awards including the Independent Publisher Book Award, the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, and the National Indie Excellence Award.

In 2009, she was selected by Orion Magazine to participate in their annual writing workshop, and in 2013, she participated in a writer’s residency at La Muse in Labastide-Esparbairenque, France. In 2019, The Serenbe Institute for Art, Culture, and the Environment honored Cutler as a Serenbe Fellow—a distinction given to nationally recognized thought leaders, scholars, and artists.

The new book, Start In Your Own Backyard, is out and available for ordering. 

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Learn more about Serenbe and see our Events Calendar. Order your copy of Start In Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where You Live with Radical Common Sense by Serenbe founder Steve Nygren. 

Transcript

Hey guys, it’s Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I’ve started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called Biophilic Solutions. Our last season of Serenbe Stories, building a biophilic movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it every other week. Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We’ll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture the living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations more often than not. Nature has the answers. You can find biophilic solutions on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe and follow us today So you don’t miss an episode. Alright, now let’s go back to Serenbe Stories. 

Monica (2s): 
Today we’re talking with Juliet Cutler. A teacher, author, and Serenbe resident, whose memoir, Among The Maasai, documents her time teaching English at a Maasai girls’ school in the late 90s and she addresses the challenges inherent in tackling issues of extreme poverty across vastly different cultures. In this episode, we talk about the power of educating women and girls, how Juliet has continued to advocate for Maasai girls over the last 20 years, and the importance of having a community.

Juliet (32s): 
And it was all I’ve ever looked for, really, we found a community here, this is a very walkable community, I have access right at my back door to nature, it’s all of these things. We’re manifest here. 

Monica (44s):
Alright, Juliet, we’re so excited to have you here on Serenbe Stories today. Welcome. 

Juliet (49s): 
Thanks so much for having me. 

Monica (50s): 
We also have Steve Nygren. 

Steve (52s): 
Welcome Juliet.  

Juliet (53s): 
Hi Steve. 

Steve (54s): 
Nice chatting with you. 

Juliet (56s): 
Yeah. 

Monica (56s): 
Juliet we’re so excited for you to spend time with us and you’ve taken the time. I know you’re super  busy, and one of the first things that we always ask everybody is; Julie, how did you find Serenbe? And how did you come to move here? 

Juliet (1m 9s): 
Well that’s a great story. So my spouse, Mark and I, we lived in Amsterdam prior to Serenbe. And he works for Delta Airlines, and so I sometimes joke around with him that I knew the mother ship will eventually calls us home to Atlanta. And Delta being another ship. And she did, we were in Amsterdam as part of their partnership with KLM, and we lived there 6 years, but we were not originally from the Atlanta area. And so, when I knew we were going to be moving to Atlanta, I started coming with him when he would come back for business trips. And I’d be scattering neighborhoods in Atlanta, and I would walk the neighborhoods, and drive the neighborhoods. And, of course, in Amsterdam, we lived a little bit different lifestyle. We didn’t have a car there. We lived in a very walkable city, lot of public transportation. We lived right next to a big urban park. And so these things were important to me when I started looking, I really wanted a community that was walkable and I needed some green space. 

Juliet (2m 15s): 
And in addition, you know, we had the experience of moving to another large urban city about 15 years ago, and we, where we didn’t know anyone. And that was kind of a rough experience for us to find community, to find friends, in that urban setting, and so I was also very interested in this idea of community, you know? How are we gonna find community in the Atlanta area? And I was feeling, frankly, a little bit discouraged. And I was talking to a friend who grew up in Atlanta and she said, “You know, my mom went to visit this new place, and it’s south of the airport about 30 minutes, and it sounds like just the place for you.” She said, “It’s stuck about the environment, and the arts, and they very intentionally built it to foster community, and so you should really check it out.” And so on my next trip to Atlanta, I came to Serenbe, and I was here for about 10 minutes, and I said “Yep, that’s it, I’m moving in. I found it”  

Juliet (3m 19s): 
And so. We started the process of looking at homes that were built here and ended up deciding that we were gonna build, so we bought a lot and built and it’s been a fantastic experience. And it was all I’ve ever looked for, really, we found a community here, this is a very walkable community, I have access right at my back door to nature, it’s all of these things. We’re manifest here. 

Monica (3m 47s): I love it. So Juliet, when did you guys, what year was this that you guys moved? 

Juliet (3m 51s): 
Oh, that’s gonna require a moment of thought. We’ve been here, we’ve been here 5 years, so that would have been 2016.

Monica (3m 59s): 
Okay, okay. Great, great. And in what neighborhood are you guys in? Just for our listeners. 

Juliet (4m 2s): 
We’re in the Crossroads. 

Monica (4m 3s): 
Okay, great. Yeah, which is, the Crossroads, for everybody, is sort of, the middle of the neighborhood. It’s exactly what it sounds, it’s crossroads between the current larger neighborhood of south Grange and Mado. One of the things that I think it’s really interesting is, is, you know, you moved from Amsterdam, it’s because it was very walkable and you wanted that green space. It is so hard to find. When we moved from California, that was sort of two things we were, sort of, looking for, and when we lived in Piedmont Park in Atlanta for a minute, and then Grant Grant Park. But that was a really hard thing to try to find, and I think it's a challenge for most, sort of, urban environments that we just don’t have enough of green space available in the cities. 

Monica (4m 43s): 
Where were you before you guys moved to Amsterdam? Because what a wonderful experience.

Juliet (4m 47s): So we were in Minneapolis Hall for over a decade. Mark started his career with Northwest before Northwest was acquired by Delta. And so at the time of the merger with Delta, we took opposed to Amsterdam. 

Monica (5m 2s): 
Perfect. 

Juliet (5m 2s): 
So we were about a decade in Minneapolis Hall, 6 years in Amsterdam, and 5 years here. 

Monica (5m 9s): 
And you were teaching there, right? In Minni-Minneapolis? 

Juliet (5m 12s): You know, I was not. So for the last 12, probably, 15 or 20 years now, I’ve been working in the informer educational sector, and by that I mean I work for the national park service, museums, visitors centers, clients like that to help them develop educational programs and exhibits for visitors.

Juliet (5m 37s): 
And so really liable as an educator and as a storyteller—writer is to help these institutions identify what are the stories that they wanna tell and how do we tell those stories in three dimensions very often. So it’s not just the written word, it's artifacts, it-it’s images, it’s experiences that—really the mission of most of these clients is education and its root. We’re trying to educate the visitors about whatever the focus of the museum is.

Monica (6m 14s): 
That's so cool. And How did you end up going to Africa? Cause that’s really, you know, a book that you wrote recently was all about Africa that came out in 2019. But you went to Africa, and I want to say the late 90’s, so this is before you were in Minneapolis, was this before you were married even? Yes?

Juliet (6m 32s): It was. Yeah. So I actually grew up in Montana and so I did my University Training out west, and actually I have something in common with Steve Nygren and that I did my Master’s Degree in Fort Collins at Colorado State. And I know Steve is also from Colorado. 

Steve (6m 55s): 
Absolutely, Just down the road from where I go—

Juliet (6m 57s): 
Yeah, so—--Anyway, when I finished my university degree, I heard about this school in Tanzania, East Africa. It’s, it was a school, it was and it’s a school for Maasai girls and they were looking for a volunteer English teacher and so my undergraduate training came out as a certified secondary English teacher and I really had this desire to see a bit of the world. And so I applied through this volunteer teaching position in East Africa, and part of it too was that I was really inspired by the stories of these young women who really had limited access to education and face deep poverty, early forced marriages, and so they really were almost begging for education as a pathway to empowerment. 

Juliet (7m 53s): 
And being young and naive, I thought maybe I could help. And you know, in  some ways I did, but I think of the big pieces of learning from that experience was that I had a lot to learn and I think I learned as much from my colleagues and friends in Tanzania as I taught there 

call there and so that’s, that’s how I ended up there and along the way I met Mark Cutler and he started his career actually as a mathematics teacher and I said to him, “Hey, I have this vibrant idea that we gotta go teach in East Africa.” And he said, “Okay, let’s do that.” And so we went together, and by the time we came back we were married. 

Monica (8m 31s): 
I love it! I didn’t realize that the two of you went together. I knew you‘ve been there. So tell me about that experience, like so you guys got there. Had you both got jobs? Was he doing math and you were doing English? 

Juliet (8m 45s): Well, we were both finishing up graduate degrees at the time and so we had finished that up and we were, I think, trying to figure out what came next, and I think we recognized that if we probably didn’t do an experience like this at that point in our lives, it was going to become increasingly more difficult for us to do something like that as we got jobs and as we got things like houses, you know? Like it becomes harder to kind of just pick up and go. 

Juliet (9m 15s): So, yeah…. We decided to go together, and he taught at Coy Educational School that was about a mile from the Maasai Girls School. He taught mathematics, I taught English and then the second year we were there, we were there for 2 years, we kind of fitted a teaching slot where he taught a little bit of math with the girls' school and I taught a little bit of English at his school. But yeah—-

Monica (9m 41s): 
That’s great. 

Juliet (9m 41s): 
It was an amazing experience for us.

Monica (9m 44s): 
And that was, so, were you first really came to this idea and saw the benefits of education on these young women that were really bring them out of poverty and bring them out of what I know you talked a lot about, about, you know, gender based violence that was happening or still happening in East Africa. Tell me a little bit about that journey and sort of the time you spent there and where you came to the point where you knew you needed to write a book. 

Juliet (10m 11s): 
So I’ve been involved with this school now for over 20 years. So while we lived there for 2 years, I still returned on an almost annual basis and I roll down as largely as a fundraiser here in the US. And so the book was really designed, all <inaudible> prints sales of the book are going back to support scholarships for the girls who attend there. 

Juliet (10m 34s): 
You know? Researching the field of international development will reveal us out that educating girls is one of the single most effective interventions for poverty alleviation. It was not only individual women but their families an entire community solved poverty. And one of the really rewarding things of having 20 years of experience at this particular school is that I really had the great privilege of witnessing how that happens, you know? I’ve witnessed young women who were my students who came in as very shy and timid, quiet girls, and these are now women who are leading their culture. 

Juliet (11m 19s): 
We have graduates who are teachers, doctors, nurses, attorneys. We have young women who have started nonprofits, who are working on some of the most pressing issues the Maasai face to which include issues of land and water rights. And these young women are also leading culturally in terms of addressing some of these issues of violence as I said earlier the Maasai is still practice early forced marriages as well as, you know, general cutting which is a human rights violation and also illegal <inaudible> is still commonly practiced and, you know, as an outsider I think one of the pieces of learning I had is that it never really was my goal to change things, but really to empower these young women to change things the way they wanted it to. And so I worked really hard to try to stay in the background and be an advocate allied, and give these young women the tools they need to try their own courses. 

Monica (12m 24s): 
It’s incredible. Do you have any specific women that you can tell stories about? You know, I think that it's fascinating the land and water rights, specially, you know, in Paul Hawken’s book, Drawdown, you know, one of the number one, you know, climate change solutions is to educate women, specially in Africa. It’s there—-Are there any specific girls, women with stories of those land water rights? I think that would be very interesting to hear about.

Steve (12m 51s): 
And I was gonna say out of the hundred solutions, educating the women is in the top ten. 

Monica (12m 56s): 
Is it really in the top ten? Wow.

Steve (12m 59s): That’s right, that’s climate change. 

Juliet (13m 0s): 
Right. Yeah. And we’re looking at research too, on the links between educating girls and addressing environmental issues and, you know, one of the things that I certainly have seen in certain of going back and forth to Tanzania and that I write about in the book is this issue of deep drought that they had there. And so even during the time I was living there, we experienced a very significant drought and I know a place that didn’t have the pipe that drains water to their homes. You know, I can tell you the story of Grace. So Grace grow up in a traditional Maasai home and so this a mudded dong hun, no running water, no electricity, so for her family to have water, she would walk a couple of miles each way with a bucket to get water from the same source that cattle and goats are getting water from and that would be the water that her family have for the day. 

Juliet (13m 59s): 
And so in the  <inaudible> drought when cattle and goats can’t find water and then grass dries up and these cattle and goats which really are the monetary system for the Maasai, you know? They’re trading the cattle and goats and so this is their livelihood and when these cattle and goats don't have grass, don’t water and then they die. It creates just a ripple effect, right?  

Juliet (14m 25s): 
And so, you know, there’s, Humm, a nonprofit that has been started in Tanzania that is looking to address some of these issues among the Maasai in terms of how, as I understand privatize in Tanzania too, the Maasai can’t hurt the cattle and goats across traditional marginal roots that they have for hundreds of years, and so this is a really important issue, right? To the Maasai that they have access to water, I mean as it is to everyone, water, the essence of light and lifestyle.

Monica (15m 1s):
Yeah. I think that another big challenge that we have environmentally is water and water and lack of is causing and it’ll continue to cause these massive migrations that we’re already seeing. Did they, were there groups that were working to drill wells at all? Or, is that something that is a possibility that will help? 

Juliet (15m 27s): 
There has been some efforts in some parts in Tanzania to do that have been successful. There were efforts in Monduli which is a community where the school is located, but the water table is so deep there that those efforts went unsuccessful. They have had success with building some damps that helped with that. So there have been—and they built… They built the school while we were there. There’s a lot of water tanks that, that, that ... because also all of these schools in Tanzania, secondary schools are promptly boarding schools. And so which you got, you know, 300 students on your campus that all need water and there’s no water. You have to find a solution to that and so water tanks, holding tanks have been another way. And they also installed drain water, cap—

Monica & Juliet:
Capture. 

Juliet:
Yeah on the school buildings as well. 

Monica (16m 25s):
Yeah. When you were in Tanzania, so you go back every year, I heard about, and I know this past year with COVID I don't know if you were able to make it back. 

Juliet (16m 34s):
No, I was supposed to have gone in 2020, and obviously I did not. I am hoping maybe 2021, but we’ll see. 

Monica (16m 42s): 
Is there one, is the one school that you’re still affiliated with? Or have you been able to either grow that school? Or have you been able to sort of replicate it? Tell us a little bit about that? 

Juliet (16m 53s): 
So my primary involvement remains in Monduli at the Maasai Girls School there, and another school there that Mark taught, which is called [NAME] secondary school. And so, what I was saying is that, my involvement there has gone deep, but there are some ways that some of my work has gone wide if you will. And so, one of the pieces of learning that came from Dr. Moses Juliet who is the head of the school at the girls school, a very wise man. He saw that if girls aren’t safe when they go home from school breaks, if they’re still facing some of these issues of violence at home that they are unlikely to finish school, they are unlikely to return, they are unlikely to be successful at school

Juliet (17m 43s): 
And so there really needed to be some sustainment ways that we address issues of safety, and so there's kind of a three legged stool in terms of safety that we started working in. One is a safe house, so it’s for girls who face immediate risk of violence. There's this safe house where they can be and it provides things like maternal healthcare for girls who already faced some kind of violence as well as counseling and just a safe place to be with support. So that’s one piece of it. 

Juliet (18m 19s): The other piece of it is safe schools. And so, how do we make schools safe? Safer for girls, but safer for all children. And so there is now a safe school training program that is running throughout Tanzania where a group of Tanzania trainers go into secondary schools and facilitate conversations with staff around how to recreate positive school climate, safe school climate for all children. 

Juliet (18m 45s): 
Corporal punishment is still widely practiced in Tanzania, so part of that 20conversation is, how do we set boundaries without sticks—without sticks? And so really looking to create school climates that are positive. And in addition to working with staff at schools, they’re also developing peace clubs among students and so these peace clubs come together and they talk about issues of safety. Sort of multi-levels of what safety looks like at my home? What does it look like in my community? What does it look like at my school? What does it look like in my country? What does it look like in my world? And they have an annual peace club 
conference, where these clubs from all over the country come together to talk about these issues of safety. 

Juliet (19m 33s): 
And then the third leg of that three legged stool is what’s called the Binti Mama Program that translates as ‘Mother-Daughter’ Program. So it’s really around community base education. How do we bring mothers and their daughters together within communities to have discussions about issues of safety and empowerment within their local community and how as a group they might work together to move forward in <inaudible> to identify. So that safe program, the three legged stool, that’s kind of our mission in Tanzania. But I obviously remain deeply connected to the Maasai Girls School and the work that’s going on there. 

Monica (20m 16s): 
That’s amazing. And, and how is it? Like, so when a young girl, whether she wants to get education, or if, you know, someone in her family, or community realizes that she should get education, is that a challenge? For the families, to, I don’t know, for better, say talk to them into that? Like, do the families resist the girls going to the boarding schools? How does that work culturally? 

Juliet (20m 24s): 
Right. I think there are two issues that play in that question. One is ... Tanzania remains, I think economically, as one of the poorest countries in the world, and so, most Tanzanias are living on less than 2 US dollars per day. 

Monica (21m 5s): 
Wow.

Juliet (21m 5s): 
And so if you put that in perspective, why not? Cause probably around here that’s, like around $450 a year, something like $450-455 per year. To send one child to school in Tanzania is going to cost about 1,200 US Dollars. 

Monica (21m 19s): Wow. 

Juliet (21m 20s): 
So if you think about that difference between what the average person is living on and what it costs to send a child to school because there isn’t really a robust system of free public education in Tanzania at the primary level anyway. This is the primary level. 

Monica (21m 34s): 
Okay. 

Juliet (21m 35s): 
So, if, if, if  a family wants to send their child to school, they got to come up with $1,200 in tuition to do that. Most families in Tanzania are large. Maasai families are particularly large, most Maasai families are…. Yeah, I don’t know what the average is, but I would guess 7 to 8 children. 

Juliet (21m 55s): 
And so, if a family can make enough money together to send a child to school, it’s typically going to be the oldest male. And so, you began to see how, with these issues of deep poverty and the need to pay for school. How it becomes really impossible for a lot of children to go to school, and especially difficult for girls. And then that’s co founded in terms of the Maasai culture because girls are traded for cattle at puberty, and so maybe at 12-13 years old, they’re going through a coming-of-age ceremony where they are cut and then dean braided for marriage. And the guys will look up maybe 8-12 cattles for them. 

Juliet (22m 47s): 
And so, typically they don’t, they don’t know their husbands. And so you can see how it affects a lot of 12 year olds, you know, promised to marriage than continuing with schooling even if your family had the money to send you would be, would be quite difficult. And so there are several dramatic stories of women who ran away from forced marriages and showing up at school and begging for a place there. I think most Maasai girls recognized education as a pathway to, a pathway out of poverty, I guess it will be a way to say it and also a pathway and having a greater voice in their lives. 

Steve (23m 32s): 
Is there a different program to buy cows and trade them for the girls’ independence? 

Juliet (23m 37s): 
No, I have not heard that particular, that particular program among the Maasai. But that could be something that could be protested. 

Steve (23m 47s): 
Kind of logical. And I love that. 

Monica (23m 52s): 
So then if that’s sort of the cultural situation that these girls are growing up in. How are they coming to the school? Are they applying? Some are running away and showing up, but how do most of these girls arrive?

Juliet (24m 8s): 
I think that happens in many different ways. I think, I know I mentioned some girls who run away and show up there, I think, many show up with their mothers, so—

Monica (24m 18s): 
Interesting. 

Juliet (24m 20s): 
This is a very patriotic society, a very male dominated society and so fathers are really making these decisions around, these early marriages. But mothers might have different idea about that, and while they might not be able to, to publicly have that different idea, they certainly can take a girl to school. And so a lot of girls show up with their mothers. I think another way it happens is through primary schools. 

Juliet (24m 51s): 
So I did mention that primary schools, there is a robust system of free public education in, in primary school. So primary schools are really a way in which these girls also can identify it. So for example, a head master, a head mister at a primary school might say, “You know, I thought these Maasai girls and they’re really gifted and I would really like to find a place for them, and so a lot of referrals come in that way as well.” And then, you know, I think those head masters, head misters are position within community where they can have these conversations with parents. 

Juliet (25m 33s): 
Around. We. we really see there’s an opportunity here and I think increasingly parents are more, more inevitable to that as Maasai girls are going out and got educated and recognized they're remaining in the culture and that it is an aggressive issue with poverty for the family that they become more open, open to that opportunity. 

Monica (25m 59s): 
Oh that's a great point. So you can start to educate the families that by having a daughter going to school is not only going to raise the daughter’s, you know, promise future but really the family as a whole will have an opportunity because Steve’s point that’s interesting because either do you get push back from the fathers or the family because they quote losing out on this, you know, financial exchange, if you will, in the form of the cattle are they willing to give that up for the daughter to something that is a longer term vs. the short term gain, which we all know, it’s always the choice that people are having to decide in between.

Steve (26m 39s): 
That's a lot better solution the, the daughter, than buying the cow for the farm.

Juliet (26m 44s): 
Yeah, and there's this wonderful story of a young woman who’s a student of mine and her father was deeply opposed to her going to school, and it was through her mother that she ended up at school and was able to stay in school. And over the years, her father sort of stopped speaking with her and he was very angry. Ultimately this led to a rift between mom and dad that resulted in mom moving out of home because increasingly mom wanted an education for all of her children and not just this young woman. 

Juliet (27m 19s): 
The, the, I think beautiful part of the story is, at the end of his life, her dad called this former student of mine, and told her how proud he was of her and sort of put the families wellbeing in her hands, said, “I understand now that you had the economic power to help this family and I’m handing back to you now as.” He was in the process of dying, and I think that, almost universally these young women are sending their younger siblings to school, but once they get out and start earning wages, they’re definitely supporting their families in, in many ways. So I think that’s a very important piece of the equation in terms of how families began to understand what education means. It might not mean 10 cows this year, but over the course of the next decade it’s going to mean that there are more opportunities for our family that we wouldn’t otherwise have had. 

Monica (28m 30s): 
Right. So it could be 100s of cows.

Juliet (28m 32s): 
Right.

Monica (28m 32s): 
Later on if you will. How can we help? Like, what can we do? Or, you know, we, the greater we, the listeners, you know, Americans sitting here in our homes with electricity and running water. What’s the best thing if we’re interested in this? To help, is it purely giving money cause, you know, 12 hundred a year in tuition is not a small amount of money, but that’s obviously to Americans, you know, a much more doable, something to help. And you really, in my mind at least, the impact of that is like right there and sometimes you don't know when you’re giving 12 hundred dollars to somebody, you know, non-profit kind of what is going to, but if you knew that was educating a girl for a whole year that’s pretty incredible.  Are there sponsorships you can do? Like specifically. 

Juliet (29m 22): 
Right. So there’s a human space nonprofit called Operations Big Trust to Africa and this nonprofit was involved 25 years ago and the schools established in constructing this school and has provided scholarships to all students who attend this school. And so yes, absolutely, you can give a scholarship. It will, as we've been discussing, it will transform the life of a young woman, but even beyond that it will help lift her family out of poverty. So I think that;s a great thing that Americans can do from a distance. It's to support the work on the ground fair that Tanzanias are living in. 

Monica (30m 5s): 
That Operation Big Trust specifically goes to girls, any girls in Tanzania for scholarships, not just specifically your school. 

Juliet (30m 15s): 
They do have broader programs, so yes, it does it fact go to Maasai Girls School, but yes they have broader programs that other schools that and I mean I would say too, like I think they are probably many nonprofits out there that provides scholarships to young women all over the world. And I would say it doesn’t have to be my particular cause or my particular school. I would say, I am really all about empowering young women who are living on the margins in deep-poverty and places where they are exposed to violence. And I guess the other part I would cope with that is I’m always really careful to make sure that when I support women's cause, it really is being locally led than it is local people who are making these decisions. These are folks who are betting the culture in the best, how to drive these programs. 

Juliet (31m 11s): 
I think where it becomes problematic. This also has been 20 years of learning for me, but when we come as outsiders and we think we have the solution or the answer, that can be problematic, but when we support, advocate, become allies of those with the power, I think those are the most effective type of models for real change. 

Monica (31m 36s): 
Definitely. Tell me a little bit about where are you right now with the book. I know that it came out in 2019 and so obviously, COVID, I’m not sure if it was in the fall. But like, COVID hit and I talked about a lot of authors that had, you know, big book tours planned and, you know, everybody had to really shift their thinking and go virtual. Tell me, you know, how has that been this past year? As well as if there’s other places we can sort of engage with you and the book? In the future. 

Juliet (32m 7s): 
So I’m looking at in September 2019, so I had, you know, up until about March or April 2020 before events really started to get canceled, but I was sort of to look at it as a glass half full kind of situation because one of the things that it did allow forward is, in this virtual platform, I’ve been able to reach a lot of people that they might not have gotten in an airplane to go to Chicago. I can speak with people on Zoom very easily from my own home and so it’s been good to do that and to connect with people in that way. The book experience has been a little grassroots kind of journey into the world, I guess I would say when somebody hears about it and somebody else hears about it, so all that has been good.

Juliet (33m 4s): 
In our culture, things kind of have their moment and then they move on and then that moment gets shorter and shorter and for most folks, you know, the narrative, in fact is the first 3-4 months and then you sort of in the long tail of sales after that so that’s kind of where I am. I’m always on it to get to speak to different groups, specifically groups who are interested in women issues globally and so that’s an opportunity to do that, but certainly you can buy the book, Among the Maasai, at The Hill Hamlets right here in Serenbe. They are signed copies. So that’s one way. I mentioned early that all print sales are going back to support these programs in Tanzania. So that’s a very simple thing that you could do—-

Monica (33m 52s): 
Perfect. We will definitely put that link to The Hill Hamlets online and in store in the show notes for sure. One of the last things that I wanna ask is, we always ask, you know? What is one thing that you wanna share? Or you want somebody to know about Serenbe? Like if somebody was coming down, like what’s that thing that you would tell them that they might not see from the website or other things? 

Juliet (34m 18s): 
I think there are a couple of ways I would answer that. I think I would, the first thing I would say is to….. There is really something special about the community in Serenbe. One of the things that has been really wonderful about living in Serenbe is getting to know all the people here and there are extraordinary people here who have wonderful stories and that’s the great thing about this work that you’re doing with Serenbe Stories is to sort of unearthing exposing some of the stories that people who have been here, the work they’re doing worldwide. And so that’s one thing I would say is that the community is really amazing. 

Juliet (35m 7s): 
I think the other thing, and I just speak about the specialist of Serenbe. I’m not going to claim this idea as my own, but rather a tribute to Phill Tabb, who was my neighbor across the street and was one of the folks instrumental in planning this community. But he talks about the thin places that we used to—-these places where would stand a little bit closer to the secrete and I would say that there are those places in Serenbe, you know what I—--on the trails behind my house and honestly the birds and experiencing the nature that is around this place. I, that’s sort of what comes to my mind. That there are these thin places in Serenbe and that if we take time to listen and pause and notice that those places reveal themselves.

Steve (36m 1s): 
So you must meet Tim Phillab for his next book. 

Juliet (36m 7s): 
I know he is working on another book on—

Steve (36m 9s): 
And that is—-

Juliet (36m 11s): 
So you know, you know, we, authors, have to stick together.  

Steve (36m 14s): 
Well, well, since you are neighbors, and what you’ve been doing. 
Have you got great conversations from being around?

Juliet (36m 23s): 
Yeah, I haven’t unfortunately. I think we’ve been wanting to speak with one another like I know his red light book. If he wants to speak with me and then COVID and, you know, it just hasn't happened yet. But I have actually visited him, the headquarters for Heifer, and it’s in boulevard I believe. And so I have a t-shirt and everything, so yes, I would like to sit down and talk to him. 

Steve (36m 50): 
It’s so amazing and crazy to have these two people doing similar work on a global scale and who would knew, are both are in Serenbe and living in crossroads within a few miles from each other 

Monica (37m 0s): 
Yeah. Well, we’re actually interviewing him this afternoon. 

Monica (37m 8s): 
We’ll follow yours.

Juliet (37m 10s): 
You can tell him that I would really like to talk to him. 

Monica (37m 12s): 
I will let him know. Well, I was thinking about the cows and how we can figure out a way that—

Juliet (37m 17s): 
Right. Right. Well, and I’m certainly, you know,  to the point that we were talking about earlier about all of the wonderful amazing people who live in Serenbe and the amazing things they’ve done and the world. I think, the other great thing about Serenbe is that somebody has sort of this moment, “I have an idea,” like, “we could X,” whatever it is, and then like, the resources kind of come out of good work and it just happens and so yeah, if their ideas of how Serenbe are large by support the broader world, I am all about having those conversations. 

Monica (37m 52s): 
Wonderful. Well Juliet, thank you so much for being with us here today. It’s there any last things you wanna add that we haven't covered? Or? I’m super excited to get this out and share with everybody all the work that you’re doing

Juliet (38m 5s): 
No, I don't have—I think we covered the ground today, but yeah, thank you so much for having me and it's been fun to talk with you and to share my personal passion in the world to you listeners.

Monica (38m 18s): 
Well it's pretty amazing, thank you so much Juliet. 

Juliet (38m 21s): 
Thank you.

Steve (38m 22s): 
Thanks, have a good day. 

Monica (38m 27s): 
Thank you for listening to Serenbe Stories, new episodes are available on Mondays. Please subscribe and leave us a review and visit our website to learn more about guests, episodes, and everything Serenbe at serenbestories.com. This episode is supported by the Inn at Serenbe. Nestled in the rolling countryside of a bucolic Serenbe where guests can walk on the 15 miles of trails through preserved forest land, the wildflower meadow, and the animal village. Relax at the pool, hot tub, or in the rocking chairs on a wraparound porch. Play on the croquet lawn, grab a canoe, or jump on the Inn Ground trampoline. Connect with nature and each other all while staying in a luxurious space at the Inn at Serenbe. Book your stay today at serenbeinn.com. S-E-R-E-N-B-E-I-N-N.com.