UUSC Raffle Taps Wellspring with Winner Mary Russell, a Gifted Writer and Life-long Activist

When you donate $100 or more to UUSC before June 30, 2009, you will be entered in a raffle to win a spot on a JustJourney or JustWorks camp.

Mary Russell is the winner of UUSC's 2008 JustJourney raffle and one of eight participants who traveled to Kenya with UUSC on the first-ever JustJourney to Africa. This was a stroke of luck for UUSC, too, as Russell proved to be a gifted and insightful blogger and a dedicated advocate for the people of Kenya.

Last week, UUSC Editor Meredith Barges had the chance to sit down with Russell to find out how it felt to win the raffle and what she learned on her trip.

UUSC: How did you first hear about the JustJourney raffle?

Mary Russell: I had just moved back to Boston, and a friend told me about Rights Night [a UUSC event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights]. I thought the event sounded great, so I signed up. I was just drawn to that event. That night, I saw a sign about the raffle. To enter the raffle you had to join UUSC's e-mail list, so I went over and joined. Afterwards, I sent up a little prayer.

When did you find out that you had won the raffle?

I got an e-mail, and I just didn't believe it. I almost don't believe in e-mail, that you can get real communication that way. I literally didn't believe it, until I called UUSC and asked, "Did I really win?" The woman on the other end said, "Of course, you won." It took a while for it to settle into my head. I actually felt it was sort of a gift of the universe that I got it.

Read some of the inspiring blogs written by Mary Russell during her JustJourney to Kenya.

Did you know right away that you wanted to go on the JustJourney to Kenya?

My first thought was that I would go on the JustJourney to Ecuador. I have a master's in public health, and it's been my career, so I wanted to work on the hepatitis-A outbreak. Still, I was talking to friends about it, and then one of my friends said, "You know, it's not that hard to go to Latin America. It's pretty hard to go to Africa. You should go." I said, "Okay. Done."

Had you ever been to Kenya before?

No. Never.

Did you have any reservations about going?

The only pause I had about this trip was when I went to the CDC and the World Health Organization websites. You can get really sick in east Africa. I'm in public health and my public-health personality is such that if they say there are health threats, I believe there are health threats. But then I thought about it some more, and I thought, if this is about justice and if this is about being a partner, people who live there deal with these risks all the time. I started to realize what a privilege it was to worry about getting sick. And so I went to the point of saying, I can protect myself as well as I can, and I would like to meet the people of Kenya and see this project.

What were you most excited to see? To learn about?

I am very interested in political economy. I don't believe poverty happens by chance. I believe there are unspoken agendas being played out and that those agendas help to create poverty and continue it. If you just go to Kenya and you look around, [the extreme wealth disparity] doesn't make any sense. It's so skewed. But if you realize that you are looking at the ravages of colonialism, then it starts to make sense, and you start to understand that history is with us. We are not separate from it. Having been there makes me much more aware of colonialism's impact not just on people's lives there, but also on our minds, because we are the heirs of the oppressive mind. And it's our job to dig our way out of that.

In your blogs, you write a great deal about the overwhelming generosity and openness of our partners. Is this what stands out the most for you from your trip?

Definitely. I have a quote from a Kenyan woman that really puts this into perspective: "May g-d continue to bless you so that others may benefit from your assistance." That says everything. It acknowledges our blessings. It shows their generosity, that they want other people to be benefited. It shows our responsibility to continue to assist people, and not pull our hand back because the feelings can be difficult, because that is also a mental trap. And this was a woman who was displaced by post-election violence, who was living in a stadium with little assistance, who had lost her oldest daughter. She happened to meet the pastor who started the Kakamega Grassroots Initiative [a UUSC partner] while he was praying with a group for patience. Through this pastor, she got training on how to run a business. And it was money from UUSC that assisted her.

What role do you think Americans could play in supporting efforts by our Kenyan partners to work together to secure better rights?

For me, it's really learning more about U.S. foreign policy and trying to hold people accountable, because there is a lot of stuff done in our name that we would not be proud of. We have to believe we should speak truth to power and not worry about what kind of difference we will make. That is something that I think holds back organizing in this country. We have to act even when we don't know what the results will be and find a way to be okay with the not knowing.

What can we learn, as a society, from the efforts of our partners?

We can learn that working together can create amazing results, and we don't know what the results will be. You take one step, and you don't know what is going to happen next. And being with the fact that you've taken the step and reached out your hand is a place of potential wonder. And that is a spiritually rich place to be. I feel like I really learned that and saw that in action.

Would you recommend a JustJourney to someone else?

Totally. I've been so busy telling all of my friends, if you want to go someplace, go with UUSC.