Birmingham Church Marks Somber 48th Anniversary

By: Jay Reeves, Associated Press

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First responders remove a covered body from Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which was bombed on Sept. 15, 1963. (AP)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Members of an Alabama church that was bombed early in the civil rights movement observed the 48th anniversary of the attack Thursday by dedicating a stone marker at the site of the blast that killed four black girls.

Maxine McNair, the mother of one of the young victims at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, joined hands with others as a crowd sang "We Shall Overcome" at the dedication. Bells tolled, the girls' names were read out loud and a group of about 100 people went outside to view a stone tablet etched with the names of the victims and a Bible verse. The marker was erected along an outside wall at the spot where the powerful explosive was planted.

Church spokeswoman Carolyn McKinstry said tens of thousands of visitors stop each year at the church and often ask where the bomb was placed. The girls' deaths shocked the nation and came to symbolize the depth of racial animosities in the South at the time of the nascent civil rights movement of the 1960s.

"Not a day goes by that we don't have people coming by to ask," said McKinstry, a childhood friend of the slain girls.

The bomb went off just before a Sunday morning worship service on Sept. 15, 1963, killing Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair. Two more black youths, Virgil Ware and Johnny Robinson, were shot to death later that day in violence that ensued.

The bombing occurred during a period when civil rights demonstrators were trying to end legalized racial segregation in Birmingham's schools and other public areas. Three members of the Ku Klux Klan were convicted years later in the bombing, and one remains imprisoned.

At a ceremony in the sanctuary attended by about 100 people, the church bell tolled as Rev. Arthur Price read the names of the victims.

"Just as 9/11 has become a day of remembrance for our nation ... the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church reminds us of the state of emergency that our nation was in in 1963," Price told those gathered for the dedication.

The church is located across the street from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and draws many interested in the history of the civil rights era.

With the approach of the 50th anniversary of civil rights protests that saw authorities unleash fire hoses and police dogs on black youths marching for equal rights, the city has installed signs along a downtown Birmingham walking tour that include photographs taken during the demonstrations, some of which were led by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"There is just a fascination with all the things that took place in Birmingham," McKinstry said.

Two troubled lives, one fatal encounter

By Christian Boone 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The gangly 13-year-old had accompanied “Toxxxin” into the woods on the sticky July 4 afternoon to buy a couple of cigarettes, police say.

Toxxxin, whose real name is Troy Westberry, emerged from those woods about an hour later, alone, sporting a bloody scratch on his arm.

“Want to ride bikes?” Westberry, 16, inquired of a younger boy from the same central DeKalb County neighborhood. When asked by the boy, who authorities aren’t identifying, what had happened to the other teen seen following him into the woods, Westberry didn’t hesitate.

“He’s in the woods, bleeding,” he told the boy, according to court testimony.

“His eyes are wide open. I just killed him.”

Jason Getz, jgetz@ajc.comKeisha Langhorne is shown with photographs of her late son Marquis Overstreet in her home.

The killing of a teen is, tragically, not unusual. But Marquis Overstreet’s death was particularly brutal. What could’ve driven someone to stab a 13-year-old 23 times and shoot him twice? Police aren’t talking, but those who know the accused teenager say he was increasingly troubled and often entertained malevolent fantasies. Westberry, through his attorney, said he acted in self-defense.

“Another young black boy found dead,” wrote Miller Grove Middle School teacher Roger Poole in a letter sent to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution days after Overstreet’s body was discovered in a dry creek bed off Biffle Downs Road in unincorporated Stone Mountain. “No headlines, no NAACP rallies, no community outrage.”

And no easy answers.

Neither the victim or his accused killer were strangers to trouble. Overstreet and Westberry each had criminal records. Both attended DeKalb Alternative School, sent there after being expelled from their home schools. Neither lived with their birth fathers.

But there were differences.

Though Overstreet, outgoing and playful, seemed to embrace the thug life, getting a pair of tattoos and lying to friends that his father was rapper Lil Wayne, his fate had not yet been cast, say those who knew him.

Westberry, more sullen, seemed lost in darkness, teachers said. His interests, according to his Facebook page? “Death, murder, sex, drugs, torture, sluts, hatred, cadavers, maggots, disection (sic), your girl, your Moms, your Death.”

“Troy was already gone,” said “Preacher” Bennie Foster, who works with troubled kids in metro Atlanta. Westberry was enrolled in an anger management class Foster taught last school year at DeKalb Alternative. “He kept alluding to murder, to Satanic stuff, to perversion.”

Overstreet “was a bright young man,” said Foster, who was mentoring the 13-year-old. “He was getting better.”

But he was still defiant — “scared of no one,” said his mother, Keisha Langhorne.

“I’d tell him, Marquis, there’s always someone bigger and badder than you out there,” Langhorne, 39, said.

She last saw him June 23. He had run away from home after his mother wouldn’t allow him to visit his girlfriend.

On July 10, police arrested and charged Westberry with felony murder in Overstreet’s death. He will be tried as an adult.

‘Something bad 
is about to happen’

Just a few weeks before Overstreet died, he had marveled at the sight of a gaggle of geese settling in the front yard of his family’s Stone Mountain home.

“It was strange,” his mother recalled. “We had never seen that before in all the years we lived here.”

When the geese returned, the teen was shaken.

“Something bad is about to happen,” he told his mother.

Langhorne said she finds herself parsing many of her son’s statements now that he’s gone. Perhaps he really did see death knocking. Maybe he was into something he shouldn’t have been.

There was some hope, at least. Though Overstreet was a challenge, his potential enticed would-be saviors.

“He was a leader but he didn’t lead the way he should,” said Roger Poole, who taught Overstreet at Miller Grove Middle School.

In tandem with Langhorne, the language arts instructor worked overtime to reach the sixth-grader, even transferring him into a class with high achievers. Overstreet was capable of doing the work, but often wouldn’t, his teacher said.

“He could not see that the streets and gang activity had no place in the life for a black young man who aspired to become a productive citizen,” Poole said. “He could not see that the teachers around him cared about him as a person and as a young black man. He could not see that his mother was doing all she could to move him forward and keep him out of harm’s way.”

Efforts to get him involved in extracurricular activities were also futile. Despite being one of the taller kids in his class, Overstreet didn’t want to play basketball.

“That was his father’s sport,” Langhorne said.

Overstreet spoke of his dad often, telling Poole his father didn’t love him.

“I want you to care about you,” his teacher responded. Overstreet broke down in tears. It was the only time Poole saw the boy cry.

“He loved his father,” Langhorne said. “He just wanted more.”

The first time Foster met Overstreet, the 13-year-old refused to get out of his mother’s car. Langhorne had heard about Foster’s work with troubled kids and insisted her son enlist in the former public school teacher’s “boot camp” this past spring. She was determined to get tough.

A few weeks earlier, Overstreet was sent to a group home after a fight over cellphone usage led him to punch his mother in the face, violating probation for a marijuana offense.

“I wasn’t going to give up on him,” Langhorne said.

Foster said they began letting down his guard and, until his death, he was becoming increasingly active in the preacher’s after-school program.

“This was a kid who had made some mistakes, big mistakes, and he had a lot to learn,” Foster said. “But I saw something there. When you work with kids, you just know. From that first time I met him to the last, I could definitely see a change.”

Westberry, whose family members did not respond to requests for comment, was a different story.

Son of a killer

Troy Westberry was 5 when his father was sentenced to 60 years in a Connecticut prison for fatally shooting a man as he slept inside his car in Hartford. The victim, Anthony Benefield Jr., had just celebrated his 24th birthday.

According to a 2006 story in the Hartford Courant, Westberry’s father was making the best of his time in prison, participating in a “high-tech rehabilitation” program. Inmates are taught computer skills, learning how to repair old computers that are then donated to the needy.

“I have to show my kids that, even though I’m in jail, I’m still learning,” Westberry told the paper. “That is the kind of example I want to set.”

Reggie Hatchett, a friend of Westberry’s father growing up and now athletic director for the Hartford Boys and Girls Club, recently reached out to the namesake via Facebook.

“He [Westberry Jr.] seemed to be more of an introvert,” said Hatchett, recalling the elder Westberry’s prowess on the basketball court. “He told me he didn’t play sports, didn’t play basketball.”

“He didn’t seem to have much in common with his father,” he said.

Foster taught an anger management class in the alternative school that Westberry attended. During that class, Foster asked the 16-year-old, who was sent to the school because he stabbed another student with a pencil, what he would’ve changed to avoid the trouble that landed him in the program.

“I would’ve ripped off his head and stuck pencils in his eyes,” was the teen’s response, according to the instructor.

Dark reputation

Westberry was known for his goth persona. Classmates would egg him on, Foster told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, knowing he recognized few boundaries. Another DeKalb Alternative teacher told him of a story Westberry had written once about having sex with a corpse.

Music provided an outlet for his rage. Westberry boasted his songs were “the most brutal and bloody music you’ll ever hear before you die.” He was a prolific writer, with tunes like “Demonic Warfare” and “Raped by Zombies.” He even sold T-shirts featuring his name with lurid illustrations.

When Foster first read the name of Overstreet’s alleged killer, he didn’t make the connection.

Then, on July 26, at Westberry’s probable cause hearing, Foster came face-to-face with his former charge.

“I saw him and I remembered,” he said. “That was Toxxxin.”

Westberry, catching the glance of his former teacher, responded with a wink and a smile, Foster said.

Langhorne had dreaded that hearing, knowing she would be in the same room with her son’s alleged killer.

“I didn’t see what I thought I was going to see,” she said. “I didn’t see evil. I saw a kid who needed help.”

Police searching the teen’s room said they found a mummified rodent under his bed, DeKalb County Police Det. Bruce Brueggeman testified at the hearing. The teen was arrested after police located two knives and a gun hidden inside a guitar case, along with a watch and bracelet belonging to Overstreet.

Investigators zeroed in on Westberry after the younger boy to whom he had allegedly confessed came forward. The boy did so reluctantly, at his grandmother’s prodding. 
Her grandson remains “scared to death” of Westberry, she said.

Westberry told police he had offered to sell Overstreet cigarettes and the two walked into the woods to complete the transaction. That’s when Overstreet pulled a gun, according to Westberry, who said he wrestled it away before exacting his revenge.

The results of ballistics tests that might corroborate Westberry’s story have not been released.

“Our defense is self-defense,” said Westberry’s attorney, Gina Bernard, at the hearing. She has declined further comment.

Langhorne, meanwhile, plans to continue talking about her son’s death, hoping to keep other youths from following in his footsteps.

If only there had been more time, she said, her son would’ve overcome his demons. She produces a journal he kept last fall while incarcerated at the DeKalb Youth Detention Center on the charge of marijuana possession with intent to distribute.

“I want to marry [my 13-year-old girlfriend] someday,” he wrote. “When I go home I will be more respectful to my mother. I love her.

“I have faith and believe in God [that] on the 15th of November 2010 I’m going home to be with my family, future wife and do the right thing.”

--------------------

How we got the story

The circumstances were alarming enough. A 13-year-old runaway, stabbed 23 times and shot by a 
16-year-old. How did the victim and his alleged killer get here?

The AJC spoke with family members, teachers and others who knew the two youths. Both had their troubles, but the deeper we dug we learned the victim was trying to mend his ways. He had vast potential and a mother who wasn’t going to give up on him.

His alleged killer, meanwhile, seemingly was lost and had become something of an outcast, losing himself in a depraved fantasy world. But still, just a kid. As the victim’s mother told the AJC of seeing her son’s accused killer for the first time, “I didn’t see evil. I saw a kid who needed help.”

The Fallen Legacy of Black Supermodels

Some young faces of color are fighting their way back onto the catwalk

There was a whisper echoing throughout New York Fashion Week last February, and it didn't have anything to do with Karl Lagerfeld's finale look. Though rich with inspiration and creativity, there was something missing from the catwalk: a strong showing of black models.

Cited in the media as the "whitest" Fashion Week since 2008, the week-long event at Lincoln Center provided a catwalk for over 5,000 looks, of which only seven percent were modeled by black women. While there may be strength in numbers, there are a cache of black models who are quickly becoming some of the industry's most sought after talent. They're inking multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, gracing the pages of high fashion magazines and flying to Paris, London and Milan to walk in the most highly anticipated shows. With the supermodel era nearly two decades in the past, whether their careers will reach the status of Tyra and Naomi's before them is uncertain. Still, many are striving for just that, hoping that if they get there, their face won't be the only brown one at the top.

Among these models is Atong Arjok. Born in Sudan and raised in San Diego, Arjok found herself at an open call for aspiring models in 2002 after she and her cousin heard an advertisement for the event on the radio. Her inimitable look piqued the interest of scouts and within weeks Arjok was signed to LA Models and off to New York to start working.

"That was a shocker," she says of the speed at which here career started to develop. "I was 17 and had never been on my own. My family was very supportive, but they were terrified." Arjok got work quickly, walking in shows for Diane von Furstenberg and 3.1 Phillip Lim and appearing in spreads for Allure and Italian Vogue. With so few models of color on the scene, she was soon in high demand and often being compared to another Sudanese beauty.

"There weren't that many people who looked like me," she says. "It was just me and Alek Wek." But while Wek emerged as an industry "it" girl and Arjok consistently booked print and runway jobs, it was clear that their experiences were the exception and not the rule; they rarely shared the limelight with other models of color.

"This is not an equal opportunity type of business and I really don't know why," Arjok says. "After Italian Vogue I thought it would get better, but it really hasn't," she notes, referencing the now infamous July 2008 issue that featured all black models.

But three years later, the lack of diversity in the industry is still clear. Still, the competition faced by women of color doesn't always come from fellow models.

"All of the big jobs are going to celebrities," Arjok says, adding that society's increased interest in Hollywood doesn't leave much room for models to reach the same level of success that there predecessors did in the early 90s. "I think we kind of lost that," she says of the notoriety models of the past once enjoyed.

April Smith, an account manager for L'Oreal, says the shift is especially visible in big-name advertising campaigns.

"Brands see using a celebrity as a way to boost their legacy," Smith says, noting that big-name entertainers already have a following that brands are eager to market to. "It's much more difficult to come in when you're a model who's relatively unknown.”

Though an increase in celebrity-endorsed campaigns has made it more difficult for models to carve out their niche, Smith says the commercial market is a great place for women of color to get recognized. "It's important for brands to communicate an appreciation for diversity," she says.

As models like Chanel Iman, Jessica White and Selita Ebanks remain fixtures in high fashion, a handful of young women are inching their way to the top.

"Ubah Hassan (pictured above right) is really making a lot of treadmarks," Smith says of the Somali-born model who was the face of Ralph Lauren in 2008 and recently appeared in a Macy's campaign. "And Liya Kebede has been trailblazing these past few months." In June, Kebede became the newest faces of L'Oreal Paris, the same month Arlenis Sosa's (pictured above left) Lancome campaign appeared. Strides like these are good news to Arjok, who recently went to work in Paris.

"My career has been an amazing," she says, "but I hope they'll be a day when I can walk in shows and never be the only black girl there.

Certain foods could reduce prostate cancer risk

By Karina Christopher — Special to the Herald-Leader

Men who eat a diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans could have a lower risk of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, and Kentucky reported 14,076 cases from 2004 to 2008. Risk factors for prostate cancer include age, ethnicity and family history.

About 62 percent of all cases occur in men older than 65, and African-American men are more likely than other men to develop the disease.

However, some lifestyle factors can modify the risk of developing prostate cancer, such as maintaining a healthy weight and including physical activity into your daily routine.

Some scientific studies are investigating the probability that including specific foods in a diet could help protect men from developing prostate cancer. Other foods might increase the risks.

Here are some recommendations:

Tomatoes and red fruits: Tomatoes (and some other red or reddish fruits, including papaya, apricots and pink grapefruit), get their red hue from a carotenoid called lycopene. Lycopene has been shown in several studies to act as an antioxidant. The best source of lycopene is tomatoes. The American Institute for Cancer Research recommends eating tomatoes that have been cooked, because lycopene is absorbed better when it has been processed.

Pomegranate fruit and juice: Pomegranates are high in a phytochemical called ellagic acid. Research suggests that ellagic acid might slow the growth of some tumors. Pomegranates also have been found to reduce prostate- specific antigens in patients who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Selenium: Selenium is a naturally occurring trace mineral found in Brazil nuts and oatmeal. Selenium might decrease the risk of developing prostate cancer; however, studies have been inconsistent. At this time, experts do not recommend any selenium supplements.

Vitamin D: Vitamin D is often called the "sunshine vitamin" because most people acquire it naturally with about 15 minutes of direct sunlight daily. Vitamin D has been suggested to decrease the risk of several cancers, including prostate cancer. Food sources of Vitamin D include salmon, mackerel and tuna, and fortified dairy foods.

High fat intake: A diet high in fat over a long time will increase the risk of prostate cancer. Fats from animal sources tend to have the highest influence on prostate cancer risk. Eat lean meats such as poultry and fish more often to reduce risk.

Calcium and dairy: The National Cancer Institute states that diets high in dairy foods and calcium might slightly increase the risk of developing prostate cancer. Men who consume the recommended 2 to 3 servings of low-fat dairy foods a day seem to be safe, because calcium in these foods has many other health benefits.

Karina Christopher is a registered dietitian at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center and runs the Markey Menu blog for UK HealthCare.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/09/11/1877723/certain-foods-could-reduce-prostate.html#ixzz1XgNofsD3

Greatest Person: Margo McAuliffe Tackles Geometry in Kenya

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The retired Menlo Park teacher has just returned from her eighth summer volunteering to teach math and much more at a school she raised the money to build.


Reentry has never been easy for Margo McAuliffe, and this one has been no different, after her eighth summer at the high school for girls in Africa that the retired teacher raised more than $1 million to build. 

Three days after arriving home in Menlo Park, McAuliffe is feeling the flood of happy memories about the eager students in her math classes at St. Francis Xavier Secondary School for Girls in Kenya’s Naivasha District, the festive wedding of the deputy principal and haggling at the colorful Maasai Market in Nairobi. That's mixed with sadness and exhaustion that’s set in after the long trip home. 

“My body is here... but my heart and head are still there,” said a tired McAuliffe. “I walked in the house... it was like I had never left... It's very strange. I feel the same way when I get to my little place at the orphanage. It is like I live parallel lives.”

Indeed she does.    

McAuliffe marvels still at how much the experience in Kenya has changed her since 2003 when she retired from her job as a math teacher at Menlo-Atherton High School and was looking for a way to put her time and talents to good work.

She had confided to friends that she hoped one day to teach math to girls in Africa; and not long after, one of them told her she knew a priest in Kenya who ran a school there and might need some help.

A quick email to Father Daniel Kiriti snagged her an invite to visit the town of Naivasha to teach in his Catholic parish co-ed high school. Soon she was on a flight to Africa.

During her stay, Father Kiriti mentioned that the girls would be phased out of the school for lack of funding, but he pointed out that the community had donated a plot of land to build a new high school for girls. All they needed, he said, was the money to construct the facility. It was a tall order by any stretch of the imagination. 

“I realized I needed to go home to raise money for this school,” the modest McAuliffe recalled during a Kenyan cooking class at Draeger'sin San Mateo.

Though she had never raised a cent before, the gray-haired teacher with a low-key personality and a winning smile set up a non-profit foundation called Kenya Help, and raised more than $900,000. McAuliffe did it one step at a time by enlisting friends and holding lots of small fundraisers in and around Menlo Park, the Peninsula and Silicon Valley.  Some of them are chats, while others are a bit more creative like the cooking class.

“We would not have our school without Margo. She was our angel,” Father Kiriti said at the Draeger's fundraiser.

McAuliffe arrived this summer just in time for the graduation of the second class of 32 girls from St. Francis Xavier Secondary School for Girls. The first class of 17 girls graduated in November from the school, which has eight classrooms, two science labs, two dorms, a library, sports courts, computer lab.

Her generous nature and passion have not gone unnoticed. In March, McAuliffe was invited to speak at a TEDx conference in San Jose about her adventures as a volunteer in Kenya.

She also inspired Riley Murtagh, who visited the school last summer with his grandmother, Anita Dippery, to make a mini documentarythat has already generated a few thousand dollars in donations.

"It was awesome," said Murtagh, who is a senior at Foothill High School in Pleasanton.

"It gave me helpful insights. I took away that I - we - need to appreciate the education that we have here."  

For her many local friends and followers, McAuliffe sent out a blog-style note each week from an Internet café, which you can read on Menlo Park Patch. She chronicles her packed days and nights at the school, and shares colorful stories of her travels to Nairobi’s raucous markets. 

“Despite famine in the north, continued reports of graft and corruption (though the government is slowly addressing those issues), poverty, unemployment, alcohol and drug addiction, drought in some areas, flooding in others, power outages, sugar shortage (a big problem here---Kenyans love their sugar), bad roads and on and on, I see so much progress, so much life, hope, courage and love,” she wrote in her last summer blog post before departing Nairobi for California. “This country is making great strides and I am so privileged to be part of it.”

McAuliffe rattled off a host of good work being done by other good people in Kenya, people who have become her friends over the years. There’s St. Therese Development Center, a safe house for abused children; Life Beads of Kenya, a workshop run by her friend Minalyn Nicklin, who trains and employs HIV positive people; Helping Hands, a nursery school that welcomes children with disabilities; St. Cecilia’s school and the district hospital for maternity and other women’s needs managed by Cindy Berkland, an American nurse, in conjunction with Panda Flowers in Naivasha, among many others. The needs are endless.

McAuliffe always plays down her role in this world of helpful hands, pointing instead to the good deeds of others who are making a difference in big ways and small in a troubled African country.

But her friends make sure to give the modest McAuliffe credit where credit is due.

“I started out with one little step… and all of a sudden… it moved like a wave," said Anita Dippery, a friend of McAuliffe and a fellow teacher who has become a big supporter over the years. She is a member of the board of KenyaHelp, travels there often, and has been instrumental in raising at least $40,000 for the organization. This year the Menlo Park resident enlisted friends she calls her “knitting elves,” to make a suitcase full of knit scarves for the school’s students, teachers and staff, which were delivered.

Donations have come in the form of local money and muscle. The Kenya Help website was designed by Gail Blumberg, a professional designer in Menlo Park. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a leading Silicon Valley law firm with offices in Palo Alto, did the foundation’s 501(c)(3) application, pro bono. A group of middle school basketball players in Menlo Park coached by Menlo Park resident Rebecca Bloom decided to do a hoop-a-thon, which raised more than $30,000. 

McAuliffe herself schlepped an overhead projector, 32 graphing calculators and an overhead presentation pad to Kenya after Texas Instruments donated them. She plans to offer the first ever graphing calculator workshop at the school at the end of July. 

McAuliffe has returned to Kenya each summer for the past seven years to teach math at both Ndingi and St. Francis Girls schools.
“It is transformational," she said, "Our girls want to be engineers and doctors."

All of the first 17 recent graduates passed the national exams and 14 of them scored at a level that qualifies them for entrance to public and private universities. 

“The performance of these young women heralds a remarkable achievement for this brand new secondary school,” McAuliffe wrote in one blog. 

While they are hopeful about their graduates, McAuliffe and Father Kiriti acknowledged that the girls’ options are still limited. Because university slots are few and coveted, some of the girls will have limited choices after high school. 

A jovial man with a hearty laugh who was born in Kenya, Father Kiriti also has ties to the Peninsula and Silicon Valley. He received a master's degree in pastoral ministry from Santa Clara University. Over the years he has returned most years to the Bay Area to help McAuliffe raise money. Father Kiriti worked in youth ministry and as a missionary in several parts of Africa before he was assigned to parish work in the Naivasha District, where St. Francis Xavier school is located.

“I dreamed of a school for the poor and bright girls to build their self-confidence and instill a sense of owning their destiny,” Father Kiriti said.

The summer is a busy time at the school. McAuliffe stays at the Mji Wa Neemai orphanage, sometimes tutoring the students who are preparing for national exams. She takes the kids and buys them shoes to replace the last pair they received two years ago. Much of much of her time is spent teaching math, including 3-D geometry, and working side by side with Jecinta, the principal of SFG. She also checks up on Jecinta’s adopted daughter, who is also named Jecinta, and looks for other orphans the group can support.

In the evening, there are study hours and weekly math contests. Some days there are picnics on the school grounds when they’ll feast on fried chicken, spaghetti and greens.

The volunteer work clearly fuels McAuliffe’s spirit; she takes on more ambitious projects each year, which she seeks help for from her eager friends and colleagues.

After construction of the school was completed, McAuliffe focused on raising funds to obtain a solar/wind system to generate electricity, so the school can be self-sustaining. A year or so later, the power is flowing through the school, enabling them to save the money that they would have used to pay for electricity.

Now that she's back, McAuliffe will see her son and grandchildren in Palo Alto and visit her daughter and grandkids in San Diego, and then turn to organizing a whirlwind schedule of masses, fundraisers and talks for Fr. Kiriti's annual visit to the Bay Area. He’ll be here in November. In between she tutors lots of students in math.

Then the unassuming powerhouse will be back on the coffee circuit, sharing compelling stories of a faraway school and the promising young Kenyan girls it serves. No doubt, she'll follow her chat with a simple request for help.

Building the scholarship fund is the foundation’s key objective now, so more girls can attend the school and go on to university studies. It costs about $5000 a year for each one. They also want to drill a borehole so they won’t have to buy water anymore. “I think it could cost $10,000-$15,000,” McAuliffe said.

There are also scholarships for the girls whose parents can’t afford the $650 year for high school tuition, and for boys to attend the boys high school. This year a new need was identified: some of the girls desperately needed glasses, McAuliffe discovered, and now she hopes to establish a fund for those whose families can't afford the $40 it costs for glasses. Down the road she dreams of building housing for teachers so they can live on the school grounds.

It’s been challenging to raise awareness about the little Kenyan school, said Dippery, but they’ve attracted many unsung heroes who have helped along the way.

“It’s been one of those moments of grace in my life," she said, “and Margo inspired us to come and get on board.”

Black opera stars shine in new South Africa

By Justine Gerardy (AFP) – 20 hours ago  

CAPE TOWN — World champion soprano Pretty Yende never knew opera existed until a soaring score of an airline commercial came over the television in her South African black township home 10 years ago.

The flash of 19th-century French composer Leo Delibes' classic "Flower Duet" from his opera "Lakme" so moved the teenager growing up without librettas and arias that she asked a high school teacher the next day what the music was.

"He told me it's called opera," recalled Yende, now a resident at Milan's renowned La Scala a decade after telling her teacher: "I need to do that."

From Thandukukhanya in eastern South Africa to northern Italy, the 26-year-old was recently handed joint top honour in the Operalia world opera competition founded by Spanish maestro Placido Domingo.

"All I wanted to do was to sing. All I wanted to do was to know how to sing," Yende told AFP. "Even now, all I want to do is to sing well."

South African black opera voices have burst onto the international stage, mirroring the country's shift to democracy, decades after white Afrikaner soprano Mimi Coertse debuted at the Vienna State Opera in 1956.

Experts say their rise is no sudden outpouring of new talent but rather that all-race freedom in 1994 levelled the playing field to allow those with remarkable gifts who were stifled under apartheid to enter the game.

"At the moment our best singers are black," said Virginia Davids, head of vocal studies at the South African College of Music based at the University of Cape Town.

South Africans can be found from Tel Aviv to London, with soprano Pumeza Matshikiza performing at Monaco's royal wedding-- where the principality's Prince Albert II married South African Charlene Wittstock in July -- and Sweden-based Dimande Nkosazana taking first prize in a competition in Italy.

"Formerly. people were not even allowed on the stage and that's why it looks as if there is a huge upsurge. But what it is is that suddenly things opened up and people started realising they could make careers," said Davids.

"These singers have always been there but they have always been ignored. It's a pity because a lot of wonderful talent has gone missing in the process because of the situation that we had in this country," she added.

But local singers are forced to seek international stages, since Cape Town Opera is the only full time troupe in the country and probably the entire African continent with regular productions locally and tours abroad.

"It's sad...simply because there aren't enough opera companies in South Africa to sustain the employment. Really to make a living as an opera singer you need to go to Europe or to the States," said the opera's financial manager Elise Brunelle.

South Africa's past has also inspired local composers who have shaped operas around real-life divas like former president Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, or revamped classics like Bizet's "Carmen" into a gritty shanty town setting.

"There's so much history and there are so many people here whose lives and whose stories are perfectly suited to the operatic form," said Brunelle, adding that foreign audiences also respond well to the local stories.

"These are stories and people that can be understood in a worldwide context."

The students often come from impoverished backgrounds and, unlike their European counterparts, did not grow up with pianos and violins.

"The voice is the only instrument they have -- the only way of making music," said Davids who was one of South Africa's first non-white opera singers.

She laments the lack of local stages and the talent drain as gifted South Africans head overseas, but hails her opera students here.

"They are very focused and they know this is what I want to do. They are willing to put in the time," Davids said.

The aptitude for an art regarded as elitist "Old Europe" in South Africa -- where it is not unknown for an informal car guard to break into an aria -- also does not surprise soprano Yende. She says she is most at peace when singing and views the stage as home.

"We are a singing nation. We are born with a beat. We cry, we sing. We laugh, we sing. We're sad, we sing. We lose, we sing. We win, we sing," Yende said.

"So song has been part of us from a long long time."