Margot’s Dream
The first time I saw Margot she was dancing in Jacks Café to the sounds of Margen De Error: Todos Estamos Dentro. I stood in the dark corner by the entry-way watching the free-spirited tribal movements of this beautiful petite woman as the drums beat in rhythm and the colored lights and projected images danced across the white linen sheets swaying behind the band. The eclectic sounds of instruments and trance like Spanish voices engulfed me in deep thought. I left the café that night walking down the dimly lit cobblestone street pondering why some people are so free to be themselves and dance in their surroundings and others are just teetering on how to begin, trying to figure out how to get out there and embrace who they are and just freely move. The next day when I actually met Margot she was dancing again, but this time we were in Pastor Benjamin’s church where we clapped and moved our feet in joy to the blaring Spanish music pouring out of the speakers behind where we stood. The wailing women’s voices filled the room as praises echoed forth to the Lord. After the service was over I found out that Margot and a team of 30 people were in Panajachel, Guatemala participating in the Global Challenge, a very similar program to the World Race. Even more interesting is that at one point the World Race and the Global Challenge were one and the same.
So we decided to combine efforts once again and serve alongside them the next day by helping them to build classrooms at a local primary school. Margot and I sat on the sidewalk taking a break from the strenuous shoveling and sifting of rocks, as we had just finished making cement for the new section of the school just minutes before. As we talked I asked her many questions about Cape Town, South Africa, where she is from and I began to tell her about how I was planning to get dreads when I arrived in South Africa in December. She quickly informed me that she knew how to make dreads and next thing I knew she was sharing her story with me as she began a process of knotting, teasing, twisting and rolling my hair. 
Margot has an incredible passion and dream to start an orphanage in Malawi. She started sharing with me about her first trip to Malawi and how compassion for the children their flooded her heart. Her dream is big as she envisions a large property with a school, an orphanage, a lodge, a huge vegetable garden and a medical clinic. The garden would be used to teach the children how to utilize the land for food and thus teach them how to prepare and create delicious meals from the earth. The gardening process would instill in them a sense of patience, tender care, empowerment and life sustaining knowledge. There is more to this reverie than I am able to capture here in words, because it still lies a little out of focus in Margot’s imagination.
During our discussion you could see the unbridled passion in her eyes but that somehow things such as life and career had gotten in the way of this dream being fulfilled. I thought how could this free-spirited dancer I saw in Jack’s Café, moving with such a lack of inhibition and a presence with confidence be teetering on how to step out and begin this dream. But, I believe that by the end of our conversations here in Guatemala that the embers were stirred up and flames began to burn again even deeper this time with a new sense of urgency, inspiration and empowerment to accomplish this dream.
You see Margot started the dreads in my hair symbolic of her stepping out in faith with an entrepreneurial spirit and igniting her vision. She began the tedious process of patiently maneuvering my hair into place, creating art as she passionately spoke of her dream. That day at the school she only completed 12 of the dreads in my hair and one day she will see the artwork of the tangles that she began when I see her dream lived out. One day I am going to visit Margot in Malawi and see this reality that was once just a glimmer in her eye. 
