Running a Hospital in Africa After USAID Cuts | Chrystina Russell

[0:00]  I do think of one of the reasons we're losing a lot of good teachers and this is a grant that 10 years ago Google tried to get off the ground and they couldn't and they just said teachers would be better if they liked coming [music] to work. If we could think about how do you make a pleasant workplace [music] for a teacher? You know, they would perform better. They would burn out less. they wouldn't just say like, "Okay, I'm getting into my CL or where or as you said, you know, some of some teachers that do [music] just kind of like like burn out or stop caring or whatever it may be." So, um, they couldn't really get it off the ground and probably I don't know. I don't know what your experience was teaching, but I guess the last thing I'll say about the system is I never [music] met any kid or parent from any walk of life that was harder than what the administration was, right? It's just like everything was so hard and I was young when I became a principal. I was in my 20s still and and in many ways had no business probably [music] being a principal but I knew one thing I just wasn't going to do it how I had been principled, right? Like I was going to teach people to respect. I was going to get resources. So, so I do think I think probably of the two between our individual choices and the system choices. I think the system and everything we are and aren't doing is probably like really producing this either leaving the field or keeping people that are just a little bit dead inside from everything they've been going through. [music] [music] Welcome back to the episode here on the Hard Hosle podcast. Our next guest all the way from Christina, where you located? Let them know where you're you're not even in the States today.

[1:53]  I'm not. I'm coming to you from the beautiful Kigutu Bundi in central East Africa.

[1:59]  Oh my god. Waking up to just a beautiful scenery every morning. What does it look like over there? Um, I'm lucky enough that where I work at Village Health Works, um, beauty is a big focus of the leader here. And so I like to call it a botanical garden, literally. Um, flowers, sunshine, birds, very different from where I grew up in Michigan. Um, yeah, very, very [clears throat] beautiful here all year round.

[2:26]  And you guys, complete opposite weather around this time, isn't it? You guys are dealing with summer over there now, or what are you guys dealing with? Yeah, I mean it's an equatorial country, so it's pretty much summer with maybe a rainy summer or a drier season summer. Um, you know, the thing that I have at in common with at home is that this is called the Great Lakes region. I was born and raised in Michigan, which is the Great Lakes region of the US. And so um where I'm working is um within view and we have a beautiful view of Lake Tangana. So, um, the Great Lakes do tie me together, but the weather absolutely completely different and I would choose the Burundi weather any day.

[3:07]  I love that. And what get you over there? What, like, is it the organization you're a part of? Let people know why are you over there? You're not just there on some leisure.

[3:14]  I am not. Um, yeah, I'm working as the chief strategy and development officer here at Village Healthworks. So, it means um, this year is our 20 year anniversary. So, it's really my job this year to celebrate all of the progress that our leader has made, the organization has made, and also strategically start to think about the next 20 years and how we make sure that we're staying around. Uh, my first trip to Burundi was in 2013. I was living and working in Rwanda and came down because everybody told me that this city on the lake, Bjamin Bora, is where you go to have fun. And the first time that I came here, I just loved it. and I looked at a friend and I said I'm going to work here one day. Um and so it took about 10 years later um but had the opportunity to work for Deo Gratias Noniza who is Bundian born and raised in this very place that I'm coming to you from and has set up an incredible organization village health works that is focusing on uh community health. There's now a hospital school. There's a secondary school, boarding school here, primary school, and also community economic empowerment. Um, so I'm over here meeting so many incredible people, doctors, teachers, parents, community members, um, and doing my best to use those stories to fuel getting the resources into the door that we need to keep going.

[4:38]  What a what a a story to tell. Like, but I can imagine you didn't just start here. There was something that maybe triggered this, right? You were in the education space. Uh, principal, is that correct?

[4:51]  Yeah, that's right. Well, I started as a bilingual special education teacher in the Bronx at PSMS20. Um, and was kind of doing one of those alternative teaching programs and said, I'm just going to do my two years and I get a master's degree for free and I'll help out. Um, and then I realized at the end of the two years that I was only then learning how to be a teacher. Um, that if I had gotten my master's degree and moved forward, um, I would have been doing that off the backs of poor people. And I don't think that was the intention of the program. But I started having some sort of awakening that wait a minute, if I look at these last two years, the kids have taught me way more than I have uh, taught them probably. And I was finally getting that skill sary. teaching is a science. It's an art. It's complicated. So, I ended up staying for 10 more years um as a as a teacher and principal. And I'm glad that I had that realization early on. So many people were telling me that I was a savior or white savior or the program around that had that whole white savior vibe and I bought into that cuz it sure who doesn't want to feel like you're saving things. And then I I realized um new teachers are usually pretty bad. You got to learn like anything. And so I tried to stick around and uh and actually develop a skill set. And so once I felt like I had a skill set um through being a teacher and then a a principal of a public school in East Harlem that I started um along with an amazing group of educators, um I felt like I was ready to get into the international development space because I had a skill set that was wanted in my own community. um not like I was you know uh coming in without a skill I guess uh or if maybe my only skill might have been report writing which sometimes happens in international development. So I felt like I know how to teach people. I'm getting a track record of results. I'm doing all right with innovation and education and um let me go on the next adventure. And that's what landed me to Rwanda. Um, after 10 years in New York, I I I started becoming so New York in some of my ways that I couldn't even see it. And I was like, "All right, it's time. It's time to to make a change."

[7:09]  You you leave a career to start a brand new career. Really kind of in the same space of being of service to others. Now you're doing more international work. Um, I think there just when people think of Africa, when they think of Rwanda, automatically our minds go to what we were taught in schools. and it's not a safe place. It it looks very different than what we actually got to experience. I told you that I got to experience South Africa in person and thought to myself like, "Wow, this is nothing like what they show us." What are some of the things for people that are watching that maybe afraid to visit some of these beautiful countries because that's exactly what they are. We're beautiful people. Could you kind of talk on that? Like I could imagine when you first got there it was way different than your thoughts here today.

[7:50]  Yeah. Gosh. In 2013 when I moved to Rwanda, I was like, if I could have had a dollar for every time somebody said, "Did you see that movie Hotel Rwanda?" It's like crazy over there, you know? And um you know, it just is so far in the past. And um so that's that's definitely one that people are are watching that's you know um certainly did an effort to show a piece of history but a certain moment in time or a certain conflict is not what is defining any of us as people nor countries. Um you know it's interesting that you bring up your South Africa experience because even when I visited South Africa they also had these notions of East Africa or the Great Lakes region is so often painted with conflict. um you know, genocide, civil war, and um of course those those things exist. I don't or or have existed. I I would not want to paint it that it hasn't, but that's um there there's just so much more to it. And uh I grew up in a really small town and a lot of my friends will sometimes say like, "Isn't aren't you scared? Isn't it dangerous?" And I was like, I promise you if you walk into that shopping mall in the United States, it's probably way more dangerous with all of our gun violence that we have going on than than any of the places that I'm at. But um I don't know how we change those narratives. I'm trying in the work with the team here at Village Healthworks, you know, on our social media to share positive stories, share a different image, um but also, you know, ALS share the struggles that we all have as humans. like you know not just make it a rosy story for the purpose of that but um give it a try is is what I would say. I forced my parents to come to Rwanda. They were so scared and then they just loved it and had a beautiful time. Um next got to get them over here to Burundi to Village Healthworks.

[9:43]  I uh I love that. I love that you've experienced this and that you want other people to experience it. I am a ever since I took that trip I was like Americans we are very spoiled um sometime I think we could be very ignorant to what's outside of our own land right our own country and I think if people were to um travel a little bit more they'll be more appreciative of what they have as well um and that's one of the things I experienced I came back and just really appreciative and realized like man these people are so amazing they're so kind they just want better for themselves, right? For them, for their families, and that you get to be that for them. You're filling your cup every day, I can imagine. But one thing you mentioned was a little earlier was how kids in the school were teaching you, pouring, you know, pouring into your cup. What were they teaching you? Well, first of all, they taught me that Dominican Spanish is the fastest Spanish ever because I walked into my classroom like thinking I speak Spanish and then suddenly I got, you know, so I got really humbled cuz I had like

[10:48]  passed the test and done the grammar and wrote the essay and then I got into that Dominican like cutting the S's like and I was like whoa whoa whoa. So they taught me humility right from the beginning, right? and that um just because you've done a little bit with a language and one dialect, you don't necessarily know what you're walking into.

[11:08]  Um you know, as a special education teacher, I think one of the biggest things that the students taught me, speaking of being grateful, is um mobility and the importance of mobility. Um that's a that's a big one that's always stuck with me. um just that freedom of movement in our body, the the freedom of privacy that able-bodied people have, right? So for some of my students, they might never get a private moment ever. And so some of these these basic things, but then also I think it was the resilience and the coping around that and and the identity and the intersectional identity around disability living in the Bronx, many people coming from many different cultures. Um, so, so yeah, I think it was a sense of gratitude, but also I was deeply humbled because I quickly realized that probably if I was living a life without mobility um or without privacy or with frequent seizures or whatever the things my students were facing, I'm not sure I would handle it with such grace. And I think that kind of that sense of awe is with me all the time. You know, different humans have different resilience and coping levels. And I'm pretty sure mine is pretty low compared to most people that I'm working with. Um, and then most importantly like delicious food was the best part of with my students and we did lots of cooking together, learning math uh through cooking together, all those things. So lots of lots of yummy food which was really um the fun part. But I think from that first year right away I realized okay first of all I'm not good at everything. I was an overachiever in school and you get into that classroom and and you you just are going to face on the daily that you you're not good or perfect at everything. Um and then you know I was very different than my students uh in terms of upbringing, location and um I think I also just learned that if you bring love to what you do like the connection is going to come

[13:14]  um no matter gosh especially if I look at the United States now our country now and the kinds of division um I don't know that that kind of whatever the otherness is that we're so fueled on right now that I think some some genuine love can bring that. Um, as cheesy as that sounds, it can it can bridge it, but you got to go and show it on the daily. It's not like a one-time thing, right? Yeah.

[13:38]  Yeah. I I think it's funny that you mentioned that you thought you knew Spanish until you come across some Dominicans and realized, wait a minute, am I speaking the correct Spanish?

[13:47]  My wife is not Spanish, but obviously took a little Spanish in in high school. So, when I I'm Puerto Rican and Puerto Ricans, we just speak slang very similar to Dominicans, you know. So, as I'm talking to her, she's like, "Why do you say it like that? That's not how you say it." And I'm thinking like, "How are you telling me I speak Spanish? This is how my mom spoke to me." So, then one day, I actually looked it up and showed her. Matter of fact, it was a Tik Tok video and the guy was showing how Spanish uh Puerto Rican Spanish is very different than all these other ones. And she's like, "Oh, wow. No, so you are saying it right." I'm like, "Yeah, I've been telling you. Why do you think I'm just here making things up?" So, it's really funny that you realize

[14:26]  Oh gosh.

[14:27]  You need to do a whole other podcast on that. Like the language imperialism and elitism and and all of that is Yeah, that's a that's a big one.

[14:37]  I I want to talk about um the education space, something that you love because you're still in it, right? Just at a different level.

[14:44]  Do you think that we're losing we're in a space that we're losing a lot of good educators? as you kind of mentioned, there's a lot of good educators out there, but the system itself doesn't reflect and doesn't really help them. Um, and I see that, especially me going through the high school, that there was great teachers that were a part of my life because they see me for who I was and other things I was going through. Um, but I think that there's teachers that just don't see past themselves, right? They they have this one kind of narrative, this one agenda, and that's what they're there for. But you've also just kind of been flexible understanding the environment was different. The the languages were different. You know, the way I you mentioned the love. I have to show love because that's that's what they're used to when you think about big families, right? Just the love that we show each other. But but I think that's what changed my life. It was teachers that were showing me love when I wasn't receiving at home either. So, can you talk about that, Christina? I I I think there's so much more in the educator space. We're losing schools. We're losing educators because of everything that's kind of going around in our government. Do you agree? Yes, big and big question. I have a lot of thoughts on this, so I'm going to ask you to re me in if I get going out too far, but um

[15:52]  you know I I guess two things. There is the individual. So there's the individual level and choice that we have around do we show students love? Do we try to educate ourselves when we get uncomfortable? Right? So, one of the basic things that you learn as a teacher, but very counterintuitive in the experience is that if you're working with a kid in a tough situation or that's experienced abuse or um has a less than loving household, when they start to feel love from you, that's going to set off the central nervous system and tell their brain, "Emergency, emergency." And that's the day that

[16:26]  I don't know if you allow cursing on your podcast, but that's that's that's the day that you're going to get the the like you know, get whatever you're going to get some some whatever it's whether it's going to come out in cursing or throwing a chair or ignoring you or walking out or not doing work like people got to test that because their their their nervous system is telling them emergency emergency so it's so so unfamiliar. So, you know, when that first happened to me, like when the kid kind of got aggressive, like I I got firm in my teach, you know, I'm going to I'm going to like make sure we know there's consequences. But then when it kept happening, I'm like, okay, I got to like look into this more and learn more. So I think um I think no matter where we are in our careers, you've been teaching 10 years, you've been teaching two years, like keeping that spirit of humility and learning and our understanding that neuroscience is always changing and just trying to come at things from a place of understanding rather than I know or I'm the best or you know I I've I've got this figured out. like I I think every human is different and teaching is so beautiful because you're just going to a brand brand new group of humans every day. Um, so I think there's the individual choices and then I think there's also sort of like the system at large and what's happening. And I think about this a lot in terms of teacher burnout, police brutality, you know, working in East Harlem, like we all know cops are doing really bad violent things. And I got to see on the other side like what are we doing to support people's learning or make them better, right? Like people are underpaid. They're not earning a lot of money. They're do, you know, like it doesn't, no side is right or wrong if we look at a system. It's just like I'm a big fan of Peter Sang systems theory and that the system is perfectly designed to get what's there. So if 50% of black and brown kids are graduating in New York City, then everything I'm doing in my classroom is perfectly contributing to that system. So I do think of one of the reasons we're losing a lot of good teachers and this is a grant that 10 years ago Google tried to get off the ground and they couldn't and they just said teachers would be better if they liked coming to work. If we could think about how do you make a pleasant workplace for a teacher, you know, they would perform better. They would burn out less. They wouldn't just say like, "Okay, I'm getting into my CL." or or as you said, you know, some of some teachers that do just kind of like like burn out or stop caring or whatever it may be. So, um they couldn't really get it off the ground and probably I don't know. I don't know what your experience was teaching, but I guess the last thing I'll say about the system is I never met any kid or parent from any walk of life that was harder than what the administration was, right? It's just like everything was so hard. And I was young when I became a principal. I was in my 20s still and and in many ways had no business probably being a principal. But I knew one thing, I just wasn't going to do it how I had been principled, right? Like I was going to teach people to respect. I was going to get resources. So, so I do think I think probably of the two between our individual choices and the system choices, I think the system and everything we are and aren't doing is probably like really producing this either leaving the field or keeping people that are just a little bit dead inside from everything they've been going through.

[20:01]  If the Heart and Hustle podcast has ever sparked any idea or made you think differently, do us a favor. Make sure you guys share this, post it on LinkedIn, or even text that nonprofit friend that you just have. Whatever works, this is what keeps the conversation going and allows us to just grow this community together. Seriously, we appreciate you.

[20:22]  Yeah. I I think when it comes to just uh teaching and any job really is we don't pour in enough to our leaders, right? Teachers ideally leaders. I don't know that we're pouring back into them, right? Right. And I think that's where the the lack of love comes from. Um I actually and I would always remember this one teacher. So kind of rewind. I was a bad kid at school. So everything that you're talking about, I was the experiences, right? It was a lack of love from home. So I was acting out in school. And some teachers seen it. Some teachers thought I was just problem, right?

[20:54]  So not that I was dumb, not that I was a bad student. Life was happening to me. And some teachers just understood how to deal with those and some didn't. But I remember this one teacher that said um because after I I finished up high school, I would go back to middle school and high school and just speak to the kids because there were certain things that I learned from teachers that I didn't get at that moment such as and I would always go back to this one and very familiar probably to a lot of people. Show me your five friends, I'll show you your future, right? And I seen that I witnessed one of my friends that was a number one wrestler in the state end up doing five years in prison before you can end up in college. because of his friends, not because he was a bad kid, not because he wasn't, you know, just good, but it was because of his surroundings. So, I went back to the schools to say, "Hey, I remember to that same teacher. I remember when this teacher said this, and she was so right." At that moment, I didn't I didn't understand it, right? I I just thought she was a bad teacher. She hated me. She was always sending me to the principal's office. But it's one of the things that I heard was, I don't need to do this. My husband makes enough money. I do this because I love it and I love you guys and I love to pour back in. And then as then I go on and I be and I realize at 19 years old I'm making 50 grand a year right here in Florida. And then the teacher that I was she's that teacher that was already like five six years in she's like how the hell did you just graduate and you're already making way more than me as a teacher? Like how does that teacher feel? Right? Like there there's just so much going on. Um, and I think those moments where they feel underpaid, where they feel undervalued, where they're um they're not being poured into it, as you mentioned, it's takes away the love and the passion and and we got to go find it elsewhere. It's not like we don't love the kids, we just don't love what we have to do for the kids because it's very different than how we think,

[22:37]  right? And we're not always in agreeance with that.

[22:39]  But you're in a different space now. Um, obviously a lot of changes in nonprofit. What changes from nonprofit worlds, right, to from to the school system? Is there any changes, you think?

[22:50]  Yeah, it's an interesting question because I guess at this point in my career, I've done I think of it all as a career of partnership and service, but it was government technically with public schools and then higher education and nonprofits and then kind of dabbled back again in higher education.

[23:08]  Um, but those are all kind of silos that are working to serve people, right? So, I think trying to stitch some of them together is an interesting one. I mean, what's changed the most in my life right now is I am um working really hard to fund raise for a health organization that of course also includes education and community empowerment services. But the health with the big 200 bed hospital that we're running, we're doing specialized surgery. We're doing C-sections for women in a in a community where that wasn't an option before. It's expensive. Um, and once those USAD hits came through, we had a $1.4 million gap in TB medication, malaria medication, um, and, uh, also, um, of course malnutrition, which is a big one. And so, um, things got hard real quick, right, with this new administration. And you could argue and I think there's a lot of good arguments that you could say there was too much waste in USAD or too much bureaucracy or they did some studies where kind of these same seven contractors were getting a lot of it and people were feeling like in Africa you know is not coming to African-based organizations. So I think those are all really good critiques and there was a lot of room for for change, but the real cruel aspect of it was that overnight element of it, right? And um you know soon [laughter] whether sooner or later some of these policy folks who made those decisions are going to start to understand that diseases don't really care about their border at all. Um and and we'll see some of these impacts longer term. So, you know, um I I think there's a real scarcity mindset right now and I like to work more from a place of abundance. Um Burundi is a great teacher in that as well with um with the many economic struggles that the country has faced. It's usually listed as the top or second poorest country in the world, but there's still, you know, so so much happening here. But I I think I think there is a real scarcity mindset for leaders um for for fundraisers, for doctors that are here working with less equipment, um for us figuring out how we were going to get kids malnutrition um treatment. And then you slap on top of it these visa bans. Um you know, I I keep waiting for when I come here at some point. Brunians are so kind, but it's like gosh, if that was me, I might be like, okay, well, you're not coming to my country either. It's just, right, but luckily Brunians are bigger people than us, right? They're just like, okay, we're going to keep it open. Um, but we had a young woman who was accepted to Harvard. And uh long story short, she had turned in her passport about 3 weeks before the ban, got the visa, but then the ban happened and so literally got her passport back for a full ride from Harvard with the visa in there that was stamped, you know, denied without prejudice. And so,

[26:17]  um, why wouldn't we want that young woman in the US? Like, we're lucky to be able to have her her there. And so she also has not um been able to move forward with higher education and kind of has to deal with the psychological impact of getting a scholarship to Harvard and then being told, "Hey, where you're from means you can't come here." Um I don't know. I can only hope and think that we might continue to organize more. I will say, you know, some of the cha one example of a change that I've seen is that there used to be shipping of peanut paste for kids facing severe malnutrition here. And when and and all around the world and when that abrupt change happened um of the cutting off of USAD, a really great funer alongside Hope in Canada stood up next to us and is helping us grow peanuts and make our own peanut porridge. And so it's not all gloom and doom, right? Like I don't want to excuse I don't want to do the thing where I'm like, "Oh, it's great that they just like cut off aid to starving kids overnight." And so now we'll all just solve all of it through entrepreneurship. No, that that's, you know, it's it's somewhere in the middle probably. But it's really cool to see our farmers at work here getting paid. You know, we are now going to buy those peanuts and make the paste. And so there's a lot of learning on this journey and we're just 6 months in, but it did break up things in a way where there are some opportunities to say, "Hey, we're not going to ship peanuts from Georgia. we're going to grow our own and empower people here to hopefully have a longer term solution. So, there's the good and the bad in between, but I mean the bottom line is really stressful. We need more money and the money has real consequences on human lives.

[28:06]  How do you get this message out there? Like, how are we spreading, you know, awareness for what you guys are doing? I mean, you guys are building centers, you guys are bringing opportunity. Um, what does that look like? Yeah, that's a great question and I would love to uh given your communications prowess invite you in later for some brainstorming with us. But um one thing we're doing, you know, Burundi is a very oral culture and so we're looking more at sharing over the radio just health education. So sort of doing some monthly radio shots uh uh out. We do have um our Instagram, our um LinkedIn um and our Facebook. Um I really want to start a Tik Tok. I feel like our leader Deo is so awesome and if you just did his life, if you just had him walking around the campus and talking in 15-second separate things, like you could you could get some cool things going. So there's lots of space around that. one of our graduates from Kutu International Academy and also a graduate from the University of Michigan, originally from Ghana are interns on our comm's team. So, I feel like I'm trying to make sure we keep it young and fresh while also uh yeah, making sure we hit all the professional notes around things. We do do newsletters, but um we're not doing enough. And I'm in charge of it, so I can say that. I'm not criticizing anybody.

[29:30]  Communication, all that is great. And first of all, Tik Tok I always say Tik Tok is a great starting point because not that it's the hub, but it becomes one of the lanes that just gets things going. I got 80,000 follow almost 80,000 followers on Tik Tok and I just started to show up three years ago being authentically me around wrestling, right? There was a niche there. But I think that what you guys are doing and the space that you guys are doing it, educating, right? Actually, I would give you this Tik Tok because I went to their summit. So, this is coming straight from Tik Tok. their top four things that are being searched is automotive, sports, lifestyle, and education. So, people at all levels, I mean, I've seen a librarian just teach about library stuff. There's this guy that is a pharmacist, and the only reason he won't leave his job, he'll lose his credibility. But what he does, he talks about getting being able to buy prescriptions um or things like um overthe-c counter drugs um at like Dollar Tree or certain places, you know, where you don't have to go and spend all this much money. So there's a lot of education happen on Tik Tok. I think there's definitely cool thing there. But what does it look like for being and meeting people where they're at at a time of need? So any like email, SMS, I don't know if it's big. Obviously we're talking about uh East Africa here. Does everyone has access to a cell phone? Like are we hitting them on their phones? What does that look like?

[30:51]  Yeah, not necessarily a smartphone. Um but we but but there are SMS is available. So yeah, that's probably one we could do a little bit more with. Again, the cost of data around that can be a big one. I mean, our biggest vehicle for getting out messages is with our community health workers. So community health workers have some basic training. They're community members themselves. The majority worldwide are women. Um, and we have 200 community health workers here that are hitting our area of 200,000 people across 19 Colle. And that is our most powerful community member to community member, peer-to-peer discussion around um supporting people in taking their ARVs if there's um treatment for HIV that's needed, checking in on malaria, just checking in on wellness generally, getting pregnant women into the hospital. So, that team of 200 uh is definitely kind of the the biggest the biggest communications mouthpiece that we have. And then there's kind of some of the more formal channels. And the other part about Village Healthworks that's so cool is that this is really communityfounded a reconciliation project really by our founder Deo who brought a group of people that previously were in a very deep conflict and not just talking about what's needed but then actually building things together. So the community for example donated the land here. There's lots of meetings. So, we also rely on that that onetoone type communication.

[32:27]  Um, and I should have led with that, by the way. I like gave my fundraising answer of like, how am I getting the message out and I need to do it more? And you probably stressed me with your question because I am stressed out about that. We need to share more about it. But I I should have or if I could reverse it, I would go back and say the community health workers, the community itself, like that's our real communications machine. And then you've got like the other stuff about how do we bring in dollars or share good news and and and all of that. So um

[32:54]  offline I'll give you I'll share something with you that I think could ideally um be of value to the organization, how we communicate because I always I'm very intrigued how organizations are communicating because it's not email no more, right? you send out an email and I see I actually spoke to forgot what who the leader was but he said he sent out an email campaign with only a 2% open rate and it's like are we you know we're wasting time sending resources but people are not really consuming it. How do we allow people to consume? You mentioned Tik Tok like what I've heard is that they've doubled their numbers of how many people signed up to Tik Tok over the last four years. Every year they're doubling those numbers. Why? Because more people are not going to YouTube, right? they're being educated off of Tik Tok. Um, and you we seen Donald Trump love Tik Tok more, why? Cuz he can kind of narrate what's kind of happening there. So, it's for us, you know, those smaller organizations to realize like, wait a minute, there's actually value in just showing up authentically you on social media platforms and showing what's happening in the world. What I love now is I think that we're in a space where our young generation cares more about the world. Do you agree?

[34:05]  Yes. Yes, I do. Um, yeah.

[34:08]  I mean, I I guess like I always g I'm not sure that's what I'm seeing. And by the way, this is not scientific. This is just me observing and thinking about things. Like

[34:17]  what I like about this generation is I'm not sure that they care more, but they definitely have less tolerance for the nonsense. It's like this idea that a boss is going to gloss over um let's say what we're seeing right now, right? Where they're saying like CEOs like we don't want to hear you say ICE is no big deal or we don't we we need you to directly address the Somali community for example from our platform, right? Whereas before it was just sort of like okay sure maybe you like I think each young generation cares and shows it in their own way. I feel like I like this generation's um I I a lot of people say like as we always do about younger gener like oh they're lazy or oh they don't want to work or oh they're too demand or whatever it is like I totally disagree like I love one time I was working with a colleague a lot younger than me I was her supervisor and she was like sorry I got to go right now because I've got my physio appointment and I was just like oh my god how dare she and then I was like the problem is me like why would I why would I not some want somebody who's doing their work well to get their physio thing and like why do I think they need to be in this this box of hours and stuff. So, I really like the way that people are commanding whether it's whatever works for them like work from home or um I don't know like modifications at work like needing to have a silent place or whatever that is. Like I just think I think that that kind of as as the American dream if it ever existed seems to be shifting and people are real like I'm not going to have money to retire. I'm not ever going to get paid enough to get a house. like all these things that young people are facing and they're like, I'm going to make my life good right now

[36:08]  and I don't need to take your nonsense. So that's what I think I'm seeing now. That's you made me think aloud a little bit on that one. But yeah,

[36:16]  I love it. I am one of those young individuals that left corporate world because I felt I was being boxed in.

[36:22]  Um, however, I also have seen the younger side. I'm 35 years old, so I also see the younger. Sometime I do call it lazy. Like I mean I hear you on it but sometimes I think it's just pure laziness. Um, but it could be, you know, and maybe I'm looking at it wrong. That you said that, Christina, it allowed me to say, "Okay, well, maybe I'm thinking about it wrong, right? May maybe let me see it at at from a different perspective, but it's just when, you know, I was 27 years old. I was 19 years old. I was already managing a Subway, right? I was I was putting in the work. No one told me. I just I wasn't happy at home. And work to me was kind of the escape from reality. So, that's what I was doing. I was just kind of pour my head." So, maybe that's why I look at it a little differently. Um, I can't stand when I see, you know, 25year-olds still with their mom. But again, it's because of my life experiences. And I think that's how we look at life is always of our life experiences and not just of what the person had to go through, right? We're so about us, us, and we don't see about everybody else. And in this situation, Christina, from the New York to where you're at today, you realize it's not about you, right? It's about how do I get these people to see better in their lives? How do I pour into them? Um, so that's pretty cool. But I ask you that while you're pouring into them, how are you pouring into yourself? Because I think we forget to do that part. How are you doing that?

[37:39]  That's a really good question. And I also want to go back to I think it's about bettering the just a fine point on what you said. It's sure it's about bettering people to wherever they want to be. But I find more and more my work is also like helping people get clear on what they want to be and what they want to do. Like I feel like you worked at the subway or I was a teacher plus I hustled on the side of this thing because like there was some notion that that was going to lead somewhere or maybe it's our boomer parents who got you know I I I don't know but like I I think I think more and more of the work is is becoming um about getting clear about what people people want. Um, and then like [clears throat] the betterment comes from pushing through that, not just whatever people people said it should be. In terms of how I'm pouring into myself, well, I throughout my life, you know, wellness has been a challenge. It often for me manifests in different weights. I can really gain or lose weight quite rapidly. Um, and then I get overly sensitive when people talk to me about it. Probably because or just when people notice it because they notice changes, but probably because like deep down I'm feeling a little sensitive about where my wellness is at, right? Like my ability to take care of myself and all. And so like the weight is just a symptom of how well am I managing that and and being underweight is just as unwell, right, as being overweight. And I I've kind of been across the spectrum with that. So, I think where I'm trying to be now is pay less attention to however that's looking or whatever people have to say to me about it, but like where's my energy at? Do I feel energized? Am I am I am I feeling like I can come with my best self? Am I instead like short, on edge, frazzled? So, two things, a couple things I'm trying to work on is right now I'm just trying to take a walk every day. It's obviously very easy and such a a beautiful place. Um, but sometimes it doesn't feel easy. Like sometimes you don't want to get going. And um, I'm trying to, you know, that's kind of my individual thing. I need to take a walk. And then I'm also trying to draw from the community that I see around me, which is so much more cooperative and collective from what I grew up in. And I love it. It's like if I invite five people, they're coming. We're going as a group. We're going to do it together, right? So trying to like um have a fun social aspect. And I think the easiest way to take care of ourselves is drink enough water. But apparently that's hard for me sometimes. Like if you're just hydrated, you're just gonna be better.

[40:12]  Um, and throughout my life, I have gone on low sleep and been very proud of that. And I feel like now I'm trying to change that up for my health to be able to show up as a full person and again not be so afraid. Um, it's interesting going back to your comment earlier about younger people or if we see younger people or people of all ages can be lazy, but I recently read Trisha Hershey's Rest is resistance. And it just totally reframed. I'm just like, why am I allowing my body to be so used by this capitalist machine? Like her thing is resting is how you can revolt against the capitalist machine, right? or that she would read long slave narratives, for example, and then just have to like sleep for hours on the weight of that. And I grew up with this whole other thing of like, no, keep going. And like I used so proud that I only slept 3 hours and did XYZ. So I'm trying to change that. I'm

[41:12]  Yeah,

[41:13]  it's a journey. Yeah. But water, walking with community and sleeping enough and like seeing that sleep as an act of rebellion. I guess I must be a rebel at heart because it that that mindset is working for me. [snorts]

[41:27]  The sleeping allows your body to recover um especially when damaged um whether it's the brain, physical damage. Um so I do a lot of working out. One of the biggest things that I have to remember is I have to get sleep because how do your body recover, right? You need to get your body to recover. You need your brain to recover. But I'm just like you. Sometimes I go to sleep at 2:00 in the morning and I got to be up at 5 6 o'clock in the morning. That's just my natural routine. Um so I'm not a morning person. That's for sure. And [laughter] but I I do realize how for me especially when mental was a big thing for like last year I was going through a lot of I would say in my brain and pasta syndrome um just the negativity that just goes through your mind when you're just not

[42:12]  at peace right

[42:14]  um working out to me was the thing that brought me peace you know and now that I've worked out and I've stayed consistent which is always the hardest part is stay consistent through it all but when you are able to stay consistent in I think you start to feel better and then you start to look at yourself you start to see yourself in a better light. So to me, working out, you're right. You're right in the right places, right? How do I drink more water? That's obviously naturally going to help you. The walking um and I had a neighbor, believe it or not, he passed away. But what I found out after he passed away was he ran over a 100 marathons. And at one point in his life, he was over 300 lb. And the doctor told him, "If you do not lose weight, you will die." And the gentleman ended up passing away through from cancer in his 70s. But that moment in his life, he started to do what you just said, Christina. He started to take a walk around the neighborhood. Then it became a bigger walk. Right now, not just one lap, two laps. Then it became to the now he was doing trifleathons. Then he lost all this weight and he's doing and I'm like, "Wow, sometimes we just need that person." You know, we hate when someone calls something out, but it's also the eye opener for us,

[43:19]  right?

[43:20]  Look at our world when we call out mental health. Everybody wants to talk about mental health. When, you know, uh, uh, the presidency campaigns come around now. everyone is talking about, everyone's educated supposedly on it. And that's just kind of the space that we're in, man. When we want something, you just got to kind of do the uncomfortable. Um, stay consistent with it more than anything. But you got this, Christina. You got this.

[43:38]  Yeah. Thanks.

[43:39]  You just have love for what you do. That's why it's just you just go go. I get it. I get it. I

[43:44]  Yeah. No, I mean it's it's I'm definitely in a in a humble space with it because I have run a marathon in the past or when I'm more fit, I love to jog every day, but like the real and I'm got big into yoga. Like when I was young, I used to do all these competitive sports and now I'm kind of more like the jogging yoga and like the competitiveness is coming out and try to solve complex world problems and I need to just like chill at this point. But

[44:08]  um like the real yoga if yoga is about the mind or getting to the walk or the hardest work is doing it now where like I'm not right and and calling my own self out right and and bringing other people along with it and doing that walk that for so many years was a jog and being cool with that right now and knowing like okay it can go back. So yeah, it's um and it's just it's also at a certain point it's like not overthinking it and like just go and take the freaking walk, you know, like it doesn't have to be such a big deal.

[44:39]  Yes. Like just do it.

[44:41]  That's right.

[44:43]  I'll leave you with this last blind question. What's your one assumption about your field that you used to believe but now you realize was completely wrong? [clears throat] I think I think I'm going to go back to the sort of like being being that teacher saving the world, people telling me I'm saving the world, thinking I'm a hero, all this nonsense. Um, you know, I used to think like, well, if you care and if you work hard and uh you come, you know, if you come to do good, then that's really great. And actually, if you don't have a skill and you're not educated and you don't know the community, you can actually do a lot of harm. Um, and so I think my biggest one is wild love is the theme here, right? Like you got to put a skill with it. Especially if you're working with vulnerable or poor people. Like if you have if you have love and you just want to help, like go do that with people who are already resourced. Or people always try to tell me, for example, bachelor's degrees are over. We don't need them anymore. We're going to experiment with this group of folks who don't have money on not getting a bachelor's degree. I'm like, no, go do that with the rich people. Like, this is not the place to do that. So I I think it's um I think you need the love plus the skill and you need to really like develop that and work that like you need to offer something really technical to the community with the love for it to matter otherwise like beware maybe you're helping maybe you're hurting like I still want to go find that first group of students that I taught my first year and like apologize personally to all of them you know

[46:29]  I tell you a story after um on this teacher that was his first year teaching and what he said to me when he [laughter] [gasps] when he first seen me after all those years it was not what you want to say but I'll tell you offline and I thought it was pretty funny cuz we're about to end up here but where can people find more information Christina if people want to know more about the organization what you guys are doing be tapped in what website what's the UR the socials anything like that

[46:51]  um let me try to put my screen a little brighter because it's becoming nighttime here so um

[46:55]  yeah we got to wrap it up I see it's getting night time

[46:58]  exactly um you can find us at villagealthworks.org org. www.villagehealthworks.org. That's our website, by the way. A new one coming out. So now maybe I'll get some some feedback from you. Um, you can always donate to us at villagealthworks.org/donate. We take crypto, we take checks, we take all that. I know this is not a a donation sales thing, but you got to let me do my job for a second.

[47:22]  Do you? [laughter]

[47:23]  And then we will have um we we are on Instagram at Village Healthworks. Um Facebook. Uh yeah, basically if you just put in village health works, you'll find it. There's an incredible book written about my boss Deon Ziza by Tracy Kder who is a Pulitzer Prizewinning author and he chronicles story Deo's story from uh Burundi to New York City and being housing insecure for a long time to going all the way to Colombia to coming back here 20 years ago to founding this incredible organization. So, Strength and What Remains is an amazing read and and a great way to get get to know us. But villagealthworks um.org is a great place to start. We'd love to see you there. And of course, I don't know, does my information go out? Like anybody can reach out to me.

[48:09]  Yeah. Yeah, you could do it. LinkedIn. Yeah. Yeah. Anybody can reach out to you. I people like to use their LinkedIn as a they go to or you want personal email, do you think?

[48:16]  Yeah. Yeah. My LinkedIn, it's Christina with a Y. As I told you, everything you need to know about my mom is that y c h r y s t i n a Russell ru ss ss e l l. I would love to see anybody.

[48:32]  Well, Christina, we definitely appreciate you guys. If you guys still watching, make sure you guys do like, subscribe, and comment. We're speaking to leaders all around the world that are making impacts in our communities that we don't even know sometimes. So, if you guys want to be a part of it, make sure you guys check out the website. Check out social medias, new website coming out, and maybe a possible Tik Tok. My name is Erain. This is Christina. We'll catch you guys in the next one.