Ep 011 - Kwabi

By the time this podcast comes out, it will have been a week since we’ve all found out that our kids won’t be going back to school.   We’ll be 3 weeks into sheltering in place, and feeling one more week’s worth of depletion, anxiety and helplessness. Or maybe that’s just me.  This way of life isn’t getting any easier for me or my kids. I see them lonely, I see them trying to process not being able to play with their friends and there just isn’t a way for these little people to make sense of it when the big people can’t either.

In all of this, I feel like I’ve been desperately seeking out ways to do things for other people, but it all feels small.  We’ve sidewalk chalked our friend’s houses, made food for our 99 year old neighbor, baked cookies for firefighters but none of it feels substantial or like it’s moving the needle.  Which leads me to my next guest. I found Kwabi on the City U Tacoma website. Kwabi started the Peace Bus - his own non-profit promoting the modern peace movement. I reached out to him and we had an interview scheduled on March 14th.  The day we locked down. Our interview didn’t happen, but I follow The Peace Bus on Instagram and started seeing Kwabi’s stories which started to feature him each morning lip-synching to an oldie with a box of cereal in his hand and a mask on his face.   Kwabi is delivering cereal to families in Tacoma who can’t get breakfast with the school closure. One man is making a substantial difference to hundreds of families in Tacoma right in front of his face. He’s thrown himself, unabashedly, into the front lines of Covid-19 and I want to do everything in my power to support him.  The following is our interview - he continues to inspire me with his attitude and drive and I hope you find some strength in him as well.