one day I learned how to listen and when
I say I learned how to listen what I
mean is I learned how to enter a complex
situation with a posture of humility
that wasn’t my mo up to that day seven
years ago I stepped on a sketchy boat on
Lake Volta in northern Ghana West Africa
the reason I was stepping on that
sketchy boat was because I was on a
mission to talk with slave owners
notorious for using kids on Lake Volta
in the fishing trade let me tell you a
little bit about who I was when I was
stepping on that sketchy boat at the age
of 31 I was recruited as the director
over three departments at Barclaycard
International north of London England
which was awesome and being an expat is
pretty sweet so you get your rent paid
for you get your car paid for you kind
of like rolling in it so at that point
in life I was super ambitious I was very
career-driven I didn’t really think
about helping people mostly I spent my
weekends going to Greece and buying
Prada so I brought my Prada handbag to
Ghana it was back in the hotel room not
on the boat with me um so the person
that I was when I stepped on that
sketchy boat was someone who was an
American educated woman with the self
righteous indignation and hero complex
the only someone who can impulse buy a
2000 dollar handbag could muster we went
out on the lake and I met some of the
kids that were used as slaves some of
them were as young as five years old
they worked usually 14 to 16 hours a day
and they often only had one meal when we
talked with them some of them couldn’t
swim they talked a little bit about
and what they’d seen their friends go
through it was definitely not an easy
life
as we pulled up to Lala on this sketchy
little boat there were seven of us white
women mostly from Texas me from Ohio and
a Canadian guy our interpreter in a
Ghanaian and so we were coming to this
village
straight out of National Geographic the
entire village came around us to watch
us talk with these fishermen so if you
imagine in your mind whatever
preconceived notion you have of a slave
owner and what that sounds like and what
that means you get some little inkling
of feel of walking into that village
ready for a conversation as we sat down
in the center and the whole village was
standing there watching us we asked
questions through the interpreter and it
was kind of like this how could you how
dare you these kids should be in school
why don’t you find another way to make
money why would you do this to these
kids so let me tell you what went down
about 15 minutes into us asking those
questions
the interpreter interrupted us and said
okay they’ve been really polite and
they’ve answered your questions now they
have some questions for you so thinking
about who I was at that moment literally
the thought that went through my mind
was what they have questions for us
and so this I’ll paraphrase because this
is how I heard it
coming out the fisherman asked the
question well we’ve diversified our
livestock so that we can multiply our
income across the but we’re having a
problem getting it to market in having
consistent prices what’s your suggestion
for us the second question is well I
know that America is really generous so
you give a lot of money to our
government but they don’t always pass it
down to the schoolteachers which means
the teachers don’t get paid so they
don’t show up to school so although we’d
like to send these kids to school we’d
also like to send our own kids to school
what’s your recommendation on what we
should do about that as I sat there and
listened to these questions and these
fishermen and I love the look on this
man’s face because I think it kind of
captures the moment I thought to myself
I can’t answer these questions I’ve got
ten years of banking in my background
this is a little more complicated than I
thought when I stepped on that boat the
power of listening allows you to humbly
enter a situation and maybe think about
what is complicated and how do you
address it as I left la la that day we
were stepping back into the sketchy boat
headed back to Quetta crotchy I was
looking back as the little kids were
waving at me and I thought I wouldn’t
survive 24 hours in la la unless
somebody took deep compassion on me and
showed me how and in that moment it
changed me and so as I moved from that I
spent the next four years fighting human
trafficking and slavery so I worked with
over a hundred artisans in Ghana in
Thailand in Cambodia and what I learned
from that moment about how important it
is to enter into the situation without
assumptions I was able to go into
Cambodia and work in a village that
started out with 13 kids hand it over
and now it’s over 200 I was able to
listen to a woman in a brothel in
Thailand talk about how terrified she
was to prostitute her body but she
needed to because her dad needed sir
three what about the man who was buying
her what was his story and he’d flown
all the way from Germany to do that if
his wife had died from cancer what was
he going to do if you can listen to
someone’s story and you can start to
open that dialogue open up your mind the
possibility for healing is there as I
work in Akron today having done four
years of anti trafficking and now
working with refugees I get to hear
stories all the time and in the season
of tension and walking in it it’s super
exciting and slightly unnerving so I got
to hear stories and sit down
with a Muslim Iraqi man talk about how
he trained 800 soldiers for the US
military in Iraq I get to sit down with
a Syrian a stylee talk about how he’s
afraid for his brothers he’s staying out
of trouble while he’s here in Akron
because his life depends on it and that
night he says because you listen to me I
can sleep in peace I got to go to Hudson
and talk to women who are genuinely
terrified of those exact same Muslim
refugees and hear her talk about why she
is afraid and then addressed that and I
think within us we all have a certain
longing to hear and be heard so if the
questions that you want to hear are I
see you I hear you
your story is meaningful and important
to me it’s like a Jesus style Margo day
so I challenge you to enter into the
situations that are maybe above your
paygrade don’t be afraid of them just
listen thank you
[Applause]
I say I learned how to listen what I
mean is I learned how to enter a complex
situation with a posture of humility
that wasn’t my mo up to that day seven
years ago I stepped on a sketchy boat on
Lake Volta in northern Ghana West Africa
the reason I was stepping on that
sketchy boat was because I was on a
mission to talk with slave owners
notorious for using kids on Lake Volta
in the fishing trade let me tell you a
little bit about who I was when I was
stepping on that sketchy boat at the age
of 31 I was recruited as the director
over three departments at Barclaycard
International north of London England
which was awesome and being an expat is
pretty sweet so you get your rent paid
for you get your car paid for you kind
of like rolling in it so at that point
in life I was super ambitious I was very
career-driven I didn’t really think
about helping people mostly I spent my
weekends going to Greece and buying
Prada so I brought my Prada handbag to
Ghana it was back in the hotel room not
on the boat with me um so the person
that I was when I stepped on that
sketchy boat was someone who was an
American educated woman with the self
righteous indignation and hero complex
the only someone who can impulse buy a
2000 dollar handbag could muster we went
out on the lake and I met some of the
kids that were used as slaves some of
them were as young as five years old
they worked usually 14 to 16 hours a day
and they often only had one meal when we
talked with them some of them couldn’t
swim they talked a little bit about
and what they’d seen their friends go
through it was definitely not an easy
life
as we pulled up to Lala on this sketchy
little boat there were seven of us white
women mostly from Texas me from Ohio and
a Canadian guy our interpreter in a
Ghanaian and so we were coming to this
village
straight out of National Geographic the
entire village came around us to watch
us talk with these fishermen so if you
imagine in your mind whatever
preconceived notion you have of a slave
owner and what that sounds like and what
that means you get some little inkling
of feel of walking into that village
ready for a conversation as we sat down
in the center and the whole village was
standing there watching us we asked
questions through the interpreter and it
was kind of like this how could you how
dare you these kids should be in school
why don’t you find another way to make
money why would you do this to these
kids so let me tell you what went down
about 15 minutes into us asking those
questions
the interpreter interrupted us and said
okay they’ve been really polite and
they’ve answered your questions now they
have some questions for you so thinking
about who I was at that moment literally
the thought that went through my mind
was what they have questions for us
and so this I’ll paraphrase because this
is how I heard it
coming out the fisherman asked the
question well we’ve diversified our
livestock so that we can multiply our
income across the but we’re having a
problem getting it to market in having
consistent prices what’s your suggestion
for us the second question is well I
know that America is really generous so
you give a lot of money to our
government but they don’t always pass it
down to the schoolteachers which means
the teachers don’t get paid so they
don’t show up to school so although we’d
like to send these kids to school we’d
also like to send our own kids to school
what’s your recommendation on what we
should do about that as I sat there and
listened to these questions and these
fishermen and I love the look on this
man’s face because I think it kind of
captures the moment I thought to myself
I can’t answer these questions I’ve got
ten years of banking in my background
this is a little more complicated than I
thought when I stepped on that boat the
power of listening allows you to humbly
enter a situation and maybe think about
what is complicated and how do you
address it as I left la la that day we
were stepping back into the sketchy boat
headed back to Quetta crotchy I was
looking back as the little kids were
waving at me and I thought I wouldn’t
survive 24 hours in la la unless
somebody took deep compassion on me and
showed me how and in that moment it
changed me and so as I moved from that I
spent the next four years fighting human
trafficking and slavery so I worked with
over a hundred artisans in Ghana in
Thailand in Cambodia and what I learned
from that moment about how important it
is to enter into the situation without
assumptions I was able to go into
Cambodia and work in a village that
started out with 13 kids hand it over
and now it’s over 200 I was able to
listen to a woman in a brothel in
Thailand talk about how terrified she
was to prostitute her body but she
needed to because her dad needed sir
three what about the man who was buying
her what was his story and he’d flown
all the way from Germany to do that if
his wife had died from cancer what was
he going to do if you can listen to
someone’s story and you can start to
open that dialogue open up your mind the
possibility for healing is there as I
work in Akron today having done four
years of anti trafficking and now
working with refugees I get to hear
stories all the time and in the season
of tension and walking in it it’s super
exciting and slightly unnerving so I got
to hear stories and sit down
with a Muslim Iraqi man talk about how
he trained 800 soldiers for the US
military in Iraq I get to sit down with
a Syrian a stylee talk about how he’s
afraid for his brothers he’s staying out
of trouble while he’s here in Akron
because his life depends on it and that
night he says because you listen to me I
can sleep in peace I got to go to Hudson
and talk to women who are genuinely
terrified of those exact same Muslim
refugees and hear her talk about why she
is afraid and then addressed that and I
think within us we all have a certain
longing to hear and be heard so if the
questions that you want to hear are I
see you I hear you
your story is meaningful and important
to me it’s like a Jesus style Margo day
so I challenge you to enter into the
situations that are maybe above your
paygrade don’t be afraid of them just
listen thank you
[Applause]
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