October 2003 marked my first steps upon the dry and arid Gambian soil of West Africa. Expressed in the form of a US Peace Corps Volunteer was my newly found curiosity and love for life and relationships. I was in search for a deeper meaning, an enhanced experience, and for wisdom. It was amidst a culture and existence completely foreign to my own that I felt would propel me and expose me to this newly desired vision of the world.

This is a story about Hawa and I. Hawa was and is my Gambian brother who willingly accepted me as a loving member of his family for the duration of my Peace Corps service. Hawa has changed my life forever ... and now I strive to change his.

To this day I strive to express the depths of connection that Hawa and I shared. Penetrating barriers of culture and language, I have never more effectively communicated with any individual. From the very moment we met, the connection exploded, was made visible, and was so intensely felt and shared that it was never spoken about.

Hawa gave his soul to me as if it was his life’s purpose. Whether it be through his compassionate and genuine smile, the speechless moments we shared, or his wisdom-filled gaze, Hawa poured his soul into me as if tomorrow he wouldn’t wake. He’d share with me stories of his experiences as a traditional healer which weren’t to be spoken about amidst his culture. He’d sacrifice his own meals to ensure that I’d fall asleep with a full stomach. He’d speak for me in times when I was unable to communicate in the local dialect, after which I always felt understood. He gave his soul to me, out of a purity of love and kindness that I never dreamed existed.

One year through my service in Africa, I was abruptly pulled out of the country and re-planted back in the US due to a severe corneal ulcer in my left eye. Without goodbyes, I remember the moment I left Hawa, assuring him of my return as I watched his curious face wonder as I drove off, not knowing that I’d never see him again. My return to the States confronted me with blindness in my left eye, my world turned upside-down, and my heart aching and longing for Africa and the relationships that I shared.

Hawa, too, is blind in his left eye, and the vision in his right eye is diminishing. As each day passed, I watched him watch his days crawl by, while he sat with feelings of unworthiness since he is unable to work and produce food for he and his family. This being the primary male role in Gambia, Hawa and his family struggle both mentally and physically.

Upon my return home I was granted a new vision. The connection Hawa and I share will forever be unexplicable, but is the sole purpose for my motivation to bring him home to America to receive medical attention. Hawa, from the first moment we met, has represented and given to me a level of awareness and unconditional love that, if embraced by all, would be made manifest in to a new humanity- one of unity, love, and understanding. Through Hawa have I further become aware of the importance and meaning of human relationships- we exist for each other, and only know ourselves in relation to one another. For when we truly gaze into the eyes of another will we find ourselves, and upon this realization of the other as ourselves will our unity truly be experienced. Thus did Hawa and I share, and it is this very joy that stirs my heart to help him as he so selflessly helped me.

For these reasons and others do I commit my time and energy to Hawa’s healing. I’ve devoted myself to raise funds to cover the necessary costs to make this vision a reality for my dearest friend. Although ambitious, I continue forward, for it is the energy that Hawa has filled me with that empowers and motivates me to act - for the sake of Hawa’s, my own, and all of humanity’s.

*** More information on Hawa and Bob Leoni can be found at:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobbyleoni