Episode 42: Brukty Tigabu

Hello and welcome to the Baha’i Blogcast with me your host, Rainn Wilson. In this series of podcasts I interview members of the Baha’i Faith and friends from all over the world about their hearts, and minds, and souls, their spiritual journeys, what they’re interested in, and what makes them tick. In this episode, I'm at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where I interview Brukty Tigabu, a dear Baha'i friend from Ethiopia, and winner of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. As a school teacher, Brukty was concerned with the lack of early childhood education in Ethiopia, so 15 years ago, her and her husband started 'Tsehai Loves Learning', now the most viewed and award-winning children's TV show in Ethiopia. In this conversation, we talk about how the show first started, what is was like being raised an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, and how she became a Baha'i. She tells us about Ethiopia, what she's currently working on, and she shares some of the challenges she's trying to overcome. I hope you enjoy the conversation! To find out more about some of the things we covered in this episode, check out the following links: * Check out episodes of 'Tsehai Loves Learning' here: https://www.youtube.com/user/TsehaiLovesLearning * Find out more about Brukty's educational media company called 'Whiz Kids Workshop' here: http://www.whizkidsworkshop.com/ * Check out Brukty's new TV show called 'Tibeb Girls' here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft4ALYtM5OQ * Find out more about the World Economic Forum here: https://www.weforum.org/ * Rainn is at the World Economic Forum with 'Arctic Basecamp': https://arcticbasecamp.org/ * Rainn talks about Shoghi Effendi spending time in Switzerland. Find out more about Shoghi Effendi here: https://www.bahaiblog.net/2013/11/shoghi-effendi-a-bridge-to-the-world/ * Rainn mentions the book 'The Magic Mountain' by Thomas Mann: https://amzn.to/39geQdS * Brukty mentions Baha'i Firesides: https://www.whyunite.com/questions/what-is-a-bahai-fireside/ * Brukty mentions she met her husband while he was doing a "year of service" and says they could use more people to come on a "year of service". You can find out more about this concept here: https://bahaiteachings.org/youth-give-a-year-of-service-to-humanity/ * You can find the famous photo Rainn refers to of French kids watching a puppet show here: https://time.com/3879428/children-at-a-puppet-show-paris-1963/ * Rainn mentions Mary Wollstonecraft (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft), early feminist and mother of Mary Shelley, author of 'Frankenstein' (https://amzn.to/374Spqn). * We talk about the Baha'i 'core activities': https://bahaipedia.org/Core_activities * We talk about Devotional Gatherings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iop-CFOdgFg * We talk about Junior Youth Groups: https://www.bahaiblog.net/junior-youth/ * Brukty mentions Baha'i pioneers: https://bahaipedia.org/Pioneer * Brukty shares a prayer by the Bab in Amharic. Here is the English translation: "Is there any Remover of difficulties save God? Say: Praised be God! He is God! All are His servants, and all abide by His bidding!" Be sure to subscribe to the Baha’i Blogcast for more episodes on: * YouTube: bit.ly/2JTNmBO * iTunes: apple.co/2leHPHL * Soundcloud: @bahaiblogcast * Spotify: spoti.fi/2IXRAnb If you would like to find out more about the Baha'i Faith visit BAHAI.ORG, and for more great Baha'i-inspired content check out BAHAIBLOG.NET: bahaiblog.net/ Thanks for listening! -Rainn Wilson