Happy Valentine's Day ... Akawelle

AKAWELLE ... AKA meaning also known as ... WELLE meaning love. I received the most beautiful necklace for Valentine's Day, kind of from my mom, Lyle and myself. Here are some pictures I took:

















It has an amazing story behind it. Here's some information from the website of a 15 year old girl from Liberia who designed the necklace.

The history of each necklace begins in Liberia. In the part of Liberia where I am from, many thousands of bullets were fired during the war. Even though the war ended in 2003, the spent shell casings can still be found, scattered across the land in places.

This incredible photograph was taken in Liberia's capital city of Monrovia by CAROLYN COLE of The LA Times in 2003. When people ask where I get all the bullets from, they can just look at this photo and understand. Our bullets come from another part of the country but this gives you an idea of how many there were during the war.

A very hard-working man named Richard Sumo collects the casings for me and splits them open, one at a time, by hand. I buy them from him and he uses the money to send his children to school. Richard’s job before the war (in “normal days’ as we say in Liberia) was as a plumber but now there is no running water. I am glad that this money helps his family.

Once I have the empty casings, the bottom is cut away from the top and the metal from the top is melted and poured into a mold for a pendant shaped like a leaf.

I chose the word “life” to be inscribed into the leaf to remind myself that new life can begin after hardship. It is even possible for new life to arise from something as terrible as war.

The rough edges of the bottom of the bullet are smoothed away, then wrapped with gold-filled wire to hang beside the leaf on the necklace. This part is not melted down. I think it’s important to have part of the actual bullet untouched, to remember what it was like before.

Men and women can both wear the bullet and leaf. It’s strong – I hope they remind each person who wears them that no matter what they’ve been through, they can rise.