21 April 2009

Post date: Apr 21, 2009 4:16:13 PM

21 April (Evening) - Third Journey in the Classroom

I'm continuing to work at Edith’s primary school every Tuesday doing Peace Lessons, Kids Journey's and Dances of Universal Peace with Herman’s P7 students. I’ll be in the secondary schools with Dinah and Action for Peace and Conflict Transformation 1 day each over the next 3 weeks. Pearl went with me today to visit Herman's class and to take pictures. I found out she is a former elementary teacher. She was absolutely amazed that I had only been working with the kids three times and how well we all worked together. They reviewed their peace skills and brain gym exercises for her. Then we did a Journey, drew pictures, and they learned three new Peace Dances. The kids showed up 30 minutes early for class – as soon as I arrived. This has happened two weeks in a row now. They seem to be responding to the Classroom Journey very deeply. I will look at the pictures and discuss with Herman on Sunday and I think this may give me more insight. I’m still not 100% sure they’re grasping the whole Journey inside their body thing. I may buy a “My Body” chart from Mango Tree to help them out. I think Pearl and Ryan may collaborate on a Kampala Press release for the Kampala and Denver papers.

On our way home Pearl and I wandered across the school yard for the P1 through P3 children. These were some of the huge crowd of children that were singing with me a few weeks ago. There was no chance of sneaking up on them -- they saw us coming and there was pandemonium in all three classrooms. One of the teachers walked out and greeted us with a smile - telling us that the children would love for us to visit their classrooms. They had all met me at a morning school assembly so I introduced each class to Pearl as we visited. All of their eyes were shining brilliantly and their attention was 100% on me as they watched the guitar come out and I lead them in a few songs. When I say attentive and brilliant shining eyes -- it's really an understatement. These kids were absolutely riveted. As I looked around the crowded classrooms at the children sitting on benches it was obvious that none of them had their own books, or pencils, or papers, or crayons, or anything beyond the clothes on their backs -- and they all seemed so eager to learn. Yes, Mom, these kids could use a few Beanie Babies to cuddle with.

Mom wrote back regarding the Beanie Babies. I always admire her optimizm and her giving spirit. It is something I've seen and learned from my whole life. Here's what she had to say:

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Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 3:47 AM

To: kevin@cgpp.org

Subject: Re: Beanie Babies fro Kids in Uganda

Dad is going to the PO tomorrow to mail out a package to Dave and Family. I will have him check out the cost based on the address you gave me. You are right, we place to much on material things, but there is nothing like having a stuffed animal to hug when you are feeling sick or unhappy. They don't talk back they just accept your hug and that is worth something. If the cost is too much, I will just send money to your project for you to use as you see fit.

Love you, Mom

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I'm sure she's thrilled about me publishing our email conversations. I don't think she (or any of her friends) have read the blog lately. I must agree with what she wrote. I also have some stories to share that might be interesting that kind of bend around subject in a different way.

A few years ago Jo Noble, my friend from Boulder that first introduced me to Uganda, had a dear Ugandan friend get killed. The killing was done by his relatives who wanted the land he owned and Jo was helping building a school on to be sold and the profits distributed among the family. Distributing profits among your family is an expected practice here. When he refused to sell the land they killed him - hoping not to get caught - so they could sell the land themselves. I know Jo has had many sleepless nights wondering how much her generosity resulted in the ending of her friends life.

Sarah, the owner and awesome cook, at La Fontain helped start a business a few years ago called the Crocodile in Kisimenti. This was before other very successful businesses, including China Plate, Pavement Tandoori, Just Kicking , and Fat Boys existed. Sarah's friend was the owner of Crockadile and Sarah was the cook. They were very successful and ex-patriots from all over the Kampala area came to the restaurant frequently. Sarah's friend's life was threatened - so she sold the business and left the country. Sarah left also and started La Fontain.

This gets me around to Kevin and Herman. I know that everyone in Herman's neighborhood knows he has a new mazungu friend. When there's only one mazungu in town everyone knows what he's doing and who he's spending time with. Additionally, it's quite likely that many will talk and assume that his mazungu friend must be giving Herman money - and if that is true he needs to be sharing that good fortune with his friends and family - it's a cultural thing. I believe that this, my American friends, puts Herman at risk - similarly to Jo's friend that was killed. So having material things appear with my presence may not be the best thing. If mom can ship the Beanie Babies -- it will be up to Edith to determine where they are stored until I leave and how they are distributed. Would I love to give give give all kinds of things to this school --- yes I would --- and I also feel that anything that is given must be well planned and coordinated with Edith. I think that the Beanies could be given to the really little children and Pearl and I visited and it may go relatively unnoticed since these children are P1 - P3 and have nothing to do with Herman or with my visit to Edith's school.

Peace to you all.

Love,

Kevin

PS --- You do realize this is just my brain dump and I don't proof read or think about this much -- right?