Our Connecting Continents schools exchange programme is building momentum. This week the high schools came onboard. Betty and I met Mr Mabusa, one of the teachers from the Munsieville high school, Thuto Lefa, who was really excited about the project. My brother-in-law Ronnie has also been doing an excellent job of bringing onboard a partner school Douglas Academy, in Glasgow, Scotland, where he is one of the teachers. Both schools seem fascinated by the prospect of having contact with an as-yet-unknown school and its pupils on the other side of the planet. We are developing a new part of the Project HOPE website for the exchange so that the schools can share their stories with each other and with you too.
Meanwhile, in the same project, I was lucky enough to share the first pen pal letters with 5th grade pupils from Phatudi, one of the Munsieville primary schools. To do this, I attended the weekly assembly at 7.30am on Friday morning. The early start was worth it as it was incredibly uplifting seeing over a thousand pupils belting out songs (complete with dance moves) that they knew by heart. It was certainly more inspiring that the school assemblies I remember from my own childhood, filled with dreary lectures from the head-teacher and miming hymns read from tatty song-books. The letters were written by pupils at Ishikawa, Michelle’s daughter’s school in Arizona. To the best of my knowledge I explained a little about Arizona (hmm, desert, cacti, etc) and then the kids performed a few songs and dances for me to video to share back to their peers in the US. The kids who had written letters on the Phatudi side were absolutely bursting with pride and delight when they received their replies, holding tightly in their small hands, these precious, beautifully-decorated messages of hope and friendship from abroad.
One of the other highlights from this week was the film event we put on in Mayibuye, to showcase some of the films produced by the Youth Voice Journalism crew. Any event in Munsieville is a real test of your resourcefulness, with no budget and next-to-no equipment. I had to beg, borrow and almost steal everything involved. The lop-sided tent was erected on the dirt football pitch, with the guys hammering in the poles with rocks (Mother nature helping out as one guy said). The screen was a bedsheet and power came from the same deathtrap electrical cable from the festival. I had to flag down some pick up trucks to help us move the equipment. Unfortunately, there’s an attitude of nothing comes from free so some serious bartering ensued, to make people understand that these activities are not for me but for their community. The event, despite the usual collection of mishaps, was eventually a great success and hopefully not only inspired pride in the community but generated another fresh set of recruits for the Thoughtful Path.
Check back next week for more on the preparations for our fundraising event at the Silverstar casino in March.
Thanks for reading,
Neil
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