Mamita's Child

Born in Puerto Rico, there was a very beautiful woman named Esther M. Rivera-Carlo. Most people
knew her as Ten, but her close family called her Mamita.

That woman grew up, got married, bore three children, who in turn bore another generation. She moved to the mainland US with the rest of her immediate family, and lived to a very old age. But still, when she passed away this year, it was difficult to bear because so many people loved her, and she was such a good person.

Instead of flowers, her son, (and my soon-to-be uncle) asked that well wishers send their donations to i.HUG. And they did.

It fascinated me to come home and see checks arrive from, among other places, Puerto Rico--family members with beautiful, long names, carefully penned cards, in memory of Mamita.

My new uncle more than matched the funds, and decided to set up the type of fund that would always sponsor a child. Next year, we'll start a child out in first grade, and that child will be sponsored until age 16 or 18 (depending on if they want to go to university). When that child is done, another child will enter into grade 1. The amount of stability that brings to the sponsorship---and a child's life--cannot possibly be described. I feel so lucky to even watch it happen.

In this way, out of something so sad, something so beautiful arises. EKIRUNGI EKIVA MUNFUFU--from the dirt, beauty arises.

A Collective Movement

I'm offering up the link to a recent Washington Post article about a man named John Wanda, who moved from Uganda to the D.C. area, and then proceeded to spend his next years working to set up a school in Uganda. If you haven't read it, you should do it now: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051701560.html

We are also chatting with a man who works at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative--a collective financing science and innovation to find an AIDS vaccine--who is working outside his day job to set up a primary school in Rwanda.

Not to mention Paddy's work with setting up the school on the boarder of Congo. (Pictured here).

The contact with these other projects makes it start to feel like a collective of grassroots efforts--a movement of education warriors. We are people that see early childhood education and school as one of the answers for Africa's problems.

I like the thought of projects popping up through Africa, and then working together and learning from one another to understand regional best practices. In particular, for anyone reading this, would love to share our project proposal for the Seeds Project primary school, and get some feedback.

Vois la! We're on our way now

Alright, had to convert this file again and again, so am hoping there is still something left.
--joanna

The Kabalagala Connection

okay, technical problems abound. Can't get to seem to post our "fundraising house"--but thought I would share this picture to help everyone connect to Kabalagala.

The final bus, I mean blog of the day...

We had decided that we wanted the children who are sponsored through i.HUG to have more than their physical needs taken care of. We also wanted them to have the opportunity to develop the skills to cope with the lives they have. Many of the i.HUG children are orphans. Almost all have had to face death in way that I as a 28 year old have not had to yet - the death of a parent or a sibling or a friend. So, our first baby step in this direction is to organize a group for our children which focuses on having / developing a healthy self-esteem. This group will run for 2 weeks for 2 hours a day in the first 2 weeks of September. Our two faciliatators are Ronald Lubali and Mark Webster. Both have a lot of experience with children and the running of groups. I have a strong conviction that this group will impact these children greatly in the immediate present and the distant future.

The house /school is coming...but in the meantime

I tried to download / upload (which ever way it is meant to be) the picture of the house/school with 9 beautifully colored in bricks but it kept telling me there was an error. I don't know if I am the error or if the blog is but anyway, I have tech guru - Joanna on the case. It is coming soon and really is worth the wait.

In the meantime I have been meaning to share this quotation with you for a long time. I have been reading a lot of books about child-centered learning in a bid to think about what our school's educational philosophy will be. I stumbled across this which really struck a cord with me:
Select the child who appears the most ingenious in the making...of toys,
[within the context of a classroom] present him with adequate tools and
lumber, give him a simple plan which must, however, be adhered to until
completion, and usually his ingenuity gives way to a disheartening dullness.
Poor children usually do not have this kind of opportunity, and it is notorious
that poor children make themselves the best playthings. They have to make
them out of scraps, and the scraps constitute variety. They are Eolithic
craftsmen; it is not only that Eolithic craftsmanship can get along without
uniform material and plans – it is precisely the non-uniformity of scraps and

the absence of set plans which form the circumstances for its best development.’

Quotation taken from Hans Otto Storm “Eolithism and Design” Colorado Quarterly, Winter 1953, cited in 'The Logic of Action' by Frances Hodgeman

In Uganda, as you walk through the villages and towns you will see children pulling their own homemade cars - made from scraps they have found disgarded on the streets. These cars are often formed from wire, sticks, soles of broken shoes and so on. They really are innovative - no two are the same. Yet, I have rarely seen this level of creativity in the schools that I have been to. It seems that schools frequently work at promoting uniformity at the expense of innovation. As I mull over these issues I wonder how we can make the 'SEEDS' school a place of real growth in which we celebrate that no two creations look the same!

blogs - they're just like buses - you wait for ages for one and then 3 come at the same time

We had our first official i.HUG fundraiser. It was a roof top party with music and food and frivolity. I couldn't be there but by all accounts it was a rager! I was pleased to be given the job of coloring in the blocks of our house / school. Which reminds me, we are going to rent a house and use it as a school for at least the first year of operation. Someone in the world of renting / selling properties in Uganda told me this is the best and most economical option. Anyway, take a look at the i.HUG house/school with some bricks colored in. I can't wait til it is all colored in and we can sit back for just a second safe in the knowledge it is all coming together!!!