Consider giving Hope for the Holidays!

There are three events this weekend in Atlanta that you can purchase beautiful handmade creations from Ghana which help support connecting children globally.

Out of Our Hands

A consortium of 15 artists will be displaying and selling hand-made original works including:

fiber arts, jewelry, sculpture, clothing, pottery, ceramics, paintings and drawings

Opening: Friday, December 2 – 6 to 9

Saturday, December 3 – 11 to 5 Sunday, December 4 – 11 to 5

881 Kings Court, Atlanta, 30306

Women for Women

976 Highland View, Atlanta 30306

Jingle Bell Jubilee

Friday Night 6-9

Saturday 9-5

Sunday 12:30-4

Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School ~ JBJ Home

Saying goodbye is always bitter sweet, here. We watched Angel and Godfred (in their first weeks of school still under our new scholarship) stroll down the hill in the golden light for the last time.To watch the joy of children going to school, that have never been before, is a beautiful way to start any day.

At EP Primary Ho-Bankoe, we set our equipment for a slide show of the images captured in the last 4 weeks. Veronica’s class opens with “Lean on Me”. Class by class, giggles, smiles and cheers ring out across the room.  This is a rare treat to see all these images. There is a reverse papparazzi effect here- the kids always following the cameras. Serendipitously, we close with “What a Wonderful World” sung by the Leaders Group. What a truly wonderful world it is when children can connect in this way.

We attempted to say goodbye to Sokode-Bagble earlier this week, but were summoned to return on Friday for a proper send off- drumming and dancing. The kids change our of their uniforms into brightly colored fabrics, and take to the school yard barefoot. The entire school gathers, and at one point, is invited to dance. Joy abounds.

We celebrate our time together. Prayers and well wishes are spoken for a safe journey home, back to the United States and Canada. We give thanks for all the amazing work and heart of the children. Four weeks sure can fly when you are having fun!

“Hope is everywhere. Hope is always there. Hope is inside of you. You just need to find it. I feel my purpose here on this earth is to comfort the grieving and lift the spirits of those who need it. “ – Rebecca, Galloway School

The final projects were underway today from Galloway School and Summit Charter School. One of the Galloway letters shared about a grandfather, Harry Fine, who used to say “In nature and in name.”  This is poetically fitting for a culture where nearly everyone, at nearly all times, expresses being fine. Ghana is also a culture that bestows names with intention to their children, often at special naming ceremonies, with the hope that they will come embody the very nature and essence of their names – Rejoice, Beauty, Joy, Hope, Peace, Blessing, God’s Way, Proud, Grace, Angel, Comfort, Happy, Courage – to name just a few.

We are struck by the intimacy in many of the stories being shared. Hearts flowing through pencils in darkened rooms, bringing details from inner places, often kept in shadows, into the light. There are times when the pairings seem perfect. We could not have even known to match particular students with each other, yet, it happens. Often. Rebecca’s letter landed in the hands of a child in need of hope and comforting. When we inquired in more depth about the challenges expressed in his letter, we thought, how poetic he has Rebecca’s letter.

The stories seem as varied as the grains of maize abounding in the fields around us, yet the essence in the nature of the hardships is so similar. We have been quite surprised to see so many stories of suffering – beginning with those from the U.S.  Many of the letters from the United States include stories tied to ancestral history and narratives of war, segregation, and the great depression. In Ghana, the tales relate to present day struggles. We’ve even had to pull some stories for the inappropriateness in the level of detail, at times violent in words and/or pictures, on both sides. Yet, many of them speak to the overcoming of obstacles, some how (as they say here).

Our final project to be exchanged on this trip, interestingly enough, is with the Prince of Peace JHS 2 students, many of who are the seed kids for the entire CIH project. When they settle in, they focus deeply, always exhibiting their investment in this cross-cultural, peace-building endeavor. They always inquire about friends from the years that have gone by, keeping that circle, that loop, never ending. Although they all love the variety from Summit Charter School, most choose to create their own story books, enjoying the rare opportunity to use a hole puncher (many decide to make holes all around the outside of their pages). They find delight in a disposable camera and capture friendship and joy. They share of their own firsts and their own best friends.

Blessings abound on pages filled with beauty, and tears. Joy fills the humid air, and grace flows between us. It takes courage to share, and in sharing, earth angels comfort, lifting spirits to rejoice. Hope is everywhere. We find it, everyday, with these children.

We head, once again on a Friday morning, to R.C. Mixed Primary.  Our first class this morning is fortunate to receive the Hand-Me-Down stories from Mrs. Ross’s 5^th graders at HIES.  We introduce the concept of family narratives and personal tales before handing out the colorful books.  The students sit with intertwined arms holding the books so they can point, word-by-word, with their fingers.  They read softly together, sometimes speaking in unison and sometimes alternating words in close collaboration.  This theme – One World, Many Stories – has been particularly challenging at times, but today is rich in worth.  The stories offer novel ideas, new words, and historical depth for students reading in their second language. We are impressed by how little assistance they need and how well they read the work from their friends in America a year ahead of them in school. The students quietly compose their own stories, which are as varied as the personalities in the room; some books are religious based, some outline lessons, and others resemble more lists.

We work with our second class of the day on the portraits created by the 5^th grade students at SPARK.   We hold the pictures up for everyone to see and we describe the details included within each drawn skull.  The students stare and look inspired.  They excitedly and politely pass large pieces of paper around the room and we assume that they will be quick to begin.  We notice, after a few minutes, that they are noticeably daunted by the task at hand.  We attempt to help, Amy traces Erin’s profile onto the board, but this proves to be more comedic than instructional (it was misshapen and terribly exaggerated) so it takes a couple of tries before we are certain that the students understand the process.  Once they start to put pencil to page, we decide to hang the long facial portraits in the sun-filled windows.  They float and flip as the students braved new artistic realms with the aid of their friends’ work blowing in the slight breeze.  We play music to liven the room.  The students move their shoulders and upper bodies first; some take a bopping stroll down the desk aisles, while others are so focused that they seem not to notice the world around them.

Change the world…one child at a time. For the last three weeks, we have witnessed first hand the power of connecting children globally. We watch hearts and minds expand, sometimes quietly, and other times in bursts, as they are connected to new ideas and empowered by learning new skills. Fundamentally, CIH is about empowerment. We know these children have within them the compassion and creativity to create a more sustainable and harmonious world. It is in the fiber of their make-up.

Our role is to ignite their own fires, keep them burning, and remind them how very powerful they are! By these children recognizing their own unique gifts, and helping them to share these gifts across the globe, we all are enlightened. We invite you to consider supporting us in our annual campaign to continue to make these exchanges possible.

$25 sponsors one connection

$50 sponsors a connection between US and Ghana Children Inspiring Hope

$100 sponsors two children for a year

$2,000 sponsors an entire class

It takes so little to make a difference in this world! Thank you for your generosity.

“[We] ride the undulating wave of grace, this lifting higher and higher in grace, the surging crest of joy, and this plunging lower and lower in humble thankfulness only to rise yet higher in grace… it offers the ultimate joyride and I don’t think [we] ever want to get off. “ –Ann Vosaamp

 We begin our morning at E.P. Primary Sokode -Bagble with the striking paintings and comic strips from the students at SPARK.  We try something new, here, and have the students remain in our opening circle as we share the projects and pass them around the room.  We set out the watercolor stations in this same oval during break so that when the forty-five kids re-enter the room, they are quick to find a spot, facing inwards, on the floor.  Most students abandon their shoes in a pile underneath a desk and we decide to do the same, spending the remainder of the class in our bare feet.  The children are splayed around the room, some lying belly-down, with their feet positioned up in the air like the tails of mermaids, while others kneel and hover with noses poised mere inches above the ground.  They are silent and content in their focus.  The beautiful artwork created by their friends at SPARK lies in the middle of the circle.  The students are inspired by the magnificence of the projects, but they choose to explore their own creativity.  The results are outstanding and we leave the campus with hearts filled with the serenity of a watercolor painting.

We head to work with the Leaders Group at E.P. Junior Secondary School where the calm of our quiet and peaceful is disrupted by the energetic noise of rambunctious adolescents.  These students are bigger, each one takes up more space in the classroom – both in personality and physicality; the contrast from the tiny bodies of the students this morning is hard to ignore. We introduce Paideia’s Six Word Memoirs and the students are quick to pick up on the concept.  They take joy in figuring out how to put their personalities, likes, and interests into a short English statement.  We call out the names of returning students from America, and the kids here jump out of their desks to claim the work of an old friend.  They recognize the names and look at the pictures with smiles of recognition.  They are equally as eager to catch the names of new students; they allow the letters and sounds to roll around on their tongues before they say them out loud.  It is a free-for-all as the students scour the materials for the right bubble letters and stickers, not unlike that Friday in Atlanta.  Boys and girls alike leave the room sprinkled with sparkles.  We even meet a little boy, likely a kindergarten student from across the street, who shines with gold glints of glitter in the light.

We leave the campus with Fred, and wander behind the schools walls, as students from all directions stream down like flowing water towards homes in close proximity – a maze of courtyards, compounds and allies – with open gutters all around. Fred is another new scholarship recipient that needed help with partial fees. We have enjoyed Fred since EP Primary, and he has been a part of the leaders group for years. He is kind and thoughtful, always offering a hand with our bags. His mother, quite ill right now, wanted us to visit so she could say thank you.

We take a taxi to find some cool fan ice, and have some laughs of our own. The driver and passenger are impressed by our Ewe, so we ask them to clap for us (like the school children do when an impressive answer is given). To our amusement, both the passenger and driver clap for us.  We laugh. We mispronounce one word- ironically, it means you have tried- which they are quick to correct. We are then told we have an issue with “a”… we need to open our mouths wider and let it drop down. We then get a small lecture on the difference between consonants and vowels. We laugh harder! So, Paideia students, we are inspired by your 6 word memoirs and are working on our own Top Ten 6 Word Ghana Stories. In this case: Battered taxi, mispronounced word, vowel lecture.

The students release captivated ohhs and ahhs as we introduce and share the projects from the 4^th and 5^th grade classrooms at Cliff Valley School. Each image proves to be as enthralling and enchanting as the last.  The students clap as their eyes scan the classroom and they take in each unique drawing.  Amy howls like a wolf as she explains one particular picture to the class and everyone erupts into belly-crunching laughter.  She urges Richard – a new teacher at E.P. and the token male out of the twenty-six on staff – to demonstrate his best animal impression.  He is shy to respond to our appeals, but a young student, far at the back of the room, suddenly tilts his head to the corrugated tin roof and lets his best wolf cry rip.  We laugh some more before watching as the students get to work using markers and pencil crayons to decorate their pages and transform them from white to bright. We are impressed by the stories included – A Message Around the World – which use well-researched information to add impact and weight of kids making a difference by sharing in how to clean in environmental disasters. We le dodzi!

We move one classroom over in the block to share the stories and masks created by the students at Summit Charter School. Rejoice joins in, reading the stories and demonstrating the use of the hand puppets to her students.  We are particularly intrigued by the family story that led to the creation of Raggedy Ann and Andy (Erin recalls dressing up in homemade Halloween costumes of these characters as a child).  There is no doubt that the children enjoy these projects.  They are instantly enamored with the masks, wearing them during class and taking them outside, with permission, at break.  The students struggle, however, with the stories and it proves to be a challenge to get them settled and focused enough to write their own.  We will return to work with this class again next week.

We celebrated, one year ago this week, the grand opening of the Computer Lab at E.P. Primary in Ho-Bankoe.  We reflect now, surrounded by the teachers, on that day of jubilation made possible by the collaborative efforts of a community. A KG teacher approaches us, as our meeting ends, and she shares that there are two new boys in uniform who claim that we are helping with their fees. They are the second and third recipients of the Vida Oyiadzo Scholarship. We smile and with an extra bounce in our steps, head excitedly over to the darkened corner of the compound where the KG kids are sheltered under the shade of trees.

Two lights beam a golden pathway – Godfred and Angel in uniform. Joy oozes from our very being to see them finally here, and we are like proud parents this morning: full of hope.  The boys look equally proud, excited, and eager for undoubtedly they have heard – since they are always within ear shot around the family’s home – the many conversations which have transpired over the last month with the goal of getting them into school. Today is great day!

Now we hear their footsteps before we can see them walk down the hill past our house, cast in golden, early morning light.  They usually leave a couple of hours before school starts; we are still easing into the day at this time, drinking our first cup of coffee. We greet them ourselves many mornings, and they share their already improved greetings (we are so excited by the progress that we’ve noticed in just one week’s time).  We watch them disappear amongst overgrown grass and maize, topped with tassels, as they merrily descend down sandy paths down the hill, on their way to school!!

We arrive at R.C. Mixed to work with P5 class on the splatter paint letters sent from Vail Mountain School.  The students are eager to begin their letters because the sooner they get them done, the faster they can get their hands on a paintbrush and paint.  We set up the palettes early so everything is laid out on floor, spurring their fingers to grip pencils and streak personal messages across their pages.  The students circle around the paint and cups of water with their heads close together and their faces turned down as though they are participants in a meeting for a secret society; they speak quietly in their small groups, but concentrate on the heart of the task.  They like the splatter technique used by their friends at VMS, but most here opt for the more traditional approach of lathering up the brush and washing it across the page.  The students so rarely get to use these fun supplies that they want to stretch the experience out and make ever last second of it last.  We literally watch paint dry (which doesn’t take so long in the Africa sun) as we stretch our tired bodies from the week.  The kids begin to mimic our movements, so we offer an impromptu yoga tutorial – tree pose, triangle, dancer, warrior – that proves all the more challenging in this rocky school yard filled with giggles.

We stop by EP Ho-Bankoe to visit before the weekend. It is immediately apparent they have won a local contest, as the entire schoolyard is in jubilation- bands playing, students and teachers dancing. We are not sure how Amy remained standing as nearly a hundred children ran elated to share their victory, surrounding her on all sides with an enormous group hug. EP won #1 in the Library Board competition, but the campus resembles more a sports championship victory game than was school pride in academics. The joy lifts the heaviness that has been lingering on this campus for months since the passing of Vida. It is a great way to end our week!

Let the rain come down and wash away my tears

Let it fill my soul and drown my fears…

Let it shatter the walls for a new sun… a new day has come

-Celine Dion

The rainy season is an extended guest this year – a welcomed visitor, as far as we are concerned because it alleviates the oppressiveness of the heat and humidity.  Soft rains fall this early morning and showers continue as we make our way to school.  It is a cloudy day, but we are ready to share stories and to find sunlight in the eyes of the students.

What we find, however, are tears mixing with the rain.  Several students at EP Sokode-Bagble P5 class disclose details about losing a parent, as part of sharing family stories with Red Sandstone Elementary students.  We are not always aware of these intimate details that lurk below the surface, especially in a culture where the predominant feeling is fine.  The theme of sharing stories has opened a doorway to immeasurable emotions often held below the surface. It is obvious that it is cathartic for these children to share their stories in our atmosphere of support; we freely spread encouragement and praise.  We are touched when this class’ new teacher, Dorothy, also shows compassion, allowing the students to speak and write openly what is in their hearts this day.  This unique display of concern and kindness from a teacher to a student is therapeutic for us and finally hearing their personal narratives through their own authentic voices is refreshing – these are the snippets of light and beauty that we were looking for among the heaviness of the clouds.

The leaders group at EP Primary Ho-Bankoe got to work on their watercolors, and sharing all the things they see which make ours a wonderful world.  The beauty that fills their multi-faceted souls illuminated and expanded with water.  Long lines of students face each other, crouched on their knees along a hard concrete floor, as pages are filled with brightness, washing away the weight of the morning.  A small group toward the open doorway sings the lyrics to “What a Wonderful World”, quietly, elongating the light streaming through this doorway.

We have our first Vida Oyiadzo Scholarship Committee meeting during afternoon break.  We speak about the challenges before so many of the students in the community. The committee members are so grateful to hear of the support that will help to shatter the walls that stand before the bright futures of so many struggling students.  As we work toward solutions together, we call forth the angels to come and guide us.  Aurelia, the new Head filling Vida’s absence, speaks strongly in repeat, “Send forth your angels to Earth to come and guide us.”  Tears well up in a teacher’s eyes, overwhelmed by both the need and the gratitude.

We continue to navigate rough emotional waters, amongst teachers and students alike.  Sometimes we are their angels… sometimes they are ours.  As storm clouds clear giving way to color filled skies, the sun sets on another Ghanaian day.  Our resolve remains as strong as the African sun that is sure to rise, strong and breathtakingly beautiful, again tomorrow.