Gateway to Difference

The absence of my updates (did you notice? Oh how touching) is due to the BUSY-ness of my week. Man, oh man, it has been a week. By week, I mean four days. Monday, I had a five hour program with a group of 6th graders, and then, on Tuesday, straight into the Global Gateway program. It's the biggie. A group comes in and stays for three days. As the facilitator, you spend nearly all of those three days with the group, and in the spare moments, you spend your time getting ready for the next step. It's a whirlwind, I tell you.

So, The Sharon Academy (TSA) of Vermont brought 36 kids Tuesday afternoon. I took fifteen of those kids under my wing, while two other volunteers took the rest. We had a busy time together. There were tours, chores, three different activities (Survival, World Map, Identity) that helped the group focus on issues of poverty, chronic hunger, and community, meals in the Global Village, and lots of debriefs and discussions. I think I worked from 8-8 yesterday. I am tired.

But, my group (who named themselves "Breta") was full of unbelievable kids. Truly, they are an example of why my job is a good one. They were all very open, very engaged in everything, unafraid to talk and discuss. In a lot of ways, they did my job for me, getting their minds working without my help. I had so much fun with them. I'm starting to cry. Oh boy. How emotional. Someone strike up the band. It's singing time.

But in all sincerity, it was an excellent first Gateway program for me. The highlight might have been the orientation we did before they spent the night in the villages (2nd night). During the orientation, we use a lottery to assign different roles to the "families", aka: the groups of kids sleeping in different village sites. So, a few became handicapped, and I put gloves on their hands and taped their fingers together. A few became pregnant, upon which I had them put full water balloons in their shirts, and then promptly taped them in. One of my guys, Ben, became pregnant, which was hilarious. And then, after dinner, each gave birth and had a new baby. Ben had a particularly loud and dramatic labor.

So, I think the Gateway program is perhaps the best of all. Because it gives the kids some authentic, different experiences. I don't know. I'm not crazy about throwing out statistics for starving people, or lecturing about inequality and injustice. It's all abstract. But, when a community of kids have to live in a Tibetan yurt (nomad tent), pretend to be pregnant and handicapped, build fires, buy food together from a market, and haul water from here to there, they really learn something. Poverty and hunger move from the abstract to the detailed. A teacher can't teach you that stuff. Experience is a far better teacher. And, the thing I love about experience is that it involves feelings. Not just rationalizations. Experience is about more than coming to conclusions or making ideas neat and tidy. It complicates things, and helps you to hesitate before you make your mind up. At least that what it does for me. So, I feel good about the role I play here. I feel good about what this place provides. I got that going for me. Which is nice.

I'm about to go to Maine for an agricultural fair. Very excited. Should be a cool experience. Stay tuned.