extra, extra!

“If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in.”

— Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter’s Dictionary

Six days. I am leaving for East Africa that soon. It’s coming soon, it’s bearing down. I will fly over Africa’s broad, pied, noble landscape. And then, I will touch down in a ramshackle airport the size of your local Ford dealership. And then, the playwriting adventure with International Theater and Literacy Project, ITLP, begins.

And what will this day, the first day, in class be like? I find myself wondering, a la Julie Andrews. I have had so much fun anticipating and putting together our three-week long writing and theater curriculum with my lovely teaching partner. I am sure that we will have to be flexible and adapt our ‘best laid plans,’ but going in prepared  feels good. And besides, I don’t believe work is ever wasted.

ITLP is covering most of my costs, but I still need to raise several hundred dollars in order to go. I am leaving very soon (next week) and hope to reach my goal of $1,000 before I leave.  If you are able to sponsor me any amount at all (50, 500 or 5 dollars!), I’ll send you five issues of Stew’s News, a gazette about our adventures. The easiest way to sponsor me is via Firstgiving. Or you can check out other ways to sponsor here. If you can’t contribute, but want to send me off with love and prayers, send me an email and let me know of your interest in the project. I’ll add you to the subscription list.

I mentioned in an earlier post why this project so excites me – here are some other reasons I’m compelled to teach with ITLP.

• In Tanzania, less than 6 percent of the children have the opportunity to advance beyond elementary school. ITLP pays its participants’ school fees to help make possible the students’ education.

• At St. Margaret’s Academy, the school where I will be teaching, many of the students are AIDs orphans and from socially vulnerable situations. (Learn about how the school began here)

• ITLP pays for hot lunches for the kids throughout the program.

• Theater is play, and more than play – it helps children to think specifically and gives them confidence in speaking their minds.

• In East Africa, English is the language of commerce, and literacy is key to gainful employment.

More personally, writing is practical, but also magic. Writing helps me affirm others’ humanity,  and connects me to people I love. Writing helps me listen to my own story, and to imagine possibilities beyond my present circumstances. I want to share this with others.

Also, I am looking forward to modeling physical freedom through theater. Gender inequity in East Africa is rampant, and seeing systemic oppression of the ‘girl-child’ has left a mark on me. I believe that theater can level the playing field and allow boys and girls alike to try new things grow in confidence. Lastly, I’ll add that I am excited to do something FUN with kids – even if it is for a short time, I hope that they can look back on the play we make together, and remember feeling JOY.

“And the memory of that moment stayed with them always, so that as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or angry, the thought of all that golden goodness, and the feeling that it was still there, quite close, just round some corner of just behind some door, would come back and make them sure, deep down inside, that all was well.”  - Magician’s Nephew, C. S. Lewis