Hobbits didn't travel by Brussels Air, but I still feel a bit Hobbitish about this latest trip to Rwanda. At times, preparation for this journey seemed to fall into place as if by magic...
Since our 2011 trip to Kigali and the Institute of Women's Excellence (IWE),
much has taken place. (Previous blogs were about that trip) As we were flying home, we were struck by the request of the students at IWE: several of them asked if we had books to leave behind for them to read in English. We were a bit surprised by this, because English had just been introduced as the medium of instruction in schools, and their skills in English varied widely from none-at-all to struggling-for-fluency. But someone had left a copy of "Like Water for Elephants" behind, and the girls had devoured it. We decided that it would be a great gift to send a few boxes of books for them to read in English.
"A few boxes of books" turned into over 5000 donated books, an entire library, for the girls at IWE! People in our local community donated used books of amazing quality, in all areas of fiction and non-fiction, for the school. A whole library! The intimidating shipping costs were donated by an anonymous "angel," and a gala evening at Calvary Church brought in more than $12,000 to build the library room at IWE. We learned that there is only one other library in Rwanda, in the capital city of Kigali, donated by Rotary. These precious girls, mostly orphans of genocide and AIDS, and often rescued from street life, will have an impressive library of their own. We had never imagined such an explosion of our small idea of sending "a few boxes of books!" I was a minor volunteer in this project: Ally and Diane (Telly) Pennell were the planners and organizers, and our librarian at Penn Central Middle School, Mary Lou Ashworth, invented a system to organize and pack the books. About
50 volunteers from our school community showed up to pack the books, on a Friday evening and Saturday morning.
We packed the books in February, just about the same time that I heard from ALARM in Rwanda, inviting me to do the writers' workshop that I had suggested 18 months earlier. I had not heard from them in a long time, and had decided to put the idea off for another year. After a non-stop year as Drama coach and English teacher, a switch from 12 years of leading Gifted Seminar, I thought a quiet summer of writing and relaxing sounded rather wonderful! (Staying in my "Hobbit Hole...")
But being invited to organize a writers' workshop? I had to say yes!
I am a novice writer. I have a couple of middle grade novel starts that I work on when I can, and I have written some drafts of picture books about malaria and other African stories, but I am not qualified to run a workshop introducing adult writers to the nuts and bolts of writing for children.
This was really over my head! Where could I
possibly find experienced writer/trainers willing to go to Rwanda, and most likely pay their own way? There were so many ways this project could end in an embarrassing melt-down of failure.
Within a week, I had my writers.
Yes, there is karma, and coincidence, but I can only say that this was one of those God things... one of several. I asked Mary Lou, our librarian, if she knew of any good writers who might want to go to Africa.
"Try Peter Catalanotto. He presented at my elementary school and was really great." I knew he was from nearby, but couldn't find any address or email. Then I tried LinkedIn, and Bingo! we connected. For some reason, he said yes, almost immediately. I didn't know much about him, and I could have been any crazy person as far as he knew, but he was in. I also didn't know that he had had an idea growing that he wanted to "give back" in some way... and that he had signed on to LinkedIn
that day. "On a lark
."
Peter recommended Pam Schembri, a friend, librarian, and writer from New York State, as another coach. Pam had heard about the library project, and had driven down to PA just to help with packing books and to find out how she could help with the set-up in Rwanda. She was on board immediately for the workshop, and to help with the library. It turns out she is the perfect match for this adventure.
Guy Macdonald, from outside London, was our tour guide all around Great Britain last summer, when I took 16 teachers on a two-week tour. I was impressed with his knowledge and love of literature, and it turned out he had written a tour guide to England and some middle grade novels. Perfect! We could include that age level in our training, if I could get him to come too. I felt strongly that his heart would connect with the writers we would find in the workshop, and he is joining us: flying out the day after he finishes his first year of teaching primary school. A perfect fit!
I had to tackle fund-raising, but there was little time and few connections that would find this project irresistible. Churches, foundations, service groups... they all liked the idea, but it was too short notice. They had already committed their money to other projects for the summer. A former student had raised money on Kickstarter, a website that connects arts projects with potential donors. Becca had raised enough to make her first CD of her original music. Would Kickstarter work for a writers' workshop in Rwanda? (You can check out the site and my embarrassing video at www.kickstarter.com, search "Rwanda Writes.")
I didn't take it very seriously at first, and on a lark, set my goal at $6,000. That was the bare minimum that I thought would make our project, now dubbed "Rwanda Writes," possible. As soon as the site was up, friends and even strangers began to donate! Hmmm... this might work. Cruising on Kickstarter, I could see that thousands of dollars had been pledged for a coffee-table book of celebrities in their bathtubs. So why not my workshop?! But the deadline was 30 days, and I had to get my entire goal in pledges, or not get a dime. Slowly it climbed. Friends added bit by bit... my son, recently gainfully employed, added a chunk, and I waited. It seemed to freeze at $2000.
With less than a week to go, I mentioned it to my sister, who suggested I approach Orphan's Promise, a foundation that assists one-time efforts to aid orphans around the world. In a flash, they added the missing $4000, and we were on our way! Whew... that was a close one.
The rest has fallen into place rather easily. A good thing! I had a busy spring, directing "Cinderella," and teaching middle schoolers everything they never wanted to know about the English language. I will keep up this blog through the trip and beyond, knowing that there will be stories that I can't even imagine yet. You are welcome to "follow" the blog if you want to be notified of new posts. Welcome to this year's great adventure!
