Gold Coast teacher sets up school in Tanzania

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There is a new school starting in Africa next year, inspired by Aussie Greg Pattersen and his mate Ian Home.  My son was very fortunate to have Greg as his year four teacher this year, here at the local state school.  Greg is a fabulous teacher,  however next year he is heading off to Africa  to oversea the inaugural year of the East Meru Community School, situated in the village of Maruvango, Arusha in Tanzania.  The village is the  ancestral village of Ian’s wife and is not all that far from the foot of Kilimanjaro.

The school is opening its doors for a class of prep students and sponsors have been arranged  for all students. The students have been recruited from some of the most disadvanataged families in the village.   As the pictures show, the students have been decked out in very stylish purple uniforms with green jumpers.  Shoes have been provided as well. For many, these are the first shoes they have ever owned and the uniforms replace clothes of rags.  School will be a huge change for them in so many ways.  Here are links to the sponsorship profiles of Elisha, Nickson and Valleth.

The first staff have been appointed and starter classes have been held, to get the kids used to the whole idea of school and being in a classroom.  Attending school means that the pupils will not only be given tuition, but they wil be provided with breakfast and lunch each day.

Greg and Ian have done a huge job in getting the school to this point – from organising the building of the classroom, to staffing, to books and materials for the children – even building fences to keep the elephants out – as you do in Africa!  The school has been formally set up as a not for government organisation with a board that includes not only Greg and Ian, but village elders as well.

I wish Greg, Ian, and the staff and students of the East Meru Community school all the best for 2012.  It is such a special year for everyone in the village of Maruvango.

Down time missing in action

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My story writing has come to a standstill.  I started the year well – two draft novels under my belt. Both stories have huge potential- though both need intensive work, being pretty much first drafts.  It’s now August and sadly I’ve made little progress. So, what happened?

Apart from my best attempts to set myself deadlines, and commit myself to the writing, I haven’t been able to get into it.  At first I thought it was the usual suspects – you know the typical time vampires that show up at any hint of procrastination or hiccough in confidence.  Those visitors that, apart from life and earning a living, seem to distract  us so easily: Facebook, blogging, tweeting, word with friends etc.  In an attempt to control these things I imposed a twitter blackout on myself.  Sadly it didn’t make much difference.

I realised the problem was a deeper one.  Drop one social media interaction, another will quickly take its place. I’m calling it the hydra syndrome of social media.  The main symptom is twitchy fingers when queuing or waiting.  In fact, any natural pause in life gets punctuated by picking up ones i-phone and looking at those little red circles that denote some action one might be missing out on.  I have come to realize that it’s all much more insidious that I first thought.

I used to think that these i-pursuits were making productive use of stray snippets time that can’t really be used otherwise – you know, ‘dead time’.  This miracle  i-phone was kindly helping me to harvest that time.  What I didn’t realize was that the queue time and the sitting in the car waiting for my son to finish his sports activity, wasn’t wasted time at all.  It’s possibly the most precious time we have.  It’s what used to be luxurious down time, where our minds could rattle around in our imagination – mostly producing just idle thoughts.  However, now and then those wanderings really do stumble across golden nuggets: a precious story line, a valuable insight into a character, or a phrase that precisely states a rambling paragraph.  The beauty about this time, is that these invaluable ideas emerge when we are not thinking about our work – in fact our thinking about our stories tends to block any inspiration.

I’ve decided to reclaim my down time.  I am going to spend it wisely by just staring out the window, or just focusing on what is going on around me.  It’s my time, not app time or i-time.  It’s me-time and I really can’t be creative without it.  (I know , I know – the irony of saying all this in a blog…  what can you do?)

Anticipating a book in a day

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Tomorrow, with six other Prana Writers, we are going to write an 8,000 word children’s book in a day.  Twelve hours to be precise.  It’s part of a ‘movement’ that’s been happening nationally over the last month or so to raise money, and to generate books for Children’s hospitals across Australia.  I have written about it at the Prana Writers Blog ‘How do you write a book in a day?’.  It is a really exciting prospect – as mad as it sounds.  We can go in with no preparation – it all comes down to how the planets align on the day, and what we happen to create together.

But then, that’s really how it is with all writing – and not just fiction writing.  It applies to technical writing, writing a report, a non fiction item – a blog, an email, a tweet.  It’s all about what rises to the surface at that moment in time.  The words might draw people in, alientate some,  make others  laugh, stimulate ideas, or, in some rare occasions bring rise to insight or some spiritual epiphany.

Well – tomorrow will be tomorrow, and we must be thankful for what it brings.