Tech Question:

Martin or Chris, can you splain me this? How do I post .wav files? Do I have to make them mp3s first? Do you know an easy way to do this?

I want to post Gabriel’s song he was inpsired to write when I handed him the recorder last Saturday as he day-guarded.

Punks and Liars

It’s official: I’m official.

The first hour of Teen Club is mine, the hour while kids are still arriving and settling into cliques in the waiting room. Woohoo! It’s been awhile since I was in charge of a bunch of teenage girls in our Salt Lake City ward and I forgot how much I love those “punks and liars,” as Andy calls them.

From the scrappiest, dirtiest, quietest non-English speaking boy by himself on the bench, to the smartiest smart-aleck in a hoodie with earbuds in, pretending not to hear me, I love them.

This week they drew each other’s profiles. We snagged some paper from CC’s table (“I don’t go through it very fast because I just let the kids stay on their mother’s lap. Unless they’re really sick, and then I’m like, ‘Ok, I gotta feel that.’”) and taped it up on a couple doors in a dark area of the hall. One kid held the flashlight, one held the pencil and drew, and one tried to stand still and not smile. I asked them to write things they like about themselves and their families inside the profile. I think that mostly got translated to “What do you want to be when you grow up.”

I know I overuse the word “poignant,” both in my own head and on paper here, but I’ll say it once more: those shadowed profiles of beautiful children’s faces, dancing in front of a jittering flashlight: as poignant as all get out.









(I’d love to hear your ideas for art/craft/music/dance ideas to do with these kids for an hour or so…)

Little School

This year I’m resolved to making home patterns and schedules. In the afternoons (right after an attempt at Quiet Rest Time—any tips on making this quiet and/or restful appreciated) Scout and I are doing Little School.

It’s a current-generation rip on what my mum did with my older siblings; fun learning stuff at home with toddlers.

It’s taken a bit of ingenuity, as it’s difficult or impossible and expensive to find common art and crafting materials here, but that’s good too. Don’t you always find you come up with some of the best stuff when you have the most limitations? You’re forced to think more creatively.

We started by making books to add to the stash we brought with (and the delightful refill Amy brought at Christmas—thank you!), modeling them on our favourites. (So fun to be making books again!) Since Scout is in love with letters, we started with an alphabet book. She folded and helped cut the papers (scrap, so we wrote around the printing; she didn’t seem to mind) and helped cut a Rice Crispies box into a cover. She helped measure out and cut the string, though I did the two stiches it requires to sew the book together. That was boring for her.

But then we wrote a letter on every page and it was fun again. Next we came up with a word to draw that started with the letter.

Finally, a few weeks later, we went through and hid Waldo on every page.

Inspired by this mention of a book about children’s book illustrators, we also made our own Brown Bear Brown Bear, except it was Black Puppy Black Puppy. And even though it has yet to be bound (this one originated as a sit-still help while eating out—Ethiopian food), she has loved reading it as a bedtime book, maybe more than the original.




Little School starts with a song. It’s all I could think of and not terribly inspired: “Here we are together together together, oh here we are together in our Little School. There’s Scout and mama and mama and Scout”…you get it. But just like our scrap paper and cereal box books, it doesn’t seem to matter much the quality of the material, but that we’re doing something novel and together.

Mad Skillz

I told Matilda that even though we weren’t willing to give she and Mohammad the big loan they asked for, I would still love to help her in some long term way that would help even after we’ve left. I asked if she could think of anything I might know that she doesn’t that I could teach her. I know she wants to be a police woman, but she has also told me that she has no special skills to use to make money. (She also wondered if I would ask Scout’s Daddy about getting a job cleaning at the hospital when we leave.)

My ideas:

Tutor her in some subject; I know she wants to go back to school to get her highschool certificate. (Her answer, sure, how about math, the one subject she didn’t pass. And shoot, the one subject I probably couldn’t be of any use in.)

Sewing: When I had a borrowed sewing machine, we worked on that for a day, learning how to thread it and wind a bobbin and sew straight lines to make bags. I couldn’t tell if she was sewing because I asked her if she wanted to, or if she really had an interest in learning. (Her answer: that would be good, there’s lots of need in the village for sewing.) However, I don’t actually own a sewing machine here, and you can only borrow for so long.

Driving: Learning to drive would theoretically be helpful, but knowing that alone wouldn’t make her competitive; she doesn’t have a car, and there are lots of experienced drivers looking for work. Also, Mohammad has been paying for lessons on the weekend and at lunch hours hoping to up his chances of us letting him become somewhat of a driver for us, improving his resume and diversifying his skill set and increasing his employability. So he’ll get first dibs on the driving edumacation.

Using a computer: I could teach her to type, use some software, use the internet. But practicing etc, at internet cafes is so expensive, I’m not sure how she’d ever be able to keep doing it. (Her answer: yes, it’s important, because all the jobs for newspapers require that you have experience with computers). This one is at least within reach.

So I’m hoping to pick your brains. Can you think of anything I could teach? I feel stumped. What good is a liberal education?! I/she/we need things we can DO, not just know.