First, I looked up Samsung's initiative with the solar powered education system. Very cool idea. Which led me to this solar powered charter school in the U.S. (www.starschool.org) VERY VERY cool place. Which then led me to their navajo peace making website that works in conjunction with the school... ahem... VERY, VERY, VERY COOL (http://navajopeacemaking.org). This school uses sustainable all over it's website and it appears to have every right to. Of course, as I said, time flies so I was not able to do a thorough inspection, but from what I've seen so far? Amazing. Naturally I loved this idea for Kenya. I loved the idea of solar power for electricity because honestly, in thinking about providing education to people I had this overwhelming, nagging thought that hungry kids don't study! You can't just hand out books without handing out at least some type of food. A refrigerator, freezer, or microwave would certainly help with that issue and solar power is just the way to get us there. But back to the school! I like this school for so many reasons, one of them being their curriculum. The school is located in Arizona in a remote region near an Indian reservation. The founders of the school had incorporated Navajo culture into the school culture. The children are not only able to learn about some of the lessons and morals important to Navajo Native Americans but they get to exercise it practically in their daily education practices. The peacemaking is one example of how the school has attempted to preserve native culture within their school and students.
Somehow I also stumbled upon this other website (http://www.solarenergy.org) WELL they just have an extremely extensive education program on this site, and once again did not investigate as much as I would have liked, but a lot of their programs seem to be done online. They've got online textbooks, online instructors, online certification programs and even more strange is it's an entire already developed curriculum based on learning and becoming certified in solar power? WHAT?! I digress, I don't know how much of the program is online and how much is an actual... physical... education system? But either way I'm impressed by how much they have been able to develop this ...program... and how much of it is available online.
PHEW! that being said, I'm moving on to a reaction.
So! I watched the trailer for Tough Bond and for some reason I was... surprised. It's not that I had a glamorized view of Kenya, I most certainly did not but... I guess I just didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what huffing glue looked like and I didn't know what the boys would look and sound like or how active they might be. Somehow just seeing it there and putting together the imagery with the narrative by Orrs has thrown together a reality that just... isn't the same as what my mind portrayed. I don't really know what makes it different except for that it may just be more real. I've been thoroughly excited for this trip but for the first time I'm actually concerned. Concerned for what is to come, what I will hear, what I will see and how I will feel. I guess I tried to imagine a Kenya in America and have been working with that image, but the Kenya in the film is nothing, seems nothing, at all like America. The fatal American character flaw, not being able to extend your imagination beyond the confines of your own life and experiences.
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