Diapora of Hope 09

Fifteen women and two men from the United States and Canada were an excited and professional group of artists traveling to Philadelphia, Egypt, Kenya, Guatemala and Nicaragua to participate in BuildaBridge's annual Diaspora of Hope. The artists were joined by scores of local artists in each country as they planned, trained and implemented an arts camp on the themes of hope, peace, and unity with children from very difficult circumstances. The BuildaBridge Classroom model was the structure for each camp. This was the first year Diaspora of Hope conducted a project in Philadelphia with a local partner--a shelter abused women and their children. The mission of Diaspora of Hope is to provide children with a brighter future and build the capacity and sustainable development of local organizations serving these children who live in poverty. The following blogs from around the world describe the events of the week and stories of transformation.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Do all things with Excellence


After planning, evaluation and debriefing with the artist and class helpers, the team was ready to start the day with new energy and ideas. Before we left, I walked along the beach located behind our housing and picked up shells from the shore that inspired a dance exercise for my students. For the painting teacher, the ladies walking down the street selling fruit from a basket on the top of their heads was the analogy for life bearing good results in the painting class. In the music class, a piece of red string was the connecting source in finding that in a choir, all are an important strand of strength to the group. Our camp theme song is Como tu no hay( There is no one like you)
Sabias que eres especial,
sabias que tienes un lugar
aqui en la tierra,
no hay nadie como tu tan especial,
con tu desfectos y qualidades, como tu no hay.
Do you know that you are special
Do you know that you have a place
in the earth
there is no one like you as special
with your defects and qualities like you there is no one

We sing this song every day, but in the afternoon, I heard the song a bit differently. As I was typing the blog and I overheard a brother singing the song to his sister in the other room. It was the most beautiful version of the song that I had ever heard.

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