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So this is kind of cool.
Thursday at school we celebrated "A Day in Korphe," simulating the village that inspired Greg Mortenson to write his best-sellingThree Cups of Tea and start building schools in the remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
I confess that I'm not a huge fan of the book and that by the time this project neared its completion I had pretty much "had it up to here" with Greg Mortenson (although I credit his desire to change the world and liked his speech Tuesday night more than I expected).
In any case, the faculty was expected to embrace this project enthusiastically and try to dress the part. I contacted the only person connected to that part of the world that I knew, a former student (Mojda Sidiqi) who came to Hancock from Afghanistan. She said she thought she could help and said she would contact her family and a friend from Pakistan. And there things sat for a while.
Meanwhile, I checked out a store specializing in that kind of garb but couldn't quite bring myself to spend $100 for a one-time outfit, no matter how hard the salesgirl tried to convince me it would make dandy apparel for weddings.
I contacted Mo one more time through Facebook and the next thing I knew I was getting calls from Mo's friend, Taha, as well as Mrs. Sidiqi. I never connected with Mom, but Taha drove to the school from St. Charles to deliver three outfits, one of which almost fit me; the other two were worn by two of my students who served as docents for the event. I got to look like a team player (perhaps a somewhat effeminate team player given the outfit) and everything went well. Lots of compliments all around. (I even got a lot of ink in The Jewish Light!)
But here's the really cool part. Mo is making all these contacts to help me from London, where she was stranded by the volcano! Perhaps more than anything, this reinforces the importance of the activity the school did and how the world is shrinking. A young man originally from Pakistan drives to a Jewish school to deliver a costume for the former teacher of a young woman originally from Afghanistan.
It's almost enough to make me think there's hope for this world yet!
E Carl Anderson wrote on Apr 26, '10
ReplyDeleteThat IS sooooooo cool!! :)
Carl
Terri Kung wrote on Apr 26, '10
ReplyDeleteA heartening tale of our shrinking/expanding world.
Karma667 wrote on Apr 26, '10
ReplyDeleteThat is very cool, indeed.