I’ve just gotten back from my last day of working with the kids. I know I’ve said it before, but I just can’t believe it’s over. I may have written an entire novel about time (that’s my first book, Tangled Roots, for those of you who may not know it), but I still can not get comfortable with the speed of it. Thankfully, though, I will see them all tomorrow evening, otherwise my heart would really be breaking. A local restaurant has agreed to host and sponsor our launch party for the Writing Workshop and their new literary magazine which the kids decided should be called Wonderful Writing: Imagination is The Best Power. I certainly can’t argue with that. Hopefully, I will have a video to show you on my next blog of the kids reading from their work. But for now, I thought I’d give you an example of what they have written.
Over the course of the week, we worked on both poetry and short stories. To get them started, I had them write a piece together. I taught them the word “brainstorm,” which they thought was hysterical. We brainstormed ideas for our joint poem or story and then, after I started them off with a few words or a clause, they all took turns contributing. At the end, we also made a list of possible titles and then we voted for the best one. They especially enjoyed that part which we laughingly called “democracy in action.” So here is a story jointly written by the 13 students in the Young Adult Program of Anjali House, Siem Reap, Cambodia:
It was a very hot day and the guard was tired from carrying the umbrella of
King Jayavarman. Vuthy wanted to relax . He sat under a tree near the temple. He fell asleep, but an enemy soldier approached. He woke up Vuthy and captured him. He took Vuthy to his king. The King of the soldier wrote a letter to King Jayavarman. The letter said: “Your guard has been captured. You must bring a golden statue or there will be war.”
King Jayavarman received the letter. He was very angry and nervous about his guard. He wrote a letter back. The letter said: “I will bring you the statue. Do not kill my guard. We can compromise.”
When the King read the letter, he was happy because he knew he would receive the golden statue, but when the statue came, he did not send back the guard. He killed the guard and so there was war. The war lasted two months.
The ghost of the guard, Vuthy, came back to help his country. And so, King Jayavarman and his soldiers won the war. King Jayavarman’s Queen and his people were very happy.
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