This tiny photo is a picture of me working with the young adults of Anjali House back in March when I was there in Siem Reap setting up the Writing Workshop. Careful readers of this blog may remember that at that time we published the first issue of the kids’ new literary magazine which they have titled: Wonderful Writing: Imagination is the Best Power.
    This week was phase two of the project, the experimental phase which I’m referring to as the “Distance Learning” segment of the workshop. A few weeks ago I wrote up a lesson plan which I sent back to Richard, the Director of Anjali House’s Young Adult Program. In it I reminded them of the structure of the week’s classes and the approach to learning which we have developed, namely one of encouragement, openness, flexibility and fun. The idea was to spend a day reminding the kids about the elements of writing both poems and stories, then have them write first as a group and then individually. I also sent over some photos of London life to use as a prompt.  My idea with that was to help them think outside of their immediate surroundings, to open their eyes to lives lived across the planet and to try to apply all that to their creativity at home. Richard and Rhonda, another important part of Anjali House’s growing team of volunteers, then spent a week working with the kids. As new pieces were written, they were downloaded onto a password-encrypted forum via the rickety old unreliable Anjali House computer (hint hint: if anyone has a decent computer they would like to donate, let me know 🙂 ). I then read the pieces, made my editorial comments and wrote individual notes of encouragement to each student. The kids used these comments to edit their pieces, accepting my suggestions or not as they saw fit. As I told them, their work is their own and the final decision about any possible edit comes from them. They’re the bosses! And the result? Another amazing new issue of their magazine, full of poems and stories and photographs — all the result of the creativity and fearlessness of these wonderful kids. Here’s one example:
                                          The Life of Musicians
By: Pech, Rattana, Moni and Vireak

In the winter a group of 4 musicians are playing music to make money. They learned to play at school and they stayed friends. Sometimes they play music which makes the people happy and they will throw money into the box. The group of musicians hope people will give them money every day. The musicians need to buy food, clothes, things for their instruments.
Some people don’t look at the musicians and that makes them sad. Sometimes that makes them not want to be musicians anymore. When people look down on them they play the music very quietly and it sounds lonely. They want to find new jobs, but their skill is music and they really love music because music is their life.
Once When they were playing a rich man came and said to them: “Stop! I don’t want to hear your noise! Go away. Don’t play here anymore. If you play here, I will tell my servant to come and give you a black eye!”  They packed up their instruments and they walked tired and hungry to the market. They started to play near the place that sold souvenirs. They started to play their music. A fat man got out of his silver Lexus. He heard lovely music and it made him feel very interested. He looked at them and the music told this man about their lives. He talked to them: ‘Your music is very lovely. I want to take you to my restaurant to play for my guests. I will give you a salary’. The musicians were very happy and they said: ‘Thank you, you are a very good person. You do not look down on us and you help us a lot.’ They now know they will have enough money for their families.

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And here’s a poem:

                             The Farmer’s Life in the Countryside
By: Sopheak, Sandi, Seut, Samphors, Chanroat and Kimlong

Fresh air
Green
Rice field
Cattle eating grass
A buffalo laughs
Ohohohohohoh

Farmers planting
                 Rice
                 Vegetables
                 Fruits

A cow eats grass
The farmer’s working hard
Everyone’s busy
But I’m relaxed
After working

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We have all now agreed that the experimental stage of our workshop has been a success. With some minor logistical tweaks, we can now look forward to several Distance Learning Workshops each year which will give the kids the continuity they need to really enhance their education and build up their self-esteem. And then once a year, I’ll be there to reinforce it all. That’s the rich and creamy icing on my cake! And who knows….maybe some day we’ll be able to expand the program so more writers can go see for themselves what it is like to work with these kids. I can’t tell you how privileged I feel to be able to be a part of all this.