The long weekend at the first of August had perfect summery weather here in Kingston although it seems that some of Ontario experienced severe thunderstorms. I spent a few hours yesterday by the lake taking about 300 photos of folks enjoying the day. I won’t drop them all on you but hope this few gives you a taste of the day.
I have been a bit lazy about blogging over the summer. Outdoors. On the move. Every once in a while, pulled out my phone to grab a photo. So since a picture is worth 1000 words, here are a few thousand to illustrate the sultry weekend we have had in Kingston, Canada. Summer doesn’t last long enough!
For the past week I have been thinking about kids and birthdays. Here’s why.
My granddaughter, who turned seven last month, has liked shoes since she was two – genes she got from her grandmother. This has made birthday gifts easy for me as I promised her when she was two that every birthday, until she was 20, I would buy her a pair of shoes. She anticipates her birthday now, thinking about what shoes she will get and our ritual has morphed into me giving her money so she can do her own shopping. We both look forward to this exchange and I am rewarded by her giddy anticipation of shopping for shoes.
But she is also aware that there are kids in Africa who have no shoes at all. She has seen and heard of the children that I have visited in East African schools who walk to school barefoot and who suffer from blisters and jigger infections.
Most kids in rural Africa don’t have much by way of birthday celebrations. Cake and presents are beyond the means of their family. And ice cream? Well, in rural spots there is no electricity, let alone refrigeration, so ice cream is not something that they ever get to experience.
A week after her birthday, Emma sent me $10 in the mail to put toward helping kids in Africa through the CanAssist African Relief Trust. She wanted to share some of her birthday shoe money with kids who had none. I am so very proud of her for her generous concern for others.
Canada’s birthday is July 1. It always gives me pause on Canada Day to reflect on how fortunate I am to live in this country. We take for granted so many of the things that people in other parts of the world struggle to find – security, clean water, access to education and health care, and decent infrastructure.
When kids hear about this they seem to understand and their hearts and minds immediately want to reach out to do what they can to help. It is an immediate, instinctive and enthusiastic response to the obvious need – a recognition that they can, indeed, assist.
In the past few weeks, students in Mrs Pare’s grade 4 class at Glenburnie School have enthusiastically had fundraisers at the school to buy school furnishings for a small remote community school in Kenya. Earlier this year, CanAssist funded construction of three classrooms and a latrine at the St Catherine School in Siaya district of Kenya where previously 100 local children learned under a mango tree in the valley. The Glenburnie pupils want to help by providing money to have locally-constructed bench desks built so the Kenyan kids can get up off the cement floor.
Last week, students at Glenburnie School chatted live online with CanAssist Field Representative Dan Otieno in Kenya. Dan was able to greet each one personally and thank them for their contributions to help the St Catherine School.
And there is a bonus for the Glenburnie class donation. Their aim (and they are on track to achieve it) is to give CanAssist a check for $1000 on July 1, Canada’s birthday. What a grand way to celebrate the wealth that we have and share with peers in Kenya. What’s more, the Sasamat foundation in Vancouver has, once again, offered to celebrate our Canadian well-being by matching all donations to CanAssist in July up to a total of $20,000. The children’s donation to St Catherine’s will thereby be doubled to $2000 – good news for everyone.
On July 9 and 10, from 10;30-2, in Kingston’s City Park, another group of enthusiastic kids are going to be busking. The “Not So Amateur Amateurs” will entertain with music, dancing and other artistic skills and the proceeds or their busking will go entirely to needy kids, including a school in Kenya. Like the Glenburnie student gift to CanAssist, the money raised and donated by these young entertainers will be doubled with the Sasamat July match.
I am often overwhelmed by the caring compassion and motivation to help shown by youngsters who appear more aware of the inequities in this world than many adults are. I wonder, when a school class of 10-year-olds can raise $1000 for students in Africa or a seven year old can share a portion of her birthday gift money, what adults could achieve if they put their heart into it.
If you would like to join these children in sharing your good fortune with young people in Kenya, your donation to CanAssist can also be doubled if made in July. CanAssist’s aim will be to use this money for school projects. July gifts to CanAssist, matched by Sasamat, will help a preschool, elementary school, secondary school and vocational school. Young Africans from the age of 4 to 24 will benefit.
Happy birthday, Canada.
I simply have to share this today.
My friends Heather Haynes and Cathy Cleary have recently returned from a trip to Congo where they have been helping a group of women who have had horrific experience with war and rape and disease and poverty. Cathy and Heather have immersed themselves in attempts to assist these women. I have watched a couple of their YouTube posts and must encourage you to do the same.
My experience in East Africa has taken me to places where poverty and the consequences of poverty have impacted many lives. Lack of opportunities for education or health care, no clean water to drink and no place to defecate except a field or behind a tree or in a plastic bag that is thrown to the railroad track that runs through the slum. This is poverty beyond what you can comprehend if you don’t see it. But I cannot imagine the heart-wrenching that Cathy and Heather feel when they witness the women and children who have suffered not only poverty but emotional and physical abuse. And in this short video, I see how the children are perplexed and touched by Heather’s emotion.
Through the work I do with the CanAssist African Relief Trust, we attempt to improve infrastructure so that entire schools and communities can benefit. We rely on the generosity of Canadian donors to do this work and so far have been able to fund about $600,000 at schools, clinics and communities in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. In July we will be mounting our fourth annual Canada Day Challenge where all (tax deductible) donations to CanAssist will be matched by the Sasamat Foundation of Vancouver.
Heather and Cathy are also looking for sponsorship for some of the children and women that they are working with in Congo. You can sponsor a child for $1 a day. This provides shelter, food and education.. plus health care. Women- $40 a month for two years. This provides a small stipened each month and sewing training, group support… second year is business training and exit kit. They are not yet resistered with CRA so there is not tax receipt but as the MasterCard ad says, the reward is Priceless.
Those of us who work doing this kind of charity in Africa have to tell the sad storie and show the need. But we must also acknowledge that this is not the only story with which to brand Africa. There are lots of well-educated, polite, generous, happy folks that we meet every day. The cities rival Western cities for their vitality. So a trip there is not all doom and sadness. In fact, even in the middle of poverty there is joy and laughter. Witness these vulnerable kids at the Congo orphanage singing together.
You can learn more about Worlds Collide here – http://worldscollideafrica.com
And we are always happy for your support at The CanAssisst African Relief Trust http://canassistafrica.ca. And if you donate to CanAssist in July the value of your gift will be doubled with the Sasamat match.
It is a calm, almost balmy, May evening on the waterfront in Kingston. Folks are strolling and absorbing the warmth and the quiet.
As I walk along, I am troubled, however, thinking of the young man, a stranger to me, who chose to end his life this week by throwing himself from the 17th floor of the apartment building where I live. I grieve for him and for his family. As I soak up the beautiy of this early summer night, I am saddened that this fellow, a boy really, must have felt such overwhelming turmoil and despair and that he will never again experience this peacefulness.
It is heartbreaking.
A trip to NYC has to include a Broadway show or three. The theatre district around Times Square is certainly a busy hub with many theatres packed into the neighborhood in the middle of Manhattan, their marquis all luring tourists to see their show.
We went to three.
For my first Broadway experience I saw Beautiful, the Carole King Story and this was the absolutely perfect introduction. The show was delightful, flawless musical entertainment. The stage converted from a living room to a three story recording studio to a performance stage seamlessly and elegantly. It was fun to watch the pianos and furniture glide on and off the stage like magic. And there were two amazing costume changes that happened in a second that made me blink and wonder just what had happened. More magic.
The joy of this piece is the music. Twenty-eight (yes, 28!) familiar songs from the 60’s. I knew every word to every song and it was obvious from the delighted sighs in the audience when an intro started up that I was not the only one. The cast is strong and a works together as an ensemble. And, it keeps building, the lead actor playing Carole King is Chilina Kennedy. Chilina spent her teen years in Kingston and many of us who do amateur theatre here know her from having worked with her on one production or another a few years ago. We are all very proud of her for arriving as a Broadway “star” and from the overwhelming standing ovation she received we are not alone. 
Despite her demanding schedule she was gracious to visit with us (along with her husband, my friend Jacob James, and her adorable son Henry) in her dressing room after the show. You can imagine that this was a memorable evening. Thanks, Chilina and Jacob for this fantastic introduction to Broadway theatre. This is a show that would appeal to everyone with perhaps a lean toward those of us who vividly remember Carole King’s Tapestry album, little Eva, the Shirelles, the Drifters and the Ritcheous Brothers. And Neil Sedaka, too.
Book of Mormon was also on my list of “must see”. Where Beautiful is … beautiful, Mormon is explosive energy and very much in your face. You will need to be OK with over-the-top profanity and a deluge of politically-incorrect vulgarity to enjoy it. I absolutely loved it. I laughed non-stop and the time just flew by. Once again there is a talented young ensemble cast with many numbers having rich choral work. My choice for the best performance of the shows I saw was Christopher John O’Neill as Elder Cunningham. I could see this show again in a minute and know that there would be more funny little jabs that I would get out of it.
It is not easy to describe this show. Suffice to say that the plot line revolves around two young Mormons being assigned to Uganda for their “mission”. Here is a taste of the music performed at the Tony Awards in 2011. Listen for the multi-layered choral background.
The third show we saw was It’s Only a Play. The playbill boasted an all-star Broadway award-winning cast that included Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, T.R. Knight, F. Murray Abraham and Katie Finneran. The play was terrible. 
The plot was non-existent and the whole thing was like an overly-long Carol Burnett sketch, including Nathan Lane breaking character at one point, laughing and throwing in a line. The cast, it seemed, were resting on their laurels, lampooning and mugging to the audience who seemed to lap up just seeing these stars regardless of the material. It was the worst piece of theatre that I have seen in the past five years and that includes high-school productions. The only glimmer of talent here was the newcomer, young Micah Stock. He was the only one that looked like he was trying or maybe not trying too hard. If you are in New York, don’t go to this piece of schlock.
With a population of 20 million people, New York City is a great place to people-watch. Every language you can imagine. And it’s free!
Bicycle taxi in front of the Central Library
Some of the 20,000 people in the Sikh parade down Madison Avenue.
Enjoying the late afternoon sun in Bryant Park.
Cops in Grand Central Station
At Coney Island
Kids on a ride at Coney Island
Times Square – Always busy
Classic New York Hot Dog Vendor
Tourists doing selfies. (there were a lot of them)
And yet, despite all the hustle and bustle and millions of people, you can find a quiet spot to enjoy nature right in the middle of Manhattan in Central Park
Familiar icons
Statue of Liberty – photo from the Staten Island Ferry
Inside the New York Central Library
The new World Trade Centre
Lower Fifth Avenue
Radio City Music Hall
On the Staten Island Ferry
View from the top of the Rockefeller Centre – 50th St
For the past few days I have been wandering around New York City. April is a great time to visit. Spring flowers and trees in blossom. Perfect temperature for walking from one end of Manhattan to the other.
Since a picture is worth 1000 words I will stick to photos instead of exposition. It will be a trilogy. Spring Flowers – Icons – People
Bryant Park
59th St and 5th Avenue
Central Park
In Central Park
Chrysler building from 42nd St
Empire State Buliding
Sometimes it is easier to turn a blind eye to poverty and suffering than to do something about it.
In Canada, because we have social assistance programmes funded by our various levels of government, we tend to let others provide the help rather than deal directly with the people in need.
Do you know that a single person receiving social assistance (we used to call this welfare) only gets about $650 a month to sustain them? Could you find accommodation, food, clothing, and transportation for that? How could you find a job if you have no phone, or a computer connection to communicate with prospective employers, or transportation to go to an interview? If the social assistance recipient finds even a part-time job to supplement his/her income, that money is deducted from the social assistance check. This must remove incentive to find low-paying work, often the only jobs available.
Now … imagine what it is like in much of sub-Saharan Africa. There is no government social assistance, or employment insurance, or social security, or pension plan. Unemployment rates approach 40% in Kenya (in Canada is is 6.8%) and the food inflation rate in Kenya in 2014 was 8% compared to ours at 3.9%. Although primary school education in Kenya is claimed to be “free”, many families can not afford the required school uniforms, or additional payments needed to support poorly-payed teachers. Classrooms may have sixty or more pupils per teacher, no desks, and no books.
The burden of illness in much of Africa from infectious diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS and ebola far outweighs ours. In Kenya, one child in fourteen dies before the age of five and the chances of a woman dying of a complication from pregnancy is 1:250 compared to 1:9000 here.
Despite their poverty, patients are required to pay a small user fee for health services and medications are often not available or too expensive.
Those of us who have visited communities where this is the situation come home wondering what we can do to help. This is poverty beyond what we, in Canada, can comprehend.
When faced with these overwhelming statistics, it might be natural to feel sorry but give in to the thought that the problems are just too great and vague for individuals like ourselves to do anything about it.
Let me tell you about one Kingston family that decided to help.
Thomas and friends enjoying a filling lunch thanks to Canadian friends.
Last year, Marcia O’Brien, her two young sons and her mom, Gabriella Zamojski traveled to Kenya. During their trip, they visited some rural community schools supported by the CanAssist African Relief Trust.
While visiting the S.P. Geddes Early Childhood Development Centre in Osiri village, they were impressed by how the community was attempting to provide early education to the young children at the school. They also saw that many of the pupils (and teachers too) come to school hungry. One young fellow named Thomas caught their attention and represented the rest. His father is deaf and mute and his mother had died the day prior to their visit to the school. Yet, the child was at school, is best opportunity to receive some caring and support. He was, like many of the other children, hungry.
The image of this child haunted Marcia and Gabriella for months after they returned home. They decided to do what they could to help Thomas and the other children at the school.
In February, I took money from this Canadian family to the school in Kenya to start a weekly lunch programme. CanAssist bought plates and spoons, the children will bring sticks of firewood, parent volunteers will help stir the pots and serve the food and their Kingstonian friends will provide $100 a month, money that will allow the school to feed 120 kids a nutritious lunch once a week.
Although it may be tempting and more appealing to our hearts to provide individual help to one needy child, at the CanAssist African Relief Trust we believe that by helping the community with infrastructure like classrooms, clinics, latrines and water tanks, we are contributing to the well-being of many rather than just a few. Marcia and Gabriella have also adopted this stance with their direct donation to the Kenyan school to feed the whole group, even though their hearts were particularly touched by one student.
What can you do to help? Realize that your support, however meagre it may seem in the big picture, does make a difference to the people in need who live in our own community, or to those who are even more impoverished in developing nations. Every individual effort helps. Combined small contributions add up. Believe it. You can assist.
Little S.P. hands out spoons to the children lined up to get their lunch.
Portions of this article was printed in the Kingston Whig Standard on Thursday April 9, 2015.
johnageddes 