We Nurture Wonderful Human Beings

Magic Boxes to the King of our Kingdom

Year 4 had just 5 days (!) to prepare to meet our beloved King of Tooro. This was no ordinary meeting: His Majesty, King Oyo had invited Sadhguru School to perform on the 24th anniversary of His coronation, at the Royal Palace in Fort Portal - less than 30km from school. 

The children wrote and performed a poem dedicated to the protection of the beauty of their Tooro Kingdom, hiding safely all those things precious to them in their magic boxes which they offered to their king in the final verse. One of our volunteers, a master craftsman (fine cabinet maker), made a beautiful wooden box jointed with dovetails and hinged with handmade brass studs, which the children decorated with their artwork. 

A little snippet about our King: at the tender age of just 3, The Prince made global headlines, entering the Guiness Book of Records as the youngest prince in the world to be crowned king, ascending the throne to the Tooro Kingdom at the death of his father, on 12th September 1995. See the video in the link below to discover what was inside the magic boxes.

Red Hen Bread & Indigenous Food Fair

Reception children, as young as four - baking? Yes! Inspired as part of their Red Hen project, a story that they worked on for a few weeks, the little ones learnt how to make bread like the Red Hen. Led by a volunteer, the little ones learnt a skill in such a joyful and fun way, baking together and enjoying the yummy bread just like the Red Hen.

If we are going to talk about baking, we should at least know the source of the ingredients: our Nutrition Club participated in the Rwenzori Regional Indigeneous Food and Seed Fair, where they enjoyed learning about native seeds, cultural tools and methods used to farm in the olden days. The food fair focused on sharing ways to utilise indigenous food and seeds to end hunger. Our children also performed a skit that was carefully prepared for the event.

Stalagmites and Stalactites

Recently Year 3 and 4 were learning about stalagmites and stalactites. As part of their studies, they visited the famous Amabere caves and waterfalls near Fort Portal. They were in awe when they found out about the scientific reasons behind all the legends that they had heard about surrounding the caves. Added to this, they found out how waterfalls are formed and how to make maps, and they listened to cultural and tribal stories - all in one place on a fun-filled field day.

Jiu Jitsu

Do you remember from an earlier blog our children beginning to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? At that time our students had started out wrestling and grappling on the lawn... Recognizing the effort of the team and the risk of injury involved while wrestling on hard surfaces, a few people from the USA contributed wrestling mats to make wrestling an on-going possibility at school. We now have a batch of eleven wrestlers competing in their very first competition as I write! Look out for our next blog to see how these little angels fare: though small in stature, our students are strong in stamina, vigour and intensity - a natural offshoot of the physicality of their rural backgrounds, which the school is trying to nurture and direct for their wellbeing through disciplines such as jiu jitsu.

Links:

• Our Magic Boxes

The Boon of Volunteering 

We are continuously blessed with creative and willing hands at Sadhguru School. In the past few months Lily, Carlo and Daisy have thrown themselves into the fray, from two weeks to three months. Lily is an art Teacher from the UK, Carlo a graduate in poetry from Kenya and Daisy, a pebble's throw from the UK's Stonehenge, is on a gap year before training as a teacher. Some of their involvement covered training teachers in creative and enquiring methods within the classroom, directing a school play based on 'talk for writing', carving and scorching wooden toys (or 'learning aids') for reception and year 1, and inspiring the children through art projects and experimentation.

In Lily's words: 'The huge smiles, warmth and a wonderful curiosity that greeted me from staff and pupils alike made me feel right at home from the very beginning of my visit... After an inspirational two weeks spent with the staff and pupils of Sadhguru School I have returned to the UK full of admiration for all those who have planted and nurtured this awesome learning environment and brought it to fruition.'

Lily has thought provokingly expressed three existing areas of Sadhguru School in a fun and challenging framework, for us to keep coming back to as we take the school forward; again in her own words:

'By poetic manner or through the surreal stages of boredom and jetlag experienced during my homeward journey, I came upon the idea to pair these 3 key elements, integral to Sadhguru school, with the elements of atomic structure and the Indian trinity of Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu:

1. YOGA - Represented by the Neutron and Vishnu, the maintainer - at the heart of the school: without the maintenance of yoga’s energetic presence within the school, it simply would not exist as Sadhguru School.
2. CULTURE - Represented by the Proton and Brahma, the creator - a fusion of old and new, Eastern, Western and most importantly African cultures. The true craftsmanship, strength and sensitivity required to delicately balance the schools rich and varied genetics.
3. ACADEMIA - Represented by the Electron and Shiva, the Destroyer - for a curriculum that should be fluid, flexible and continually adapting and evolving to meet the current needs of each individual child in an ever changing world.'

Mixed Martial Arts

Yogesh has been teaching the older children grappling skills, drawing on his background in Juijitsu. Beyond the practical need to learn the fundamentals of real life self-defence, the discipline and commitment instilled by martial arts are invalueable. He and Tanamayi took some of the children to Kampala to watch a martial arts competition. They slept in a traditional Japanese dojo ('place of learning') used for matial arts practice at the kindness of its Japanese founder, Fugi, who offered them all tremendous hospitality. See the short heartwarming video they put together of their visit in the link below, where you can see them having a go at capoeira too. 

Along the same theme, we were fortunate to have Umar, the Ugandan two-time World Champion in Muay Thai kickboxing and his friend, Seth from Lionheart Mixed Martial Arts in the US, visit Sadhguru School for a short workshop and question and answer session with the children. Umar explained: 'Muay Thai techniques are what have helped me become what I am now. I do this with high regard for my native country Uganda and for the core values of the art like discipline and respect... The nature of the game is like this: you win some and you loose some. But mainly you keep trying. You keep going.' 

International Day of Yoga

In the run-up to International Day of Yoga on June 21st, some of our children together with our two hatha yoga teachers offered some simple 'yoga tools' workshops in Kampala. Our nine and ten year olds were demonstrating yoga to corporate managers and employees, as well as to school children from a mix of cultures and sophisticated city backgrounds. The level of involvement and openess of participants and organisers at each venue was a giant boost for our children. They also got a first time experience of the cinema (Aladdin), rounded off with cones of ice cream... images below. 

Beautiful Books Galore

Old Kamapala Senior Secondary School alumuni (OKAS fund), in partnership with Books Abroad, sent 2,000 books to Sadhguru School, which had started out being assembled and lovingly selected in Scotland, UK. This tremendous book feast was made possible by the indefatigueable Arun, who spent his childhood in Uganda and is an alumni of Old Kampala Senior Secondary School. These are books that you and I might have discarded from our shelves and, rather than throw away, Books Abroad can make use of them. You can imagine the mix up that might happen from an ecclectic mix of reading ages and tastes stacked in a warehouse and then sent to a primary school 4,000 miles away overseas. So we were astounded and delighted by the care and relevance with which they were chosen for our children; we now have a substantial proud beginning to our children's reading library. 

Closing Words from Carlo's Volunteering Experience

'Where to begin, the heart-melting welcomes from the teachers, students, environment and all the neighbours of the school? Falling asleep under a valley of stars and waking up to the smiles, dances and laughter of every member of staff? The sheer enthusiasm, dedication and curiosity of both teachers and students? The love, energy and care that goes into every aspect of the School’s being? There are too many beautiful moments and experiences to begin to put into words but I know one thing, Sadhguru School is a place of nurturing and inspiration like no other.'

 "Volunteering is a way of learning to make our lives into a process of just giving and being willing. Not just willing to do this or that, simply willing." - Sadhguru

Links:

• visit to martial arts tournament