Grammar of the Heart

(originally published on Boundless on January 7, 2012)

This week my students packaged up a book that was carried to the small village of Katholk, Southern Sudan where the children there would open it up to find letters and pictures from each of my 84 students describing everything from a typical school day to Thanksgiving to hairstyles to fire trucks to bathrooms.  Julie Elmore, our friend and correspondent from Sudef, the organization we are working with, also delivered paper, pencils, crayons, and markers.  The children will tell their own stories to her and for the first time ever, hold school supplies in their hands and draw pictures to return to us.  Once we have those, we will narrow down our own words, involve some of our own artwork and Julie’s photographs, and write a book that is the collaboration of children in a small town in NH and children in a small town in Southern Sudan.  We hope to find some generous publisher who will consider this book, and then donate any proceeds to the building of the health clinic and school in Katholk.  I think this is one of the most remarkable projects my students have ever taken on.  

But it was not my idea.