New music & video featuring the Yahweh Yogis

Shot this video yesterday before we started our yoga session.

Please click here to go to Thou Art Yoga's blog and read the story behind it.

The Art of You

Every Wednesday in Buccoo, Tobago, special needs children connected to Healing with Horses Foundation and Yahweh Foundation join Thou Art Yoga for "The Art of You"—fun yoga and art sessions on the cliff at sunset. Sessions run for an hour, with an extra half hour set aside for clearing up and washing yoga mats.

 Yesterday an intimate group of children from Yahweh Foundation joined us for the 2nd 'Art of You' session. We had lots of fun ... yoga (individually and in pairs), drumming on buckets and a few minutes of shouting "I AAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!" as loudly as we could across the ocean from the cliff, to let people know how great we are. 

Thanks to Veronika of Healing with Horses for the pics, which can be viewed on Thou Art Yoga's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.510884752255572.123976.171905482820169&type=3

"Important Pubic Notice"

Yesterday, walking with a friend along the waterfront from the Breakfast Shed to the Hyatt, I saw this sign. My eyes first fell on "Pubic Notice" and I chuckled. Some idle person had removed the "l" from "Public" to be funny.

As I read on, the message began to take on disturbing undertones. It seemed like a warning message to parents and guardians "of all children" to "be extremely vigilant" and "be alert & careful" in open public spaces where who knows what can happen. Suggestions of predators/male exhibitionism ("while he front off") and nuances of incest/child abuse (perhaps because cases of such are prevalent in Trinidad and Tobago) seemed to be at the core of this warning.

Did someone deliberately rip these letters off in fun ... or to sound a warning?
Did those particular letters just happen to peel off for themselves in all the rain we've been having?
Did I happen to read "more" into what is actually there?

Whatever the answer, the fact is, parents and guardians do need to be extremely aware and vigilant of what is happening with their children ... in public and private spaces.

The mouth of babes

Yesterday I was at my friend Dion's home studio and we were editing some short videos. His daughter, age 6, came into the room and was chatting with me.

At one point . . .

Me: So what's your favourite subject at school?

Zuri (in all seriousness): Breaktime, Lunchtime, maths, science, penmanship.

When work is play

Yesterday morning from 9 a.m. - midday I (Thou Art Yoga) led 14 children aged 5 - 11 in an environmentally-themed art, yoga, music session. It was part of a kids' camp for children of TDC staff members. My assistant for the morning was a young woman, Falima, the niece of one of my friends (who had recommended her). She turned out to be a great assistant—very good with the children, proactively attending to things that needed to be done without me having to tell her what to do and when, and quite apt at taking pictures while I conducted the session.

 

We introduced ourselves by saying our names and which animal or plant we thought we most identified with. The children then made name tags with their name and a drawing of the animal or plant they had chosen—shark, jaguar, cheetah, monkey, puppy, snake, rose, tarantula, etc. Melisha (see above name tag) decided she was most like a bat "because I like the night. I like to stay up late watching TV."

We separated into two teams—Flora and Fauna—for an exciting game of Pictionary, using names of local flora and fauna as the items to be drawn. The children were very intuitive and excellent at guessing each other's drawings, even when the depictions looked nothing like "the real thing". For example, would you have guessed that the above was a leatherback turtle? They did.

Storytime yoga followed, with an environmental story I had developed called "Susie and the Magic Knapsack". In the above photo the children make their way into tree pose, representing the trees in the forest where Susie goes to rescue endangered animals.

They seemed to enjoy it. I certainly did.

We also made sock puppets, using old socks and items brought from home—buttons and cereal boxes. Reduce, reuse, recycle. The morning snack was eaten while watching I SPY Things in My Garden (a ten minute environmental documentary made by children aged 7 - 10 under my guidance)—after which questions were asked to see who had been paying attention.

 

 The final part of the session was a composition of a song about keeping the beach clean, sung lustily to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", which some of the children were able to play on the pan.

Before lunch, we closed off by standing in a circle, each saying one at a time: "I promise __________________" and filling in the blank with something we promised to do for the environment.

Answers included:
I promise to pick up rubbish whenever I see it.
I promise to help my mummy clean the house.
I promise to not throw garbage in the water.
I promise to ride my bicycle (i.e. to help reduce toxic car exhaust)

Being around children, there are many things they say that are worthy of remembering and recounting to others for a laugh. The one that stuck with me above all was this one . . .

(Just after I had told them what our next activity was going to be).
Little boy: But I HATE yoghurt!
Little girl: It's not Yoghurt! It's yogaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Musical Beans

Yesterday I was invited to judge the "Investigative" category at a Girls' High School environmental/science fair. One of the entries I really liked was called "Musical Beans". The girls had grown 4 red bean seeds in similar conditions over a 3 wk period. The only difference was the music played to them 3 hrs/day. 

The Gospel music bean rotted & got maggots, the soft rock bean remained dormant & also got maggots, the dub/reggae bean grew a bit but shriveled up and died, the Hindu bhajan bean was tall and flourishing.

Their basic hypothesis was that sacred/spiritual music has a positive effect on us. 





 

Conversations with a little yogi

Recently my 10-year old nephew, Liu, went on a baking spree to raise money to buy a Mac laptop. He got a huge amount of orders, mainly from my friends, who were all raving about his cakes, cookies and brownies.

Today he was in the kitchen helping me to make hummus (to eat after this afternoon's first introductory Kundalini Yoga session).

Liu: Is hummus yoga food?

Me: What's yoga food?

Liu: Relaxing food. (Thoughtful pause) Are all people who do yoga vegetarian?

Me: Many are.

Liu: Well I meditate but I eat meat.

Me: How do you meditate?

Liu: In my room.

Me: What do you do?

Liu: I sit and close my eyes. Ommmmmm. I empty my mind, like those monks do.

A KIND day

Yesterday I went to take photos of underprivileged children on behalf of KIND. The images will be used for huge posters and photographic panels - decor for a major fundraising concert KIND is having toward the end of this month to raise money for services - specifically the Sponsor A Child to Learn Programme.

The family I visited is made up of five children (eldest 11), two parents and one baby due next month. Their abode is very humble - a small, one-room wooden shack on top of a steep hill. Their view is one that people would pay hundreds of dollars a square foot for: panoramic expanse of the plains, the capital and the ocean. Next door to their wooden home a small new house is being built for them.

The children are warm, bright, well-mannered and friendly. We took to each other immediately. It was clear that, despite being disadvantaged, they are loved. Their parents do what they can to provide for them: food, shelter, education, clothing, attention, guidance. Organisations like KIND help make this possible.

The children were intrigued by my camera, so I let them take some shots of their own. They did a great job even though the camera was a bit heavy for them to hold. My favourite of their photos is the one below. Either Jesus or OJ took this one. N.B. The red orb above their mother's head.

Click here to read more about the upcoming concert and KIND's mission to provide for underprivileged children.

To contact KIND for information or tickets, please call:
485-1260 (Dominique Galt)
626-KIND
626-NEED

Ten year old signature

I recently came across the Little House on the Prairie books I had as a child (I had the whole series). It's funny to see the little signature on the opening page of each volume and to think that I was ten when I wrote it.

Winning streak

A few days ago I won the By-My-Art t-shirt competition. And today, the Prep's Garden video (featured above) which I shot late last year won the TV/video category of the IICA/CARDI Excellence in Agricultural Journalism Award 2009.

As I sat in the prize giving ceremony today, waiting to hear the results, I thought of how great it would be to win ... not just for winning's sake, but because I know the children, their parents, their teachers and the entire school were so excited and pleased when I did the video ... and would be thrilled if it won.

Looking forward to going to the school (my old primary school - The University School) and surprising them on Monday morning at assembly, by announcing the victory.

Splitting the prize money will be the cherry on top.

Out of the Box (the online launch)

First there was Invisible: Children Living with HIV/AIDS - an awareness-raising mini documentary created for TTCRC (Trinidad and Tobago Coalition for the Convention on the Rights of the Child).Now there is "Out of the Box".

Five secondary school students meet an openly HIV positive woman (Lorna Henry) and discover that the face of HIV doesn't always hide and doesn't always fit the stereotype. Under the guidance of multimedia artist Elspeth Duncan, the girls created this mini film during their experience.

Out of the Box (2009), created for TTCRC (Trinidad and Tobago Coalition for the Convention on the Rights of the Child), was funded by UNAIDS and UNDP.


ABOUT TTCRC
The TTCRC is an umbrella organisation comprised of individuals and groups who are interested in realizing the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in T&T through advocacy, education and collaboration at all levels, with the aim of developing each child's fullest potential and keeping at the fore all things that are in the child's best interest.

For more information and to get involved: ttcrc1999 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Are you out of the box? Stay tuned for video launch

In Dec 2008 - Jan/Feb 2009 I worked with five secondary school students on a mini documentary for TTCRC (Trinidad and Tobago Coalition for the Convention on the Rights of the Child). This mini doc was entitled: "Out of the Box".
The girls had never (knowingly) met an HIV positive person before. In their experience of filming "Out of the Box", they met and worked with Lorna Henry, a woman/wife/ mother living with HIV. Through her, the girls came to realise that the face of HIV does not always hide and does not always fit the stereotype.

Tune in later today on this blog for the online launch of "Out of the Box". As with this (offline) screening last year, discussion is encouraged. We look forward to your comments.

The girls and Lorna.

The Gift of Life

Find more photos like this on Give it to me Raw

Some of my raw creations
*

Yesterday I started putting together the gift I'll be giving my godson Luc (age 8) for Christmas. He doesn't read this blog, so mentioning the gift won't spoil the surprise. I'm sharing this because someone out there may be wracking their brain, trying to figure out what to give someone (child or adult) ... and this blog post may come to the rescue.

This is a gift for all ages. It's also ideal because, once taken care of and attended to, it will continue to give to the recipient and loved ones all through the year(s).

The gift will also get the recipient into activities that are necessary in today's world:
(1) reducing, reusing and recycling
(2) planting our own organic food

I'm giving Luc three troughs, each containing rich, moist, fertile, dark brown, earth from Santa Cruz. The troughs are apple crates (crates that apples came packed in - available for free from any fruit vendor). This is an example of 'reusing', rather than purchasing expensive plastic crates from plant stores. The apple crates are perfectly good vessels that would otherwise have been tossed into some landfill.

Trough #1 contains basic seasoning: chadon beni and chive (will add other herbs too)
Trough #2 contains 4 green cabbages and two melongene plants
Trough #3 contains 4 lettuce plants and some more chadon beni

Maybe I'll buy a child's watering can to go with it.

This is a good start. Pretty soon he will be able to harvest his own crops ... although, these are the kinds of foods that children generally don't like.

But maybe he'll start to like greens because he's growing them.

Based on my own experience as a child, I'm assuming he'll enjoy having his own kitchen garden. I used to have a few beds in the back yard where I grew every imaginable seed or growable item that passed through the kitchen: pigeon peas, corn, pumpkin, watermelon, potato, etc.

Prep's Garden

7:24 mins
Food security in Trinidad and Tobago - a national priority

I completed the above video this week (7:24 mins). It features 6 year old students of the primary school I went to as a child (The University School).

Hopefully after viewing this you will be inspired to plant your own organic garden (i.e. if you don't have one already).

As a thank you for making this video with them, the children gave me some of their delicious organic ochros.

Facing Life

For the past few years I have been one of the judges at the Rebirth House "Facing Life" film competition for secondary schools. This year I've been asked to be Head Judge for the event (Facing Life Nine).

Date: Friday 6th November 2009
Time: 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Venue: Andre Kamperveen Hall, Centre of Excellence, Macoya
All are invited.
Admission: donations welcome.

Rebirth House is a centre for primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of drug abuse. Themes therefore always revolve around substance abuse and its impact on our lives. Tomorrow, 10-minute awareness-raising films produced by students of 12 national secondary schools will explore the issue through this year's theme: "Highs and Lows".

Also on the day:
- Entertainment
- Motivational speakers
- Lunch
- Refreshments.

An interesting, entertaining and educational experience for those who have the time to attend (some or all of the event).

All are welcome.

Santa Conversations

Source of photo
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Phone conversation with my godson Luc (age 6) earlier today ...

Me: So what are you doing?

Luc: Watching E. play Wii.

(E. is his brother)

Me: Oh, the Wii you got from Santa?

Luc: Yes

Me: Does Santa always give you what you want?

Luc: Yes

Me: Hmm. Even if you asked him for things for me?

Luc (confidently): Yeah

Me: So how do you ask him? Do you write him a letter?

Luc: No. I just talk to him

Me: Aloud?

Luc: No, I whisper.

Me: Where do you whisper?

Luc: I go to my room

Me: Does Santa ever talk back to you?

Luc: No.

(There was a little more to our conversation but I can't remember it now. I love the trust and surety in the way that most children know and believe in things).