It's Kong Olav.
Hanne (roommate and fellow peace-student) and I woke up at the crack of dawn today, walked down to the Redd Barna (Save the Children) office, got into Bjørn-Richard's (Redd Barna leader) car, and drove two and a half hours to Bardu. Our goal: to tell school children between the ages of 6 and 12 about Angola and Kosovo. Our success rate: phenomenal...well, for the most part.
Bjørn-Richard kindly offered to do the first session, so that we could see how the whole thing was supposed to happen. But then - in typical Skogfjorden fashion - we learned by doing, improvising along the way. (I would argue that this is the best way to learn, anyway.) Hanne and I showed them a film about Angola and then put various pictures on the overhead, asking them to tell us what they saw, felt, thought, etc. It is easy to forget how straight-forward and "right on the money" kids can be, and after spending so much time with adults lately, this was a refreshing breath of fresh air...a life-saver. They had great questions, intelligent answers, and they noticed details in the pictures that so many adults would have completely overlooked.
After a total of five sessions today, we look forward to many more.
PS: One of the pictures we show the kids is of a statue in Angola that was erected after the war. The statue is of two Angolan men with mustaches, sun-glassses, carrying guns, and holding the Angolan flag. When asked what they saw in the picture, one kid proclaimed with great seriousness: It's Kong Olav.
Last time I checked, Kong Olav was neither black nor Angolan, but it was a good guess.
Bjørn-Richard kindly offered to do the first session, so that we could see how the whole thing was supposed to happen. But then - in typical Skogfjorden fashion - we learned by doing, improvising along the way. (I would argue that this is the best way to learn, anyway.) Hanne and I showed them a film about Angola and then put various pictures on the overhead, asking them to tell us what they saw, felt, thought, etc. It is easy to forget how straight-forward and "right on the money" kids can be, and after spending so much time with adults lately, this was a refreshing breath of fresh air...a life-saver. They had great questions, intelligent answers, and they noticed details in the pictures that so many adults would have completely overlooked.
After a total of five sessions today, we look forward to many more.
PS: One of the pictures we show the kids is of a statue in Angola that was erected after the war. The statue is of two Angolan men with mustaches, sun-glassses, carrying guns, and holding the Angolan flag. When asked what they saw in the picture, one kid proclaimed with great seriousness: It's Kong Olav.
Last time I checked, Kong Olav was neither black nor Angolan, but it was a good guess.
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