BBQ for BUPPALA DECEMBER 4TH

 

 

Order on-line now!!  We can't wait to see you December 4th at Radnor Middle School.  Click here for incredible Baby Blues BBQ to support our friends at Buppala Primary School!
 

GROWING GREENER IN THE BUPPALA GARDEN!

 

    How exciting is this?!  Students at Buppala Primary School are doing a great job with the garden we planted this summer.  We just received these photos from Headmaster Bukye Edward.  We are on track towards our goal of making Buppala Primary School sustainable and self-sufficient.  Since the garden is relatively new and they have only harvested and dried one maize crop to supplement the lunch we have been providing, we will begin gradually decreasing the amount of money designated for lunches and invest more in supporting the gardening efforts. 

 

 

       Students at Radnor Middle School have been working on creating booklets about their lives to send to their pen pals, and we are preparing for our Second Annual Compassion in Action BBQ Fundraiser on Thursday, December 4th.  Pen Pal & Popcorn Club meets every Thursday in Room 411 from 3-4:00.  Everyone is welcome to join in this incredible effort.  We are making the world greener and healthier...join us!!!  

 

Watch This: Pen Pals Can Change the World!

(Open this link to view the video of our sustainable garden and Peace Flag project):

Summer of the Garden~Pen Pals Rock the World!!!


Goodbye, glorious summer.  My classroom is set up and ready for a new crew of middle schoolers and new pen pals.  This year I welcome my sixth graders into the Wonder Workshop where we learn to look at the world through the lens of geographers and writers and readers and pen pals.  It's gonna be grand.  Meanwhile, our garden that SCA helped make possible is growing in Uganda.

To everyone who contributed to this effort, thank you.  To everyone who meant to contribute, it's not too late.  And to everyone who sees this and is inspired to contribute, well, there's still much to do to bring the Buppala Primary School to a place where they are able to sustain their own lunch program. 

A special note of gratitude goes out to Joanne Trangle, founder of Kuchanga Foundation, and a true explorer.  Her service-travel journeys to Africa will open your eyes and change your life.  Thanks also to our incredible crew: Melanie Bene, Laurie Hruschka, Molly Samson, Hannah Worrell, Catherine Spence-Godin and Ryan Byrd.  I don't know about you guys, but I keep thinking of things I'd like to accomplish, and then I go: heck, I helped build a garden in Uganda, I'm sure I can do that!  I hope you all feel empowered to conquer your fears and make the world more humane. 

With my deep love and gratitude.  Let's keep the love growing! Peace, Jodi

A DREAM REALIZED IN UGANDA

The garden is planted. Well, the things that we can plant at this time, anyways. Their maize has to be harvested before we can plant the pineapples and apple-banana crops. There's more work to do with soil bands and irrigation channels ( to prevent soil erosion ), but at this point, there are ten avocado trees, ten mangoes, five orange trees, six banana trees, ten paw-paws (papaya trees), three raised beds with cabbage, kale and eggplant, plus the field is marked and measured for the pineapple suckers and apple-banana crop. Intermingled will be matoke, a type of banana plant that's commonly served as a main staple, and maize and beans in the remaining land.  Jane, our inspiring and deeply knowlegeable rep from Nogamu, an NGO dedicated to teaching organic farming techniques, was a great teacher and negotiator.  She conducted a meeting with the school leaders, and within minutes of concluding the meeting, we had shovels in the ground and were in non-stop motion for two incredibly 'fruitful' weeks at Buppala Primary School.  

The garden was made possible by a generous grant from SCA Corporation. They are deeply committed to sustainability, and this garden is intended to create a sustainable source of food and nourishment for generations of students at Buppala Primary School.

   None of this would have been possible without my Kampala-based engineer, Moses Bagonza Tindyebwe, and my tour guide and collaborator stateside, Joanne Trangle, the founder of Kuchanga Foundation. They do all of the negotiating, planning and arranging in Uganda, and they are the reason we've been able to be so successful.

        Surrounding the garden are our beautiful Peace Flags sponsored by REF.                                   They are magnificent. This incredible effort was coordinated by one of my former eighth grade students, Catherine Spence-Godin. She made me so proud. Her gentle spirit encouraged the children at Buppala Primary School, and Radnor Schools, and Valley Forge Middle School, the Gesu School in Philly, and in workshops with Radnor friends and family to experiment with color and create messages expressing their love and gratitude. If you know anyone who's looking for an inspiring art teacher, Catherine is beyond qualified and recently certified.

 

Tie dying was a thrilling experiment for these students, and the results speak for themselves. The school looks like a hippie encampment now.  The Peace Flags and the the tiles we erected two years ago are bright reminders of the potential of kids to create beautiful things.  When you look at the flags, it's often impossible to distinguish whether they were tie-dyed by a Buppala kid or a Radnor kid; a P3 student or an eighth grader.  Each flag is unique and perfect, and, altogether, you can't help but smile when you see them flying in the breeze.

 The images of the Buppala kids admiring the flags after they were hung speaks volumes. The flags look like jewels inviting the students into their garden. This was big.  Thank you, Radnor Educational Foundation, for sponsoring this collaborative outdoor art installation.   



 

There was a closing ceremony where the children sang and danced, and the community laughed as we tried to sing along: When we are born we have a learning mind, a learning mind, a learning mind. When we are born we have a learning mind. We always learn from our environment! There were words of gratitude, and I read the proclamation that Dr. Stevenson wrote, formally pronouncing Buppala Primary as our sister school. This was a deeply significant gesture; perhaps more than we realize. The villagers applauded and whooped several times as I read the framed document. They take us at our word: we are their family. Forever.   

Family means many different things to different people, and perhaps we use the term recklessly, but in Uganda, family is everything. We try to instill that value here at RMS, and sometimes we do a great job at it. This work with our pen pals is teaching me a great deal about what it means to take care of one another. The difference in the health of the children there is immediately visible since my last visit two years ago when we installed the latrine. Daily lunch has made a HUGE impact. Kids who were worryingly thin last visit look healthy now, and attendance has also improved. The headmaster says their ability to concentrate is also noticeably better.

Joanne's business is all about service coupled with adventure, and she makes sure to blend in thrilling excursions to beautiful sights around the country. We worked at the school during the week and stayed in a lovely hotel about a half hour away. It was a comfortable place with good food and plenty of Nile bee-uh and Fanta, and it was great to come back to the same spot. Our first weekend excursion we visited Sipi Falls, waking up in a banta on the side of a mountain to a breathtaking view. Then our guide Patrick led us up to the waterfalls on a rigorous hike that the locals scamper up and down on a daily basis.    

SIPI FALLS EXCURSION

 

 Afterwards, we made coffee by roasting the beans and shucking the shells in a tiny hut while the skies opened up.

 

There was a special little girl in this compound that Catherine fell in love with. It was heart wrenching. 

The second adventure was a white water rafting trip down the Nile. True to the Ugandan nature, we were well fed and cared for.

  After the second week of working with the Buppala School, we took off for a safari adventure at Murchison Falls National Game Park, then back to Kampala for a little shopping before our voyage back home.

Re-entry is always difficult, and I try desperately to hold on to some of what Uganda has given me. Last time I wanted to remember to practice patience, and this trip was a good reminder of that. This time I think I want to practice sustainability. I want to try to sustain this relationship, even though it's annoying sometimes, sort of like your family members, but you're stuck with them for life. My parents celebrated their 60th anniversary this summer, and they're a great model of sustainability for me. They make it look easy, though. I know this won't be easy, but I'm gonna try and stick it out, and I'm going to trust that when Anthony wrote a proclamation that said Buppala Primary is our sister school, he meant they're our family in the best sense of the word. So, I thank you for sharing this journey with me and our students and alumni and community, I beg you to help sustain the connection that hundreds of students and friends have initiated over the past five years, and as my daddy always proclaims at every family gathering, "L'chaim. To life!"

PEN PAL PROJECT FEATURED IN PHILLY INQUIRER!

Thank you, Art Carey, for capturing the heart of this project so eloquently!

A LOVE LETTER BEFORE I LEAVE

 

 

 





         There's so much love and gratitude that I want to express to every person who helped make this dream of a garden in Bupala become a reality ~ thank you so much for helping our pen pals here and in Uganda to see that a little bit of love goes a long way.

 

  First, to SCA Corporation  who believed that teaching kids about living sustainably is a worthwhile investment.  This paper product company was recognized as one of the world's most ethical companies in 2014, and our garden is a small but meaningful way they have chosen to demonstrate their commitment to making the planet a healthier place for everyone.

 
                                                                          

  To Radnor Educational Foundation for sponsoring the Peace Flag Project.  Their generous grant allowed us to purchase supplies to create an outdoor art installation in the garden in Bupala where our community can share our true colors with their community.  This tye-dye and hand crafted flag-making project will adorn the garden in Uganda, and we will be conducting flagmaking workshops with the students at Bupala School so we can bring some of their beauty back to Radnor. 



    To High Road Cycles in Wayne: your donation of a new bike for a raffle has encouraged kids to donate to the Peace Flag initiative.  Some lucky kid will find out next week if s/he gets to cruise around on a brand new High Road bike this summer.  My son worked with their team of talented mechanics for years; if you need your bike tweeked, or if you need a new bike, visit them and tell them the RMS Pen Pals recommended you go there.  They completely rock.

    To Mom's Organic Market...I really hope everyone in Radnor finds this amazing market and gets hooked like I have.  Mom's learned about our project and jumped on board with us.  Developing a sustainable, organic garden was close to their hearts, even if it's in Africa.  They were kind and generous contributors to this mission.  Go there - you'll fall in love with food shopping again.  They spoil you with delicious bread and coffee and tea and snacks while you're shopping, then they carry your bags out to your car.  Kind, kind, compassionate people there.
     We all know that it takes                             

village, well, our village came through in such a loving way.  Rittenhouse Farms is a main staple in my diet.  Honestly, I only eat chicken/poultry from Rittenhouse.  Their turkey sausage and Sassano's amazing pasta salad made the Peace Flag Party on Morningside Circle a culinary event.  Thank you for feeding us so well.  Sassano's catered an event for me six years ago, and I'm still thinking about that food.  Their pasta at our Peace Flag Fundraiser was worth millions.    

                                            



 

   To all the folks in Hollywood who contributed, I thank you.  You know you can take the girl out of Hollywood, but you can't take the Hollywood out of the girl!  I am honored to spread your pure Florida sunshine on this lovely little village, and I'm touched that you helped to support this project.

    To my fellow volunteer adventurers: Catherine Spence-Godin, Molly Samson, Ryan Byrd, HannahWorrell, and our fearless source of inspiration, my college roommate, Joanne Trangle, founder of Kuchanga Travel:  we are about to embark on something huge.  I can't wait to see what wonders will unfold on this journey of a lifetime.  Traveling with Radnor students is the greatest honor imaginable.  

   To my students (present and past), colleagues, neighbors and friends in and around Radnor Township School District: every one of you has qualified for the Accelerated Compassion Class.  Thank you for creating and sustaining this friendship with our pen pals.  There are not too many schools around the world that can claim to have accomplished what we have.  We are helping to heal the world.  To every kid who helped sew, tie-dye or decorate a Peace Flag, helped bake for or contributed to a bake sale, wrote letters, grew plants, made a tile two years ago, cleaned and decorated your old gym shirts to send to Bupala...if you took an interest and/or you made a contribution, thank you. The people in Bupala will be dancing and singing in your honor.  I will do my best to capture their gratitude and joy.  They are very aware that you are making their lives healthier and more secure, and for that they send their deepest gratitude.  I'll send you some pictures.  


                                                                             With love and gratitude,
                                                                                             Jodi

PEACE FLAGS WILL SOON FLY IN BUPALA!

                               

     
       In three weeks, I’m leaving for Uganda. There are hundreds of balls in the air right now that need to be caught and put in their places, so stopping to describe what I’m experiencing is way down on my to-do list, but I want to fill you in before I go.

       Today, my friend and trusted engineer and liaison ‘in country’, Moses Bagonza, visited Bupala Primary School with a representative from Nogamu, an organic gardening outfit that teaches villagers how to become organic and fair trade certified, and then how to bring their organic produce to the international market. The message he just forwarded to me reads:

       At Bupala right now. Jane, the Nogamu lady is really good and keen on details. She has gotten the vision quite perfectly. She will prepare a report we will look at later. I will send over images as well. She is perfect. Am sure you will love her and her services.

Moses Bagonza & Kuchanga Foundation founder, Joanne Trangle

 

Sometimes all the pieces one needs magically fall into place, and then you have to wonder whether all the worry was necessary, because maybe this was all meant-to-be. 

 

For our last ditch effort, we’re creating Peace Flags to hang in the garden we are about to create.  This is a colorful reminder to the community in Uganda that our community wishes them success and well-being.  We are so abundantly blessed, this offering is our attempt to share some of our great fortune with their school community, because, as I often express in my Social Studies classes, we landed here by some accident of geography.  Our pen pals are as bright and curious and deserving of a healthy childhood and a school that encourages them to wonder and learn, so we’re making an effort to share some of our fundamental blessings with them. 

Come out and tie dye with us.  Every $10 donation will provide the flag-making supplies for you and for a student in Uganda, plus you’ll get a raffle ticket for a brand new bike donated by High Road Cycles in Wayne.  If you have a t-shirt or a pair of sox that you’d like to tie-dye to take home, bring it with you.  Stop by and tie-dye or paint a flag to fly in our garden. And thank you for letting our kids know that they can help make a difference in the world.

 

                         

 

 

 

 

Garden Explorers!

    Sixth graders spent the day exploring the pleasure garden at Chanticleer on Friday as part of our investigation into sustainable gardening practices.   Scott took us around the back of the operations to see how the gardeners create compost, and Emma shared the secrets to a delicious edible garden.  After a picnic in the grove, we created PEACE FLAGS to adorn our pen pals' garden, and explored Chanticleer with a sense of wonder and curiosity. 

    When we returned from Chanticleer, we transplanted some of our classroom seedlings into larger containers.   Thank you, SCA, for your generous grant which encourages us all to grow more eco-conscious, and thanks to the gardener-artists at Chanticleer for inspiring us to grow beautiful things! 

 

THE GARDEN HAS BEGUN IN BUPALA!!!!

 This freshly-ploughed and planted earth is so beautiful.  May it reap healthy, abundant food that helps fill your bodies and minds, Bupala Primary School! 

Here's to growing greener together!

Meet 8th Grader Ryan Byrd -- He's Going to Uganda This Summer!

Hey Everyone,
My name is Ryan and I’m new on this blog. I am going to be going to Uganda with
Mrs.Sabra this summer and am going to be writing about my experiences. I am a n
8th grade student at Radnor Middle School. I decided to go to Uganda when my mom
heard about it from Mrs.Sabra and told me about it. It seems like a once in a
lifetime chance and one I couldn't pass up. If I'm going to be writing on this
blog a lot, I think you should get to know me better. I’m an average student with
average grades and outside of school I participate in competitive rock climbing. I do that every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday.  Recently, I got a job at the place where I climb. I can't wait to go to Uganda and can't wait to tell you all about it. 

LESSONS IN SUSTAINABILITY: LEARN, PRACTICE, TEACH, SHARE

Our mission to grow more eco-conscious with the generous encouragement of SCA Corporation is underway.  The Franklin Institute Traveling Science Show presented THE HUMAN BODY on Tuesday....

 






                                        

 

Cameron mixed up some

                                               mu·cus

/ˈmyukəs/ Show Spelled [myoo-kuhs]  

noun

a viscous, slimy mixture of mucins, water, electrolytes, epithelial cells, and leukocytes that is secreted by glands lining the nasal, esophageal, and other body cavities and serves primarily to protect and lubricate surfaces.

---

Origin:
1655–65; < Latin mūcus snot; akin to Greek myktḗr nose, mýxa slime

Meanwhile, back on the farm....

Our organic seedlings are a daily source of wonder.  They seem to grow before our eyes, giving us all hope that spring is trying to spring!










 
 
 

Growing Greens with SCA Corporation's Sustainability Grant!

It's only been a little over a week, but greens are sprouting in our classroom, thanks to the generous grant from SCA.  LESSONS IN SUSTAINABILITY: LEARN, PRACTICE, TEACH & SHARE is in its early stages; we're just starting to explore what SUSTAINABILITY means.  Watching with wonder as our organic lettuce, tomatoes, beans, basil and nasturtiums begin to grow brings a spark of something special to the start of our school days. 

George Bennie Shares Stories of his Childhood in Africa

Mr. Bennie spends his time at RMS taking care of our building, but his message to our students last week was all about taking care of one another.  His childhood in war-torn Liberia and his six years in a refugee camp were stark reminders of how blessed we are, and how we need to learn to appreciate all we have.  The students were mesmerized by George's honesty, and their discussions after his visit were truly touching.  Every student wrote a note of gratitude to George, and many mentioned how fortunate they feel.  George talked about how kids in Africa look out for one another, and while they have very little material wealth, they learn to share and take care of each other while respecting their elders.  Thank you for helping Africa come alive for our students, George Bennie.  YOU are a blessing to RMS!

SCA & RMS PEN PALS IN THE NEWS!

SCA Corporation is an international paper products corporation with a long-standing commitment to sustainability, and they have presented us with a generous grant to implement a multi-faceted project called LESSONS IN SUSTAINABILITY: LEARN, PRACTICE, TEACH & SHARE.

Yesterday, Channel 6 News captured the Pen Pal & Popcorn Club as they planted organic greens.  This is the first part of our learning about eating sustainably.  Watch the news clip here:
http://mediacenter.tveyes.com/downloadgateway.aspx?UserID=211039&MDID=2880929&MDSeed=2057&Type=Media

In addition to growing and harvesting organic greens, RMS students will see an assembly by Franklin Institute on Nutrition and the Human Body, dissect our lunch trash to measure what we're throwing away, read THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA by Michael Pollan, SEEDFOLKS by Paul Fleischman, and help our pen pals in Bupala begin an organic garden through a project called 1,000 GARDENS IN AFRICA.  

Throughout it all, we will continue to communicate with our pen pals, sharing our expanding knowledge about how to live greener and cleaner lives.  Thank you, SCA, for allowing us to develop and exchange information with our friends in Uganda.

An Opportunity of a Lifetime!

We have very exciting plans for this summer and want you to get involved! This summer we will be working on the ground in Uganda in collaboration with 1000 Gardens to build a garden at Buppala and we would like to invite YOU to be part of this experience! We are looking for as many hands as possible to be on the ground working alongside Ugandans to create this garden. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to create lasting change in an impoverished village in Uganda.

The 1000 Gardens in Africa is a project of Slow Foods International and works to create food security in African countries. They have built tons of gardens all over Africa and we will be working with their field technician to build our very own garden at Buppala! Watch this video to learn more about the 1000 Gardens project or visit their website at: http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/athousandgardens

This garden will encourage students to go to and stay in school and will also greatly improve their school performance. In addition, it will help the village become self-sufficient as they will be able to sell their produce. All these factors will greatly improve their quality of life.

The trip will be led by Joanne Trangle of Kuchanga Travel. Kuchanga Travel is a foundation that organizes volunteer opportunities and adventure throughout several African countries. You can visit their website here: http://www.kuchangatravel.com/

Join us on this incredible journey to meet our friends at Buppala and help them build a better future! Come see how people really live in Africa and how we can make a difference and improve their quality of life.

For more info please contact: jodi.sabra@rtsd.org

YEAR OF THE GARDEN!

 

 

 

1,000 GARDENS IN AFRICA is an initiative of Slow Foods International, and they have agreed to partner with us to build a garden at our sister school!

 

Slow Foods is an international organization committed to teaching people the value of eating locally and preserving the integrity of the land and culture where food is grown.  Slow Foods is dedicated to:

·         Protecting the environment

·         Defending food biodiversity through sustainable agriculture

·         Supporting small-scale food producers and valuing their traditional knowledge.

 

Our goal is to help Buppala School sustain their own lunch program through organic gardening.  To that end, we are working with 1,000 Gardens in Africa to build a garden on the school property.  Last week, our friend, guide and mentor, Joanne Trangle, travelled to Buppala School with our engineer, Moses Bagonza, to plan the implementation of the garden this summer.  They delivered some gardening tools to demonstrate our good intentions and to help the villagers begin preparing the land for cultivation.  The school has dedicated four acres for this garden.

 

Anyone who is interested in assisting with this effort is invited to join us in building the garden in Uganda.  It will be two weeks of working in the village alongside the community to initiate a life-changing sustainable garden project.  If you are interested, contact Jodi Sabra, or visit

Kuchanga Travel  for details.  We are leaving as soon as school is over in June.

We will be working hard this spring raising money to continue lunches for almost 1000 children now, and also will be fundraising for the garden. If you or anyone you know has any great ideas for fundraising, please let us know.  We would love for as many people to be involved as possible!

 Meanwhile, learn more about the  1000 Gardens project here:  1,000 Gardens in Africa

Check it out! It is a really cool movement!  We will be utilizing these resources to help the students at Radnor and Buppala Schools gain a better understanding of where their food comes from and how it is grown. It will also be interesting for them to see how people live and grow food in Uganda.

 Subscribe to this blog and help us grow! 

WE GOT MAIL!

Happy New Year! We are off to a great start this year with The Pen Pal Project and are thrilled about the new letters we just got all the way from Uganda! The RMS students got to learn a little more about their pen pals, such as what they do before they go to school, what sports and activities they like to do, what their favorite subjects are, and who their favorite teachers are. It has been interesting and exciting for the Radnor students to see what they have in common with their pen pals and where their lives differ. 

    We are embarking on a new project in pen pal club in which we are responding to prompts in the book, List Yourself. This book has prompts in the form of lists, such as “list everything you do in the morning between waking up and walking out your door”, “list all the things you would do if you were president”, and “list the things that are usually in your garbage”. We will then send these same prompts to our friends at Bupala and see how their lists compare to ours.

Please stay updated on what we are up to by following this blog (scroll down on the right hand side of the blog) and liking our page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/UgandaPenPalClub). We have a lot of exciting projects coming up! Thank you for your continuous interest and support!