All about: children

Shopping alone when you are five
The world must be so exciting for her. I try to imagine how she experiences the shops, the distance to the riverside park or the large playground, the roads full of traffic, the market. Buying a snack in the corner store is something trivial for us, a relatively meaningless act we won't remember. It's no ...
Reading: Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Shel Siverstein (1930-1999) was an American painter, poet and songwriter. I read a sweet little poem about the end of the line. Where the sidewalk ends There is a place where the sidewalk ends and before the street begins, and there the grass grows soft and white, and there the sun burns crimson bright, and ...
Laughing with Miru
There is nothing like humor to discover the signature of a human mind. Tell me what you find funny, and I will tell you who you are. Okay, I may not be able to fathom the trenches of your soul, but I'm pretty sure I'll have some sense of your political leaning, your raw intelligence ...
Reading: The Unborn by Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds (b. 1942) is an American poet and a leading voice according to Poetry Foundation. She writes about the body and its pleasures and pains. She has won a Pulitzer prize (for Stag's Leap, 2013) and the British T.S. Eliot prize. She (or her work?) is widely anthologized, if that's the info you need. Today, I ...
Reading: It Was A November Of Bitter Rain And Snow Blackened By Use
Today I read a poem by the Lebanese poet (and former miss Beirut) Venus Khoury-Ghata in the English translation by Marilyn Hacker. It has a few things in common with poems I wrote about here earlier: It is short, but not too short and contains some surrealistic images that can shake the prepared reader. we filed ...
COMPA
COMPA, El Alto, Bolivia
September 22-28, 2010. El Alto, Bolivia.In the high satellite city of El Alto above La Paz, there is one of the most amazing Community Art Centers we've ever seen: COMPA. Established 1989 they have a wealth of experience playing social theatre for disadvantaged people throughout Bolivia. We paint part of the ...
Ñanta
Fundación Ñanta, Sucre, BoliviaSeptember 19-20. Sucre, BoliviaThere are about 6,000 working children in Sucre, and half of them are independent, working as shoe-shiners, car-washers or selling items on the street. They often work under terrible conditions and drop out of school. Foundations such as Ñanta guide them towards a hopeful future through cultural activities, healthcare, ...
Casa del Niño
Casa del NiñoSalta, Argentina. September 11, 2010.The poverty in the province of Salta is not directly visible from the capital's fancy street cafés, yet hundreds of thousands of people live in slum areas around the city, and poverty is ubiquitous in the region. Casa del Niño supports impoverished, often terminally ill children by giving them ...
Ko’eju Asunción
Ko'eju, Chacarita, AsunciónSeptember 7-8. Asunción.On the stretch of land between the Bay of Asunción and the pink parliament building is the famous Barrio Chacarita, where hundreds of poor families are living. Ko'eju is a Christian organisation offering vocational training and gatherings. We support a family with equipment to set up a micro-business that sells juice ...