SI MONTHLY NEWS NOVEMBER 2005 Countries
From SI Exco News
Servas Peru Celebrates
On 10 October 2005 Servas Peru celebrated the 56th Anniversary of Servas.
They seem to be enjoying it.
Peace activity Montevideo, Uruguay
Nov 24th, 2005
After a visit to a Public School for visually impaired children as part of a B´nai B´rith group, I dreamt of revisiting the children and the teachers. I offered the headmistress to go and tell them a story. And that is how it all began.
The fact that Marisa Contini and Carolina Balestra (Peace
Secretary, Servas Uruguay) accepted to work with me as a
"team" encouraged me even more. They immediately
understood that this proposal fitted into our shared idea of
peace building, that it was intended to be a small contribution
to the community at large and that we would be fulfilling our
aim by bringing some happiness, entertainment and change
into the school routine.
We gathered several times to prepare "Arthur´s travels on the
magic carpet". and little by little the story took shape. We
started making a list of "objects" to take along so as to make
the story more interactive, such as musical instruments easy
to handle, CDs, & music tapes, pizza and Swiss chocolate.
Finally, the set day came. Children and teachers were waiting
in the gym for us. The story began to unravel. One evening,
Arthur was too hot to be able to fall asleep. He tossed and
turned in his bed. So, he fumbled on the floor and could feel a
soft carpet to lie on. Next thing Arthur knew was that his
carpet was flying with him on top out of the window of his
house.
All the children had to help blow hard so that Arthur´s
magic carpet could fly across the Atlantic and land in Italy.
(The smell and taste of pizza reminded everyone that Arthur
was in Italy). He heard people greeting each other, Ciao, ciao
bambina...Then, the bells of churches tolled, the tarantela.
was heard, sung, and clapped. From the piazza, Arthur could
hear a train station. As he wanted to have new experiences,
he got himself a ticket and a whistling train took him over the
Alps into Switzerland (everyone whistled too) where high up
in the mountains the cowbells were heard.....Cows, milk of
course, milk, some brown cocoa powder and the miraculous
taste of chocolate filled us with pleasure until the cuckoo
clocks sounded.
Soon enough, Arthur was homesick, so we had to blow him
back home again. But, very likely, we did not blow hard
enough, because Arthur first landed in Brazil on a hot, humid
Carnival day. The music sounded....samba was in the air.
Then, Arthur had to freshen up at one of the beautiful
Brazilian beaches. Luckily a big, huge wave finally took him
back home. Before going to sleep, he wondered: "was I really
travelling? did I experience the marvels of getting to know
other people, other places, other cultures, other customs? or
was it all a dream?" Arthur could not answer that
question....but again, he heard the sound of music: "Este es
mi país" (this is my country), a well-known song by Rada. And
he was happy, safe again back home....after all, there is
pizza, and chocolate, and churchbells in Uruguay too. Only
the cowbells.....oh well! some other day, some other time,
another dream.....
At the end: warm applause full of appreciation. But, the best
was when the children came up and asked to be kissed and
hugged goodbye...spontaneous, heartfelt, a true caress for
us, who had started out without knowing what we would
find upon knocking on their door!
Anita Kalbermann (Uruguay)
inserted by Amelia
