creativity is a synonym for bravery...

Creativity is difficult to cultivate. It is only in seeing these kids that I realize how brave one must be to be creative - to be different. Being from an American system of schooling, I have learned to take this trait for granted. But here in India, there is always something right and something wrong, something black and something white, something existent and something non-existent. There is nothing in between - nothing with which their minds can play with or mold into an idea of their own. We often try to play a game where each child has to come into the center and make a sound and an action which represents who he or she is. The older, more confident kids are first to enter the stage and express themselves uniquely. However, as the game progresses all the sounds and actions become the same. I want to tell them that whatever it is that they think is correct. I want to tell them to just give it a go even if they look ridiculous. I want to tell them that they have nothing at all to lose. But then I realize that even I would not be brave enough to do what I'm asking them to if I were in their places. I now know that it is not creativity that I will have to work on cultivating, it is bravery -I will have to stir a rebellion against the right and wrong.

At the school I work with Kayla and Sonia. Both are amazing women who put their entire hearts into working with the kids. Kayla doesn't speak Hindi, but I often find myself fascinated by the way she communicates with the kids. She smiles and makes silly faces and prances around acting silly. The kids seem to understand her even though she comes from an entirely different place in the world. It reminds me that although language is a barrier, the need to communicate is universal. Sonia usually acts as a translator for the more complicated instructions that Kayla might give to the kids. Sometimes it doesn't exactly happen the way we want it to. But there is a kind of joy in working with others that you don't get when working all by yourself. I hope someday these kids might realize that they have thoughts to share with others - others who want to listen and work with them to fulfill their dreams.