Still Learnin': School Visits Can be Humbling

Last week I visited Fox Chapel Country Day School in Pennsylvania.  Kind of humbling.... I didn't get top billing but birthdays are important.

And check out the Tap-Taps kids had made.

And Painted Dreams.

These kids were well prepared even though it was first day back to school after Thanksgiving break.

Me: Krick
Students: Krack

This is how story telling begins in Haiti.  A promise between storyteller and audience.  And stories I told.  From my life growing up, life as a writer to Haiti, Malawi, Kenya, and the Navajo Nation...

As I have said these kids were well prepared and there is always one stumper question from the audience.  These questions often have to do with my age or how much money I make...but one thoughtful fifth grader in this group wanted to know:

What is the most important thing you have contributed in the countries where you have lived?

Wow!  I stuttered something about my husband being a doctor and saving lives...but what have I done?  A humbling question.  I guess the most important thing I have done is that I have made friends and I have come home to share what I have learned from kids around the world with kids in the US...maybe that is something....

And a postscript here:  It was Native American month in November.  Note the bulletin board:

Students at Dine College on the Navajo reservation once asked me what I had been taught about American Indians growing up...Ahhh...hmmmm...Not much I had to admit.  Most of what I knew I learned myself from books...Another humbling question...Maybe things have changed since I was young?