seen, heard, & well-read

Today I met one of the original Watoto children. His name is Bob and he’s just finishing up University at Makarere, Kampala’s largest public university. I was a bit caught off guard meeting Bob because I hadn’t really thought about the fact that Watoto has been around for 14 years now and that there are Watoto children that are in their 20’s by now… It just hadn’t occurred to me. So while feeling quite unprepared, I also felt extremely privileged. I was talking with a living, breathing success story of Watoto. Not only is he very cordial and well-spoken, he is an amazing artist.

The reason I met with Bob today was because there is a Watoto event coming up this Saturday called ‘Seen & Heard: A Day in the Life of a Watoto Child’ which includes an art and literary exhibition by Watoto children. The event is being held in celebration of the Day of the African Child, which takes place on June 16 every year across Africa. This is the first year Watoto has been involved. My co-worker Esther, head of PR at Watoto, is heading up the entire event and I am in charge of putting the exhibition together. So, Esther thought it would be beneficial for Bob, being not only a Watoto child but a fine arts major at Makerere, to submit a piece for the show. Brilliant…

Shown Above: The invitation and poster I designed for the event; The photo was taken of a Watoto child at Suubi children’s village during one of my recent visits

Bob had a range of art styles from University in his portfolio: textiles, oil, pastel, woodcut, pencil drawings… All quite impressive. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with for the show – I know it will be incredible.

Before I met Bob, we had a Marketing Team meeting. Solange, Director of Marketing, went through some of the core values of both Watoto and the Marketing Team, all of which are scripture-based, including: punctuality, respect, teachable spirit, timekeeping, consideration of others, passion, excellence… Then, we watched ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. Yep – that’s right. I had actually never seen the movie. I loved it – and I left extremely motivated and full of ideas… and it just downright put me in a good mood.

After work, a few of us got together for Eugene’s birthday. Eugene and his wife Glenda have been leading Watoto Children’s Choir tours for the past few years. This September they will take off for their 3^rd US tour. They are both from Ohio originally and they live just a floor above me in our apartment block. The plan was to meet up at Mamba Point Pizzeria at 6:30. I arrived at 6:40 and was the 4^th person to arrive. More people arrived sporadically over the next 30 minutes or so on, you know, African time. We had a very lovely evening talking and sharing stories over pizza and orange Fanta.

So now I’m back home. I did a load of laundry, washed a few dishes, made some hot honey/lemon water for my throat [it’s been a little sore the past couple days], and I’m about to read some more of a book I picked up at the bookstore over the weekend. The book is ‘What is the What’ by Dave Eggers about the life of Valentino Achek Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. I’m about 10 chapters in and it’s been a great read – I’d recommend it to anyone… Especially those curious about the journey of the Lost Boys, a group of about 20,000 boys from the age of 5 to 18 that traveled through Southern Sudan together in escape of civil war in search of refuge. Also, I’d recommend seeing the documentary ‘God Grew Tired of Us’, the journey of 4 of the Lost Boys from Africa to city life in the US.

Aaaah. Such a great day… And I know there are many more to come.

~ by sydneyberry on June 12, 2008.