Thursday, March 26, 2009

Our tellers on WRPI's "In the Spirit"!




Marni writes about our experience at WRPI this afternoon:

We DID IT!!!! Thank you so much Bill Roylance for suggesting the WRPI radio show “In the Spirit” and for making the initial contact with Gary Goldberg. I know Gary has faithfully done this show for years, encouraging talk across and within a diversity of faith traditions. It was a thrill to be a part of the show and see our students shining. All around it was a great experience.
Paula bravely started us off providing some info and establishing a relaxed tone on the microphones. We had only two among the seven of us but the sharing worked well! Then Adah jumped in with the first tale, FULL of confidence and obviously making every image in her mind as she lured us into the world of angels and gifts from above. She laughed, later, saying she HAD to do gestures and I knew just what she meant about that helping her enter and stay in the world of the tale. She launched us well.
Toma stepped in and had fun with Djuha and his trickster tale about the pot “dying” from Arab Folktales. Emily looked very poised as she introduced us to the woman carrying her two pots – one whole and one cracked. Gary seemed to enjoy talking with each of the kids and was very appreciative of what our group is all about – communication – one of the values upon which his show is built. He noticed that Ritam had a lot of dramatist in him once he heard about Mandababa’s prayer and his refusal to accept help from anyone but God. It was funny when Gary asked, “Are you ever in plays?” and Ritam got to respond, “Yes, in about four hours I’ll be in a musical!”
Khalafalla was the anchor of our team with five minutes left and, as we used to say in diving, “he nailed it!” finishing smoothly in the alotted time. Gary was quite impressed that Khalafalla was telling a story not only of his experience (his first Ramadan fasting at Niskayuna High School), but about what it is like to share your faith tradition and see it have an impact on others and open minds.
We’re all so proud of you! Thanks again to Paula for getting all the info on parking and timing, not to mention driving three of our tellers. And thanks be to the ONE who kept it from pouring rain while we walked from the parking lot to find the hidden WRPI door in the Darrin Communications Building, and for sparing us parking tickets when our meters ran out!
As the website proclaims, Children at the Well ROCKS!
Marni