Like each year, Diplofoundation is looking for new interesting and interested people to take part in their Capacity Building Program for Internet Governance. You can find more details in this link . Keep in mind that the deadline is : 11 February 2009
Cutting Edge Productions, the local production outfit behind the first full-length digital animated feature Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia, pools together the finest voice talents in the Philippine entertainment industry to give personality to the film’s animated characters.
Dayo (Wanderer) is a heartwarming story about Bubuy (voiced by Nash Aguas), an 11-year-old boy from Antipolo, who goes on a journey to save his beloved grandparents abducted into Elementalia, fantasy land thriving with strange flora and fauna and home to several enchanted creatures of Philippine mythology.
Bubuy then meets Anna Manananggirl (voiced by Katrina Legaspi), a young and energetic manananggal (a winged creature that can separate her torso from her lower body) with a special fondness for all things human except to eat them. The two live out an adventure full of wild, will-testing and comical experiences all over Elementalia — from enormous waterfalls heaving with gravity-defying merfolk, to the breathtaking crystal cave dwelling of colorful alitubi (fairies), to a magnificent old tree that is home to a motherly kapre (hairy giant), and finally to a majestic mountain protected by a big pack of hungry aswangs (ghoul).
Though this is Nash and Katrina’s first animation voicing experience, they did not have difficulty recording for their roles. It was fun for them. “I really enjoyed doing the voice of Bubuy,” says Nash gleefully. “I was very happy when I learned that I got the part, because it was different from what I usually do on TV. My favorite part is when I meet Anna for the first time and she brings me to Elementalia.” Nash adds that he felt as if he was just playing rather than working in the recording studio.
On the other hand, Hopia, as Katrina is fondly called, loves the scene where she was introducing the beautiful underworld of Elementalia to Bubuy. “It felt like I was just welcoming Bubuy to my house,” she expresses. "I also like the flying scene because I’ve always dreamt of flying. I’m so excited to see the whole movie already.”
Even though the cast was not able to have any visual support during the recording, director Robert Quilao was there to visualize for them. “the screenplay on hand, the actors are called in the studio to record their respective dialog,” Robert describes. “This is when I briefed them on the mood and tone of the scene and directed them as to how the dialogs are to be delivered. The challenge for me as the director is to paint a vivid picture of what’s happening in the scene for the actors to act and deliver their lines accordingly.”
Robert also didn’t have a hard time directing the voice talents since almost all of them are seasoned actors and directors. “There was practically no need for a workshop,” he continues. “The most we were able to do was brief them about the story and the characters that they will be playing on the day that they were called to record in the studio. Even Nash and Hopia did not have a hard time internalizing their characters.”
Since schedule is a major concern for many of the voice artists, the creative team had to work around their availability. It was also rather difficult to gather all of them together and record the scenes that would require them to interact.
In most of these situations, Robert would act as the stand in and throw the lines of the characters during the recording session to create a natural dialog flow. “Although later on, we just played back the good takes of the characters that we had previously recorded for the one that we are currently recording," Robert explains. "These recordings are then edited together to create a cohesive dialog."
Painting more color and amusement to Dayo are its supporting cast. The creative team already had talents in mind when they were working on the characters and script.
Even before the controversial Pokwang was labeled as an aswang (ghoul or vampire) look-alike, the Dayo team already thought that she would fit the role of Vicky, the nanny manananggal of Anna. One would notice that the character sketch is loosely based on her. “I didn’t have to do any major voice adjustments for the role,” says Pokwang. “I didn’t have to lower or make my voice higher. I think I was just being my cool kalog self that’s why I had so much fun arguing with the role of Toti in Dayo.”
Cutting Edge originally had news anchor Mike Enriquez to do the voice of Toti, one of Anna’s bodyguards. The team, however, had to get someone who can mimic the famous newsman, veteran voice actor Pocholo Gonzales. “It’s really better if all of us could record together and interact in the studio,” Pocholo states. “But since this is not possible most of the time, it’s up to the talent how he will approach or respond to the pre-recorded lines thrown to him.” It was a challenge for him to react to Vicky’s lines, he relates, since Pokwang had many ad-libs and her role is somewhat a very talkative character. Backed by 13 years of voice acting experience, Pocholo also reveals that he is also behind the voice of Hal-lan, the anti-hero in Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia.
Anna’s second bodyguard, who has an unusual hearing impairment, is named Jo and voiced by famed comedian Gabe Mercado.
Perhaps one of the most challenging character portrayals would be the role of Narsi, the narcissistic cool rocker tikbalang (the underworld creature with the head of a horse and the body of a human). The Dayo team initially thought of Pepe Smith for the role, but due to his unavailability, there was no better versatile actor to do this than Michael V. “I prepare for every role that I play,” the comedian declares. “Even if I had previously done a horse voice for Enteng Kabisote 3, my role here is totally different.”
Playing the role of Lolo Nano, the cute resident sage of Elementalia, is no other than multi-awarded actor and director Peque Gallaga. “I accepted the offer of doing Lolo Nano simply because it’s something new and wonderful,” admits Peque. “But honestly, I had really a difficult time doing the role. Since he is supposed to be the wisest in Elementalia and has to impart words of wisdom, most of my lines are really long. That’s why I had to do many takes for most of my scenes.” Peque also shares that he played with three character pegs when he was studying for the character of Lolo Nano. He had in mind Yoda of Star Wars, Pilosopong Tasyo of Noli Me Tangere, and Jun Urbano’s role in Magic Temple, the film he co-directed with Lore Reyes.
Nova Villa is Lola Nita, Bubuy’s caring grandmother, who nags her husband Lolo Meong a lot. “I had to do some voice adjustments for the role,” Nova claims. “Since the character is about 75 years old, I had to make my voice a little husky and sound old. This is more challenging for me as an actor because I have to deliver my character without using any facial expression, but only through my voice."
Nova is proud and happy to be a part of the project. She also points out that the story is very moving and her character is easy to relate to. “Lola Nita is a happy grandmother and has a good sense of humor. She is actually like a comedian myself.” There was a time during their recording that Nova couldn’t immediately record her part because she cried at the scene played back for her. "It was the scene when Bubuy thought that we were already dead. He cried and cried, and I could just feel the pain he was going through that it made me cry, too.”
Dayo also features the voices of Trinidad as Lolo Meong, Bubuy’s grandfather who shares the kid’s penchant for flying. Delgado joins in as Carpio, Anna’s dad who is Elementalia’s head guardian. And completing Dayo’s dream cast is distinguished actor and director Guillen playing a dual role of the kapre (the motherly cigar-smoking giant) and diwata/bruha, the enchanting fairy with an evil alter ego.
Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia is an official entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), and is co-presented by Frootees, Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdog and Mister Donut. The film is also supported by Ascorbic Acid Ceelin, Crispy Fry Breading Mix, Enervon Bright Brand, Timezone, Fuji YKL, Inquirer.net, Yehey.com, ClicktheCity.com, Animation Council of the Philippines, Toon Boom, Wacom, Woodpecker Studio and New Media.
For more information, visit the official movie Web site at www.dayomovie.com.
We all know I'm a big fan of technologies and gadgets... so when I read last week in the New York Times that one of the more innovative genetic mapping companies (23andme) had reduced the price of its Genetic Mapping service (which many companies sell for up to $2-3,000) from $999 to only a few hundred dollars, I decided it was an amazing amount of information and education to be able to get access to for that amount, so I took the plunge and signed up.
A day later, FedEx delivered a Spit Kit to my house, which requires about 10 minutes of spitting into and mixing together with a solution, and your DNA sample is ready to send back! And off it went to Los Angeles, California to a laboratory today. Funny enough, the FedEx Pak they provide specifically says "do not send liquids" on it :)
So in 6-8 weeks, I'll know where my ancestors are from, whether I'm genetically lactose intolerant, whether or not I love broccoli because I can't taste the bitterness in it, and whether or not I'm a bit more likely than average to get certain diseases or be susceptible to certain conditions in my lifetime, along with dozens of other interesting facts. For less than the price of a university course in genetics, I can view and learn much of the world's most up-to-date knowledge on the relationships between genes and personal/medical conditions personalized to my specific genetic data. How cool is that?
You can make a case against "messing with your life" this way (I had an interesting discussion about this with someone just the other night), but I think that given the great power we have as humans to be intelligent and understand life in a way that no other species can, we then have a responsibility to use it to maximize the potential of our lives. Right? I guess it's also just a bit of an extra motivation knowing that you're slightly more at risk than average to do something about it! (from 1-2 times more or less likely than the generally population, in most cases)
I'll check back in with the results in a few months!
I headed off in the morning to the Australian Science and Math School, hosted at Flinders University. The school is only a few years old, and is built with an open concept -- no classrooms, but instead a number of large spaces with desks and chairs that reconfigured in many different ways to foster teamwork and collaboration. We had a large group - about 50 teachers and school leaders, and had a really interesting day -- when I showed the "Are you listening?" video, a whole bunch of students gathered upstairs in the area overlooking where I was speaking to watch - I think they were really curious that so many teachers were learning about their way of using technology!
After a fantastic dinner by the water with a group of curriculum developers, I headed to sleep -- because I had to catch a 6:40am flight to Canberra!
I made it to the nation's capital early in the morning, and it was freezing! 0 degrees but it warmed up as the sun rose... I had a few hours to fit the gym and have lunch before heading to Canberra University -- the group in Canberra decided to have an evening workshop (4-9pm) with dinner. Although everyone had a full day of work before showing up, we still had a lot of active participation, and after wrapping up at 9 and getting back to the hotel around 10, it was time for sleep for another 6:45am flight back to Sydney for the last workshop of the trip!
Arriving in Sydney in the morning, with my 32kg on-the-dot bag faithfully appearing on the carousel, I headed off to Parramatta right on time, and arrived 3 minutes before the workshop was to begin! We had the biggest crowd of any session -- around 60 people, and so a lot of the interactive sections took a lot longer than usual, but they had great ideas and a large group of schools approached me after and wants to deeply engage their entire district with TIGed, which is exciting! After wrapping up and chatting with a bunch of the attendees, I was off to one of my favourite hotels in the world -- the Westin Sydney, to relax, enjoy their great gym, and have dinner with Jenny, who had the whole series of workshops organized, to debrief on the experience (yum, Tasmanian lamb!). After that, I met up with Jarra and Nick, and headed to Micky's for dessert (Banana Pancakes and Ice Cream!) to catch up and for me to celebrate the completion of 10 sessions in 11 days in 5 cities!
I'm writing this now on the flight to Vancouver -- I managed to get right to sleep after lunch on the 10am flight, which will hopefully mean I can work through the North American day and head to sleep at a proper time tonight. Saturday, we head to Quebec City for the World Youth Congress to meet TIG members from all over the world. I've also agreed to head to Brisbane on the 19th to speak at the Queenland Government's e-learning summit, and after that, I'll be ready to just settle down at home and enjoy the rest of the summer in Toronto :)
Now that I've been away a full week, I forced myself to carve out some time to reflect on the intensity of the time so far before kicking off the second stretch.
As always, our summers at TakingITGlobal are quite busy -- generally for the education "industry", most conferences are held during the summer when teachers have school holidays. This summer, as a follow-up to my keynote at last October's ACEL (Australian Counsel of Educational Leaders) conference (which was apparently quite good even though I was quite sick at the time), I was invited to be a "Traveling Scholar" for ACEL, presenting 5 full-day workshops on TakingITGlobal to school leaders and teachers across Australia. In addition, I started off the trip by keynoting a leadership conference at Melbourne Grammar School, and today keynoted the International Middle Years conference in Adelaide... so I've made quite good use of two weeks!
Sunday - Wednesday: Melbourne
After the trek from Toronto to Vancouver to Sydney to Melbourne, I knew the first thing I needed to do to keep my sanity was to spend a good amount of time at the fitness center at the Westin. What a great idea - it helped me refresh, have a fantastic swim in the beautiful infinity pool, and after a brief stroll that was quickly canceled when the rain started, I got to sleep at a reasonable hour.
On Monday, I woke up nice and early and arrived at the charming greened campus of Melbourne Grammar, one of Melbourne's oldest and most respected private schools. To their enormous credit, they had invited students from a broad cross-section of Melbourne to attend the conference, in addition to a grade of their students. I was brilliantly introduced by one of their capable students, and my keynote was well-received - with more questions from students than we had time for. Following the keynote, a panel including a futurist, scientist, and Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson, who cited my presentation several times as they discussed issues of leadership in the 21st century and challenged students to act on the issues they felt challenged by. In the afternoon, I ran several hours of hands-on workshops guiding a small group of students through the TIG site and beginning the Guide to Action as a tool for action planning.
Tuesday morning, I visited Kilsyth, a suburb of Melbourne, and ran a 3 hour workshop with a group of teachers across that region looking at TIG and especially with an interest in Health education... it was a good challenge because we didn't have Internet except for a very slow 2G connection, so I was able to get well prepared and experiment with some activities for the following days' sessions!
That evening, I traveled to Mooney Valley Racecourse (home of Australia's best race - the Cox plate, worth $3 million!) and presented our work at TIG to about 150 principals, who also had some great questions, and I enjoyed meeting a teacher who grew up in Mississauga and had spent his recent years enjoying and exploring Australia's wilderness.
On Wednesday, I spent from 9 AM to 3:30 PM with an enthusiastic group of teachers and principals learning about TIG, exploring global issues, and understanding how to fit our programs and ideas at TIG into the curriculum and everyday use in their classrooms. I also shared our Best Practices on Global Education resource with them... and then I was off to the airport, heading to my next destination: Tasmania!
Thursday - Saturday: Hobart, Tasmania
On Thursday, I woke up and did it all over again, in a beautiful setting amongst Lemon trees at Lateare Gardens in Hobart with a fire burning to keep us all warm and cozy from the cold outside! I think the goals of what we do at TakingITGlobal really connected closely with some people - one teacher was literally in tears sharing how wonderful she thought what we did was... it's really a special opportunity (as exhausting as it is) to be able to share our work with people that are also dedicating their lives to helping young people develop. I think sometimes we all forget the power and opportunity we have to impact the lives of others - and I feel like a few people really felt reconnected to that opportunity, which is really an amazing opportunity to be able to stimulate.
After a short 2 hour break to refresh and do some e-mail, I headed off to the Hobart Yacht club, where I addressed about 50 high school principals, who weren't able to attend the day's workshop because they were having a leadership retreat. I had to pack 90 minutes into a 30 minute before dinner speech, so I think it was overwhelming, but many of them were quite excited by what we do... and I had delicious local Salmon which was a bonus!
The next day was my main day off. I decided not to head off to my next destination right away, but to stick around in Hobart and see some of the beautiful wildlife Tasmania has to offer. So I signed up for a Tasman Island Eco Cruise - having no idea how much of an adventure it would be! After a scenic bus ride to Port Arthur, one of the main convict colonies from the 1800s, we boarded a powerful boat (675 HP) that they describe as a 4x4 of the sea. Initially the ride was quite smooth - and we discovered some caves and amazing rock formations on the coast. The "swells" were only about 1 meter, and so it was just like jumping waves on a boat at home.
However, once we got out to the Tasman Sea, things got a lot more interesting. The waves and the winds were coming strongly from an unusual direction, and 2-3 meter waves and swells gave us quite a ride! I had chosen to sit in the 4th row (moved from the 2nd) and for close to an hour, we jumped waves and it felt like we were on a roller coaster as we plunged down after riding a wave.... but I stuck with my seat - a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
We arrived at two areas with Australian and New Zealand seals, and at a cove where dolphins chased our boat around until we had to leave - amazing to lean over and watch them at the water and bow of the boat jumping up playfully! A number of albatross with their huge wingspans also provided us with an amazing show - watching them fish and gracefully glide across the sky with nothing around us but huge rock and menacing water... or what looked menacing in my book. In 1998, however, the water was so rough that in the annual Sydney-Hobart race, five boats sank and six sailors were killed.
On Saturday morning, before heading to the airport, I spent a few hours enjoying the Salamanca Market, with hundreds of stalls offering delicious local treats and art and coffee and everything needed to pass a few hours and take in the culture of a place!
Sunday - Monday: Adelaide, South Australia
Now I'm here in Adelaide, where this morning I keynoted the International Middle Years of Schooling conference, and was again introduced by a fantastic student duo! I gave out dozens of bookmarks afterwards, with many many people promising to check out the site and connect their students into TIG. I was also followed by an excellent presentation by Professor Erica, who gave a talk on creativity that linked really perfectly and built on top of many of the themes I covered.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Australian Science and Mathematics School to do another day-long workshop, and then heading to Canberra the next morning... I'll be sure to check in soon with more! And I'll be editing this entry in about 2 hours with photos once they upload.
I'm speaking tomorrow at PUSH, an interesting conference here in Minneapolis, MN
The first session that just wrapped up was quite interesting - Chandran Nair took us through a look at the world's problems and how many misconceptions there are about what can solve them. What I found striking was the comparison of world problems to spending on trivial/much less meaningful things:
Health & Nutrition ($13B) : Petfood Spending in the USA ($17B)
Water and Sanitation ($9B) : Ice Cream in Europe ($11B)
Education ($6B) : Cosmetics in the USA ($8B)
Jonathan Greenblatt, one of the co-founders of Ethos Water, also gave us a compelling look into the world of Water and how simple and cheap ($25/person) it is to solve. The one thing I don't get - on a $1.79 bottle of water, Starbucks (which acquired Ethos) donates 5 cents (10 cents in Canada oddly). They were founded on the basis of donating 50% of profits... I can't believe profit on that bottle of water is only 10 cents! (considering how much cheaper other bottled water is). Anyway, he now works with a new magazine - GOOD - which has a unique subscription model of giving away the $20 subscription fee to a charity of your choice.
How can this not inspire you with hope that the messages that captivate our friends in the U.S. voting this fall can be positive and not just negative? Messages that excite with the possibility of a positive future, not try to cast fear and uncertainty as the reason to select a person.
I'm very proud of them for ending the video with the simple message of "vote" - resisting the urge to squeeze it beyond need towards the candidate.
My apologies for this very geek-specific post. If you don't have a Dell m1330 laptop, you can ignore it!
My Dell XPS m1330 is my favorite laptop yet (I think it's my 10th in 10 years!), but Dell and Microsoft have made it far too hard to re-format it cleanly without Windows Vista Blue-screening on every second boot (caused by the AHCI setting in BIOS, but not providing AHCI drivers during install). It took me awhile to figure out how to do this properly, so I thought I'd share to help the rest of the Internet figure it out.
2) Run the file with a "-a" from the Windows commandline, which will put those files into the "C:Program FilesIntelIntel Matrix Storage Manager" directory
3) Copy the files from the "Drivers" or "Drivers64" (64-bit Vista) directory onto a USB Key
4) When you install Vista from the DVD, pick the "Custom" option, then click "Load Drivers"
5) Click "Browse", and point to your USB stick. Load the drivers from it.
I've had no internet connection for a week (I know, you ask how I survived so primatively) therefore this post is written somewhat belatedly.Friday 14th March I saw the HK Chinese Orchestra perform at the Royal Festival Hall. It was the first time I had ever seen a full set of 85 traditional Chinese instruments arranged in a set-up similar to that of the Western classical orchestra. I surprised myself knowing as many names of the instruments as I did - from the Erhu/Gehu string section to the Dizi/Sheng wind section, the Chinese have instruments which have a direct counterpart in the equivalent Western orchestra but also some rather unusual plucked stringed instruments such as the Guzheng and Yangqin which are rather more unique and elaborate.
The beautiful traditional music they performed inspired me to want to pick up my Erhu again. I took some basic lessons last summer (I haven't told many people this) in an attempt to pay hommage to my Chinese roots by playing a traditional instrument. Can anyone suggest a simple, traditional piece? I would really like to master one. Just one will do.
Mentionable moments in the concert include a very animated Sanxian player and singer who was from Heilongjiang province, near my hometown. I could tell he even had my local accent. The conductor also involved the audience by making us sing at the appropriate times during an encore of a popular HK soap opera theme song.
OK, I'm so tired I can't be bothered to write anything more constructive tonight. I hope everyone enjoys the Easter weekend! I'm heading up to Birmingham, preparing to be fed a lot of delicious Chinese food (we're not Christian but we make the most of it). However, it means I'll probably have to sit through hours of traffic on the motorway to get there...
I'm generally a big fan of Rogers - I feel they are probably the best and generally most innovative of the telecom companies here in Canada (Bell, which many people have terrible customer service experiences with - my experience has been the same - and Telus is stuck with CDMA, which doesn't roam well, so that's not good for people who travel.)
The one thing that never ceases to annoy and frustrate me though is their IVR phone system. It's probably been 3 years that I've been calling and every time I get through, I complain and ask them to note it down. They always acknowledge that everyone complains and they say they're working on improving it, but it never happens.
I don't know how they can get it so wrong compared to other industries (airlines, banks, etc.) or even their U.S. competitors like Verizon which have great phone systems! Here are the steps to get to Wireless Customer Service for example:
1. Say "Wireless"
2. Say "Talk to a Representative"
3. Say "Account Changes"
4. Say "Blackberry" or "Phone" (how does this make any sense?)
5. Punch in your Phone Number
6. Be greeted by a representative, who then asks for your phone number again?! Then you have to verify your name, postal code, and DOB. What a waste of time... they should just instead let you pick a PIN and then use that instead.
The best part is that this happens even when you dial 611 from your phone! It could easily detect your number from caller ID and not even bother to ask you anything.
There's a great site called gethuman dedicated to frusturation about IVRs and phone systems, and they've developed a Gethuman Standard for well-designed phone systems. A key point from it:
"# Callers should never be asked to repeat any information (name, full account number, description of issue, etc.) provided to a human or an automated system during a call."
The day that Rogers implements a proper system that does justice to their innovation in so many other areas, I will officially call them a company I love.
If I'm not wrong, I won my first Personal Computer in the year 1991 after participating in a writing contest in french and winning the first prize. It was the famous Commodore 64 like in the picture with a tape reader and few tapes containing some games and programs such as the main Operating System (I remember only the Ninja Game I used to play with).
I miss my C64 which I had to exchange few months later to get my first PC with a mouse, The Amiga 500. Check the details of the C64 in this link
I can barely remember the details of the few times I spoke on radios. I can remember that everything started; I imagine it is the case with many Tunisians from my generation, with the interest for the international radio RTCI and the interaction with the presenters via snail mail. Many live interviews followed this beginning linked to several events I organized or subjects I was keen advocating such as the Free and Libre Open Source Software model.
I never imagined that few years later I’ll have my own “show” with a complete freedom of the topics I can present or the guests I can invite. Of course, this have to be linked to my interests and the subjects I can really present.
Few days ago, I was contacted by Radio TounesBledi team for an urgent matter they wanted to discuss with me. The matter was just an offer to take care of the English speaking program on this radio (which is broadcasting on internet from Canada). I tried to convince them that I don’t have any such experience and I never spoke in public in English (It’s a white lie). All the trust they are placing on me is based just on the content of my blog. They managed to convince me that I’ll be able to do it without even the need of an evaluation.
I had less than 14 hours to prepare the content of two hours of the “on air” program.
I managed to plan few things to speak about including of course the couchsurfing spirit (http://www.couchsurfing.com) and to include two interviews that went pretty well. Honestly I wasn’t convinced of my performance after the program but I believe that I’ll work it out in the future if I learn from my mistakes. My father, who doesn’t speak a word in English, managed to listen to the complete show from home and made an effort trying to understand what I was speaking about. My cousin who living in France told me later that she liked the program but not the “old fashion” musical selection :)
The program’s name is “bridging worlds”. It is scheduled for Thursdays between 3pm and 5pm (Tunis time, GMT+1). The time might change starting from the beginning of February 2008. I’ll keep you updated.
2007 was an exceptionally busy year for me and us at TakingITGlobal. But especially on the conference front - I was able to share our work with people in many countries! It all adds up to over 170,000 miles of flying, if you can believe it!
Speaking of travel, one of my favorite things to do in other countries is visiting supermarkets and buying some local treats... Now I can't visit New Zealand without brining home Tim Tams and Manuka Honey... and I have Milo from Bahrain in the kitchen! It's a fun way to check out the local culture.
Now I'm going to work on offsetting my flights by working on our new Understanding the Issues page on Climate Change!
Like each year, Diplofoundation is looking for new interesting and interested people to take part in their Capacity Building Program for Internet Governance. You can find more details in this 
After the trek from Toronto to Vancouver to Sydney to Melbourne, I knew the first thing I needed to do to keep my sanity was to spend a good amount of time at the fitness center at the Westin. What a great idea - it helped me refresh, have a fantastic swim in the beautiful infinity pool, and after a brief stroll that was quickly canceled when the rain started, I got to sleep at a reasonable hour.
On Thursday, I woke up and did it all over again, in a beautiful setting amongst Lemon trees at Lateare Gardens in Hobart with a fire burning to keep us all warm and cozy from the cold outside! I think the goals of what we do at TakingITGlobal really connected closely with some people - one teacher was literally in tears sharing how wonderful she thought what we did was... it's really a special opportunity (as exhausting as it is) to be able to share our work with people that are also dedicating their lives to helping young people develop. I think sometimes we all forget the power and opportunity we have to impact the lives of others - and I feel like a few people really felt reconnected to that opportunity, which is really an amazing opportunity to be able to stimulate.
