Hi everyone

Something unexpected and rewarding always seems to come up and make life more interesting and rewarding! 

In middle June, me and 2 colleagues visiting from the University of Hawaii were invited to join a group of entertainers. The entertainers are part of the Support for the Back Lands Education by Artists program that visits remote primary and middle schools in China. They entertain the school children with music, dance, and song. Many of the children are being raised by their grandparents while their parents are away working in the large cities. We did not know what to expect at each school or what grades the children would be in, so we had to invent on the fly and on the go!

What we three did for the 4 schools students were the Leadership Workshops. The children were given some question on leadership, such as “Who are the leaders in this room?” “Does anyone else could be the leader?” “If everyone is the leader for ourselves?” “If anyone could be a leader at some part by having certain advantage ?” “If there are some bad leadership?” Wow, APLP being taught in the countryside schools in China!

Then, we introduced the children to awareness of their breath and body using basic yoga techniques. The awareness of themselves and of others is a building block of leadership. We even played some leadership games with the children and young adults in the classroom. Later we were all treated to an outdoor performance of music and song by singers and musicians from Beijing!

Each school and group of children responded differently and moved all of us very much, we even cried!

We wish we can do more for the lovely children!

Introducing the Leadership conception to the students with Gregory Mandryk who is from UH.

Doing the Leadership Workshop for the Grade 9 students.

Doing the Leadership Workshop for the Grade 7 students.

Communicating with the school teacher with Lulu Leng and Gregory Mandryk, they both are from Hawaii University.

Writing the wishes for the primary school students.

Playing the leadership games with the primary school students.

The artists provided wonderful show for the students. 

Note: This post written by Duan Wei, has been posted on her behalf as she does not have direct access to the blog from her location - Ahila.