yoga at the orphanage

As you may recall, Change the Truth introduced yoga to the children at St. Mary Kevin Orphanage last December during our Team 3 volunteer trip. Bobbi Newman brought some donated mats with her and set up yoga shop in the one of the classrooms. The children (and some of the teachers and matrons) clamored to attend Bobbi's classes. They fell head over heels in love with yoga and have continued to practice it in the months since our visit. Bobbi will be returning to the the orphanage as a member of Team 4 this December. Needless to say, her yoga students are really looking forward to this!

Melissa talked about the yoga scene at St. Mary Kevin's in her most recent letter to me.

"Yawe Joseph has really taken on yoga as his personal project. It was something that he really connected with during the last CTT trip. Team 3 member Bobbi would be thrilled to see Joseph in action, and Joseph will be very proud to show Bobbi in December how he has continued yoga. She had a very big influence on Joseph (as well as Sam).

Joseph is serious about teaching the different poses. He is patient, calm and encouraging, but also enforces a level of respect for yoga (it is not a time for playing around.) Joseph starts each session talking about Namaste and respect for each other. Typically, sessions are about 30 minutes. He has done yoga throughout the school year, and the children know the typical structure of a yoga lesson. There is a good mix of boys and girls in the sessions.

Rosette also does yoga with some of her fellow students in the dormitory of her boarding school. Bobbi left the kids with a book of yoga poses. Both Rosette and Joseph have used the book for guidance. Joseph is eager to try some new (and more difficult) poses with the children soon.

There are still 13 mats clean and neat (just as Bobbi had left). They are carefully put up in one of the rooms by the office. If additional people want to join the lesson, they use sheets.

Having introduced yoga to the children at SMK (especially Joseph, who has found his confidence and voice through this) has been phenomenal and something Bobbi (and Change the Truth) should be proud of."

(Joseph, Rosette and Sam are three of our sponsored secondary school students.)