On the Road with Outreach: Magic Happens When Plans Change

Submitted by Kandy de Martin & Lorraine Lane

In mid-July we had the great pleasure of having Barry Stewart Mann as a special guest on one of our summer visits to Pine Ridge Mobile Home Community.

We were hoping and praying that the weather would cooperate and although the forecast didn’t look bad that morning, clouds rolled in just after we got set up.

We had set up the big games and various activities under a huge pecan tree for the families to enjoy, but when it started to rain we had to pack up everything really quickly. The kids happily helped and then came onto the bookmobile. They made some crafts, picked out their favorite books to read, and had fun learning about geography with the book It’s a Big Big World. That book brought back so many memories, because my siblings and I grew up in Guatemala and had the same book in Spanish! 

When time came for the performance we set up a new improvised stage using the bookmobile awning.  The children didn’t seem to mind the mud or the rain, they simply took off their shoes and sat on the mat waiting excitedly for the show.

Barry presented a collection of Hispanic folktales and poems. He started with a short story written by the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca titled Mariposa del Aire- Butterfly of the Air, he then sang the poem Cultivo una Rosa Blanca-I cultivate a White Rose by Jose Marti, a Cuban poet. He made a reflection on how we should always be kind to all people, even if they are not always kind to us.

The children and parents enjoyed Barry's re-creation of Juan Bobo and the Pig,  a Puerto Rican folktale that illustrates many aspects of Latin American life and culture. In this story, Juan Bobo bathes and dresses up a pig to go to church after mixing up several instructions given to him by his mother. Everybody laughed at Silly Bobo’s occurrences.

The poem Barquito de Papel- Little Paper Boat by Amado Nervo, Mexican poet, was also included in the presentation. Barry made a paper boat out of a newspaper while reciting the poem and the kids were very impressed.

For the last story The Rooster Who Went to his Uncle's Wedding, written by Alma Flor Ada, Barry asked for the participation of all the children and let each one play a character using puppets. The kids absolutely loved it!

This program was a success, in my opinion, because of the opportunity that families were given to hear poems and popular stories written by some of the greatest figures in Latin American literature. They  appreciated the moral of the stories that were included, they loved how interactive the program was, and the fact that it was presented in both Spanish and English. 

That rainy day on the bookmobile is one that these families will never forget. Those smiles and happy faces are worth all the effort of the team and are the reason for what we do in Outreach. You just never know the magic that will happen when plans change.