Plant Seeds and give trees room to Grow

School project in North-East India.

In February a team of five of us from Austria and India headed to Diphu, north-east India, to take up the challenge a second time: to rehearse and perform the musical JOB in five days. "JOB - where are you father?", which was specifically written and composed for a camp in summer 2019 and recorded now with instruments. We were thrilled to see the unique way in which the biblical figure Job was to be brought to life this time. The performance took place at a school in the Indian state Assam with the help of 75 camp participants between the age of two to sixteen years.

• The camp theme was centered around the symbol of a tree. A seed is at the beginning of every growth process requiring a good surrounding and nutrients to grow. This is where the kids learn what it is going to mean to trust when the wind blows in a very different direction. Therefore, they learn which big role roots play in life.

• Activities, crafts, riddles, games, singing and dancing- the kids and teens have been active participants at everything and their motivation and joy were so contagious! Many of the topics these days were simplified through skits etc. to make them easier for the children to understand. Even puppets were organized for the little kids. Additionally to the content-orientated topics, there was a lot of time for crazy games which were just pure joy for the kids.

• It is so rewarding to see how the kids actively participate in these exercises and what the outcomes were. Most of the groups choose words like love, trust or hope and created real masterpieces. For most of them, it takes a great deal of courage and strength to hold on to these values. Sadly, the reality is that they are exposed to drugs and alcohol at a very young age.