It takes a lifetime for someone to discover Greece, but it only takes an instant to fall in love with her - Henry Miller

This month’s North Star Production featured the Greece – Medicine – Gyro Experience.

The career focus was Medicine, and Greece was chosen because Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, was Greek.

Hippocrates said, “Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future”.

Applying his wisdom to the context of the North Star – who were these children in the past, who are they at the present, and who could they be in the future?

And this takes me directly to the heart of North Star’s intention, which is to help the children find themselves by unleashing their powers of imagination.  

What follows is our Greece Experience.

For this production, we chose Greece because we introduced the children to Medicine and the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates comes from Greece.

So we took the children to Greece in their minds to meet superheroes like Hercules, Wonder Woman and Pegasus that are action figures based directly or indirectly on Greek Mythology.

Overall, the children loved all three superheroes, but the one that transcended the gender boundary was Pegasus, the Greek winged horse.

We added a few bells and whistles to the production too. For starters, we gave each kid a physical passport, which we slipped into a passport holder for a touch of class.

We gave each kid a boarding pass for fun, and to emphasize the importance of money, we gave each kid a Euro note. Finally, we asked the children to choreograph these elements into their special way.

Then, we added another element -- the arrival experience at an international airport, and in this case, Athens International.

And two kids, Dharmesh and Dimple played the part of Greek Immigration Officers while the other kids stood in line to get their entry visas.

Though the next element is not new, food thus far has played a secondary role in the North Star. But based on nothing more than a hunch, I gave food a primary role.

I also gave the children the experience of walking down the streets of Athens, meeting street vendors, and tasting their food.  

And for this experience, the North Star chose Gyros, Greek Cheese Balls and Baklava.

Unlike the America Experience where the Hot Dog was a hit and the Mac & Cheese was a miss, both Greek appetizers went down well. But the kids were less sure about the Baklava.

And with this, we made another food change; we made Malaysian food the staple entrée and made foreign food the appetizer.

These children have ferocious appetites; they love their rice, and they love it so much that they will eat the rice from someone else’s rice bowl. And I know this well – because they ate my lunch!

Furthermore, inspired by Master Harish in the America Experience, we added a new sticker in the sheet of stickers for the kids to grade the North Star program.

And when I collected their journals, I took a sneak peek to see how they rated the program. And I was horrified because we got B’s and D’s when I was expecting straight A’s.

So I asked the children how I could improve the program, but they had no answer.

And after investigation, it became evident that the children were grading themselves, not the program. And the grades they gave themselves told me a sad story of self-esteem.

One final thing before I move on, we introduced virtual dance into the production.

In this case, it was the Shakallis, which is the Greek equivalent of the American Country Line dance that was pranced to the movie theme song of “Zorba the Greek”, starring Anthony Quinn.

What surprised me most was how well the children transcended the cultural divide and lost themselves in the Greek Dance of Life.

And based on their response, I have made dance another staple element of the North Star program.

When I started the North Star, I planned to evaluate the program on the freedom in self-expression that the children showed in their journal entries.

But after this Greece Experience, I realized that there was another measure open to me.

And that was -- the power of physical being.

When Sharvan first walked into the North Star program, he walked in quietly and tentatively.

But two months into the program, a new physical being emerged for Sharvan; one that was taller, bolder, and confident, but more importantly, one that was no longer lost at sea.

Sharvan is twelve years old, and he comes from the Anbu Illam Shelter Home, which is located in Ulu Kelang, Kuala Lumpur.

After the program was over, I walked the Anbu IIlam boys to their twenty-seater school bus that was waiting outside the Primary Care 4U Klinik in Kuala Lumpur.

Here I watched Sharvan board the bus, and when he hit the top of the stairs, he threw his head over his shoulder and looked at me. It was a soft, gentle, and innocent gaze, and he kept that look locked for a minute.

And when he unlocked his look, he left me with the feeling that he had finally found a post he could hitch his horse to.

Well, let’s see what his journal entries revealed about his interests …

In his February journal entry, Sharvan selected three stickers: a wild mustang, penguin, and journal, and the presentation of his page was clean and crisp, much like his physical presence.

And he used two or three sentences to describe each sticker and though the sentences were simple, each sentence was framed beautifully.

“I like my horse and my Horse is very quick.  I love you horse.”

“I like my Happy Feet and my Happy Feet is very quick.  I love you Happy Feet.”

“I like my May and my May is very quick. I love you May.”

And in his March journal entry, Sharvan did the same thing. He selected three stickers: a Bottlenose dolphin, Hercules, and the passport and again, he used one or two sentences to describe each sticker.

“I like my Dolphin and my Dolphin is very quick. I like my Dolphin.”

“I don’t know his name, but he is stronger than human.”

“Passport I like you, my brother. I travel the world with only a passport.”

But if you combine Sharvan’s journal entries with how intensely he looked at the picture of the Bottlenose dolphin (see below), it is clear that he loves animals.

And so, the North Star has created a national animal card for each country. Furthermore, to give Sharvan more vocabulary, we have added traits of the animals such as strength, speed, and bravery for the lion.

And like the concept of American baseball cards, we have made national animal cards a collection item for these kids.

This will give them something inspirational to hold on to until we meet again, and it will also ensure they continue to attend the program every month.

So, based on the 2023 North Star program, there will be an animal card for the Bald Eagle (America), Bottlenose Dolphin (Greece), Okapi (Congo), Gallic Rooster (France), Jungle Fowl (Sri Lanka), Panda (China), Lion (England), Italian Wolf (Italy), Bull (Spain), and Tiger (India.)

Dharmesh, who won a Mustang vanity plate in the February program said that before he goes to sleep, he tells his Mustang all his problems.  

But back to Sharvan, he did something different in his March journal; instead of using one page, he used two.

He selected the sticker of Dr. Nishkah (Guest Speaker) and embellished the picture of her and her grandmother with stickers of the solar system.

And he chose a black matte canvas to do this, and his artistic choices made his artwork sparkle and dance.

Thus far, this is Sharvan's most creative expression.

So, going forward, the North Star will measure the progress of the program on the power of physical being and power of self-expression.

And based on these two measures, Master Sharvan is moonwalking in the right direction.

One more thing, before I close, something hilarious happened ...

Two Anbu Illam cowboys came racing down the hallway like wild mustangs, yelling out my name.

As it turns out, they wanted my phone number.

And when I asked them why, they replied with a saddle full of enthusiasm, “We want to call you.”

“You want to call me?”, I asked with a chuckle in voice and dance in my heart.

And when they said “Yes”, they swept me off my feet and took me to a higher place, to a place of bliss.

My name is May Menaka Maniam. I am a blogger, philanthropist and activist for inspirational-based programs.

COMING UP NEXT

In May, we travel virtually to Congo to watch the Rumble in the Jungle, starring World Heavyweight Champions Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

And don’t be looking for us in the cheap seats -- the Champ has got us covered!

See below the cast who made the Greece Experience possible and for selected shots of the production.

CAST

BEHIND THE SCENES