Things on my mind

Lots of things on my mind - my quiet here at the ol' blogging place not withstanding. I find that very few of them come up to the level of things that I wish to blog about. I guess right now I'm just doing a lot of thinking - mostly about what comes next. But there are a few things I wished to let you all know about...

1) If you're in the market for some fantastic items from Africa for extrememly cheap prices, our Kenya Group will have about four tables full of stuff from Kenyan artists for sale at the Alternate Christmas Faire at Lakeside Presbyterian Church in San Francisco on November 8th, 2009. Karl Morthole who has been our main leader in Kenya for years needed to fill up the rest of a 20' container full of coffee that he was selling here in the U.S.. So he asked his partner in Kenya to buy up a bunch of local crafts and art from Kenyan people and to ship this with the coffee. Well, about a third of the 20' container is still left. That means fresh Kenyan coffee and about four tables of authentic Kenyan crafts and art for sale at cost with 100% of the proceeds going to help the people of Kenya. How cheap you ask? We're probably going to have a $1 table, a $5 table, a $20 table, and a Bid Table (for things like wood carved Giraffes bigger than you are ;) I believe we're also selling 5 pound bags of Kenyan Coffee beans for $30 (I hear that's a good deal, but I really wouldn't know). Of course, some of the other things available at the faire are quite wonderful as well - a chance to donate an animal to the Heifer Project, or help with orphans in Bali, or buy a dinner/show ticket for an authentic Kenyan meal, and much, much, more... If you need more info, let me know.

2) If you're looking for something to get your boss or pastor for Christmas, my company (Yasutomo and Company - www.yasutomo.com) is having a sale on our popular Quad Pen's from Japan. These pens normally sell for $50 to $60 each. Right now, you can get them on our website for $29.95 - and there may be other deals coming down the pike before the end of the year. I'd check them out if you're looking for something a little on the fancy side for a cheap price.

3) If all goes well tonight, I should also be posting a new video to Youtube and on the Yasutomo website for a cool little project using origami and tealights - to make very wonderful decorations. Its something simple enough for kids to do and they really look good at any time of the year. I simply have to get the editing done and posted.

4) Just as an aside - did you know that there are Mandarin Immersion classes in San Francisco public schools? These programs are designed to take kids starting in Kindergarten and teach them for all but one hour a day in Mandarin. I guess the idea is that the students would become bi-lingual, but I'm not quite sure how that's going to work. Anyway, private schools do not offer these classes, so (mostly rich) parents are eagerly trying to get these programs expanded so that their kids can be enrolled in these prestigious classes. As I understand it now, there is so much pressure on the SFUSD to get these classes that in two years, SFUSD is planning to add the classes in every single school. In order to make this work, they will be converting one third of all classes (in the lowest grades, half in the higher grades) into language immersion courses. As a result of the expected lack of teachers capable of teaching only in the immersion language, they will be forced to hire teachers from foreign countries to fill the suddenly available teaching spots. This will no doubt lead to layoffs of qualified English speaking teachers. Quite frankly, I'm not sure I understand how you can teach a student ONLY in another language in an English speaking country and call them properly educated. How the heck are they supposed to pass the various tests if the tests they're given are in English? I'm not against the idea of bilingual teaching, but the only place I know of where immersion language classes are necessary are for situations where someone is about to be sent to a foreign country and needs to know the language. Anyway, chalk up another bizarre idea for San Francisco.

That's it for now... as usual, I danced around the real things on my mind, but I haven't yet decided whether I want to talk about those yet... someday soon perhaps.

Will, Out!