Let it snow!

It was the season for our latest issue of Grade School magazine.

3 times a year, I would bring my materials to the school's library, where I work on the latest cover. As usual, the cover is inspired by my kids & their friends - this time, it was Elina & Raimon.

Summer Fun, Reports & a Wild Boar.

The few last days of school before summer break. A hectic week with school plays, class picnics, farewell lunches & this : At the kids' school, I volunteer by drawing. Here's my latest illustration (with colour pencils & water colour) for our Grade School magazine. My most "exciting" task today - photocopying 12,000 pages for the newsletter (200 issues of 60 pages) from 8am till 3pm !!

As a "corporate" identity, Fuji-san is present each time. So are the different washi border, the masthead & that bird which is a "Spatz" (sparrow) hence "Spatzenpost". This season's issue is dedicated to the Summer Olympics. You can see past covers here.

This cover is dedicated to my son, who missed jumping into the outdoor pool at the Swiss Club Singapore & my daughter who dreams of doing handstands. In real life, she can't do any handstand but she sure love her braids! In real life too, there are no goldfishes in ponds but who cares...these look like they belong! Dancing in the background are friends, Timo, Elina & Raimon.

Niklas wrote out an interview with a faculty member, in German & in English while his co-reporters asked the questions & took photos.

Annika found an article in our English newspapers & translated it into German. It was about a wild boar that ran amok in a kindergarten. The funny part is that she had added "And 23 people died in the end”. We were shocked & asked where she got that info since no one had died. She said she put that in to make the story more exciting & interesting! She did it because that is the general instruction she gets from us or hear Niklas say, whenever she is writing essays! Yes...we did remove her "exciting" statement.

A mother's tale

Once upon a time, there was a new baby & people came to visit. The baby cries & lay uncovered, unattended. Her family couldn’t bear the sight of her. “But she is so young & needs care or she will die”, some said. Her family said “that’s ok, she’s only a girl & if she don’t die, we will give her away”. One woman felt so sad, she said “...then let me have her. She is 4 days old now & I will take her when she is a month’s old”.

A week later, the woman came to visit again. Somehow, the baby is smaller than before because “milk is expensive”. With sorrow in her heart, she said “I will take her home now”. And she did & she became my mother.

I think of my mother often, how she saved me. On Mother’s Day, I think of the biological woman, how she gave birth & gave me up so easily. To be given up for adoption is not uncommon. However, shortly after I left, they bought a baby boy to replace me.

My mother said she is not extraordinary, that she did what any normal person would do. She was already a mother then & she could not walk away knowing that a baby might die. So, she took me even though she & my father are poor. She said I will understand better when I become a mother. I became a mother & in that hospital room, with my baby in my arms, I cried so much, for my mother who saved me & for the bio woman because of what she did.

It was tough growing up in poverty, to not know when your next meal will be. It was tough growing up when people expect the worst of you because “you have bad blood”. It was even tougher to grow up without papers as the bio family said “legal adoption is too troublesome for only a girl”. I never attended any field trip nor school camp because there was no authorized signature for my permission slip. There was no art school as there was no money. So I did the best I could – I grew up strong & independent. I work hard & try not to get into any trouble. I try to be more than just only a girl. I try to be a good mother, like my mother.
Happy Mother’s Day to all kind mothers !

Back to school.

I've always tried to be involved with the children's school & was able to be very involved, in the German European School in Singapore, since everything there is bilingual in English & German.

Since living here, it has been difficult to volunteer for anything & I get rejected because of my lack of language proficiency in German & my non-existant skills in Japanese.

Then, there was this! A artistic project that I can be useful in. Each quarter, the Grade School has a newsletter, with contributions from the children. A small group of mothers put this together. And I'm really happy to have the chance to do the Cover & Back, 4 Activity pages & 1 Craft page, all in English!

Here's our past Winter issue & this Spring's cover. "Spatzenpost" is a 3 issues a year, mini-magazine, for Classes 1 to 4. Spatzenpost means "Sparrow's Post". I joined last year & did the Winter Issue - a cover featuring Mt Fuji, with 3 children carolloers (Niklas, Annika & Isamu, who is one of Annika's classmate).

Now I am working on the Spring issue. We leave tomorrow for the mountains, for a week of skiing & my reference material have to come along too. For this isuue, Niklas is one of our junior reporter & wrtes a report on the Medieval Ages. He loves to write so this is fun for him.