A misty morning in west Cornwall

A misty morning in west Cornwall for our first workshop directly with children of migrant workers and their friends. Children at Pool School have volunteered, in pairs, to attend.
We arrive first thing and work all day. Games first to break the ice. A prize for the pair building the highest tower.

People are so creative that we award a further prize for the most imaginative structure - architecturally.

Then we get to work, making cases of metaphorical journeys. Children have come from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania to the school. Ewa Cimochowska, who has been helping throughout, has come along to help

People draw pictures from their journeys to this country. We discuss problems faced - difficulties and how were best tackled.   
We've brought our map suitcases to help things along - here pictured with new cases.

One of the aims of this workshop is to come up with an Action Plan, that might be used in this school and elsewhere to help new arrivals - children who don't speak English, find it tough to make friends and experience difficulties.
All sorts of suggestions are made...
It is a very lively team.

Who have their own ideas of how to brainstorm! They draw a picture of an imaginary Greek girl, called Luella, who arrives at the school.

Then imagine her thoughts and feelings.
A good day. Lunch in the school canteen and the first time for ages I have had chocolate sponge and custard.

Later call in at SEF (Southern England Farms) Leedstown, to see the four filmmakers whose film premiered at I Packed This Myself in Truro in March. We discuss future plans.

It's a fairly chilly early summer evening - slightly damp and the trees (just) in full leaf.

Drive past daffodils fields that are now being prepared for the next crop.

Creating new map boxes at Truro Library

A very gentle day after the meetings and discussions of last week... the opening of the newly refurbished Truro Library, Truro, Cornwall, and Ewa and I run a drop-in workshop in the Children's Library: I Packed This Myself: What's In A Suitcase? The space is large and airy: the children love making map boxes. And Ewa has made several plates of Polish cheesecake, which she hands around.

The map boxes, designed by the tireless David Cross. They are inspired by four suitcases, with maps of different stages of a journey, which have been created by illustrator Glyn Goodwin.  People can drawn their own maps, reflecting metaphorical journeys they have made, and then cut them up and make them into suitcases.  They can take them home and keep things in them. On the base of each box/suitcase is a key fact about migrant workers and migration. Abbie, aged five, is in the library with her mother and three-year-old brother, Jack, who eats a lot of cheesecake.  Abbie draws things that remind her of home in her suitcase.

 Visitors are very interested in the cheesecake and ask Ewa for the recipe. However she is busy with her own case
She does promise the recipe to one keen visitor, Mrs Vee Stott, who comes back several times for more (we will put the recipe in the post). It is interesting to find that the vocabulary for cooking is quite difficult. It's easy enough to come up with a list of ingredients - but expressions involving actions like 'separating the eggs', 'folding in', 'beating' ... are trickier.
Mrs Stott talks about English cake traditions, some of which are new to me. She tells Ewa about 'cut and come again cakes' - these are fruit cakes, intended to last for some time.
And the expression 'I'm going to straighten that up', which she thinks comes from Yorkshire. Her late husband used to say .e.g 'I'm going to straighten up that bread and butter pudding'. i.e. finish it off.
Later, Ewa and I go to the Cathedral next door for a cup of tea and our usual review meeting. Ewa sees a woman priest for the first time.