Introduction

Before I posted my first reflections upon a Manadoob class, I thought I would give a little bit of background on myself.  My name is Ryan Hart, I am 29 and living in Bend, Oregon where I work at the Boys & Girls Club.  This is my second year running Manadoob and I am very excited to get deeper into the program.  I am starting this blog a little bit late so I'll be starting after the fourth class this week (02/16).  Starting this week I will be posting something after every class, hopefully right after the class so that I remember things more clearly.

As I said, this is my second year running Manadoob.  Last year I had a compressed time period and little familiarity with the program, so I flew by the seat of my pants for the most part.  Still, I fell in love with the program and the possibilities it offers to participants as well as instructors, and now that I have a deeper understanding I have no doubt I am going to experience new things that I missed last year.  I have also implemented a Manadoob art program with a corresponding art project for almost every class, save only those when the Club is closed.  It is my hope that the physical crafting of artwork related to Manadoob will expand the already multi-layered educational strategy to reinforce the comprehensive reading and the writing and discussion projects.

On a personal level, Manadoob speaks to me in ways it wouldn't have three years ago.  At 25, I was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and it was devastating.  On top of the difficulties of chemotherapy and the mental stress that came from my whole life going "poof!" in front of my eyes, so few people were willing to talk to me about the difficult parts of my life, so intimidated and frightened of the harsh realities I was facing.  I wish that I had been more thoughtful about death and some of the difficulties I had faced before, but, even more, I wish that the people around me had found the courage to do so.  So you can imagine my surprise and sincere admiration when I discovered a program that encouraged CHILDREN to do this.  Here I was, surrounded by people in their mid-20s too frightened to think of things like death and loss and extreme sadness, and now here I am watching young children enthusiastically and courageously explore deep fears.  To top it all off, I get to teach this program at the Club, a place as responsible for my recovery as anything else save my mother and my dog, Sadie.

It's weird to send this off into the ether, not knowing if anyone is going to actually be reading it, but here goes!  If you are reading, thank you!  If you have any questions or comments, well I'm sure there is some place on here that has my email address and a section for comments.  Sorry, I'm not so good with the technology spectrum of things;  I'm pretty analog.

Cheers