SAIL Program Newsletter

NEWS FLASH – Music, storytelling and history; Sudan and Australia

It is with unprecedented pleasure that we invite you to a SAIL Special Spectacular to end all spectaculars. On December 13, acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly will be performing as part of SAIL’s end-of-year celebrations. Paul Kelly was named Best Male Artist at the 1997 Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) awards ceremony, as well as being inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and winning two Awgie Awards. In 1999, Paul was crowned Australia's Best Songwriter by APRA. His albums invariably go platinum and one has passed the triple platinum mark! For all the official info head to www.paulkelly.com.au. Paul has generously agreed to donate his time and a live performance to SAIL and will be partaking in an afternoon of storytelling, history and music.

Earlier this year, we were reflecting on the way that Dinka music, which we have all been lucky enough to be exposed to through Akon and the Dambai Dancers, is used as a storytelling device. Dinka songs tell stories, communicate important messages and are a way of ensuring that Sudan’s rich history is recorded orally and passed down through generations. It occurred to us that Paul’s songs, which are so innately Australian and many of which have strong narratives, serve a similar function in Australian culture. Matthew had the crazy idea of inviting Paul along to share a performance with Akon, during which both would perform their songs, and their meanings would be translated for the bi-cultural audience at SAIL. To our surprise and delight, he has agreed to come along and do just that.

So, on Saturday December 13th, there will be a special performance by Akon Deng Shok and Paul Kelly. The show will start at 12pm and go until 1:30pm. At the moment the venue is a little up in the air – depending on feedback from Paul and his management, it will either be the May St Hall, which we will clear of all furniture to ensure that we can all fit in, OR the Maidstone Community House which is about 5 minutes drive from SAIL. The House has a lot for room and is light and airy, and if it’s what Paul prefers, we hope to have a mass exodus by car there. For this we will need everyone’s help. If you can’t stay, we understand – but even dropping them there and then leaving will be better than nothing at all! This is an amazing opportunity for all SAILors and we hope that everyone can help us out a bit to ensure that it goes off – which it should! We’ll let you know the venue details as soon as we know them.

Finally, it’s worth noting that his performance is for SAILors – Australian and Sudanese – and SAILORS ONLY, as if there are any extras we will be quite out of space! As tempting as it is to bring other along for what will be a truly amazing event, we are keen to make it exclusive ot all those you give to the SAIL community.

SAILing with sleighbells
As if that wasn;t enough excitement for the end of 2003, Christmas is once again upon us! We have special plans for the final SAIL of the year, on the 20th of December. SAIL’s very own Santa will once again be visiting after 12pm and until 2pm, with a present for every Sudanese SAILor under 18. The 20th will also feature the debut performance of the SAIL dramas group in their show, SAIL in Space and the presentation of certificates to primary school leavers and those starting VCE (so if you know your student is one, let us know to ensure they don’t miss out!)! All in all, we anticipate it being a brilliant day, and hope everyone can join in the celebrations.

SAIL ‘04
Whoa ahead! SAIL ’04 is fast approaching. For those wondering, we start up again on 14 February 2004. If you know you will be away for this, we would love to know ASAP!

As part of the summer-long build up to the restart of SAIL, we are calling on all SAILors for ideas. Everyone should have received a simple survey by email for this purpose. Many people have already responded but there are plenty more to come. We welcome your feedback, suggestions, ideas and criticisms in the hope of having an even bigger and brighter 2004!
Will ahoy!
As you would know from emails a little while back, we are thrilled to announce that Will, SAILor Secondary, is joining us and Bridgid as SAIL Co-ordinators. Will is Mr Enthusiasm and his middle name was recently changed by deed poll to “Fun”. We hope that everyone gets the chance to formally meet Will Fun Enthusiasm soon.

Increasing the fleet
It is with a great deal of excitement that we announce that SAIL is pregnant. In February 2004 it will be giving birth to SAIL East. Based in Dandenong, SAIL East will be home to the first Sudanese-only organization in East. We are thrilled that SAIL East will be guided be the overly-qualified hands of Jackie Hoggart, current SAILor Senior and counsellor at the Foundation for the Survivors of Torture. After 4 months in the planning, we are currently in the stages of finalising times and locations. The Sudanese community in the East are keenly and actively involved in this process.

We include this in the newsletter partly to let you know and partly in the hope of garnering a tiny bit of support. For the first 6 months of SAIL East, student and tutor numbers will be capped; 15 students all over 14, and 10 tutors. We and Jackie are very keen to secure the experience of SAILors from the West to begin this program. In fact, we really only want one such person by necessity, a male to lead the little SAILing vessel of the East! If this is you, we would love to know. The role will be a small but instrumental one in the first (of what could be many) SAIL Outreach programs. We’re also keen to hear from other Eastern dwellers with the view to involving you in the Program there at some point.

Excursion Bonanza
The recent SAIL About excursions to Hi-5 and Rove were a huge success. Thanks to all volunteers who helped us organise them, either before or on the day. The Sudanese SAILors had some really incredible experiences – look no further than the reports they have written in the SAIL Star as proof!

What’s next on the SAIL about calendar? –Read on for offers of FREE TICKETS!

We have been given 10 tickets to see the comedy show 'Mum's the Word.' The show is this coming Sunday 7th December, in the city at the Atheneum Theatre on Collins St, at 5pm - easy location and a good day and time! This show is a perfect end of year treat, it's a funny, quick-paced show, best suited for older SAILors with fairly good English and some understanding of Australian culture and colloquialisms, because it has quite a bit of Aussie humour in it! The show pokes fun at being a mum and family life in general, and has been touring the country since 2000 with rave reviews wherever it goes.

For those whose SAILor contacts are of a slightly smaller stature, we have tickets to Playschool LIVE on December 14th in Moorabin. This show will feature everyone’s favorite Playschool hunk-o-spunk, George, as well as those yellow nightwear specialist, the Bananas in Pyjamas. Given the success of the recent Hi-5 show, this on should be great for the 7’s and under. If anyone would like to take their students, or pick-up families, or even their adult students with little ones in tow, please get in touch!

Anyone who’d love to go to the show (think of George – c’mon he is pretty irresistible!) but doesn’t have any specific SAILors in mind, please let us know and we will gladly hook you up with some eager participants.

Finally, Prue Challis has sussed out that there is a rehearsal of Carols by Candlelight the night before the actual performance on 24 December. This is free and thousands turn out for it, apparently. It is a complete run-through of the performance, perhaps with a few stops and starts, but it could be an option. For anyone who can’t afford to spring for tickets to the real deal but would like to take some SAILors, it could be a good option! We will definitely be going with Christmas bells on!



Educators not taxis!
We always marvel at the generosity of SAILors towards one another but…. there must be limits. The one and only limit is somewhere between SAIL as an educational program and SAIL as a cab-rank. Please note that you are not expected and, in fact, we would actively discourage SAIL drivers from acting as chauffeur for any more than a trip to and from SAIL. We ask that drivers please let their passengers know that they are there only to drive them from home to SAIL. If this is not being understood and generosity is being stretched please let us know and we will gladly step in to explain.

Candid Camera
You might see a SAILor with video camera in hand over the next few weeks. No, it’s not because we’re about to be the stars of Oprah, or creating our own crazy version of SAIL Survivor (tutors get to vote the naughtiest student off the island? Or vice versa?). We are keen for our Saturday Coordinating stars, Will and Bridgid, to learn the names of all the students, and a video which captures everyone’s faces seems like the best way to do this. We encourage everyone to just ‘go about their business’ and hope the SAIL hams won’t be too distracted by the filming. We’ll make it as discrete as possible.

Vitamin D
SAILors please note that we are super keen for SAIL sessions to go on outside as they have been in the fine weather. Apart from being a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning, it serves a vital health purpose. Health professionals who have come in contact with Sudanese people in Australia, including Professor Sinclair, note that many members of the community show signs of Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is the one that comes from being in the sun! As such, we are keen for the children in particular to be exposed to it as much as possible. For those who turn red from exposure, please keep the sunscreen to yourself.

Kitchen etiquette
SAIL is staffed exclusively by volunteers. People travel from miles around to come and give of themselves in their own way. A crucial part of the SAIL team base themselves in the kitchen. Under extreme time pressure they do, without fuss, make lunches galore for the burgeoning SAILor community. Following a couple of unfortunate and unprecedented incidents, we call on all non-Culinary SAILors to please be mindful of and thankful for the voluntary work that the Culinary SAIL team do. They are volunteers just like you, and like you they are doing their best at all times. We trust that each and every SAILor will continue to treat the kitchen crew with as much gratitude as they would any other SAILor.

Fundraiser Bonanza
(To be sung…) Oh what a night, early December back just a week, what a movie, what a night!
The first ever SAIL fundraiser was a huge success. We raised a swathe of money to pay for school books for SAILors completing secondary school, for Dambai and for the Sudanese Online Research Association. The film gave an insightful exposure to the refugee experience and, as always, the Dambai Dance group injected energy and life into the evening. But none of this would have mattered without a crowd. We got quality and quantity and to all those who came and donated their hard-earned cash, we express our thanks on behalf of the beneficiaries! Our deep and sincere thanks are extended to Kate Jackson, SAILor Senior, who invested a huge amount of time into make the entire evening go like clockwork. Thank you Kate for creating such a successful evening.

Edition 1 of the SAIL Star was received with more warmth and enthusiasm than even we had imagined. Our thanks to Catherine, Editor-in-chief, and all tutors who guided their students to contributing. We hope this will become an irregular feature of SAIL and encourage all SAILors to contribute their hard work.. Edition 2 is in the pipe line but more submissions will be warmly welcomed (the submission box is in the library!).

Big cars for bikes
Next year, SAIL Xtend will feature a Bike Ed program. This program will enable kids to learn how to repair old bikes so that they are rideable, as well as teaching basic road and bike safety. We are therefore seeking donated bikes of all shapes and sizes.

We have also already been offered a number of donated bikes by a community contact. We are keen to find some generous cardriving SAILors who can drive by the location of these bikes (which is about 20 mins from Footscray, in Hillside) and bring them back to us at SAIL, or transport them to a SAIL drop-off point in Hawthorn or Clifton Hill. Can anyone help us out?

Cars – at all – for SAILors
In the week beginning the 19th January we will have four SAILors attending a special music holiday program at the VCA. We’re still keen to find some drivers to help out with transport from the church to the city on each of the days that week at about 8.30 am, and with the drive home in the afternoons. If this sounds even vaguely doable please let us know as we are able to be a little flexible and the diving can be shared around. The SAILors going are great kids for whom this is an amazing opportunity.

SAIL Librarian sought
Do you dream of books? Salivate at the names Seuss, Blyton and Rowling? Imagine a world where books are given voting rights? If you answered yes to the first two, we call on you to make the move to the holy of holy places in the SAIL world, the library (if you answered yes to the third, we will gladly organise some appointments for you). The SAIL library is in need of some more loving and caring hands. Bridie, Irene and Lorraine are hoping to have a new member in their lot. So if you are aware of anyone (maybe yourself!) just itching to get into the best library in the world and develop it, keep it organized, and maintain its awesome resources including the books, stationery, games and community information, then please have a chat to Matthew, Anna Grace or Bridgid, or send an e-mail.

Thank youse!
As ever, we have so many thankyous to make. We continually marvel at the amazing people who are involved in SAIL and give so generously of their time and energy. THANKS:

To everyone who has donated furniture and clothing to the community, especially Jen and her dad, who hired a trailer to do so, Lindy and her dad, for their shelves and desks, and Sue H, who got her friend to drive around a moving truck full of goodies in it! To Prue Challis, for all the extra effort you have put in for SAIL and SAIL About recently. We have acquired some very prestigious tickets and all thanks to your persistence. Thanks for keeping your chin up! To Sue Hunter, again, who just never stops running on the donations treadmill to ensure SAIL has what it needs. To Paula, for handling our shopping requests each week with never a grumble. To Tanya and Rachelle for coming all the way out to SAIL on a Saturday when you aren’t even tutors, just to clear up our admin records. SAIL is overwhelming even for those who are used to coming each week, so to have you negotiate your way around with such confidence was amazing!

And finally, to the SAIL Xtend Leaders! In its first year, SAIL Xtenders were thrown in deep and forced to swim swiftly to keep up with the ever-ebbing tides of students who have washed through your doors, you guys have been the definition of creativity and patience under pressure. We always said that SAIL Xtend should be about ‘Exposure, Not Achievement,’ and we thankyou sincerely for embracing this policy and going with whatever the weeks have presented you with. Thanks to you, our Sudanese SAILors have had some truly wonderful and memorable adventures into activities that they would not have otherwise had a chance to partake in, and the Program as a whole has been richer as a result. We’ve seen murals and tables painted, learned about the ‘silent language’, marvelled at how even the tiniest legs can thump a soccer ball halfway across the West, heard drum beats, Eminem tunes on keyboard and many a chorus of ‘Lean on Me,’ watched Dinka boys make sushi (and eaten the results!), and watched the drama class go nuts in a million different, bizarre and hilarious ways each week. Your efforts are inspirational to us and the kids
- THANK-YOU.

Total Trivia
Did you know that the SAIL logo was created by SAIL students themselves? In the early days of SAIL we gave some young SAILors the word ‘sail’ and asked them to draw what it made them think of. We got a few pictures of Bart Simpson in a row boat, but we also got some gorgeous designs. They were amalgamated by John Albert (Matthew’s dad) who took a little bit from each one and combined them to create the logo as it is today.

Thank you all for your generosity of time, energy and spirit. It has been the life-blood of SAIL ’03 and will be the life-blood of SAIL ’04!

Matthew and Anna Grace