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Today after a Newman Center Service on the campus of the University of Hawai'i, I attended a presentation given by President Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng at the East West Center.
A few of my thoughts and recollections:
Maya is, no doubt, a gracious, centered, elegant, educated person who shared and "talked story"with us on a personal level. Her topic was her mother Ann.
She spoke of the courage and humor of her mother while she wove in the life of her mother as an Anthopologist who would often ask her children to look at their surroundings from many perspectives.
She wanted her children to work in the rice paddies and wanted them to understand what it was like to be very poor. She took them on her research trips and continuously encouraged them to open their eyes not only from their viewpoint but the viewpoint of others. Ann started microbanking long before others because she knew of the needs of the village people.
During her mother's illness she was able to laugh. At first she told Maya that she would like her ashes to be high on a hill under a large tree and then she changed her mind. Her friends were spread in many lands and somehow being spread out in the ocean she felt she awould be able to travel and reach out to them some way.
Her mother never had a large home to display her collections. After her death there were many boxes of cards and many things that her mother collected. For example her 48 rice paddy hats! There were many artefacts and Indonesian puppets that, in time got moldy and had to be tossed. Maya wanted to keep more but again, space was a factor. With the things that Maya saved there is, at present, and exhibit in the East West Center Gallery. A must see!
what I will call her mother's broadminded Olympic spirit.
A few of my thoughts and recollections:
Maya is, no doubt, a gracious, centered, elegant, educated person who shared and "talked story"with us on a personal level. Her topic was her mother Ann.
She spoke of the courage and humor of her mother while she wove in the life of her mother as an Anthopologist who would often ask her children to look at their surroundings from many perspectives.
She wanted her children to work in the rice paddies and wanted them to understand what it was like to be very poor. She took them on her research trips and continuously encouraged them to open their eyes not only from their viewpoint but the viewpoint of others. Ann started microbanking long before others because she knew of the needs of the village people.
During her mother's illness she was able to laugh. At first she told Maya that she would like her ashes to be high on a hill under a large tree and then she changed her mind. Her friends were spread in many lands and somehow being spread out in the ocean she felt she awould be able to travel and reach out to them some way.
Her mother never had a large home to display her collections. After her death there were many boxes of cards and many things that her mother collected. For example her 48 rice paddy hats! There were many artefacts and Indonesian puppets that, in time got moldy and had to be tossed. Maya wanted to keep more but again, space was a factor. With the things that Maya saved there is, at present, and exhibit in the East West Center Gallery. A must see!
what I will call her mother's broadminded Olympic spirit.
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