Literacy of Love with Cari Matejka

What's going on everybody? I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. My name is Brian Martin. I'm a second grade teacher and host of the teaching champions podcast. And today's conversation was an extra special one, because it was with someone that I've known for a very long time, someone who we started our Teaching Careers very close to one another in the same school. And this conversation is just such a great reminder that there are people that all of us work with that are doing amazing things. And if we're curious, if we take time to listen and ask questions, we can learn so much. And this week's conversation is with Carrie Matejka. She's a fifth grade teacher and founder of literacy of love, through which Carrie has created a foster home in Uganda, that its mission is to help destitute, abused, abandoned, vulnerable and orphan children in Uganda find hope, and a future. And in this conversation, listen to Carrie as she explains her mission, and all the life lessons and experiences that she shares from her work in Uganda. Listeners, she talks about building compassion and creating ripples within your class listeners, she talks about creating a common vocabulary that students identify with, and so much more. This is one you're gonna want to hear. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. I am super excited for this episode. Because today, I have a friend with me someone that we both started our Teaching Careers basically at the same time in the same school. So I can't wait because sometimes the people all around us are doing amazing things. And we just have to stop and listen and hear what they have to say. And my friend is doing some absolutely amazing things. So I am super excited to welcome Carrie Matejka to the show. Carrie, welcome. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. And I really appreciate reconnecting with you on your podcast, because I can't wait to hear your story. Now for the listeners. Can you tell them a little bit about your journey and what you're doing right now? Yeah, absolutely. So um, I am the CEO and founder of a nonprofit organization literacy of love. So not only am I a fifth grade teacher and higher up, Brian, what is this? Now? We're going on our one year 17. Right. Are you going? What? Am I got a couple years I'm on number. Really? Yes. Okay. So I think I think I'm going on 17 this year. So you just have a little bit on me. And this is my this year marks a decade working in Uganda. So literacy of love is an organization that I founded after working in Uganda, and I wanted to have more efficacy and power in what I was doing when I was there. And so basically the organization supports raises and helps educate destitute, vulnerable, abused, orphaned children and Uganda. Yes, I'm awesome. Thank you. I started this actually, I was teaching. I was like in the beginning years of my teaching, and I came across a professor who was working with business students, and they were doing work abroad, and I had done something with a different program. And I heard about students at St. Bonaventure University who had started a program working in Uganda and I immediately loved what they were doing. So I connected my students with this organization that was working in Uganda and help them for a couple years just connect like my students with the children and Uganda. And then after a few years of helping fundraise and connect children across the globe, I asked that group's leader if I could go to Uganda and I ended up flying to you This was 2012 and ended up flying to Uganda by myself, wow. Yeah, yeah, I asked, I think it was like two months before I went, she was like you should come. And so I ended up flying to Uganda in 2012 in the summer and spent a month there with her, it was just the two of us. I was working at an orphanage and school there loved what I was doing, continued to work, and help that organization. And then after a few years, I wanted more jurisdiction and had like some ideas of what to add and supplement. And that's where literacy once came about. That's pretty special. Now, what was your first impression? When you get over to Uganda? You know, when you look at pictures, and National Geographic, I suppose coming from an American perspective, that is what you see, it is such a mixture of everything, I guess my thought was like, this is a hot mess when I went over there, because there, it's just you see so many people mixed in with poverty mix. It's just a whole jumble of life, I guess what made me truly fall in love with Uganda, you know, there was something in my heart that made me that made me really feel you know, I'm a woman of faith. But I definitely feel like there's it was tugging on my heart that I wanted to do some type of work like this. And I didn't know where I lead me. But when I had the opportunity to go to Uganda, I knew it was meant. And considering all the various trials we've been through, because this has been quite challenging. You need that fortitude to continue on. And I'll get into that a little bit about like our challenges and what we face and what we've overcome. But I would say what has connected the most is that in Uganda, I can remember my very first plane ride home. And I remember thinking like I am living in between two different worlds and having your mind there's an expression right when your mind is stretched and never goes back to the original shape, right. And I felt like that I was in this weird dichotomy of the two worlds. And my thought was we are sophisticated with technology. And we have our basic needs met, and even the poor among us, and the challenges that poverty presents itself. Here it is. We're advanced, but we are lacking a true and authentic human connection with each other. In our society. And in Uganda, everything is communal. And so they are missing their most basic needs. And they are there's like links missing in their development as a society. However, they are truly connected to one another, and they are responsible for one another. So the school that I first worked at is called Bethlehem parents school and orphanage. And the genesis of that name is when you say parents school and orphanage is that every adult is a parent. That's where it comes from. So like parents and siblings, like you're never alone, and everybody is raised to help everyone. So you're never like fighting about who's doing chores or helping take care of children. It is infused in who they are as people. And I think that's something that I really, truly love. That is pretty special right there. Now this orphanage that you went to, is it in a big city or is it more in a rural area? It's very rural. So the capital city of Kampala is where Entebbe The airport is. And it's about between like, it's like a four hour drive on a highway. And then off the highway, you're everything is dirt roads. So we're on dirt roads going deep into the village. And that's where that school is. So our children now we used to work at that school. And since, you know, as I said, we changed focus once literacy of love was created. And now what my focus is, for the future of literacy of love is one we started with a permanent home. So we have that we own our own permanent children's home. And at the children's home, we have probably like 15 permanent residents there. But we have about 60 Kids 5050, United 60 Kids total that are sponsored and in school right now. And many of them have guardians or parents, but they live with us or stay with us because their guardians or parents cannot manage to take care of their most basic needs. So that's why many of them will live with us, the ones that live with us permanently. They're either orphaned or they cannot. The parents just can't at all take care of their most basic needs. So number one was to provide a safe nurturing home so we have that. Number two is education. So our next mission is to make sure that we're providing an education to our Children. So interesting fact about Uganda is that school most worthwhile schools, I should say all worthwhile education is private. So government schools or public schools, you still have to pay for basic needs. And as crazy as this is you can't go to school if you don't own a pair of shoes. So you have to still be able to come with a notebook, and some shoes. And we have kids who are so poor, that they don't have that, and they're not going to be in school. Also, government schools are really pretty terrible. So you're not getting a quality education. And some kids, their families are so poor that they have to work. So many of our kids drop out of school at an early age because they need to be home and help like with sustenance, farming. So our job then is to make sure that these children are in school. So some kids come to us when they haven't been in school in years. So that's number two, education. And as you say, real quick, like your kids come to what age is that? Like? They haven't been to school in years? How right? Oh, my goodness. So I could tell you story after story. But our kids span from our youngest one, I believe is five right now. And our oldest one is a university graduate. So this is pretty cool. Now, the third thing I was going to tell you is sustainability. So that goes back to your question of like what the age span is. So kids come to us at any age, and mostly, they're referred to us by word of mouth. So we don't have to do any advertising, people get to hear about it. And there's always a great need. So in the community, people will come to us and they know what we're doing. And they say like, we have this person, this person, this person. So sustainability to us looks like this. Children are not forced once they graduated from our program to serve the program, we just want to instill that heart in them that they want to come back and help perpetuate this cycle. So this job, I suppose my best goal in life is to work myself out of a job. Right. So right now my biggest job is to fundraise and make sure that we are developing and building sustainability. And we've got sponsors for kids to go to school. Our kids are an elementary school, middle and high school, we've got them in vocational school, and we also have the university. So as they grow up, I'll give you an example of how we're perpetuating the cycle, we start businesses. So right now we have a maize mill, where we grow maize on our farm, and then we can grind it into flour. And that's what we eat. And that's what we feed our pigs when we have a Taylor, who she owns her own business, a graduate from our program. Now for clothing and anything that we need, we can send to her. We have a tape, a barber, so all of our kids get free haircuts from him, he owns his own business in the village, we have a welder, our welder every single time that we have a construction project. He's our guy that we go to, so we patronize him, but he gives us a good deal. So we're perpetuating. Now that welder he's a mentor. So he's now teaching that same skill to other kids. So it is now reducing our cost and education because he's ours. And he's perpetuating the cycle by teaching another child that so we'll have the same thing or Taylor also is a teacher now and she's teaching a younger girl, that same skill. Our next big goal is that we're going to hopefully have a clinic because we have a lab technician, university graduate and a doctor graduating from our program. And so now we'll have three once we get this going, we'll have free medical care. That is phenomenal. We'll provide jobs and a community resource. So that's how we're building sustainable. And how many years did you say you've had this program up and running? Literacy of love has it's been official since 2016. My work going back and forth to Uganda has been a decade now. And I'll tell you what, one thing that we've learned everything the hard way there in this type of environment, our kids are coming from a life of hustling because they don't have their most basic needs. When you grow up in a life where you don't have enough food to survive at home when you quit school and you have to work in the fields from morning until night. You do what you have to do to survive. So one of our most recent kids II was homeless and living on the streets in a big city. And he was sniffing drugs to take away the feeling of cold and hunger. Right. And crazy enough, he has a family. He has someone but he ran away because the streets were better than home. So he came to us and now he's permanently ours and he's learning carpentry. So their stories are pretty incredible. But when you have that then you have like this whole myriad of other social and emotional pieces going on. You know the kids are overcoming trauma of Death or abuse, trauma of not being able to eat trauma of not being able to go to school. So we have one girl who had to quit schooling because the family couldn't afford it. And she's a teenager and her dad's idea, which is common in Uganda, is will force her into marriage early so that you are the responsibility of a man and not ours anymore. And so we rescued her from an early marriage. Now she's in high school. So they're, they're overcoming such circumstances as that. So we've got a whole gamut of things that we're up against. And in a culture like that, there's a lot of corruption, a lot of corruption. So one thing that I've learned in doing this for so long now, is that corruption is common, and it's everywhere. You know, when you read stories about human trafficking, for instance, and you hear that slavery is two times more prominent today than it was 200 years ago, you know, the facts, but you don't know where it is, and we don't really see it. And it's all around us, one of our little boys was basically, he was basically in a trafficking type of situation, he was held hostage for money, they wouldn't give him back to us unless we gave money. So they were, you know, basically selling him. And these kinds of things, they happen all around us. So we have corruption. And we have our children who were so desperate, when you're so desperate, you'll do anything for bread, right? You'll do anything for bread. So our vulnerable children remain the most vulnerable, the vulnerable are the easiest prey, because they're missing their most basic needs. So I think that's something that I didn't understand completely Intel, I experienced it with them, and to really like empathize and to really understand the human condition or the human suffering and pain. You can be compassionate and caring. But I suppose when you really sit with someone or you experience it with them, then it becomes a whole new reality to you. So I've overcome quite a bit of corruption myself, you know, there's there's a lot of hustling that goes on in this behind the scenes. And, and our kids are just trying to survive. Yes, that's that's the absolute truth. Now, when one of your kids you talk about, you know, they've faced such tragedies, and they come into your school, is there what supports or how do they integrate? Because you said, it's such a family like atmosphere? How do you create that culture? You know, that's a really great question. It is challenging, and it takes time. And sometimes you can, you can really walk with somebody, metaphorically for 10 years and not know what kind of things are lurking beneath the surface. That's the tough part about mental and emotional health, I suppose is that it's like an internal suffering and struggling. So what's important to us is that we instill values in the kids, I go to Uganda twice a year. I'm in contact nearly most of the day, every single day. So I'm a teacher, right? So I am in contact in the morning, I am on my lunch breaks. And I am after school, basically until I go to bed. So I'm constantly like in the nitty gritty of things and working on things. We have a house mom, and so the house mom takes care of the kids. And then we try to we try to encourage the kids and institute some rules so that they're going to like their place of worship. At school, they're very disciplined at school. That's something else that's very unique about Ugandan culture is that school is, is it is a prized commodity. So if you are blessed to go to school, you better believe you're gonna mind your P's and Q's. They rule schools with an iron fist. So there is a great sense of respect and discipline there. It's very infused and Ugandan society. So they they learned that in school, most schools, if you can afford it, or boarding schools, so during their trimesters, they are many of them are boarding. And so they learn lots of discipline and behavior while they're at school. Then when I'm home, there's just lots of counseling and lots of relationship building and lots of trust building, I would say trust is definitely a really important and valuable virtue that we're really trying to build and it takes time. It takes lots and lots of time, especially when you've been abused or neglected or abandoned or manipulated. Yes, absolutely. Now the school system over their house, do they have like versus our school system, the structure of it? Is there is it very similar or is it very different? It's very different And yeah, it's definitely very different. So number one, I would say the culture of school is very different kids respect school, and they appreciate school, and they're very thankful to go to school. And I can tell you time and time and time again, that when I have children come from horrendous backgrounds of being abused, of being orphaned of being on the streets, the number one thing they will cry about is not being in school, above all else, it's incredible, because they know it's survival. They know it's survival, and they know what it feels like to barely survive. So the number one thing that they all want and hope for is school, I would say. So that's definitely a big difference. Boarding is a big difference. So many, many, many children live at school during this semester. So they live and eat at school, eating at school, it's not luxurious, and there's not choice, you get what you get, and you make it happen. It's very contingent on the students to study as well. So they're very like strict about what your marks are, there's punishment, if you're not up to par with your marks, like they really are very tough with it and disciplined and the kids don't find it unfair, they find it just part of what normal life is. And that they have to find ways to manage their responsibility. They have primary school, which they call it Baby Class, preschool up to seventh grade, then they have secondary school, two levels of secondary school, there's a lower level called O or ordinary level. And it's four years and then they have two years of advanced level a level, you can stop when you finish a level or continue on to a level, then they have like different levels of vocation. University, which would be comparative to our trade schools, or university here or college here. So they have all of those. It's very competitive, though very competitive. Their discipline is so strict and so ingrained in the kids that I have been in classrooms where there will be 61st graders, 62nd graders, in these rural poor schools, we they will have no no chairs, and no like desks, so they kneel on cement, and use a bench as their desk. And all 60 of them will be silently copying notes from the board. And the teacher can leave while they copy. They don't have like the luxury of like making copies handouts, or a lot of times even books. So they will copy them, teachers will write pages and pages and pages on blackboards. And kids will go in and copy their notes, copy, copy, copy, copy. So you it's amazing what you can do with very little I think about this sometimes of like we have every. And we still struggle to get our kids up to where they need to be. And here they're working with almost nothing. But yet, I've had kids who are doing like advanced physics and algebra, and I'm like, I can't even do what you're doing. How is it that you have grown all this time without a book. And I think it has so much to do with their perception of the value of learning. Yeah, and that's something with with all of our luxuries and all of our wealth, that, you know, we lose that a little bit. And that's what I was saying about my first plane ride back home. After my first visit of like, what we have lost, it's almost like we've become over and over evolved in some things we have so much but have lost the the basics, and they are not quite evolved in like certain realms, but they have the basics of like humanity and connection and, and just just the value of what you're doing. I really value and care about it. That is so special. And it's the truth. Like when you value it, when you care about it, you're gonna put that effort forth. Oh, my gosh, it makes a huge difference. A huge difference. Yes. Now, transitioning back to your classroom here. Yeah. How do you connect your students to the students over there? Well, I suppose my number one way to connect is just to tell them stories and tell them about the kids. And so I teach fifth grade and the kids are always fascinated. Something I noticed about children, no matter where I'm at, whether I'm in Uganda, or whether I'm here is that children by nature are very compassionate if you give them a platform to be compassionate. So when I tell stories, kids love to hear about other kids. And when you tell them stories, whether they're stories about how life is different or life is unfair or life is challenging, they're very fascinated by that. Whether I tell funny stories and talk about my kids in Uganda who are really skilled with dancing, or they're funny, they are, they're very interested in learning about them. So it's a great segue into certain parts of curriculum where we're teaching about maybe human rights, or were discussing geography and maybe wildlife is a certain way, depending on where you live. So I start with just stories, I share pictures. And really, I think maybe every single year, no matter the makeup of my class, if I share some stories and explain what lives might be like that look different from ours differently from ours, kids will automatically come up with ideas of like, what they can do to help and how they want to be involved. And that's without my prompting. So I think kids feel powerful when they have a chance to truly put their care into action. So that's definitely something that I love about connecting my students. Another way I do that is I do travel back and forth. So I can make videos or share videos or share pictures. Sometimes I do projects. And so I can have like, you know, if I'd have my kids draw half a picture, and then the kids and you go on to draw the other half, then we have something that's collaborative. So we can do something along those lines, if there are very simple ways to connect them. But I would say that the most fundamental way is just storytelling. They love stories, and they want to hear about the lives of kids and other places, they're very curious. And it opens up their eyes, because without telling them this, they would have no idea that life is different and looks differently from their own. And it really is our responsibility to open our children's eyes. In the same thing with like empathy and compassion. If you're going to if you want your children to have those virtues, then it's you to set the stage for it prompt them. But I'm always amazed and impressed how they take it to the next level. It's really in them compassion, it's really in the students, but I give them a little platform to like care and to think about her life might be different, some other place, and they're very interested in it. So I would say that's my number one way to connect. I love that. And you know, it made me think when you talk about being that model. Yeah, I heard I was listening to a podcast the other day, and I hope I get this right. But the one person was saying it was a quote that they were saying is that for all the parents out there, yeah, like, don't be worried that your child is listening to you be worried that your child is watching you. Oh, my goodness. And let me tell you, I love that. That's amazing. First of all, they are listening, but they are watching to see if what you're doing is matching up. But no, they are listening. But the modeling, the modeling is so powerful, it's so powerful. And if you act interested, and you care about something, they're sponges, and they also want to emulate that. And I think that they have that natural ability and care in them. And it's really truly up to us to foster that. And a platform for that can be so simple, so simple. You know, in my classroom, something that I value the most is that I teach my students the language of the virtues. So it sounds complicated, and it's not it really is vocabulary, and then valuing that vocabulary and using it the whole year. So you could call this like character education, but it's taking it up, it's beefing it up a notch. So when you teach a child what the word empathy means, or compassion, self discipline, or accountability, or humility, I, when I taught third grade, I taught them the same language. And I seriously could have third graders reflect on what the virtue accountability means, how they can use accountability, and then bring them higher as like a call to action of how to improve that behavior. I remember very vividly a story of a third grader who used the word detachment, you know, like, I can have emotions and be angry. But I've got to find a way to like feel that without acting out on other people. Now, kid had to like, calm down. But then I was like, Okay, how was it at this moment, you can use attachment, and they knew it. But that was, that's really just you as an educator, raising up the bar, and being like, they're so capable of this. And if I want to see this out of them, I will share it, practice it, talk about it. This isn't a punishment. This is like, kids feel powerful and empowered with that. So I definitely had something else that I share with both my Ugandan kids and my kids here in Olien. And I've used that for as long as I can remember. And I would say that's probably my very favorite thing as an educator. Mmm, and most powerful, useful tool, above anything else I do in my classroom is the is just having a language where they know what it means. And then in calm safe spaces, like call them to that higher place, they can do it, they can do it. I've seen it over and over and over and over again. Yes, I love that giving them that language. And you know, and like you said, when they're raised up, you know, none of us is an adult, when we're raised out, we're not rationally able to process certain emotions, but when we bring it back down, and we can reflect, and yeah, can talk about it and given that call to action. Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, even as adults, let's just say you have an argument with your spouse or something, when you can come back to that, and then be able to reflect on that. It's empowering. Everybody situation feels empowering. And it's healing, for sure. It truly is. Now, if there's educators out there that want to do a service project, I mean, this is a huge project that you've undertaken, and it's not even a project, it's a calling, it's a way of life for you now, you're you're making, you're changing lives, when we hear about what you're doing. Unbelievable. But for the person that wants to do something just within their own mute, you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to them? Yeah, definitely, I think you can start, I think, something so incredibly powerful. Just start within the whole culture of your own classroom start there, right? When you think about the ripple effect, you know it, you know what it means you've heard it a million times, when you think about like words, like pay it flow expressions, like pay it forward, start in your own classroom, okay. Um, you can do a service right within your own classroom and create exchange the dynamics completely. A ripple effect is like, let me do one good thing, and then look to see how this ripples out for other good things. Teach them what that means. It doesn't matter what age they are, they can comprehend if you if you can illustrate it for them. And you can show them how they can do it. I'm so open with my students where I can say, you know, like this, let's say if you make a good choice, today, I go home feeling nice and calm. But if not, I feel very stressed and the kids care about you, they do. So they want to like live up to like, well, I don't want to say Miss Matejko home film stressed out. So then they might come to me like I'm really sorry that I was loud today. Like it's amazing. Pay it forward, like maybe make a little program where they pay it forward. And maybe you can do this for free. You don't have to fundraise, you could make like a nice little note, everybody in your classroom, pays it forward to one other kid in the class or the school, take it out a notch. Maybe when your the kids are out shopping with their parents, they put it doesn't have to be like $1, it could be like a little note that says I hope you have a good day today. I'm the world changer. And I want you to be one too. So then they could stick that on a shelf at Walmart. And then they can do that, you know, those are like free simple things of just broadening their thinking and their horizons. So any kind of literature you pick, you know, there's lots of literature about filling your bucket or kindness, languages, all of that gets kids thinking about positive ways they impact themselves and other people and also teach negative too, because you know, there's light and dark walk together. And you always have a choice of like what you're adding, you're adding something, and sometimes you had dark, so it's good for them to be able to think about that. Of course, there's organizations within your community that always need help that are simple. But it doesn't always have to be a fundraiser. It doesn't always have to be like I'm collecting gloves. It could just be I'm changing the dynamic in my classroom, my school, absolutely just starting right in your own classroom in your school. Absolutely. Just if you can get your kids to care. You just think you get one. But think about that Pay It Forward effect, right? If you get one child to care, who gets one other childhood care. And then you know, like, I think back of when I was in fifth grade, and I'm like, I can vividly remember kids who are kind and some certain, like specific things that they did that were kind and I can remember the opposite of that. And just by connecting with them and being like, I totally remember that kid, like which kid do you want to be? And I think changing an atmosphere is huge star. Yes, absolutely. And in my classroom, you know, I'm dealing with seven year old. So we always talk about making mistakes. We have little mantra, and one of the first things we do is we talk about making mistakes. But we also say mistakes just aren't academic. It's peer to peer mistakes as well. Those people and I'm very open and you know talking about there's been times even as an adult, maybe where I haven't said the nicest thing so I could have said something differently and how that made me feel, and things that how I can fix that. So like you said, giving them that language? Yeah. Relate using yourself as an example. Yes. It's amazing how powerful I'm sure when you tell stories like that they're looking at you like, wow, you know, when you're seven, you think this my teacher live outside of the school? Yeah, like it's your other store like, wait. So I think when you tell a story of like, yes, I've also done this, then they're like, I can connect with you human connection is powerful. It truly is. Awesome. You've shared so much with us. As we wrap up, I have two of my favorite questions. And I'm gonna throw a bonus question at the end. The first one is, do you have a book, favorite book or something that you would recommend to everyone? Okay, absolutely. I have two that I can think of one book and I cannot remember the author off the top of my head. But the title of the book is on selfie, listen, if you are a parent or an educator, it is 100%. A must to read this book, it is so empowering. And it is we need to know what's in this book, we must because we're raising the next generation. And in order to really salvage and create a better humanity, this book on selfie, so, so, so good. Think about think outside of yourself, and how you fit into the world. And then of course, I talked a bit about compassion, empathy, being aware of what's around you. So I would say anything by Brene Brown, she talks so much about vulnerability, which is such a strong topic that we need to talk about openly so that no matter what your gender, no matter what your age is, you have a safe place. You need to create this in your classroom. Because we have kids who don't have a safe place to be vulnerable and to open up themselves. I just read Atlas of the heart. And it's basically like a companion like a dictionary of emotions. I loved it. It gave me great language. Um, but she has dare to lead which is great for educators. I'm in the middle of that one right now. So I would say those two musts. Yes, I know. There's Brene Brown, she's pretty on point. And that unselfie sounds good. Oh, it's written, Brian, really, you'll love it. It's so good. So good. Awesome. Awesome. Now, if people want to connect or support the literacy, love, because everything that you do right now over there is pretty amazing. But you do need funding? Yeah, because we can't help over there and support the orphanage and everything you do without funding if someone wanted to support you, what's the best way they can do that? Well, first of all, I appreciate you giving credence that you know, you can't eat if you can't pay for the food, right? So we've got food, we've got medical care, we've got education. So one way that's super simple is literacy of love.org. Literacy of love.org. That's our website, you can go ahead and check out like all of our programs, some success stories on there, it's a great way to share. peer to peer sharing is so important. So I have a Facebook page literacy of love. My personal page, when I go to Uganda, I post pictures on a daily basis. So it's real time I'm telling stories on a day to day basis of our children, what we're experiencing life, what life looks like in Uganda, some of our challenges some of our successes. As I said, I'm working every single day on it. So I get pictures from my leaders over there. Our supervisor is a graduate of our program. So I get pictures on a daily basis. And so I'll often post those if you're interested in hearing our stories and seeing the kids there's no middleman by the way. I think that's something that makes us more authentic. And what what percentage goes because I was on your website, and you put it right there, what percentage of everything that's donated, goes to support the orphanage 100% 100%. So I've all giving now not many charities can boast that I have a job. So I pay for all of my own expenses. I pay for my plane tickets. This is my mission as well. So I'm also putting in my money to support my own mission 100% of giving goes directly to what our mission is. So none of it is taken for over costs. So thank you. Literacy of love has a Facebook page. Carrie Matejka has a Facebook page. We have an Instagram page and soon to become a tick tock page. But I would say Facebook page. Definitely you're going to see the most current up to date, authentic real life stories and I share it all I share the nitty gritty of like our pain, our triumphs, all of it. That's great. Thanks now for the listeners, if you could have them walk away with one thing, what would that be? I would say that you cannot put a price tag on the value of human connection. So whether you are a parent, or whether you're an educator, or neither, and you're just someone's daughter or son or friend, the value of empathizing and being compassionate to other people is the strand that keeps us moving. And when we feel hopeless, it's because we feel disconnected. So a smile, a kind word, just understanding someone, if your student has a story, and I'm sure Brian, they have many fairy tales, but to try to just feel like you can understand. And if you if you lend your ear, and do your best to be understanding, I think that we can make huge ripples in the water. Yeah, so good. Now, this is the bonus question, my friend. Oh, no. All right. So here we go. To finish up kids like stories. But adults like stories, too. What's one story that you could leave us with? Oh, my, I've got the perfect one for you. Okay, this one I thought was something incredible. These are the things that you cannot understand until you live it or you're right. So we have two children at our home who are brother and sister. We do home visits, and we go visit the Guardians. And so these two children have a mom and the dad is buried in the backyard. So there's no grave. They're just bricks over where the the grave was because they're too poor. And the house is made out of mud. And the floors are dirt. And when we went in, they invited us in. And sometimes when we go to homes like this, it's really touching to me when they decide to give us a gift. They have nothing, nothing. And if you look to where they're sleeping, it's just a pile of rags. And sometimes they'll give us a hand. Sometimes they'll give us a bottle of water. And when you're going to somebody's house where you have to walk a mile to fetch water that's dirty, forever all of your needs. And they give you a bottle of water. It's something very big. So we went home, just some of the worst conditions that our children come from. This one was all alone. She's a widow, and we invited her to our home because we were taking care of her children. She just was struggling to feed them. So we're taking care of her children and we invited her to come home. She was suffering from malaria and very sick and had no money to get treatment. People die of malaria all the time, even though it's a very simple disease to treat. We gave her medication and she came home and she sat in our grass on a mat, a woven mat and she and her daughter were just giggling. And later on they were giggling and Lagonda and later on. One of our graduates and leaders came to me and he said, You know what they were saying the mom said to her child, don't come back home. Don't come back home. Her sacrifice to her child, as the most love she could give was to say, Don't come home because this is paradise. Now, our home was paradise because it's safe, because they have beds because they have blankets and to take it even up a notch. Dinner and Uganda is usually tea and bread, just white bread, nothing on it. And some families are so poor that they will not see bread unless it's Christmas. So she's like you get to have bread everyday with tea with sugar in it. So when you're drinking tea with no sugar, it's like hot water. She's like you get tea with sugar. And you get bread. This is paradise. I love you so much. Please don't come that's you got me tearing up over here. So it's it's crazy, right? And they were just sort of giggling and excited. And I saw them from afar and didn't know the conversation that was truly happening right there and then when I heard that I was like my god you know, those are the small moments in time after the hustling and the endless hours when you're like we're doing something right you're doing some soul right carry powerful for us Steven can't even comprehend it's it's a whole nother world. The world is big out there and it's it's pretty amazing. And we can do really very powerful thing. things that are simple, just that just that care, like I care about you that I've noticed you is something very, very powerful. It's so beautiful. And you have such a beautiful heart, my friend. And just, you know, I said at the beginning to take time, and people all around us are doing so many special things if we just take the time to sit and listen that, you know, on a very selfish reason I love the podcast because I get to meet people. But this was extra special because I know you. Yeah. Very excited about that, for sure. To hear this and hear everything like I knew you went over there, but to hear everything that goes into it, and the stories and the love, and the difference that you're making. Thanks Your beautiful soul, my friend. Thank you, man, I really appreciate your time and sharing your awesome podcast to get the word out there and to inspire people to be empowered. Yeah, well, we appreciate you and we appreciate what you do and the stories that you share today. Thank you, Carrie. Thank you so much, Brian, this conversation was so good, Carrie dropped some amazing takeaways, and as someone who truly is an inspiration. Now this is a teaching champions take where I share three of my favorite takeaways. The first gem that I loved, was when Carrie reminded us that we can do so much with very little, sometimes we get caught up in thinking that we need the newest and brightest thing out there. But not everything has to be fancy. Great Learning as Carrie reminds us can take place with very little. A second gem that I love is how Carrie talked about really identifying the things that are important to the classroom community, that we should identify those virtues, that we should talk about them that we should share personal anecdotes, that we should model and practice those virtues. Creating culture doesn't happen in a single lesson. It's something that is created and fostered every single day throughout the school year. A third gem that I loved is when Carrie talked about creating change. And she said that can happen right inside your own class, that if we give our students the platform to be compassionate, and lift others up, our champions often are going to step up and they're just gonna blow us away with what they do. They just have to be given that opportunity. These are just a few of my favorite jams that Carrie dropped. Hit me up on social media and let me know what were just a few of your favorite jabs. A big thank you to Carrie for sharing so much wisdom and making us aware of such a special mission. She gives 100% of all donations to supporting this mission. Plus, she puts in an unbelievable amount of time so that she can give opportunities to some very special children. A big thank you to all you as well, for being here for being part of the two teaching champions community. We support we encourage we lift each other up. And if you think someone would benefit from this message, please share. And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. There are new episodes that drop every Wednesday and Sunday. And always remember, it doesn't matter whether you're from rural America, to urban America, to Canada to Spain to Bahrain. We're all on that same team. We're all on that same mission. And we're always better together. Keep being amazing, my friends, and as you go out into the week, May you step into your strength, may you step into your shine, and let's build our champions. Have a great week, everybody