Sometimes, the way a lesson or project comes together can seem almost karmic.

For the first half of the year the 2nd grade teachers wrestled with the question: how to design a service project that is appropriate for 7- and 8-year-old children. To meet their goals, the teachers wanted a project that would truly help others, but would be developmentally appropriate, which means it would:

• give the children a personal connection
• be based on effort, not just money
• let the children see how their efforts were directly helping
• be hopeful, and not confront young children with the misery and horror the world is capable of producing
• kindle in the students a desire to help others, now and in the future

Many parents contributed ideas, and the teachers considered many options. But then, in December and early January, a series of seemingly unrelated activities dropped the perfect project into their laps.

The theme for the 2nd grade curriculum this year is Around the World in Many Tales. It enables the children to look at cultures on each continent through their folktales, fairytales, and fables. They began with India, and the Panchatantra and Jataka tales, then started moving west. In late October they studied the Middle East and the Arabian Nights stories. In December they looked at the stories behind December celebrations around the world, from the Solstice to Bodhi Day. In January they moved to Africa, and the trickster tales of Anansi.

In preparing for this study, the teachers were looking for songs from Africa for the children to learn in Morning Meetings. A music teacher in Vermont with whom they were in contact suggested the Ugandan Boys Choir as a source of songs. Looking them up on the internet, they encountered videos of the African Children's Choir, whose albums they already had. One video was a very exciting performance of This Little Light of Mine. They thought the students would be interested in seeing the video, so they showed it in class one morning. Click here if you'd like to see it too.

The children were more than interested -- they were very excited. So the teachers went back to the web to find more information on the Choir. They learned that the Choir is made up of desperately poor and often orphaned children from across Africa, primarily in Uganda and Kenya. It is a boarding school that provides the children with food, clothing, shelter, books, a world-class education, and the opportunity to travel the world. It supports its children through college, and its graduates have become doctors, engineers, lawyers, musicians. In other words, it takes in the most desperate of African children, gives them a rich and joyful childhood, and teaches them to become successful professionals who often return to improve the communities from which they came. Talk about breaking the cycle of poverty: working with 35 schools, the Choir doesn't just enable thousands of children to survive -- it helps them to thrive, as children and as adults.

And, by strange coincidence, the teachers found that the Choir was on a tour of the western US, and would be performing in the Bay Area in two weeks. They called the Choir's US office to see if the Choir could perform at Nueva. They couldn't -- their schooltime is zealously guarded, and the children only perform on evenings and weekends.

Going back to the Choir's website, the teachers also learned it costs $200 per month to cover the costs of food, clothing, housing, education, and books for one child, and that most of the children are sponsored by four different people, each contributing $50 per month. They called the offices again, and learned that there was one boy in the Choir, 9-year-old James Mutisya, who had no sponsors. The teachers contacted the 2nd grade parents and asked if they would be willing to help their children earn $5 per month, either by giving them a new job around the house, or by helping them to make and sell something, such as lemonade, to raise the money. Forty children, each earning and contributing $5 a month, would provide a full sponsorship for James.

When the parents responded positively, the idea was presented to the children, who were excited and thrilled to help James, and to get to write to him and receive a response. And here, another strange coincidence popped up. One of the 2nd graders and his family had already signed up to host several children and chaperones from the Choir while they were in the area.

So the connection was made, the children committed to earning $5 each month, and they received a picture of James and information about him. And here yet another coincidence arose. The group touring the Bay Area is just one part of the entire Choir -- and James was in that group! So the children would not only be able to see the Choir perform live, they would get to meet James. It doesn't get more personal than that. Do you see how this was starting to look karmic?

One concern in a situation like this, of course, is that a meeting such as this could lead the students to a sense of noblesse oblige. But when the children went to the exhilarating performance, they were completely starstruck. They met James afterwards with a sense of admiration, not of an impoverished boy who survived, but of a star performer whom they were privileged to meet. They were thrilled to shake his hand, and even asked for his autograph.

And, as the icing on the cake, the 2nd grade host family asked if James could be one of the Choir members staying at their house. He did, along with the Choir Master, himself a graduate of the Choir.

What happens at the end of the school year? At first the teachers were hoping that a few of the families might continue the sponsorship after June, but many students in the class began wondering if they couldn't all stay with James beyond 2nd grade. So now, if all goes well, it looks like Nueva's class of 2016 may grow up with James, continue the relationship, and perhaps see him again next time the Choir tours this area. And this project, begun in a search for a Morning Meeting song, may become one of the defining experiences of their 2nd grade year.

Want to know more about the African Children's Choir? CNN recently did a special on them. Here are some clips.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4