November 29, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Life

Offer to ‘buy’ young women for 10 camels Hill students have unbelievable African experience
by CLAIRE M. WAGNER
and EMMA T. SCOTT

Djenne is a city in Mali, one of the poorest nations on earth.

We stepped off the plane in Bamako and were welcomed by thick, hot, red air and a driver who told us we could “just call him Papa.”  It was 4 a.m., and a rap song, “I love it when you call me Big Papa,” came to mind, setting off a series of concerns in our jet-lagged and delirious mind.  Needless to say, we arrived an hour later in Kati Koko.

Through a series of connections, we (Emma, 19, and Claire, 20, are both college sophomores) heard of an American collaboration with the Malian NGO l’Institut pour l’Education Populaire (IEP) on international education development issues and applied to be interns for the summer.  For our internship, we taught a culturally revised Health and Rescuer course to 60 students and, with the help of other staff, directed IEP’s summer camp.

A pioneering way to save windows from ‘Scratchitti’
by PAMELA ROGOW

Barbara Zaga, CEO of Glasstoration Technologies, surveys the front glass sheets at the Environmental Home Store in West Mt. Airy. (Photo by Pamela Rogow)

The idea hit them like a ton of bricks.  Or maybe, the shattering of glass is a more apt metaphor.

Unexpectedly and rather suddenly, Barbara Zaga and her friend Dennis Ingle got the idea for a new business one fall day in 2003. Walking along 4th Street, which is home to Philadelphia’s garment district, Barbara noticed that many storefront windows were defaced with graffiti.

“It was disheartening,” she says. “It tells the customer that you don’t care what you look like, and invites vandals to speak to each other on what they think are public canvases. People were working hard inside all the stores, but the message on the outside was ‘damaged goods.’”

Dennis said, simply, “I know how to fix that.”  In Spokane, he’d taken a college-era window-washing job from a one-man band into a leading commercial window maintenance service. He told Barbara about new ways to buff out the “scratchitti” — scratched or acid-etched graffiti — and about specialized exterior films that prevent such damage.

After 30  years, Jenks’ beloved teacher, Mrs. Robinson, retires
by PAULA M. RILEY

Mary Ann Robinson stands outside her classroom at the Jenks School, where she has displayed her students’ reports on Native American Tribes. (Photo by Paula M. Riley)

“She’s a person we can look up to, she’s our hero. She helps us learn new things and makes it fun in so many ways,” says fifth grade Jenks student Charles (last name withheld by request). He is speaking of his beloved teacher, Mrs. Mary Ann Robinson.

Almost all of the 27 students in Mrs. Robinson’s class eagerly raise their hands when asked to comment on their teacher for this article. “She lets us play fun math and reading games,” declares a young boy. “If I have a problem, she will always help me solve it,” says the girl next to him. Another responds, “If we don’t get something, she gives more examples.”

Most of their comments speak of a teacher who always listens to them, helps them understand their work and truly cares for them. This is just how Mrs. Robinson, 56, who has taught at J.S. Jenks School for 30 years, describes herself: “I try to be caring and lovable and to really make a difference in their lives.”

‘Hate Mail’ in Ambler should be ‘returned to sender’
by CLARK GROOME

The exchange of letters has been the basis for or central to several marvelous plays. Those that leap to mind are A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, the delightfully revelatory 84 Charing Cross Road and the marvelous musical, She Loves Me. For movie buffs there have been several, most recently You’ve Got Mail.

Food at church-turned-restaurant is other-worldly
by LEN LEAR

Marsha relaxes in the dining room, resplendent with a huge mural and stained glass windows, in a building that was formerly a Methodist church.

Most area residents who travel to New Hope, a tourist mecca in central Bucks County, a 45-minute drive from Chestnut Hill, probably stay overnight in one of the many charming B & B’s in or near the historic village that is still largely untouched by fast-food outlets and national chain stores.

But Marsha Brown, a posh four-year-old restaurant at 15 S. Main St. in New Hope, is well worth a visit, even if you have to drive back home afterwards without staying at a B & B. That’s because it simply serves the best Creole food we have had outside of New Orleans, and the setting is spectacular.

Marsha Brown is situated in a building that is approximately 165 years old and was previously occupied by the Methodist Church of New Hope. There is seating on two floors and a balcony that is used for private parties. (We sat in the spot where the altar had been; there is jazz on Friday nights in the choir loft, and the hostess greets you where the pulpit stood.)