Jane's Scrapbook - International and Domestic Travels
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- In 2007, Jane,
her brother Chris and several teachers made a trip to Ethiopia to work
with Ethiopia Reads. Here are her thoughts about the importance
of "The Book" and about her experiences.
Jane's trip to Holland (2005)
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This trip took Jane back to Africa--her seventh trip since 1997--to
work with teachers. The trip was organized by the African
International School Association (AISA) to provide professional
development opportunities for teachers. Jane visited three regions of Africa, stopped in Paris, and experienced a safari.
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“A novel is not an allegory. It is the sensual experience of another world. If you don’t
enter that world, hold your breath with the characters and become
involved in their destiny, you won’t be able to empathize, and empathy
is at the heart of the novel. This is how you read a novel: you inhale
the experience. So start breathing. I just want you to remember
this.”
-- Azar Nafisi
Reading Lolita In Teheran
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Finally Jane would make her trip to the Middle East -- a trip postponed by the
outbreak of the Iraq war. She had waited for two years to visit this
part of the world and now she and her husband, Leonard, set out to make
a stop in Ethiopia to see their son, Jonathan, daughter Rebekah, and
niece, Erin. The three of them were volunteering at the Ethiopian
Children's Book Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Jane was to
visit schools in the Arabian Gulf region (Persian Gulf region).
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Jane's 2003 visit was originally to be a seven week
trip. But when a major confrontation to Iraq threatened the peace in
the Middle East her visit was reduced to 32 days when the Arabian
Reading Association decided to cancel their event in Bahrain, out of
concern for the safety of the speakers. Jane however, had committed to
other events and when the U.S. war with Iraq began (March 2003) she was
in Nigeria. On her trip she also visited Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia
where she was part of the festivities opening the Ethiopian Children's
Book Center.
A Note from Jane: "Over Christmas (2001), I made a
mighty trek to East Africa with my parents, four of my five siblings,
and seven of the next generation including two of my own children,
Jonathan (who turned 20 in Mombassa) and Rebekah (18, in her senior
year of high school) -- the first chance I've had for any of my
immediate family to see the land of my childhood. Our goal was Maji, a
place I started to miss when I was eight years old, flying away from
Maji to spend nine months of the year in boarding school in Addis
Ababa; a place that by now I hadn't seen for about 25 years; a place
that can at this point be reached only by a 5000-foot climb from the
town of Tum, the closest place Ethiopian Airlines currently lands. On
January 1, 2001, I'd started going to the gym. All year, every time I
lagged and floundered on the stationary bicycle, I'd whisper 'Maji,
Maji, Maji.'"
On Saturday, March 8, 1997, Jane Kurtz arrived in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, for her first time back in 20 years. She had been
invited through the Young Authors Festival program, to speak to
students in the International Community School, the Sanford British
School, and Bingham Academy about her books. Her youngest sister, Jan,
went with her.
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Read about Jane's Participation in the National Book Festival in Washington DC
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