• Project Happiness Website
• Project Happiness Blog
• Movie Trailer

The students have been working extremely hard to prepare for this trip while in the classroom at Mount Madonna School in California. They have beendeveloping ideas for the curriculum on Ethics for the New Millennium since September, emailing theircounterparts at the Tibetan Children’s Village at Dharamsala, working on questions for interviews, and no doubt dreaming about what it will be like to be in India in a culture many times older than ours. What they have not seen are the preparations on this side of the world where my wife Kranti and I have been doing our annual stint at Sri Ram Ashram (home for previously orphaned children and school for the village children of the area) for the past two months. www.sriramfoundation.org .

From this side with so much help from our friends we have been working on visas for the Nigerians, permits for our film crew, and additional interviews with some of India’s leading figures such at the noted Gandhian and member of the upper house of Parliament, Nirmala Deshpande, and thanks to her an interview with His Excellency the President of India, Abdul Kalam and the top American in India Ambassador David Mulford.

One of the great lessons of The Dalai Lama’s book, Ethics for the New Millennium that is at the core of this project, is that we live in an interconnected world where nothing arises independently. This is exactly the case here. So many friends here have been helping us prepare this experience for the Mount Madonna Students: people like Raman Bhatia, networking to find us help when our friends from Nigeria were having difficulty getting their visas, Vivek Sharma my colleague on the Gandhi Ashram Trust, skillfully following up with the President’s office to secure the interview that Nirmala Deshpande requested from her friend President Abdul Kalam. Every person we asked for support in some way or another has added to the potential of the adventure that our students are about to experience.

After a brief orientation the students have all gone to bed. Tomorrow we will breakfast here at the YWCA in central Delhi, and prepare for our Nirmala Deshpande interview. This tiny woman now in her 70’s was part of one of the most extraordinary projects in Indian history. The chief disciple of Vinoba Bhave who was known as Gandhi’s spiritual heir, Nirmalaji as a young girl joined the Boodhan movement where, after independence Vinoba and his disciples spent 13 years walking through the Indian countryside collecting land and distributing it amongst the landless. Now a member of the Rajya Sabha, Nirmalaji, or Didi, as she is known to her admirers, is a leading proponent of peace between India and Pakistan. We will meet her at the historic Kingsway Camp where Gandhi stayed in the early days of the freedom movement. This beautiful old campus is still home to a small school for the Harijan children who come from the lowest of the casts and who were particularly dear to Mahatma Gandhi. It is Nirmalji’s fond hope to fully restore this national treasure and create an international center dedicated to the Gandhian values and the uplift of all human kind. It is a fitting place to begin our story at this is where the modern nation of India began.

-Ward Mailliard

The Capital Building

The Values interview trip to Washington DC in May of 2008 was on of the most exciting in the history of our program which goes back to 1989. For those who have interest I hope you will take time to visit the blog site.

Here the students told the story as it unfolded and it give some idea of the excitement and discovery that were a daily part of the experience.

We take this unusual journey to the nations capital every other year. By good fortune, hard work and many friends we have been granted unusual access to the halls of government. Over the past almost 20 years we have be developing our program that allows our students to engage with a diverse group of thoughtful and dedicated people, both inside and outside of government. We have been able to sit and speak with such iconic leaders as Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, presidential candidate Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. former House Speaker John Foley, and former Secretary of State, George Shultz. We have also interviewed dynamic young leaders such as Alyse Nelson, President of Vital Voices, an nongovernment organization empowering women around the world. Layli Miller Muro of the Tahiri Justice Center who is working to combat gender crimes around the world, Maria Pacheco, a social business entrepreneur, who is inspiring womens’ business collectives in Guatemala These extraordinary people who operate outside government are making enormous contributions to the betterment of our world.

We learn from this diverse group about vision, courage, perseverance, hope, and most importantly about ourselves and our own quest for meaning. We hope you will take time to look at the blogs and read some of the interviews with this very dynamic group of leaders from a wide variety of jobs and points of view. Our next trip will be in 2010 to see how things have change in Washington DC as a result of our recent shift in leadership.

About the Program

Values In World Thought Tour

We began the Mount Madonna School Government in Action program in 1989 to provide our students with a personal understanding of government and a more accurate picture of those who devote their lives to a broad range of public service activities. Over the years this program has produced remarkable results far beyond anything we initially envisioned. To quote one student,

Layli Miller-Muro

“I feel I have just fallen in love with the possibilities of my future and my newly discovered faith in myself.” Belle Potter – Junior

Today our program has evolved into an even deeper inquiry into the values that inspire a life of service. We have retitled the program, The Values in World Thought Tour to connect it more closely with our unique twoyear “values” dialogue for juniors and seniors at Mount Madonna School. More recently our students have traveled internationally to interview leaders in other parts of the world. Last year as part of a joint project with the Dalai Lama Foundation, we traveled to India to interview the Dalai Lama, the President of India and American Ambassador David Mulford. This journey will be the subject of a documentary to be released this summer. Even more recently a group traveled to Ecuador to spend time in the Amazon Rainforest to learn first hand about the issues facing that region.

On alternate years we come to Washington, D.C. where we have been fortunate enough to attract some of our nation’s finest public servants. We look for those who are vitally involved in trying to improve the quality of life in our nation and around the world. Interviews usually last 45 minutes to an hour. The students come prepared to ask thoughtful and stimulating questions. We are most interested in understanding why people have chosen a life of public service and to discover what they have learned along the way that might be helpful to those just setting out on their journey. Whenever possible, we videotape our conversations so they can be shared with other students through DVD’s and our student generated web site. Currently we are working on a new curriculum titled, Exploring a Life of Meaning that will include many of our interviews.

This experience has become an important a rite of passage for our students; something they eagerly look forward to as a part of becoming responsible adults in their community. Most importantly it changes forever the way they look at public service. As each year unfolds we are discovering new opportunities to broaden the scope and impact of this program. This year, we have a wonderful group of 21 juniors and seniors who will participate. We will be uploading stories every day to a student run blog, and to a web site sponsored by our local newspaper. In 2006 to everyone’s surprise we had more than 5000 visitors to the website during our journey. Please visit http://www.mountmadonnaschool.org/gov06 to see what the students have accomplished on earlier journeys. If you are interested in seeing the Dalai Lama project you can go t ohttp://www.projecthappiness.com and click on “Watch the Trailer”.

• a place where wealth is measured in terms of how many people you hold dear.
• a place where people WANT to hear your problems, because when you are down it creates a rift in the group.
• a place where isolation is not accepted and resistance to becoming one of the group is futile.
• a group of people who think as a unit, not as a set of individuals.
• the object of the Mount Madonna School Ubuntu Project.

There is a philosophy in African culture called Ubuntu which focuses on people’s interconnectedness and human relations with one another. Part of Ubuntu is the sense of community as outlined above. One of the goals of the Values in World Thought Program at Mount Madonna School is learning through experience and this year we hope to gain an experiential perspective on community in relation to the philosophy of Ubuntu. As part of this quest, we plan to travel to South Africa this April to interview Archbishop Desmond Tutu about his life, his idea of community and his thoughts on the values of Ubuntu.

To help us prepare for our journey we have been engaging with several wise mentors. We spoke with author and indigenous wisdom carrier, Sobonfu Some, who embodies a most beautiful definition of what community means from growing up as part of the Dagara tribe in her native Burkina Faso. She inspired us to continue searching for the meaning of community. We also spoke with Margaret Wheatley who is currently doing a lot of work in Africa to strengthen the role of women, and we talked with Peter Block who has recently written a book called “Community, The structure of Belonging.” All have given us gifts for our journey.

With these gifts we are moving forward in our preparation phase of the process. The class has split into four groups, each with a different research focus such as Desmond Tutu, The Apartheid Movement, Culture, and History. As we learn more about the area we will be visiting, our excitement grows. We have begun working with some Non-Violent Communication (NVC) exercises to bond as a group and learn to express ourselves positively so that we will be able to manage when the inevitable challenges of the trip arise.

I am really excited about our project, however I am overwhelmed by how much we have to do in the short amount of time we have left. The class is generally very productive, which helps, and everyone seems to be really pumped about the trip. The group dynamics are very positive and each person is contributing to the group. Mari is spearheading the fundraising aspect of the trip, and having immense success. Her note follows.

“The Philani Child Health & Nutrition Project has changed the lives of thousands of women and children in disadvantaged communities on the outskirts of Cape Town. Many of whom are the poorest of the poor – children suffering from malnutrition, mothers who are struggling to find any food at all to feed their families. Philani has provided life and hope with great commitment and loyalty since 1979. I am proud to be Philani’s Patron.”

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

It is our belief that when returning from a right of passage, it is important for those around you to realize that you have made a transformation. Although not everyone experiences a great transformation, it is crucial that we manifest the knowledge attained on our journey. We like to document our activities; blog, record videos and photograph with the hope that we can inspire or motivate someone else. Isn’t that the purpose of our trip, to learn and experience? What is the purpose of our knowledge if it is not shared?

Very few are ever presented with an opportunity comparable to ours, so it is our hope that we will exceed the expectations and return home with a hope, idea, belief, realization, or an overall greater understanding of the world we live in.

Fundraising for Project Ubuntu

A few Saturdays ago, six of the juniors and seniors got together at the Cabrillo Farmer’s Market in Aptos to sell shirts and tote bags to support Philani Child Health and Nutrition Project. The shirts, which we designed ourselves, had “Ubuntu” (the name for our Africa project which roughly means “I am who I am because of who you are”) on the front, while the back showed an unfilled image of the earth with Africa showing. When we first got there no one stopped by. People would kind of pause and look at us, and then keep walking. We began to get very discouraged, but then little by little our piles of shirts began to shrink!

We are told that we can do anything if we put our minds to it. Well, we put our minds to it, were involved in every step of the process, and we sold enough shirts and bags to raise nearly $500. It was so rewarding and empowering to see our hard work really pay off.

I can only imagine how different the trip will be from what I am expecting. I have little knowledge about the geography and culture of South Africa and I know once we get there I am going to be even more excited than I am now. Every day will bring a new challenge that I am nervous for. As SN says, this won’t be easy. He never promised us easy and I’m not expecting it. I feel individually we are all still pulling ourselves together to become prepared. Collectively we are ready and I can’t wait to see our results from the test three weeks from now.

When it comes to the interview with Desmond Tutu, I feel that I am as ready as I will ever be. Sure it is important to know a lot about him but I feel we won’t be hearing him speak a lot about himself but instead his outlooks and beliefs. In my opinion it’s hard to prepare for the interview. All of those who met the Dalai Lama said that their preconceptions drifted away once he came through the door. I am hoping for that effect. I want the whole trip to sweep me off of my feet and be the greatest learning journey possible through the unexpected situations that I must adapt to and cope with. It is scary, but I think we can do it.

Religion has guided him and is a huge part in his role as a leader and humanitarian. He was Archbishop of Cape Town until 1996. Since then, he has worked as a global activist for democracy and human rights. In 2006 he launched a global initiative to register all children at birth. Unregistered children don’t officially exist which makes them vulnerable to trafficking and disasters.