The Magic and Power of Books Part 2

Through books, I dreamed & imagined a life that was very different than what I was seeing around me, with hardship

ABOUT THE GUEST
Sylvia Morrison is a humanitarian, the founder and director of Links Across Borders, a registered non-profit organization that co-creates libraries in rural villages in Ghana West Africa to provide children access to books.

She has appeared on Rogers TV and CBC Radio, and has received numerous awards in recognition of her work.

Working with individuals and communities globally, Sylvia knows the indomitable power of the human spirit to rise above challenges and circumstances to a higher calling.  Sylvia Morrison is a sought-after speaker, and coach who will inspire you to connect with your dream, and support you in achieving higher levels of success, through her transformational coaching programs.

TOPICS WE COVERED

• Domestic Violence 
• Courage
• Fear
• Determination
• Culture of sharing
• Hope
• Travel the world through books
• Lived many lives through books
• Experienced many cultures through books
• Patriarchy

WEBSITE:https://sylviamorrison.com/my-why/
                       https://linksacrossborders.org/

INSTAGRAM: @Linksacrossborders  & @iamsylviamorrison
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/WomanSpeakSociety/

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Transcript

Unknown Speaker 0: 0:10

00 Even if I spend, like I had invited Oprah, as I was still walking through, you get a backpack and you get this bag, you get the stuff, you know, but it was really also for me, and, and opportunity to feel connected to these humans who were actually my brothers and sisters. 29 do podcasts augmented by planet one? We're sharing stories and conversations encouraging and empowering listeners to be bold. Take action and be your best self. So we may be the change you desire to see in this world. Know that your attitude determines your altitude in life. Welcome to the podcast 55 links across borders and starting from Canada has given up to hear that story. How's that even thoughts? Pardon? And what one person is capable of doing? Look what you've created.

Unknown Speaker 1: 0:31

08 Thank you. Thank you. So I had been becoming visiting Ghana for six years already and it started in 2006 to visit and that was my first time and then, you know, I spent a month the first time my friends people around me had given me stuff and money to come and, you know, do what I wanted to do here. And I remember becoming with all of those things, and as I was visiting the families, giving them the things that I had brought the school supplies and stuff for the kids. And if you can remember that episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show where everybody got a car, you get a car, you get a car that was I felt like I had brought it over, as I was looking through it. You get a backpack, you get this bag, you get the stuff, you know, but it was really also for me and an opportunity to feel connected to these humans who were actually my brothers and sisters. And that stayed with me. And then when I was reading a lot that month, you know staying with different families. I stayed with families I had never met before. The first time we I stayed with I had met Gina on on the flight from Germany to Kyoto. I was in transit. We got on the same flight in Germany. She asked me what I was doing and I told her and then she just thought, wow, you're coming to Ghana to help our children. Here's my phone number if you need a place to stay, and I called her two days later with people you know, and I also thought that if I was staying with her and not spending the money in a hotel, then the money that I had, would be benefiting people in the villages where I would stay. And that's how it worked out. It was beautiful. And so returning to Canada. At the end of that month, I was on the flight and I was crying. My tears were just streaming down my face. There was a part of me that was feeling embarrassed that if somebody should ask me why I was crying, I would say to them, I'm sad because I believe in God. They might think that I have a terrible standard of life back home when that was not the case. But there was something God had captured my heart somehow. And I was feeling like I need to but I had to go home. And so by the time I arrived home, I was planning my next trip and I did that every year until 2012. And then in 2012 As I was need to have a meeting a conversation with some community members, I heard myself announce that I would be building a library next year. And it just dropped out of my mouth. I had not thought about it before. I had no plans. I don't know where the money is coming from. I don't know how much money it will take. But I said it and I am somebody who studied in the library with now happy so this was in May like the end towards the end of May because I usually come in late each year. School at the college ends in April. And so I will take off immediately after. And so I'm back at school at the college in September.

Unknown Speaker 5: 0:38

33 And I had this idea in my heart to just do so I was doing an exercise with my introductory exercise with my students. They were first year students would just come in. And I had among other questions. I said we would answer this particular question. What would you do if you had a million dollars and I encouraged them to think of it as if we have the million dollars. So you can fantasize if you don't have something already in your mind that you could fantasize make something like nobody's going to judge whether it's a good thing or not. And so when it was my turn to share what I would do with a million dollars, I said that I would use part of that million to find my library in the projects in Ghana. And at the end once do that as soon as I said that a student raised her hand and she said, Oh, this is gonna ask the question. I said, Sure. And she said, your library building projects in Ghana is that fantasy Oh, and I said to her it's real. I am building libraries. Which she said, I would like to do that. And as she's saying that then I added and next year in the spring I'm offering an international placement to first year students and no one I'm really in trouble. Because there is actually a process at the college for that to happen. I didn't know what that process was. I hadn't thought about it. I didn't ask anybody. The IQ just dropped into my heart and flew out of my mouth. I couldn't pop it back in. And so now the students heard that. A different student raised her hand and she said I would like to do the international placement to Ghana. How do I when I said to her, I stopped and I said okay, since this is not what the course is about. Let's talk about that at the end. She said okay. And as soon as we had great time, I usually get a break midway through the session. And it was a three hour class. So we had a break. She walked over to my table and she was ready to ask about it and I still didn't know what I was going to tell her. So I said to her, let's take a break. You go ahead and have your break. I will also have a break. And we'll talk about it at the end of class. So allowing you to think exactly I'm buying an idea. And so by the time class ended, spirit dropped an idea in my heart about what the answer could be. And so I told her when she came as soon as she approached me. I listened to her question and then I said to her, send me your resume and we will take it well I thought her resume was something she would need to go work on. This young woman was ready. My resume was in my Inbox by the time I got to my computer later that day. And so now I couldn't respond to her right away because I don't know what the next step is. So I held on to it. But it caused me to think of okay, Silvia, you must think of a process for this. So I thought okay, I had done an international placement when I was a student until I started thinking about what that process was, and I could recreate it. And so I said I would have an information session to start with so that I could tell lots of other students about this opportunity and see who wanted to go and accept it for three days. Three weeks later. Well, I went to the information session, two people showed up that fit only two people with all my advertising on the walls of the college. However, I had a nice red suit of students who were applying for the outcome, because that's who had raised her hand, and when I told her she

Unknown Speaker 10: 0:45

28 had gone on to tell other students that she was doing this placement and so they wanted to do it and they kept recruiting each other. So I had all these resumes to apply for this by the time I was ready to leave, I had eight students ready. And eight community members ready. I took 16 People with me, my first group of volunteers on my on the lady volunteer experience. And then it's a three year follow up until 2019. I've taken volunteers to guide me to work on the library. And you know, watching the transformation that happens to folks who come with me on these to grow companies projects. They've not been the ones funding the project. They're funding each of them find their own way. their food, their accommodations, they apply all of that. What the project itself. I found it sometimes sometimes I do fundraising raising event that helps to bring in some money for and I had my own money because I would always be doing another side hustle. So I'm teaching at the college, when I'm consulting somewhere and I'm facilitating a workshop somewhere else. I have lots of skills and expertise. And so that's how we funded it. Because, you know, I when I look at my life is I'm here to serve. And I would love to think that I will wait until I have a million dollars to be able to do the things that I would love to do in the world. But I also knew that I might not ever become a millionaire. And I might not ever have so much money that I am rolling in the door so to speak. And so it's easy for me to just take this money and do that and I wanted to make sure that I am making a difference in the way that my brain about this facility listening to

Unknown Speaker 13: 0:52

06 you that you don't need the million dollar it's wonderful to have the million dollars because it can definitely facilitate things a lot easier and help you reach more people. However you taking that initiative and the idea of flow the avenue you didn't find 1000 excuses to go you look for the ways to do and then students that also been out there and recruited others the initiative because it meant something to them, which is beautiful to see that we do have wonderful human being like here. Yes, absolutely. Don't allow 51 excuses to stop. You're one of them. Because you started this when you had nothing and you're going to actually build on it. Actually living in Ghana. How many libraries have you guys

Unknown Speaker 14: 1:06

14 eight libraries to date? Yes. And I am really I feel very good about them. Yes. It is a big achievement to be honest. When somebody asked me because folks now asked me that question. So how much does it cost to build a library? I can never just give a figure because the truth is I remember at the beginning of a project, then a plan where we know it's going to cost 50,000 to build this. It's going to cost us so much for transportation I'd never and i i mean I'm not saying that it's wrong to do it that way. I'm just telling my process has been good. I think it's because if I know how much is going to cost at the beginning, I will become too afraid. And I will I will know that I can't do it. But because I don't I take each step that I can take as each step leads me closer and closer and closer. So you know in my in my talk I love speaking of public speaker and I love to inspire people. And one of the things that I say to folks is don't wait to know all the details because sometimes details are too scary. Start with the ideas that dropped into your because the idea in your heart. It's not really your ideas. It is lives idea. It is God's idea. It is the universe's idea for all how it wants to expand and it shows you to give an idea and if you act on the spirits your partnership with the universe and there. So therefore, you need the resources for that. When I started I didn't have this perspective consciously, but I had it unconsciously and was working with it. So I will take each step not knowing all the other part is going to come together or unfold just one step at a time. Another thing that is like that, I want to point from this, you know my sharing of how it started and that first group that came with me is that when we and this is something I also when we are given an idea to do something, a way to serve, and serving doesn't just mean going off to some distance. I'm not saying everybody has to be a humanitarian and for nonprofits, that's not what I'm saying. It could be an idea to start a business. It could be an idea to write a book. It could be an idea to leave the job you're in or to go to a job that you're not in because you see what you do there. But there's an idea for a change that spirit wants to take through. When we act on that idea. We also are giving somebody else the opportunity to act on an idea or a dream that is in there. I've never had those students were new to me. I don't make them before. I didn't know there was somebody who was looking for an opportunity to do I didn't know that there were so many others who didn't come to my information session. But had because that was a really it is so sad. And life wants to create expansion in our world, for our transformation for our evolution. And I want us to remember that it's an idea from spirit, universe and the universe. Resources say yes to the idea.

Unknown Speaker 19: 1:13

40 additional trainings you and I will share rational part of it was the 2% just you just have to do the 55 whole book 59 which is what stops so really individuals from the things that come to them and only to them to put out into the grid. Taking eight laborers may have been these kids that went with you on these wonderful adventures that served yes, they wouldn't have gotten that experience. What was the experience like for them?

Unknown Speaker 20: 1:34

30 So many over the years, I mean, many many of my students and my volunteer stay in touch with me. And over the years people have gone on I've had students who after they return will say to me, I've I've changed the program and doing my college or my university or somebody will say I this thing has changed in my life. I know see things differently based on such and such. I remember one student this young man we arrived at the village that night our flight arrived in the evening by the time we arrived in the committee to look at this light that is lighting. The light coming in through the window

Unknown Speaker 21: 1:41

23 shining through 27 and we arrived in and we you know we're sorting ourselves out and so on. And I did a little bit of orientation because I don't do the orientation right away when you're not fully here. And I notice he was just sitting down. You know not in the hustle and bustle of everyone else and he and I walked over to you tapped him on the shoulder and I said one of the things he said he said You seem rather quiet distance from everybody else. I just want to make sure are you really okay that you should still be feeling something I don't know how to describe it. So I started asking him questions to explore what is it so they can see that he is trying to what is this that I'm feeling? And so I would ask him questions, and he would talk and then a light bulb came on and said to me even when I'm feeling peace I am so peace I realized I had a peace like still get a piece. If a young man he was probably about 19 or 20 years old. He says what I'm feeling

Unknown Speaker 23: 1:55

11 Yes, and when we are before a group travels with Meteor, we would go through several sessions of preparation. You know where I work with folks, for us to explore who we are. Where are we from? What some of the baggage that we carry? What are the places in our lives where we have privilege and where are the places in our lives where we experience or our members, marginalized groups. And then we also think together and investigate what baggage might be bringing with us, you know, to Ghana and how that might impact the folks that we will be working with. And so how do we engage so that we can develop and encourage and support right relationships with people and so it really is. For me it's like it's one thing to talk about violence and talk about privilege and oppression in a classroom or religion or for you know, in some workshop but this got to be their lab, to practice and to experiment and to see what works and what doesn't, and how it impacts someone else and how it impacts the self at the same time and then in the evenings we would break it down and take it apart. No one has to feel like well, I'm this oppressive privilege. I am human and this was my experience today. Let's talk to the judgment that we put on ourselves that we can start breaking down instead of building up I think that's beautiful. I love it.

Unknown Speaker 25: 2:02

31 I would love to know the experience of one child that you've seen as they walk in to a library that they have never seen. 42 Oh my gosh. If there is a particular photograph of a young when we open the library and he walks in he looked at all the Cheryl is looking at then he turned around as one of the volunteers has their cameras and he just

Unknown Speaker 26: 2:16

20 this is my world all business mind. Go ahead take a picture. And there are others. Like we do orientation for schools at the end of the project, even sometimes before you do 45 teachers, students to come 51 and I look at not only children because many of the teachers have not really had access to alive that is

Unknown Speaker 27: 2:37

06 opening up 08 and see the look on their faces the children as they would touch a book and wonder if they could take it out where it is on the ship. And then they get to take it and there are lots more hutzpah at one time comes and stands beside the other child. To look at this one question and then when they have the opportunity when they realize that this is your library, and all these books, you have access to them. The ones would come in and take one book and look at it. The watch to see if it's okay when they take another one and another one and another and they will just keep putting up a book and putting it down and another one and put it because it's so clean. I can actually fix all of these I could just take any one and I was allow them to

Unknown Speaker 28: 2:51

21 easily support so there are times when they just have the books thrown 25 around. Over there, put it down until you see another one that catches your attention because I love to see what's happening and the truth is, I think I'm doing it because it is what I want to see. It feels to me. You know when I came for the first time I made the image of a child sitting under a tree because I went about creating a brand now we are leading prompts on the tree we have libraries but we say let's go outside and breathe. Do you know just building relationships with books and stories and that helps children to also try and start telling their own story never see,

Unknown Speaker 29: 3:05

48 like you said every time now you get to do that. For a lot of young individuals or communities. What would you like to see next? Your experiences

Unknown Speaker 0: 3:12

06 and stories and that helps children to also find their voice and start telling their own story 18 opened up for that. Like you said as a child of a condition which was a lot of young individuals communities. She likes to see next time what would you like to see? 42 Thank you for that question. What I would be I would like to see as many people and people with money join me. I'd like that. I am calling that putting that out there. I do have money and what I would like to see and why they would join me this is why they would because I wore this vision was given to me to carry out carried it for a long time. And it's really sweet. I will even visit the app. I want to see this live long. And I want other people to carry it. So I'm here on the ground and my goal is not so much to build your life. But it is to train young people to take the risk. I mean, just teach youngsters and to teach even teachers how to create programs that they run the programs that they will run through the library, the excursions you know the various ways in which we can create worlds for children so that they can become the best of who they really want that to happen. And here in Garland, it's not so easy to get folks to volunteer. And it's not because people are not interested to volunteer is because unemployment is high. So there are folks with skills and abilities and willingness to serve what they're looking for work that gives them some money. And so when I say come and volunteer, so that I can train you to do this, they want to but they're also thinking I might be missing a paying job right now. While I'm here so I would love to have funding so that I can hire some people, even if he only are able to hire one in this village and wanted another nice day. Folks who feel like I am gaining something I have somebody here. There is some money that I can have for my own livelihood while I'm doing. It helps you I would also love to see more people who want to volunteer. Come and serve with us. Because you're not only when you're serving you're not only helping someone else, you're actually helping yourself. You learn things about yourself that you will remember you are in those moments and you realize that the transformation the expansion experience is describing. There are many brilliant volunteers and students who return from a trip meetings and how to express what I've experienced in words. You just have to and so I'm inviting

Unknown Speaker 4: 3:33

40 people being here and falling and joining has hosted us understand that you were born and you went to Canada which was in Ghana, as a place for you to love and serve and be a part

Unknown Speaker 5: 3:40

02 of because we're all connected. We're all connected. Connected. So it's not coming I can just be safe and secure because I have enough money and a beautiful house and a nice 26 neighbor if you're 30 not doing each other when I see poverty in others, I asked myself where in my life like there is some poverty and it allows me to look inward and see my poverty might not be that it might not need money for you. Where is it in your humanity? Or is it that you are experiencing poverty? Because we learned how we want to change and sometimes participating in this work shows us where we are. As I spend my money on helping someone I get to touch the part of myself for poverty exists

Unknown Speaker 6: 4:01

40 might be for inpatients. It might be for itself. Where is the poverty? Get curious about? I found out recently that where some of my poverty exist, was in my own self, I felt very very sick. And it's because I wasn't taking care of myself enough even as I was surfing. We are nearly and so when I see a certain condition that's prevailing in my world it gives me an opportunity as I talked it inside of that condition

Unknown Speaker 7: 4:08

41 such as expected to just make about the poverty within his I believe that children is the under my cars. A lot of kids are teenagers that suicide is the way because there's so much going on in them that they can't figure out how to do it. And they need people like us, a lot of us to guide them through it. To give them the education system is also the underlying where we started. We call the duties to clients and their sexual abuse is poverty within the men that we're working on. And the best part of it is we're going to continue to it's within all of us to be able to do that. Thank you for opening that line to the world for people to see that you'd like to share that for hours and hours. It still would like to say that

Unknown Speaker 9: 4:15

05 I really thank you for this. I want to say things. Some of what I said here I hadn't thought of 16 it gives me an opportunity to allow it to come out of my mouth I just want to say to your listeners whatever the change is that you want to be personal words like yourself or your family or change in the wider society. They have what it takes to do it. The first step is

Unknown Speaker 10: 4:29

04 to do Thank you. Thank you for that great advice and to our wonderful viewers and listeners. I hope you heard all the incredibly nuggets that CBS shared with us that we can all make a difference and it's taking the steps instead of looking at the whole world. Remember our attitude determines your altitude and change each one of us becoming a better version of ourselves. Thank you for being here. And please follow us and listen to the next video 54 site and see there is across borders. Yes. And it's nice across borders.org orgy and they can find Cynthia Morrison on Facebook and on Instagram. And my work website is to be avoided.

Unknown Speaker 11: 4:43

15 Thank you Thank you. We'll see you in the next episode. Evening. Evening. Evening. Right. Evening On My back

Unknown Speaker 27: 4:50

19 Right are facing this