“Why is he nailed on the cross? Why can’t he move?”

She thinks and believes in a POWERFUL God. She believes it is this BIG, GOOD God who provides our daily food. She prays to this God before she sleeps. When we talk about monsters and sharks and all other villains and any form of danger in the stories she knows, she thinks of God as the only one who can ultimately conquer them. Without doubt. She wouldn’t take our promises. When her mother told her she’s gonna kill the monster, Ruth said, “But you’re just a girl!” When I told her I will drive the monster away, Ruth warned, “But the monster is really, really big!” I’m not big enough for her. Haha. But God is.

Now with the sight of an image of Jesus, on the cross, she asks a very important, deep question, “Why?” 

My sister tried to explain the best she could. Ruth, with her impatience, said, “Okay!” before my sister could finish her lines. Haha. Her cousin Yancy told her, “You will understand when you grow up.”

Oh, God. This young, curious, believing little girl is contagiously refreshing!

A couple just gave a number of books, mostly on literature. Classic ones. I felt greedy. I wish to keep some of them. Haha. But no, I have to let go. I would love the students in town to have access to these books.

One of the books I got was that of Franz Kafka. He is the one who said: “I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us…We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.” 

“I’m not giving up. I never did. I never will.”

That’s how one inmate ended his digital story. He was an athlete who was at the peak of his career and a face in Singapore’s world of sports. It took only one offense to shatter his dreams.

He lost everything but not his heart – the heart of a champion. He doesn’t know what’s next for him, but he’s not giving up the hope that there’s life after prison. All these became clearer as he went through the process of digital storytelling which invited him to journey into his heart.

His story and the stories of other inmates (Singapore Prison Service) – my team and I will remember for a long time. It was hard to keep our eyes dry when we listened to them bare their hearts through their stories.

One inmate said, “The workshop has helped me a lot. I learned to use Audacity and MovieMaker. It also taught me to express and tell my story through a video. It is really useful because I am a shy boy and I haven’t told my parents how much I love them. But after the workshop, I did. Through a video.”

We enjoyed their great sense of humour. It was beautiful and redeeming to see how they are still able to see beyond their current situation and to hold on to hopes and dreams; and to desire to be better people. We hope to see digital storytelling become an on-going programme to help inmates learn useful computer skills, gain confidence in writing and expressing themselves, getting in touch with their feelings, and reconnecting with their families, and integrate back to society.

“When we tell and listen to stories, we can almost feel our souls breathing fully and deeply. Our capacity to see options, to visualize possibilities, to imagine expands and we are somehow more alive.” – Michael Parent

Every good product or business has a great story. This is an opportunity in one full day to discover your own story, the hidden power of metaphors and exploring both oral and digital techniques in the retelling of your own tale.

Come for a storytelling workshop with Johnny Gillet, Angeline Koh and Carl Rognstad. 24 March 2012. 9:30 am – 6 pm. For more info, please visit www.digitalstorytellingasia.com

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.  ~ L. Frank Baum