Teaching meditation to the girls at St.Jude's home for delinquent girls, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

I remember my first interaction with the girls at St Jude's home for delinquent girls 15 years ago when I was serving as a mentor to one of the girls. Imagine, a lost and confused 14 year old, trying to be a role model to a fellow 12 year old, equally lost and confused.  Amidst the mayhem of trying to deal with my teenage life, I did a poor job of being a mentor, but what remained with me were the words that a friend of my 12 year old "mentee" said to me..." She stood by that gate waiting for you every Saturday, with eagerness in her heart to see you again"

Those words and the ensued guilt for disappointing someone that needed my help, stayed with me for many years, until finally, through the gracious help of Monk Rinchen, I returned to St Jude's to make an impact on a bigger scale, and that's when the meditation classes began.

Meditation classes were held every Wednesday at the St Jude's home from 3.30 -5.00 pm, sometimes even finishing at 6 pm. Each class had a different flair each week, depending on the issue we were discussing in class. 

The general structure of the class started with what issues aroused during the week that we felt we could have dealt with differently, followed by positive affirmations depending on the issues discussed, then meditation practice, which varied from simple breathing techniques, to creative visualization, to the use of sound to soothe negative feelings. 

Whenever we did creative visualization, the girls were always eager to talk about what they visualized and how the visualization process made them feel.  One time, I remembered asking the girls to visualize and draw what peace meant to them, and there was one of the girls that drew a picture of her with a gun killing someone else!

I am happy to say, several classes later, that if I were to ask her now, what peace meant to her, she can visualize something totally different and positive.

The last 2 months in Trinidad, I began allowing each girl to run the class by themselves, with my presence of course, watching how they utilized each tool that I taught them. I must say that I was proud of each girl that made the attempt! My aim, was to get them to a place of doing this on their own without my presence! 

To my girls that excitedly came to class every Wednesday, thank you for sharing your life experiences with me, because just as I have made an impact on you, being in your presence every week, or whenever I could have made it, was certainly life changing for me. 

Some of my wonderful students are missing in this picture, but thank you to the girls that joined me on my last day of meditation class.

Here are some of the videos that some of my students did for me on the last day of our meditation class, two days before I left the shores of Trinidad.