Matt and I got an unexpected thank-you e-mail about the Rwanda benefit and thought I'd share it with you: From: LMushikiwa@aol.com To: info@mygiftismysong.com Subject: Thank you! Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 10:29:45 EDT This is a massage to thank Matt Scharpf and Michael Slajchert for the May 13 fundraising concert at Molly Malone’s in Forest Park to raise money for We-ActX. I am a Rwandese woman living in Washington, D.C.; I am familiar with We-ActX and the wonderful work Dr. Cohen is doing in Rwanda. I saw an article on the web about the concert and just wanted to thank you for caring about people you do not know from so far away. Perhaps one day you could team up with Rwandese musicians in the US for another benefit concert! Louise Mushikiwabo Co-author, Rwanda Means the Universe (St. Martin's Press, 2006) lmushikiwa@aol.com From: LMushikiwa@aol.com To: mslajchert@fenwickfriars.com CC: Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 20:26:24 EDT Subject: Re: concert for rwanda -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mike, I am very happy that you have taken on the duty of teaching your students about Rwanda and the 1994 genocide. I would love to come and speak to your class, perhaps in September. I will be moving to Tunis, Tunisia, for work in the next couple of months, and I am currently busy promoting my new book (Rwanda Means the Universe). I will stay in touch about coming to Chicago. Please give me your postal address so that I can send you a CD or 2 of Rwandan music (Check out and sample some good Rwandan music at www.samputu.com). Let's stay in touch. Louise ============================ In a message dated 5/25/2006 10:22:55 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, mslajchert@fenwickfriars.com writes: Thank you so much for your e-mail regarding our little show here supporting the work of Doctor Cohen in Rwanda. We do what we can. I teach high school here in the Chicago area and can guarantee that no student leaves my Moral Theolgy class without learning about what happened there, and many of them attended Dr. Cohen's presentation (even though it was after school, conflicted with lots of sports, and they got no credit for it!) We intend to do the show again in the Fall when school is back in session. My musical partner Claire and I have recorded a song about our sometime-indifference to events in Africa - if you would like to hear it, it's on www.mikeslajchert.com and the song is "Children of the Ghosts." I would love to hear some Rwandese music! If you are ever in Chicago, I would be honored to have you come in and speak to us. Mike Slajchert