He’s a Teacher, Eric Walters at the AGM

By Fei Min Lorente

Eric Walters is a man on the move. After driving out to Waterloo to talk to us, he was scheduled to appear in Coburg the next day, and another Ontario town after that. He’s done book tours all over Canada, visiting towns as small as Prince Rupert and as far away as White Horse.

Then there’s his research. He’s been to Japan, Kenya, England, France, Haiti; wherever the story happened. If there are tigers in the story, he gets up close and personal with live tigers. If there are elephants and lions, he’ll go visit them, too. If the story involves crossing a desert on foot, he’ll do that also (did you know that the Tatooine scenes in Star Wars was shot in the desert of Tunisia? Eric is a wealth of information).

He knows a vast array of fascinating people, some who are “ordinary people” and some who do extraordinary things, like climb mountains all over the world, or run marathons across Death Valley. All of them have a story, and Eric wants to hear it.

Messages:

•          Boys should read fiction as well as non-fiction to help their Emotional IQ.
•          We should honour our war veterans; they are real heroes, not sports stars or celebrities.
•          Being a father is his most important job.
•          Girls should know that anyone who puts them in danger doesn’t really love them.
•          Respect wildlife and the natural world around you.
•          Finish what you start.
•          Even if it costs more, support local businesses if their products are made ethically and the imported products were not.
•          Don’t pay bribes, even if it takes longer and costs more.
•          Look beyond people’s bad actions; there’s a reason for them—so go after the reason, not the people.
•          A goat in Africa should cost an average of $40. If a charity is selling you a goat for a poor family for $100, you should ask them what they’re doing with the other $60.

Likes:

•          Equal rights for women
•          The Hunger Games
•          Sushi
•          Canada
•          War veterans (real heroes)
•          Free the Children and the Terry Fox Foundation

Dislikes:

•          Racism
•          The Twilight Saga
•          Negative thinking
•          People treating celebrities like heroes
•          Child exploitation
•          Charities with expensive offices and executives that make so much money they can afford to send their kids to private schools

Eric told us plenty of stories about where he got ideas for his books and who became the characters in them, but there’s one story about his orphanage in Kenya that stood out. The orphanage didn’t have a well yet, and the water they’d been collecting from rainfall had run out, so the orphans went to the closest village, about 2 km away, to get some water from the trickle of a stream that was there. However, the villagers told them they couldn’t have any water, and if they came back, they would kill them. So until the rain fell again and their well was finished, the charity had to buy and transport water to the orphanage at great cost. This year, the charity is finishing a well for that nearby village, and it is being given to them from the orphans. Eric knows that the villagers are not evil; they were just protecting themselves and their families as best they knew. So instead of treating them like the enemy, he’s turning them into friends. If you want to hear more of his stories, you should buy his books.

Yes, Eric Walters is a writer, but he’s also a great teacher. We learned a lot, and the people who read his books, young adult or old adult, will learn a lot, too.

For more information about Eric Walters, see http://www.ericwalters.net/. For more information about the charity he has founded, see http://creationofhope.com/.