Limpopo Reflection

Limpopo Reflection

This Limpopo Lunch Meeting in American International School of Johannesburg (AISJ) took place on 5 November 2013. Our mission is to focus on icebreakers and bonding during our visit to Marumofase High School. The Limpopo Team members from AISJ and myself aim to form relationships with the students before the writing process. Our agenda will include a game called Hug Tag. This is a game that all students participate 100% of the time. The rules of the game are to hug others for up to 5 seconds in order to be safe from the tagger. This technique will calm and relax the students and they will begin to trust the Limpopo team members. The second item on our agenda during this lunch meeting was to discuss what basic writing workshops we need to establish structure. Also, the Limpopo team members will be providing a continental breakfast consisting of juice boxes and granola bars for the students. This will allow them to have nutrition that will improve their cognitive skills during our writing workshops. This meeting encompassed one of my targeted learning outcomes, which is planning and initiating activities. This allowed me the opportunity to interact with more than 2 different countries, through combining multiple students from many countries to work together towards our final product – the book. One challenge during this meeting was producing activities and planning workshops that the whole Limpopo team could agree on. The entire Limpopo team worked appropriately and professionally to meet our needs. My own personal limitation and the team’s limitation during this meeting involved the quality of our discussion and the time in which it was restricted to. One learning moment that was derived from another experience is the hug tag game. We shared the idea of this game from Jennifer Hartley, an applied theater practitioner addressing the effects of oppression on creativity. She visited AISJ this previous September 2013. I will use my tutoring skills that I have honed at Afrika Tikkun working with the children in Diepsloot to enhance the learning of the children at Marumofase High School in Limpopo. Learning experiences from my previous service learning projects is to focus on smaller groups of children in order to maintain control and focus. No conflicts or issues arose during the meeting. Future goals include a scheduled meeting next week Tuesday 12 November 2013 in which the Limpopo team would create a more extensive list of appropriate games to play as icebreakers inspired by Dr. Hartley. Our expectation of a completed book is within closer range; the Limpopo team’s goal is to promote awareness of the born-free generation within South Africa.