Limpopo Reflection

Limpopo Reflection

This Limpopo Lunch Meeting at the American International School of Johannesburg (AISJ) took place on 12 November 2013. The topic of this meeting was to create a more extensive list of appropriate games and plan the specific workshops each Limpopo team member will be teaching, directed toward writing the finalized book. A list of games intended play as icebreakers allowing time allotted include: hug tag, human knot, the Columbian hypnosis, and the image game. Hug Tag consists of tagging people on their bellies for no more than 5 seconds to protect oneself from the tagger. The Human Knot consists of the AISJ team members linking hands with the Limpopo students, making a knot; the objective is to untangle ourselves forming a line. The Columbian Hypnosis consists of hypnotizing the opponent by moving your hand rapidly and having them follow with their eyes. The Image Game consists of making a pose; then another person will add on to your pose. Each game was inspired by the teaching of Jennifer Hartley, an applied theater practitioner whom visited AISJ to address issues such as the theater of the oppressed. Learning these new games and implementing them in Marumofase High School will be a learning lesson for me and my team on the effectiveness of icebreakers to create trust. Depending on how many students will attend, many groups will be made to keep order and maintain our time limits for this quick or fun introduction. Following the icebreakers we will gather calmly in a located area to explain to the Limpopo students our vision for the finalized book. Our team will pay special attention to questions and answer them to the best of our abilities. We will encourage the students to ask questions and/or if they need help. Then, we will begin workshops. We will reiterate to the students that we are here to help them; they just need to ask. On the planned agenda, the first writing workshop is the listening and explaining workshop. At this time the AISJ team will clearly explain the aim of the project. We will be open to one on one individual problems and inspiring them to tell us something about themselves, which will then be put into writing into their own narrative. The next stepping-stone will take part on the AISJ team sharing our own personal experiences. This will enable us to become more relatable to the Limpopo students. Next is the writing workshop, in which we will assist the Limpopo students with their writing structure such as spelling, grammar, punctuation, details, figurative language, rhetorical devices, and expressive language. The AISJ team will be very sensitive to the stories of others, we will devote our full attention to listening to their stories, and we will not show judgment or criticism in any way. We will act with complete professionalism and compassion. The learned outcomes touched on during this meeting include ethical implications as well as issues of global importance. If and when the occasion occurs I will display my own limitations to the students thus allowing me to be humble. A new problem-solving scenario that could occur would be a student or many students not wanting to participate. I would handle this by letting them know its okay to not participate but they need to be observant to the games, and workshops. In this meeting we didn’t have any conflicts or any outstanding issues. The future goal is everything that has been spoken and written about in this meeting will be implemented during our Limpopo Service Project from 15 November to 17 November 2013. The big picture of this entire project will be the completed book and the experience itself.