Community Service. Community Service. Community Service. I hadn’t realized how much I actually missed that concept. So hard, but still so rewarding. For the last year or so it has been a part of my weekly routine in my school. During my summer break I haven’t thought much about it, but after Mexican candy-making with small children today I realize how much a part of my life it has become. Together with the participants of the course my section is facilitating various art/creativity workshops for Mexican children between the age of 6-11 and more specifically for my group: Mexican candies!
As most of community service, it demands a lot of patience and concentration to help out 11-15 children at the same time. And that is exactly what makes it so good, the fact that you are spending time and energy on somebody else. Not only does it help the people/community you are serving, but it also transforms you and changes the way you think about the people around you in your daily life. In ¡Integrando a México! the participants do various kinds of community service together with us. Some build sustainable housing, some work with recycled art and flora, some organize Constructive Engagement of Conflict workshops for children, and some do creative workshops for other kids. We’ll be doing it for a week and it all started today.
We had some logistical problems, so not all of the workshops were able to run as planned, but all in all it was a good day. Those workshops that ran were mostly rewarding and a good learning experience. And since the logistical problems (hopefully) will be solved by tomorrow, I’m looking forward even more to the next sessions. After another bumpy ride with the bus back to the school we kicked off another bulk of sessions that will run throughout this week: the Creative Workshops. We got theatre, documentary making, radio production, music and visual arts. Having spent my night in the ranch where the participants are staying I was slightly sleepy at this point. It might have some connection to watching The Shining, an all-time horror classic, until the late hours of the night. It was a really nice night, and I really enjoy hanging out with them as they are really cool people. But yeah, sorry to my fellow workshop leaders Sonia and Fernando for that!
Despite some tiredness, most of the workshops went very well, and there are promising projects that hopefully will result in loads of creative development and learning, as well as some potentially cool products. At the end of the day we kicked off the first evening activity. They are supposed to be fun, engaging and also slightly more chilled activities at the end of the day. Today we had the Spy Game, a kind-of fake game that in the end turns out to be the Trust Game. In a competition between various teams, the participants became really suspicious of each other in a crazy witch hunt for the spies we had told them that each of the teams had. But afterwards we told all of them the truth, that there actually weren’t any spies. This meant that they had been accusing and sometimes expelling people from their teams without any reason, except for the mistakes they had made in the game. The message was powerful: Accept that people do mistakes and don’t judge them for them. Trust them instead to do their best.
But it’s late, and I have to go to bed. Or I’ll be tired tomorrow. And Pato is waiting. Good Night.
- Albert Andersen Øydvin (AC '10-'12) - Norway
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