notes from NVC work in Sierra Leone
Ray
Hi all,
I decided to send this simple account of my time in Sierra Leone, without photos and video, as time is passing and I wanted you to have news of how things went.
And especially thanks to those who offered support. (Return communication wasn't so easy, but I was touched by the emails and the texts which got through)
and those who sent books (which went down really well!)
I'm mainly focused on helping our most promising students set up projects and go on the European intensive training.
There is a Facebook page for NVC Sierra Leone which people are welcome to like already: http://www.facebook.com/pages/NVC-Sierra-Leone-Nonviolent-Communication/172277659528004
plus this: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sierra-Leone-we-reduce-election-violence/172680279484019
Love and thanks,
Ray
Peace Diamonds - notes from a workshop in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is famous for blood diamonds, civil war and involvement of outside forces, so it was a great joy to be involved with people who can truthfully be called "peace diamonds".
Miatta (Ms) and Lansana (Mr) are the most promising up-and-coming NVC trainers in Freetown, and were a great support to me in the workshop, as was Sabine from Germany who works with a catholic street children charity (Dom Bosco).
We also had 5 people come in from Liberia, and it was a joy to reconnect with those warm semi-american accents. In fact Aaron, Aaron and John from Liberia in many ways got more from the training than anyone else, partly because of their unbridled enthusiasm and partly because of freedom from local responsibilities and incoming calls. On the Monday after the workshop they were straight into election monitoring and community mediation - (the Noble Peace Prize winner, Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson is standing for re-election as President).
We had some quite advanced people and some complete beginners (which was a surprise to me!) and my brief was to start with a 1day recap of the model on the friday. All together we were 19, 8 Europeans and 11 West Africans.
I decided to create a simplified model concentrating on the 3 modes, with a gutsy Africa slant:
connecting with my guts (focusing etc)
connecting with their guts (empathy)
checking what next
This worked really well, though in retrospect I wish we had then had an evening to try applying it in role plays. Nevertheless, at the end of the next week I was delighted to hear that the Liberians were "checking their guts" before going ahead with a scary request - true joy for me!
Over the weekend I had time to plan with Lansana, and sort out some reading/audio and video for newcomers.
Monday - after a recent week with Miki Kashtan I noticed how hard it is for people to make requests to large groups, so I decided to start with an intro to that, and some practice. This threw up that even the more experienced people were pretty hazy about NVC requests, so it took most of the first day.
For the second day we agreed that newcomers needed some help with the basics of the model, so we split into 2 groups and Lansana did a West African's intro to observations vs judgements, and feelings and needs. Meanwhile I did a day on NVC leadership, with a sprinkling of insights from co-counselling and some role plays on tackling difficult meetings.
Wednesday morning we re-united and worked on self care for leaders (leadership was the requested theme of the week) and in the afternoon. We also decided that in the afternoon we wanted to have small groups on themes, so we covered pre-election violence, body-based NVC, etc according to taste.
The pre-election violence group was amazing! It took the form of a role play where only one person had giraffe training (a former street fighter, who is influencial with "the youth" - Father S was great in this role!) Other roles were candidate-worried-that-he-is losing, election commissioner scared shitless and played brilliantly by a student, media rep and momey person. The giraffe found it hard not to get sucked into the fears of the candidate and the commissioner, but what helped massively was having tea break! And taking time to figure out what the election comissioner needed practically in order to feel less terrified. This led to a virtuous circle of confidence, and an astonishing shift in the rle play (which happened in my absence but was caught on video :-) )
On Thursday we had individual/group projects, and caring for our "future selves" and Friday became West Africa network day plus appreciations and celebrations.
After the workshop I connected with a Quaker project I have been supporting, appeared on TV and radio, fixed up a Togolese artist with a website, coached a nutritionist, visited Rokel, supported a schoolteacher, distributed or sold NVC resources, watched softball and disabled football, met students and principal at a secondary school and talked about Findhorn. Which reminds me that 1 evening I did the Laws of Manifestation with the Liberians.
Overall it was a great experience. Nevertheless I'm hopeful that NVC is starting to get rooted in both Sierra Leone and Liberia, and a huge thank you to all who supported me in myraid ways!
Love
Ray xx