A space for sharing my journey as a facilitator and all that impacts it :)
The Calabar Christmas Carnival: The Kids Parade
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
-
Donald Duke-the former governor of Cross River State started the annual Calabar Christmas Carnival in 2000 which has surely put Calabar on the international map of carnivals! The entire month of December is lined up with exciting activities including live concerts, shows, youth development programs etc. The street parades are on 26 December (Kids) and 27 December (adults). The parade starts from one point and walks around the major roads across the city and heads back to the National Stadium. Eager and often undisciplined crowds line up on both sides of the road and other clearer viewing spots (we saw some on back of a billboard). Five bands compete for the best choreography, costume, music etc and of course the overall best band trophy! Each band has about 10-12 sections of different costumes. The overall theme of 2008 carnival was sustaining the earth's treasures. There are 3-4 adjudication points where the bands are at their best to impress the judges. Luckily for us, we befriended a Nigerian-British documentary maker who was making a documentary about carnivals. As press, he had direct access to the carnival, so we hung out with him as his assistants and got a fabulous view of the entire parade on both the days.
The Kids parade was absolutely stunning. The children had endless energy given they were walking around under scorching sun in heavy uncomfortable costumes some ever barefeet!
As I return from my weekly social dancing classes on Sundays, my mind wonders what this experience is teaching me about facilitation... let's start by unpacking what actually happens in class. As you enter the class, it is a warm and welcoming feeling - people hug, say hello as if they have known each other a long time... there is usually a five min chit chat time before the class begins! Our instructor Aamir teaches us a new step set for the dance form we are learning (Waltz or Rock n Roll) in a sequential way. He first demonstrates how the step looks as danced with a partner - when we first see this - we are both "wowed" and "howed"... meaning we can imagine how it will feel when we do this effortlessly and then our enthusiasm is crushed by the thought of the complexity of the step! Aamir then breaks up the full step into parts and teaches the leads and followers the step separately. We are able to slowly get comfortable with how each one of us has to move w...
Gathering Genies across spaces met on 27th July at the first Gathering Genie Circle to pause, notice & learn together! We began with a reflection exercise with Genuine Contact™ transfer in cards - relating the card to what we are noticing in gatherings - reflections included sun, sky, joy, collective, authenticity, allowing, wonder, health, humour, vision....aspects that sometimes we miss to experience in work related gatherings.... We then went into a story circle of our recent experiences in hosting gatherings. It was amazing to listen to a variety of gatherings including a quarterly team review, meetings with government, meetings with the community, workshop on education.... stories instead of ppts, starting playfully, vision alignment, sharing life journies, user experience, appreciation all helped to build connection, empathy & deeper learning. We then in smaller groups reflected on our hopes & fears of hosting gatherings... it was again very interesting to see as...
(this is a version of the Medicine Wheel Tool created by Birgitt and Ward Williams that is adapted from the Medicine Wheel created by the indigenous peoples around the world from the beginning of recorded time) It was April 2013, with curiousity and openness I walked into Vibha 's training. The seats were arranged in a circle, there were stones in a bowl in the centre, there was posters on the wall, there was natural light streaming through the big glass windows...the whole space had such a warm, calming and inviting feeling you would have thought you have walked into a spa:) Yet this was a three day training on " whole person process facilitation ". One of the first worksheets we had to reflect on was - how do you as a facilitator take care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually? This question got me thinking for the first time about my " whole being". I was fascinated that this was at the core of effective and authentic facilitati...
Comments
Post a Comment