AVP and 1 More Plea

Here's the little recap of our AVP workshop that I promised.

Last week for 3 days a group of about 15 people gathered at the clinic for an Alternatives to Violence Project workshop, facilitated by John, Adrien and Virginie. There was the 3 of us workcampers plus Andrew, everyone who works at the clinic and then some folks from the neighborhood. One woman came all the way from up country in hopes of bringing some ideas back home with her. For the 2nd half of the first day we even had the chief of Kamenge, who looked like he was all of 15 but must at least have been in his twenties.

AVP originated as a program in prisons in New York several decades ago and has spread out considerably from there. There's a whole section of it that's pretty much word for word the same as Marshall Rosenberg's fundamentals of Non Violent Communication. Start with an observation, communicate your feeling using 'I' statements instead of 'you' statements, explain the why of the feeling (the need not being met) and make a request. There were exercises for approaching other peoples difficulties with empathy, illustrations of the ineffectiveness of combative communication, intense discussions and games.

Lots and lots of games. They're meant to help everyone operate at the same level (that of a child) as well as break the ice and provide a physical respite from sitting around talking.
And you know what most of the games were? The same games theatre students have been playing for generations. We played Zip Zap Boing, we played Donkey/Elephant (except here it was Igiti (tree)/Inshovu (elephant) and there was also a Skunk involved, we played Big Wind which is like a cross between musical chairs and Steal the Bacon. We played Molasses Tag. We even did the one where everyone stands in a circle and you create a tossing pattern and then add in more objects til everyone is always either throwing or catching. We did the count to 20 thing where on impulse you each say the numbers from 1 to 20 in order and if anyone talks on top of anyone else you have to start over. This is particularly difficult when people are counting in 3 different languages and not everyone knows all three. Who'd have thought, theatre games, healing the wounds of the world.

It was quite an amazing experience and because of our group agreement about confidentiality I can't really go in to all the reasons why except to say that hard questions were asked, we thought a long time about the answers without coming to any real conclusions (they weren't really the kinds of questions which have definitive solutions) and left feeling much more strongly connected to each other than when we'd started 3 days ago. I will also say it's a whole different ball game having discussions about violence with people who've lived through a civil war in a developing nation. During any exercise when we were asked to use examples from our own lives, I couldn't help but feel, well, lame for say talking about getting someone not to yell at people.

Anyway I think its a really helpful way to start our time working together. Now I just wish that the skilled labor construction guys could have been a part of it too. I haven't learned most of their names even and they pretty much only speak Kirundi so without the benefit of the constant translation we had at the workshop all we can do is point at things and work. We did have a nice little moment today though while I was sitting in the back and we were all waiting for the next wheelbarrow full of cement to come from the front. I started juggling some stones and one of the guys who pours and shapes and spreads the cement picked up some stones too and tried to show me he could 'shower' and then indicated that his failure to do so was because of the stones. Jonathan was also impressed which was what I'd been going for in the first place.

Last thing. We were talking to Alexia today about the work the clinic does and she explained that in the hospitals a person has to pay before they receive any treatment, even in the emergency room (which by the way is the free market economy approach to health care taken to its worst case scenario endgame). Sometimes doctors and nurses will pay for medicine or supplies for patients out of their own pocket when the hospital administration won't admit someone . At the clinic, everyone gets treatment and if they can't pay the clinic has a little fund they can dip into to cover things. There are limits though to what the clinic can do since it's not yet certified. They can't, for example distribute anti-retrovirals for HIV/AIDS. That's why it's so very important that these three rooms get built. Unfortunately, Alexia is worried that we don't have enough money. The Burundi workcamp is the smallest one you see and was supposed to have at least one more person who backed out because of the rebel action that was going on in April/May. Anyway the point of all this is to say that if you've been reading these blogs and thinking, "I'm sorry I missed my chance to make a donation" let me tell you, it's not too late! You can still go to www.aglionline.org and make a contribution. Just be sure to earmark it for Burundi and the Kamenge Clinic. Not that everything AGLI does isn't worth supporting, it is, it's just that these are the people I know. Anyway most of you have already been super generous and the people of Kamenge and I thank you for it. Just want to be sure everyone has an opportunity to participate.