Week of Training in Mangaung

I'm back at Daktari after another intense time in the Mangaung township outside of Bloemfontein. I was there from Saturday to Saturday, and while I did not necessarily "rest," it was good to use my brain in a different way.  

I helped lead and facilitate a five-day training with two amazing Bank Street professors as well as a public health student at Columbia named Shannon. The four of us were a little family for our week in Mangaung, cooking our meals and planning together, as well as sharing a variety of crazy Africa stories. It was an honor to be a part of this team- and to participate in this amazing training. 

The training focuses on three "lenses" - the first is HIV/AIDS, especially the stigma surrounding HIV+ people in South Africa. The second is "child development" and the third is "relationships." We had about fifty women (and one man!) attending, who were parents, teachers, and matrons in the creches. Many were the same people I had visited in July and August, so it was good to know exactly where they were coming from and what they could learn. Normally these three groups of people do not interact at all, so that was another main point of our training, to emphasize how important it is for the kids that we all are on a team for them, together. 

The training involved a lot of activities that can be seen as "metaphors," as well as a lot of intense discussions and some more direct "instruction" type teaching. All of the videos and pictures that we used were taken in Africa, and we were able to add a lot of the photos and videos I had taken, so that they could see that we are speaking about what is realistic and applicable for their community, not what we have in America. Most women seemed eager to learn, had tons of questions and anecdotes, and were really thankful for the training they were provided. We had a few who seemed more skeptical, especially around the importance of interaction and stimulation for children under three. We also came into a lot of cultural disagreements regarding the use of physical punishment for children, the role of attachment, and other really deep-seated issues. In this way it was incredibly emotionally draining, trying to remain professional and objective in the face of a lot of people who have very different ideas than you, especially when we are talking about the care of babies, which I obviously feel passionately about.

I was also the photographer/videographer for the training, so of course I have a lot of material to choose from. I tried to pick a few things that would show a bit of each part of the training - but mostly I have photos of the activities we did that were used as metaphors - these just happen to be the most visually interesting things we did. Probably my favorite parts of the training, however, were the songs and blessings we did to begin every part of the training. I took about twenty videos, but here's one where Faith (the other professor) began her favorite song: 

This is a picture of the "chair exercise" I'm sure many of you have done in work trainings and such. I don't know if you've ever done it with fifty African women of varying size and shape though - I do recommend it. We used this as a metaphor for the three types of women there (parents, teachers, matrons) working together and supporting each other. 

 This is a photo of an exercise we did entitled "Life Load." For this exercise we used potatoes and plastic bags to symbolize the burdens we all have to carry around with us. We gave categories (i.e. family, self, finances, legal, health, etc.) and encouraged everyone to pick up potatoes for their burdens, and then to put potatoes back for their blessings/supports, until they're left with a symbolical "life load." We had a few brave women share their load with us, and it was incredibly emotional. This woman, who was one of the most enthusiastic and wonderful participants of our training, shared that her "old age" was beginning to affect her, she did not make enough money as a matron in the creche to pay herself a salary, and her fifteen year-old granddaughter was pregnant. As she spoke, women around the room nodded and made sounds to say, "me too." The main reason we do this exercise is to show the different types of women that they all go through similar tough times in life, and the way we draw upon our support systems, and the way they can support each other. It was really moving.

Here is a picture of me leading a meditation of sorts. We call it the "Love Memory" exercise, and it serves as an example of the kind of loving feelings and sense memories that adults can call to mind using only their brain. Babies, as you may know, can experience sensory feelings that lead into these love memories, but can only gradually begin to call up an image in their brain when they are not experiencing it as they move through toddlerhood. We use this example throughout the week when we talk about attachment, and how important it is to help babies develop a positive love memory of their parents and caregivers from the moment they are born.

 Here we all went outside with towels and blankets to talk about motor development. We all went through the stages that babies go through as they are learning to walk, trying to pick ourselves up without using our stomach muscles and go from lying on our backs to standing. The woman in the middle is Virginia Casper, who was my thesis adviser at Bank Street and helped to develop the tool I used in July as well as this training. We do this exercise because early childhood teachers hear a lot about "milestones" - especially when it comes to motor development. What they don't know is all the individual components that make up a milestone like walking. Therefore when a child is "late" reaching a milestone, they have no idea how to help him or her. So we went through all the different components of a milestone and some of the ways you can help them.

 On Thursday I lead an activity we created for the first time for this training, called "What Can You Do With What You Have." I used pictures and videos I had taken in the summer, and made two activities. The first was around what you can do as a teacher when you notice that a baby or toddler is interested in something in the environment, or begins a dramatic play scheme. As a teacher, it was really fun for me to talk with this group of women about fun ways they can follow a child's lead and insert themselves into the play or activity in a way that extends the child's learning.

For example, in this photo (projected behind me) a ten month old discovered that her hand was creating a shadow on the floor. We talked about what this discovery meant for her, and the ways a teacher could extend this activity to further her learning. 

The second part of this conversation was about innovative use of everyday materials, where I showed slides of really interesting and inventive things I saw in my visits, and then we all shared ideas with each other from our own classrooms. 

The last thing I will share with you is an activity called "The Neuron Dance." In this exercise each person acts as a neuron, with their hands being the axons and their elbows being the dendrite. In this way we create a brain. When we begin to sing, our neurons fire to each other, and new connections are formed in the brain. The brain development portion of this training is SO important because most of the time babies are left to just sit  all the time, which of course does nothing for their brain. Over and over we remind them that 0-6 are the most important years for brain development, and the neuron dance illustrates for them how important it is that children are not just waiting (when they do nothing, their neurons do nothing.) Anyway, here is the wonderful neuron dance: 

Sorry this is so long, it was a really action packed week. I'm glad to be home, and now looking forward to another trip in about a month, where I'm going to drive down the coast!