GoNg sHi

This week is about getting used to each other, the environment, the food, the teachers, the methods, community life and diversity. Last evening Garba organized a community building program, where the opening ceremony was giving massage to each other in two very very long lines. And then we beded the knees and sat upon the person's knees behind us. Very intimate..
And the most beautiful and smart game was the one we didnt understand in the beggining. The group devided into two, people were standing face to face. We created pairs, each was holding a string. Then Garba and Mette (an other danish teacher who' s gonna teach us at CB - crossing borders, u'd better remember CB..-reminds me of someone all the time but i just cant remember who..) so they were collecting the strings by walking towards each other from the two sides in the middle, in the end we created a circle. It had a middle point, and so we were all connected to each other and also become dependent on each other. So the task was to let the pen (that was tied to the middle of the circle) come into the empty glass. It was soo hard, since 60 people holded it! So according to democratic principles, every single person should not let the string loose or too tight, but keep it normally so with participation. Garba said today at the class, that nowadays participation is the most important because that means existence in this global jungle. should be kept in mind!
Yeah, so we tried it hard, 60 of us to allow that fu**** pen to come down, with different facilitators from different parts of the circle..but finally we succeed after Garba suggested to close our eyes and one danish girl could manage to direct the group and it took less then half minute...interesting..

Another game:


You should keep in mind, that the folkhighschool offers very democratic education, therefore students can be told to create a 1 min performance within 15 mins, the topic and the theme is not defined but it should be some kind of musical or dancing stuff. So please welcome the performance I liked the most, the "Gong-Si"- song!



Another, this is a very thoughtful one!



Thumba Le-Le. If only I knew what does it mean. So this was my group's show time, but somehow my danish mates changed their minds and we did not do anything we prepared. I was extremely disappointed, but i could not do anything against that. So this is something very boring, without any passion or energy. At least the 3rd girl from the right tried to put a bit of spice into it :P
(The song or kind of song was tought by Rikke, the school's principal. She'll teach the choir every monday where we sing danish, english and mostly african songs she is fond of!! I'll definitely attend. )



And the performance that won the game:




In the evening, one of my CB mates- Kalifa, the gambian local eco-tour guide/sales man brought big bags and invited us to the kitchen. Okay, lets see Kalifa, and his goods... :)




I bought a pair of necklace and earrings, i must confess. But it will definitely support local gambian and senegali people, Kalifa assured me. Its Ramadan time, and so he is not eating daytime. Today i did not have dinner at 6 pm, i waited till 8.30 to have dinner with him. Ramadan is till the middle of september, so its gonna be really tough for him. But it seems he is very okay with everything. We will celebrate the final day, he plans to cook for us typical gambian beef. ....
okay, about other mates and food and the Louisiana museum, i'll come back soon.
Today I had to put into post-its my dreams, expectations, fears and strategies in connection with my staying, in the class. I'll also present that soon. That was very important.

Gong-Shi for All!