It wasn't a great
start to the morning as the local lady who had invited us to do
playgroup in the new village wasn't answering her phone. Ten minutes
away from where we were meant to meet her, she finally called me
back. It seemed like she had forgotten that we had planned to do
playgroup that day but in an honour / shame culture then it would be
shameful to admit that she had forgotten and shameful for us to
suggest that she had forgotten! So we all continued with the plan
anyway but we weren't sure quite what was going to happen. We were
expecting her to bring along some young women volunteers but there
were none, neither was there any sign of the tea and coffee that she
said they would provide.
We drove out into
the countryside and finally arrived at a building in a small village
with a number of scattered houses around. The manageress of the
“women's centre” came out to greet us and glowing introductions
were made. It is common to speak very highly of someone when
introducing them as a sign of honour.
Word Got Out
We were not
expecting to enter a room full of women and children! There must have
been about 30 mums and over 40 children crammed in together. The
manageress was very apologetic and said she'd told only 2 mums (maybe
only half an hour ago!) but word spreads very quickly in a village
and soon all the mums knew that something was happening and had
turned up to find out.
One Big Family
The facilities were
very good, so we set up toys in a smaller room for younger children,
a craft on 2 tables in another room and the mums stayed in the bigger
room. After another round of formal introductions, my friend did a
“thought for the day” about each of us being valuable and some
gentle exercise for the mums. I meanwhile helped with older children
make “binoculars” for the craft and we were blessed with 3
volunteers from the village who helped us. The children were some of
the most well behaved children that we have worked with which might
have been a reflection of the strength of community in this village
and how most people living in the village were part of the same
extended family.
Encouraged to
Encourage
We had been asked to
give parenting advice so I did a slot encouraging the mums to not
just give attention to the negative things that their children do but
to notice and praise their children when they do well. It seems that
people here rarely praise or tell their children “well done”,
maybe because they don't want their children to become proud, or fear
of envy, the so called “evil eye”.
We finished with
drinks and snacks and even though we hadn't expected so many people
to be there, thankfully there was enough to go round. One mum asked,
“How often are you going to come? Everyday?”. Unfortunately we
can't go everyday but we hope to return twice a month.
