A Different Village Playgroup

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.