A Lesson in Peace (blog #8)

This week we held our first peace education session with our committee in the Vilo community.  It was held at the end to a great day in the community where we participated in a community work day, visited the schools and Scott and Stephen played in a soccer match.  The whole day was great but I think the best part for me was the time I spent with the kids before the peace education session began. 

I was in the community meeting room preparing for the session and as usual kids kept coming in and out of the building.  There is a group of young kids between the ages of 3-7 that follow us around the community most of the time we are there.  They are not yet in school, so they are usually outside playing when we pull up and seem to stick around until we leave.  They watched as I put chart paper with various words and drawings on the wall and prepared notebooks for the participants of the workshop.  I placed sticky notes on the notebooks and the kids just kept watching me so I decided to give them each a sticky note.  I drew a smiley face J on the sticky note and gave it to them and although they seemed happy, they did not really know what it was.  I explained that the face was a smiley face as best as I could in Kiswahili saying, “cheka and furahi” (laughing and happy).  Each child gave me the biggest, charismatic smile as I handed them their sticky notes.  Before I realized it, I had given about 20 kids sticky notes with smiley faces and more kept coming.  I showed the kids that the notes would stick on things like wood and I explained that they could take them home and stick them on something (again in the best way I could in Kiswahili).  I also started asking the kids, “ni nini? (what’s this?)” and they would respond, "cheka, furahi”. 

After a while the kids left and we began our peace education session with the committee.  When we walked out of the meeting, I looked across the street and saw these bright green squares on the walls and windows of a house.  Turns out the kids had posted their smiley face sticky notes there.  I asked a couple of the kids where their sticky notes were and they smiled brightly and pointed to the building across the street.  It was truly a special moment that made me feel good inside.  That day, not only did I facilitate a peace education session with the adults but I also had an impromptu peace education session with the kids.  The kids in turn spread smiles across the community.  Coming out of the meeting and seeing those sticky notes on the building was the perfect ending to a perfect day J!