A Community Workshop in Lagos, Nigeria
Lying on the rug in the living room on Thursday night, reflecting on how positively Re-evaluation Counseling had impacted my life and family, I hoped that tomorrow would come faster. And the feelings of anxiety and joy didn’t allow me to sleep.
It was 11:00 already, and I had to set the alarm to wake me up early. I couldn’t locate my phone, so the alarm wasn’t set, but I jumped out of bed at 6:00 am.
Wow!! It was the 13th of April, 2018, and we were about to have our first RC workshop for the year in our Community. “Get up! It’s workshop day!” I shouted, waking up my children. “It’s workshop day!” they announced to each other in excitement.
We arrived at the venue by 8:30, and my husband and children and I arranged the chairs before the arrival of the other RCers. Twenty-two adults and six children attended the workshop.
We started with physical exercises, led by Mr. Franklyn Chimezie, and then formed a big circle (like our mothers’ cooking pots) and introduced ourselves. We had sessions on early childhood memories, which led to lots of discharge. Then we had sessions on our experiences since we had woken up that morning. I got the much-needed opportunity to talk about my sleepless night, and the busy Lagos life and roads.
After that I talked to the workshop about us and our environment, how human existence is connected to the environment, and the damage our bad environmental decisions and actions cause. Mr. Alex Great Akhigbe, an environmentalist and the founder of the African Cleanup Initiative, talked about recycling, re-use, and how we as individuals can work with government agencies to keep our environment clean. Then we had groups on “our environment.” In my group we talked about cleanliness and the death rate from malaria among African children. The children in the group made impressive contributions to this topic.
At the workshop we also looked at sexism and the abuse of women. The surging rate of killings by spouses calls for immediate attention and needs sessions, sessions, and sessions.
During “special time” the children took the lead and we had so much fun playing, singing, and dancing—activities that took me back to childhood memories. We adults must always remember that children are humans and that they are oppressed.
Before our farewells we had sessions on our fears about going back home. My fear was of going back to the role of chef, mum, and housekeeper.
My highlight of the workshop was seeing people happy. We were happy and free.
Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria
(Present Time 192, July 2018)