رحلة تغميس التعلميّة إلى المكسيك

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شغف التعلم لا يعرف بلدان ولا حدود، وتغميس في رحلة تعلميّة إلى المكسيك لنتعلم من ومع أهل وهاكا والتشيابس والزباتيستا الذين رفضوا نظام الحياة الحديث والمؤسسات وعادوا إلى الأرض بقولهم “كفاية” “Ya Basta”.

أنا الآن بمنطقة تسمى وهاكا في جنوب المكسيك، عدد سكان البلدة حوالي ٧٠٠ الف نسمة. لأصل إلى وهاكا إضطررت للسفر لأكثر من ٢٧ ساعة خلال ٢٤ ساعة، غريب أن أقطع قارتين وأصل بنفس اليوم. كان مسار رحلتي، عمان-باريس، باريس – هيوستن (أمريكا)، هيوستن – وهاكا (المكسيك). ولكن من حظي السيء أو الجيد انه تم إلغاء الرحلة إلى المكسيك بعد إنتظار أكثر من ساعتين وذلك بسبب إضراب للمعلمين هناك وسيطرتهم على المطار في نفس اليوم “سأحدثكم عن كل التفاصيل لاحقاً”.

سأمكث في المكسيك حوالي شهرين، لا أعرف ترتيب جدولى فيها ولكن سوف أمشي مع إيقاع الحياة هناك لإنه كما يقال “التنظيم تخريب” في بعض الأحيان. سأعيش مع أهل البلدة في بيت إحدى العائلات، أحاول أن أتعلم لغتهم، أتعرف على طبيعة حياتهم كما هي وليس كما أراها على التلفاز أو أسمع عنها.

بدأ موسم المطر باكراً كما يقولون هنا على عكس العادة بآخر شهر حزيران. الطقس جميل إلى الآن، شمس، درجة الحرارة مناسبة، مطر ولكن مع بعض من الرطوبة.

سأحاول أن أعيّشكم معي جزءاً من التجربة، بالصور والكلمات مع ان الواقع قد يكون مختلفاً وكل امرءٍ قد يراه من تجربته، ولكن بالنهاية الأفكار والمعرفة لها أجنحة وستصل إلى كل شخص بطريقته.

شكرًا لكل من جعل هذه الرحلة حقيقة وَيَاريت كل أهل تغميس معي هنا.

ريف

وهاكا – المكسيك

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ليلة السفر

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واكتبيلو يا ريفو بالمكسيكي، يجمع شملك مع شملو ويراضيكي

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الطبلة في الرحلة معي إلى المكسيك. دينا ذكرتني إنها يجب أن تكون رفيقتي ويامن اشتراها

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المكسيك من الطائرة

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من الطائرة إلى أرض الواقع

welcome gender brunches

Earlier this year in January 2015, Taghmees had the great pleasure of welcoming a diverse group of students from the SIT Graduate Institute (School for International Training) to spend a morning with ahel taghmees in Darna.  Our learning was mutual and abundant, as we got to hear about their experiences, listen to their reflections, and share our own story with Taghmees, while allowing the space for them to experience (and taste) it first hand.  In the spirit of taghmees, we were each welcome to take whatever we needed from the moment and each other’s stories, weaving in the parts that were missing from our own. Last week, we received a message from Scott, a member of the group, who was kind enough to share how some of his story has unfolded since our time together.

We originally designed Taghmees Social Kitchen as an organic medium for learning with a simple recipe of mixing people, food, and fabric. It’s always wonderful to see people adopting the spirit and adapting the details to suit their own community and context. So it was with great joy that we read the following:

“I don’t know if you remember me specifically, but I was one of Aqeel’s students that you meet back in January.  I wanted to take a minute to let you know what kind of inspiration you and Taghmees have been for me since then.  What I really took from experiencing Taghmees, was the importance of using food, and specifically the sharing of food, as an environment for creating open dialogue, particularly about social issues.  So I used this in two ways.

The first is that I took an afternoon and went back to the high school that I used to teach at before coming to SIT.  I set up an after school discussion circle, one time with a group of about six students, and I brought fresh baked bread, hummus, vegetables, tea, etc. and we sat and discussed the topic “What is the point of school?”  I used it to both practice my questioning and facilitating skills, as well as to get them thinking critically about what they were doing in school and what they were getting out of it.  It turned out to be an amazing experience for everyone.

The second thing that happened, was that a colleague and I started, what we called Gender Brunches, at SIT on Sunday mornings.  We used brunch as a means to get people together and discuss gender issues, both on campus as well as relating to the world at large.  We used the first 20 minutes or so to mingle and prepare food and eat, and then we separated by gender, continued eating, and had facilitated discussions that went over a range of gender based issues.  The goal of everything was to get people talking more about all of these things and to improve communication among the genders.  Again this turned out to be very successful.  We ended up averaging over 20 participants each time, and people commented that they really enjoyed having that safe space to talk and share.  It is something that I will be pushing to have next year’s students continue.

So, on Aqeel’s urging, I wanted to share all of that with you, to let you know, that even though it was a very brief introduction to you, to Taghmees, and all that you are trying to accomplish, it had a big effect on me and will continue to shape how I approach social change in the future.  Thank you so much!

Sincerely,

Scott K.”

Thank you for sharing, Scott, and thank you, Aqeel, for the encouragement.

encyclopedia of informal education

The encyclopedia of informal education, a great resource for exploring informal education, lifelong learning, social pedagogy and social action.  A great resource self-learners, educators, and critical thinkers.

http://www.infed.org/index.htm

 

ourselves as learners

We’re very excited about sharing the journey to explore the world inside and outside of ourselves.  We see ourselves as subjective beings on this path to learning, drawing on our firsthand life experience, while being aware that our experiences are shaped by the structures and systems of power in place that either offer us the benefits of ‘belonging’ or the consequences of not.  We are of the belief that all that we know and do not know is a result of our experience as agents in an environment.

Our greatest driver is the desire to strengthen our minds, spirits, and bodies (our heads, hearts, and hands) in service to understanding our part in upholding oppressive structures, while practicing a life of generosity, humility, and active participation, one that is dedicated to the constant creation of critical consciousness.

Our greatest barrier is our own resistance and fear of seeing ourselves through the different lenses with which the world sees us.  The difficulty of holding up a mirror and seeing ourselves honestly in terms of who we are and what we represent.

We want to shake our complacency, our silent acceptance of “the way things are”.  We refuse to be shackled by our socialization and sequestered to our comfort zones, where our ideas are never challenged and learning never happens.  We want to understand ourselves and understand others, in the hopes that when we see the different parts, hear the different pain, and sit honestly with our different fears without deflecting, that healing may actually start to happen.

Through taghmees we are aiming to offer a range of activities and trainings, designed specifically for adult learners, drawing on the concepts and principles of experiential learning.  Training topics will cover a range of learning areas and competencies, that enhance participants’ ability to engage in the world critically.

It has been our experience that school kills the joy in learning.  In Einstein’s words, “It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.”  For the sake of igniting our interest, we aim to make learning relevant to our everyday lives, tapping into our natural curiosity in the world around us.