Tag Archive for: Emmanuel G V Dolo

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Liberia Peacebuilder Community Summit on 4th of July

What a way for this American to celebrate the 4th of July!  Our Liberia Peacebuilder Community Summit was a great day, with well over 100 diverse people in attendance – primarily community members, with a sprinkle of NGOs and Western expats.  Our theme was, How can we Build Partnerships and Strengthen Peacebuilding Together? NG0  + Business + Community + Government

It was a day that began with torrential rain and thunderstorms – despite our many efforts to influence the weather patterns through pleas, visualization, prayers and any ways we could imagine… WAWA (“West Africa Wins Again” – our code word for the unavoidable complications and chaos that arise in a developing world with minimal infrastructure and different views of time)… Arrival for everyone was delayed well beyond the usual, due to the rain…  Plus, the AV guy with the sound system was nowhere to be seen and the generator was locked up and no one present had the key (yet all parties had been pre-paid for their services).  The noise from the rain was so intense that we felt we couldn’t begin the program without amplification.  Fortunately, the culture troupe was there – and they were great troupers indeed, offering a wonderful morning performance even before they had their costumes on.  Finally, we decided we’d just have to make the best of it and get started with the program, sound or no sound…  And happily, in the middle of Emmanuel’s welcoming remarks, the AV guy showed up.

A small group of our Core Team and I had worked hard on Saturday to prepare all the signage – and to take on the facilitation.  I prepared a sample script and coached them Saturday afternoon, with the assurance that I would be ready to intervene and support them on Monday.  It was a thrilling to witness them stepping up to leadership as I stayed ‘in the wings’ and played a very minor role.  The World Café was a powerful way to begin the morning and get everyone engaged and intermingling across the many differences present in the room:  men/women, elders/youth, educated/illiterate, Christian/Muslim/Traditional – and 16 different ethnic groups, plus Westerners.  We used stones gathered near the beach for talking objects.  The questioWorld Cafe conversationns:

Round 1) Think of the times when you had successful partnerships across sectors…Share the highlights. What made it possible?

Round 2) What are the challenges that keep you from building stronger partnerships?

Round 3) What can you do to build better partnerships?

The notes from the debrief have not yet been typed up – I’ll post those to a later blog.  The Open Space generated about 20 topics for the two sessions.  It was great to see many in the group really get the idea of the Law of Two Foot – and move around amongst sessions.   However, what I noticed during many of the sessions was a tendency for one person (typically an elder male) to become the director of the session and, rather than generative conversation, the group tended to just list ideas for the ‘director’ to record.  Observing this in so maOpening the Circleny sessions opened my eyes again to how many skills and experiences we may take for granted that are essential building blocks for the capacity for generative conversation:  asking questions, taking turns, building on each other’s ideas (rather than making parallel speeches), being open to new ideas or uncertainty or not knowing, etc.  In the future, I would recommend that a Core Team member attend each session to help serve as a facilitator with the goal of facilitating conversation and brainstorming.  In any case, the day brought a sense of community and empowerment to all who attended, and a number of ideas and action plans were set into place.  You’ll hear more in the next few days!

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Getting to Know Monrovia Communities

Saturday I got to meet with the Pt. Bushrod Island community of “Liberian Returnees Women For Self Empowerment.”  They are courageously creating a vocational skill training center with practically no resources – volunteer teachers, little or no equipment or supplies.  Sewing with  two machines and occasional fabric; soap making with intermittent ingredients that must all be imported; computer skills with one broken and one functioning computer (no internet connection).  Today about 20 of these women gathered under the leadership of our core team member, Emma.  After leading us through a meditation and paired listening, she asked her boss to tell the story for our facts-feelings-values exercise.  It turned out to be a very live and hot story that involved Emma herself, her boss, another core team member as well as another woman who was not present.  Many feelings were stirred, so we got to apply Compassionate Listening on the spot as it seemed wise to listen to each of the involved parties.  It was challenging, and there is still more healing to do around their challenges – but the circle left feeling inspired, motivated and ready to learn and experience more.

I get to speak to all kinds of interesting people in the bar upstairs during the evening…  Last night I learned about a very disturbing situation with large Chinese fishing boats:  there are supposed to stay 5 miles off shore, yet come right in to the bay – several boats, with nets cast between them – which of course trumps the local small fishing industry. Indeed, several times the small local boats (more like canoes) have gotten caught in their illegal nets and people have drowned.  When taken to court, corrupt judges here just pocket a bribe of $20k and dismiss the case without levying the appropriate multi-million dollar fines.  Needless to say, many Liberians feel cynical and helpless with the level of corruption here and the apparent inability or unwillingness of the government to clamp down on it.  Still, most people I talk to believe re-electing Ellen Sirleaf Johnson is the best choice at this point…

Today (Sunday) was very packed.  In the morning I went to the Muslim community for a baby-naming ceremony.  I sat on the floor behind the scrim curtain with all the festively dressed and veiled ladies and their darling, cooperative babies.  (Although one toddler burst into tears when he saw me… I hear he just received an injection from a white lady dr. last week.)

Then we went to the Pentecostal church of the Superintendent of Montserrat County (home of Monrovia):  she is a remarkable leader and an awesome preacher.  I loved her sermon – yup, the nice Jewish girl was enthusiastically yelling out Hallelujah between all the glorifying of Jesus’ name.  She talked about how we all have the keys to Heaven and everything we need.  It’s up to us to use them.  When Emmanuel and I got to meet with her afterwards I explained how LPI is working to teach people the skills so they can use those keys.  She was very interested and receptive, especially when we mentioned the Restorative Circles and how we will have some trained facilitators who can help with community conflicts.  She invited us to join her to go to a community meeting with a difficult land-ownership issue on Wednesday.  And she agreed to come to our Summit – so we are thrilled to be building this strategic relationship.

Later in the afternoon we headed way out of town to the poor community of Rock Crusher outside of Paynesville where there is an orphanage/school with 30 orphans and 90 children from the community that attend the orphanage sponsored school.   Today was their K2 graduation and we were treated to song, juggling, spelling bill, samples of homemade jam, demonstration of sign language.  It was a very sweet little place filled with loving, devoted teachers and volunteers.

Finally, we  crawled out way through horrendous traffic to way other side out of town  ‘to meet with another core team member’s womens’ group.  Christine did a great job facilitating and demonstrating some introduction to Compassionate Listening… And it has been extremely instructive to see how our group is translating what they learned:  I have a clearer idea of what is needed to strengthen their ability.  The list is long and a bit daunting…  But I know some of the members really get it and will help the others step by step.  At one point Christine kept disappearing from the Circle, worrying me a bit – how could she leave the group?  Then she returned and said, “Please follow me.”  Very mysterious… It turned out she had prepared a fabulous Sunday supper for Emmanuel, PCO staffer Pauline and I.  YUM.

Well, dear readers.  It’s getting late and I have lots of preparations for tomorrow’s first day of the training!  I’ll head up to bar with hopes of an internet connection so I can post this…

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Field Visits on my first day

Emmanuel and our loyal PCO crew (Alex, Madison and Pauline) delivered me back to The Tides, where I am staying, after a satisfying day in the field.  Now I’m sitting on the open air deck of the café/bar above my little studio – with a lovely cool breeze, the sky pulsing with lightening flashes…  but alas, no internet connection nor TV-cable signal.  WAWA (West Africa Wins Again), especially in the rainy season.  Hopefully by the end of the night I’ll be able to get on line and send this message!

We began with a visit to the Council of Tribal Elders, where we were greeted and endorsed by the National Chief.      Two of our Peacebuilders are part of the Council, so they gathered a dozen people to demonstrate/explain what they’ve been learning.  More were expected – but people’s mobility and activities are often curtailed during raining season.  [It’s always hard to get around – it often takes an hour to flag down one of the drop-taxis, which cram as many bodies as possible in for a cheap fare.  In the deluge-pouring-rain it is even more miserable.]  Alas, none of the women were here.  Still, the two guys did a sweet job of sharing the importance of what they are doing – and they gave a little demonstration of compassionately listening to each other.  They did a great role play with one of them acting very upset and yelling at the other, who managed to stay calm and centered and listened actively and (with a little coaching from the side) reflectively.

Later that afternoon we visited   the community of one of our Imam’s, Muhammed, who gathered about 20 men and 2 women (behind the curtain) at the local mosque – very apologetic to not have more.     He is a great speaker and really gets the essence of what Compassionate Listening is all about.  Together, we led the group through paired-listening and then facts-feelings-values.  They had great questions about challenging situations.  I left feeling hopeful that Muhammed has a responsive and receptive community to work with.  It was a beautiful sight to see the Muslim men deeply engaged in compassionate listening in their mosque.

Today started with a two hour wait for Emmanuel:  car break down and other complications…  Now I am holed up in an Internet café, as the internet at my lodging is down.  So dear readers – appreciate the comfort and infra-structure ease with which you are probably viewing this entry!

Side note:  Life is quite dear here, especially when you consider the low low wages:  $4/gallon for gas.  $5 for 15 eggs.  $1 for the cheapest small bottle of beer in the market.  $9 for ‘chicken wings’ as a snack at the bar.   $11 for a simple lunch at a restaurant.  Most people have to live on $1-2/day … so the struggle for survival is intense.

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Anticipation!

Countdown to Tuesday, when I return to Liberia to complete the train-the-trainers program with our 35 incredible core team members.  I hope to blog daily while I am there, so stay tuned!  Emmanuel G V Dolo and his staff at Population Caring Organization have been working hard to prepare everything to make the best use of my time there on this, my third trip.  We will have 5 days of training with the core team plus another all day Community Summit – which I will coach the team members to facilitate.  My goal:  by the time I leave, they all feel ready and inspired to teach Compassionate Listening to their community, establish Restorative Justice Circles to resolve conflicts, and adept as facilitators of World Cafe and Open Space to empower their communities to find their voice and create action steps to create a sustainable peace.  I’ll arrive in Monrovia next Wednesday night.

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