Yesterday MME kicked off with our first Kijitanbua (our personal identity) workshop in Mgungani primary school in semi rural Moshi. The session started with some very quiet introductions and a drama game to break the ice, Zip Zap Boing.
I could tell the children were a little reserved as they whispered their names whilst clenching their hands in the circle. Despite this, it didn’t take long for smiles to shine and the zips, zaps around the circle encouraged the teachers to join in too!
We continued this format for the rest of the workshop by playing a ‘drawing game’ which enticed the children from level 4,5 and 6 (9ys-13yrs) to draw as quickly and expressively as possible. If in thirty seconds you hadn’t completed a charcoal drawing of your partner sitting opposite, you were out! After each round the drawings got a little bigger and bolder and by the end of the workshop each child produced a fantastic 5 min picture of their rafiki. And no for all you Disney fans, I do not mean the baboon from The Lion King, in Swahili rafiki means friend!
One of our goals and main challenges we will be facing throughout MME is the reticence of the children. This, coupled with the lack of creative learning strategies in Tanzanian classrooms means we have our work cut out for our ‘60 children to demonstrate increased confidence, self esteem and ability to express themselves through art’. In order for the project to be sustainable we are also working on involving the teachers in the classes, at the beginning of the session questions were answered on behalf of the children and we want them to think for themselves!
Today, Making Art, Making Me will begin in Kibo school, we will be applying our lessons learnt from yesterday and can’t wait to see how the children from urban Moshi respond to their first workshop!
Children sit opposite each other and draw thier partners
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