EASER 12.5.09

EASER Development Blog 12.5.09
Today I met with the cultural groups at EASER to discuss the details about each group’s involvement in the organizations environmental project. The cultural groups met at the community center in Helwan where the first meeting I attended took place on Thursday. Prior to starting the planning of the environmental projects, there were a few team building activities that took place at the meeting.
The first team building activity was a problem solving activity that was intended for the team members to work together. The task of the activity was to crack a message that was written in a secret code. I noticed that there were a few dominate men in the group that took charge and took the liberty to work on the project without involving any of the other team members. Eventually, each team cracked their secret code and the groups came back together to discuss the team building activity.
The director of the meeting asked the youth members what they thought about the group dynamic during the activity. None of the youth noticed that the activity was dominated by a few individuals, and there was not a lot of team work going on during the team building activity. After pointing out the lack of leadership, the director encouraged the youth to discuss why the group did not work together as a team on the activity. Each group came to the conclusion that is necessary to have a leader in the group who can delegate tasks to each group member so that each member is involved in the activity.
After the groups discussed the problems about their first group activity, the director gave the groups another team building activity. This activity was a race that involved each group member to climb between two pieces of string without touching either pieces of string. If any group member were to touch the string, the entire group would have to start the activity over. Using the knowledge that the groups learned from reflecting after the first group activity, each group designated a leader to help the team work together. It was amazing to watch the entire group dynamic change through using their new knowledge from their previous experience.
After the team building activities were finished, the groups broke off to discuss the time line of their environmental project. Using the knowledge they had just learned from the team building activities, each group had a leader that helped facilitate the meeting to lead the group discussion. The members of the group reacted well to the leader initiating the group discussion, and each group was able to set a realistic timeline for how they wanted to work on their project.
I was very impressed with how open the group members were to learning from their mistakes in the first group activity. The members quickly adapted to the new situations and applied their new knowledge. There was little resistance amongst the group members towards changing their dynamic and interactions with each other. I think that the group members were very open to new ideas because there was a high level of trust amongst the directors and the youth members. The directors respected the youth and they demonstrated this by allowing the youth to create their own agenda and express their ideas freely.
Working with the cultural groups this past week gave me a new perspective on this development project for class. Prior to this week at EASER, I had very little contact with the individuals that the organizations are working with. Due to be detached from the human side of the development field, I did not fully understand the perspective or lifestyles of the people that are involved in the field. My frustrations with the lack of communication from my other two organizations led me to feel very angry and bitter towards the agencies. I did not take the time to think of the reasons why the organizations were not in contact with me, and I let my frustrations overshadow the true intentions of the project. After working with the youth members, I began to see the project differently, and I feel inspired and motivated to work with the youth members again.
Although my time working at EASER is over, I plan on continuing to help out with the cultural organizations throughout the winter break and the spring semester.