Workshop Day One? ‘Awe-mazing’!!!

Showing up at a week-long workshop with loads of expectations is normal (at least, for me) but having those expectations exceeded on just the first day??? Whoop-whoop! From energising exercises to stories that touch the heart, Day One has been as filling as a richly stuffed sandwich.

Okay, I can’t even begin to describe every ingredient that made me relish this sandwich – there’s just too much to say and although I’ve got the feeling you might enjoy reading the long narrative, I’ve also got to go to bed early to catch up on sleep missed because of a long, unpleasant flight. So, let’s settle for only a peek, shall we?

First, the people. Carefully selected and incredibly fantastic to engage with. The sense of community in diversity was at once unmistakable.

I don’t think I have ever opened up so much about myself to so many different people in such short a time! The term, ‘welcome’, that we were all asked to write on this sheet in our different languages at the beginning of the day quickly metamorphosed from being just another routine pleasant word into an actual living thing! 

Next,   the activities. Absolutely delightful especially as we were all in them together. We tried to save eggs together and only ended up breaking them…together. Well, to be fair on us, only Joanna  was in charge of the breaking part. Haha!

We tried our hands on illustrating our stories through images and for people like me who are terrible at drawing, improvising was smooth – we simply made a mess of our drawings and then quite easily gleaned our stories from just looking at the drawings of those of us who can really draw. See? Together! 

It was a full day and so, to energise ourselves and one another, what didn’t we do?! We clapped and danced, counted down with palms and feet and laughed and laughed and laughed.

And oh, the food.  Now, I mean real food and not my metaphoric sandwich. I can be very picky.  Trying strange foods isn’t exactly my forte but hey, lunch and dinner looked too nice to skip and quite frankly, our very sweet caterers would certainly have overwhelmed my picky spirit if it dared to show it’s ugly face. They watched and fussed over us eating like my grandma used to do when she prepared one of her matchless recipes and insisted I was not going to starve myself to death as long as she lived.  Now, who would skip that kind of care and loving attention?  Definitely not this girl!

Oops, It’s past midnight and I’ve really got to go to bed. Oh well, I really shouldn’t sleep if I don’t finally confess… that after the day’s experience, I definitely feel more than compensated for making an all-day journey on a flight that had ‘rubbish’ written all over its poor service. I'm already geared up and excited for Day Two…Whoop, whoop!!