“It was heartening for me to see the group encouraging one boy to look at things differently.” - Daya Lakshmi, Play for Peace Trainer
On Day 2 some new kids joined the session in Tamil Nadu. I had asked some of the older kids from the previous day if they would like to lead some games on Day 2 so the day started with a couple of them taking turns in leading various games with the whole group. We did the Untangling the Rope activity where one person was instructing others who were blindfolded to untangle a rope. I had split the group in two and chosen two older boys to guide the groups as they had been more reserved in larger groups and this allowed them to make a choice. In one group, one boy started getting overwhelmed, but after the other kids encouraged him, he continued and completed the activity. He seemed too shy to share what he learned from the activity but when I encouraged him, he shared that he was slowly getting more assurance to speak up, he trusted himself more and was happy that the group had confidence in him. In the other group, the leader was taking more time, but the group was patient and did not speak out.
In the sharing, one kid said he was happy to know that he had a choice to leave the game as he was getting uncomfortable with his eyes blindfolded. But he appreciated the effort this leader was making. He sensed that others in the group were waiting and they all wanted to complete the activity too, so he decided to stay on, offer support, and complete the activity. It was heartening for me to see the group encouraging the boy to look at the tangle differently, to relax, and to be confident that he could finish the task. I was pleased to see that after the boy in the other group finished his task, he offered to help this boy out. The important lesson from Day 2 was that we tend to look at problems in one way, but if we can be open to looking at things differently, and be patient, we can find different solutions.
