A Trip to Robben Island
July 4, 2018
Ms Mtati
August 8, 2018
Heritage is such an interesting word. It refers to your background – where and who you come from. Heritage is kind of like the History that led up to you.
And considering that our organisation (once Edupeg, now Edufundi) is entering into a new phase, it seems right that our theme for team building this year was Heritage. Not only did we celebrate our individual heritages; but we also celebrated our unified heritage and history as an organisation.
Our first official day of team building began with a storytelling workshop led by Lisa Cohen. After lighting an imaginary fire to begin telling our stories around, we dove into discussing everything from what makes a story interesting, to what stories we have to tell as both individuals and as an organisation. It is funny how as people we can all be so different; but what unites us is the fact that we all have stories to tell. Some of us may be more skilled in telling stories, while others are able to write them; nevertheless we all have a story to tell. Throughout the session, each of us told stories about stories and stories that changed how we saw the world. Our lesson on storytelling led us to further understand how our stories translate into blogs as another platform to share them.
It felt as if our team building theme was heritage and storytelling because throughout the rest of the week storytelling recurred in our days. From the impactful stories of those who suffered on Robben Island we heard when we all took a tour to the compelling stories countless teachers, principals, mentors, and funders told at our annual general meeting, the week itself became a story and testament to the incredible work Edufundi has done and will continue to do.
One of the most beautiful things about Edufundi is the diversity of our team, something that was seen in the colourful dresses and rhythmic songs filling the dining room on the night of our Heritage dinner. Seeing how in that room all our unique backgrounds and cultures blended together served as a preliminary taste of the unique stories each of us have to tell about our Edufundi experiences.
Written by Kindred Obas
