Playing Games

Backstory

After our initial morning meeting for the day, the MPC group gathered and presented the drawings that were created for the centre. After this positive event, Ralle left with Tim, Jack, and Trevor to go to Safintra for material pricing. The rest of the MPC group decided to go outside for some hands-on work.

Cast of Characters

WPI students Sarah and Michaella, and working group members Phumelisa, Zodwa, Kholeka, Khungeka, and Siyanda.

Setting

Outside of the wendy-house on the large concrete slab surrounding the area.

Scene

The MPC group, minus Ralle, went outside to measure out the area using stakes for reference. While Alfred, Megan and Caryn were doing that, Sarah and Michaella were commandeered by the working team members to start playing ‘playground’ games with them. It involved a lot of singing and dancing and holding hands. It was cool to see Xhosa variations of our own American childhood games, like “London Bridge”.

Reflection and Learning

On the one hand, it was a great experience for the WPI students because the women really opened up and seemed to have fun watching us fail miserably at the activities. The women were all getting along with each other really well also, which is definitely a positive thing for the group as a whole. However, on the other hand, we were directly in the way of Alfred, Megan and Caryn’s measuring and did not do anything to help them out. Granted, we did not need eight people to measure, and there was not much else for us to do, but we felt bad having so much fun while other people were working. Right before we left, Phumelisa and Kholeka set up a sort of dodgeball game with all of us, but we had to leave before we could really understand what was going on. Overall, these small activities helped break whatever ice was remaining between all of us and energized us. Although little activities like this may not directly make progress on the MPC, bringing the group together through fun games like this will in the long term benefit the project by creating a more open environment to work in and collaborate with each other.