The Beginning of the End

Today was a very special day because the Casa Telmex facilitators lead all of the activities. Before the program began, we played “Stories.” In this activity, we began with a theme and each person in the circle could only say one sentence to contribute to the strory. The story needed to flow well and the last person had to finish it in a logical manner. We made one story about aliens and the environment and another with the theme “animals.”

After, we began the session with facilitators Julio and Juan José who lead, “Human Tower.” The facilitators had already done this activity the past week in the training session with all of Casa Telmex, so they were not allowed to talk and the students had to solve the problem themselves. We had five challenges to overcome. First, a concrete circle, which they solved very quickly. Next, we had to all stand on a smaller square, then two boxes and pillows to sit on. The students had much success with all the challenges.

We continued with an activity called “Feminine vs. Masculine Leadership Styles.” Leti and Reyna worked together to prepare papers with adjectives written on them that described various traits like “Ambitious,” “Analytical,” and “Intuitive.” We formed two groups, one of men and one of women. They both created venn diagrams and separated the words which were soley feminine, soley masculine or a little bit of both. Then, both groups presented to each other about their ideas and we discussed the characteristics of leaders and those which were more commonly feminine and most commonly masculine traits. We concluded that all leaders need some of both kinds of characteristics, and that women and men may sometimes have different leadership styles. This was extremely interactive and a very fun way to do this activity.

The next activity was a blog lead by Susana and Oceres. We wanted time for all the program participants to reflect on what they learned and how they grew. The also answered questions like, “Which of the activities we have done were the most interesting to you and why?” These questions will allow us to learn more about what we should add to the curriculum for future sessions.

We ended the session with a game called, “Chocolate River.” In this activity, there are teams of about 6 people whom, together, must cross a “chocolate river,” a stretch of about 10 meters of floor space. They have “cookies” or pieces of paper that they can use because they cannot touch the river with their feet. If anyone on the team falls, everyone needs to return to the beginning. Only one person, the “head elf,” can move the cookies. Also, if there is a cookie that no one is touching on the river, the team loses that cookie. We had a competition between three teams. One team utilized the strength of their head elf, Mauricio who carried people across the river on his back. Another team worked together steadily and with care and they had the idea that their head elf, Rocio, should slide across the floor to overcome the challenge. The third team lost three of their cookies at the very beginning of the game and it was difficult to continue. But, they tore the papers to create more cookies and achieved success.

The students had to fill out some surveys about the program, and during that time, we rounded up the rest of the facilitators to start the weekly all-Casa Telmex training session. We had two activities for the blue team to practice teamwork. In the first activity, the goal was to make a pyramid out of six plastic cups. But, the only tool they could use was a rubber band with strings attached and they were only allowed to touch the ends of the strings. They pulled the strings as a team to stretch the rubber band and lower it over the cup. Then, they would let go to contract the rubber band around the cup so they could move and lift it. After it was positioned, they would pull the strings again to let go of the cup in the desired position. It is a very difficult activity, but in the end, both teams were able to do it. In the discussion after the activity, we talked about the importance of listening and working as a coordinated team.

We had a few minutes remaining in the session so we did another activity called “Lowering the Pole.” Everyone needs to have one finger under the pole and it was remain in contact with the pole throughout the activity. The goal is to lower the pole. It seems like a very easy activity, but is very common for teams to inadvertently raise the pole instead of lower it. The blue team had some difficulties in the beginning because everyone wanted to share their ideas and they lacked confidence in each other. But, in the end, they were able to coordinate by counting as they lowered the pole.

We went out to eat with Reyna at our favorite restaurant, Xallapan, for the last time. We took a photo with the entire staff before we left. It was the first of our lasts here in Mexico and it made us very sad. Tonight, we are going to go shopping for some things to bring back to the US later this week.