A Skype Fundamentals Class
We attempted our first RC fundamentals class with folks we had met during the Sustaining All Life project in Paris.*
It took us an hour and seven minutes to get group Skype working to where we could do anything at all, but what was incredible was that everyone kept trying. And trying and trying. Sometimes it would just be J— (from Madagasgar) and B— (from Swaziland) and I, and we would have no French translation so we would look at each other on the video and laugh. And then we would try to get off the video so that U— and S— (from Ghana) could join in. We would hear U—’s voice for a little while, and then the whole call would die and we would call back in.
It was an incredible contradiction for all of us to just keep laughing and trying. Everyone wanted each other so much.
S— was never able to get on the call but was typing messages in through most of it. C— (from Senegal, living in France) was able to get on for only the first few minutes, but we were able to say hello to her.
J— was able to stay connected the most consistently, but her connection was very noisy. She would say in English, “J— is always here,” and then she would laugh. It was lovely.
When it was just B— and I listening to J— in French, which neither of us understand, U— would occasionally come back on and translate a little bit.
In the end it was J—, B—, U—, and I—, and also A— (from England), who joined in the last ten minutes. We each said a “new and good,” which we were able to translate, and then took three minutes each to say something we enjoy.
All of us were in love with each other and excited to have tried so hard to reach in each other’s direction. I think it made a big difference to everyone. It was an excellent example of humans persisting and caring and being flexible and laughing—some of the most important things in RC, and we did them very well.
People asked when the next class would be. I’m not sure what to do about the group Skype, but we will try something.
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, USA
(Present Time 184, July 2016)
* In late 2015, a Sustaining All Life delegation went to Paris, France, to share RC tools with the activists gathering there during the United Nations Climate Change Conference. (Sustaining All Life is a project of the RC Communities in which Co-Counselors bring what we’ve learned in RC to people working or wanting to work to stop climate change and the degradation of the environment.)