A Workshop in Cameroun
In April 2016 I led an RC workshop in Cameroun. It was organized by a man who had learned about RC from the Sustaining All Life delegation at COP21 in Paris.* All the workshop participants were new to RC.
On the first day I covered RC fundamentals. The following day we began by throwing around balls, which was so welcomed. The participants laughed and commented that they needed that more than anything. When we settled down for class, I asked them what throwing the balls had reminded them of, and most of them said their early years in life. So we did a mini-session on why we do not play anymore.
At one point someone asked, “How do I teach my friends RC?” I said by listening better, without advice or interruption.
We set up a support group for women and one for men, and after that people shared what they liked and didn’t like about being women and men. They all appreciated that so much.
Then there were questions about a possible clash between RC and their Christian faith. I told them that RC is simply to regain our humanness. Nobody quarreled with that. I said that it simply reminds us of the need to re-emerge from hurts and oppressions by taking turns listening to each other and that by doing so we regain our power, intelligence, calmness, and so on. It was well understood.
We discussed oppression, and they were surprised to know that we are oppressed daily in our families and by government, friends, culture, religion, and so on.
On the third day I asked if they could share their thinking on how Cameroun could be strong in the RC Community. They took it seriously and asked me to excuse them while they thought of a definite plan of action.
We went on to discuss Sustaining All Life, and many of them pledged to “walk the talk” about stopping climate change.
They were a group of zealous and enthusiastic individuals who want to be solid on the ground with RC, as they find it very useful.
Lagos, Nigeria
(Present Time 184, July 2016)
* 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. In December 2015, a Sustaining All Life delegation went to Paris, France, to share RC tools with the activists gathering there during COP21, the United Nations conference on climate change.