Posts

Showing posts from December, 2013

Looking back at the highlights of 2013

Image
Teach a man to fish and he will have food forever. As 2013 draws to a close, it is time to celebrate the highlights of this year. It is soul food to applaud the uplifting moments in this world of ours. If we don't acknowledge and celebrate those life-giving acts and actions, our psyches will drown in the forms of injustices that still plague this earth, Like the hag, poverty. I was chatting to Christo, Sasha and their friend a day ago while we were sitting outside our tent, lazing away the hours. For a while now our drummer boy, Christo,  has been on his journey of self-discovery. He is questioning the purpose of life, the history of civilizations and the path of self-destruction that we have been following since the beginning of time, He is fascinated by the "hippie" era and its philosophy of living as free spirits. Our conversation inevitably turns to the scourge of poverty. As expected, my young trio have a tough time, I think, grasping that poverty is a manmade state

2013 marks the end of our season as Circuit Team One of Metro South Education District.

Image
Circuit Team clockwise: Juan, Kay, Helen, Colleen, Pierre, Michael, Irene, Sharon. (Elize not in picture) This year ended on a bitter-sweet note for our circuit team that has been together for five years and a bit. Four of our team members, Juan, Irene, Elize and Kay will no longer form part of our circuit team. It seems like it was just the other day that we formed our melting pot, Circuit Team One of our education district. There we were, a diverse group with fiery personalities and equally strong world views, bound by a common mandate: to provide effective support services as a multi-functional team to the 37 schools we were assigned. Our diversity - and quirkiness - could so easily have been the barrier to supporting the schools. And, bureaucratic structures can hinder team building because of its structural hierarchy. Yet, it is fair to say that our team managed to transcend these potential threats largely because of the relational, progressive leadership style of our circu