According to the ancient teachings of the pirke avot, if you invite someone to eat fish for dinner, they eat for a day; but if you teach one to fish, they eat for life.

Today, we led a PLAYshop training to 15 interested and eager staff and volunteers from Childreach Nepal. Jonah paved the way of illumination, education, inspiration and play in a 4-hour PLAYshop training containing both physical and didactic elements which went by very quickly. We were greeted with open minds and hungry bodies; men and women excited to develop PLAYshop skills to potentiate what takes place at their temporary learning centers, serving the children post earthquake in Kathmandu and surrounding communities.

In a very short period of time, the group shared how connected and calm they felt. Having shared the common experience of our morning PLAYshop training, which is all experiential, after lunch break people asked why they felt like crying during one of the exercises? One inquiring mind wondered about the importance of PLAYSHOP skills. During the afternoon “didactic” session, the environment of questioning and sharing was one of safety, trust & acceptance.

Second Response team feels positive about what took place today. We feel confident that our participants will be fostering resilience and holding one‘s space amidst suffering and recovery. They are excited to participate in further training before we leave Nepal.

Jonah made us proud today. He is an awesome teacher and facilitator and we are blessed to be part of this journey with him.

Our day was further enhanced by meeting with Girley Agarwal, Bhushan Gurung
and Roshan Bhandari of the Chaudhary Group - CG Education. They have eagerly invited us to provide PLAYshops at several of their schools next week along with building capacity through teacher trainings. More to come…