Creative Challenges: April Mentoring Session
One of our Emerge Mentors, Charuni, writes a beautiful description of our April mentoring session:
Blue Her favourite colour, Is blue So is mine.. I wonder why then, does the similarity end Why is her life A deeper shade of blue than mine..?
( Thoughts of my friend and fellow mentor Nirosha in my words)
Another hot and humid Saturday morning saw us the mentors gathered in the cool visitors’ room of the home, getting ready for the session and exchanging news of the past three weeks. The Emerge movie was almost ready and there was excited talk about it, how it was done, the inevitable computer glitches that had to be overcome etc.
When almost everyone had arrived, we enter the hall where the girls await us eagerly. As the doors open, we are surrounded, welcomed and hugged by a very happy hall-full of girls. It is definitely good to see them too. While INK almost hurls herself at me and I hug her back, NTS takes me by the hand and pulls me towards a seat next to hers. Yes, it is definitely good to see them.
The day starts with colouring! We are each given an identical drawing and fifteen minutes to colour it the most beautiful way we can. The skin tones of the dancing and singing men in our pictures take on a most interesting array of shades due to shortage of colours. We are transported back to our child hood, both the small and not so small girls giggling and laughing at their own strange coloured men in delight.
Then we are separated into groups and instructed to come up with a plan for a small to medium scale enterprise. All sorts of ideas from clever to innovative to comic appear in the form of plant sales, mobile slipper boutiques, food ‘recycling’ outlets etc. Most groups have done a great job at identifying and addressing key components of an enterprise.
Next comes a most interesting fashion show, in which the costumes are to be made out of newspapers and assorted throwaway things. The groups gather around their chosen ‘model’ stitching, pasting and stapling various articles and surveying the overall effect. Finally the models ‘walk down the ramp’ in their outfits, made up and sequined too, to great effect. All have fun, presenting, reviewing the outfits and inventing accompanying soundtracks (complete with wedding songs for the brides and tribal calls and drumbeats for the African tribal princess). When our time together ends, we are all surprised at how fast the time went! That’s how much fun we had!
As we say our goodbyes, each one is eagerly looking forward to the next session. After a chat with Bryanne and some of the mentors, I set out for home with a feeling of warmth in my heart. It is the kind of warmth even the coldest night cannot take away from you. Looking back at the poem I wrote on the thoughts that moved Nirosha so much on her first day of mentoring, I sincerely hope that some of the warmth we shared will be able to heal.. To create a different and more vibrant hue, out of deep blue.