Dear Nigel,
you should see my fat smile as I was reading your account and still
smiling as I am writing this. You captured beautifully the spirit that I
often experienced facilitating open space with children...its just very
special and a great reminder of what the human spirit is capable of
under even horrible conditions.
I added Mongolia and Laos to the list of countries in the world map.
That increased the number of countries in which open space technology
has been used to 125.
Of course, you (and all you others out there) are invited to include
yourself in the world map yourself ...there are two of your colleagues
in Singapore listed already.
Have a look
http://www.openspaceworldmap.org/
Greetings from Berlin wishing you many more open space events with
children in you life
mmp
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
www.boscop.de www.michaelmpannwitz.de
Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 415 resident Open
Space Workers in 68 countries (working in a total of 125 countries
worldwide)
www.openspaceworldmap.org
NigelSeys-Phillips wrote:
With due thanks again to Peggy Holman and her Columbian adventure (2000
children…how DID you do that??) the World Bank initiative in South East
Asia has taken a couple of further steps – and as so many people asked
me for an update I am delighted to provide one.
I have been hugely privileged to “Open Space” in the past month for
street children in Laos and Mongolia – in both countries focusing on the
questions of vital importance to them from their perspective. I am sure
somebody has done work in Laos before (if not, please let’s add this
also to the countries where we have raised a flag and that counts as two
in a month!!) but not too sure about Mongolia so maybe I have managed to
plant another flag for the world of Open Space??
We held the meeting at a Children’s Centre some thirty kilometers
outside Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. For those geographically
challenged among us, I suggest a large scale atlas where you will find
Mongolia nestled totally landlocked between Russia and China – and if
you wanted two larger neighbours I have no idea where you would look,
when you have a total population of a mere 2.5 million. With it’s Soviet
past (although now independent and with an elected Parliament) the
Centre has a wonderful “soviet” look – solid, old fashioned, lots of
crumbling concrete, stone cold corridors and a splendid statue of the
founder in bronze at the entrance. Strangely (well, to me at least) the
countryside was beautiful around the Centre with fir trees and many
others slowly changing from green to brown, clear blue skies and a vast
area with the most unusual collection of guest houses – each clustered
together in a “style” that apparently resembled Mongolian / Japanese /
Swiss….well so they told me!
The meeting was held in the sports hall – probably the only one with a
yellow, blue and green painted floor with the NBA logo in Mongolia I
suspect – with fantastic steel radiators lining the walls installed when
radiators were meant to give off heat not act as interior design
accessories and when pipes were just that…stuck all over the place.
In Laos and Cambodia signs came off the wall because it was too hot and
humid – here because, despite the weather being at least clement, the
walls were too cold, and just a little crumbly in places!!
Open Space produced its magic – even if I have no clue what was said for
the entire two days! We had well over 100 topics raised, some 70 with
written notes which went into the Proceedings Book and ten which we
prioritized for action points.
This helps the World Bank, Unicef, National Association of Children,
Save the Children, World Vision and others focus their efforts, both for
themselves and for the demands they can make of the host government who
will be clearly shown the priorities from the mouths of those they
expect, and we hope want, to help
BUT it also produced two days of wonderful magic for the children
themselves, released for that time from their daily grind to achieve
something in their lives, which for many means actually surviving for
another day – and when winter comes here it hits Minus 40c which means
survival is a darned tough ask. The stories you may have read about
street children living in manholes is totally true – because the heating
pipes need to be buried underground to withstand the cold this is often
the only warm place they can find.
They worked with all the sessions of a two day Open Space (sitting on
chairs in meetings for a couple of hours could not have been further
from their daily life if we had tried) although given the age range of 6
to 22 we did have a few drop outs…oh and one small dog who contributed
beautifully, but unknowingly, as a “butterfly”…but then reveled in the
outside. Meetings disappeared under trees on the edge of the forest,
they sat by an empty swimming pool, they climbed the tower of the
Japanese village, they ran everywhere. They were fed great meals,
scoffed cake and sweets in their farewell party, and after dinner the
staff of the Centre and the children ran, played games, sang songs, and
soaked in the freedom, the safety, the clean air and the warmth of the
countryside.
To add to the magic we had our own brass band…battered though the
instruments were (and in several cases bigger than the children
themselves) and a little dubious the notes, the stirring sound of
martial music welcomed us all back after lunch and enlivened a few tired
spirits at the end of the day - contrasted splendidly with the disco
synchronized arm waving that followed seconds later!
Oh yes – we were on Mongolian Television as well last night….I didn’t
watch it but then how would I have known which was the news anyway?
And a final touch of Open Space magic to end a memorable event. Before
leaving Ulaanbaatar I had a chance to walk around the town and heard my
adopted name called out - “Scotch”..not the drink but the tape we
struggled to fix, and refix, to the wall !!!! – and two of “my”
children came running up to say hello, still dressed in the orange
t-shirts we had all worn for the previous two days and still smiling
from ear to ear. It’s a great feeling to make 197 new young friends in
just two days, and they all know your name in a foreign country….”Scotch”
Thank you Peggy – thank you Open Space – and welcome to Mongolia!
>
Nigel Seys-Phillips
Fulcrum Business Management Solutions
30 Mount Elizabeth
#04-34 Highpoint
Singapore 228519
Tel: +65 9639 2510
E-mail: ni...@fulcrum.com.sg <mailto:ni...@fulcrum.com.sg>
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