Cross-Cultural Chain Yanking

The purpose of our training this time is to demonstrate hygiene lessons that our participants can use in the communities that they serve.   The challenge is that these are very smart and experienced professionals, and the lessons are designed for community members with no training at all.  Yesterday, I asked them all to close their eyes and imagine the first time they visited one of their communities, and to pick out a face in the crowd.  Then I asked them to play the role of that person for the remainder of the lessons.  I also used the metaphor of “switching hats”, taking off my Lifewater hat and putting on my friend Mahammad’s hat.  Thus I became a community worker and Mahammed became a community member.  Well, they got the message – maybe a little too well!  In the afternoon, I was facilitating a lesson on the water cycle (rain, surface water, evaporation, etc.).  I was getting totally blank stares and strange questions that really flustered me.  Finally, I asked for a volunteer to tape a label of “rain” onto the diagram Tiffany had drawn for me.  Wako volunteered, walked up to the drawing, and looked very puzzled.  Eventually he taped it underground.  Next he moved it to the middle of a lake.  At that point I finally got suspicious and looked at the rest of the people in the circle and saw that they were trying to hide their grins.  As it turns out, they had decided together that they would show me how great their acting ability was and would portray the dimmest community members ever!   After we all had a great laugh, they agreed to cut me a break and let the lesson continue.  Now do you see why I love working here so much?