Sometimes we tell each other our stories over a cup of tea. Sometimes something that is happening in one of the villages prods a memory to come forth and a story to be told. Sometimes we watch a film together like the time we watched Where Do We Go Now?, which tells the story of a remote, isolated unnamed Lebanese village inhabited by both Muslims and and Christians, and talked about how it is similar and different from Pankisi, and what the role of women as peace builders is.
Sometimes our preparation is more intentional - a workshop on The Power of Story as a Tool for Peace Building or the screening of Girl Rising - a documentary film which tells the stories of nine girls from around the world and the power of education to transform societies, and which uses powerful storytelling to deliver a simple, critical truth: Educate Girls and you will Change the World. Then we talked about what we want the world to know about Pankisi and its people. We made a list of questions that might elicit stories that explain our experiences and our lives, our hopes and our dreams.
Once several women came to me and said they didn't know how to tell stories, so I invited 8 of them to sit around a table with me and I gave each a piece of paper and a pencil and we turned on some music and we doodled. Then we wrote 5 words that described our doodling to ourselves. Then I asked them each to write about their lives or something that is going on in their lives right now using all 5 words. We put the music on again and we wrote. And then from our scribbling and our writing, we each told a story. The women said it was amazing that they had known each other for years and spend much time together, but each woman's story told them something new about her; something none of them had known before. Perhaps the most amazing was the woman who is always laughing and joking, whose doodle reminded her of her mother, now dead, and who was so moved to tears that she couldn't finish her story. The other women said this is the first time any of them had ever seen her cry. And so it is that we are preparing to tell pieces of our stories; to tell others about life in a place that most have forgotten or never heard of; to tell the world that we are here.
(Update: We're excited that we've reached our fundraising goal for the film project! Thanks to all who helped.)
Sometimes our preparation is more intentional - a workshop on The Power of Story as a Tool for Peace Building or the screening of Girl Rising - a documentary film which tells the stories of nine girls from around the world and the power of education to transform societies, and which uses powerful storytelling to deliver a simple, critical truth: Educate Girls and you will Change the World. Then we talked about what we want the world to know about Pankisi and its people. We made a list of questions that might elicit stories that explain our experiences and our lives, our hopes and our dreams.
Once several women came to me and said they didn't know how to tell stories, so I invited 8 of them to sit around a table with me and I gave each a piece of paper and a pencil and we turned on some music and we doodled. Then we wrote 5 words that described our doodling to ourselves. Then I asked them each to write about their lives or something that is going on in their lives right now using all 5 words. We put the music on again and we wrote. And then from our scribbling and our writing, we each told a story. The women said it was amazing that they had known each other for years and spend much time together, but each woman's story told them something new about her; something none of them had known before. Perhaps the most amazing was the woman who is always laughing and joking, whose doodle reminded her of her mother, now dead, and who was so moved to tears that she couldn't finish her story. The other women said this is the first time any of them had ever seen her cry. And so it is that we are preparing to tell pieces of our stories; to tell others about life in a place that most have forgotten or never heard of; to tell the world that we are here.
(Update: We're excited that we've reached our fundraising goal for the film project! Thanks to all who helped.)
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