We're done already?

That was the response I got yesterday as we finished the 3rd leadership workshop with our village banks here in Cajamarca. One of the participants, Carmela, said "This is the last one? We're done already? But these workshops were so helpful and it feels like we just got started." It touched me to hear that my passion and energy in forming these workshop touched someone deeply. I mentioned to Carmela I would consider holding more leadership workshops for those loan recipients that are thirsty for more knowledge.In the 3 workshops that were organized for our Cajamarcan loan recipients we worked on a couple main themes: identifying good leadership qualities and defining what leadership is, identifying leadership qualities within each of us, and talking about the importance of communication and working in groups (as leaders). I think the 3rd workshop is the best of them all. Why? Because we get to play communication games like; How do you feel today? (making gestures and have the audience guess our emotion) and Car and Driver (in pairs the "Driver" gives instructions to her blind "Car" about where to go), thus using fun activities to talk about the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication. Then we end the workshop by building sweet marmellow towers and test our group communication skills. We reflect about the process of building towers in a group and what worked well, what didn't. It is a great way to bring the women together and talk about leadership in a non-threatening way.

That's the news from the leadership corner. Stay tuned for more to come!