A few of the women completed their rope before the end of class that first day. This young woman was pretty excited about the story rope she had just completed.
Perhaps some of the women would like to share their stories in the remaining class time. We asked.
One got up and did a dance with her story rope around her neck. She really got the women going! Then the dancing stopped and she told her story. We stopped taking photos at this point, giving the women privacy as they shared.
http://thecreativecall.net/mc-blog/telling-life-stories-in-yaounde-cameroon Marcia's blog post on making story ropes in Cameroon-as we traveled, teaching together.
Backing up one day, I did not take any pictures of the women creating their story ropes.
But Marcia, on our team, did! I'm thrilled I can show you the women at work that first day.
Marcia took a lot of other great pictures from our trip that I'll be posting. Thank you, Marcia!!!
Day 2 started with showing the women Pathway To Healing, a quilt I used in Rwanda when working with the Genocide survivors. It helped them open up to tell their stories.
World Relief story - using 4 quilts in Rwanda - click here.
There was a little girl in our class. Isn't she cute!?
click on photos to enlarge
Now it was the women's turn to make their own story ropes.
Charise did a great job teaching the process, so why were only two-thirds of the class getting their materials ?
I told them that it was perfectly fine if they did not want to make a story rope. BUT......
....I assured them that if they did make a rope, they did not have to share their story.
That seemed to free up the women and they slowly made their way over to the materials table.
They finished their ropes and the next day they would be invited to share their stories...if they wanted to.
After sharing God's StoryRope quilt, it was Marcia's turn to share her story rope.
Marcia has a powerful story. It blows away any misconceptions the African women have - that white women have no problems!
The story rope materials are on the table, ready for the hands on project of making their own story ropes.
Arline is translating.
Day 1. Teaching began by looking at God's Story Rope Quilt, the one I designed and used for teaching in Brazil and Peru.
Through the design across the quilt surface, specifically the golden cord, I taught the Truth that God has always been there. He has never left each of us, no matter how dark and awful our experience has been.
We were expecting to hear tearful, dark stories when they went through the story rope process. We wanted them to know up front that God is for them and they are each part of His story. The rest of the teaching would 'hang' on this.
I demonstrated that I am part of God's story, by showing my story rope with it's dark ribbons, when I doubted God was there. Then I held it up by the golden cord on the quilt, representing that God never left me.
Cristina translated. We were off to a good beginning. click on photos to enlarge
I will be sharing the Cameroon experience on 2 blogs.
This blog, Our Stories, will feature the story telling processes we taught as a way for the women to share their stories.
The Creative Process blog will feature a variety of people we met and experiences we had in Cameroon.
Here we are on the lovely veranda overlooking the Catholic retreat center where we were staying and the teaching events were taking place.
We're preparing materials to teach story ropes during the first class with the women.
We had been to the market the day before to buy fabrics for the project.
in pics - Marge, Charise and Marcia
click for latest Cameroon story on Creative Process blog
A few of the women completed their rope before the end of class that first day. This young woman was pretty excited about the story rope she had just completed. 
