mid-week Connect: 8/3/22 ~ Global Storage Strategies
Greetings and Happy Midweek!
I bet every single one of you has something stored in your immediate surroundings…so I thought we would explore one storage strategy from West Africa and how that can give us insights into global community building. This topic fits neatly into the HOST or 2nd dimension of our Global SKILLs 3D Dynamics - observing how our host community stores things can definitely inform our own perspectives and behavior.*.
When we lived in the Jola village in southern Senegal, belongings were neatly stored either in sturdy trunks inside (clothes, linens, valuables, etc) or basically outside in open spaces around each compound. Let’s focus in on the always bustling cooking area, where kitchen supplies (essential to daily life) were arranged when not in use on a raised platform made with wooden posts (usually sturdy branches) and a straw mat for the ‘floor’. Every single compound had one or several of these platforms, piled high and used throughout each day. They were open to the sun for drying pots & pans, easily accessed, out of the way - and provided a shady spot to sit under, near the cook fire.
Extending this multi-purpose storage strategy figuratively to our cross cultural work could be very helpful. As I interact with my host community, integration and understanding will come more easily when I am being open to my surroundings, easily accessible, and yet too (when appropriate) out of the way! Providing a shady spot at my home, like the platform shade, would encourage neighbors to gather and linger, perfect times to exchange news and ideas and grow closer as a community!
How about you ~ what’s one way you store things that can inform your cross cultural activities?
Share about that with a friend or note it here.
And check out the Global SKILLs LINKs below for some other storage strategies from around the world.
Thanks for being part of this Connect community.
Until next week,
Betsy
Global SKILLs LINKs: Can you think of a cross-cultural work application for each of these?!
~ energy is being stored creatively in Europe using an innovative “water battery”
~ seed banks are located around the world - here’s a wonderful one in Latin America: http://latinamericanscience.org/2020/06/around-world-indigenous-seed-banks-helping-preserve-culture-boost-nutrition-protect-environment/
Notes:
* Global SKILLs 3 Dimensional Dynamics Model: 1st dimension = HOME ; 2nd dimension = HOST (which we explored today); 3rd dimension = HARBOR)
~ contact me for more information on this model and how you might use it in your current programming
2022 ~ Celebrating 40+ years of working in
intercultural communications and global community building
“It takes a community to build a community”
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