They say journals are good learning tools. I am documenting a few things I have learned from the past few weeks.
I am done with my fieldwork with a group of home-based women workers. They are highly skillful. They can create doormats, jewelry boxes, fashion accessories, and other crafts.
If you have a group of women who are senior and who practically know more than what you know, what else can you possibly contribute? So what we did we made a series of workshop with topics on gender and personal development. It was also one way for us to get to know them more as part of our community immersion. We at least tried to be creative and resourceful.

Lesson learned:
You do not have to “teach” so that others can learn.
We don’t develop people, people develop themselves (Julius Nyerere)
As cliché as this may sound but experience is the best teacher. There’s nothing like spending time with the community.
Skill/s gained:
How to think on your feet
What can be improved:
Let the hands do the work
Activities that keep your hands busy fosters better participation.
We did a gender sensitive training for kids. Gender and sexuality for kids? It’s quite heavy and serious themes for children but there’s always a child-friendly way to do it. We had three main activities. First, we asked the kids to draw body parts of boys and girls. And they had a nice sketch of body parts. Second, we let them categorize photos of toys or items according to gender. Third, we asked all them to draw specific jobs like doctor, teacher. It all boils down on three points:The only difference between boys and girls is their body parts. Boys and girls can like the same things. Girls can do what boys can do.

Skill/s gained: Patience! Haha
Kids are more challenging compared with adults because they show you that they’re bored or uninterested. There was one participant who did not want to do the drawing activity and when we asked him why, he just replied “
Tinatamad ako (I’m lazy)” That was brutally honest!
What can be improved:
On my end, I think what needs to be improved is time management. They have short attention span.
And have some extra kindness, fairness and friendliness
It helps to have one figure of authority