Moley joins the Pink House Theatre! :-)

Another exciting development this week was that Moley joined the theatre! Moley is a fury hand-puppet who has accompanied me throughout this trip in South America after being placed in my care  by Lily and Amelie back on my last night in London in January.  Lily and Amelie are the two beloved daughters of one of my best friends back home, Hannah and I was so hugely touched when Lily, who's just 5 years old, had the generosity and projection to ask me to bring Moley with me to South America "to meet the children over there." 

It was great then, to have the opportunity to introduce him to the girls here at the  Medinadança Pink House when Rachel was looking for a helping hand in managing the conversation circles last Monday.  Whoever has Moley in hand has her turn to speak and be listened to.  Interestingly since our focus has been human rights, freedom, equality and respect the girls seem to be talking more openly and with more confidence in these conversation circles, leading to a demand from the afternoon group last Friday to have a debate between themselves and staff about what they would like to see change in the NGO and in themselves. It feels like a really positive shift that some girls have moved from being very quiet in the conversation circles to feeling able to voice their opinions strongly. 

So, having come in to join these conversation circles, Moley was delighted to hear that there were some Brazilian cousins of his in the house, including this multicoloured Papagaio (parrot) who gave him a warm welcome and invited him to join in the girls theatre workshops.  Cristina, Aline and Maria constructed this brilliant stage, decorated with the words 'Human Rights", "Freedom" and "Equality". The girls wrote scenarios where their characters faced situations of disrespect and tried to resolve them, which their finger and hand-puppets then acted out for one another.  A brilliant piece of spontaneous workshop facilitation that really got the girls thinking about the importance of respecting one anothers' difference, body and personal space.

So a huge thanks to Lily and Amelie for sending Moley out here, from all the girls at the Pink House.  Moley sends you his love and says he's missing you both a lot.  But he wants to let you know he's happy and enjoying his trip.

Big love, 

:-)