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Dreaming the Gincana

Detailed script to sessions.

Session 1: Arrival mystique [20 minutes]

Objective

To relax and create affective bonds.

Supplies

Chime and natural aromatherapy spray

How

In pairs (preferably gathering people who have less acquaintance in the group). People introduce themselves to each other starting with the teasing question:

"Who are you beyond your job and activism?"

Each person will have 5 minutes to introduce themselves. We chime the bell after 5min and after 10min, in order to indicate the time. The group return to the main circle and each person introduces their partner to everyone else in the circle.

Session 2: Image & Energy [60 minutes]

Goal

Build the Cosmovision/Pedagogical concept and the kind of energy we want for the Gincana.

Supplies

  • Drawing notebooks
  • Flipchart paper
  • Pens
  • Marker pens
  • Crayons
  • Glitter
  • Glue
  • Card stocks
  • Scissors

A. Character building [10 minutes]

How

Individually, each person imagines/describes/draws a character they would like to assume/become during the Gincana. Encouraging questions:

  • What does your appearance look like?
  • How do you communicate?
  • Which of the senses are you most refined?
  • Do you have a gender? If so, how do you experience it?
  • What motivates you?
  • What things do you like best in the universe?
  • What do you dislike?
  • What do you like best about yourself?

B. Community building [30 minutes]

How

In groups, each person presents their monster/character and they will think together about the community their group of monsters can be found. Guiding questions:

  • What are your values?
  • What unites you?
  • How do you take care of each other?
  • What is your world like? What is it called?
  • What things do you celebrate, and how do you celebrate them?
  • What is the main force or problem that your community is fighting against or struggling with?
  • What do you want to cherish or stand for in your community?

Have card stocks and markers available and some space at the ground in the center. As the groups introduce themselves, everyone can write down key ideas on the card stocks and place them on the floor. Everyone is invited to interact by adding, joining, and bringing ideas together as the conversation goes on. Collectively, each group introduces its community and we try to find common points. The key ideas are written down and arranged in the center, but without the obligation to reach a consensus. From this assembly it will be possible to have an image and a collective vibe for the Gincana.

We make rounds for each person to present their impressions and we try to capture/document them on cards:

  • What the participants are like;
  • What our motivations are;
  • What senses and sensations are present (colors, tastes, emotions, feelings, sounds, ...);
  • What are the shared values;
  • What problems we face or emerge from;
  • What unites us
  • What we celebrate;
  • How we take care of each other;
  • Names, keywords and tags;

Break [lunch]

Session 3: What's in our Gincana? [60 minutes]

Goal

Bring out the wishes and desires and materialize the Gincana.

How

Materialize physically our wishes for the Gincana, building a collective sculpture!

Supplies

  • 3 kg of clay
  • Cardboard
  • Popsicle sticks
  • Colored papers
  • Colored yarn
  • Markers
  • Pens
  • Magazines
  • Colored papers

A. Personal reflection [30 minutes]

It is necessary to build an environment of non-judgment and collaboration. The intention should not be one of artistic dispute (since aesthetic construction is not the intention) but rather an opportunity to reflect and express our deepest desires and wisdoms when we think about collective learning processes.
Let's give time for each one to do personal reflection and, individually, each person will build their Gincana sculpture with the materials provided.Some trigger questions:

  • What would the Gincana of your dreams look like?

  • What does it have?

  • What are the meanings and feelings?

There is no rule for the sculpture. It can be a figure, a concrete camp, a picture, a combination of colors and lines, it can be poetry... No rules, it is your time for reflection. Let's explore the images that emerge from our conscious and unconscious throughout the process.

B. Sharing and reconstructing [30 minutes]

In the group, we will share our sculptures, introducing our ideas and reflections while making the sculptures. After everyone has presented their works, we will set up a place where we will do the collective construction of our Gincana. We now invite everyone, in an interactive way, to insert their works in the place. You can already interact with each other's works. Let's explore the entire space. The positions, colors and shapes communicate with each other, and we want to learn from this as well. This space will remain assembled throughout all the days of the activity, and we can review, move, remove, and add whatever we want to this collective sculpture. In this process of reconstruction, if necessary, remember that letting go of some ideas can help make room for the new. "On organizing myself I can disorganize. On my disorganizing I may organize myself." Chico Science, "Da Lama ao Caos"

Notes
  • This sculpture is not meant to literally materialize into what the Gincana will be, but it serves to share intentions.
  • At the end of the 5-day meeting, we had a last visit to our collective sculpture, we took a photo to enter the documentation, and everyone walked around looking carefully at the details of the collective sculpture. Then we all went on a brief round of comments to get the key points documented.

Session 04: A macro intent of the Gincana [25 minutes]

Goal

To find a common thread and intention for the Gincana.

Supplies

Flipchart paper or craft paper Pens Markers pens Tape A4 sheet

How

Construct the collective sentence: our intention with the Gincana is...?
Each person thinks of and writes a sentence that translates the intention of the Gincana, and writes it large on an A4 sheet of paper. After 5 minutes, each person reads a sentence, and one of them is chosen by everyone by consent, just to start the activity.
This sentence is written very large on a FlipChart sheet. A time is stipulated where everyone can interfere with the sentence, either by writing it, reframing it, changing it back, scribbling on the paper, the only rule is that there can be no verbal communication between participants during this time. People read and interact within the allotted time, and once the time is up, the sentence is no longer moved. And we have built the collective intention for the Gincana.

Session 5: Closing - from back to front [15 minutes]

Objective

Provide closure to the day's activities and, through the memory exercise, share and validate the learnings of the day. It is usually fun and helps to end with high energy. How: everyone will help narrate the day backwards, bringing the learnings and what was vivid from all the activities.

Session 6 - Check out [15 minutes]

Objective

Check how everyone is finishing the day and how was the energy of the workshop. How: Using a mime game, in which you receive a small imaginary ball, and then you mold it so that it has the shape of how you are feeling (without ceasing to be a small ball). After a while, you pass it forward! The facilitator gives an initial example.

"Do you see this little ball here? It expresses how the day went and how I'm feeling."

They can make a gesture of a little ball that bounces all by itself, all happy. Or a heavy little ball that is hard to roll, indicating tiredness.

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