Last Saturday, 45 youth (“youth” is a broad term in Malawi, being anyone who is young at heart, though in this case they were between around 15 and 25) from the Dzaleka refugee and Dowa community gathered at our There is Hope ministry center for a poetry workshop! Between the refugee camp and the Malawian host community, there are at LEAST 15 different countries and 13 different languages represented. Wowza, right? In order for everyone to be able to express themselves naturally, we selected the 5 most commonly spoken languages and divided everyone up into groups that would be translated into those languages (English, French, Chichewa, Kirundi, Kinyarwanda and Swahili). The theme of the workshop was “what is your future?” In hopes of challenging the groups’ creative writing skills and encouraging them to talk about their future, the groups wrote four different poems:
A poem to their future self.
A poem describing their future, using at least one of their five senses.
Describing the word “hope” as a feeling, without actually using the word “hope.”
A poem that includes 3 random words. The guest speakers chose: fruit, can/tin, and table.
Once the groups explored these topics for a while, with help from some amazing leaders from Dzaleka and a few incredible Malawian poets, a couple of people from each language group had the opportunity to share one of their poems with everyone. Not only did they talk about their ideas in groups of people who understood their language and even shared similar stories, but they found commonality with people from other places (places they may not traditionally befriend each other), who do speak different languages, and who may have ended up in Malawi for different reasons. As individuals shared, they laughed and affirmed and encouraged each other with enthusiasm! One of our guest speakers, shared a spoken word poem called “People” in which he talks about how people laugh together, cry together, hurt together-how hurt people hurt each other, people love each other and in the end, we’re all just people. It was really beautiful and if I ever get a copy I’ll share!! I cherish moments when people, especially in our community, can come together and just be people together. I pray for many more like them. May we learn to love and affirm each other’s belonging in Christ’s story, regardless of the barriers the world creates.
Click here to see more pictures from the event!