Life Update
This OP has happened at a strategic point in my life. I had become more engaged with the Global Ecovillage Network and its larger community. While sitting in as Regional Representative for NextGEN Africa, I had taken interest in understanding the management of GEN and GEN Africa in particular. In July 2015, insurgencies had started happening with the GEN-Africa office in South Africa which was later on closed down. This was a hard blow on the baby organization, still seeking stamina. The staff at the time were right in the middle of these happenings and so decided to take a break from the management of GEN Africa. In a GEN-Africa meeting in Sekem, Egypt (December 2015), it was decided that GEN Africa becomes a financially viable and independent organisation. Since I was working closely with the office, I understood and could run the office. During this meeting, I was appointed Secretary for GEN-Africa. Amidst my quest for financial resilience, I saw this position as an opportunity not only to work and get paid, but also gain more experience and expertise from the wider GEN family. This also means opening new avenues for research and knowledge sharing. This has greatly impacted my Ecosocial design pathway in that, I will in 2016 go to Sekem for a period of 6 months to 1 year for theory and practical training on Social Innovation and business development. This falls in line with my dream and vision to learn and create a social business model with the African Youth.
Project Integration
Project ME as outlined in my LIPD, is centered on my self development. The intention here is to practice meditation, connect more with my spiritual being while creating the space to listen to my intuition. It explores 3 different fields: spirituality, culture and professionalism. For this OP, I researched about the cultural values, hazards and depletion of the Bafut culture.
I decided to engage on this project because in order to be able to do all the beautiful work I intend to do for the planet, I need to prepare the space within for any eventualities. I will also not be able to achieve my vision of creating entrepreneurship hubs and addressing the economic issues of young people if I am not, in myself financially viable. I see this project as the foundation of my Gaia U pathway and will set the pace for all the other projects to plug in.
Pathway Tracking
I am making great progress with my goals and targets outlined in my Pre-Capstone LIPD. All tasks outlined for Project ME has been carried out successfully, except I need to improve on my research capacity. Self development is a continuous process. The training in Sekem and as co-faciliutator for EDE/Conference in Ghana are wonderful opportunities for me to continue building on my professional goals. My role in Better World Cameroon and GEN Africa is giving me a real push in the area of the 5 P’s — Personal, Peer, Professional, Political and Patrix.
Specifically related to my LIPD goals:
Personal and Peer — I have made a tremendous progress in my heart relationships, and connecting with the 1510 associates still remains a special place for experience and knowledge sharing. My participation in co-creating Gaia U peer mentorship program and been a peer mentor has widened my horizons on how to support and be supported. I have succeeded in having a friend where I live. I have lived in Bamenda since 2013 without any close friends. It is a great achievement to have opened up to advise and stewardship of my peers. In this time, I have also carried out daily morning meditations (guidance from Eileen Cady's Opening Doors Within and the Angel Cards).
New goals:
- Engage more in Vipassana
- Engage more in Saturday work party at Bafut Ecovillage
- Take advantage of networking opportunities at the EDE and Conference in Ghana this February and March
Professional, Political & Patrix — I am becoming more strategic and organised in my work. Nothing feels better than developing a blog, which is demanding frequent update, sharing and tracking of my goals and skills. Again, my roles in Better World Cameroon and GEN Africa have provided a great opportunity for active documentation through Google doc, We Transfer, Dropbox and other softwares. As I continue to learn to communicate with the international community, I have taken an interest in Non-Violent Communication (NVC).
New goals:
- Expand my role at GEN Africa to explore a wider possibility of financial viability.
- Continue to practice active documentation
- Research more on blogging, NVC and other forms of patrix distress.
Managing Time and Promises
I was going to submit this OP on January 1st. Due to my ill health, I was not able to do so. I had also been very ill that I had not done so much work on my pathway.
The next due date was February 1st. I was not responsible enough to track my pathway so I didn't realise I had only one in-program month left. Thanks to the Gaia U management team, I was given the opportunity to still submit my OP. First I had to overcome the fear of losing integrity and trust from Gaia U management. Secondly, I have a local coach, Clive Michael who tracks my promises and makes sure they are met. Clive also edit my blog posts and advice me on better writing tips.
I hope to be more proactive in managing my pathway by asking questions and getting clarification.
Skillflex assessment
Capacity to Curate Network and Groups: I have been able to establish a wide network of experts within Africa. I have enrolled and took care of GEN Africa members. The peer mentorship program is an opportunity forum to be part of a core group of change makers.
ePortfolio Skills: I have assisted associates in my peer group on questions related to the eportfolio. I was able to customise my OP2 Collection, import new pages, and went through all the stages of the OP development without external assistance.
Leadership Capacities: Being accountable and reliable to my peer group and GEN Africa secretariat has deeply improved my leadership capabilities. I have also handled primary roles like organiser and facilitator of programs/events.
Communication Skills: I have become more strategic in writing emails, organising meetings and addressing the public.
Documentation Skills: Have become more familiar with other cyber documentation softwares Google docs, wikipedia, managing emails, and WeTransfer.
Storytelling: Identifying, selecting, titling and developing stories has been a reoccurring activity. With this experience, I have developed little insights to storytelling like journaling, write something short about every event, keeping a diary, etc.
Balancing reflection and prototyping: Did maps and sketches of my thoughts to see how practical they look like. Did meditation and retreats to reflect and prototype ideas.
Priority Analysis: I had 30 mins of daily morning scheduling and evaluation in the evening. I differentiated between Gaia U studies, Better World and GEN Africa activities into different times of the day and different days of the week.
Project/Promise Management: I Looked at the priority projects and mapped them out on my google calendar. Also have a local coach who assists in monitoring and tracking my promises.
Strategic Planning: I have developed 3 years plan for projects I am working on within the different sectors (Gaia U, GEN, myself and Better World).
Creative Thinking: I had taken pride in being proactive, prompt and purposeful in my thoughts. I have during this OP, developed a youth entertainment program for the Bafut Ecovillage, Cameroon.
From this skills assessment, it is evident that during the development of this Output Packet, I have improved mostly in the area of project development, critical thinking, analysing, prototyping and team building! I have been missing out on practical hands-on Permaculture, homestead and technological skills.