Rolling the Dice, Mantras and Sewing Success

Last Thursday was a very productive day! We had the ladies who founded the original SOHO: Space of Her Own program up in Alexandria visit our program! It was fun having them around so they could see what we are up to here in Richmond and we could hear some of the things they are doing as well.

This weeks Girl Talk was about dealing with thing in our lives that are unfair.  We first played a game where all sat in a circle and passed around dice. In the middle were a bunch of "presents" wrapped up in brown paper bags.  Each girl rolled and if you got a double, you could pick a present from the middle of the circle. The rule was that you couldn't test, shake or feel a present before you chose it: you just had to go for it.  Tesni didn't tell them what Girl Talk was about that day, or why we were playing this game. It was their job to figure it out as they went.

Some presents were really cool - like nail decals, notebooks, hello kitty stuff, and others were...less exciting: an onion, a can of refried beans, or toilet paper. One girl even got a paper mask of Tesni's boyfriend - which everyone thought was so funny! As we went around, some girls were getting frustrated that they weren't rolling doubles and getting to choose a present. Then, some girls were getting frustrated because they got one of the less exciting gifts. Some people thought it was hilarious while others were slightly angry or sad. It was fun to see the different reactions. For example, one girl got the toilet paper and was excited because it was practical or useful. A few people even won multiple good prizes!

Throughout the game, you could see the girls catching on. We talked about what the game was really about. Amber said it was about being thankful for what we had while other people said it was about things being unfair and how we don't have control over that. We talked about how we had reacted when things were unfair like getting mad, pretending to cheat, accepting things, trying to trade.  Then we talked about healthy ways we could deal with our anger or frustrations when things were unfair.  We talked about suggestions to try to deal with these things in a healthy way like listen to music, count (some people said this didnt work), talk to someone they cared about, take a break, etc. Then Tesni gave everyone a small gift with the caveat that "SOHO isn't exactly like life" so we can have a little more fun here sometimes.

 The activity went really well! Everyone then broke off into groups and each pair got a pretty box that we decorated with colorful or patterned papers.  Everyone decided on a "personal mantra" that we wrote out and then glued into the boxes.  We had some really great ones - and some really creative ones that reflected the girls individual personalities.  One girl chose "rise above the rim" (she's a big basketball player and fan). We had other ones like "I'm strong", or "don't stress, keep calm", "you're not invisible", "I ain't worried bout nothin'".

Next it was time for snack and then we headed down to the studio to finish our pillows. Tesni gave everyone a refresher on how to use their sewing machine since it had been many weeks since we all used them for the first time. Everyone was so engaged and listening to Tesni. All the pairs were doing so well on the machines and most of the girls finished their appliques. The class was full of activity and positive energy!