Cairo, Egypt 2018

I  am now back from Cairo, Egypt, where I spent two weeks working with Dawar Arts (www.dawararts.com)a wonderful experience on many levels.  And, I have to say, it was lovely to move around without a winter coat!

Working with my colleague Ben Rivers, and others at the Dawar Arts Center was exciting and inspiring.

Ben Rivers, Ahmed Mounir, and I having lunch by the Nile River.

Dawar is fast becoming a home for therapies, psychodrama, dance/movement work, arts based therapies  workshops and training.  I was the first trainer in their Creative Arts Training program, a year long diploma program to support community advocates in using the arts in their work.  Our focus was on using Visual art, and we integrated other expressive arts into the process.  Participants of this program

Conversing on Paper

come from all over Egypt, and Lebanon.  My last workshop “Caring for Caregivers An arts based approach to Burn Out” had participants from two countries and multiple professions including psychiatry, veterinary, artists, teachers, councilors, disaster relief workers and theatre activists. The burdens people feel are in some cases excruciating. People are caregivers to family members, disaster relief workers in war torn areas, clinicians and advocates working with challenged populations such as street children, refugees, and the mentally ill.  While weaving an introduction to using the arts to this subject using a trauma informed lens, including  a look at how creativity stimulates the Brain, we experimented, played and engaged directly with art, movement, puppetry, object theatre, music, dancing, Touch Drawing, and much more. Students were moved and excited by the possibility of being able to Self soothe, and create spaces for Self care as well as to be able to have tools for their clients and students and family members.

Dialoguing with the Imagination

 

 

      Cairo itself seems to struggle as the country is gripped with political chaos and conservatism. (Sound familiar?) In fact, I left during their election.   It is 97% Muslim, and 3% Christian.  Muslim prayers ring out over loudspeakers 5 times a day beginning at 4:30am.  At one point until after WWII, there was a strong Jewish community. In fact, there is a gorgeous, but derelict Synagogue across from where I often ate that was under police protection. But I wasn’t allowed in, and couldn’t photograph it  nor had it been used in what looked like many many years. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years. It certainly isn’t lost on me that I, a Jew, was in Egypt and that today marks the beginning of Passover, which celebrates the Jewish exodus from Egypt.

Dawar Playback Theatre

One of the things I did in between trainings was see Dawar Playback Theatre in action, and as well to  visit a kitchen in the making at the Ezbet Kharallah slum. Ben is working with the community to create this Kitchen (a common thing in Egypt are various

Sitting with Mostafa on the new bench in Ezbet Kharallah

Rooftop where there will be a new kitchen.

Kitchens, Syrian and Egyptian that caters food) to be able to hire and train local refugees from Syria. At the same time he is working with the community to beautify the area and he had a beautiful bench and garden area created to support this idea.

 

 

As I have just arrived home, I am exploring ways in which my work as a trainer and as a therapist will dovetail. Certainly, these last two trips to Africa have profoundly influenced my thinking for future training both here and abroad. I am very excited to see what will be next for me here in the States, as I explore partnering with other clinicians and groups. Do let me know if you would like to partner and collaborate on a training!

Happily, it is looking like I will be partnering again with the Dawar Arts organization in the  future.

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