A Garden Dinner after Peacemaking

Kristel, Sulmi, Gineli, and Kelsey

Sometimes the girls get into arguments. Today at school Kristel, Sulmi, and Gineli were fighting about something. I honestly still don't know what it was about. But the beautiful thing is that they resolved it. They took the initiative to work it out. I didn't have to say anything. On the way home from school Sulmi said she wanted to go see Kristel and "Discuss". There are several conflict resolution strategies that I have tried to teach the children but "Discuss" is the one that works the best. "Let it go" never works at this age... and "Flip a coin" seems to leave everyone still angry.

"Discuss" means one person talks at a time. You say what the first person just said and then say your story. It goes back and forth for a while until someone puts their right index finger in the middle and the other person hooks their index finger around it...making the sign for friends. Sometimes they hug. That's nice, too.

With a slightly skipping gait, and big smiles on their faces, they all came back to my house after they had resolved the issue. I think they knew that they had done something significant all on their own. I was proud of them.

We had a fun dinner. It was a "mostly from the garden" meal. All of the children helped...Sulmi cleaned the lettuce, picked limes and made the cucumber salad. Kristel peeled the cucumbers (yeah the kids don't like the skin), Kelsey pealed the mango and Gineli set the table. Meanwhile I fried the green plantain (which becomes something like french fries. We salt it and eat it with ketchup). Yum!

In the middle of the meal Kelsey said that "Discuss" is cool. She has friends from her previous school who never talk to each other. She gave examples of how they hate each other. She thinks they need to learn about "Discuss". Hmmm...maybe. I wonder how the girl's could be the "teachers". Something to think about.