Raising the Open Space flag in Mongolia - longish

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Nigel,
you should see my fat smile as I was reading your account and still 
smiling as I am writing this. You captured beautifully the spirit that I 
often experienced facilitating open space with children...its just very 
special and a great reminder of what the human spirit is capable of 
under even horrible conditions.
I added Mongolia and Laos to the list of countries in the world map. 
That increased the number of countries in which open space technology 
has been used to 125.
Of course, you (and all you others out there) are invited to include 
yourself in the world map yourself ...there are two of your colleagues 
in Singapore listed already.
Have a look
> http://www.openspaceworldmap.org/

Greetings from Berlin wishing you many more open space events with 
children in you life
mmp



Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg

Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany

++49-30-772 8000

www.boscop.de   www.michaelmpannwitz.de





Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 415 resident Open 
Space Workers in 68 countries (working in a total of 125 countries 
worldwide)

www.openspaceworldmap.org

NigelSeys-Phillips wrote:
> With due thanks again to Peggy Holman and her Columbian adventure (2000 
> children…how DID you do that??) the World Bank initiative in South East 
> Asia has taken a couple of further steps – and as so many people asked 
> me for an update I am delighted to provide one.
> 
>  
> 
> I have been hugely privileged to “Open Space” in the past month for 
> street children in Laos and Mongolia – in both countries focusing on the 
> questions of vital importance to them from their perspective. I am sure 
> somebody has done work in Laos before (if not, please let’s add this 
> also to the countries where we have raised a flag and that counts as two 
> in a month!!) but not too sure about Mongolia so maybe I have managed to 
> plant another flag for the world of Open Space??
> 
>  
> 
> We held the meeting at a Children’s Centre some thirty kilometers 
> outside Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. For those geographically 
> challenged among us, I suggest a large scale atlas where you will find 
> Mongolia nestled totally landlocked between Russia and China – and if 
> you wanted two larger neighbours I have no idea where you would look, 
> when you have a total population of a mere 2.5 million. With it’s Soviet 
> past (although now independent and with an elected Parliament) the 
> Centre has a wonderful “soviet” look – solid, old fashioned, lots of 
> crumbling concrete, stone cold corridors and a splendid statue of the 
> founder in bronze at the entrance. Strangely (well, to me at least) the 
> countryside was beautiful around the Centre with fir trees and many 
> others slowly changing from green to brown, clear blue skies and a vast 
> area with the most unusual collection of guest houses – each clustered 
> together in a “style” that apparently resembled Mongolian / Japanese / 
> Swiss….well so they told me!
> 
>  
> 
> The meeting was held in the sports hall – probably the only one with a 
> yellow, blue and green painted floor with the NBA logo in Mongolia I 
> suspect – with fantastic steel radiators lining the walls installed when 
> radiators were meant to give off heat not act as interior design 
> accessories and when pipes were just that…stuck all over the place.
> 
>  
> 
> In Laos and Cambodia signs came off the wall because it was too hot and 
> humid – here because, despite the weather being at least clement, the 
> walls were too cold, and just a little crumbly in places!!
> 
>  
> 
> Open Space produced its magic – even if I have no clue what was said for 
> the entire two days! We had well over 100 topics raised, some 70 with 
> written notes which went into the Proceedings Book and ten which we 
> prioritized for action points.
> 
>  
> 
> This helps the World Bank, Unicef, National Association of Children, 
> Save the Children, World Vision and others focus their efforts, both for 
> themselves and for the demands they can make of the host government who 
> will be clearly shown the priorities from the mouths of those they 
> expect, and we hope want, to help
> 
>  
> 
> BUT it also produced two days of wonderful magic for the children 
> themselves, released for that time from their daily grind to achieve 
> something in their lives, which for many means actually surviving for 
> another day – and when winter comes here it hits Minus 40c which means 
> survival is a darned tough ask. The stories you may have read about 
> street children living in manholes is totally true – because the heating 
> pipes need to be buried underground to withstand the cold this is often 
> the only warm place they can find.
> 
>  
> 
> They worked with all the sessions of a two day Open Space (sitting on 
> chairs in meetings for a couple of hours could not have been further 
> from their daily life if we had tried) although given the age range of 6 
> to 22 we did have a few drop outs…oh and one small dog who contributed 
> beautifully, but unknowingly, as a “butterfly”…but then reveled in the 
> outside. Meetings disappeared under trees on the edge of the forest, 
> they sat by an empty swimming pool, they climbed the tower of the 
> Japanese village, they ran everywhere. They were fed great meals, 
> scoffed cake and sweets in their farewell party, and after dinner the 
> staff of the Centre and the children ran, played games, sang songs, and 
> soaked in the freedom, the safety, the clean air and the warmth of the 
> countryside.
> 
>  
> 
> To add to the magic we had our own brass band…battered though the 
> instruments were (and in several cases bigger than the children 
> themselves) and a little dubious the notes, the stirring sound of 
> martial music welcomed us all back after lunch and enlivened a few tired 
> spirits at the end of the day - contrasted splendidly with the disco 
> synchronized arm waving that followed seconds later!
> 
>  
> 
> Oh yes – we were on Mongolian Television as well last night….I didn’t 
> watch it but then how would I have known which was the news anyway?
> 
>  
> 
> And a final touch of Open Space magic to end a memorable event. Before 
> leaving Ulaanbaatar I had a chance to walk around the town and heard my 
> adopted name called out - “Scotch”..not the drink but the tape we 
> struggled to fix, and refix, to the wall !!!!  – and two of “my” 
> children came running up to say hello, still dressed in the orange 
> t-shirts we had all worn for the previous two days and still smiling 
> from ear to ear. It’s a great feeling to make 197 new young friends in 
> just two days, and they all know your name in a foreign country….”Scotch”
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you Peggy – thank you Open Space – and welcome to Mongolia!
> 
>  
>  >  
> 
>  
> 
> Nigel Seys-Phillips
> 
> Fulcrum Business Management Solutions
> 
> 30 Mount Elizabeth
> 
> #04-34 Highpoint
> 
> Singapore 228519
> 
> Tel: +65 9639 2510
> 
> E-mail: nigel at fulcrum.com.sg <mailto:nigel at fulcrum.com.sg>
> 

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