Friday’s are very special to the Earthchild Project team. Because some of the team works in the office, and others work solely at the schools in Living Classrooms, not everyone interacts with each member of the team daily. This is where our Friday Meetings come in.

I have truly enjoyed our Friday meetings since I have been here. Coming from the US and working in corporate America, it is an amazing change of pace to be part of Earthchild Project where they care about your wellbeing, and take the time once a week to interact and share with everyone in the team. Being an intern that is mostly in the office and spends one day a week at the schools, I may not have been able to get to know some of the girls that are not in the office.

There are no Living Classrooms at any of the schools on Friday; instead, the entire team, including the full time staff, gap year interns, and international interns come to the office for a day of catching up on one another’s achievements for the week, sharing, bonding, and yoga. 

We start with a small meditation to clear our minds and set the intention for the meeting. We sit in a circle and join hands through this meditation – it is the only day of the week where we are all sitting together in one room. Then, we participate in a sharing circle. This is a safe space where we go around the circle and share whatever may be on our minds or just talk about our week. It is a special place where there is no judgment, no criticism, just being open and having support. I’m pretty sure that on my second or third Friday I opened up and may have even cried a bit ;) It is truly special to have this with a team.

Every Friday meeting may have a little different schedule after the sharing circle. Since I started my internship, we have been participating in a video program called Wake up Productive. This is a series of videos that involve doing exercises to help us better understand how we work, how to be more productive, and to help us improve in all aspects of our lives. It is great that Earthchild Project gives us this resource as a way to better ourselves and invest time into our wellbeing. I have enjoyed these videos because it helps to see things differently than you otherwise would in different circumstances.

After Wake up Productive, we break off into separate teams to plan out our following week for a couple of minutes. But after that – it’s Yoga time! Every Friday we have a yoga class for the entire team. It’s great that we get to do the very thing that we set out to do in schools to help children. Since I’ve been here, each class has been slightly different, and it’s great to spend an hour at the end of the work week meditating, stretching, and increasing our yoga knowledge. Last week, we had a guest Yoga Teacher from Tanzania that guided us through a very special yoga nidra. We laid in Savasana for over 30 minutes while she guided us through a deep meditative state to help us realign our heart chakra. To say it was amazing would be an understatement. I am grateful I am able to have this opportunity to learn and experience such different types of Yoga.

Having the Friday meetings that we have has enabled me to meet and get to know everyone who works at Earthchild Project in an amazing environment. I’ll always be grateful for that.