Figuring out the game and holding down the fort

The students, staff and faculty from Champlain College who left for South Africa on their research project have arrived. According to a very short note on the Games Take on Violence Against Women blog:

Long 24 hours of flights. Jet lag hasn't had a chance to hit yet. BUT we are here. Internet is spotty, weather is early spring - cold, damp. 40 Winks is a bed and breakfast establishment we are staying at. Yogurt and muesli for breakfast. Now we are off to the township. 40% of the Cape Town residents live in these. We saw them through our airport transportation. Little tin "rooms" with electricity strung high. That was brought in 8 years ago. Cape Town looks to be a city of diversity in many ways.

By now they have probably completed the tour -- they are 6 or 7 hours ahead of us. I wonder how they are doing. To be able to go on a trip like this when you are 19, 20 or 21. Can you imagine how it opens your eyes to a new world view? Shocks your norms? Shakes you up?

Here I sit, wondering. Here I sit in my old house, typing on my high-powered computer, wondering what they are seeing, wondering what they are doing and above all hoping they are coping and relying on one another during this profound time of growth.

The real work begins when they get back -- sifting through the interviews, the photos, the drawings and helping them to make sense of it all so everything they learned, everything they internalized can help them to create a game. A game like no other. An impossible game. And yet, if anyone can do it, this group of outstanding individuals will make it happen.

Meanwhile, I'll watch the blogs and the facebook and keep my skype open...just in case they reach out with some little bit of news.