Friday May 29, 2009

This morning, the EPSL participants performed two versions of Ovid’s play Midas from “Metamorphoses.” The body of the play follows the contemporary version by Mary Zimmerman, but each of the two subgroups from this EPSL session performed a different ending: one in which Midas is redeemed and the other in which, though he is given a chance at redemption, Midas has so ignored the natural world and all that is around him that he cannot remember what the stars look like so that he may recognize their reflection in a pool of water and be released from his cursed gift.

The participants did a great job of collaborating and of interpreting the play, and their work together on it helped prepare them to take on, for the first time in any of the EPSL programme sessions, the role of moderator in the last four sessions of the programme.

Four groups, with two group-designated primary moderators in each, moderated discussions on selections from Plutarch, Confucius, Machiavelli, and Al-Farabi. The moderators deftly navigated the difficult task of both participating as members of the group while simultaneously serving to monitor and respond to the group’s progress, ensuring balanced participation and collaborative, fruitful, and respectful discussions.

This afternoon, the group will examine three goals that they have identified as having primary importance relative to the progress of Tanzania. Those goals are to provide access to education for all children (primary and secondary) and increase literacy rates, better health services for all Tanzanians, and improved infrastructure—particularly better roads to rural places within the country.

More later on the groups’ presentations on the goals and on the ceremony to recognize their participation in this important program.