Getting creative! Ros’ drawing of our morning bunch of flowers, and Nandi’s drawing of how we dressed our FunDza mascot!

The FunDza team are all missing each other so much. We were last together in the office over two months ago now. We miss the chatting, the jokes, the support, the sharing. We have grown strong together as a team over the last year, working through hard times, struggling, challenging ourselves, striving for excellence. We have come together in team-building and organisational workshops that have stretched us, made us reflect, brought a new enthusiasm and commitment and understanding to our work.

But when coronavirus turned the world upside down, almost overnight, and we found ourselves isolated under Lockdown we were in new, unknown, untested, and frightening territory. How would we keep our FunDza team – that we had worked so hard to build and strengthen – together in this new time?

Our first virtual meeting felt like stepping into a new world – a new way of working that has now become our ‘new normal’ along with millions around the globe. It was exploratory. We didn’t know how we would adjust. We were worried about feeling isolated and losing the human contact with each other.

But despite some glitches… frozen screens… gremlins in laptops that made the audio sound like chirping crickets… and data running dry… and the ‘you’re on mute’ problems, the FunDza team has managed to meet every morning to start our working day in this virtual but hugely personal way.

It is our check-in time. We talk about what the day holds in terms of our work and what meetings we have scheduled and what help we may need with a particular project or piece of work. But more importantly it is a time where we can hold our team together through empathy, support, and last, but in no way least, laughter!

What started with a bounce around with each of us saying how we were feeling – in order of age (youngest to oldest, oldest to youngest), what day we were born on, our names alphabetically (backwards and forwards) has got more inventive and fun daily.

We have virtually ‘cooked’ together – each adding an ingredient to make a delicious mixed masala of dishes: pizzas with crazy toppings! Warm winter soups! Four-course meals! Each person added a special ingredient.

We have created fabulous outfits together, each adding our own unique style: fluffy beanies, red leather gloves, leopard skin underwear, dark sunglasses and red lipstick …

We have even gone on a road trip in a big camper van and packed an enormous suitcase with our holiday picks: from holiday reads, to binoculars, an ‘essential services’ mirror, camping stove, fishing tackle, cooler box and comb!

We have exercised together, picked bunches of flowers together, and made each other laugh in what has become an entertaining and personalised memory game.

Each day is a challenge to find something that will start the day with fun and appreciation for each other. Each day holds something new.

Credits: Mascot illustration by Nandipha Tshabane
Flowers illustration by Ros Haden

Shares