Retreat destinations are usually in the community of one of our members. Each GIC retreat has an overarching theme. Our 2016 retreat, on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, focused on “Expressing our Intercultural Journeys.” This retreat featured workshops on creating a journal and writing or illustrating reflections on our intercultural journeys. These journals, bound by hand, became repositories of reflections from which to draw for future gatherings.
- To read more about the 2016 Retreat — Click Here
- To learn about the 2017 Retreat
Beginning with our 2018 retreat in Des Moines, Iowa, we embraced a recurring sub-theme of “global intercultural dynamics.” The goal was to understand historical and recent cultural influences shaping the intercultural dynamics of a given location. In Des Moines one dynamic is the multiple waves of immigration. Prior to the retreat, we read about former Governor Robert Ray’s leadership to uniquely position Iowa to welcome refugees from Southeast Asia in the 1980s.
In preparation for meeting new people, we developed an interview protocol with questions. We practiced it during a workshop: we paired up and took turns with one telling a meaningful experience (Story Telling) and the other practicing active listening (Story Catching). In debriefing we asked ourselves: What was it like to actively listen for this extended period of time? What reflections do you have on the meaning of what you heard? What was it like to be heard? What discoveries occurred to you as you were sharing? Having prepared, we invited Japanese, Bulgarian, Chinese, Indian and Sudanese to be our guests. Following dinner, we separated into small groups and drew questions from our protocol inviting our new friends to share part of their global intercultural journeys with us. Each of us was deeply moved to hear the immigration stories of struggle, sacrifice, and joy.
- To read more about the 2018 Retreat — Click Here
We engage in a co-creative process in developing our retreats each year. For 2019, we brainstormed several US retreat locations: Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Northeast. Ultimately, we intentionally decided to return back to the Pacific Northwest where we had held our first 2016 retreat. Going back to the Puget Sound area of Seattle presented us with the opportunity to dig more deeply into the historic, intercultural dynamics of that region. It also presented members of the virtual Group to connect up with members of an emerging Puget Sound local group. Our 2019 theme, “The Transformative Potential of Global Intercultural Relationships” built on our tentative exploration during the 2018 workshop on how each of us are impacted by our global intercultural relationships. We wished to be even more deliberate in preparing ourselves for coming to the region and for considering the complexities of global intercultural encounters.
- To read more about the 2019 Retreat — Click Here