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[From the PCA/CCT E-Mail Network]

Dear Ferdinand,

I'd like to try to answer why it was the best Forum (for me) so far.

The Community meetings were remarkable - instead of an hour and a half they ran to 3 to 3 1/2 hours, more often the latter, eating up the open/group time. Ruth opened the Community meetings by saying, "My name is Quazi" which is the Zulu word for day star. She described a little about the visits to South Africa with Carl in 1982 and 1986 and acknowledged all the work Len Holdstock and Shirley Shochot did on those workshops. She gave a sense of how much South Africa meant to her. Soon others were describing what South Africa meant to them or their experience of South Africa. So it was evident that there was a lot of caring about South Africa, a lot of intense identification with the poor, and high expectations. With the high expectations went disappointment. One person was disappointed she hadn't done more. Others just wished they could do something. There was also disappointment that more South Africans, more black and colored South Africans weren't attending, despite thousands of invitations. A number of persons emerged with a stronger sense of the privileges they enjoy. One person I spoke with after wanted to continue the Community immediately the next day. Another wanted nothing but the experiential group the rest of the time.

The second Community discussed languages, the dominance of English, translators, and the rapid pace of speech. There was also concern that people from the grass roots in South Africa were not getting enough share in the decisions that affected them.

The third Community found a number of men talking about their vulnerability when dealing with illnesses in their family. There was also a scheduling conflict when a group with whom the Community had agreed to stop at 6PM found itself in the minority since many members of the Community wished to stay with the momentum of the deep exchanges about family.

The 4th Community also ran afoul of a scheduling conflict or what was sensed as a scheduling conflict. It took a long time to work it out. But when it was resolved as best we could, the issue of a hierarchy of power was raised, to which there was an explanation of de facto personal power in the Forum. There were several reactions to this: one speaking to our all having the chance to be heard when we had something authentic to say, a democracy of authenticity; a young man from Japan said in his culture the need to speak was not felt so strongly and it was possible to be quiet and comfortable being quiet; a poet from the Netherlands was tired of politics and words and wanted to touch and went around the circle touching many people. This moved a young man from Switzerland to tears, who after a long pause found the English (his native tongue is Romansch) to say "We will all make it." So after initial conflict we ended together.

The last Community and Business meeting rose to the challenge of accepting an invitation from the three men from Japan to meet in Japan in 2001. After some discussion Ruth said she didn't want to leave without a decision and Gil Wyatt said there wasn't a lot of time left and asked for a show of hands supporting the present option. Some 90% of those there raised their hands to affirm this unopposed choice. I hope we meet the linguistic, contemplative, aesthetic and other challenges and opportunities of Japan and where they are unavoidable (they are being worked on) the financial difficulties. I wonder if a subgroup could do a workshop in Beijing or Delhi or ... before or after the 8th Forum to strengthen or initiate the PCA in other Asian centers.

The Forum ended with calling in the kitchen and housing staff. Ruth asked to meet them as well as make a monetary contribution for their services. They sang the national anthem in Xhosa. Then two young Zulu women sang the anthem in Zulu. Antonio Santos started dancing a samba with one of the staff and EVERYONE joined in and danced all over the room for some time.

There were about 80 people from c.22 countries, some from as far as Japan and Russia. There were many from Europe and the US. Many interesting people doing interesting things. Many wonderful people wonderful to see after 3 years (it's a long time).

The most impressive aspect to me was the constructive aspect, the "walking the talk" side. Letter(s) from all the Community are being sent to South African minister(s), emphasizing what the PCA can do, e.g. healing the wounds opened after the new revelations of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, initiating or sustaining dialogue between conflicting groups: for example, tribes. A magnificent donation was made to start or revive a PCA Center in South Africa. South African papers are being collected to add to Carl and Ruth's journals of their '82 and '86 workshops and Ruth's accounts of her '87 and '95 workshops. It is hoped that the ensemble will be published as a book: The Person - Centered Approach in South Africa. I hope the Forum papers will be published/bound/electronically published and will ask the planning committee about this. Maybe a Forum Reader? It's hoped to set up a task force to propose a PCA Non Governmental Organization under the UN. I hope that yet other actions will come out of the Forum.

There were many good presentations, many good discussions. I can only talk about 8 of the 44 scheduled presentations. I hope others will help me out. Walt and Betty Ligon had a very good discussion on race, power, and religion based on personal experiences. Hendrik de Vos, a man very enlightening on South African contemporary experience and psychology, talked about the maieutic (midwife) character of PCA and discussed the philosophy of Socrates, Kierkegaard, and Carl Rogers. Brigitte Smit gave a lucid and passionate description of education in South Africa. A theme emerged that repeated in the talks: while PCA programs were on the books there weren't programs to implement them or to educate the teachers in person centered education. The search for unity came up in at least two of the presentations. There were talks on cross-cultural aspects. Arnon Levitan gave a vivid personal account of his work with Arabic counselors in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict and how understanding the norms of Arabic culture helped him in understanding the Arabic counselor with whom he is working. Cecil Bodibe gave an exciting agenda listing many steps PCA could take in South Africa. Venya Kolpachnikov, as ever, gave a fascinating portrait of the PCA in Russia, a study of teachers he and his colleagues have done, and interesting comparisons between Russia and South Africa. Alberto Segrera gave an interesting and detailed description of the strong and prolific Ibero-American PCA groups. I heard good things about Mabel Radebe's, Mukti Khanna's, Mhairi McMillan's, Alan Coulson's and Rinie Schenk's presentations. No doubt this is true for many more. Muna Zafar's paper "Beyond Boundaries" was a remarkable account of life as a Pakistani in England. Ruth Sanford's forum within a Forum, "Looking Backward to See Ahead", became one of the best problem-solving, brainstorming sessions I witnessed at the Forum. Some of the constructive actions I spoke of earlier emerged out of this discussion.

There's more, lots more, the food, the wine, the dancing (both Israeli and Zulu), the birds, the flowers, the excursions for those lucky enough to take them, and above all, the people.

That's enough for now, but since most of the Forum planning staff are on this email network, I want to thank them for all their work, their excellent organization, and the honor and care they showed Ruth.

Ed Bodfish

[Editor's note: to join the PCA/CCT email network, contact Marco Temaner at Marco@mcs.com with your request.]