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Orisa Lifestyle Activities: Week 16

Oredebi, Friends Become Family: The family has been the bedrock of African culture since time immemorial. The family has remained the strength of African American culture throughout slavery, Jim Crow and segregation. There are a great many cultural practices that have long contributed to the survival, health, and endurance of African American families. One practice that has helped to promote cultural strength and continuity is something the Yoruba call oredebi,  which means "friends who become family." Consequently, the majority of African American youth grew up with "play cousins" who functioned as a surrogate extended family. Although there is infinite variation of how African Americans practice oredebi these days, there are some key experiences that are certain to cultivate the shared values and positive relationships associated with the tendency. One such experience is the multiple family picnic. They're fun! They're relatively easy! They're inexpensive! The food, the games, the outdoors all conspire to make a picnic a special experience. If done correctly, a simple picnic can also double as a kind of oredebi family reunion, through which you can increase the bonds of kinship and enjoy the benefits of an extended family. In the activity that follows, you'll organize an Oredebi Family Picnic:

Please complete the following: 

RESOURCES

1. Limit your picnic to five nuclear families
2. Select one person from each family to act as the coordinator
3. Ask each coordinator to review the following websites with his or her family and select TWO activities:

• http://www.picnicpeoplesandiego.com/must-have-picnic-games-and-activities-for-outdoor-events/
• http://www.bhg.com/health-family/reunions/activities/activities-games/
  

INSTRUCTIONS: With your coordinator team...

1. Select a location 
2. Create a zero waste plan
3. Create a loose agenda for the picnic (i.e., schedule of events, including set up and clean up)
   
4. Determine who is bringing what (i.e., healthy foods, snacks, drinks, blankets, first aid, etc.)
5. Determine who will be in charge of each activity (remember to take pictures/videos and SHARE them with the families)
6. HAVE FUN!

KNOW:   What is the name of your local landfill? Where is it located? Is it the first landfill in your community? How much trash is dumped there everyday? What material is most prominent in the local landfill? When will it be filled? 
COMMIT:   Think of 3-5 ways you can reduce the amount of trash that is deposited at the landfill? What would it require for your households to become ZERO waste?
PRACTICE:    Select one way in which you can reduce, reuse, recycle and compost one product 100% of the time. 

LESSONS