Playing is an important human activity for people of all ages, and is present in all cultures. Playing was
our meeting place. Playing can vary from relaxed, free-spirited, spontaneous, to frivolous, to planned and
organized, or even compulsive. Playing can be any activity as long as it involves enjoyment,
achievement, and mental or physical stimulation.

We played to help players feel less stressed, to feel accepted, to express their feelings and thoughts
freely. We played to allow them to practice useful habits such as learned optimism to better manage fear
or terror/ Through games, we helped them practice concepts that may not have been explicitly or
formally taught. We practiced social skills and acceptance of diversity.

Both because of language barriers and because of the participants’ personal insecurities about not being
able to draw, workshop activities used to be completely simplified and turned into a game. Together, they
would make origami, puppets for shadow theater or design simple drawing games. At one of the
workshops, a young boy, who, due to a bomb explosion in Afghanistan under the Taliban, was left without
a hand and a finger on the other hand, made origami in the shape of a flower. He skillfully made an
origami flower using the remaining four fingers and his lips.
The playfulness of creative work broke down confusion and shame during the first encounter with artistic
material, techniques and themes. We learned through playing how to deal with failure, in the safe
environment of our occupational workshop. We played through: drawing, acrylic painting, collage,
frottage, interpretation of works of art, mandalas, fractals, Rorschach spots and Pollock dots, art therapy
tasks, making objects and percussive instruments, singing, dancing, theater games, chess, dominoes,
red gloves, tawilat alzahr, writing a diary… It was played individually, in pairs, in smaller groups and all
together.

Sometimes, the game would quickly be played with a backpack on one’s back in anticipation of
the call to play life’s great GAME.