Hi, this is Asa. I am hosting journaling workshop in Kigali, Rwanda. My workshop started in October 2021, and it means I have hosted for more than 6 months now!
In the beginning, I was worried there might be no one turning up. BUT with some effort & mainly courage, it’s turning out great and I have learnt so many things through this activity.
In this article, I will share the results of running journaling workshop for 6 months and how I am feeling these days.
I have hosted 12 workshops as of today!
In the very beginning, I was not sure if the concept of “journaling together” will be accepted by Kigalians.
I personally felt it is a fun way to connect with like-minded people, but myself was not convinced enough that if it will attract other people.
And to my surprise, it really did!
I even imagined myself, sitting at the venue, waiting for no one to show up. However, there is zero time, so far, when I had 0 participants after organizing event.
There are some ups and downs, but I always have someone to sit together & share the journaling moment.
Results of organizing 12 journaling workshops
Let me share with you how my 12 workshop looks like.
Total of workshops: 12 times
Total of participants: 47 friends (some are of course repeaters)
Total of nationalities: 10+ countries
In the beginning, it was all my mutual friends. But then something started happen from 2nd, 3rd workshop.
Friends started bringing another friend. Some contacted me through Instagram. Also, there was time a friend brought some travelers who were visiting her.
In the result, the number of participants grew significantly with wide variety of nationalities! I am blessed to have friends from all parts of the world.
Of course, we have African friends from Rwanda, Burundi and Zimbabwe so far, and from Europe, America and Asia. What a variety!
What I learnt from hosting 12 workshops
After 6 months of organizing journaling workshop, there are several lessons that I learnt through this activity.
It is fun to organize event & choose the venue
Organizing events sounds hectic. Yes, there are some in and out message that I need to handle, but other than that, it is very fun.
First of all, it is me who create the contents of workshop. I get to give a thought on what I want to journal and reflect it to what we actually do during the session.
For example, Wish list has been my wish-to-do for a long time, but I never actually made it. By utilizing journaling workshop, I finally made a proper 100 list of things I want to do in 2022.
Have you made your wish list 2022 yet? – Minimalish Journal (happy-morning.com)
Secondly, as a bonus of being the host, I get to choose the venue. I get to pick which café I want to go depending on my feeling.
I don’t spend so much of coffee time by myself, so workshop is great opportunity for me to enjoy some relaxing moment at cozy spot.
Whenever there is event, people will come
To be honest, I really imagined a day where I would sit at the venue, sipping coffee and no one shows up.
Even so, I get to enjoy good coffee & quality journaling time for myself, so I told myself that is good enough. But that has never happened so far.
After hosting for 6 months, now I fully feel that people are looking for some activities to look out for & connect with other friends.
To my surprise, even if I organize at last minute, there is always some participants. And recently, there are some friends who would actually contact me for next schedule, when I am late to share the dates!
This experience taught me that if you have some passion to organize event, just do it. As long as you spread the words around, there are some who is looking for activity!
It gives me MeTime to focus on my journaling
Since October, I have been hosting two workshops/month. Since I am the host, I am participating in every single workshops. Which means, I get to have journaling time twice/month at pretty café.
There are some months when life was quite busy and I didn’t get to journal at home for a long period of time.
However, by organizing & participating in my own workshop, I get to journal at least two hours per month. Isn’t this great that I secure my Me Time & friend’s MeTime by organizing the workshop?
Future plan of Kigali’s journaling workshop
Thanks to all the positive friends who supports me, I am really enjoying current workshop style & started to grow some more passion toward what I can do in the future.
So here are some future ideas;
- Twice/month free journaling session will continue (of course!)
- Introduce intensive workshop on specific topics
- Introduce collaboration event together with other professionals
- Create system to building journaling habit muscle together
Some are my idea but some are idea from the participants. Let me see how I can incorporate these good ideas so that our journaling community would grow together.
Hosting journaling workshop in Kigali is so interesting!
I remember when I first asked “Would you be interested in journaling workshop?” on my Instagram.
The reaction was not so good (not bad either, though). However, by gathering a little bit of my courage, I started growing journal community here in Rwanda.
I am surprised that it has reached 12th times, and I really enjoy every session I host. And I know I will continue as long as I can, because I can feel it is good for not just participants but also for me.
3 reasons why I’m starting Journaling workshop in Kigali – Minimalish Journal (happy-morning.com)
Journaling workshop secures some time to focus and reflect on your life.
We all know such kind of reflection moment is important, BUT whether we have 10mins for that in our daily life is another question. This is why, I want to secure your & my one hour by hosting journaling workshop.
If you want to participate in next session, please visit my Instagram account for the latest schedule!
