Understanding the Wakose culture

Should you wait till you have more money, more time and more resources before working on the changes you want to see in the world? Should you start working on the changes you want to see in yourself and the world around you right now with the money, time and resources you have?
When "the future" arrives, it's going to be the new "now" and you will have to make that exact choice between the working in the new now (the present's future) and the new future (future's
future).
At Wakose, we believe in working now while keeping our eye on the future. We know the future is just another version of the present, but we work now to make sure that in that future version of the present, we will have more time and resources to tackle bigger challenges. We believe in getting things done using all the tools available to us.
A big problem we see in Nigeria is that for sometimes valid reasons, we care so much about very few people. We make great sacrifices for our family and close friends but treat most people outside that circle as if they do not exist. We unfortunately can no longer afford this attitude in Nigeria because it's part of what contributes to the lack of a community spirit and serves as a justification for societal ills like corruption.
We at Wakose consciously try to infuse a sense of communal engagement into a program and
encourage all participants to spread that communal spirit around. We are a culture that embraces sharing (of one's self and one's resources), partnerships (leveraging unique strengths for a bigger impact) and a pursuit of greatness (equip yourself to live the life only you can live).

Introduction - About Wakose

What skills do you wish you had learned in school? This question was the seed that gave life to what we now call Wakose Academy. In 2011, we saw a gap between the skills learned in school and the skills needed to succeed in life. In order for our nation to move forward, we can no longer afford to have graduates that can balance an algebraic equation but cannot balance their cheque books, engineers that can prove the laws of thermodynamics but cannot change the oil in a car, masters of academia that live like slaves to the vicissitudes of life.
Wakose first set out to build a school like no other, a school that focused on "life skills", toolkits needed to succeed in life like leadership and other hands-on practical skills, instead of focusing solely on "school skills" like following instructions, building short term memory and logic. After completing feasibility studies to see what it would take to build such a school in 2012, the resources to build the school were beyond our reach at the time.
It was at this time that Wakose Academy took the step that set it on a path to where we are today.
We asked a different question. What can WE do NOW to build and teach the skills we wished we had learned in school? This new question was a radical shift from the first question in that it had two key elements that you will encounter here at Wakose, a sense of urgency and self-sufficiency.
What is a school? A place where learning occurs? If school is a place where learning occurs, then the lack of our own physical structure should not stop school/learning from happening. Our current model is to connect learners with instructors and finding them a suitable location.
Whenever there's an urge to learn a skill and someone available to teach that skill, we believe learning should occur. In a broader sense, our biggest resource in Nigeria is us, the people of Nigeria and for this country to achieve the greatness we all know we are capable of, we need to learn more practical skills so we can give more.
Wakose Academy is here to help you help the people of Nigeria find and achieve their greatness. As you lead others in this path to greatness, you will inevitably achieve greatness too. This is what Wakose is about. We learn, we teach, we share, we ask for help, we build, we connect, we act, and we have fun.

New Game - I catch you… RED HANDED! (Akachu!)

Aim: To catch the person with the red hand (“red hand” being the hand with the red ball).
Age range: Preteens, teens and young adults

Equipment: 1 small red ball, 5 small blue (or any other colour) balls, goody bag.

Players: 6 players from 2 teams; A and B, 12 players in total.

How to play:

1. Place all the balls in the goody bag.
2. All players from each team are lined up to face the opposing team.
3. The moderator takes the goody bag BEHIND the players who pick ONE ball each WITHOUT LOOKING (hands at the back and not to be brought forward until later in the game) at the content of the bag or the piece they have (this is to ensure the players do not know the colour of ball they have and hence no facial/body language giveaways occur).
4. Once all the members of Team A have picked a ball, the first CATCHER of Team B steps up to catch the man with the red hand.
5. Each catcher has 3 guesses/tries/catches.
6. (Menacing facials may be encouraged)
7. To catch, the catcher points to his suspect and say the phrase “I catch you…” while the suspected brings forward his hand to finish the sentence.
8. Suspect may reply with either “…red-handed” or “…BLUE-HANDED” depending on the colour of ball in his/her hand.
9. A ‘catch’ is recorded when a player finds the man with the red hand.
10. After each catcher has had 3 tries, all the balls are returned to the goody bag and the process is repeated for the first Catcher of Team A.
11. The process is repeated for all the players until all players from both teams have had a go.
12. The winner is the team with the most catches.

Lessons: Though in the game, the choice of being red-handed is not the individuals' to make, but in life, we make our choices; good or bad - blue or red, and though we may not be caught at all times, one day, all red shall be brought to light.

When all is caught, would you rather be red-handed or blue-handed.

Other lessons may also be inferred as deemed necessary.