The planning retreat started on a Monday. Overall it went well. Somehow I found the energy to teach all morning each day, help with planning in the afternoon, run various activities in the evenings, and write/edit talks and make posters in the late night.
I found strength within me that is not of me.
So giving the course was an exciting experience. It was great to see the people who really attended and engaged get something great out of it. During the afternoon sessions various leaders of the community would take over and try to plan something for the year. It didn't go as smoothly as it could have, but this is Africa. You get what you pay for ;)
At one point I realized that there was incredibly little structure in how they do their work. This made some of the teachings I was giving a bit inapplicable, as I was teaching about having a little bit of structure and also some vision to the work that you are doing. So I was working with the leadership team a little bit, and at one point I sat down and in less than 10 minutes created a bit of structure which ended up being implemented!
What we created are called "work groups". They are just groups of people who are doing similar work as others...example: all the people taking care of various animals. They are suppose to meet regularly and share resources. Each group has a mission statement, roles and goals for each member. This should help productivity when people know what they are really responsible to do. In a perfect world it would be a great accountability system... but of course the world is not perfect.
We finished the course on Saturday with a fairly small crew. A lot of people had places they had to go. I was really tired, but decided to push on a little bit more. I went to the other side of our valley to a teaching college. I met with a peace corps volunteer there who was leaving the next day. In Africa, white people share. She had a great pile of stuff she wasn't taking with her... I got to go through it all and did really well! I shared my spoils with Sr. Linda.
Then that afternoon I had a great phone chat with Martin S. I was suppose to see him the following week, but there was a major change in plans and he had to leave the Saturday I finished the course. So sadly I didn't get to see a good mentor, but we had a nice chat.
Sunday I don't think I got out of bed. And if I did it was for a very short time. I felt terrible. I was actually very dehydrated, so I took the day to hydrate. I have never had such a terrible head ache in my life! It was debilitating... I also had to pack all my things for moving again. But I left that for Monday.
I found strength within me that is not of me.
So giving the course was an exciting experience. It was great to see the people who really attended and engaged get something great out of it. During the afternoon sessions various leaders of the community would take over and try to plan something for the year. It didn't go as smoothly as it could have, but this is Africa. You get what you pay for ;)
At one point I realized that there was incredibly little structure in how they do their work. This made some of the teachings I was giving a bit inapplicable, as I was teaching about having a little bit of structure and also some vision to the work that you are doing. So I was working with the leadership team a little bit, and at one point I sat down and in less than 10 minutes created a bit of structure which ended up being implemented!
What we created are called "work groups". They are just groups of people who are doing similar work as others...example: all the people taking care of various animals. They are suppose to meet regularly and share resources. Each group has a mission statement, roles and goals for each member. This should help productivity when people know what they are really responsible to do. In a perfect world it would be a great accountability system... but of course the world is not perfect.
We finished the course on Saturday with a fairly small crew. A lot of people had places they had to go. I was really tired, but decided to push on a little bit more. I went to the other side of our valley to a teaching college. I met with a peace corps volunteer there who was leaving the next day. In Africa, white people share. She had a great pile of stuff she wasn't taking with her... I got to go through it all and did really well! I shared my spoils with Sr. Linda.
Then that afternoon I had a great phone chat with Martin S. I was suppose to see him the following week, but there was a major change in plans and he had to leave the Saturday I finished the course. So sadly I didn't get to see a good mentor, but we had a nice chat.
Sunday I don't think I got out of bed. And if I did it was for a very short time. I felt terrible. I was actually very dehydrated, so I took the day to hydrate. I have never had such a terrible head ache in my life! It was debilitating... I also had to pack all my things for moving again. But I left that for Monday.
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