For the whole day today I was at a meeting with education partners (aka, other NGOs, including UNESCO) and the Ministry of Ed folks. You'd think I'd know better after being in this country for so long, but the invitation letter that I got said that the meeting would start at 9am. Since it was being organized by UNESCO and was mainly partners attending, I thought that it would start relatively close to on time. Plus, on our side here, we're a bit short of vehicles on the compound, and it worked better for the guy who was driving me to the meeting to be back to the compound before 9:30am.
Anyway, I pitched up at the place a bit later than 9am, and I was the only one there. The UNESCO folks who were hosting were slowly wandering in with various bits of stationary for the meeting. I AM smart enough to have brought my computer with me, though, so at least I could work on something while I waited, and since I was the first one there, I was able to choose an ideal sit, under the A/C and next to an electric socket to plug in my computer. Finally, at 10:45am. Yes, 10:45am, the Director of the gov't department that was sponsoring the workshop pitched up, and he was able to "open" the workshop with a rather interesting speech. Then he left. And we started to talk about Functional Adult Literacy programs!
I was so pleased, though, that the educational advisor from UNESCO was preaching about the value of mother tongue, and really trying to pin people down to put their money where their mouths are, so to speak. She was GREAT, saying all the right things and asking all the right questions. She even spoke about the fact that "reading" means getting meaning from print, and not just pronouncing the words on a page. I know, revolutionary idea, eh? But it IS a revolutionary idea here, for people who have had all of their education in a foreign language.
The crazy thing, though, is that this woman from UNESCO had all the workshop participants eating out of the palm of her hand! They ALL started preaching the gospel of the wonders of mother tongue education! It was a beautiful thing. And since I was the only person there from any organization that works with languages, I got a lot of "airtime". I had a chance to answer a lot of questions and discuss a lot of the issues, sharing our experiences over the last several years in working with languages here. It's just so encouraging to see people starting to listen and starting to think about language issues, after so many years of knocking on doors.
This UNESCO woman was getting me all excited today, too, and all day I was thinking of all the things we can work together on, and how I would love to invite her over for supper and really get to know her better. So I asked the fateful question over tea... "How long are you going to be here?". I think my eyes started to light up when she said, "Oh, I'm going to be here a really long time!" And then I'm certain my face fell when she continued with, "I'll be here for a whole 6 months!"
It is difficult when there is so much coming and going - someone comes to start a wonderful program and understands the situation... and then they leave in 6 months... and you start all over again with the new person. And that's just talking about the professional difficulties in trying to get any work done - not to mention the fact that it's hard to make friends with people in this sort of situation!
I did have a good chuckle at the meeting, though, when I went to greet someone that I met from the gov't a few years ago. He was a participant in a workshop that I was facilitating. The first thing he says to me is, "Oh, I didn't recognize you, because you've become so fat." Now how is THAT for an opening line?!
So that's the meeting part of this post. The mossie part is just a bit of a complaint about the gizzilions of mosquitoes and flies in the house. I don't know where all these flies are coming from, but they are everywhere today! Thank the Lord for DEET :)
Anyway, I pitched up at the place a bit later than 9am, and I was the only one there. The UNESCO folks who were hosting were slowly wandering in with various bits of stationary for the meeting. I AM smart enough to have brought my computer with me, though, so at least I could work on something while I waited, and since I was the first one there, I was able to choose an ideal sit, under the A/C and next to an electric socket to plug in my computer. Finally, at 10:45am. Yes, 10:45am, the Director of the gov't department that was sponsoring the workshop pitched up, and he was able to "open" the workshop with a rather interesting speech. Then he left. And we started to talk about Functional Adult Literacy programs!
I was so pleased, though, that the educational advisor from UNESCO was preaching about the value of mother tongue, and really trying to pin people down to put their money where their mouths are, so to speak. She was GREAT, saying all the right things and asking all the right questions. She even spoke about the fact that "reading" means getting meaning from print, and not just pronouncing the words on a page. I know, revolutionary idea, eh? But it IS a revolutionary idea here, for people who have had all of their education in a foreign language.
The crazy thing, though, is that this woman from UNESCO had all the workshop participants eating out of the palm of her hand! They ALL started preaching the gospel of the wonders of mother tongue education! It was a beautiful thing. And since I was the only person there from any organization that works with languages, I got a lot of "airtime". I had a chance to answer a lot of questions and discuss a lot of the issues, sharing our experiences over the last several years in working with languages here. It's just so encouraging to see people starting to listen and starting to think about language issues, after so many years of knocking on doors.
This UNESCO woman was getting me all excited today, too, and all day I was thinking of all the things we can work together on, and how I would love to invite her over for supper and really get to know her better. So I asked the fateful question over tea... "How long are you going to be here?". I think my eyes started to light up when she said, "Oh, I'm going to be here a really long time!" And then I'm certain my face fell when she continued with, "I'll be here for a whole 6 months!"
It is difficult when there is so much coming and going - someone comes to start a wonderful program and understands the situation... and then they leave in 6 months... and you start all over again with the new person. And that's just talking about the professional difficulties in trying to get any work done - not to mention the fact that it's hard to make friends with people in this sort of situation!
I did have a good chuckle at the meeting, though, when I went to greet someone that I met from the gov't a few years ago. He was a participant in a workshop that I was facilitating. The first thing he says to me is, "Oh, I didn't recognize you, because you've become so fat." Now how is THAT for an opening line?!
So that's the meeting part of this post. The mossie part is just a bit of a complaint about the gizzilions of mosquitoes and flies in the house. I don't know where all these flies are coming from, but they are everywhere today! Thank the Lord for DEET :)
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