... and then it went away :( Really, while I was sitting in class this morning, I had a great idea for a blog post. Of course, I didn't write it down, so now I've forgotten what it was. It was going to be a good one, that's for sure!
Our class this morning was all about the differences between a typical "African" idea of money and a typical "Western" idea of money. Because our organization gets most of its funding from North America and Europe, we have to abide by the guidelines and rules set by North America and Europe in terms of accountability and how to use the funds that have been donated. And then there's always issues in our own personal lives of people here needing financial assistance. It can really get tricky, because our typical Western ideas of money are SO different from the typical African ideas of money. So I actually learned a lot in this class this morning, and A did a fantastic job of presenting everything in a way that people were pretty open and comfortable in discussing things.
All this week we are talking about funding issues, so it's going to be a good week. Thankfully, I don't have to teach anything yet - all the lessons that I'm actually in charge of are coming up. It's helpful for me, because I'm still trying to wrap my head around how this course works and what will work and what won't with this particular group of students.
I think my life will start to get a bit of rhythm to it these next weeks. This morning, my alarm rudely woke me up at 6:40am. I slowly dragged myself out of bed and into the shower - which at least was a nice hot shower! But while I was in the shower, I decided there was no way I could face a whole room full of people... so I got out of the shower, and crawled back into bed. Oh, it was heavenly. I was able to sleep again until about 8am, which is a much more reasonable hour to get up!
After making my own cup of coffee, it was on to the office, where we did some prep for today's class, and I'm trying to start reading ahead and getting my mind around my lessons, which are coming up fast. We went straight from our class to lunch. Then from lunch, our little literacy staff office turned into a gym. A, C and I are going to do our exericize every day at 2pm. That way, it will keep us awake and alert and active all afternoon. None of this post lunch slump for us! We have a surprisingly intense walking dvd, as well as a Zumba dvd that we're attempting. The Zumba ain't pretty to watch yet - thankfully all the students are in Phonology class while we're trying to Zumba and walk!
After our 30 minutes of exercize, we change from our workout clothes to our work clothes, and the gym magically transforms back into an office. It's a beautiful thing. And it's a habit that I hope I can keep up... mind you, it shouldn't be too hard to keep up, if my colleagues transform my office into a gym every day, I won't really have much choice but to join in, right!? I'll let you know once I'm sculpted and transformed! No one is going to tell me how huge I've become once I get back to Jb in August!
Our class this morning was all about the differences between a typical "African" idea of money and a typical "Western" idea of money. Because our organization gets most of its funding from North America and Europe, we have to abide by the guidelines and rules set by North America and Europe in terms of accountability and how to use the funds that have been donated. And then there's always issues in our own personal lives of people here needing financial assistance. It can really get tricky, because our typical Western ideas of money are SO different from the typical African ideas of money. So I actually learned a lot in this class this morning, and A did a fantastic job of presenting everything in a way that people were pretty open and comfortable in discussing things.
All this week we are talking about funding issues, so it's going to be a good week. Thankfully, I don't have to teach anything yet - all the lessons that I'm actually in charge of are coming up. It's helpful for me, because I'm still trying to wrap my head around how this course works and what will work and what won't with this particular group of students.
I think my life will start to get a bit of rhythm to it these next weeks. This morning, my alarm rudely woke me up at 6:40am. I slowly dragged myself out of bed and into the shower - which at least was a nice hot shower! But while I was in the shower, I decided there was no way I could face a whole room full of people... so I got out of the shower, and crawled back into bed. Oh, it was heavenly. I was able to sleep again until about 8am, which is a much more reasonable hour to get up!
After making my own cup of coffee, it was on to the office, where we did some prep for today's class, and I'm trying to start reading ahead and getting my mind around my lessons, which are coming up fast. We went straight from our class to lunch. Then from lunch, our little literacy staff office turned into a gym. A, C and I are going to do our exericize every day at 2pm. That way, it will keep us awake and alert and active all afternoon. None of this post lunch slump for us! We have a surprisingly intense walking dvd, as well as a Zumba dvd that we're attempting. The Zumba ain't pretty to watch yet - thankfully all the students are in Phonology class while we're trying to Zumba and walk!
After our 30 minutes of exercize, we change from our workout clothes to our work clothes, and the gym magically transforms back into an office. It's a beautiful thing. And it's a habit that I hope I can keep up... mind you, it shouldn't be too hard to keep up, if my colleagues transform my office into a gym every day, I won't really have much choice but to join in, right!? I'll let you know once I'm sculpted and transformed! No one is going to tell me how huge I've become once I get back to Jb in August!
2 comments:
I would love to hear what you learned about the ways Africans view money versus North Americans :)
Love this post even if you had a better one. On the Jillian michaels 30 day shred. I'll let you know when I can actually see defined abs again. Maybe I should check out Zumba as well. And with the other person who commented, am interested in knowing the difference.
Karen (Dubai)
Post a Comment