Let the photos speak...

... I tried to post the other day, but something went wrong with the internet.  So I didnꞌt.  At the moment, I am sitting under my fan, trying not to move more than I have to. I shall let the photos speak for me.  The first, was in my living room yesterday afternoon.

The next one was from the shade this afternoon.

And yet, the workshop carries on.  So I just keep drinking water.  And more water. And still more water.  I am so thankful for water.  My poor ice cube tray canꞌt keep up, though.  I can fill my water bottle with ice cubes... and they are melted by the time I get to the workshop room, about a 45 second commute.

1 week left of workshopping.  I will let you know if I make it, or if I end up puddling on the floor one of these days.

smp, you are not missing much over here, so enjoy your ice and snow while you have it!

A Wee Update

Workshop, so far, so good.  We have 13 participants, from a pretty wild and wooly part of this country.  They are all from one language group, and they are definitely more comfortable using their mother tongue than any other language.  So we are having everything that we say translated into their language, which, of course, I can't speak!  It's great to have it all translated, so people can understand everything they need to understand... but man, it makes the class go SLOW.  Plus, I think the guy that is translating for me is, well, editorializing a bit as he goes!  It sure would be nice to know what's going on more of the time, but, malesh, such is life in a foreign country.  It is also very strange to make a joke... and have to wait 3 minutes to see if people think it was funny or not.

They are good guys, and all seem very eager to learn. We were doing lots of getting up and dancing this afternoon, though, because it was so hot in the conference room, and it's hard to keep people with you when it's hot and they have bellies full of beans and rice after lunch. 

I was pretty proud of myself, because when we were doing introductions, Jackie got asked about her husband and children... so she had to go and tell them that she has no husband and no children.  But at least she has grey hair and more wrinkles than I do, so that automatically gives her a bit more credibility... if I had had to admit to having no husband and no children, with my few (though slowly increasing) grey hairs and few (though slowly increasing) wrinkles, I would have very little credibility to stand up and teach these guys anything!  So, I dodged the bullet, and will continue to dodge if it comes up again.

Of course, it's great to see my usual every day work colleagues again after my Christmas break.  Only one of them, so far, has commented on how fat I had become at home.  Unfortunately, he commented on it over and over again, on more than one occasion yesterday.  Sigh. It's good to be home, isn't it?!

Home "Sweet" Home

So, I got a bit caught up in things like Netflix and, well, Netflix, while I was at home and not celebrating the holidays or visiting with folks or shopping and the like... so, the blog got a bit neglected.  But, I have officially landed back in Jbs.  After a few hours to unpack the important bits out of my suitcase (like the chocolate - can't have that melting all over the place!) and walking down to the corner to pick up enough to keep myself fed for the next few days (bread, tomatoes, mango juice and a pineapple, along with the borrowing of a few eggs (which I could not find on the corner) from the neighbours), I was right back at work.

We have a workshop starting on Monday... and well, I am woefully un-prepared.  I have never been so unprepared for a workshop in my life.  Except that I have taught rather a lot of teacher training workshops by now, so I have all the material on my computer in various forms - it's just a matter of tweaking it to fit this particular group of participants.  So I'm not completely unprepared, but I do not yet have a complete lesson plan or any handouts printed out!  Hence, it's going to be an exciting Saturday night back here at the Ranch...

But it is good to get right back to work - at least it will force to me to get over jet-lag real quick.  I'm fading pretty quickly at the moment - but considering it's 6:30pm and I've been up since 6:00am, I'm doing pretty good.  I left my home in the Western Hemisphere on Tuesday night, spent Wednesday night in London, spent part of Thursday night and all of Friday night in Uganda... and now I'm here.  The first thing I did upon arrival was to put clean sheets and a clean mosquitoe net up on my bed.  So no matter what else happened, I would have a nice clean place to sleep tonight.  I even have new puffy pillows that are currently fluffing themselves out after being freed from their compression bags.

I'm so dirty already that I'm getting dirty fingernails when I scratch my nose.  I have drunk a few litres of water.  But so far, no "welcome home" headache, which normally occurs about an hour after I hit the ground here!  Maybe I will be lucky this time, or, I've been drinking enough water in the past 48 hours to pre-hydrate?!

Yup, it's good to be home!