Tuesday 1 February 2011

Rice sacks

Today I have made my first rice sack visual aid and it’s going in my office.

As you can imagine there is a shortage of resources here so teachers are very imaginative and use whatever they can find. There is an abundance of rice sacks and if you can get hold of waterproof marker pens many fabulous creations can be made. Mine is not sooo fabulous but it will be very useful. It is a simple plan of the district showing the 12 sectors. I will put it in the office wall with the names of each of the schools in the sector so that I can get an idea of their geographical location. I have also started the number crunching so that I can decide where to focus my work. Shall I go for the poorest performing sectors or shall I look for the most enthusiastic headteachers who I may be able to train up to become trainers themselves? I will need to think and plan carefully - but I do have 2 years to implement a plan so that’s good.

On Friday I went on my first visit to a school, riding on the back of a motorbike. Another volunteer took me to visit one of her schools so that I would get an idea of what to expect - the schools are pretty much the same as in Bangladesh and in Congo, but I was interested in the approach that was taken by the volunteer. There are so many needs that we have to be very focused on what our actual task is, so sometimes we need to be firm, but friendly.

5 comments:

  1. Whilst it is really early days yet, it must be good beginning to orientate yourself around 'work'.
    Watch out for the strange psychological reactions that anti malarial drug can sometimes produce until you are tolerant to the chemicals in your system!! I remember having mild euphoria and an inability to concentrate.

    Keep the blogs rolling they are really interesting :0)

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  2. Yes and be-careful about sniff those water-proof pens!! hehehe...lovein ya rice-sack resource..x.

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  3. Finally got it sussed, the mobile doesn't support the 'select profile' option so can't comment from there - have to use the big machine instead!
    Great chatting via skype, albeit briefly,hope we can have a longer chat on Thursday.
    I've started a list of things to bring out - just added waterproof pens. If you think of anything else just let me know.
    Keep up the good blog!!

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  4. What a fine rice sack map! My rice sack map of Rwanda is being used to cover a big stained patch on my living room wall. I bet it brightens up your office. As an aside did you buy the rice sack yourself? Its probably that I haven't looked very hard but not seen them for sale anywhere!

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  5. Looking forward to weekly blog next posting... Tuesday 8th?

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