Yesterday we held our first teacher training seminar.  It was for teachers at the four schools in Katoma Ward.  I have spent the past 4 weeks preparing for this (my ‘pilot’) and the subsequent 5 in the other wards.  I have investigated, surveyed and consulted widely. Steve claims he’s had a few sleepless nights recently with me keeping him awake with my ‘thinking’.

I was all organised – photocopying all done (at 100/= per sheet as the copier at the 50/= place is broken, so that’s made a mess of my budget!), soda and biscuits for morning tea organised (the biscuits were cheaper than I’d budgeted so that might balance the photocopying black hole), translator Mr Josiah ready and primed (he’d spent all day Thursday at the hospital after an allergic reaction but had assured me on the Thursday evening that he would be fine for the Friday), car full of petrol (we were going all of 15 km), and all the demonstration teaching aids finished and stacked in the mathematics ‘useful box’.

We set off for Katoma at 8 am, in plenty of time for an 8:30 start.  The letter of invitation had reminded those coming to be punctual.  Half way there Steve asked had I put in the bottle opener for the sodas. Um, no!  It’ll be alright said Mr Josiah – he is constantly saying “Don’t worry Madam” and “Slow down Madam” and today wasn’t going to be an exception!

We cruised past the turnoff to Katoma ‘A’ school heading for our planned venue, Katoma ‘B’ school.  A concerned woman standing near the turnoff started waving her arms madly.  We’d better stop and talk to her said Mr Josiah, she’s a teacher from Katoma B.  Somehow the invitation letters had ended up with Katoma A as the venue instead of Katoma B.  It’ll be alright said Mr Josiah, “Don’t worry Madam”.  Something had to go wrong, said Steve, this was it.  I hoped he was right!

Katoma B teachers hard at work.

The seminar was held in a classroom next to the Head Teachers office at Katoma ‘A’.  All but one of the invited teachers came, the other invited participants – Ward Education Co-ordinators, Inspectors and Academic Officers found they couldn’t make it. (Another saving on sodas and biscuits!)

I had a mix of activities planned, all of them participatory and all to be done as a group with colleagues from the same school.  Of course I had planned too much.  I had seriously underestimated how long each task would take (“Slow down Madam”) and overestimated the teachers’ ability to understand my English (“Don’t worry Madam").  At the end of the four sessions we were all still smiling and we gave each other a round of applause.  As with all good seminars we finished with the evaluation sheet – the participants were very kind and forgiving in their evaluation – and each teacher was given a signed and stamped certificate of attendance.  

Teachers from Karwoshe and Kilaini cooperating

Monday we review and re-plan for seminars Tuesday, Thursday and Friday next week.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

All comments gratefully received, Jenny.


ps. We prised the tops off the soda bottles using the desk lids!