Getting to know you

Working in East Africa is a major challenge for me.  I am a very task oriented person and have to try very, very hard to be more people and relationship oriented.  

So I currently have two projects.  The most important is to get to know the people I’m working with - the teachers, the dispensary staff and the mission staff.  I’m also getting to know the students and they are getting used to having me around.

The college, soon to be renamed Huduma kwa Walimavu Olkokola (Service for people with disabilities) has a headteacher, Sinyati, a teacher for each of the vocational streams - Musa in tailoring, Salva in masonry, Elias in Ag and Livestock and Mark in carpentry.  There is also an assistant teacher in tailoring, the biggest class, Margaret. The students do all the cooking and cleaning so there are no ancillary staff.  The dispensary has two medical officers, Charles and Goodluck, and two nurses, Lucy and Laurencia, and the mission house has a housekeeper, Castissima, and a gardener, Christopher.  There is also the Flying Medical Service crew who I bump into as they come and go. Father Pat began the whole enterprise and he is in charge but he assures me it runs very well without him - lucky as he left on 6 weeks leave yesterday! At training in Melbourne we were told we needed to find a 'penguin', someone who understands and can operate in both our world and theirs.  For me that person in Castissima.  She is wonderful for testing ideas and my swahili language skills.

Last week I gave the Thursday health talk to the students, the medical officer at the clinic asked me to talk to the subject of “Healthy Food”.  I gave part of the talk in Swahili  (all run past and adjusted by Castissima) but the part on carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals defeated me!  The MO helped with translations and we were well received.  The students are very well fed at Olkokola with fresh fruits and vegetables coming from the mission’s large vegetable garden.  We are also beneficiaries of the garden - I can go in and pick the chillies Steve needs for his world famous Curried Beans and Rice! 

The teachers also need to come to an understanding of how we can work together and what kinds of assistance I can provide. They have already asked me to provide some ideas on teaching measurement.  The task oriented part of me is really relishing getting stuck into producing a set of cards for the students to work through either with their class or individually.  It’s something I can work on while I’m waiting for other things to happen - you would know, dear reader, that waiting is something we have to get very good at here in East Africa!

Here is a sample of the maths cards I have in mind.

Producing these will be fun!

And this is a poster for the tailoring class.

Hopefully Steve’s and my work permits and residents visas will be approved soon and we can finally relax.  Everything else is going really well and we are healthy and happy.

Happy Birthday to our David who turns 33 today! 

Jenny