First workshop over

Our first workshop on Leadership, Management and Change is over. It started on the 13th, the day immediately following my arrival so I was there in body only for the first day. Thank goodness Julie who has been here for a week had it all under control. I didn't present in earnest until the third day by which time I'd recovered a bit.

The participants were wonderful. We had 18 in the group and all 18 were there every day all day - something unheard of in Australia in my experience. They really got into it from the beginning and loved participating and doing activities. Also, they all seemed to be in tune with the goals both of DGIE and of Rwanda. One thing we noticed is that they really feel the need to finish everything off, and there's no use trying to get them back from an activity or exercise if they haven't finished it. Again, a bit different from Australian groups I've worked with. It does however make time management a bit of a challenge.

Hard at work

 We aren't using the training room in the DGIE offices since that is full of computers being tested before being rolled out to district offices and border posts to process a new Laissez-Passer system. So we're in a conference/training centre up the road run by the Jesuits. It's in a very pretty spot with beautiful grounds and is reached by the roughest "road" I've ever seen. We're picked up at 7:30 am by a DGIE driver who also picks us up at 4:30 pm to bring us back to the apartment.

The only down side to the venue is that the sun streams into our room after lunch so it gets really really hot. After the first day we started doing the afternoon sessions outside - there's a sort of big rotunda/summer house which is ideal for the purpose. Even though it gets very hot inside, outside it has been very pleasant, even on hot days. Doing classes outside reminds me of schooldays in Queensland when this was a bit of a treat on hot summer afternoons.

During one of these outdoor sessions we took the opportunity to teach them to sing Waltzing Matilda, which they picked up quickly, along with an associated discussion of how this reflects what we Aussies like to think of as our national character. They were intrigued by the fact that it is our "unofficial" National Anthem, and indeed that we would have two National Anthems.

The workshop finished at midday on Saturday. It was meant to be five days, but we had to squeeze it into 4 and a half days to finish by midday on Saturday, because there were two weddings scheduled during Saturday afternoon.

They seemed to have genuinely enjoyed the four and a half days, and presented us with gifts at the end - including a lovely big wooden plaque each (which is going to be interesting to squeeze into my already-overloaded bag on the way home).

This little chap made my day when he wandered into the grounds during one of our outdoor sessions