Third and final workshop over

Friday 30 September and the third and final workshop is done.

Another wonderful group of people but again a bit different from the previous ones. I suspect the average level of education might have been higher in this group - there were several university degrees including one with a degree in media, and there were several ex-teachers. Possibly because of this, some of their comments and questions were very perceptive.

Again, about two-thirds were from District Offices and Border Posts. Some had limited English which was a bit of a challenge but I was able to impress them by throwing in a few words of basic French if necessary to help explain some things.

They showed the same determination that the previous groups had shown to finish things off - not interested in breaking off an exercise if they weren't finished, even if lunch was ready. They also have a competitive streak and in their groups they put themselves under pressure to finish before other groups, no matter how much we explained that it's not a competition.

This competitive streak came back and bit me, I think, in one exercise I have done quite often. It's a very basic self-evaluation questionnaire where you tick statements that you think describe the way you behave and the results indicate your preferred style when working in a team (Note: not Myers-Briggs). The results were a bit surprising as they showed that most of them showed all four main team personalities in equal proportions. This could be accurate - perhaps something to do with their culture, or their education system, or the way DGIE selects and trains its employees. But I think it could also be their competitive streak which made them feel they had to score as highly as possible on anything that looks remotely like a test - despite my stressing that it didn't matter how many they ticked - so the end result was that most of them ended up with nearly 10 out of 10 in each team category. Anyway it still allowed for an interesting discussion on different personalities and how you might adjust your communication style to suit, which was the point of the exercise.

The training room was still like a sauna in the afternoons, so whenever we could we went outdoors. Didn't work one day because quite a big storm came through just after lunch, forcing us to stay indoors. Fortunately it lowered the temperature a bit so it was bearable. The storm also played havoc with the power so we were in the dark for most of the afternoon too.

 Learning Waltzing Matilda was a treat on all the workshops, as was learning all we could tell them about Australia. The difference between our two cultures was brought home several times during the course of the three workshops when they expressed disbelief that we could have had a coup last year that resulted in replacing our prime minister - and no violence was involved!

We had a number of visits from a local group of cows who are frequently let in to graze in the grounds. Very happy-looking well-fed cows they were too. Cows are very important to the the Rwandans as a symbol of prosperity.

Again at the end, lots of lovely thank-you speeches from the group, as well as more really lovely gifts. Seriously starting to wonder how I'm going to fit them all in my luggage and what I'll have to jettison to make room.


So although it's nice to be able to relax and be a tourist for a week or so, we had mixed feelings about coming to the end of the work as it's been great working with such lovely people.