At the workshop.....

Hello everyone

Its been a long time.........life has been busy as I have been preparing for our Trainer of Trainers workshop which is now half way through!  Preparations were hectic as we make a lot of materials at the workshop and so we had a lot to do especially the week before we began.

 It was good to have my two trusted assistants to assist in the preparations...Nicolas and Foster.........they did a great job.

The workshop began last Monday and I have three facilitators to assist me in preparing these Trainers to work in the community.  Here you can see Maureen reading a story to the participants.

and MacLeod and Andrew who are all doing a great job and have a wealth of experience!

Not forgetting myself of course......

The participants are having a lot of fun, making new friends and learning more than they ever imagined about Early Childhood Development.  They come from all over the north representing 17 Presbyteries.  On Friday the ToT's who are already serving in Presbyteries will come to join them for 4 days!

group work

a healthy baby????

drama

games

materials which we would class as rubbish, but from which we make play materials for our centres

making glue from Cassava

making paint

green paint from leaves

red paint from flowers

moulding clay

Improvising...... we needed a sieve......

and as usual a photograph of me waving my arms about!

Some of our learning materials

Its been a good workshop so far.  We are in Ekwendeni at LISAP where the food is excellent and the environment is good for learning.  On Friday this group will hopefully get a certificate from the Ministry so that they can go out as Trainers of Trainers.  But as I told them at the weekend this is only the beginning - they have so much more to learn and I hope they stay with us and support our Early Childhood Programme.  They are all volunteers and so if they receive paid employment they are likely to move on - and who would blame them.  All our caregivers in the ECD centres are volunteers too, so life is tough if you don't get paid for your job!

Please continue to pray for your country, it seems the fuel queues are back again after a few weeks of things being a bit easier.  On Saturday when I was going back to Mzuzu there was a horrific minibus accident where I believe 4 people died - the bus had overturned and a colleague from Mzuzu was on it.  He is presently in hospital recovering.  Please pray for safety as we travel on the roads especially in the rains where there is a lot of mud and roads are slippy.

Wishing you all good week,

Diane

the daily grind...

Hello everyone, and thank you for the many compliments I receive about this blog!  It makes doing it all the more worthwhile!  Keep the comments coming!

This past week has been quite mundane in the general run of things.  Due to one of our teachers being off sick, and another one with a death in the family, I was in the class all week which was great in one way but left me way behind in other work.  It is good to see how the teachers are doing in the class, and to see how the children are progressing developmentally.  I must say I was quite impressed with what was going on in general. 

Some of our lovely children always keen to have their photo taken!

This has been a difficult week with many funerals - three members of staff at the synod had to attend family funerals this week, and one of our young ministers also passed away which was a great shock to everyone.  Rev Baxter Mkandawire was a vibrant young minister with a passion for children's ministry and he will be greatly missed.   

On Saturday morning (yesterday) I had a seminar with the teachers from our school just to remind ourselves about early childhood and to discuss the way forward in our school.  It was a successful meeting despite the weather - it had been thunder and lightning storms during the night and in the morning it was really wet.  I was fine going to school though because the Ignite team brought me some raincoats........ (yes, not one, but many....to be sure, to be sure!!)

Its the time of year when we have rain and we have heat and the two combined are mosquito heaven so we have many mosquitoes all around - wearing insect repellent becomes almost a routine these days in Mzuzu!  Its also the time of year when things in the garden grow at a tremendous rate - the avocados are ripe and so I have at least one every day.  The guava's are almost ready which is something to look forward to, the rhubarb is growing like crazy, and many flowers are out in the garden giving colour in the dark week that we have had.

In the country generally things are not much better.  Fuel is still in short supply although buying jerry cans at the pumps has been reduced so that when fuel comes at least there is a chance of getting some in the vehicle.  People are struggling with the rising prices, and also rising school fees - even I am struggling with paying school fees as they have all risen up so much.


Then there are the frustrations of trying to do some banking on the phone to NI but having to hold on for 20 minutes and listen to music and someone telling me we appreciate your patience (while I ponder how much this is going to cost), and at the end of the day being told I have to write a letter to them which may take 6 months to get there!!  Talking of letters, I sent letters in May of last year to all of the trainers in the Presbyteries - I was delighted to learn that Chitipa received their letter this past week!  

Enough rambling....its not always easy to remember that God is in control and we have to be patient and things will work out eventually!  

Wishing you all a good week,

Blessings,

Diane