But I'll get to that. First, let me tell you about my bike-ride this morning. Finally, I got to go for a ride with Paul. As soon as we got to open highway he started pushing me, to see how fast I would go. I was keeping pace, but then we came across another member of Paul's cycling team and he kicked the pace up about 3 notches. I spent a lot of time trying to keep my wheel inches behind Paul's so that I could keep up! It was pretty hard core, and I wasn't sure that my bike would keep up, but it did a good job.
I'm glad that psychologically, I knew that I wasn't going far (had to make it back in time to teach class). On the way back, we met another young cyclist, so I'm starting to get to know the community a little bit. Kind of makes me want to stay here and race and do the Tour de Faso instead of launching a cyclo-touring trip.
My lessons today concluded the section on Results Based Management. It was a really fruitful teaching time because the participants were so eager to understand these ideas. RBM is the system that most international donors and multilateral literacy agencies are using and the participants know that the future of their projects rest on the ability to communicate effectively with others. Anyways, they were really happy to have some of the complicated stuff explained in a way that makes sense to them and applies directly to their situations. We did a number of skits and activities together that allowed them to feel comfortable with the language and ideas of the system. It is a relief, however, to have it over with because it was sucking me dry in terms of time and energy.
Tomorrow, I will teach a lesson on planning lessons! Should be fun. They will have to design a lesson to teach the volunteer teachers in their projects how to improve their teaching. It will serve as a bit of a recap of what they have learned in the past few weeks as well as a practical application. I can't wait to see what they come up with.
I was pumped about having a large ultimate frisbee session for our "Olympic Games" this afternoon, but we decided, as a group to give it a miss. Instead, we called for an afternoon of solidarity mourning. Noel, one of the most senior members of our group got news today that his Mother has passed away in Congo on Sunday and the burial is tomorrow. He was raised completely by his mother because his father passed away when he was quite young.
Noel is the head of one of the biggest literacy programmes on the continent of Africa. He has thousands of teachers under him and tens of thousands of students every year! And he does this in an extemely remote (2 weeks by boat to Kinshasa) part of the jungle in the Democratic Republic of Congo! Needless to say he is one of the most respected people around (it is a real honour to be able to teach with him and we try and make use of his experience as much as possible). So, we called today a day at half-mast to honour the woman who brought Noel into the world and brought him up.I was really impressed with the solidarity of the students who decided it would be good to pay a group visit to express their regrets. They appointed spokespersons, practiced some songs to sing and then we all went together. The message was given that, although he can't be with his family, we are his family in Christ and are here to share the burden. After a couple of songs, one of the men prayed for Noel. Then, one by one, each one came forward to shake hands and say a few encouraging words. Those who were close to Noel, put their forehead against his forehead for a moment. This brief touch is the symbol for deep friendship or kinship. It was a deeply emotional time and I pray that it was healing for Noel.
"Brother, your burden of grief is too heavy to bear alone. We are here to share it with you".
(Noel is the participant on the far left-hand side in this role-played panel of experts.)
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