Day 2

Have snuck out of the simulation to get on the Internet and send e-mail that I've been waiting to send since last night. The business center was locked 3 hours early and then today there was no electricity...

The conference here at the “Official Source of the Nile ” is going fine. Day 2 (Tuesday) went well, though the trainees are less happy. Still, at the close of today’s session they gave high marks on the first two days on their quick written evaluations. The other workshops showed a pattern where on Days 2 and 3, people get unhappy with the time pressure and the lower standards in the quality of the work they are able to complete. Something like no pain in the training, no gain. The long-term development people especially suffer. They are used to taking weeks for assessment of the population's needs, rather than hours.

This afternoon wore me out. I had to run all over playing so many roles: World Vision rep, Ministry of Health rep, Office of National Disaster Coordination Director, woman who lost husband in the cyclone, young woman with sick baby, not to mention Spee the facilitator and time-keeper. We were all rewarded at sunset, when roiling black clouds rolled toward us from the lake in a spectacular fashion. Many of us watched from the balcony for a long time.

Tomorrow is the outing where we send the group on a scavenger hunt using GPS equipment. The location will be a golf course that just happens to be within walking distance of the hotel. It should be fun. Too bad there are no bikes for the trainers (in Thailand we had rental bikes that allowed us to travel around more quickly than the teams).

-Spee