On Wednesday afternoon I headed to Jinja with 20 other staff members for a work session to review our textbook for Writing and Study Skills. Now, I know it looks short on the map and is only about 58 kilometers (36 miles), it took about an hour and a half to reach the hotel. The roads here are paved, but have huge pot holes and the traffic can sometimes double and triple the amount of time on the road. We rented a "coaster" which is like a mini bus for about 25 people. I am not sure why cars are not air-conditioned here, but NONE are and the rides are very hot, sweaty, and bumpy! I love to sit in the back and many times
We are revising this book,
Writing and Study Skills, which was last revised back in 2010. Part of my job description is to update this book and also to write a teacher's guide. It is a BIG undertaking, but one that I can do (and another opportunity for me to publish!).
Before the actual workshop, I went with three other people two weekends ago to check out the resort. We needed to book the reservation, pay for it, and check out the facilities. Things are not done here without paying for it, so we had to go in person to make the reservation. So, we all piled into Jerome's car and headed to Brisk hotel. Everything worked out, so we booked the hotel for the next week.
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| Daniel, Bernard (Jerome and Agaba) on our way to check out the facilities. |
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| waiting to try the food |
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Once arriving with the whole group, we got settled into our rooms and waited for evening tea. Tea is a very interesting phenomenon here. It is a HUGE deal and everyone loves it. Tea involves drinking milk with tea, coffee, or hot chocolate. There are usually some "eats" involved in these teas too.
After tea, we relaxed and played games. Then, some people from our staff came into the lobby to ask if I wanted to see "lake flies". Now, it has been my experience that when people from here ask me if I want to see something, I should go see it. So, I headed to the other wing of the hotel to discovered what everyone was talking about. Lake flies are these little insects that look like mosquitoes, but they don't bit. They are literally EVERYWHERE at night. If you don't keep light off in your room until about 7 p.m., they will completely fill your room.
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| These are the carcasses just outside the window. |
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| See the black spots? |
On Thursday, we got down to the nitty gritty! We listened to very many presentations and collaborated together to make decisions.
I really like the collectivist way of revising our workbook and we spent a lot of time trying to make sure we agree and support each other. I wanted everyone to be on board with what is going on and the changes we are making, so I needed everyone to vote and be a part of these decisions. Everyone worked beautifully together and through some debate we had a rough layout of the workbook. Then, people divided into their prospective groups to get busy on their chosen rhetorical modes.
We would work during the day and then had some leisure time in the evenings!
We got a lot done over the week, but we have a lot more to do. Although I won't see the finished product until after I return home, it will feel so great to be done with this revision!
