Anyone for table-tennis?

Mosquito bites: 16 (v.i)

Flee bites: 0

Bites, origin as yet unidentified (possibly nits, lice, crabs): 2



The day after the Christmas party my first training started. It took place in the football stadium. That is to say, in the building that is part of the Lakatoro football stadium in which all meetings take place. For instance, at the same time the bi-annual meeting of the Malampa Provincial Council took place in another room. The subject of the training was "Participatory Facilitation Methods" and the object was for all participants to be able to faciliate a session on the last day. Most of the participants were Area Council Secretaries. Part of their work consists of talking with the communities in their Area to identify economic development opportunities. Using participatory facilitation is one way of doing this, and according to VSO it is one of the most useful ways because the greater involvement of communities from an early stage onwards improves the chances of sustainability.



The number and kind of participants had changed a couple of times before the training started, as had the precise dates and times. In Vanuatu you never know if and how something is going to happen until it actually does. The training was due to start at 7.30 a.m and - taking into account the dustbin full of kava that was served at the Christmas party the night before - I was quite pleased to have nine Area Council Secretaries, six revenue collectors, one HR officer, one Peace Corps volunteer, one co-ordinator of the Malampa Council of Women and Jimmy sitting in the room at 8.30. I won't bore you with all the details of the three days that followed, but I think the training went well. Ofcourse I did not know beforehand if my 'Dutch' training methods would work with a group of people from the other side of the world nor if my Bislama would be good enough to make myself clear and to understand the contributions of the participants, but I needn't have worried. Everybody was very courteous, patient and eager to learn and I guess that is more than enough to do something worthwhile together. Similarly, who needs power-point slides, whiteboards and overhead-projectors when chalk and a table-tennis table are at hand? (Nobody knows where the little net has gone. I guess they get more use out of it this way anyway...)


And here's a picture of one of the sub-groups where the participants practised their newly acquired facilitation techniques. Everybody was a bit nervous before they started, because most hadn't done anything like this before. But my new VSO colleague Brian who had come down from Vila to assist with the facilitation of the sub-groups, agreed with me that all sessions went very well. Clearly a very talented bunch.


Next year hopefully I will work with all participants on-the-job. I will go to all Areas and assist the Secretaries when they do a real-life participatory facilitation session. At least that is the plan. Because in Vanuatu you never know if and how something is going to happen until it actually does...