Today was the first day of our conference here in the Shyira Diocese and boy, was it a success. After the late change in program and uncertainty about numbers (will we have 60 in one group or will it actually be 90?), God really provided for us by blessing us and the attendees with a great day.
We have multiple training sessions running at a time, with groups broken up into nursery (preschool) teachers, young mothers, those who work for the church with stronger English and those who work for the church with English that isn't as strong.
The 60 young mothers had a great day of sewing dresses for their children or to sell, and because they've loved this project so much, we will be buying more fabric for them and also responding to their request to make some carry bags. Sandra is excited by this challenge, but is thankful for the skill that some of the young mothers have already in using the treadle machines.
The computer training with Steve and Nathan is going ahead in leaps and bounds, which is helped by the fact that with the size of the groups today, the attendees were able to work on one computer each, which makes it a lot easier to practice what they've learnt.
Louise has been working with those who have very little to no English at all and already they have learnt many conversational phrases and they were so proud that they could introduce themselves that they came around to us at lunchtime to practice. Tomorrow Louise will be taking them on a language walk around town, asking simple questions like "what is this?" and "what do we use this for?", which has apparently been a hit in the past, so surely it will go well tomorrow!
Cheryl was floating from group to group today and sharing her extensive expertise throughout the groups by running various sessions and also keeping an eye on everything and making sure everything was going to plan and also that we were really responding to what the locals want from us.
Helen and Sophie are training the 60 early childhood teachers, a lot of whom are volunteers and the rest of whom are on very low wages. They were able to share some songs and games, some were even in the local language of Kinyarwanda. They also looked at some key developmental milestones and had the teachers sharing their ideas and different things that they do at their nurseries; encouraging collaboration.
All in all it was an extremely successful day and everyone came out buzzing with excitement for the rest of the conference. We are looking forward to an even bigger day tomorrow with devotions starting at 8am and programs finishing at 4pm. We will all be sleeping well tomorrow night! But it is definitely worth it.
The three photos depict Helen and Sophie in front of some developmental milestones and a rice sack colour chart; Steve working hard in the computer training and the huge cathedral which is the centre of all the happenings this week.
Sophie
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