ACT conference in the Eastern Provence - Wednesday 1st

July 1st is a public holiday but close to 100 teachers gave up the holiday to attend the ACT (Association of Christian Teachers) conference.
This is the first time Hope has run the conference in the Eastern Provence.

Just before breakfast the power had gone out. Turns out this is a regular occurrence and it probably won't be back until the evening. Not sure how we'll run computer training, run projectors and print certificates without power!


Participants registered onto laptops and received a conference bag - remember us packing them earlier in the trip! Each person will receive a certificate so getting each persons name right is critical.

Opening ceremony with Cheryl presenting the team. The conference was run at a local school. The principal is Mary who has so far started 40 similar schools! Amazing women. She explained that during her training they had a practical element to help start a school. She never stopped.

ICT (Computer training) for head teachers and principals. We had no power = no projector. We relied upon the battery life of the laptops. The lasted almost 4 hours which is amazing.
During the training we created a spreadsheet to track and report student performance and calculate ranking in the class. Most of them understood. But there is always such a range of skills.
Instead of a projector Nathan and I used A4 paper and a black marker to explain what buttons/icons to click on.

We still had the issue of how to print certificates without power. Turned out the school has a generator.

• No fuel, so we purchased some.
• Generator won't start, so they got a repair man
• Generator running and then we learnt that last week it blew up a photocopier and computer with a surge..we decided to risk it.
• Generator not generating power, we gave up.

 Solution, we took the certificate paper and USB drive back into town. Most people in business had a generator and a local person was able to print them, at 2 pages per minute. It took ages! but we got there.

In the afternoon the early childhood and primary teachers made resources using cardboard and rice sacks .The rice sacks were turned into charts of the Digestive systems, maps of Africa, things we use to farm with, things we wear, colours, shapes, tables..

Closing Ceremony and presentation of certificates

The happy graduates.

Please pray that the seed planted today might bear much fruit in the lives of Rwandan children.

Steve