Links tour

This week we have had guests from Ethiopia, VSO Ethiopia and partners were interested in the National Volunteering schemes of VSO Nigeria. We have had 5 weeks to prepare for this tour, VSO Nigeria didn't have time to organize all this as this month is incredibly busy so they hired a temporary tour guide, Betty, to organize all. In the beginning all went well there was nothing much going on. Joel, and other international volunteer, and I were helping Betty with the visits to the field as we both work with national volunteers. Joel is based in PanYam in Plateau State and works for Secure Lively hoods, farmers in his region use community volunteers to help during the farming season.

All well till Kenna, our country director, came back from her study tour to South Africa, there she got to understand that no VSO Ethiopian staff was coming but more federal ministry staff. She got nervous with this knowledge and we had to change our plans for te tour as we had to arrange a meeting with some persons at at least the same level as the guests. So we ended up having to arrange a meeting with the Governor of Nassarawa State, as I and Andy do have our contacts within that administration. Although our contacts told us that the Governor was travelling we still had to try to arrange this meeting.  A lot of stress that is what is gave us, especially Kenna.

During the week it still was unclear if we would or wouldn’t meet with him on the Wednesday. As we left for Lafia on Tuesday to guide the guests along two participating schools in Nassarawa we showed what the NGVP was all about. The National Volunteers in the schools were terrific in answering all the difficult questions the Ethiopians asked. They were especially interested in the NYSC in relation to NGVP and the training they get. During this day Betty got the question to organise a meeting with the Director of NYSC. She dared to say it was no problem we could just go there. I looked back at her and told her there where major security issues at that office and you cannot go in just like that with an international group. Thereby we have had big problems getting a meeting before so she couldn’t promise something like this. But in the end on Friday we had the meeting and it turned out to be an important one for me as I finally met the person who is the brain behind my scheme. I hope I will be able to speak with her more often as she can give me good background info and she can get me deeper into the NYSC organisation to settle this programme better.

Kagbu B good practice!

 As you might know I did organize a workshop last month, in February. One of the results of this was that 2 of my Nigerian Graduate Volunteers thought they had to share what they learned. Share it maybe with their colleagues in the school. So they started talking about their plans with the principal of the school and they wanted to share their plan with the chief of the local government inspectorate, CEI. The principal at first was okay with the idea as long it wasn’t too big. They shouldn’t invite me or other volunteers to help them. Also their move towards the local government was that well appreciated. But the principal took them because he knew they should inform them about the program. When they came back from that meeting they came back with a bigger plan than ever. The CEI really liked the plans and wanted to join in on the first one after that he would see if it is possible to organize it in other schools in Nassarawa Eggon local government area. His colleagues in the office didn’t agree though they said these plans were an insult for the serving teachers in the schools. They had their education and were properly trained teachers. The CEI was furious when he heard this argument, he said them of all should know being a teacher is an ongoing learning process and if the teachers are not willing to learn they should not be the ambassadors of learning. Hear, hear!! Thank you CEI. So now after this meeting my volunteers came home and they had to think about organizing a workshop that can be copied into other workshops in other schools. So the Saturday that I spend in Lafia was a good moment for us to meet and talk about the plans and the sessions in the workshops. How could they best go about it? What were the best sessions to copy from the workshop they have had in February? What did they need for those sessions? Who would they ask as professionals to do a session? Habu and I gave them some pointers and I promised that I would be there during the first workshop in the series as it is always nerve wrecking to do something like this for the first time (and of course I wanted to experience what they picked up from my own workshop in February and I didn’t want them to fail in the heat of the fire with the CEI and DCEI in the room as VSOs name was also on the line) So we decided that Saturday that I would come to Kagbu B on the Wednesday before the workshop which would take place on the Thursday. I promised to bring materials like flipchart paper, markers, jotters and biros so we could prepare materials that they can use over and over again during the series of workshops in the different schools.

It was nice to stay in a small community like Kagbu B. Kagbu B is a small town, not connected to water or electricity as we can say not really connected to civilization. This is not because there are no well-educated citizens, but more that the people that permanent living in the village don’t want too much involvement and money from the outside. They have a pride that they can fix things themselves. Even all teachers in the school are coming from their own community, which is quite special. I stayed in Fatima’s room while she moved for one night into another room in the block that was realized by the principal for volunteers and corpers assigned to this school. Nice rooms, but without toilets, at least you have to walk 100m to go to a squatting toilet that is not just in the bush.

The Wednesday was about different kind of prep, we had to think about a programme, Clements already found some nice quotes to put up on the walls which had to be written on cardboard. Students helped us with that, as I was trying to involve the students a bit more than just writing by asking them annoying questions (my students will recognize this immediately, I always ask why they do the things they do them, want to let them think about their actions) about what the most important words were in the sentences.  In the meanwhile Fatima was cooking and preparing lunch for the next day. That afternoon Clements had to do an extra lesson for SSS3 to prepare them for upcoming exams so I observed to see if his ways changed, and they did! Clements was a different person in front of the classroom compared to the first time I saw him. He even told me that he now likes teaching as he first loaded it during his corper year. YEAH! Did have impact on him! That evening we started preparing flipcharts. I had the feeling I really needed to guide them in this. They were somehow insecure about what to write or draw.

The Thursday morning Fatima had to go to Lafia to get the drinks and snacks for the lunch and Clements and I were to decorate the hall. The other Nassarawa volunteers came in an hour before the programme would start and they had to play their own role during the first and second session. It was funny to see how relaxed they were about this. They didn’t really prepare themselves as well as I would like to see them do, but I let them. I wanted to see what would happen so I could reflect on this. So around 10.30 we started as the CEI and DCEI arrived and the teachers all had eaten their breakfast. The first session was the ‘learning tree’: going back to the roots of learning in the early childhood. Fatima and Stephen were leading this session. After that there was a good practice and bad practice example by resp. Eduard and Stephen. Eduard was interrupted by the leaving of the CEI and didn’t really prepare his session well why I was not too happy about this good practice lesson. Good practice should be good practice in whole not only because you introduce a game during a lesson. Preparation is so important for a good lesson!

I liked the sessions to the basics of learning and learning styles after which the DCEI presented a paper about the importance of the teaching job. We closed the day with the introduction of four different games teachers can easily use during their practice.

All and all it went well, I am proud of what I saw and experienced. It was good to see all my Nigerian Graduate Volunteers from one state work together like that. I know this is the beginning of more in this group of youngsters. Thank you you just made my work proven sustainable!