Back to blogging

I haven't been to my blog for nearly 2 years but no-one has mentioned it so maybe no-one is reading this blog?

It's been a busy time with lots going on at COL and some fantastic new projects to work on. I do spend a lot more time on Facebook now - maybe I should take a break from that and spend more time here? I'll just have to re-learn how to do it ... and of course they've updated Blogger so it doesn't work the same anymore!

I've missed out on talking about trips to Kenya, Uganda, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Nigeria, Jamaica, St Vincent, Rwanda, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and China! So I guess there's quite a lot to talk about and many photos to share.

And we've moved house and now live in a beautiful forest just off the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler with an amazing view over Howe Sound. Here's a pic of our sunset taken just last week.

More soon ....

Indi-yeah!

India was fascinating and nothing like I envisaged - although I think that Kerala is 'India for beginners' (a bit like Namibia is Africa for beginners!) The places I visited had a gentleness and calm about them - even though they were vibrant and busy - and the tooting car horn was ever-present. Maybe it was the people I met that had those characteristics.

We left via Mumbai and it was certainly busier and more brutish. Sir John had warned me that 'you haven't been to India until you've driven across New Delhi' and I got a flavour of what he was talking about in Mumbai. One thing I would say - is I never felt unsafe in India. Admittedly, I didn;t go walking the streets at night - but I don't do that in any country!

I'll always remember the different yoga teachers I had - expecially the one who intoned 'nooooormal breeeeeathing, very very nooooormal breeeeeathing' over and over as we did the pranayam ... partly because Shafika and I kept singing this as we struggled to wind our way through the crowds at Mumbai airport. The new group on Trivandrum that I will work with next year have produced a distance learning course on yoga and they gave me their materials and the video!

One of the things that amazed us (and drove my colleagues mad) was the procedure for getting a SIM card. You needed a copy of your passport, a photo and to fill in 5 pages of forms. This highly bemused the African contingent who can buy a SIM card on any street corner for a couple of dollars! In fact - when we arrived in Maseru and were met by the conference organisers - the first thing they did was hand everyone of us a SIM starter pack - now that is service!

Pan Commonwealth Forum

We have just completed Day 2 of our conference - the 6th Pan Commonwealth Forum. It is a fantastic experience with nearly 600 distance educators and community development people from all over the world (but mostly Commonwealth countries). We have been talking about the use of technology in technical and vocational education today and how to get the most out of regional cooperation.

In this pic, L-R ... amr, Emma Kruse Vaai from Samoa, Guil Vaz from India, Caroline Seelig from New Zealnad and George Herd from Scotland.

We have a cultural programme every evening and have been treated to all kinds of music and dance from different areas of India - all with the most amazing, elaborate costumes. We announced the winners of the Excellence in Distance Education Awards and also 5 COL Honorary Fellows. This evening we heard wonderful stories of women in India who are developing small businesses and building their skills in very innovative ways.

Tomorrow we will launch the Flexible Skills Development Community Learning Network - which is quite exciting for us. I'm pretty exhausted but it's been great to see so many old friends and meet lots of interesting new people who are doing great work in our field.

Back to Bangladesh

In September I visited the Dhaka Ahsania Mission skills training centres in the slums of the city. Here is my favourite selection of the young people trying to learn skills to earn a living. DAM does incredible work for these young people who otherwise would have no hope of skills training. Many of them have left school with no qualifications - and there simply is not enough provision of basic education. They get literacy training if they need it and they learn a skill to be employed or self-employed ... although many of them end up in the garment industry.

When I meet great organisations like this - I just want to give them all my money and help them to do more ...

Muppet

I am, as my brother often tells me - a muppet! You know I often cannot share photos on this blog with you because I don't have my camera cable or card reader .... I've just discovered the laptop has an integral card reader!!! WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME? Like Trudi or Frances who have the same laptop! Duh!

Anyway - no excuse now - so I'll look out some photos of Trivandrum - now I just need to find the time!

workshop number two

... is about to start today. Of 10 college principals  who are coming from Africa, 8 have arrived, one has cancelled and one is still on her way - so that's not too bad. Up until yesterday lunchtime the hotel didn't have a room for us to hold the workshop but we managed to sort that out. We now have to take a boat ride (which will be fun) a few minutes down the river to another part of the hotel which is on a different property. It'll be a nice start to the day.

The participants are all staying in another hotel and they have to get a bus here - but my friend and colleague George is staying with them so I hope he manages to rally them all and get them here more or less on time. This is an important workshop for my main skills development activity this year so it is important that we get it right.

You can find information on the place we are staying here - Le Meridien. It's a huge hotel with both business and tourist guests. They seem to have back-to-back conferences and it's all a little chaotic - but it works in the end. The prople are very hospitable and try to do whatever they can to help - which is a nice attitude to work with.

So I just have to get through the next three days before the 400-odd delegates arrive for the Pan Commonwealth Forum - phew!

It's all very exciting - and a little bit scary :-)

Trivandrum

My time in the capital city of the State of Kerala is coming to an end. Today I will meet the Chairman of the State Resource Centre – where I’ve been working this week – and also visit some Continuing Education Centres. Kerala is an interesting State with high social development indicators, particularly in health and literacy, but in a context of a low productive economy and high unemployment.
We’ve just finished a two-day workshop looking at the SRC programmes and how they might benefit from using open and distance learning methodologies. I’ve been working with the most educated and highly committed group of people. On staff, there are only 10 but we were joined by 15 local academics and subject experts who are part of the SRC extended team.
Their mandate was traditionally literacy training, but given that Kerala has reached about 95% literacy the demand for their courses is changing. We’ve been talking about how they might expand their offering of skills development programmes and also strengthen their extensive (4,000) team of volunteer Community Development Promoters.
Hopefully, there will also be time to squeeze in a little shopping! I’ve already bought some beautiful ‘shalwar kemise’ Indian printed and embroidered long dress, trouser and scarf ensemble … lovely colours and patterns. My colleagues took me to a huge 4-story clothing store with thousands of saris and fabrics and traditional clothes. I resisted the pressure to buy a sari but the shalwar kemise is perfect for me – very comfortable and hides a multitude of sins!