Teachers participating in life skills

Serving Up Life Skills

It is May 1, 2009 and May Day a holiday in Botswana. A 100 plus workers from different places in the village have gathered at my school to celebrate by walking, singing and meeting together. I do not recognize any from my school in the group but I know the staff workers, cleaners, cooks and grounds people have a union and laws that protect them. I am at my school on the holiday because I have no electricity. I need to charge my phone, computer and camera since they are all drained and I want to post a blog today while the memories are fresh.

For the last 6 months, we have been trying to organize a life skills workshop for all 160 teachers and administrators. The intent is to instruct teachers how to impart skills such as goal setting, decision making, communication and information on HIV/AIDS. We have tried in the past, but the timing has never been right or the resources have not been available. We were able to have a mini workshop for 25 teachers to act as life skills facilitators for the school and all the teachers. Now we are finally trying to train everyone.

There are many challenges. The workshop has been scheduled for two days before teachers have to return to school and before a long three day weekend. Teachers are reluctant to come back early from their four week Easter break. The workshop depends on our committees performing all the preparation. Materials need to be duplicated, name tags made, facilitators chosen each part of the two day program, venues selected, a doctor requested formally from the local hospital to answer questions on HIV, and food needs to be provided.

I return from a trip north seeing wildlife a few days before the event. I discover that nobody was available at the ministry of education to sign our government purchase order for the food. It is a day before our planning meeting and two days before the two day workshop begins. I call the ministry again on Monday to determine when I can pick up the GPO to purchase the food for the entire two days. The GPO has been signed and it is with the book keeper in the accounting office. My Setswana is not good but I tell them I am coming in the afternoon to collect it. I arrive after long delays and tell them I have came“ka dinao” by foot for the GPO. It is three pm. The gentleman has pages of figures to imput into the computer. I sit in the office until 5. The GPO is finished by the person needing to sign it has left for the day. I am told that he will get it signed in the morning and find transport deliver it the next day. I return home in the dark by 8pm empty handed.

The following morning I am on the phone. We need to shop for the food so the kitchen can cook it. We have a planning meet at 2 pm. After a few calls, I am told they are coming! I am surprised but hopeful. At ll am Rra Leburu shows up with a pickup truck and says we will go shopping. The staff development coordinator and I quickly accept his offer. We head off to the store. We find the store will not take our GPO (government purchase order)because the government has bills that are unpaid after 5 years. Our bookkeeper says we are from the education ministry with is different. We are allowed to shop. We divide up the pages of items and set off with our shopping carts.

I pick up 10 dozen eggs, but they are out of the ones we ordered so the new ones are more expensive. We purchase 15 kilos of tomatoes, 10 kilos of green pepper, 10 kilos of rice, 20 kilos of maize, spices but not the ones on the listed since they are out of what is on the list, 5 kilos of bologne, 5 kilos of butter, 15 bottles of cooking oil, 80 loaves of bread and so it goes… hunting brands listed, the price and the quantity. All the time I am doing division with the price to get the amount we can afford. My colleague is getting the chicken, meat, potatoes, cases of cabbages, etc. We have 10 shopping carts. The store manager comes over to assess our individual items. He is haggling with the bookkeeper over quantity and prices. It is 1:30. Our planning meeting starts at two. I depart to open my office with the agenda and text books to be distributed.

The planning meeting goes for hours. Rooms are cleaned and set up for the next day. My colleague has returned with the food. But in the morning he will have to go get our 80 loaves of bread sliced at a nearby school and we have no plates, forks or cups? How will we eat? I suggest eating with our hands. That is rejected. I mention we have no napkins. They think I am talking about nappies or diapers and people are puzzled. We agree I mean serviettes. We also learn there is no transport for 35 or more of our teachers who live in Gaborone and commute…..

That evening I type up the new agenda complete with misspelled names and omission of certain room numbers. I duplicate a few copies and tell people the rest will come after tea. We begin almost on time. Our new headmaster attends. I sit in the back and watch. Our facilitators do a good job of presenting the history of life skills and lead a discussion on the status of HIV in our school. Those present participate. We break into small groups to share our experiences with risk taking. Lunch goes well. There is plenty of food since not all teachers have chosen to attend. Yes, we do have plates, forks, and cups from the school. We break into groups to discuss how to infuse life skill lessons into the curriculum. We are met with skepticism about time and content for one more item in the curriculum but when we reconvene in the large group we have hilarious examples. In teaching goal setting, a physical education teacher uses the names of administrators as targets for serving the volleyball. A Setswana teacher demonstrates how to teach students to give speeches on HIV prevention with all the teachers joining in with great humor and jest.

The next day teachers participate in presenting bystander scenarios about domestic violence, lack of confidentiality and stigma on HIV/AIDS , and the role of sugar daddies giving students sweets in exchange of sex. The acting is wonderful. We are all involved. We have felt and seen the roles of our colleagues in different contexts.

We finish of the workshop with a panel of nurses from the hospital answering questions previously written by the participants. Everyone has stayed to listen despite wanting to leave early to travel for the holiday. We finish. The job has been done! We may not have trained all the teachers, but those who attended were involved. I am relieved.