Tanzania, Day 6

July 22 2010

Another busy day, made doubly so because of the energetic activity of my intestines. Really, I thought the Dukoral medication was supposed to take care of this sort of thing. Maybe it mostly is.

Today in the workshops we worked in earnest on the occupational analyses, using DACUM. At first we tried an informal example (coming up with an occupational profile for a football/soccer player), thinking this would be a fun sort of warm-up. But our students didn't seem at all familiar with the working life of a professional athlete. After the tea-break we moved into the main event, designing a detailed occupational analysis for the positions they are preparing their students for (yes; bad sentence construction there, I know). With this activity, our group moved forward quickly & worked hard & long. They were so reluctant to leave it before finishing that we took an extra 15 minutes into the lunch break to work.

We went back to the St. Gaspar Convention Centre for lunch, a place we have frequented several times this week. I believe that our host, who is extremely hospitable, is thinking that because this location is a 'western' sort of establishment it will be more familiar for us. It's the facility that the Tanzanian NGO's use for conferences etc. But the service is amazingly slow. There were 6 staff waiting on our little group of 7; nobody else in the entire huge restaurant & yet it took an hour to get the food & they mixed up one of the orders.

Oh well; never mind: we weren't that hungry anyway (thanks to intestines) & besides the late start & long wait made for a very short afternoon session by the time we arrived back at the Institute.

Afterwards, we went back to the market to pick up my Tanzanian outfit. Amazing! The blouse was completed (even lined) & it fits like a second skin. In fact it is maybe a bit too tight but the centre back seam is generous enough to give me room to let it out. Doug had Anne's measurements so they will have hers ready tomorrow. The fabrics in the tailoring area of the market are beautiful; there is quite a bit more variety than we saw in Nyeri, in Kenya.

So it was very much a sort of we-went-here & we-did-this sort of day. Not much else to tell. We did our post-workshop de-brief, had a bite of supper (intestines quiet by this time) & even managed to get on the internet for an hour.

And now I have one more workshop session to prepare before bed.