I held a training session yesterday for the department... we covered some basics of Microsoft Word that will hopefully help them in the long run. It was a great session - I felt comfortable getting up there and training the crew, while we joked around and made it fun and interactive... I don't think they are too accustomed to being asked to participate or called upon, so when I started asking them to take part and demonstrate to the others how to do certain things in Word, you could see the surprise in their faces. It's a good surprise though, I want them to build that confidence.
You should have seen the excitement on their faces when I taught them the icons for Increase/Decrease Indent with Bullets and Numbering... (One quote I got was..."I always just hit the space bar and I can never line things up.") Or shortcuts for Copy, Paste, Undo, and Print (Ctrl C, V, Z, or P). Find/Replace was also a big one. They literally spent the rest of the day with smiles and would say to me "Ctrl Z! Ctrl P!" It was pretty funny. Next week is a review of MS Excel, and they asked that we do some sort of computer training once a week, which is perfect.
This is a good test for me too - to see how well I can teach. The key is patience, and I am normally so used to knowing these applications, being quick on the keyboard, using shortcuts, etc. Even at home when I show my parents things on the computer I tend to fly through and explain too quickly - that's just natural to me. But yesterday I think I did well - patient, slow, allowed time for questions and could gauge when they understood and re-review. Simple things can go a long way.
Here are a few other photos I took walking down Main Street, Bizana the other day around lunchtime...
Walking towards the main intersection in Bizana... traffic always gets a bit heavier at lunchtime
Hawker stands are all over the streets... a look at how they set up their tents everyday... Ingonyama (straight ahead) is the market I normally walk to for a drink or a snack.
Next door to the Municipality building is a school that I can see from where I sit. Here's one of the classes doing their lesson outside.
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