1st day at work

We went into the district offices today to meet with our new colleagues. We were introduced to all the education and health officials together with the local politicians who are responsible for health and education. We then had a meeting with our colleagues from Link Community Development to discuss their action plan. There is lots to do in terms of school improvement and we need to be very focussed. Resources are very scarce and we need to ensure that we make the most effective use of the little money that we have. Tomorrow we will be attending a workshop for all the non-governmental organisations working in the district where we will be able to see if any of them can help us with our work.

Our accomodation is basic but comfortable. There is electricity through a generator which is on from approximately 7 in the evening until about 11, so we can use the laptop then. We have also been given a mobile modem which plugs into the laptop and allows us to access the internet at any time we have a charged laptop - which is how I am typing this update. For a person of my technical expertise, it is amazing to just access the internet sitting on the verandah of our house. The generator is also used by the hotel next door and so during premiership games it is on until the games finish - 12 midnight for mid week games. We are looking forward to lots of power during the Euro semi-finals on Tuesday and Wednesday!

We have tried to make our accomodation as homely as possible and have got lots of family pictures on the wall. It is lovely to see all the wonderful times we have had, but also sometimes makes us a little homesick. We are looking forward to getting on with the job of improving children's learning and getting into schools, when the new term starts at the end of this month.