Blog Post 25 – Closing Remarks

Agenda:

Prayer and Introductions

Group Register

Vegetable trainings

AOB

Closing Remarks and Prayer

Typical IDE agenda. You start with a prayer, then take a list of everyone present. Do the important stuff, any other business, and then turn to the makuas and guests too add some words of wisdom. Finally the chairman can give a little speach. And then someone prays. Interestingly enough, it seems that of all things, the closing remarks are always transcribed word for word in the minutes. Notes of the trainings themselves are usually quite limited.

So lets ask the makua: what are your closing remarks? How did it go? Was the placement a success?

Well, IDE is an NGO. They serve farmers, which is to say farmers are the clients. And the farmers want me to stay, so my work with IDE was a success.

EWB is an NGO. At EWB we serve field staff, which is to say Willard is my client. And he wants me to stay, so my work with EWB was a success.

Mike is not an NGO. But he had a pretty sweet time in Zambia. He got to explore an African country that not many foreigners go to. He built a solar dryer, spent time teaching kids C++ at the secondary school, lived in a small hut in a village for about 2 months and had his own garden and spent time every day farming. He tasted good food, and terrible food, and ate so much, and then tried to work it all off pedalling my bike through a sand bog every day to work. He got to learn some Tonga, and see the confused look on old ladies' faces when he greeted them in the morning. Transcribe that into the minutes, and call it what you like, but Mike is calling it a pretty sweet success!