March 3: Setup Day for Bissa Barka training

It was nice to have a full day (today) to prepare for the training phase of the workshop (starting tomorrow). We logged a 10-hour workday today, as we did our best to make sure everything is ready for tomorrow.

Alphonse, the Logistics Manager/Coordinator for the workshop, spent a lot of time on his cell phone, contacting each of the 25 people or so who are supposed to be present tomorrow, reminding them of the fact that this event starts tomorrow at 8:00 AM. I invited Pam (Consultant-in-Training/Coordinator), Ernest (Consultant-in-Training), Alphonse, and Thomas (Record-keeper) to ask whatever questions they had about the workshop. They responded to my invitation with questions that ranged from how to organize the meals to what each of the various roles entailed to how the computer program works that we'll be using. When they had asked about all that they were aware that they were curious about, I had some questions for them, so we talked about some of those details.

We went to the Catholic Multi-purpose Facility where we'll be having the workshop and looked at the two rooms that will be available to us. I was pleased to learn that there are two large blackboards as well as a screen that we should be able to make use of when I have a presentation to make from my computer. Tables and benches have been lined up for the trainees, so it feels like we're pretty much set for the kickoff tomorrow.

At the end of the day, I successfully installed the software we'll be using on four different computers. There were a few panic-filled minutes, however, when I discovered that I had not brought the installation file for the program with me and we had to download it from the internet. Fortunately, the Bissa Barka translation team has a monthly subscription to the internet that provided us with a sufficiently good connection to download the file (180Mb) in about 30 minutes. While that was happening, I explained to them how multiple people can work together on a shared database. They haven't been doing that to this point, so this workshop will be the start of something new for them in that way.

All in all, it was a productive but very tiring day. Time now to get some rest in preparation for the first day of training tomorrow.

Burkina Faso countryside, nearing the end of the dry season (Kevin, March 2, 2015).

A full load and a good vantage point (Kevin, March 2, 2015).

Kevin Warfel