Ah, the VSO National Conference – long awaited, but perhaps for the wrong reasons! We were looking forward to it mostly because it was being held by the Lake (good excuse for a bit of a jolly) and there was to be a book exchange (been running a bit low on reading material). The resort was really good actually, nice grounds with lots and lots of rose bushes dotted about, odd in the middle of Africa though…
On the first afternoon we had a meeting with someone from DFID. They are proposing to increase the number of volunteers in the health sector here from the 40 or so here now to about 150 by 2010 and wanted our opinion on whether it would be a good thing, what the problems might be etc etc. Its such a difficult thing to think about because on the surface of it, it would be great to have lots more people here, especially in teaching and facilitation roles but I’m pretty sure most would get sucked into service provision and gap-filling which when the money runs out will only leave everything in a worse state.
The theme of the conference was sustainability, so we had lots of little presentations from all the different programs about how this is working in their area. It was good to meet other people and see what they’ve been up to. There was some entertainment too – first night we had some traditional dancing, a line of men dressed up like policemen for some reason and women looking very smart in matching chitenjis and head dresses. They shuffled up and down and round in a circle a couple of times, whistle tooting every now and again, drummer beating his heart out. It was ok, not amazing, but incredibly funny after we’d noticed that one of the men’s flies was undone – thankfully no willy winking at us! They shuffled off after a bit and men wearing raggy costumes and monkey masks came out to prance around. The next night was a talent show and disco…enough said!
On the first afternoon we had a meeting with someone from DFID. They are proposing to increase the number of volunteers in the health sector here from the 40 or so here now to about 150 by 2010 and wanted our opinion on whether it would be a good thing, what the problems might be etc etc. Its such a difficult thing to think about because on the surface of it, it would be great to have lots more people here, especially in teaching and facilitation roles but I’m pretty sure most would get sucked into service provision and gap-filling which when the money runs out will only leave everything in a worse state.
The theme of the conference was sustainability, so we had lots of little presentations from all the different programs about how this is working in their area. It was good to meet other people and see what they’ve been up to. There was some entertainment too – first night we had some traditional dancing, a line of men dressed up like policemen for some reason and women looking very smart in matching chitenjis and head dresses. They shuffled up and down and round in a circle a couple of times, whistle tooting every now and again, drummer beating his heart out. It was ok, not amazing, but incredibly funny after we’d noticed that one of the men’s flies was undone – thankfully no willy winking at us! They shuffled off after a bit and men wearing raggy costumes and monkey masks came out to prance around. The next night was a talent show and disco…enough said!
I did have some lovely swims in the Lake, at dawn...(never mind about the bilharzia...)
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