South African Seminar Report: From Vaalwater, South Africa

Despite difficulties with transportation, illness, rescheduling, rerouting, and other general disruptions, the third and final seminar of this trip was successfully completed last week. This group was a bit different from the other two seminars for several reasons. First, the audience was, on average, the youngest we have had yet – most of the participants were around college age. Second, the seminar was in English, but it was a second language for most of the participants, who largely came from South African tribal groups, and their tribal language is their first language. Third, the seminar was remote—all participants stayed on site the entire week, so there were far fewer personal interruptions. It is remarkable how many fewer “emergencies” arise when you are unable to address the day-to-day details of your normal routine. Finally, it was the only seminar without Al and Velma (both were in Johannesburg due to Velma's illness—see my previous post for more information).

The seminar started with a preliminary session on Sunday that, unfortunately, was disrupted when we learned that about half our participants had not received the transportation we had arranged for them. As a result, we had to go pick them up, which caused substantial delays. Fortunately, this was easily managed, once we determined the problem. In addition, some of the students had difficulty with the vocabulary—not everyone had the same level of English ability or literacy. This is an issue that has arisen in more than one seminar, and one which we plan to address—we need to be able to communicate to all audiences, and mixing strong and weak scholastic backgrounds tends to leave those who are not as well-educated behind. Since we are trying to develop everyone, we are looking into ways to plan seminars according to more strict demographics. This may not be necessary in all cases, but for certain groups, I think it will benefit everyone involved. The rest of the seminar went smoothly, and the participants all indicated that the seminar was beneficial in helping them learn new ideas and think about their future.

We have now had three seminars, and three positive responses. Coming out of the past several weeks, there are a few items we have noted all the seminars had in common that we think we can improve, and some clear areas of strength that we should continue to develop. This information is very valuable as it allows us to refine and improve the seminars as we planned. I may address these at greater length in the future, if it doesn't create copyright or participant security issues.

To update, Velma Corson, one of our coordinators, is still in the hospital. Between the initial illness (cerebral malaria) and ensuing complications, it is likely she will have to remain in the hospital for at least seven weeks. Al (her husband) and I have found accommodations in the Johannesburg area for the duration of her stay, though I will probably need to head back to the U.S. before she gets out of the hospital. It is a mark of her dedication that she is already thinking of things we need to do with the seminar while we are in South Africa. There is a great opportunity for development here as well as Mozambique, so we expect that our long-term plans, while modified, remain consistent with our vision: bringing development to the lives of people in Africa and around the world.

Travels and Troubles

I apologize for the late update - this was supposed to go out before the last seminar, but was delayed because of some of the issues described below.

I have just arrived in Vaalwater, South Africa, the site of our third (and final) seminar of my trip. Under normal circumstances, this would mean a two-day trip to our seminar site here. Of course, we were not planning to make a normal trip in. The car we are using is in need of extensive repair—the shocks and struts are both completely non-functional—so we planned to stop in the town of Nelspruit to get repairs done on the car. We had ordered the needed parts in advance (they had to be shipped in from Japan), and were planning to reach Nelspruit about a day after the parts arrived. We would spend about a day there fixing the car, then drive on up to Vaalwater. All in all, the trip would take about four days (one day to get to southern Mozambique, one day to cross the border and reach Nelspruit, one day for repairs, and one day to reach Vaalwater.

Things, of course, have not gone according to plan.

Things went as planned the first day of the trip (Sunday). We left Chimoio early (around 4:00 am), and made as good a time as possible, considering that the main highway between Chimoio and southern Mozambique is comprised of about 40% potholes. We traveled around 800km, stopping for the night around 100km outside Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. The car ride was a bit rough—riding in a car without functioning shocks or struts on a pothole-filled road can be likened to riding in a washing machine mounted on the back of a bad-tempered mule. By the end of the day, we were all stiff and sore, and ready for bed. Al and Velma, who have been coordinating the seminars and were traveling with me, were in a bit worse shape than me, as they are a bit older. Still, the first day went well.

The second day (Monday) also went pretty much according to plan. We crossed the border into South Africa in what I am told is a very short time (less than an hour!), and made it to Nelspruit just before the car shop closed. We confirmed that the parts had arrived, and checked into a local hotel. Al and I were doing a bit better, but Velma thought she might be coming down with something, as she was still a bit out of sorts. Still, the car ride was extremely rough, and she was sitting in the back, so we thought she might just have gotten tossed around a bit more than we did. Still, all's well that ends well—and so ended the second day.

The third day (Tuesday) dawned well, but ended with news that the parts the shop received from Japan were, in fact, the wrong parts. They were going to get new parts from Pretoria, South Africa, but it would take between two and four days for the parts to arrive. Now we had our first significant setback. We decided that we would stay another night, then Velma and I would take a bus to Johannesburg, where we would stay with a friend of ours, Cathie, and her family until we were able to catch a bus up to Vaalwater (Cathie thought it might take until Friday to get a bus). Ok, so we had a setback, but we were still on track—after all, the seminar didn't start until next week. Velma was still feeling a bit under the weather, but felt she could make the trip to Johannesburg. So much for our best-laid plans. Thus ends day three.

Day four (Wednesday) we took a bus to Johannesburg. The trip was about seven hours or so. The bus was, fortunately, quite comfortable, so we had a pretty decent trip down. We arrived at Cathie's house and spent a pleasant evening with her family and another guest who was going to attend the seminar the next week. So we were set back, but we got to meet one of our participants before the seminar started—not a terrible trade-off. We had dinner, watched a movie, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Velma thought she might be coming down with the flu, so she went to bed early. Our fourth day ended with a comfortable night's sleep.

The fifth day (Thursday) afforded us an opportunity to rest. Velma and I stayed at Cathie's and spent some time with her family. Unfortunately, Velma was still feeling unwell. She used a malaria test kit, but the results came back negative, so we will still unsure what the cause of her discomfort was.

Day six (Friday) opened with Velma in a dazed, confused, and generally unresponsive state. She could sit, stand, and move around, but otherwise had a very hard time moving, communicating, or remembering much beyond her own name. Cathie and I took her to an emergency clinic in the morning. The doctor spent about 20 minutes examining her before sending us off to the hospital. He was good enough to call ahead to reserve us a room and get a doctor ready to assist. It turned out Velma's blood pressure was dangerously low. That, coupled with her mental confusion, led him to think she might be suffering from a stroke or other serious ailment. We rushed to the hospital, where I needed to put up the balance of my credit card as collateral until they could confirm Velma's medical insurance. We got her checked in and they began running tests on her within an hour. Once the doctor arrived and they got to work on her, we headed back to the house—sure my partner may be horribly sick, but I still had to get to Vaalwater. Cathie made reservations for a bus trip, contacted Al and everyone else she thought would want to know, and contact the people in Vaalwater to let them know when I would arrive. By the end of the day, we were all worried, exhausted and ready for more news on how Vel was doing. Unfortunately, they were still conducting tests, and we would have to wait until morning.

Still on the sixth day, I also needed to get to Vaalwater. With Al in Nelspruit and Velma sick, I had to go on alone. I got all my things together to head up without Velma. Cathie's sister took me to a bus station in Pretoria where I caught the bus out of town; the bus trip took about four and a half hours. My new host, Marilyn, took me to a farm outside of town (the lodge where the seminar would be held was not ready yet). By this time, the news was that Velma had probably contracted cerebral malaria, a very dangerous strain of malaria that attacks the brain instead of the liver. Al, who was still in Nelspruit with the car decided to forgo waiting for the parts and drove on down to Johannesburg to be with Velma, arriving late that evening. Unable to do much from my position, I went to bed.

This story ends on the seventh day of our adventure (Saturday). The current news is that Velma has a particularly bad case of cerebral malaria—the doctors say she is responding well, but will probably need several weeks of hospitalization and around six months to fully recover. She is still pretty dazed, but is more coherent now. In addition, she has gone into renal failure and is on dialysis. Given her condition, we are conducting the seminar without her or Al. Whatever happens to Velma, she would not forgive me if I didn't get the seminar done. I do not know what our plans after the seminar will be—it depends largely on Velma's status by the end of the week.

Now, on top of all the delays and difficulties, we have one additional problem. Being a non-profit supported by contributions means that we have a very limited amount of funds to work from—and Velma's treatments will most likely exceed our current budgetary limits. Our fundraisers in the states are trying to raise emergency funds, but we don't have much time to waste, as Velma's treatments need to happen as soon as possible. Add to that the cost of transportation and housing (bus rides, hotel bills, etc.) and the cost of the repairs (which may run even higher now that new parts needed to be ordered), and we are in a very tight spot. On the up side, we have made several contacts on this trip which may lead to professional seminars that will generate revenue. Best case, however, is that we get those started within the next year, and even then, we would need both Al and Velma to coordinate activities here in South Africa and in Mozambique. In short, at the time when we have opportunities opening up all over, we a hampered by breakdowns, illness, and a shortage of funds. Please understand, this is not a complaint, just a realistic portrayal of our current situation. Starting up an organization, even one meant to improve the lives of people throughout a country (or two), is not easy.

That's all I had as of just before the seminar. The seminar itself went extremely well, and I plan to post more on that later. Velma is still in critical condition. The over the last week she has suffered (and marginally recovered from) liver, kidney, and lung failure. The doctors say she will have to remain in the hospital for at least 6 weeks, and even then, they are not calculating any chances for survival - it is an hour-by-hour situation. If she makes it, she will need to remain in South Africa for several months - at least until the end of the year. We are revising our plans to accommodate the new situation, but we are not giving up or planning in any way to quit.

Life can be exciting, yes? I will update again as soon as the situation allows.

Portuguese Seminar Report

Last week we conducted the first Insight Seminar in Portuguese. I am pleased to report the seminar was a resounding success! During the feedback session (and really throughout the entire seminar), the participants related their interest and enthusiasm for the material. They told us it was some of the most difficult work they had ever had to do, but they believed it was well worth it. Several participants implored us to continue to conduct the seminars in Mozambique. They believed these seminars could transform the economy and standard of living for the entire country, if enough people could participate. It was interesting to see 1) how difficult working with this material really was for the participants, and 2) how quickly they were able to absorb the new concepts and information presented.

I must emphasize that the participants in this seminar included a wide range of very intelligent people. Education levels and occupations ranged from elementary education to trained professionals. The issues encountered were not intellectual, but cultural – the concepts and ideas we discussed were, in many cases, literally brand new. This was expected; after all, how can someone be familiar with concepts that are not part of their culture? Yet the participants, once they understood the basic principles we were presenting, were eager to learn and develop these ideas. Moreover, they did not seem to evidence any need to conform to western idioms regarding the implementation of these principles. That is, they planned to apply these principles as Mozambicans within the context of Mozambican society.

This is not to say we did not encounter obstacles during the seminar. In fact, part of our goal was to identify issues in translation and communicating content, and we encountered both. Our translation was done very well, but the material was translated into European Portuguese, which is noticeably different from Mozambican Portuguese. During the seminar, we were able to identify several vocabulary differences which we will address as we update the seminar material. In addition, we discovered which presentation methods were particularly effective as well as what impeded communication of our basic concepts.

Our third seminar will be held in South Africa, where the seminars were first developed. This seminar will be in English, and should give us a chance to apply some of the lessons learned during the first English seminar. Given the success of the previous two seminars in Mozambique, we are eager to see how the material is received in its place of origin.

Seminar Report: March 7-11 2011

The first seminar in Mozambique was conducted last week. I am pleased to report that both the participants and the presentation team concluded that the seminar was a success! Our first seminar was English-speaking and consisted of 10 participants, one presenter (that's me), and two support staff. The participants were a diverse group comprised of Western missionaries (from English-speaking countries such as South Africa and the US), one African missionary (from another African country), and Mozambican nationals. All the participants responded to the seminar positively and provided excellent feedback on ways we can improve the presentation and seminar material. 

When we set up the seminar, we initially wondered how the diverse set of backgrounds possessed by the participants would impact the learning environment. As it turned out, there were several differences due to the participants' experiences, education, and cultures, but those differences didn't create any substantial barriers or hindrances to the seminar experience. Everyone found the seminar challenging – since it is designed to be challenging, we consider this a success – but in different ways, depending on their backgrounds. 

The clearest lines of difference can be drawn between the Western/Mozambican cultural backgrounds previously mentioned. The Westerners found the seminars to be challenging exercises that expanded and reinforces core principles and assumptions they understood as important to personal and professional development. One participant described the seminar as "common sense in a different way". Another noted that while the principles were familiar, the seminar pushes you to get out of your "rut". The Mozambicans, by contrast, found much of the content to be unfamiliar, if not completely new. They were very excited about the material, as it provided new tools and ways of approaching problems that they had not considered before. One Mozambican described the experience as a huge opportunity to change the way [Mozambicans] think, to change the way they impact their environment and how they can change their environment as they go out into their community."

This was exactly as we had expected and reinforces our theory that part of the difficulty facing Mozambicans in their interaction with Westerners is not so much cultural procedures (customs, dress, moral codes, etc.) as conceptual approaches – the two groups quite literally think differently. Note that this does NOT mean that one group is smarter than another – all the participants evidenced a high level of intelligence and insight during the seminar. It only means that the cultural difficulties experienced in Western-Mozambican relations are as much conceptual as linguistic or procedural.

 

Moving Along:

As we move into the Portuguese seminar, we have two distinct challenges ahead of us. First, we must be able to communicate the concepts of the seminar in another language. Anyone who has done translation work knows the difficulties involved in such a venture. Second, as the Portuguese participants will be entirely Mozambicans, we need to make sure that we do not run ahead of our audience. As evidenced in the first seminar, Westerners tend to treat many of these ideas as assumptions, where Mozambicans see them as new information. The tendency, then, will be to assume certain concepts or ideas are already understood. In this context, I think such assumptions would constitute a critical mistake. I am currently working with our translator to determine the best way to communicate our concepts and pace ourselves so that everyone is able to keep up with the material.

Only time will tell if our approach is successful. If we are, then I think we have a great platform for revolutionizing education and training in Mozambique. If we are not, we will need to reassess based on our feedback from both sessions, and try a new approach based on the input we receive. It is always a learning process, even when we are successful, but that's part of the fun.

Arrival in Mozambique

After approximately 20 hours of travel time (not counting my layover in Johannesberg, South Africa), I finally arrived in Mozambique. I have several pictures that I plan to post later, but for now, let me give some initial impressions:

• Mozambique is different - you might think this is an obvious statement, but that's probably because you've never been in a country like this one. If compared to US concepts of wealth, Mozambique is clearly poor. Once you get past the superficial differences, though, you can see the kind of lifestyle the people here live isn't intended to match up to western norms. It will take me a while to disentangle my conception of prosperity and poverty from my impression of Mozambique's people, but in order to understand where the real points of concern are for the people here, I will have to try. If you try to help with a problem that is only a problem for you, you don't end up helping much.
• I am a definate minority - this isn't the first time I've been a minority, but it's always a little disorienting at first. Right now, my most important task regarding the people here is to get to know them. Most don't trust Americans in general, though my hosts, Al and Vel Corson, seem to have a pretty good relationship with many of the people here. It will be a bit difficult getting to know people myself, due to my lack of Portugeese-speaking power, but there are enough English speakers here that I think I will be able to get to know people fairly well before I leave. I have a couple of guys here who have already informed me that I will know at least a little Portugeese before I leave.
• I have already met several people who are coming to the seminars, and interest is high. I look forward to the experience of presenting the material, as I am sure the feedback and questions will be much different from what I have recieved in the States.

That's all for now - more information to come later!