The training begins...

So we had a nice relaxing weekend (exploring some beaches as well as beautiful waterfalls) and got off to a good start of the program today. Most people have arrived and it's a great mixture of nationalities - Japanese, Brazilian, Austrian, Swiss, Chilean, Finish, Vincentian, and ofcourse me representing Kenya and Holland. Today was mainly introductions and getting to know each other as well as assigning responsibilities. The great thing about this program is that we all take part in the maintenance and running of the school - this is a very important part of the training to develop skills such as building maintenance, gardening, budgeting etc...I got the responsibility of food and supplies shopping - yey! just like my weekly Aldis shopping in Holland ;) But now it's for around 30 people and on a strict budget and only once a week because it's 2 hours to the city! Luckily I'm doing this with one other person, guess who Simona my roommate! And if we forget anything, that's it until next week - stress! I always forget something in the supermarket! But I think it will be a nice opportunity to be in the city for a change ;) There are about 16 different activities which need coordination, which we managed to work out amongst us today - our first 'teamwork' test! I think this first week will be hectic as we try to get organised and find out how things work, where to find things etc and we have a schedule to keep to including theoretical studies as well as community work. The schedule is from breakfast at 7.30am (earlier for those who have to prepare breakfast - taken in turns) until 10pm - most evening are team meetings/team-building activities but also some entertainment eg. a movie, once a week - yey!
Don't worry, it's not like being back in boarding school where everything is organised and taken care of for you - we really have to run everything ourselves. The staff is there to support, as well as taking part and learning from us.
Another good training we've started off with (not planned) is fetching water! The main water pipe broke yesterday morning and it probably can't be fixed for a week so we've been fetching water for the kitchen from the water tanks and we've had to bath and wash our clothes in the river - lucky for us there's a river near by! This has also been great training for team work and survival ofcourse ;)
We're also going to be doing a lot of sport (not like the hilly walks are already exercise enough!). Next to the walks to the community for community work and the hikes in the surrounding areas, we'll be playing sports on the grounds to keep fit. All this is part of the preparation for the projects in Africa which will also be in remote areas with limited resources and poor diets.
Alright, I'll stop boring you. Just one more thing for your general knowledge in case you didn't know - bright blue snails with bright green shells really exist and they are tiny ;)
Take care, till next time...