Ministry business

So, I went to the Ministry of Agriculture today. I went with a little idea. The idea was to somehow make a cook book, one page or two for each month, and include recipes using food that is super cheap that month. Right now avocados are literally being given away, so for June, you could have avocados and green pepper or whatever. What ever is dirt cheap at that time. About 2 recipes for each month, and all in pictorial form. Maybe cartoons or photos - depending on what is more affordable. Photos would be better I guess. At the back we could have some food preservation techniques for when there is not so much growing. In November there is the hunger gap, right before the Summer, when there is traditionlly not much seasonal fruit and veg available. If food is preserved; dried, made into jam or chutney, then it can be used in these times.

The ladies at the Ministry were super enthusiastic and want to talk about making a DVD of these recipes to be used by home economics extension workers when they have community meetings. It could be used to spread the word about preserving food and also eating more seasonaly, which is of course more affordably. The hunt is on now for some cash. It does feel like it has exploded from a little idea to a bit of a potential craziness. She asked us to come one the radio too and talk about the project. Next step Hollywood!

Feel it! It is cold!

This is a picture of me this morning in the office when I arrived. There was frost on the ground, and in a country with no central heating and poorly fitting doors and windows - that's no joke!! I'm getting laughed at for not putting on the heater. There's not much awareness of global warming here. Environmental issues are basically off the radar, so it's polystyrene cups and two bar heaters all the way. I can hear the polar bears crying, so I have a hat, a two scarfs and gloves with the fingers cut off so I can type. This and vegetarianism has cemented my team's view that I am a bit weird. :o)

We have trained about 1300 people at the moment. It's so hard to evaluate whether the training is effective or not. We are doing pre and post tests to see if people have retained what we have been telling them for the past two days but it's not that easy. One lady, when questionned how she got worse from one day to the next explained how she couldn't write so she gave the test to her friend to do, and a different friend the next day. Unfortunately she chose wrong and got the less clever friend to fill in the post test so it looked like she had actually lost information during the training. If you sit and talk directly to a participant you get the sense that they have learnt and enjoyed the sessions, but to record this in a nonliterate population is very difficult. I would welcome any help in this area!!

The test is 15 identical true and false questions. We now read the questions out together and fill the tests in at the same time to support those who have more difficulty reading. At some point we had to stop and ask the ladies to stop saying 'uh huh' all together when it was true, and 'uh uh' when the answer was false. Some just can't follow. More creativity is needed!!

Vuvuzelas

I was just on the BBC website and saw that there has been 545 complaints about Vuvuzelas on the telly when the football is on.
OK. Let's get some perspective here! I was in Spar yesterday picking up some bits and pieces for lunch. At the entrance, there are three uniformed spar people tooting vuvuzelas, inside there are more staff tooting the things and also another group of staff having a little game inbetween the aisles. Seriously? Not good for the pleasant calming shopping trip. There was little impulse buying going on. What's more annoying is that I want one, and they were sold out.

Another training at an NCP today. We had about 30 NCP caregivers all come to learn about HIV and nutrition. It was really windy which is a challenge when you are trying to train outside. Papers were flapping all over the place. At one point when we were trying to tie down our banner, which we put up at every training for visibility, a chicken cam over and started pecking at the morning break packs. Everyone get a sandwich of polony and cheese, and this cheeky chicken was helping himself. Another moment when I was thinking, this wouldn't happen in London.

People call these chickens village runners, as they are in every village, running around and eating all kind of stuff.

World cup fever!

Feel it! It is here!

World cup here and it's mega in Swaziland. The first game on Friday has everyone very excited. There are big screens going up in big towns and it is anticipated that little work will be done for the next month.

Not so for us!! We have a schedule to keep!!! The team continue to improve the quality of their training and the numbers keep growing. At present we have trained more than 1000 people. Today was one for the first training sessions in and NCP which is a Neighbourhood Care Point. These NCPs care for orphaned and vulnerable children. They attend for play and food, and we are training the volunteers who attend them. The team for each NCP consists of one carer, two teachers and two cooks, and they are all attending the training.

Incidently it's completely freezing here. I'm in Shiselweni at the moment and I think it's one of the only places I've ever been to where it's completely appropriate to pack a hat, scarf and boots and also factor 30 sunblock. The days are hot and the nights are COLD!.

Last weekend we had a great time camping in a cave on top of the biggest granite rock in the world. Amazing! There was about 25 expats all BBQing around a massive fire. We had to hike up the face of the rock to get there and it was proper spiderman style climbing. It's so SO steep, it was a bit scary. Not so for one member of the group who made it up in the dark by the light of a cell phone and in shoes with as much grip as a pair of slippers. I would have died. I was a bit afraid of the cold on the rock, but with enough blankets and getting close enough to the fire I had about 4 hours sleep! Not bad!! There's a really lovely group of people who all socialise together here - mostly NGO workers. They are a lot of fun.