A very wet workshop...
on A Zambian Experience (Zambia), 31/Jan/2010 10:13, 34 days ago
Last week I experienced the true nature of the saying‘when it rains it pours’. Picture the scene…It’s the afternoon of my first ever workshop! The moment I’ve been waiting for. Afterall, it’s one of the many challenging experiences of a VSO (deliverying that fantastic workshop, which is aimed to blow the minds of your colleagues and also reassure yourself that you’ve done the right thing by moving half way across the world and leaving all your loved ones behind).I’m expecting quite a few people from my organisation to attend and I’m going in early to prepare the flipchart. I leave around 12.00 hours on my bicycle. The laptop is on my back alongside copious amounts of notes/handouts and notebooks. I’m gently cycling up the hill on my way to the office,when the heavens decide to open… I struggle up the hill as the bike gets slower and slower and the rain gets heavier and thicker. I then decide to peddle as fast as I can, believing that the faster I peddle the less amount of rain I’m going to encounter. Somehow that theory is total nonsense andafter what feels like buckets of water being thrown at me, I arrive at the office soaked to the bone. Laptop is soaked, mobile phone soaked and my notes are in shreds. I wait for 2 hours for the first attendee to attend my workshop and I’m still walking around as if I have wet myself. 3 hours later the calvary arrive and I begin my presentation minus the notes and minus the laptop.Instead I managed to deliver everything on the flipchart which is the only thing that isn’t soaking wet and at last I have a workshop. Despite the hiccups it went well and I have taken on board my colleagues advise which is to always carry my electronics wrapped in plastic bags in a secure rucksack. It’s simple advise and duly noted! Luckily the phone and PC are now dry after a fewdays in a make-shift airing cupboard. I was lucky!