Livingstone

Greetings from Livingstone! We completed our final training of the trip on Saturday. A group of 21 special and basic school teachers (and the provincial inspector of special schools) from the Livingstone area schools gathered, on a Saturday on their holiday no less. We spent a few hours training and discussing issues related to inclusion, employment preparation, and advancing changes in schools. Since the training was in one of the school's three computer labs with legitatimate high-speed internet (the fastest in Zambia I think--they even had a SmartBoard) we couldnt pass on the opportunity to introduce the group to the College of Direct Support training program. After a brief crash course and discussion about how to overcome the internet/computer accessibility challenges we let people check it out on their own. Some people obviously hadn't used a computer/mouse before, let alone the internet. Those that had were able to practice and demonstrate using the program with less computer-experienced teachers by test driving a lesson. The engagement and enthusiasm was high. It was a great thing to witness and I am confident that a few of the teachers will use the program in the future. This morning we ran into the head master of the school the training was conducted at--he reported that he received 12 calls of appreciation and satisfaction about the training. In an informal evaluative sense, we feel we were at least successful reaching some of the teachers.

There may be one more work task involved here in that we may be on the radio on Tuesday morning to be interviewed about disability and the work we've been doing here. Apparently the show is wide-reaching in Livingstone, so this would be a good opportunity to reach many people.