Work Team

Things have been busy, but good lately in our work. Some things that do not fall within the "regular" work duties have taken place. I have written some of them down below and will try and upload pictures on a separate post at a later date. Pictures are still being problematic and, unfortunately, I will be in the field during the next several days. Since I won't have access to the internet, I won't be able to work on posting pictures until I get back. I hope to also post some of what we are doing in the field at that time. Until then, these descriptions will have to do...

Work Team

In February we were busy preparing for and the hosting (for only part of their 2-week trip) a work team from Canada. The team was composed of 10 people all together that split into two groups so as to work on two projects. One of the sub-teams went to Junam to put the roof on the guest house at the archdeaconry headquarters. This guest house will serve as a place to host guests of the archdeaconry and also be an income generating project for Archdeaconry Planning and Development Committee (APDC) activities. We work closely with the Junam APDC on goat rearing and other projects. The second sub-team went to Koboko and finished the gables in preparation for the final roofing on the new archdeaconry headquarters office block. The Koboko APDC, which we also work closely with, will occupy part of the building. Folks on the team and in the host communities seemed to find the experience to be positive.

HIV/AIDS Workshop

There were also in February a number of CRWRC meetings and trainings in Limuru, Kenya (outside of Nairobi). In the middle of the program, there was a three-day workshop on the justice issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. The workshop went off well with excellent speakers telling their experiences of living with HIV/AIDS, site visits to programs helping people living with HIV/AIDS in a variety of ways, and break-out workshop sessions on issues dealing with advocacy, programming, health, stigma, culture, behavior modification, and more. CRWRC is attempting to take this challenge on in a more systematic and intentional way in the future. We now have a regional HIV/AIDS Coordinator in our East and Southern Africa Ministry Team (ESAMT) that helps to support the work being done within each country.

Country Team Meeting

In early March we had our quarterly Country Team Meeting. These meetings are important because the team is moving in such a variety of directions. There is need every quarter to come together and give each other updates, identify issues affecting the entire team, set priorities and develop strategies, and plan for upcoming events. These times are also important for building the team, reconnecting with each other, and providing mutual moral support.