Second Day of Planning and Tour of Botannical Gardens

Thursday, July 11^th. SECOND DAY OF PLANNING AND TOUR OF BOTANNICAL GARDENS

We arrived at our second planning meeting at the union offices on time at 10 and found only one of the women (Wendy) already there. The other women drifted in over the next half hour. Jimmy, the course instructor was last. Meanwhile, George told the group what we had talked about last night and what directions we thought we should pursue. The women seemed agreeable. The only woman from the ministry who stayed yesterday came back today but told us she had decided to en-roll as a participant rather than a leader. She said she didn't feel that she knew enough to lead a special ed workshop. It was decided that George and Simonique would do ICT training, while Irnice, Eugena and Netta would do learning difficulties and multiple intelligences while I worked with Wendy and Mavis on Early Childhood Education and some preliminary assessment. All the women have more experience than us with special ed, so that's good. After that we broke up into our groups and set up some early ideas on what the lessons would look like for the first week. My two women are going to do some work on it over the weekend. We'll see what transpires.

Then we had a lunch break (another ho hum starchy box lunch) and then Jimmy took us to the Girls High School where we will be running our sessions. If this is the cream of the crop in the country, as it is supposed to be, it's pretty sad. It would be condemned in Canada. George wanted to see the computer lab and how many computers were there that worked. After some trouble trying to start them all up, he was satisfied and we left after having a very short look at the other classrooms. They are barren, dirty, and the furniture and blackboards are ancient. The school is celebrating a 100 years, and the stuff looks like its been there since the beginning.

Jane and Wayne picked us up and took us to the Botanical Gardens where George hired a tour guide to show us the plants and inform us about them. It was a bit of a spice tour as we saw, tasted and smelled basil, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace, lemongrass, limes, almonds and a few others. We also saw a breeding program for the rare and beautiful St Vincent parrot. The guide was very entertaining and funny.

Back home for a light dinner and another quiet evening typing, talking and reading.