Day 4 began with Catherine finally arriving in Tamale after three flight delays due to the bad weather across the U.S. She wasn’t given much time to settle in as the teams all departed that morning for their first visit to the villages in which they would hopefully be working. Catherine met her team, Team 1, and was off. For the first half of the day, the teams all took water samples from their village dugouts and attempted to schedule the first meeting with the village chief and elders for the next day.
Welcome, Catherine! The Winter Fellowship Session 1 is now complete! Team 1 loads into their cab with their translator, Wahab, to go meet their village, Chani!Team 2 loads into their taxi with their translator, TJ, and head out to meet their new village, Yipela!Team 3 was paired up with the CWS pickup truck and Peter as their translator! They head out to meet their village, Kpallabisi!Team 4 got the posh jeep with Shak as their translator. Heading out to meet their village, Zamzugu!
The teams all returned successful. Many had informal meetings with the chief while they were in their villages that morning. All of the teams scheduled an official meeting for the next morning. The fellows returned from their village visits in great spirits and proceeded to test the samples they had taken from their village dugouts. The next day they would bring the results with them to their chief meetings.
Heather helped explain the water testing to her newly arrived teammate. Catherine caught on quickly and did her team's water tests from that morning.
Luke and Heather reading the results of the tests they'd performed yesterday.Lauren had some trouble reading the lab results...
For the last part of the day, the teams went off with their translators to rehearse their upcoming chief meetings. (Each team had selected one member to lead the meeting so as not to confuse the translator or intimidate the chief. ) We ended the day’s training with each team giving me one final run through of the meeting.
Team 2 working with TJ on their chief meeting the next morning. The team nominated Hanna to lead the meeting.
Team 3 working with Peter on their chief meeting. Lauren was nominated to lead the meeting.
Team 4 works with Shak on their chief meeting the next morning. The team decided that Kevin would lead the meeting.
Luke and Wahab simulate the full chief meeting with their team in the CWS office. Obviously, I played the role of the chief. 😉
After the initial bows, Luke, with the help of Wahab, introduced himself and summarized his reason for requesting the meeting.
Luke and Wahab then settled in for the full discussion and Q&A that occurs in these meetings. They did a great job and, after just a little feedback, were ready for the real meeting the next morning.
To celebrate the beginning of the teams' projects and Luke's birthday, we went out to eat!
