Saturday, February 26, 2011

What we are doing at Common Hope


 Our "office"

Break-out sessions

Every Monday morning from 8:30 to 10:00, we conduct a workshop for 20 Guatemalan leaders of Common Hope. This Monday will be the 4th session and four more to go. The course we've designed with the HR director and Country Manager consists of two weeks of topics dealing with managing yourself, three weeks of leading others and developing teamwork, and two weeks of leading and being a member of teams. Our friend Anne will be visiting us next month and will be leading a session on the cultural implications of working with Americans. So we've even designed a guest lecture!
Then our other major component is a one on one realtionship with eight leaders. Linda mentors five and Jack three. We meet with our mentees three times a week on a wide range of topics. We discuss the topic from the last class, perhaps help with their homework, talk about the relevance to their work, and help them with their English. In teaching English, we are learning about our native language and often struggling for rules. ( Do you know the difference between counting and non-counting nouns?) We are finding it very rewarding and love the enthusiasm and openess of our Guatemalan partners.


Jack in action

  Turning on the projector

Preparing the agenda


2 comments:

  1. I met with a group of interculturalists this afternoon and got some good ideas for my "guest lecture!" Let's skype soon.

    Nothing like teaching to get you to learn your own language rules!

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  2. Your task sounds pretty challenging! Linda, the photo of you turning on the projector is hilarious.

    Yes, teaching English is interesting. Both M. and R. always ask why french is so quirky. Then I flip to english and show them the oddness of our language!

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