Well here’s a pretty how-de-do! To quote Gilbert and Sullivan.
I had a good time when I was teaching. I managed to work my passage on numerous school trips – Moscow and Leningrad, skiing in Northern Italy and several weeks cruising the canals of England but nothing can prepare me for this one. Working at the EBU has taken me to a variety of places I probably would not have visited – Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey are possibilities I suppose, Portugal and Tunisia less so, but this invite came out of the blue.
Where am I off to? Gaborone in Botswana. Before you scurry off to find a globe or the atlas I can tell you it’s the large country north west of South Africa and south west of Zimbabwe. It is sparsely populated (about 1.9M) and famous for the Kalahari Desert. It is rarely in the news unlike its nearest neighbours. Many people will know of Botswana through Alexander McCall Smith's, The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency but probably not for much else.
It all came about because of a chance email last autumn. As part of my EBU job I offer advice on how to set up bridge teacher training courses so I answered an email telling them how to go about things. I always say that I am willing to come and do the course for them. It wasn’t until I got the return reply saying ‘that’s all very interesting, but we are in Botswana. Do you want to come?’
So the Botswana Bridge Federation invited me at their expense to go over to run a Teacher Training Course for 25 of their members. I’ve added in some TD training to make it a full week and I’m nearly ready to go.
The EBU kindly donated course materials (which left about a month ago) and my time. We start at 8am on Monday morning.
I had a good time when I was teaching. I managed to work my passage on numerous school trips – Moscow and Leningrad, skiing in Northern Italy and several weeks cruising the canals of England but nothing can prepare me for this one. Working at the EBU has taken me to a variety of places I probably would not have visited – Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey are possibilities I suppose, Portugal and Tunisia less so, but this invite came out of the blue.
Where am I off to? Gaborone in Botswana. Before you scurry off to find a globe or the atlas I can tell you it’s the large country north west of South Africa and south west of Zimbabwe. It is sparsely populated (about 1.9M) and famous for the Kalahari Desert. It is rarely in the news unlike its nearest neighbours. Many people will know of Botswana through Alexander McCall Smith's, The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency but probably not for much else.
It all came about because of a chance email last autumn. As part of my EBU job I offer advice on how to set up bridge teacher training courses so I answered an email telling them how to go about things. I always say that I am willing to come and do the course for them. It wasn’t until I got the return reply saying ‘that’s all very interesting, but we are in Botswana. Do you want to come?’
So the Botswana Bridge Federation invited me at their expense to go over to run a Teacher Training Course for 25 of their members. I’ve added in some TD training to make it a full week and I’m nearly ready to go.
The EBU kindly donated course materials (which left about a month ago) and my time. We start at 8am on Monday morning.
For more details of my trip, please click here.
Little quiz:
What’s the capital of Botswana?
What’s the currency?
Who is the president?
What are the main languages?
Which side of the road do they drive on?
What type of plug adaptors do I need for my computer?
Answers on Monday!
What’s the capital of Botswana?
What’s the currency?
Who is the president?
What are the main languages?
Which side of the road do they drive on?
What type of plug adaptors do I need for my computer?
Answers on Monday!
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