Preschool Teacher Training in Maputo

The work to start a preschool teacher training in Maputo is progressing. I am commuting between Swaziland and Mozambique almost every week. Last week we managed to have a meeting with the vice director and three staff members of the faculty of Education at the University of Maputo. They are willing to work with us and they also want to join our Africa-network. A very positiv meeting that can be important for the recognition of the training.

 Picture: Meeting with staff from the Universidade Pedagogica, Maputo. To my left: Magaly, a missionary from Brasil who work with preschools. She also participated in the meeting.
 
I also had an interview with a lady who can teach Early Childhood Education,  and made arrangement to have office and classroom for the training at Centro Juvenil Ingrid Chawner, a street children's centre started by PYM in Maputo.

Saturday we took a tour to Mbambane, the capital city, to do some shopping and a haircut. Afterwards we rested on a sun bed at Logogo Sun hotel. I had a swim in the pool. It is good to have a break in the weekend.
Next week I am going back to Maputo to finalize the work with the application for the training there.

Visit to cultural village

We took the Norwegian students doing there fieldwork here in Swaziland for a little tour around Ezulwini vally. We visited Swazi candle where we saw how these famous candels are made, and also a lot of other handicraft. We also visited another centre for local craft, and then the cultural village where one can see how a traditional Swazi homestead looks like.

 We also got to see traditional swazi dances, and the Norwegian students were invited to participate!


The Preschool here has now started to use also the outdoor area as a classroom. Under a three there is a nice shade and  a very pleasent place for storytelling.

Watch out!
On the way to Mozambique we passed this sign. It is better to wach out, especially if one is walking this way!

Swaziland and Mozambique,

Back in Swaziland by the beginning of February, I have visited our demonstration preschool at Helemisi some times. Very nice children! We agreed on the last staff meeting to start a project on making this preschool one of the best in Swaziland. All staff will give their ideas in the next meeting!

Last week I also did a quick two days visit to Maputo. I met with Bernardo Muthemba who is working to get our application to start a preschool teacher training through all the different offices. He has also done a great job by finding a number of documents that need to follow such an application. Leif Listgaard, a Swedish missionary at the street children's centre in Maputo also took part in the meetings.

The picture: Bernardo with his wife and two children, a neigbour and a friend of the children, with me in from of Bernardo's house.

I also had a meeting with the director and three staff members of the Faculty of Education at the Universidade Pedagogica. They seemed positive to assist us, and we hope they will sign our certificates. This will give our preschool training a good reputation. The Director also was interested in cooperation with our Competence Building Network for Early Childhood in South and East Africa.  We will soon have a new meeting with them.

Another nice happening this week was that Kirsti had invited a number of our friends here for a celebration of my 60. birthday. We had Mrs. and Mr. Tsabedze, Mrs. and Mr. Khumalo, Lars Blystad, Lars Olsen, Mr. and Mrs. Thwala, Evy Surdal and Mrs. and Mr. Dlamini (Absalom and Flora). Kirsti had a nice picture show about different aspects of my life, and had made a song, there were speches and a song from the guests and also nice messages from our daugheters, sons in law and grandchildren. A memorable evening.

Summerfield was a nice frame around the occation. The menu was very good!

Kirsti and me listening to one of the good speeches!