I survived our training seminar! Nearly four days with all of our combined staff (54 in three offices) – and they got the works:

• Introduction to Agency (global)
• Agency’s 23 year history & current activities
• Program Introduction
• Program Training Modules (Selection, Review & Implementation)

Having three weeks in Kabul to prepare for this program was a real luxury! The training itself went very well – thanks to some very dedicated staff here in Mazar and some imports from Kabul. Exhausting, but good.

Though we planned the training within an inch of its life, there were still last-minute changes. The curve ball I caught was taking on a module I hadn’t developed. The Program Director, got called out for a meeting so I picked up his interactive training module on defining criteria. (Where will we work, what projects will we do and who qualifies to do the work.) Nothing major really, just the whole foundation of the program…

[pause for dramatic effect]

Drama aside, it was a meaty topic and though the explanation of it seemed to go well enough – I quickly found that moving from theory to practice was a rough transition. During one of the interactive sessions, I stopped by a table in the back of the room to see if they needed any help. After going around the topic a couple of times I saw the light bulb go off over one of the participants heads!

It was one of those moments that good teachers get to experience on a regular basis. The ah-ha moment. I was so excited that I blurted out, “you just had an ah-ha moment.”

The participant looked up at me confused. Paused, and then got another huge smile on his face. “You mean oh-ho!” he said.

Ya, I meant oh-ho!

On the last day of the training session, I had my own oh-ho moment. In a small group, I asked a question to clarify a point on culture, I began to apologize for my lack of local knowledge. One of the guys on my team (who speaks English very well) interrupted me to tell me that I had no need to apologize. Apparently they have a saying in Farsi that roughly translates “It’s better to ask than not to know.”

I suppose the English equivalent would be “There’s no such thing as a stupid question”  but frankly, it lacks poetry. Funny how much is made over what is lost in translation. For me, at least this time, I found something in translation. From now on I’m sticking with the Dari version!