This past weekend I went to a farewell party with all my students and parents. It was great to hang out with them all again before I have to leave. Also I got some really nice presents which was unexpected! All of them were very thoughtful, but I especially love the poster of all the kids' school photos taken in April. It's rolled up right now for transport so I can't post it, but maybe when I get home. I also loved the book full of pictures that all the kids drew for me, including a letter written by one of my students. He hates writing but he wrote a whole page! So cute! It was a wonderful party and I'm going to miss them all so much, including the parents.
On Sunday, I finally made it to the Joburg theme park Gold Reef City. It was actually quite a nice theme park, even though some of the big rides were closed. Also, winter decided to come to Johannesburg on Sunday, which was quite unexpected (well not unexpected given the time of year, just sudden). Roz and I went on a water ride, expecting not to get too wet, but we got wet, especially Roz. And we stayed that way for the rest of the day and now we both have colds. Anyway, it was worth it! After that we went on a couple of spinny rides. Apparently my inner ear is not what it used to be. I blame my dad. He never goes on any rides and when I was younger I thought "Why? Are you crazy?", now I understand. So, I wasn't sick, but we didn't go on any more rides. Instead we walked through the petting zoo, looked at the old miners' houses and pictures from the mines, and went to a snake show. I was picked as a volunteer and the handler put a Burmese python on me. I was actually kind of expecting it so it wasn't too scary. I would have been a lot more afraid if he put a spider or scorpion on me like he did with the kids.
Overall, it was a great last weekend in Johannesburg. Rachel arrives next Sunday morning and from there we'll be traveling around until we leave on July 4th. I may or may not be able to update between now and then. If not, I'll write about our travels when we get back to Ottawa and then my Jo'Blog will be finished!
Tuesday 11 June 2013
Wednesday 5 June 2013
Trip to Zambia
Firstly, I apologize for the lateness of this post. I don't know why I keep relocating. Arriving in a new place, though difficult, is at least exciting. Leaving is just stressful and depressing. I am of course excited to be going home soon, but I just wish I didn't have so much to do before then!
Anyway, this past weekend I went to Lusaka, Zambia to give a presentation on the basics of applied behaviour analysis and to provide some direct supervision to my BCBA (Board Certified Behaviour Analyst) candidate. For those of you who don't know the deal, I am a BCBA, and to become a BCBA you must be supervised by one. Alice (my supervisee) found me through the BACB website and I started supervising her work at the end of January. We were hoping to do this trip so I could see where she worked and maybe give a presentation as well, and thankfully it worked out before I had to go home!
I arrived Friday morning after a 6:30am flight. We got some breakfast and then headed to the clinic where Alice works. Since her clients had not come in for the day, we went to the special school on the hospital property. After that we visited an international school that another one of her clients attends. The difference between the government school and the private school was extreme. I especially remember a single metal slide as the playground equipment in the special school, as opposed to many swings, slides, bikes, etc. at the international school. Of course the classroom equipment was also very different.
After our tours, it was time for my presentation. I think about 30-40 people attended, but I'm not very good at estimating. The need for more behaviour analysis was made much more apparent during and after the presentation. There were many parents who asked me specific questions about their children, far too many for just one behaviour analyst in all of Lusaka. It's a difficult situation and a slow process but I'm happy and excited to at least be part of the change.
That night, I went out with Alice's family and friends to a restaurant called Marlin. Their specialty is pepper steak, so guess what I had! It was delicious. After that, I went back to stay with one of Alice's friends who also happens to be my good friend Marissa's cousin! Now that is the definition of a small world!
The next morning, we started off with a parent meeting before a small encore presentation. This time we only had 7 attendees but still, some very concerned and interested parents and teachers. After the presentation, we had a couple more client meetings and then finally got to relax a little! We got dressed up and went to an 80s birthday party Saturday night. I think three Zambian men tried to help me learn to dance, but all gave up. I think I'm pretty hopeless, at least by real African standards (as opposed to South African standards). But, I had a good time nevertheless.
Sunday morning we had a final quick client observation, followed by a nice long chat over breakfast. I got to the airport by 11:30 for my supposedly 1:20 flight. Unfortunately we didn't get off the ground until about 3:50 due to a system failure. It was not cool. Thankfully though the passport control man in South Africa made up for it by not asking too many questions (border guards freak me out, even if I'm just going from Canada to the US).
All in all, it was a very busy weekend and while maybe not a successful weekend in terms of travel, I did still get to see some differences between South Africa and Zambia, and it was an extremely successful weekend professionally.
Anyway, this past weekend I went to Lusaka, Zambia to give a presentation on the basics of applied behaviour analysis and to provide some direct supervision to my BCBA (Board Certified Behaviour Analyst) candidate. For those of you who don't know the deal, I am a BCBA, and to become a BCBA you must be supervised by one. Alice (my supervisee) found me through the BACB website and I started supervising her work at the end of January. We were hoping to do this trip so I could see where she worked and maybe give a presentation as well, and thankfully it worked out before I had to go home!
I arrived Friday morning after a 6:30am flight. We got some breakfast and then headed to the clinic where Alice works. Since her clients had not come in for the day, we went to the special school on the hospital property. After that we visited an international school that another one of her clients attends. The difference between the government school and the private school was extreme. I especially remember a single metal slide as the playground equipment in the special school, as opposed to many swings, slides, bikes, etc. at the international school. Of course the classroom equipment was also very different.
After our tours, it was time for my presentation. I think about 30-40 people attended, but I'm not very good at estimating. The need for more behaviour analysis was made much more apparent during and after the presentation. There were many parents who asked me specific questions about their children, far too many for just one behaviour analyst in all of Lusaka. It's a difficult situation and a slow process but I'm happy and excited to at least be part of the change.
That night, I went out with Alice's family and friends to a restaurant called Marlin. Their specialty is pepper steak, so guess what I had! It was delicious. After that, I went back to stay with one of Alice's friends who also happens to be my good friend Marissa's cousin! Now that is the definition of a small world!
The next morning, we started off with a parent meeting before a small encore presentation. This time we only had 7 attendees but still, some very concerned and interested parents and teachers. After the presentation, we had a couple more client meetings and then finally got to relax a little! We got dressed up and went to an 80s birthday party Saturday night. I think three Zambian men tried to help me learn to dance, but all gave up. I think I'm pretty hopeless, at least by real African standards (as opposed to South African standards). But, I had a good time nevertheless.
Sunday morning we had a final quick client observation, followed by a nice long chat over breakfast. I got to the airport by 11:30 for my supposedly 1:20 flight. Unfortunately we didn't get off the ground until about 3:50 due to a system failure. It was not cool. Thankfully though the passport control man in South Africa made up for it by not asking too many questions (border guards freak me out, even if I'm just going from Canada to the US).
All in all, it was a very busy weekend and while maybe not a successful weekend in terms of travel, I did still get to see some differences between South Africa and Zambia, and it was an extremely successful weekend professionally.
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