The first week our key client, Mr Matsapolo - was supposed to come to the lodge where we're staying - we waited all day - and he came about 6 pm. So when we went to his office the next day... here's what we saw! And interestingly there's a poster on the wall saying 2011 is the Year of the Forest - we think much of the forest is in his office!
On the second Monday morning we called to tell him we'd be arriving late - our driver Noah has challenges arriving at 7:30 to pick us up. Mr Matsapolo told us that he was busy - and that we should work at the lodge.
Similar story the third Monday - except that he was in Polokwane! He told us to work at the lodge and he would stop by when he finished his meeting. So we worked in a conference room at the lodge all day - and at 6 pm he showed up! We worked with him until 7:30 - and made excellent progress.
So the fourth Monday.....we had an 8:30 meeting with the District Senior Manager to review our main deliverable - a professional development framework for teachers to support their implementation of a new curriculum. Noah came promptly at 7:30 and all 7 of us piled into the car. At the provincial office, where the other team works, they got out and headed into the office. But Noah got out of the car as well - and said there was a problem with the car's registration and he couldn't drive it! We reminded him we had an 8:30 meeting - and he said - 'no problem!' And he disappeared. A couple of calls to him in the next 30 minutes yielded nothing - and he came back at 8:10 with another car. BUT it's 45 minutes to the district office- depending on the number of cows in the road!
We called the District Senior Manager to explain our delay - he commented that there was some type of inspection going on and didn't seem surprised about the delay. He reminded us that he had another meeting at 9 - and suggested we meet on Wednesday. Bummer - we wanted his feedback! Our framework includes observations of the teacher by the principal and we've heard the union is actively encouraging teachers to refuse to allow principals to observe them! And we wanted guidance on our implementation plan.. and how we should position the need for observations of teachers to help identify their skill gaps.
So we called Mr. Matsapolo to check with him on our schedule for the day. He suggested that we work at the lodge - he told us he was busy looking for an audience for our presentations! So a couple of weeks ago he asked each us to prepare 1 hour of training that would be useful to his staff - or any group within the district - and to plan to present these on Tuesday Oct 4. So we all prepared our materials. He told us that his planned audience was busy - so there would be no presentations on Tuesday - but we should be ready to give them on Wednesday - if he found an audience!
We reminded him that we thought we were presenting out final report to the district office team on Wednesday - and we learned that he did not have an audience for that day either. So we have 3 lovely decks without an audience! And two great decks - one from each of our workstreams - also in search of an audience!
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