Northern Ghana Train the Trainer Workshop Aug 04 - Aug 6

Three days of the first ever Train the Trainer Meeting for us of the Northern Ghana IICD affiliated trainers was not just a very steep part of the learning curve, it was an exhilarating time.

I'm not going to forget how from the 4th to the 6th of August, 2008 we stuck to time and detail.
How we evaluated each others' presentations and how we encouraged each other.
How we had fun and yet staying focused on what brought us together.

On the 4th of August which was Day 1, there was an Overview of Training Activities and Methodologies used by IICD. This was an insightful presentation by Ousseni Zongo who was the lead facilitator and current Capacity Development Officer for IICD in charge of Burkina Faso and Mali.

I was excited at the time we took to make an inventory of the Important Documents (Checklist) and logistics for seminars and other capacity development activities. I'm surely going to keep my list till I cease being a trainer (and that is not going to be any time soon).
The group work on Developing a seminar was very interesting also. This was the first opportunity for participants who were all soon going to be trainers or already trainers to be evaluated by other trainers.

Day 2 - 5th Aug
The most exciting part of the day was actually a carry over from yesterday. We had hands on stuff on SkillSoft and TurboDemo.
We continued to work on General Training skills of trainers plus more group work.
I (and obviously most participants) were thrilled at the exploits of TurboDemo. I have never assumed I could ever make my own interactive tutorial (sound, graphics and all) with such ease. I'm certainly going to urge all trainers to lay hands on TurboDemo

Last Day
On the last day, my only regret was why I am not a member of the Black Stars of Ghana. After another interesting session of knowledge sharing which was dominated by participants evaluating each other's presentation skills, we went out to "face" each other in a football match - What would you expect anyway from a male dominated activity happening in Ghana? I was part of the winning team that conceded one controversial goal but scored six.

I'm looking forward to the activities of the group in building capacities of not only IICD affiliates but other individuals and organisations who seek to push forward the development agenda.

I wish today were August 4, so we could begin it all over again!