Second Chapter: The first day of our course
at Augustino Neto University
On Monday
morning, I wake up in my room overlooking the sea. The sky is cloudy, and the
visibility is so poor and the coastal strip blends into the skyline that it is
barely noticeable that it is the coast of the Atlantic.
At 8 am, a
university car waits for us. Saballo, the wonderful driver who will accompany
us everywhere for two weeks, greets us with a wide smile.
The
distance from the hotel to the university is quite short, but it is a rush hour
and vehicles of all kinds move on non-modern roads. The extended ride allows us
to take a look at the roadside, to witness the children of the streets in their
"morning wash", using a bucket of water drawn from the
"well" in the town square. Other abandoned children play soccer in
the local lot, along the side of the road young women are sitting next to
plastic baskets trying to sell fruits. That's how they sit all day.
As we get
out of the vehicle parked in the university courtyard and walk toward the
"room of Israel" where the practical training will take place,
waiting outside the room, the participants already wait for us. Men and women,
who look at us with a curious look, naturally try to wonder a little about us
before the course begins. It's very hot outside, extremely humid and no one
dares to enter the air-conditioned room.
With a vivid
face and a broad smile on our lips, we almost 'push' them in. When everyone
sits down on the chairs of the university, the first day begins with the
ultimate aim of deepening our necessary knowledge with our trainees.
Course syllabus:
As a first exercise, we divide the course
syllabus, whose main purpose is to instruct lecturers at the local university,
who themselves are teachers in the various professions, schools in Angola, at
all levels.
• Provide valuable tools and techniques to positively enhance
the ability and capability of the participants.
• Instruct participants on how to properly prepare a
detailed work plan that indicates the tasks they want to accomplish, with a particular
emphasis on the issue of responsibility in the various execution processes.
• Increase the capabilities for the personal and
professional growth of each of the participants.
• Strengthening teamwork and elucidating the potential
benefits of collaborative work, enabling the raising of ideas and mutual
assistance as a model that the lecturers will pass on to the teacher teams they
are in charge of.
• Supervision processes as they exist in Israel as a
model for future supervision in the modern Angola education system.
We ask all 32 participants to properly read the
syllabus and address three key questions:
1. What is the chief topic you want to go into the focused
most?
2. What is the topic about which you do not want any profound
depth?
3. Is there another topic you demand us to satisfactory
address?
We collect the answers and promise to adequately address
the key issues tomorrow.
The keys'
exercise
Felisa
opens first. She speaks Argentine Spanish, and everyone understands every word,
which is how she opens her wonderful key exercise, which is an opening exercise
for successful recognition in any group of people.
In an adjacent
room, Felisa scattered keys of all kinds: old and new keys, magnetic cards used
as keys to hotel rooms, pictures of keys and every key imaginable.
The guidance
is provided to people: Everyone selects one or two keys that symbolize their
key to success. The participants respond positively to the request and a few
minutes later return to the "room of Israel", each with the
appropriate keys.
When the
acquaintance round begins. Some remarkable things become clear to us. It turns
out that most of the participants possess a doctorate in some field. Ph.D. in
Literature and Ph.D. in Philosophy, and Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics and
Sociology of Education and others are studying for advanced degrees, some at
universities in France, Portugal, Brazil, and Cuba.
"A
key that opens a door to something new"
Vera, a
Bulgarian-born woman is the only white woman in the course, a lecturer in
sociology, who has been married for over 20 years to an Angolan man, chose a
key that is a magnetic card and said: Every key opens one door, but frequently
it produces problems. Because it is impossible to open with this key all the
time, and sometimes I stay outside. Anyone in the education system can obtain a
different key to ultimately accomplish a similar goal.
Dr. Boza,
who is the head of a department in the university, was asked to attend the
course to serve as a personal example to the rest of the lecturers. (so he told
us at the end of the course after the 'walls' fell and we became real friends.).
Dr. Boza chose several keys: an extremely old key as we cannot in common be
without our past, and the second key is a drawing of six keys that symbolize
the variety of possibilities in life there is always a key that opens a door
that we have not yet opened.
Dr.
Dinis, who is a lecturer of pedagogical theories and is, also, a military man,
chooses a key on which Hebrew letters are written because it instantly reminds
him of history. He adds that it is not enough that there is goodwill to
succeed, and it is necessary to study all the time. The considerable amount of
education we all have is not enough, each one needs to maintain a specific area
of expertise that will allow them to contribute positively to society.
Dr.
Judith, an English lecturer, a gentle-looking woman, chose a simple key and
says that opening a door is to discover something new. We learn but do not
always know how to use the knowledge we have acquired.
Dr.
Bimuinde, who is a biology lecturer, holds a modern key in her hand and says so:
I am an ambitious woman, and I like to go deeper into what can be deepened, but
I chose another key, (and here she pulls out a very common key.), which gives
me a sense of security. I need security.
Louisa,
who is completing her Ph.D. in France, chose a few keys: an old key to entering
a house because every teacher needs keys to open and needs social conditions to
develop. An automatic key that educational social processes need to evolve
constantly, but she remarked that in the end, though the key is modern, it barely
fits one door.
Dr.
Boucosa, a professor of languages, chose ancient and modern keys and said the
ancient keys symbolize the ancient methodological and ancient languages.
As for
the modern method - he has the feeling that it is unique and therefore he feels
he is always missing one key - he has to look for a key all the time...
Angelo, who is a Ph.D. French student,
wondered if he needed to look for a key. He eventually chose a circular and
spiral key. The ordinary keys have limitations, and they do not open every
door, education should be open and therefore circular and spiral.
Wahaha, how should we move on?
About this issue, in the next chapter.
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