The middle management got back to Blighty earlier this week, and LM phoned me this morning.
Departure is now set back until 28th January, "but don't be suprised if that slides". The accommodation isn't ready - there was a trouble with the bathrooms (electrical sockets next to the washbasins, wall tiles on the floors - actually all par for the course in HUDC). The site manager told them that the project was only a month behind schedule, and this was astonishing. Indeed. The workforce are Egyptians, not locals, so that might explain this relative speed.
So if we do go out at the end of this month, we'll probably be in a hotel for a while.
The classrooms are far from being ready, the workforce consisting of HUDC's finest, a couple of depressed looking souls who turn up and mooch around occasionally.
And there's a problem with the students, who are to be teachers at the college in due course. They have been paid only nominally for the last month or so - something in the region of £10 per month. Naturally, they're a bit pissed off about this. This might lead to mutiny and is the biggest potential problem, as I see it, given the obduracy of HUDC's bureaucracy.
I've got curriculum development work I can be getting on with, in a fairly leisurely fashion it must be said. Also work for my masters degree. And making the most of the unexpected time with the family and my friends.
Showing posts with label building site. Show all posts
Showing posts with label building site. Show all posts
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Intelligence Gathered
Management are back from their visit. We should go out soon. End of December is possible. More likely, during the first couple of weeks in January.
The bad news is that there won't be any classrooms ready. We'll have to do something that doesn't require a classroom. This does not bode well. The placement test I designed last month is to be given its first taste of action - but that will use only half a day.
The accommodation looks worse than it is, apparently. The compound looks like the building site that it is, but the individual houses are almost ready. Line Manager says that they were busy with the bathroom fittings when he was there - which sounds good.
The very latest is, it will be ready to move into within three weeks. I hope that we're not next to any UN buildings.
The bad news is that there won't be any classrooms ready. We'll have to do something that doesn't require a classroom. This does not bode well. The placement test I designed last month is to be given its first taste of action - but that will use only half a day.
The accommodation looks worse than it is, apparently. The compound looks like the building site that it is, but the individual houses are almost ready. Line Manager says that they were busy with the bathroom fittings when he was there - which sounds good.
The very latest is, it will be ready to move into within three weeks. I hope that we're not next to any UN buildings.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Building a Curriculum
Now I've got the job of "mapping" the the commercial text books we're going to use for general English to the ultimate exam (City and Guilds IESOL) by means of the Common European Descriptors. I've been on it for days now, and have not gotten very far.
What's slowing me down is, the realisation that this is a considerable task, and that I want to get off on the right foot. Or, to put it another way, to make sure the foundations are sound, that the parameters of the "map" make sense, before I get half-way up the first floor and realise that it's all going to have to come down, and I'll have to start again.
It's a job that, no doubt, once started will be half done.
My line manager's out in... (What am I going to call it? It's a hot uncongenial desert country, so let's go with HUDC for now.) My line manager's out in HUDC just now, so I can't easily speak to him to bounce ideas around. At least, when he gets back next week, he should have some intelligence about how the building work is going, and when we can expect to go out. I'm pretty much resigned to working and living in a building site for the first few months, anyway.
What's slowing me down is, the realisation that this is a considerable task, and that I want to get off on the right foot. Or, to put it another way, to make sure the foundations are sound, that the parameters of the "map" make sense, before I get half-way up the first floor and realise that it's all going to have to come down, and I'll have to start again.
It's a job that, no doubt, once started will be half done.
My line manager's out in... (What am I going to call it? It's a hot uncongenial desert country, so let's go with HUDC for now.) My line manager's out in HUDC just now, so I can't easily speak to him to bounce ideas around. At least, when he gets back next week, he should have some intelligence about how the building work is going, and when we can expect to go out. I'm pretty much resigned to working and living in a building site for the first few months, anyway.
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