Friday, April 15, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
What's up with Gbagbo?
This afternoon we held the fifth class of the current NEI training course which was delayed one day due to yesterday's staff meeting. We opened with a brief discussion on the Biblical basis for mentoring, which is intended to deliver two messages: 1) God calls us to the act of mentoring, and 2) there are many examples from scripture of mentoring that can inform us of lessons that still apply to modern day mentoring relationships.
We had 25 minutes of discussion where we talked about how these examples teach lessons like the importance of the mentee driving the relationship (Elijah and Elisha), the importance of mentors instilling trust and confidence in mentees (Moses and Joshua, Paul and Timothy), how not all mentoring relationships always go smoothly, or end well (Barnabas and Paul), and the importance of developing a culture of mentoring so that mentees go on to mentor others (Jesus and the disciples, as well as many of the others).
You can tell its lively discussion because Aaron is standing up. (Okay, fine. It was posed).
Matthew stands in from the of diagram of how many businesses get drained financially. The proper diagram has the business paying "ME", and friends, family and relatives money coming from the entrepreneur, not the business.
Week 5 of the NEI class is always the most lively, and probably the most valuable: Boundaries. This class teaches entrepreneurs to separate their personal finances from their business finances. Participants should put themselves on a salary (instead of just taking off the top of the profits). In order to figure out what their salary needs to be, they need to figure out their monthly budget and INCLUDED in that monthly budget is money set aside for the very common requests for money.
These requests come from family, friends, relatives or even strangers and they come as a result of a wedding or other celebration, there's a funeral to pay for, maybe medical expenses; the list goes on. However, the class teaches that the money for those expenses should come from the limited personal budget funds. Then, when that money is gone, the entrepreneur can honestly say "That money is finished-o", allowing them to not dig into their business' money.
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In other news, it seems incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo is or has already surrendered to the forces of the internationally recognized winner Alassane Ouattara. But then it also seems like he's not so much incline to surrender, but also has made it clear he does not want to be a martyr. So really, I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but you can read some of the latest details at:
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Finally, not to go overboard with mentioning it, but yes, I'm still in need of fundraising support. According to my calculations, I need to fundraise just shy of $2,000 in order to reach my intern budget ending at the beginning of June.
Got some extra tax return funds coming in? Not sure how to spend all that dough? Consider brightening my day by donating a (tax deductible!) portion of that by going online to PartnersWorldwide.org. To get directly to the donor page go to:
Just be sure to click on the 'choose a type- box and select "people" and then click on the -choose a program- box and select "Derek Hoogland (Liberia)". Thanks!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
weekend, staff meeting
Its been a week since the last post and I don't have anything particularly enlightening to post so I thought I'd share a few photos from last weekend. The raft is coming along, with all the barrels in place, and the bracing is done. This week it gets another coat of rustproofing and it slides into the water on Saturday. From there we'll install the deck, railing, motor mounts and all that. During today's three hour staff meeting I made drawings of the pieces I to (try to) weld together a 'Danforth' anchor.
The meeting was quite long, but not unproductive. For my part, I had the Program Managers summarize the activities of the mentoring relationships in their respective counties. I talked about how the peer mentoring launch is coming along, and I reminded everyone that all the counties will be doing the same program next time around. Next month, on the Monday before the first Tuesday of the month staff meeting I'm trying to get all the Program Managers and Education Coordinators in town for a train-the-trainers session to cover the mentoring program handbook.
I'd like to find an air-conditioned, quiet and remote location; one where I can provide lunch and make it feel professional so that I can have the attention I need to go over the whole program. Its the subtle efforts that make all the difference! I wouldn't have wanted to go through all that effort a year and a half ago, but sometimes its really worth it. My hope is that the Montserrado County guys can cover the lessons we're already gone through together in the NEI class, and I can fill in the rest.
Brett on the barge.
The view looking up the St. Paul River, with the Unity Conference Center off to the left.
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