Another learning experience

Working at EACID I’ve been able to learn a lot about working directly with those receiving the benefits of international development assistance. Last week I was able to see another side of the development system when two representatives from CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) came to visit the project. Richard and Reem were up from Cairo and we spent most of the morning on Saturday with Dr. Mamdouh, EACID’s director, and the CIDA reps. After that they heard from the kids who had put together a puppet show about the project and got a demonstration of the computer game that has been developed to teach kids business ethics before we all got into a taxi to visit some of the business that are receiving loans from EACID and who have children working there who participate in PPIC Work programming.

The evening had a more relaxed feel to it, we took a felucca ride at sunset which, even thought it was my third time, never disappoints. The difference this time was that the water level has dropped considerably and we had a small problem getting upstream at different points. One time we had to back the boat up and taking a running start but we made it with a little extra work from the motor.

The next morning’s meeting was more forward looking at the plans once the current project ends in June. I was also able to share the work I’ve started here with the photo documentation with a presentation from some of the kids and then an explanation of some of the steps were trying to take now. The visit ended on a very positive note and was quite successful. After all of the preparation I think it was a relief for some to hear the positive response. The principles of the project were really well received and continue to push into areas that many organizations don’t believe are possible to do with any level of success.

It is looking like I'll be around to see some of our activities through a little longer than expected.  Project activities will be wrapping up in June and the details are coming together for me to stay on a little longer than the original plan of finishing up my work at the end of January.