Hello everyone! It’s me, Jaime. I’m taking my first stab at blogging, so bear with me if I start to ramble.
The Pearson team finally came together this morning for our first day with the girls in Joburg. Gabriel and Sandra made it safely from the travel vortex. Andy came out of his malarial coma. And Erik and I rallied from a long night of bad TV movies, barely edible room-service food, and a few rounds of Yahtzee!.
We got to the venue early and set up the equipment, as we eagerly anticipated the arrival of the girls. My job was to organize all the miscellaneous equipment (cameras, video cameras, cords, batteries, etc.). I’m sure Erik will post incriminating pictures of my anal-retentativeness. Erik and Andy and Sandra set up computers and got all the presentation materials ready. Gabriel was busy setting up the filming equipment.
We were then met by Bernita, who is an independent consultant for MML (Maskew-Miller-Longman). She has been the one taking care of all of us. She arranged our hotel rooms, shuttled us from the airport, coordinated transportation for us, and made sure our stay will be seamless. Mary Clare Tomes (Managing Director, MML), Sandra Jones (MML/Unicef/Pearson liason), and Lisa Cloete (research & development, MML) came soon after.
Then came the girls! Thirty beautiful girls, accompanied by two house-mothers. Ten of the girls were from SOS (an organization that provides housing and a safe environment for abandoned and orphaned girls), ten were from Kid’s Haven (another shelter for girls), and ten were from primary schools that provide for underserved children in Johannesburg.
We were all awe-struck by these amazingly beautiful, intelligent, articulate, lively girls, who ended up providing us with an afternoon of sheer entertainment and delight. Not to mention inspiration. I think we took away as much (or more) from this gathering as the girls did.
Check out the shutterfly photos on the link to the right to see pictures of the adults setting up and pictures our students took after 15 minutes of photography lessons.
I think Sandra is going to add her insights to our day in a blog entry of her own.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dr. Sandra Reed…
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5 comments:
Two thumbs up!
Jaime! How fun to see you at the top of the blog giving the Vanna stance. I knew you'd blog well. Memories of my first day with you in Dallas after Katrina hit are rampant. Keep on doing! ...for me, too!
Ok...this is THE mom....a malarial coma?? I'm trying not to freak out here :))
David, thanks. That means a lot coming from you...given your editing skills.
Mom, I'll show Jaime how to get to the comments to read your message. Also, I didn't realize that I could allow anonymous postings...which I have now done. This means that you don't have to have a Google account to comment. I'll mention that to everyone in the next blog.
Cheryl...not to worry! Andy does not have malaria again. He had a bad tummy so needed to sleep. Jaime and I were jokingly calling that long nap a malarial coma...just a joke!
E
Love the neat and tidy rows, Jaimita!
You guys are meeting incredible young people-- thanks for keeping everyone posted in such vivd ways--
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