“Lauritz, you wanted to visit us for a longer period of time – the Tsibogang Project Management Course could start in January, and we would also provide laptops to a few participants. Couldn’t you take care of setting up the devices?”
This is roughly how Wolfgang spoke to me in the summer of 2023 when we sat together with a small group in Hamburg to discuss how the various Tsibogang projects could continue, and this course was decided to be a good option. After my first visit to South Africa in March 2020, I was faced with the questions “Can I still get home on my planned flight and what is a lockdown?” faced with this, I wanted to come back here with a little more time. And you can see from those words: I traveled to South Africa. I’ve been here since January 11th and will stay until March 25th (my employer agreed to interpret the term home office very generously…).
Since the budget (unfortunately) only allowed for five laptops (four participants each share one), the actual effort seemed quite manageable…
However, it quickly became apparent that it would be helpful to teach various computer skills: dealing with Word documents, making corrections and comments, tracking changes, sending documents and zip folders by email, spreadsheets (for budgets and reports). etc.
And then there are very direct problems that immediately result in a learning unit: Why is the projector’s image so blurry? And of course there is always a lot in numbers: Do I simply divide the amount available by the number of after school locations and give everyone responsible the same amount so that children who, for example, have no money for a school uniform can be supported? Or do I take into account that there are 70 children at one location and only 20 at another? And then there are a few children from the Homecare giving area who receive support. Each child then receives support from this previously selected group… Creating a spreadsheet also sharpens the view of the different areas of responsibility.
The course takes place every Friday for one year. Every two weeks, two English lecturers come in the morning, and Wolfgang then holds the “actual” management training in the other mornings. And as long as I’m here, I’ll come every Friday at lunchtime and take a 1–2-hour computer course. The participants are slowly starting to warm up and dare to interrupt me: “Sorry, we lost some of us when you told us how to…” Then I ignored something or explained it too quickly. But someone immediately jumps in and translates it again into Tswana so that everyone understands it better. This team spirit is great. In general, I find it impressive that 12 people have agreed to go to school here every Friday for a whole year – knowing full well that only some of them will have a chance of getting a job as a project manager afterwards. There’s a lot of idealism involved. And that’s true. I am hopeful – despite everything that still lies ahead – because only with this idealism and the will to achieve something for the people in the Tsibogang projects will the various sub-projects be able to continue well even when Wolfgang (and of course including Christel, who often does a lot of invisible work here) hand over the projects and begin their well-deserved retirement.
Lauritz Laatzen