Last training day. I am so impressed with these people!  Tuesday when we started they had no idea what a syllabus is, had never done one; they had no field manual and no idea of what they could do in the classes with students, some online and some classroom classes.  By today at 4pm, they had a very nice first draft of a practice manual, 9 syllabi, and had begun to look at resources for their classes. wow!!!  That's all I got--wow!  A group of people from a couple of different programs and they can sit down and work intensively, about 8 hours a day for 4 days, some discussion, some disagreements but came to consensus and have great products.  They make me look good! Now I feel that I've accomplished something really concrete. And I can rest a little too.

It amazes me that folks without backgrounds in social work could believe so strongly that it is an important profession that they are working from nothing, committed to getting programs up and running. I'm lucky to be able to watch and be a part of this; it's inspiring. It is not a matter of these people all being new faculty who are young and are new to teaching, these people have been teaching here, the salaries people get are low, lower than the US, social work is not even known in much of the country so it's an uphill challenge.  Inspiring, and we complain when we have to teach in another building, if our "smart" classrooms are not totally working. etc.  Some of these schools do not have updated bathrooms, no air conditioning, no computers in classrooms, no subscriptions to online search engines or journals, and their students cannot afford textbooks. There is not an existing career in "social work", the same time programs are being instituted a social work education group is gaining strength, a national association is struggling to start, and they are trying to get a council under the government that will grow into a legal structure for social work in the country. wow. A good week.