In Their Own Words

In Their Own Words:  Portraits and Interviews is an email and blog post campaign.  The goal is to allow people all over the world feel a little more connected to those here in Africa.

These interviews were voluntary, all of the people interviewed and photographed were attending "The Ten Principles of Leadership Short Course" in Soroti, Uganda

Lazarus

What do you think is the biggest problem in Africa?  Poverty. 

How would you change that problem?  I think that we Africans need to start taking up our responsibility and do work.  We need to use our time well, we have a lot of time. 

What do you do for fun?  Read, watch football matches, play volleyball

When are you happiest?   When I am physically healthy

What have you learned/gained from The 10 Principles of Leadership program? This week I have learned how important it is to manage my time well.

If you could give the world one piece of advice, what would it be?  Do this (10 principles of leadership) course!  (this comment was unprompted)

Christine

What is the biggest issue in your local community?   Paying school fees for the children, because there are so many.

What can you do to change this challenge?  We should plan our families better, and start family income generating activities which the children help with so that they learn even as they are helping to make money for the family.

What do you do for fun?  I enjoy playing netball and table (board) games

What is your favorite color?  Blue, because of the way it catches your eye.

From this course I have realized that I should have a vision and mission for my life, so that I know where I am going.  I have also realized the importance of having a personal budget. 

If you could give advice to young people today, what would it be?   Listen to advice, make right decisions, and pray.

Benjamin

What is the biggest challenge in your community?  Money for all of life’s activities

What are you happiest?  When I am with my wife

How long have you been married?  7 years, but I would have married sooner if it wasn’t for the insurgency we had here in the East.  After the war, the government paid for our schooling, so I went and got a diploma in teaching.  Then I got married.

What advice would you give to married people?  Learn to forgive each other, accept mistakes, and be prayerful.

What have you learned/gained from The 10 Principles of Leadership program?  From this course, I have learned about having a personal vision and mission statement.  Also, I have realized that I was wasting a huge amount of time.  I need to start recognizing my own roles and setting goals, so that I use my time more wisely.

Rose:

What is your biggest challenge you face?  To live my life the way I feel I am supposed to.  My Husband wants to marry another wife, and I am not ok with it.  Another challenge is bringing up children, and of course, resources.

When are you the happiest?  When I am with friends.  Later added: I am happiest when a healthy baby is born.  (She works as a midwife)

What have you learned/gained from The 10 Principles of Leadership program? This week I have learned that I can reason for hope in my life.

 

(King) David
Nicknamed King David by the group, David is a soft spoke, kind man.  He has a lot of wisdom.  King David works selling used clothes to make money. He is a leader in his local church group.

“I want to learn to love people.  I don’t think I am very good at loving people who are different from me yet.”

Caroline

What are the biggest challenges in Africa?  1. Poverty  2. Dependence Syndrome

What would you do to change these issues?  1.  I would encourage better uses of our resources, and I would tell people to start with what they already have.  2.  I would tell people to believe in themselves, and that they don’t need others from outside to achieve things with their lives.

What businesses do you run?  A decorating business, poultry farm, piggery, a banana plantation, and import/export company.  My husband is a local magistrate.

What do you think is the challenge is for people who have less than you?  I think, personally, that they have an “I can’t do anything” mentality.  I just want to say to everyone, “You have life, hands and a brain!”

What is your favorite color?  Pink! … and blue.

What advice would you give to the whole world?  (With laughter)  “Not to sound like Obama, but I would probably say something like “We can! We are able to change our lives and situations!”

What have you learned/gained from The 10 Principles of Leadership program?  From this course I learned the importance of thinking ahead, with the end in mind.  I also learned that in everything I do, I should commit and work hard for excellence.  Finally, I was challenged to stop pointing fingers at others and start taking responsibility for my own life and actions. 

 

BONUS for blog readers!  Two more...

Moses 

What is the biggest challenge facing youth today?  Finances.   We can change that by helping young people to find incoming generating activities.

What do you want to do with your life? I was to use media and broadcasting to bring people hope and be a positive influence in people’s lives. 

When are you happiest?  When I am sharing my faith with others, and when I am learning.

Why do you wear glasses (after seeing him for a long time without them)?  "I fear dust so much!"

What have you learned/gained from The 10 Principles of Leadership program?  During the course I learned that we have a choice in how we respond to the various stimulus in our lives.  I also was able to write a person Vision and Mission and now understand that my life has purpose! 

If you could give the world one piece of advice, what would it be?   Make right decision when responding to the situations around you.

 

Angelica
 "I have Primary 7 English"... I smiled.  "You're doing great" I encouraged her.  "Just sit here with me, and we'll talk.  You can do it."  Her old eyes brightened, and she sat and had a perfect conversation in a language she doesn't think she speaks.

When are you happiest?  When I am with my family, and when I am at church.

How long have you been serving in the church?  40 years

What is the biggest challenge your community is facing?  Money, and a lack of jobs.  All of my children have an education, but they cannot find work.  They need to support me as I get older, but there are no jobs. 

Masaka Youth Camp 2013 link

I've been busy, capturing the colors of life here in Uganda through my new camera!

I told the story of the Masaka Youth Camp (part 1) through photos at Noelle in Africa, so check it out!

http://noelleinafrica.blogspot.com

But keep your eyes here!  We'll have Intern Introduction and participant interviews up within the week! 

Teacher Training, NET Ministries Course and CLA teachers

At the end of October, the Cornerstone Veritas team traveled to Masaka.  Our time there began with a training for new facilitators. The new facilitators were being prepared to be of help when we need assistance in different trainings. Noelle did this successfully and they were all very ready to help were needed.

6 NET Ministries members, Antony Elliot with YWAM, and Fr. Henry of the Missionaries of Africa were all trained in course facilitation.

After the teacher training, the Cornerstone Veritas team, and the newly trained facilitators taught the 10 principles of leadership 5 day short course to the rest of the current NET Team.  This was a great week together.  We were able to stay together at Holy Trinity Community, which provided a comfortable residential environment.  The new facilitators got a chance to teach and receive feedback on their talks. 

This was the game night, always lots of fun!

At the end of the course, the participants go through graduation.  They receive a candle, and are encouraged to go and be lights in their lives through living lives of integrity.  

Graduates with their candles

Carol graduating students

Note:  This 10 principles course was a little different, as Noelle left for the States at the beginning of the course!  This meant that Carol was in charge, and she did a great job!


 TEN PRINCIPLES TRAINING AT EKITANGALA- RANCH

 It was a great time with the teachers of Cornerstone schools that is Cornerstone Leadership Academy, Ekitangala Transformational High School and the Primary School. We estimated a number of fourty teachers but it was a great number of fourty-six teachers that attended the 10 principles of leadership training.
In the picture bellow are some of the teachers in class.

Below are the three different teachers during the teachers training (Antony, Frank and Carol). It was such a great opportunity to stay with the Cornerstone teachers.

The joy of graduation. As each member rose up to go and pick their certificate and candle, others raised their hands up as a sign of victory and achievement for their fellow trainee. This caused a cheerful and happy environment.

What are our participants saying?

As we do the evaluation of the most recent 10 Principles of Leadership... I thought it would be good to share with all of your the response from some of our participants!  In their own words...

Note:  The current course we run has an expressly Christian focus, trying to help Christian leaders to become leaders like Jesus.  However, we can run our program for secular organizations as well, as long as we have advanced notice.

“I would encourage people to study this course, because it is for everyone to know this teaching”

“This course has challenged my life because I realized that there are a lot of things I need to work on in order to be a complete person i.e. to build my personal integrity, being proactive not reactive as I have been, and to have a vision in life which will help me to achieve what I want eg. Put first things first”

“I would advise others to go through the course, especially my parish in Arusha”

“This is a life transforming course, which can make you be committed and Christ Centred person.  You should attend this course.”

“...the course has re-awakened me from the deep slumber I had immersed myself in.  It has given me a wake-up call that my life was headed in the wrong direction and that I need transformation.  A paradigm shift is definitely going to take place in my life...”

“This course is very important because it will give you/help you to live a life which is valued and to know how you are and where you are.” 

“The Ten Principles of Leadership has great life treasures! It has many solutions to all human life difficulties.  The course is recommended to anyone alive; young or old!”

Life in Translation: Tanzania ... The Course

Borrowed from Noelle in Africa...

We have taught our main course, The 10 Principles of Leadership in all different places, for a hugely diverse audience.  Everywhere it is taught, it has an impact.  And this time, in Shinyanga, TZ it was no different. 

This was the first time we had taught this course A) Outside of Uganda and B) In translation.  It was a new experience for sure!

We had over 50 people the first day.  Of course, throughout the week we lost a few, but overall we graduated just under 50 people!  We had a fantastic team that helped with music, a wonderful venue, good food, and a reliable sound system.

John Bahati, our translator (and trip hero!) did an incredible job.  He wrote summaries of each talk in Swahili, so that the participants could have some basic notes.  The participants were engaged and very ready to learn.  It was great to have a wonderful interaction with them, even though there was a language barrier. 

Because of translation, we made some small changes to the talks.  But we were able to do well and stick to the time we had.  I had asked that we have 6 days, in case translation was very slow. But we finished in 5... so the 6^th day was able to be a big party!  Wow, they can celebrate!  So much dancing, so many photos, and a ton of excitement!  Our courses usually end well, but this one ended fantastically!

Throughout the course there were various profound experiences and moments.  The time of footwashing, which shows Servant Leadership in action, was especially beautiful, there were so many people!  We had the 3 team members from Cornerstone Veritas, and then 3 men from different Christian denominations wash feet.  In Africa, there can sometimes be a lot of tension between different Christian groups.  This was such a beautiful moment of unity! 

The course was comprised of people from every Christian expression in Tanzania.  It was incredible.  We broke them into small groups, which met every day.  This was a time to process what they were learning.  These groups were totally mixed, and you could tell that people began to really loved each other and got to know each other by the end of the course.  What an incredible opportunity to build bridges. 

Several moments while teaching were very profound as well.  When teaching about Seek First to Understand, I was speaking about not trivializing pain.  I used a random man as an example, in the group.  I said to imagine that he had lost a child, and then proceeded to teach about how we should respond to someone who had experienced something truly challenging.  I didn’t know this man, or anything about his life.  Later on, one of the men whom we spent lunch with each day, told us that the man I had randomly chosen had actually lost 3 sons.  My using him as an example was actually a moment of healing for him, because I acknowledged the pain of that loss, and didn’t just brush it away.

At one point in the session “Resourcefulness”, I was talking about the fact that life is difficult.  When we believe this, and live embracing it, then we are able to not be so caught off guard when hard or challenging things come our way.   As I taught, you could see from the people’s faces, and the atmosphere in the room that people were really understanding and that, somehow, their perspectives were being changed.  Many of them nodded and were obviously agreeing and understanding how this reality can improve our lives.

And finally, we had 2 sharing at the end of the course, one from a woman and another from a man.  Both of them were breathtaking, and overwhelmingly beautiful.  The woman shared deeply about what she had been going through, and how what she had learned that week would enable her to change her own life and come out of the previous ways she had been living.  The man who shared talked about how learned about the idea of “Covenant Relationship” had inspired him to refresh and renew his relationship first with his wife, and then to invest more time with his children!  At the end of his sharing he said “At the beginning of the week, we were told that we had tool boxes, which were going to be filled with tools.  Mine is full, and I intend to start using them to improve my life and the life of my family.”

We talk about tool boxes in our course introduction.  That’s the best description I’ve been able to come up with.  The myriad of things which we teach throughout our course; Emotional Bank Account, Paradigm Shift, the problem solving line, Personal Weekly Schedules, how to write a Vision and Mission, Circle of Influence/Circle of Concern, Think Win Win, Listening skills in Seek First to Understand, how to become resourceful and creative, how to maintain balance... all of these and more are incredible tools.  Even if only 1, 2, or 3 are actually applied, they will make a tangible difference in the life of that person and in their community.

I can see the impact of what I teach, most of all on myself.  It is so beautiful to see my life change, and to see the glimmer in a participant’s eyes when they get it... when they realize that they can change, that there is hope, and that with a little creativity and perspective, they can do something worthwhile with their lives.  That is what our course is all about.  We empower people, and those people go and change their worlds.

This is why I work in Africa.

Next Post... all of our crazy adventures while in Tanzania!