Josie, the Sector Skills Development manager, became available, and we conducted a workshop just for her and Bontle (a Sector staff member) Monday and Tuesday, did a deep dive on data flows for the end to end process, focusing on root causes of some of the challenges facing the municipalities, met with the skills planning focal point for the Dept of Higher Education (DHET), and ran playback sessions on Friday with two provincial managers, Idani and Margaret and then Josie, just before Josie left on a long planned vacation with her family. We were ready for a playback with our sponsor on the coming Tuesday.
It was a real pleasure working with these folks. They really understand the issues and went out of their way to ensure we had a good understanding too. They were very busy with many other pressing tasks and yet they took time to answer every question, line up additional interviews and share their office space with us, even to the point of giving up their own space so we could conduct work sessions and interviews. I can't emphasize enough just how thoughtful and supportive they were of our efforts.
Soren, from Denmark, had brought along a lot of Danish candy to share, and one in particular was a bit challenging for all. Everyone tried it, but few liked the strong, salty licorice in the shape of pirate coins.
On Monday, Idani brought in a little baggie filled with Nemeneme, fried or roasted flying termites (alates) with wings removed. They were crunchy and salty and quite a tasty treat.
According to Wikipedia: Termite alates are high in nutrition with adequate levels of fat and
protein. They are regarded as pleasant in taste, having a nut-like
flavour after they are cooked. Alates are collected when the rainy season begins. During a nuptial
flight, they are typically seen around lights to which they are
attracted, and so nets are set up on lamps and captured alates are later
collected. The wings are removed through a technique that is similar to
winnowing. The best result comes when they are lightly roasted on a hot plate or fried until crisp.
Oil
is not required as their bodies usually contain sufficient amounts of
oil. Termites are typically eaten when livestock is lean and tribal
crops have not yet developed or produced any food, or if food stocks
from a previous growing season are limited.
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On Friday evening, Soren treated us all to
molecular cooking. He came with many of the ingredients and supplemented them with more bought locally. The
Sentinel hotel where we stayed had efficiency kitchens with some pots and pans available. Soren and some volunteers spent a couple of hours getting ready and then he presented us with a "fried egg" on toast. It wasn't really a fried egg, but it looked like a fried egg. He wasn't too happy with the result, but under the conditions we all felt he did a fabulous job. Charlotte was his principal assistant, demonstrating a steady hand and careful handling.
#CSCZA19 #IBMCSA
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