Six special task managers

Besides teaching, our five English education graduates from the University of Education Karlsruhe have some additional tasks to fulfil.

First of all, there is Julia, who is our pharmaceutical expert. During our preparation to go to Laos, her job was to make sure that we are equipped with all necessary pharmaceuticals like healing ointments, different pills against headache, fever, cold, and diarrhoea, insect repellent sprays, as well as a wide range of plasters, patches, and the sorts.

Sandro is our multimedia manager. He is in charge of the music sector, such as instruments and CDs. Moreover, he manages all the pictures and videos we take, and organizes and saves them on a common hard drive. This is of great help for all future volunteers, as this organizational system helps them to build up on the things we did.

Franziska assorted and listed all the didactic material (more than 40 kg!) which we brought to Laos – this had all been generously donated by our German publishing contacts (they are all listed in our “Thanks” entry at the bottom of this page). Thai Airlines donated 30 kg of excess weight to our group for this purpose, which would normally have cost 1,500 €.
After our arrival, Franziska was in charge of setting up our Lending Library in Ban Sikeud Primary School. Then she recorded all the text books plus material for the teach-the-teacher lessons that arrived by post later and 20 kg of dictionaries and novels that Prof.Dr. Isabel Martin brought along on her second visit, which had been donated by members of the University of Education Karlsruhe.

Then we have Laura. She wrote some additional reports together with Julia. The two of them also created a wonderful booklet for our Lao cooperation teachers. This booklet documents all the activities we have done so far, accompanied by didactical comments and flashcards.

Last but not least, there is me, Tobias, your humble narrator. I am responsible for the blog, its maintenance, and most blog entries. At this point, I’d like to thank Johannes Zeck and Klaus Drechsler (both BHS) and Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin (PH Karlsruhe) for their help with establishing this blog. Furthermore, I want to say thank you to Heike Müller (PH Karlsruhe) for proof-reading. Finally, I’d also like to thank Franziska, Julia and Laura for their contributions.

Our Laos experience would not have been even half as successful without  the hard work and great efforts of our Prof. Dr. Isabel Martin. She has been an amazing head of our project, a great support, and an exceptional role model and motivator to us. Thanks from the five of us. May this project become an even greater success.

Text by T. Mayer

Photos by J. Bauer, T. Mayer and J. Zeck