let loose

In an earlier post I talked about a community with no water or sanitation, today I visited a charity that digs wells for communities, like the one we had at the hospital back in January.  This was an easy meeting because I had dealt with the team before, and they had good English.  A good meeting and we agreed to collaborate to try and support this community. 

In the afternoon I went to another charity; this one puts compostable toilets into homes.  They gave me a tour of their facility to start with which was really interesting, and with my modest Creole and plenty of visual clues, quite straightforward.  I had only one question in English.  We then sat down to discuss the business at hand, again in Creole, and all went well.  Surprisingly well.  There was no English spoken in this part of my visit and no awkward ‘explain that again slowly’ looks (from either side).  I am not getting carried away, it was not a difficult meeting, but I achieved one of my big objectives for the year, to hold a meeting without a translator.  Funny, I didn’t think it stressful at the time easier.  But I definitely had a beer in celebration that night!

We have submitted a grant application back in the UK so it’s now a waiting game.