Adventures with my mother!

We started in Split which she flew into. We had one morning to explore all the wonders of Split:

As Split is built up around the ruins of Roman Emperor Diocletian's Palace and there were some soldiers in the main square to remind us of this: 

We also stumbled onto some Dalmatian singers, who were fantastic - Mom could have stayed here all day! But I managed to drag her away to go look at the rest of the city...

 Proof that I was there as well... such a beautiful day too! 

We had a pizza lunch on the main promenade...

Before heading to the Brela Women's Conference in well, Brela, about 50km down the coast. It was a lovely conference with about 70 women from all over the Balkans and beyond... and of course the only photo is of the beautiful sunset the one night: I love Brela sunsets!

We then headed to Mostar in Herzegovina (south part of Bosnia Herzegovina) where I was to do the first two modules of a Business Training course. We stayed with my friend Carolyn (I don't have a photo of her), but mostly hung out with Jelena and Jennifer. We went to Blagaj the one day where there is a Muslim Dervish House (and you have to put on a covering to go inside...): 

Jennifer, Jelena, me and Mom

The house is at the mouth of the river Buna and the water comes out of the mountain really fast (but as you can see below they have had a VERY dry summer, so the water level was very low):

We also went to Mostar Old Town a couple of times and enjoyed the beauty of the place - including
the rebuilt Old Bridge (Most - Star)

And of course I did what we came to do in Mostar - run the first and second module of the business training. Mom came along and took some pics so you can see what it looked like:(and then sat at the back playing on her ipad as she couldn't understand anything really... but I think she enjoyed herself!)

It was a lovely group and we had a great time - two are interested in running the course in the future as well, so it is a bit of training for them to see how to run it in the future... I will go back later this month to do the other two modules.

We came back to Banja Luka yesterday and she is here for 5 days before heading back to England...

BEST Business Training Group 12

Since I started doing this training 5 years ago, I have run it now with 12 groups, and every group still has some surprises for me... One of the things we do is for them to run a cash book - just to keep track of everything in cash. And this time one of the teams said to me "but we need another cash book" and when I asked why, their reply was "because that is what everyone in business does here... runs two cash books: one they show to the tax man and one they do for themselves..." Luckily they were only joking, but this is still something that is too prevalent here. :(

Ljilja helped a lot with the actual training, and it was actually easier for me as we now have a translated version of the handbook: so I can ask the questions directly from the handbook instead of having to translate them in my head!!

This was also the first time we ran the training in our new classroom, and it works well, even if the layout is not ideal.

Here are the red team who despite their tendency to save too much, ended up doing quite well:

The blue team was well-balanced, and very,very good negotiators: two of them having finished a negotiating course:

Some of the greens needed help with their negotiating and communicating skills: they were the ones who ended up almost bankrupt because they didn't make a deal to sell their products on... a good lesson for everyone on the importance of good business relationships:

Some of their start-up businesses were also very unique: ranging from piano lessons to selling artwork... it was great fun to see what they came up with to try and make some money as part of the practical part of their training.

Already there is a lot of interest for group number 13 in the new year, and so I look forward to helping more people get a grasp on business concepts, and improve their negotiating skills amongst many other things that we teach while doing this training!!

Always expect the unexpected...

If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.

Heraclitus

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/expect_the_unexpected.html#qzZlOxJTpgIGVmvm.99

Yesterday, Ljilja and I went again to Celinac (about 15 minutes from Banja Luka) to finish up the Business training we started last week. The kids did really well and here they are with their certificates. The lady in red is Ziada who set up the training for us.

While we were doing the training in the morning, the school director came to see what we were doing. He was so enamoured that he asked us if we were free in the afternoon to come and work with a younger group. Granted it was mostly because one of his teachers was out sick and he was looking for a replacement, but it was also a way to get some more of the kids thinking differently about business. Despite the fact that we actually had a full afternoon, we managed to turn it around and make it work.

We went through the first day of the training, Ljilja did the explanation at the beginning and here I am summing up at the end:

And here is the group at the end of the training: we had a great time with them - and they learnt a lot.

We got back to Banja Luka and I got things ready for our health workshop with Tanja and Natasha. After having a good time with them last time, we were not expecting to have problems with the kids this week. Unfortunately, for some reason, even the kids that are normally good were giving us problems...not to talk about the normally troublesome kids... and so it was really hard for us to teach anything. In the end we called their carer and sent some of the kids to go get ready for bed, and it was much better after that...

Once again Tanja did most of the heavy lifting and Natasha and I helped. This time we did a little play for the kids (wish I could have got a pic of us - Tanja and I with cigarettes trying to convince Natasha that she wants to smoke, and her having none of it!! You will just have to imagine it...). Here is Tanja showing the kids some of the different poisons that are found in cigarettes: 

I think it was good that we sent some of the kids away (even though it is kind of like admitting defeat) as the rest of the kids were then actually able to learn something... (and we went up later to go say goodnight and make peace with them so they wouldn't be too mad with us!) 

It is always good to expect the unexpected and adjust accordingly... and yesterday was the kind of day where unexpected was the order of the day!

Jack of all trades...

On Tuesday night in my English conversation class, we talked about the phrase "jack of all trades" (someone who is able to do a lot of things well) and I realised that it really described my week:

I started by spending time on Monday morning doing something I LOVE: writing... I have been asked to write for a YWAM prayer website about the Balkans, and so have been working hard on that in between everything else this week...

On Monday and Tuesday afternoons, Ljilja and I were in the neighbouring town of Celinac to run a BEST business training course (this is the 11th since I learnt how to run it in 2009) for the final year economic students at the local high school...

As Ljilja is learning how to run the course herself, she started us off (above) and I carried on (below): it is so much nicer having two of us doing the training!

The "kids" were great fun: here are "Dionis" who were doing really well until they got the "thief" life card, and all of their money was stolen... I think they learnt their lesson!

Not Hugo Boss, but Yugo!

The "Reds" seem to be having fun!

It is always great to do these trainings, and one of our partners in Celinac was very keen for it to be done in the school there - as they organised it all for us, we were happy to oblige!

On Wednesday night, we started our second health workshop in the Children's Home (see about the first one here and here). We will do 4 weeks on anti-smoking in the hopes that we can show them why NOT to start smoking. Tanja did all of the heavy lifting, and Natasa and I were there mostly as crowd control. We worked with the kids that come to the book club usually, so we know them all well (and know which ones to keep calm!).

Tanja teaching on lungs and oxygen... and proof that the kids were quiet for at least 30seconds!

Natasa helping some of the girls to put the names of the parts of the lungs in the right place...

 Showing us the finished product:

Then it was time to colour in...

Our "no smoking" signs!!

Luckily, after a busy 3 days, Thursday and Friday are holidays! So, cleaning house, making pizza for lunch and carrying on with writing (and doing some resting in between) were on the cards for Thursday... and more of that for Friday! I hope you enjoyed a look at my "jack of all trades" kind of week...which is kind of what my weeks look like all the time...and hopefully I am good at all of my trades: and not as the saying goes "jack of all trades, master of none"!

(In case you were wondering, I am deliberately trying not to put identifying pictures of the any kids under 18 on my blog, thanks for understanding!)

Another successful business training...

Once again using the BEST Bottom Line Basic course from the South African Institute for Entrepreneurship, I trained up a group of people to run their own businesses. Ljilja and I ran the 4-module course over the last two weekends, with a week's break in between module 2 and 3 for a practical. Although we had 23 people who enthusiastically signed up, only 14 showed up on the first day and eventually just 11 finished... that is the way it goes!

Here I am explaining the basics of marketing in 2 minutes: something I took 3 months to learn at University... Price, product, place and promotion!

 

The course is a game, but it really does teach the basics of many concepts of business. Here we are deciding on how much of each product to sell, diversification...

And the biggest skill taught is negotiation between the teams: they have to negotiate price and amount of product to sell to the resellers...

And these negotiations can get tense...

But not necessarily :)

For their practicals, there were quite a lot of different ideas, reselling honey, apples, flax seeds, and those that already had their own businesses were able to use those - doing leg-waxing and putting in car-parts. Gorjana and Jelena (below) came up with the "good mood stickers": they made them and then sold them to their friends and made twice their money back... nicely done.

The apple guy was the "winner" as he made 4 times his investment: he went to the village and got the apples off the tree and paid the farmer for what he took at a really low price... and sold it in the city for a whopping profit - clever!

And here we all are at the end with our diplomas - well deserved!

This business training was dedicated to the man who helped to develop it in South Africa in the first place. His name is James Thomas, and although I never met him personally, I dedicated this training to his memory. He was killed in the Westgate Mall attacks in Kenya on the 22nd of September while there to help the Kenyans learn about being entrepreneurs through training such as this. You can read more about this incredible man and the legacy he left here. I look forward to meeting him one day on the other side!

Business training finished...

After having to do two groups because too many people came to the training, we combined the two groups at the end. After we finished off group two last night, we had group one join us so they could all get their diplomas together. In total 23 people graduated, above are pictured the 17 who were there last night. Now they (those that are interested) have two weeks to write out their business plans and to apply for one of our small micro-loans which we will give out by the end of November.

Both groups were great and Ljilja and I had fun with them. It is always sad when a course like this ends, but I know that many will be back to hang out with us at IHTUS! 

Here are some of the (translated) comments about what they learned from the course:
-On this course I learnt how to do business in a simple and fun way. The game is very interesting and it fulfilled my expectations, and I learnt a lot about how to organise the work I am currently doing and the negotiation and communication skills which are important for me in my work.

-We learnt how to plan with our own resources, how to make a profit and along with everything else, we learnt how to work in a team - ie how to make your job easier by working together with other people and in that way get a better result.

-I learnt how to communicate better, work together with others, and I put theoretical concepts into practice. I also realised the importance of planning and budgeting and savings.

Business training can be fun!

We finished up the last two modules of the BEST business training for the CISO group on Thursday and Friday. It was one of my best groups, and we really had a lot of fun. The "RED" group even appropriately changed their name to "fRiEnDly" which was very true :-)

planning

negotiations don't have to be hard work

It was interesting to see what they came up with for the practical businesses during the two week break: from making jewelry to selling liqueur, preparing a "social" lunch to selling homemade cosmetics, they all really got to taste what it is like to run your own small business. Here we are at break time sampling some of that "liqueur" (which she made with a liquorice-tasting sweet called "bronhi")...

Drazen joined us for the break!

yummy

And here are all of us: We did have two guys in the beginning, but both dropped out, so it was just us girls in the end. Thanks to Ljilja and Tanja (left front and back) for helping out:

We always give out evaluations at the end. Here are what some of them had to say:

-This is one of the best ways to transfer knowledge to the student, we learnt such a lot through playing, and not just theories. I learnt how to plan, save, risk, market and distribute my product. This will hopefully help me in starting my own business.

-I learnt that good teamwork gives better and faster results than when we work alone. Also, how supply and demand works, and the importance of planning.

-I learnt the importance of marketing, and the importance of keeping good records of income and expenses . Good planning is essential for a good business.

I always tell the groups that of course with the local language not being my mother-tongue, if I make a mistake that they are allowed to laugh at me, but they then have to tell me why, so I can learn. It is quite tricky getting some of the terminology right for the different economic terms, so I do make mistakes at times, but luckily I made it through this training without any whopping ones!

It really was a great group, and I am so glad that they are now introduced to EKC Ihtus and so they will be coming by for coffee and to hang out. And I look forward to seeing how they continue doing with the businesses some of them started during the practical phase...

End of Business Training...

One of the places I did take my camera in the last while was to the last two sessions of the business training course which we started two weeks before (see here for more details)...

Here are the three groups again, in action: Lavanda (Lavender): making hats:

Crveni (Reds) making a decision...

 And Originali (in negotiations with Sinisa from the Reds)

For the last two sessions I let Tanja do all the work (she is busy learning how to do this by herself, so it was necessary!) and she did a fantastic job:

Setting up the session:

And working out prices of products:

In between the two blocks of training all took part in the practical using a mini-loan of 10KM (5euro or R50) to make as much money as they could. Monika managed to make almost 500KM (250euro or R2500) selling jewelry! (she did admittedly sell mostly to family at an exorbitant price, so in the long term won't be able to keep it up!! But in the time frame she made the most money. 15 of the 19 who started managed to finish the course. All 15 of them got certificates. Here are Monika (left) and Radmila with theirs: 

Now many of them are writing their own business plans in order to get one of the three mini-loans available through our project. It will be interesting to see what they come up with!