Thanks to fellow TechWomen Mentor, Anar Simpson, for sending this picture just now of some of us in the 2016 delegation to Zimbabwe, at the Meikles Hotel in Harare. What an inspiring trip that was!
TechWomen Team Sierra Leone
I am honored to be one of the 2020 TechWomen Impact Coaches for Sierra Leone, working again with fellow Mentor, Mercedes Soria. We mentors just finished our second online training meeting with IIE. I have visited Sierra Leone twice, once in 2017 with Families Without Borders and then again in 2019 as part of the TechWomen Delegation, for which I gave the Networking Keynote address. I am happy to be working with Salwa Campbell as our Sierra Leone Peer Advisor for the five Emerging Leaders from Salone.
I was the Process Architect for TechWomen 2010-2011 and have been a TechWomen mentor and part of eleven international delegations since 2011. TechWomen is an exchange program of the US Department of State – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. This life changing program is very dear to me and I am looking forward to helping the 2020 Team Sierra Leone develop a project that will help their community.
Tools I mentioned on today’s training call, for teams working at a distance: Google Groups – email distribution and archive, WhatsApp – quick messages and meeting reminders, Facebook – personal updates and contacts, LinkedIn – professional updates and contacts, Skype or Zoom – to communicate verbally, Google Drive – to share and communicate in writing. Send a WhatsApp message to the whole team 2 hours in advance of a team meeting so they don’t have to remember US time zones, Daylight Savings, etc. Mentors have to keep up with country events by reading BBC News, Al Jazeera, New York Times.
If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 2017-2019 by Katy Dickinson.
Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, Mentoring Standard, News & Reviews, Politics
Help with Zoom
Education for Ministry is holding an online training this week for its mentors, trainers, and other seminar leaders, many of whom are starting their annual terms this month. We have over 165 already signed up!
Cynthia C. Hargis, Diocesan Relations and EfM Online Coordinator, University of the South – School of Theology – Education for Ministry, asked Cheri Winter (EfM Coordinator and Mentor, Diocese of Colorado), and me (EfM Coordinator and Mentor, Diocese of El Camino Real) to give this session on how to use Zoom for EfM seminars. Our training materials are linked here, both for those who will attend the session and for others who may find them helpful:
- Zoom Technical Tips: EfM Zoom Tips 14 Sep 2020 (by Katy Dickinson)
- Creating an Online Environment of Hospitality: Zoom Practices for EfM Mentors 09 2020 (by Cheri Winter)
- EfM Event Evaluation form: PDF format – Zoom Practices for EfM Evaluation, Doc Format – Zoom Practices for EfM Evaluation (by Cindy Hargis)
We welcome any additional suggestions you may offer. Here are questions and answers from the live chat during the event – the start to an FAQ: Questions from Zoom Practices for EfM, 18 Sep 2020
The recording of the event is on Zoom Practices for EfM 9-18-20. All of the material from the event is also linked to EfM – Resources for Mentors – Webinar: Zoom Practices for EfM Mentors.
To learn more about EfM, watch this two minute video: https://vimeo.com/450619912
We opened with this prayer, by the Rev. Aaron Klinefelter of St. Jude’s Episcopal Church (Cupertino, California):
If you want to receive Katysblog posts by email, please sign up using the Sign Me Up! button (upper right on Katysblog home). Images Copyright 2019-2020 by Katy Dickinson.
Updated 24 Sep 2020
Filed under Church, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews
Fabric from Africa
Since we are sheltering in place during the Covid-19 lockdown, and I have a new machine, I have been sewing. In particular, I have had time to use some of the sophisticated and beautiful wax print fabrics I carried home from 11 trips to Africa since 2010. Some of it has become face masks and some curtains. My dining room is now bright with potato print tablecloths featuring elephant and guinea fowl patterns from Zimbabwe, and fish pattern curtains I made from fabric purchased in Sierra Leone. In the curtains, matching the leaping fish on either side of the center took some planning!
Earlier Katysblog posts with pictures of arts and crafts from some of my travels in Africa:
- 2014 Ethiopian Art, Crafts, and Icons
- 2014 Crafts in Rwanda
- 2015 Crafts in South Africa
- 2015 Camels and Crafts in Tunisia
- 2017 Fabric Arts and Crafts in Sierra Leone
- 2018 Crafts and Souvenirs from Egypt
- 2019 Arts and Crafts in Sierra Leone
2014 Rwanda
2017 Sierra Leone
2019 Sierra Leone
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Images Copyright 2014-2020 by Katy Dickinson.
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
Traveling During a Plague
For our 20th wedding anniversary, John and I had planned to go on a fancy international trip; however, the Covid-19 lockdown prevented that. So, we spent last weekend on driving tour of the local Santa Cruz area instead. Traveling during a pandemic requires more planning, expense, and a willingness to be flexible and change your mind if circumstances do not feel safe. We stayed at Chaminade, a resort with a well-designed social distancing plan, including disinfecting and sealing rooms between guests. It is a pretty location with a great view but expensive (over $60 for breakfast for two, take out style in plastic containers on the deck). There were so many unmasked kids and parents running around we did not feel comfortable using the pool, and there was so much poison oak we did not feel comfortable using the trails. So, we went driving to find more secluded locations.
Some places we tried were clearly too crowded for comfort, so after admiring the beaches, and Roaring Camp steam engine from the car, we went for a walk along the Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific rail line, in Felton. An almost-never-used rail line is a great place to walk, away from both people and poison oak.
Capitola
Felton
Felton
Felton
Poison Oak
More Poison Oak
Some of our memorable meals included dinner in the redwoods at Casa Nostra in Ben Lomond, and a delicious lunch at the The Crepe Place in Santa Cruz in an outdoor room with glass bottle walls. We had fun drinking Barbera wine in the glasses made for our wedding twenty years ago. We particularly enjoyed lunch at Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola, the only place where we ate indoors. We arrived early in the afternoon and were seated in a very large room which was empty when we arrived and had only two other tables filled by the time we finished.
The Crepe Place
Casa Nostra
Casa Nostra
Cheers!
Shadowbrook
Shadowbrook
Our best walk was at the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park where the trails are set up for social distancing.
We still plan to take our big international trip once the world settles down a bit, but that may not be for quite a while.
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Images Copyright 2020 by Katy Dickinson.
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews
20th Wedding Anniversary on 4 July
John and I are looking forward to our 20th wedding anniversary this weekend. Thinking back on some of our adventures and looking forward to many more. It is fun to be married to your best friend!
2020 virtual family dinner
2020 Mother’s Day
2018 family vacation
2018 Paul SJSU graduation
2018 St Andrew’s
2017 Reno
2016 Ashland
2016 Ashland
2016 Dunsmuir
2016 Klamath River
2015 Amtrak trip
2015 St Andrew’s
2014 Lalibela Ethiopia
2012 St Andrew’s
2012 Natural Bridges
2012 Jessica CMU graduation
2011 Jessica + Matthew
2011 Jessica + Matthew
2010 Lair of the Golden Bear camp
Lair of the Golden Bear camp 2010
2010 Teatro Zinzanni
2010 Teatro Zinzanni
2010 Teatro Zinzanni
2010 Egypt
2010 Cairo, Egypt
2008 Flying to Baja Mexico
2008 Baja
2007 India
2007 India
2007 WP668 Caboose move
2007 WP668 move
2006 Dead Sea, Israel
2006 Dead Sea, Israel
2006 St. Peterburg, Russia
2006 Russia
2005 Beijing, China
2005 China
2000
2000 wedding
2000 wedding
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Images Copyright 2000-2020 by Katy Dickinson.
Filed under Church, Home & Family
Wear the Mask – We Are Strong Together
I try to offer congratulations to friends and family for the life events they so generously share on social media. I am glad to be even a small part of their busy and interesting lives. However, I am having increasing difficulty saying something positive when I see wedding and party pictures where no one is wearing a mask. It is so fundamentally disrespectful in these pandemic times. Forgive me if I cannot celebrate your endangering others. There is so little we can do to stop Covid-19 but masks work. Lead by example: wear the mask. We are strong together.
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Image Copyright 2020 by Sizer Design + Illustration. – Free Download Available.
Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews, Politics
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