Amazing what a bit of competition will do

I am so proud of my counterpart, Herminio, and one of our new staff members, Karen* (Karen just started at SEPI this week). I had my first go at teaching them to do a gender analysis and they are getting it so quickly. I was prepared for it to be a slower process, a much slower process even. But they are fantastic.

The amusing part was seeing how quickly Herminio improved once we brought Karen in. I started with Herminio on his own, but then it was suggested to me that we could add another person (because SEPI needs about ten people who can do gender analyses like, last year), and Karen had already shown herself to be very motivated and vocal (the opposite of most Timorese women, who tend to hang back a bit, even in SEPI). Amazing what a bit of competition will do (especially when the competition is a pretty girl).

• Karen told me that her real name is Elfrina, which is I think is a lovely name, and fitting as she is tall and slim (tall for a Timorese woman anyway – she’s a bit taller than me. Remember, I am taller than most Timorese women). According to her, it is a ‘bad’ name, and she doesn’t like the way it sounds with her last name, which is da Cruz.