Blog: Learning

I'm taking a huge step both personally and professionally and I'm off to Africa - Zambia, to be precise. This October and November I'll be in Lusaka, working with a forum of housing and land rights charities.

I'm one of about 15 (lucky) people from all over Wales going to Africa as part of the Assembly's International Learning Opportunities (ILO) scheme. The scheme provides development opportunites for managers from the Welsh public sector and helps Wales fulfill the UN's Millennium Development Goals as part of the Wales for Africa initiative.

At a presentation last week for people who went to Africa last year Carwyn Jones, the First Minister, talked about Wales's contribution to development in Africa. For instance Wales makes up about a quarter of all the UK's links with hospitals in Africa - we really punch above our weight when it comes to international development. I've felt many things since I found out I had a place on the scheme (excited, mostly anxious...) but listening to that speech I felt really proud.

More details will follow very soon.

I've now got all the information on my assignement and it sounds excellent - when i read it it made me smile. I'm excited but of course it's a bit daunting too, and there's certainly a lot for me to do in eight weeks, but it would be a bit pointless otherwise. The people that run the ILO programme have done a good job on the 'matching' process (I'll describe the whole application process later).

I'll be working with the Civic Forum for Housing, an umbrella organization that supports various charities working on housing and land rights issues. The Forum wants to build its profile in order to recruit more member-charities and improve its fundraising. So I'll be developing a brand with them and producing brand/profile policies and documentation - I absolutely can't wait to get stuck in.

I'll be based in Lusaka but will travel to visit the various charities, one of which is in Livingstone, which I hope (or should I say, presume) means I'll get to visit Victoria Falls. The African name for the Falls is Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means 'smoke that thunders' - name sort of says it all, really. According to my research transport across the country is neither quick nor comfortable. On my return to Wales, I think I'll be complaining a lot less about the A470.

Who is smiling on the newest roundhouse in Wales, today? Dafydd and his construction team step back after months of work to celebrate at our mini and informal opening of the latest Moel y Gaer roundhouse. They are congratulated. I've formulated a ritual for the opening. Thanks for joining us at our special event, we all hope you enjoyed following the history of the roundhouse.

We've almost finished the roundhouse. Dafydd and the team have thatched the roof and as you can see we've experimented with the design by creating a small vent for the smoke. I hope this will work but time will tell when we light our first fire! I need to limewash the interiors and then we're all done. We will be celebrating all the hard work this Saturday. If you are around join us at 3pm for the official opening in the 'Celtic Village'. Thanks to everyone for their support and interest in this project over the last four months and to the volunteers, Dylan Hammond and Lauren Parfitt, who have helped us.

Investigation Results 2006-2010

The ‘Spring Bulbs for Schools’ project allows 1000s of schools scientists to work with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales to investigate and understand climate change.

Since October 2005, school scientists across Wales have been keeping weather records and noting when their flowers open, as part of a long-term study looking at the effects of temperature on spring bulbs.

See Professor Plant's reports attached or download the spreadsheet to study the trends for yourself!

Many Thanks

Professor Plant