The main issues of the week were topics on site assessment and diagnosis. Participants continued to gather data around the site. This was facilitated by theoretical presentations in class by resource persons. This helped the participants focus on what manner of information to gather when they went out into the sites.
Ashton Sinamai, a pioneer graduate of the regional courses (1999) made presentations on site interpretation and visitor management. An archaeologist by profession, he is presently a curator with the National Museum of Namibia. Ashton has played several roles in the programme over the years, since his first participation at the course.

Dennis Haambote made presentations on site evaluating sites for proper presentation. He is a 2003 ‘graduate’ of the regional course and is currently a deputy director at the National Heritage Conservation Council of Zambia. He participated in various programme activities and also coordinated the special seminar on HIV/AIDS and cultural heritage conservation which held in Zambia in 2007.

The CHDA director, Deirdre Prins-Solani, also made a case study presentation on Robben Island, tying together the earlier presentations on interpretation, presentation and visitor management.

The coordination team also had a change of guard this week. Oluremi Adedayo of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments of Nigeria, joined the 11th course as assistant coordinator, taking over from Saadu Rashid. Oluremi was a participant in 2005 and a course assistant in 2007.
Linda Kanyemba, a conservation architect with the National Heritage Conservation Council of Zambia, also joined the team as course assistant, understudying Jack Obonyo, whose term as course assistant was completed at the end of the week.

Jack Obonyo was bid farewell at the end of the week.

There were challenges in preparing for the second stakeholders’ meeting as the generator broke down and a replacement was only acquired about 36 hours later. However the participants overcame the initial demoralization and rose to the occasion, adjusting to the realities on the ground and preparing to host an excellent meeting.
The second stakeholders meeting witnessed a large turnout of the stakeholders and participants had the opportunity to present to the community their findings on the field, as opposed to the first meeting at which findings had been gleaned from literature in Mombasa. There were lively exchanges with the community members present. There was a greater presence of women and youths at this meeting. The meeting was facilitated by Herman Kiriama.

The weekend was spent in Lamu and enabled participants to appreciate the challenges of conserving this world heritage site, especially as it relates to the work they were doing in Pate. It was also an opportunity to relax, away from the demands of their work on the Island.