Brief Update

Hello Everyone! I feel like if I don't post a small update now I'm bound to get way too far behind in what I am up to, so here it is:

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to America on vacation for the entirety of Ramadan. When I got back to Senegal I was planning on going to Katote right in time for the end of Ramadan celebration, called "Julde Korka" in Pulaar. My plans were tight though, and ended up falling apart. I had only one day where I could have made it back to Matam and there were inexplicably no cars running that day. I was so upset to miss this holiday with my family, but sometimes you have to just accept what the transportation gods give you.

The reason my plans were so tight was because I was asked to be a trainer for the IST or "in service training" for the most recent health stage at Peace Corps' training center in Thies. New health volunteers, coupled with a handful of CED (Community Economic Development) volunteers, come to Senegal in March then finish their PST (Pre-Service Training) in May and are sworn in as full volunteers (the same schedule as I had). Their second training is 2 weeks in August dedicated to more technical first-goal work. It was this that I was asked to help with. Typically volunteers that have completed their 2 year service extend to be PCVLs (Peace Corps Volunteer Leaders- getting sick of the acronyms yet?) and they guide new stages through the training progression. Their jobs are to organize all of the sessions, keep records from past years and for present years, organize the logistics of sessions, bring in guest trainers, preview all sessions, monitor sessions as they are happening, and monitor the overall flow and content of the training, especially putting in a volunteer's perspective. They work with the APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director) and the PTAs (I don't even know what these stand for at this point) as well as the the Director of Programming and Training to put together the training series. The only problem here is that no one from the last group of health volunteers extended their service to stay on as PCVL. APCDs and PTAs are undoubtedly involved with a great deal of training, but with our propensity to organize and our connection to the volunteer experience, much of the work, especially day-to-day as the training happens, is in the hands of the PCVL. For this training, I was "acting PCVL" taking on the duties of a PCVL temporarily. The responsibilities may not sound like all that much, but it kept me working from 7am to 11pm or 1am for 16 days straight. It was a blast. I loved being able to talk to the new volunteers, sharing my experiences and being invigorated through their optimism. I loved speaking English and feeling proficient at something for once. I have always loved the training center, which has been cultivated beautifully by the Agricultural PCVLs and their counterparts and feels like such a beautiful marriage of Senegalese and American culture to me. It was also a nice transition from vacation for me. I went from all the comforts of America to a few days in Dakar, where we have hot showers and most any food you could want, to the training center, which sometimes has warm showers and the best and healthiest Senegalese food. Then I was ready to go back to site, with my bucket showers and rice bowls.

From the Thies training center I went back to my Senegalese home and started on my Malaria tourney with Anna. I'll report on that fully when we're all done. We worked on the first phase for the entire month of September and will do our follow-up in November.

At the end of September I had the fortune of attending our second ever Northern Summit, a two-day event that brought together volunteers from the northernmost 3 regions of Senegal- Matam, St Louis and Louga. The culture and climate of this area is often drastically different than that of the south, where most of our volunteers are placed. The general training we get from Peace Corps can often be south-leaning because of this, or simply not specific enough to our northern needs. The summit sought to address this, encourage information sharing, and highlight the current work of volunteers in the area. It was a great success and I think everyone got a lot out of it. It didn't hurt that it was at a beautiful campement in St Louis.

After that, there was a three day transportation strike (transportation will be the end of me here) and the SeneGAD meeting I had planned to be in Dakar had to be pushed back and condensed. As always it was wonderful to see my fellow board members and the regional representatives, they really are a great group. We only have about 5 months left on the board and have a lot we want to get done before then! Keep your eyes out for a new website, hopefully at the new address of senegad.com, and an exciting International Day of the Girl social media campaign we will be running for the month of October.

In between the Northern Summit and SeneGAD meeting, I applied for a WorldConnect grant for the revitalization of my Health Hut, something I have been working on my entire service. Everything I have been doing up until now has been organizational and based on capacity building, and then in June I wrote a grant for some structural help for my Health Hut, including a shade structure, a wall and paints for murals. The funding source I applied for in June wasn't right for my grant type, but then WorldConnect opened up funding again and I reapplied to their program, staying up half the night for two nights to complete the lengthy application. Cross your fingers that I get the grant!

We also got to slip out to the beach for a day to celebrate Hannah's birthday, a wonderful break from the non-stop work I had been doing since I stepped back into the country.

I headed back to site right in time for Tabaski, the biggest celebration of the year. I can't wait to post about the festivities and give you all the recipe for the Tabaski lunch meal.

Okay, that wasn't exactly brief, sorry.