Hi everybody! I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but hey, it’s my blog and I’ll post when I want!
Most of you now are enjoying the autumn (my favorite season), and that means cute sweaters, yummy pastries, and pretty leaves. Over here, however, we’ve been slogging through hot season. Hot season means preemptively starting your day with oral rehydration salts, too-warm early morning bike rides to the training center, getting irritated by the smallest things, sleeping on top of my bed instead of in it, and taking cool baths instead of warm ones, while being outside one hundred. Percent. Of. The. Time.
I don’t mean to complain, but man, it’s HOT. So hot, in fact, that I was a little impulsive last weekend. I was suffering through the heat, and I convinced (begged) my friends to cut my hair. Niether of them had ever cut hair before, so after convincing them that they could do it, we chopped off about 5 inches of hair in the hopes of helping me stay cooler in this heat. We all learned as we went, and defintely learned what (not) to do next time a PCV wants their hair cut! It turned out pretty well, and most importantly, it can still go into a pony tail! (I’ll attatch a picture at the bottom of this post)
In addition to giving in to hot season impulses (like cutting my hair, running to the market across the street at lunch for an ice cold Coca Cola, and laying on top of my bed in clothes that would be immodest here instead of being social with my host family) I’ve also been working on my Tonga skills, getting (marginally) better on my bike, and starting to think about what kinds of programs I might be able to do at my permanent site. Last week, we had round-robin interviews where we met with our Director of Programming and Training, our Program Manager, and our Program Trainer to discuss how training is going, any challenges, our host families, and any preferences or concerns regarding site placement we may have. Next week, we all find out exactly where we’ll be placed. For someone like me, who’s learning a langauge that’s largely only spoken in one province, it’s not nearly as nerve-wracking as it is for someone who’s language is spoken throughout the country and doesn’t know which province they’re headed to yet.
Nevertheless, it’s exciting and nerve-wracking and every emotion in between.
It brings up so many question marks for me…Will they like me? Will they even want me? How close will I be to my friends? Will I get along with my host family? How will I set effective and appropriate boundaries? When can I get started? Can I go already?!
Also next week, we depart for two-week site visits, wherein we’ll stay with a current PCV already living in our province, do a workshop with a member of our host family, and then go to our actual site to check it out!! (I’ll provide a more detailed description when I come home and share my experience with you!) Our lovely site host has shared the menu with us, and let me just say, I’m so excited for some amazing American food after almost 6 weeks of mostly nsima and chicken (amongst a few other things)
Last week, we gave our first health talks in training! I got to give a health talk on why it’s important to take your child to the clinic early if they’re sick, as well as gave a nutritious cooking demo, to 17 moms at a local Under-5 Growth Monitoring Clinic. I also got to give one at a local secondary girl’s school about peer pressure and how to avoid it. These young women really opened up to us, got VERY into their skits, and showed us so much wisdom. Giving these talks has made me SO excited to get to site and start doing some health education!
I don’t have to much else to share with you at the moment, but here’s a few pictures to enjoy:
Reilly in Zambia 