Change of Pace

Hello all, I hope this finds everyone in good health and spirits! I would normally apologize for not blogging in quite a while but I cannot do that this time.  I have recently realized that this is life now and it seems strange to report on my daily life (despite the realization I will continue to blog in spite of it feeling unnatural). Just as you walk to the refrigerator to get water, I go to tap at the center of the village and fill a 20 liter jug. I use that jug to fill a water filter to ensure safe drinking water. I wait an over an hour for the water to filter. Then I add bleach, which is another 30 min of waiting, which kills the viruses and bacteria.  What takes you no more than 5 minutes to do, takes me about 2 hours.  But that is my new normal and seems strange to have to explain everyday task like that within my blog.  I was looking out the window of a taxi while riding two other Peace Corps friends when I came to grips with the reality of my change. I was looking out on a third world African country with half built buildings and dirt roads in its most propionate city.  And I…I was at home.

‘Change,’ will be the topic of this blog today:

How have I changed?

I came into this experience feeling confident in who I am and a solid understanding of my character.   I felt as though I had done a lot of self exploration in the past with my pervious traveling.  I was confident of my core values and I had high expectations of only improving over my next 2 years of service. But to my surprise, I have changed and I will continue to change.  It is kind of hard to pin point the change but I can defiantly feel it. The way I see things, feel things and I even do things is different.  I have noticed small things like really appreciating breakfast. The walk to the market every morning to get my supplies allows me to wake up and see the village already hard at work.  After I finish eating and feel somewhat satisfied, I remember that not everyone in my small village gets that feeling (let alone in the rest of the world). I imagine I will not really know the extent of it for a long time to come.  I have also realized bigger things like my perspective on life and death have changed.  Now that I am here, it’s hard to image how I couldn’t change.  Everything is just so raw here – I feel so much closer to actually living as compared to cruising right on through. 

I know, I know… I have just kind of thrown around the word ‘change’ a lot and have not really given strong evidence to support it but it’s really hard to explain when I do not understand it myself.  You will have to trust me until you get the chance to look me in the eye and see for yourself.

As I finally begin to feel at home here in The Gambia, the real work begins.  Over the next 6 months I will take part in a bike trek across The Gambia teaching about HIV/AIDS, start a health school for mother about basic health knowledge and begin implementing a national campaign about weaning foods for children. I am going from nothing to a lot of somethings.

The bike trek is an all Peace Corps activity and has been running effectively for the last 2 years now.  The trek is 5 day biking journey cover about 150 km and visiting 4 different schools.  There will be 2 groups covering 75 km each and 2 schools.  The students will take part in lectures, games and interactive conversations all pertaining to HIV/AIDS.  I am excited to bond with other PCVs and educate young students about what is slowly become a problem in The Gambia – HIV/AIDS.

I am most excited about the health school because if done well, it can be a very sustainable project.  Two previous volunteers have conducted this school in other areas of The Gambia and they had been very successful projects.  The basic idea of the school is to educate mother on better health practices.  The topics that will be covered are reproduction, hygiene, nutrition, environmental sanitation, and disease prevention and management.  The project will be competition with a point awarding system based on showing up to class, participation and practical skill use.  My counterpart and I plan in have an opening and closing ceremony to get the women excited out participating in the school.  My counterpart (aka local host country national health worker) participated in one of the pervious volunteer’s health school and has all the knowledge to do it for the second time around. I am more of a liaison between my counterpart and the village and the grant write.   I am very satisfied play those roles because coming into the Peace Corps I did not want to be a do-er. I wanted to be a facilitator.  If I do all the work it is not sustainable because in 2 years I will leave and take the knowledge with me.  If I’m more of a consultant then someone else does most of the work and I just make suggestions to enhance the process.

It has been 6 months – I have a family, friends and work to be done. I am in a very good place right now, both mentally and physically!