Post 9: After In-service training and gearing up for more work (and play)

So I’m am leaving IST (in-service training), which means that I have not ET’ed (early terminated) my peace corps service during one of the most popular times to do so. That’s a good start I guess! I mean, things have been good, but the kind of support you need is not always offered by the Peace Corps…and that’s all I will say on that matter. Anyways, all of my peace corps “stage” were reunited in our old training center in Mantasoa. It was quite a hectic time, all 34 of us there, with our “counterparts” (a chosen or assigned person in our communities that support our work). We attended millions of presentations on HIV/AIDS, on Bio-intensive gardening, small-business development, and a whole lot of other stuff. It was productive, great to see everyone speaking Malagasy, and great to hear about everyone’s stories and struggles. And you know what also was great?!?! The weather! It was cold! I haven’t felt sweat in almost three weeks! It’s amazing.
It’s been a great time to re-evaluate my work and come up with better ways to promote health in my community.
First of all, I met with the country representative of PSI (Population service international, www.psi.org) and he told me about research that this NGO was going to be doing in my region of Betsiboka, and I am hopefully going to help, and possibly use this work as my thesis for my masters program, yay!
Secondly, I have gotten some great ideas for health activities in my area:
-I’m going to start working with the community health workers to provide them with more health information, training from PSI, and broader recognition in the region. I hope to also start gardening and efficient stove-building projects there
-I’m also going to start preparing for an HIV/AIDS festival in my town that will mostly focus on the high school and middle school students, and will hopefully included speakers from the association of People living with AIDS (PLWA), Men who have sex with men (MSM), and commercial sex workers (CSW), who are active in the capital and promote HIV/AIDS prevention
-Ummm…I’m going to keep studying Malagasy, French, Spanish, and MCATs prep…but I won’t make any promises about the future yet.
-I am going to be doing some traveling/working: first I’m going to be back in the beach town, Majunga, for a Peace Corps meeting in mid-June. Then I’m going to central highlands area, to a lake called Lac Alaotra, to do a bike trip to fight against HIV/AIDS in mid-July, then I will hopefully be back at Mantasoa to help train new peace corps volunteers in late-August/early-September, then hopefully doing some work in the east near the city of Moramanga and the Andasibe park, and then eventually, doing some work in my home of Maevatanana…I’m pretty busy for the next 4 months! And that’s how I like it!