Written June 16, 2012. . . posted- sooner than you might think.

Well well well . . .here we are again!

I hope everyone had a marvelous Saturday, or those of you who braved pittsburgh’s south side I commend you, and hope you had a drink for me! My day was very complex, well, kinda.

The morning started off with our written language test at 7:30am. It was a total bust. I was feeling so confident about the progress I had made in the first two weeks, to be totally and completely stumped by a few small pieces of paper. Woof. Oh well, back to the starting blocks I suppose. I have made note cards, talk with my family every night, pay attention in class, do my homework etc. I really don’t know what else I could really do to get my language up to speed. I feel like I am just so far behind. Starting week 4, all of our lessons (technical included) are going to be tought in Portuguese. . . yikes. Hopefully in these next two weeks, I become as fluent as possible to be able to understand these rather important classes in the upcoming weeks. 

After the test, we went to the HUB for our intro into PACA – Participatory Analysis for Community Action. We briefed over a few topics, just to get our feet wet, as one might say. Various tools used by health volunteers, ie; needs assessments, seasonal calendars, daily activity charts, community mapping etc. The fundamental paperwork/charts and activities a volunteer needs to do to get any form of actual community service work implemented.

It was good stuff. We even have a homework assignment to prove it “discuss with your homestay families information to create a map of your community, showing resources and facilities for health and health education”. I made a vain attempt to explain my assignment to my host mom this evening. I think it just made us both very confused. So we went back to talking about food, and things around the house. My vocab for domestic things is pretty good I have to say. Too bad I cant use it in everyday life in the health sector. Unless I’m talking about nutrition- then I could talk about food all day . . .hmmmm “lightbulb”

In addition to that coursework, we also have a weekly Trainee Directed Activity (TDA) which we are to complete every week, and turn into the technical trainer every Friday afternoon. This upcoming week is about water – “observe water, hygiene and nutrition practices in your house”. We are to document all of our observations and findings. Its kind of interesting to learn about where we get our drinking water, how its transported/stored, the type of bathroom facilities (if you want to call it that) we use, hygiene-related behavior, nutrition on a daily basis (I have explained again and again, the amount of carbs we are given every day is wayyyyyy too much).

I’ve actually started giving away my crackers to my younger siblings, and not taking rice or whatever carb is served with dinner. To have bread and cheese and instant coffee (yuck. I miss my French press) for breakfast, rice and some sort of topping (today was a tomato type sauce with onions and carrots, and a salad) and then dinner having either rice or xima. . . too much too much too much.  Thank goodness we walk everywhere and that I do yoga every night. I’m trying to work with my homestay family to be more aware of what is good to eat/what isn’t. Adding more protein, and veggies would be good for starters, and fruits after meals to curb any final cravings or that “empty feeling”. I have showed them a few times that one avocado is more than enough for my mid morning or mid afternoon snack (I do get both, which is nice).

I basically am 10 years old again. I wake up, homestay mom has breakfast ready for me, go to school, come home for lunch, go back to school, go play with friends after (some exercise, sometimes walking around, sometimes playing cards/games) come home, “help” with dinner, take a bath, write about the day, and go to bed with my kindle.

I cant express how routine this schedule is. Its going to be a drastic change to go from this, to being at site, with no real schedule (unless I’m with an NGO that is super organized).

Ok, so with that major digression, I get back to the various work we are doing in PCT. Language, daily homework for language, the TDA’s, the assignments for PACA, and a community practicum for all volunteers (sort of a test run with an NGO during training).

As I write this electronic journal entry, I am transferring pictures from camera to computer, and looking over my schedule for next week. A regular mulit-tasker. Look at me go.

Hopefully the pictures will be up sometime in the near future, but who knows really. The schedule for next week looks pretty interesting I must say. We have two new current volunteers coming to visit (every week someone comes to stay the week at the HUB, giving us a bit of insight into what’s to come).  We also have language classes every day, but not as extensive, more tech sessions about health practicum’s, food safety/basic nutrition, and next weekend we get to Permagarden. Woop! Lookout, my non-green thumb is about to see some serious action!

Today after classes some friends and I went to the local bar (had a diet coke) and played cards/talked about the week. It’s the one place in town where there is enough room for everyone to sit outside, and just decompress from the day. Not everyone drinks, and we aren’t there to get drunk, its just a great place to unwind and get to know one another. There are these amazing trees that line the “patio” where we sit, with these massive roots that intertwine one another.

Oh that’s the other thing I wanted to mention- just how beautiful this place is. The sunset every night is beautiful, the trees and various plants are incredible, not to mention the beautiful people I see every day. Seriously. Some of these individuals are just drop dead stunning. And the children- oh gosh, where do I even start with explaining how absolutely beautiful they are. I hope I can get my pictures uploaded for you all to see. Sometimes I just stop, look around, and take it all in.

The stars at night are by far my favorite thing about this place though. It is so incredible the amount of them one can see on any given night. In addition to a portion of the galaxy. I brush my teeth under them every night outside the house, and just gaze in total wonder. That’s something I will never forget – the way the sky looks when I brushed my teeth in Moz. Hahahah go figure it would be something like that.

 I will bid you all a fond farewell. I have some water with lemon (from the tree out back) waiting for me as I relax with my book before bed.

Ps- food discovery of the day, papaya from the tree out back, cut open - with some lemon squeezed over it. A phenomenal explosion of flavor that words would not do justice.

Toodles

td