Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Today was a major day!  Although the sites are not 100% final as of yet, we health volunteers learned about the sites in which we are most likely to be placed for the next two years.  It sounds like I will be placed in a site concentrated on monitoring and evaluation of my CHAP projects.  My “medium-sized village” is on the east coast of the Central region of Togo.  The volunteer before me established effective care group projects with women – which are small group of women that talk about health issues.  New project opportunities are related to trash and waste collection.  The hospital in the village is also fairly organized and there are many opportunities for me to partner with hospital staff in relation to maternal and child health, family planning, hygiene, and sanitation.  A common thread through all of these activities will be developing methods to monitor, measure, and evaluate all activities, processes, outcomes, etc.  I am excited to apply and develop these skills on multiple levels, to multiple projects, and to many different issues.  For those of you that know me really well, you may know that although I am enthusiastic about health, my interest especially lies in effective evaluation for the purpose of development.  I cannot wait to apply and further these skills here in Togo.

The second exciting activity of the day was meeting the chief of our village.  We learned about the importance of establishing respect with the chief – especially as this respect pertains to our credibility as leaders and members of our communities.  It was an honor to meet the chief of our village, and a valuable insight into the functioning of the village.  We learned that the chief assists with many matters, especially those that involve major disputes between community members.  The chief is also the major connector between the President of Togo and the village.  I am thankful that we learned about many different norms that surround our relationship with the chief and I am excited to learn about the system that exists within my future community. 

Overall, everything is going really well here half way through week two of our training.  The site placements have certainly excited the group and for me, motivated me even more to focus on the training that we have for the next 1.5 months.  I committed to the Peace Corps to work at a site and to improve the community in which I was placed.  I am extremely excited that the work I have committed to involves examining systems and practices for in order to promote program improvement.  I am also excited for the opportunity to suggest evaluation methods and hopefully create a practice for others to continue to analyze future programs.

A bien tot,

Sarah

Saturday, July 21, 2012

I have been in Togo for a week and a half now and in Davie – my homestay village – for just under a week.  Each day has been completely filled with activities.  Since last week, we’ve had 16 hours of French lessons, 11.5 hours of cross-cultural training, and 9 hours of health technical training.  I can tell that my French is improving as the conversations with my host family are becoming more complex and we are able to talk about topics such as the Togolese government, the health care system, and topics that I have learned in “school” each day. 

For those of you who do not know this already, I am here in Togo as a health volunteer.  My title is “Community Health Educator/ Public Health Advisor” and our health program is called the “CHAP” (Community Health and AIDS Prevention) program.  The work of each volunteer will depend on the needs of the community and the region of Togo in which the community is placed.  From what I have learned so far, it sounds like all of our program work will be related to a) maternal and child health and b) malaria and HIV prevention.  Just like in America, there are many different levels of health care here in Togo.  Most likely, our work here will be with smaller community clinics that are located in villages or smaller towns. 

I have been living with a host family since Monday and everything has been great.  This is the first time that Davie has hosted PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) and the families have been extremely accommodating.  There are twelve other families that are hosting volunteers – there are 10 other health volunteers and 2 small enterprise development volunteers.  I have found that one of the best methods of bonding with all of my host family members – from my mother to my 2 year old brother – is through the universal language of dance.  The highlight of my week family-wise was an impromptu dance party a few nights ago with my host family and our neighbors. 

Work-wise, the highlight of the past week was definitely the visits that we have had to two health clinics in the area.  It was great to visit the health clinics and gain insight into the sector of the healthcare system in which we will be working the next two years.  These visits have allowed us to begin to envision our time working with the workers of the clinics and the communities. 

From what I have gathered, I do not have much access to internet between now and the end of September.  The best way to contact me is through letters or phone.  

Images from the roof of Amy's Hotel

What does it look like?  Here's the view from the roof of our hotel.  It's a grey morning, around 6am.  Add some sun, a few motorbikes, cars, younger boys, and women in bright colors with younger kids, or women selling items such as boiled peanuts or pineapple to this picture and you have yourself my view.

What are the sounds?  Birds chirping, motors from a busy road about three NYC block away, roosters crowing, people sweeping their floors, and everyone once in awhile some family or friend communication.

It's breezy here as we are near the coast.  The temperature is around 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you ask me, it is a beautiful morning.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

By the time I post this, I will have settled in Togo but as I write this, it’s 11:00am here in Brussels (5:00am EST), and we have ten more hours until we land in Togo.  We are due to arrive around 9:15pm Togo time (5:15pm EST, totaling about 32 hours travelled).  Upon our arrival we will go to the hotel where we will have training through Monday, July 16th, after which we will move in with host families where we will stay through the end of pre-service training (PST).  PST is scheduled to end in early September.  Travelling has been flawless thus far, and the whole process has been enjoyable with 37 other individuals to talk to, play cards with, and explore.

Everyone that I have talked to is excited; we all have our own motivations driving us to serve as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs), and although these reasons are scattered, all of these reasons are easily understood.  From what I have seen, we have an extremely easy going and supportive group of PCVs – I am excited to serve with them, lean on them, and support them, for the next 27 months. 

Learning a bit about everyone’s application process, I have realized that my year-long application process was very lucky.  Some volunteers waited more than 2 years in the application process.  Some volunteers were invited to serve in Togo 6 weeks before departure, and others received even shorter notice as other variables appeared at the last minute.  I am thankful that I received 2 months’ notice, that my location remained constant, and that there weren’t any extra variables preventing me from serving as scheduled. 

After reading more information about PST, I believe that I will have access to Internet every week or two through PST (which end in early September).  PST is largely intensive language training and skills building.  My guess is that I will be exhausted after training each day – being inundated with a new language, health lessons, and lifestyle habits will be draining. 

I am excited to begin training, and excited to become accustomed to the new lifestyle.  The sooner I start, the sooner I can acclimate and concentrate on learning about how I can best serve as a volunteer.  Hopefully I will be able to provide a much better explanation of what I will be doing as a Community Health Educator/Public Health Advisor in a week or two!

Connection

"Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us."
- Sargent Shriver

True wealth

"The real wealth of a nation is its people. And the purpose of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy, and creative lives."
- Mahbub ul Haq, in a 1990 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme

Fuel

My desire to connect with others motivates me to serve with the Peace Corps.  I like to think that all humans are somehow connected and I am excited to deepen my connections with others in a setting that is different than the one which I am accustomed. In this new setting, I am excited to challenge my perceptions of the world and the norms that I have known. I am excited to further develop my own framework for interpreting the world around me.

My desire to  purposefully contribute to the well-being of a community motives my desire to serve with the Peace Corps. What good are connections if you're not improving the world around you?  I hope to build connections to understand perspectives and needs among community members.  I hope to learn new approaches to living and collaborate around ways to positively develop the community which I am placed, and the community around the globe. I am excited about building understanding and hopeful about what collaboration can create. 

My desire to be challenged on a level I am not aware of as of yet motivates my desire to serve with the Peace Corps. I am excited for the challenge of the unexpected. I am prepared to be pushed outside of my comfort zone, and move to both physical and mental places that are unknown. I am excited to learn.