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