Round TWO....

Okay so I am going to make this short because I have work to do today...so therefore no pictures this time. ha

So Health and the small enterprise development sectors had our in-service training these past 2 weeks and it just ended yesterday. So lets just say it has been a LONG two weeks. However it was really helpful and I liked the training a lot more than PST.

Some of the things we did included going to the Ministry of Health which was really interesting and I think they were really happy to see us and excited to see what we can do for their country. Next we went to an NGO which is called Maire Stopes International...I was really happy we visited here because they are actually coming to my village to work... they do long term family planning. We also had talks on Grants and where to find money... VERY important! :)

The second week consisted of a workshop with counterparts. I brought my Major because I feel like I will be working with him a lot or at least planning things with him. We worked on project plan, design and management. It was really good to go over and good practice working together but in a 'safe' setting.

All together the trainning was really helpful but it did get long and I am most definitely missing my home and my village. SO today I am going back with my Bush Taxi!

Okay that's it for now sorry so short but I am running short on time... tuuma yaa wusgo! Miss and love you all.

SIDE NOTE: I got 2 Christmas packages and I just wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate them. You are all so nice and kind for thinking of me!

2011!

Okay everyone wonders exactly where I work so I have attached a picture of my CSPS. It was remodeled fairly recently so it is pretty nice. The big open space is the waiting room...

so it is 2011 and time is FLYING by. However I would like to address some things...I lot of people of been asking about Christmas. I have a diverse village so Christmas was celebrated. I was actually given a chicken... okay maybe two... (see photo with chicken hanging from my bike). I have actually been really wanting to have a chicken

hanging from my bike and NO i am not being sarcastic. One of the chickens was waiting for me in a neighboring village so I got to bring it back via my bike. It was fun and everyone one was like nasara paama noaga... which means that I got a chicken!

I haven't completely integrated yet so asked my neighbor to kill my chicken for me however part of me thinks that by the end of two years perhaps I will kill a chicken... just to say I did it. Is that weird? I don't know. Well anyway I made the chicken and then shared it with my neighbors who had actually killed the chicken for me. The said it was really good so that was exciting and made me feel good. Here is the chicken I prepared...for some reason they always put the legs through the mouth...

I also made small gifts of bisap, a local drink that i think is VERY tasty. My holiday also consisted of a lot of church... which included dancing and singing.

New Years I spent time at my majors house and it was fairly low key However, the functionnaires in my village has a party on the 8th of Jan because most of them leave village to spend time with their families and friends. There was food, drinks and dancing. It was a lot of fun and I stayed out until around 12:30 which is EXTREMELY late for me.

And now I am in my second training...it will last about 2 weeks and we will be learning about how to get money, more gardening and project plans and development. The training is going really well and I am learning a lot however it is hard at times to adjust. When I say adjust I mean going from being the only American to being surrounded by 35 others can be a bit overwhelming. So I am looking forward to going back to village but don't get me wrong... it is GREAT to see all my friends... for some is has been about 4 months.

Okay that is it for now. I will try to write again soon...and let me know if you have any questions.