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August 04 Hola A TodosHi all!
Well it has been a few months since I last sent out a group email… Things here are really great! I moved into my house at the beginning of July and am living with another volunteer, Molly. We get along great and I couldn’t ask for a better friend or roommate.
I spent the first three months in site getting to know the community and practice my Spanish…..but now things are really taking off work wise. Me and Kate (business volunteer) have been giving HIV charlas to the colegio (high school students) and have trained all of the 7th and 9th graders at one high school….Also, something big with Peace Corps is the idea of sustainability so our project manager really encourages doing TOT’s (Training of Trainers) which is basically a 3 days workshop, where the 1st day you do all the HIV activities with them (4 hours), then the 2nd day they get into groups and make all of the materials, and the 3rd day the groups replicate the 4 hour training to another group. So…I organized a big HIV TOT with half the nursing students here (37) and I had two other volunteers come in to help me with it. Somehow it all came together and the nursing students did such a great job teaching high school students! It reaffirmed my belief in sustainability and my work here because I was able to see HIV trained nurses who would later be able to teach HIV prevention classes in their communities! It was actually really exciting! I have planned another one for the end of this month with the other half of nursing students so I hope that one goes well too! I also just did my first 3 hour nutrition workshop with all the nursing students yesterday...it was my first charla alone in Spanish and it really went great! The students are so cute...I love teaching them.
I have so many ideas going through my head of projects I want to do here it gets kind of overwhelming. I am doing a Men’s Health workshop with 28 policemen next week (a more men focused program really emphasizing fidelity and condom use) and then I am teaching nutrition during pregnancy to a group of pregnant teenagers in 2 weeks. There is a big school for teachers here and what I would really love to do is plan an HIV TOT with them so that they have the training to later teach their students and also do a Men’s Health TOT at the jail…..but I know I need to have patience and do one project at a time. I am super excited because next week me, Molly, and Kate are starting Encargada de Mi Vida (In Charge of My Life) which is a 16 week program with 5th graders teaching them about morals, values, self esteem, AIDs, sexuality, reproductive health etc. I am excited to be doing it with Molly and Kate!
So that’s all about my work here…
I have been reading a lot during my down time and have formed a habit that I love…going up to the local restaurant/hotel that overlooks the city and drinking coffee and reading. Its become quite a priority during my days here =) … Anyway nothing more to report. Life is great here! I miss everyone and hope everything is going good there! I would love to hear from you! Let me know how things are there! Hugs! Lauren Comments (2)
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