It’s hard to believe it, but I only have one month left living in Kyrgyzstan. It’s been two years almost to the day since we landed at sunrise at the airport in Bishkek, and now my service is finally winding down with some good final memories, some bad ones, and a few special projects coming to a satisfying conclusion. Continue reading “Mile 24: Tying The Loose Ends”
Back in December, at my HIV/AIDS Stigma Reduction Training, a crowd descended upon me as we finished the training. These women were the heads of the regional Health Promotion Units (HPUs) around Osh Oblast. Each was hoping to meet me to find out if I could come give additional trainings at their respective clinics for them and their staff.
After four months trying to get it off the ground, I’m happy to say that the project is moving fast, and we’ve already done two full-scale day-long trainings, with more to come as we move on. Today I’ll walk us through the project from its genesis, focusing on the most recent training, and how we’re modifying it moving forward. Continue reading “A Traveling TOT in Chong Alay”
When you join the Peace Corps, you know that you’re going headfirst into an unknown of knowns. You know that you’ll get sick, but you don’t know when. You know you’ll have an adventure, but you don’t know how or where. You know you’ll have ups and downs, but you don’t know the nature of those challenges. In fact, inasmuch as we have been trained to know how to handle a pretty insane number of wild and wacky situations, many of which are genuinely likely to happen, not knowing if and when they will happen means that, at most times, you still feel completely immersed in the unknown. It’s the fundamental paradox of the Peace Corps.
I spent a lot of August wandering in that wilderness. Continue reading “Mile 4: Adventure, Uncertainty, and Illness”
