…and here we are a year later, Wow! I can’t believe I just celebrated the one year anniversary of my service in the Peace Corps here in
Starting off on the personal side of things, after I got back to site from my Christmas/New Year’s break in the city I started things out on a very positive note. For whatever reason I felt that things just “clicked”, I don’t know particularly why this happened, but it did which is great. I felt that my language and social skills improved to the point where they weren’t a hindrance, what a relief not to have to worry about such basics in communication. With my new found ability to actually communicate and interact with people normally I could be myself and really just live life.
Being able to be comfortable on a personal level had a direct effect on things on a professional level. Coming back from the Christmas/New Year’s break I hit the ground running. While in the city I prepared the basic framework for the health topic radio show that I conceived while at site before that break. I prepared a basic presentation with my ideas for the show including topics that would last at least a couple months. I showed this to the Peace Corps staff who approved of it, and then at site I started with the radio staff get them involved from the get go, they approved. I met with several of the village captains to clue them in, they approved, and at this moment I’m waiting for a meeting with the Poli-Clinic staff to get them involved since they’ll be key to the success of this project. So far it’s taken about 5 months to get to this point; it’s a very slow process….
As far as the radio show goes, my idea for the show is to create a general health topic radio show that can cover any topic related to health, because of this the show isn’t restricted to any specific topic and is open ended, it can go on forever since there’s essentially unlimited topics to choose from. I intend to brand the show as well, give it its own unique identity, where the community will refer to this show as itself. I noticed that the previous volunteer who put on two radio shows, the community always refers to these shows a his shows, and associates those show with him, so when he left the shows left. If I can give the show it own identity or brand then when I leave it won’t matter because I’ll have simply been one of the people who work for the show, not the show. So given that the radio show can go on possibly forever due to the amounts of possible topics and it in itself will be a brand I intend to eventually expand beyond the radio to print (posters), phone (SMS), and people (workshops). So, for example, say there’s a show on hypertension, while on the radio we discuss the topic, simultaneously there might be posters around the community on the topic, SMS messages sent out on the topic, and maybe a live workshop on the topic. While all of this being done under this same brand to give it uniformity and identity. That’s what I’m thinking.
Other things I’ve been doing around the community have been the continuation of the English lessons, they still going great, though now my idea is to eventually have my one student once he becomes proficient enough in the language to start teaching himself and take over the class. If I can get this done I think the turnout will be much higher since a member from the community will be the one teaching. Also, when I take off it won’t matter since I won’t be the one teaching, this would allow the class to continue after I take off. I’ve been looking into getting funding to secure life vests for a church in my community that actually meets downriver in the next village. I think I might have found a funding source that could be a win-win for everyone involved, it’s currently in the works. And aside from these 3 main projects I’ve done countless smaller, more personal things for people throughout the community, things that are just apart of life, helping out where I can.
That about wraps it up, I’m about to enter the second year of my service which is looking to be like its going to be a great year, stay tuned for more to come.
