Rain and a new baby!

RAIN! Yes I am not going to stop talking about it because I’m that excited, it’s raining now! It is so much nicer outside, like amazingly so. It has really changed my quality of life, haha. Everything is so green and beautiful. The villagers are starting to work in the fields and soon it will be mango season. There are a few trees right outside my house and a ton lining the road I bike to work. And more importantly than my quality of life, there’s a new baby! My mama in my village has a new granddaughter. She is absolutely beautiful and in fact just finished taking a nap on my bed.

Work has been moving slow since my big HIV/AIDS training because I was in the medical unit for a week, then we had an IST about malaria, which was another week in Porto Novo. The good thing about that is that I was able to spend time with my host family. After that for a few days all the volunteers who are training the incoming group in July had to get together to make their training schedule and figure out who’s working what weeks. I am working week 2 and week 9, which means I get to see the new volunteers when they don’t know anything and when they think they know everything and can’t wait to be finished with training. We were such a pain in the butt that 9^th week, patience will be crucial. There’s a facebook group for the incoming volunteers and I saw there was a girl from UNC coming. I think I am going to email her and see if she wants to meet, maybe pick my brain while I am in NC.

I have some good ideas going into the next year such as an English club, health lessons at a different village’s high school, care groups—will go into detail if that works, and of course there are more, but who knows. I went to a cultural day this past Thursday and Friday in another village, it was really fun. There was traditional dancing, music, and skits about staying in school and other messages that are good for that age group. I was given quite a few compliments about how integrated I am and how well I understand the culture, not to be cliché, but they were priceless. It made me feel great about the progress I have made as a volunteer in the past 10 months.

I am excited for my trip to NC. I can’t wait to be a bridesmaid and party with my girl! I am so anxious to see everyone and I can’t believe my brother graduated from college this weekend. I am so proud of him and wish I could have been there, but we are going to celebrate in a few weeks!