Hit the Ground Running

Somewhere between burning buildings, weekend getaways , jumping off platforms, and doctor's appointments, time flew. It's always all or nothing with my work here. I have nothing to do. I have everything to do. True, I'm exaggerating. Of course, there's always something to do and it's not absolutely non-stop when things are busy. Yet, it often feels that way. When it rains, it pours. No really, the monsoon rains aren't joking around here.

Two weekends ago, I ventured to Bangkok for a slew of doctor's appointments (the dreaded dentist visit included), some R & R, reunion with friends, and more doctor's appointments to top it off. Before I knew it, my pockets were empty, my mouth full of amalgam, and my ipod fresh out of battery. Not only has the rice begun to sprout overnight, but it appears that the net I cast months ago is now full of fish. Returning to work the following Tuesday was like a blast of cold water hitting the lining of my stomach first thing in the morning. It's official that I'm no longer in the waiting line. My number's up and it's go time!

The end of June and throughout July should provide a steady flow of tasks and activities. The most foremost of upcoming events will be the long awaited PHA Hope Group business training for the group leaders which will take place this Saturday. In the life of our project proposal and requesting for funding, on Friday we reached an important landmark. The eagle has landed, so to speak. As of the early morning hours on our side of the world, we heard word from our funders in America that our proposal was being processed and we might expect a deposit in the weeks to come. And though, we haven't physically received any money I can't explain in words the gratitude and happiness accompanying the realization that things are finally starting to come together. It was a sort of reality that, even though we hoped we could do it, now we know it's happening. Jing Jing. Now is our time to galvanize and get all our training materials together and prepare to make purchases. Next month, we'll have to prepare a day long training along with lunch, as well as another production day and ongoing marketing and advertising to get the group's product sales up and running.

Shifting gears to a completely different area, the committee that I am on (PRC--Project Review Committee) will be giving presentations in early July to the new Volunteers (Group 122). It's hard to believe that exactly 1 year ago, we we're in their exact shoes. Three months in to site, constantly anticipating what would come next, starting to settle in. It's an exciting time and I'm very grateful to help in their continued training. We (myself and 2 other committee members) are in charge of 3 sessions:proposal writing, sample proposals, and funding sources. The hope is that our presentation time will be used wisely and the Volunteers as well as their Thai counterparts will be able to take away important concepts and tools enabling them to ease into projects with more confidence.

In preparation for this, we split up the 3 sessions and each took charge of one. My portion is the session on proposal writing of which I feel most confident about presenting on. And although I initially thought it would be a breeze, writing the powerpoint and coming up with the practice and activity has proved to be more challenging than I anticipated--given the audience (both Volunteer and Thai Counterpart). Each time I approach something semi-academic, I return to graduate school-outlook which tends to be high on rhetoric and theory and low on activity and abridged learning. So this experience behooves me to think of presenting in more vast terms--going back to the basics of public speaking I learned in high school. Putting it together has required a lot of moving parts and input from Peace Corps but I think I've finally got it. I'll submit it for translation into Thai this week and start going through the presentation details with my fell committee'ers.

And that pretty much brings things up to speed on my current work-related endeavors. I On the social side of Volunteer life, well, It goes without saying that I'm perpetually IRB'ing (Intentional Relationship Building)--if you can count on anything, you can count on that. In the midst of all the aforementioned galvanizing, I had to pause for a 2-day field trip to Rayong Province with 120 Health Volunteers. And although there was a plethora of activities (visiting temples and herbal gardens) ... 'karaoke overload' sufficiently sums up this weekend getaway. Though, I will admit, I was in a much better state of mind than my last little trip with villagers and I actually tore the house down with my very own karaoke rendition of Madonna's "Like A Prayer". They ate it up! When in Rome... or Rayong...

We arrived home, all in one piece in the early morning hours and now it's Tueday at the office, the rain is drizzling, and the electricity is threatening another outage. Business as usual.