Prepping for Training

I've just finished working with a big group of Peace Corps staffers and fellow PCVs on preparations for this year's newest addition to Peace Corps Zambia: the 2013 LIFE (Linking Income, Food, and the Environment - my program) group, which will arrive in just a few short days.  I'm no longer apart of the young group, now my group (which arrived last February) is the veteran intake.  Hard to believe that it has been a year already.

For two weeks we worked on the schedule for the three month long training, the new technical manual that the trainees will receive, and every other little part and piece that needs to be in place before the trainees arrive - as well as the details that need attention so that their three month long training can be completed with as few problems as possible. 

And let me tell you, it has been a LOT of work, but it's been great and I'm actually very sad to have these past two weeks end.  For me, I got to write quite a bit of the new technical manual (it covers gardening, farming, forestry, and resource conservation), as well as editing and formatting the other parts that made the cut from last year's version.  It sounds tedious and boring - maybe it is, I spent four 11-hour days straight working on it - but it didn't even feel like work.  If there is any trait that I can point to and say, "That absolutely came from my Mom" it would be how much I like combing through documents for typos and grammatical mistakes.  (I know my blog can be full of them, but it's Africa... it happens).

And maybe the best part is that I got to work with two of the best Peace Corps Volunteers that Zambia has serving it right now: Caleb Rudow and Hannah Lippe.  These two are two of my closest friends here and being with them for two weeks added to the enjoyment of the preparation.  It seemed more like a vacation than detail-driven work, so, again, I'm sad to have it end and not be able to spend such good, quality time with these two.

Myself, Hannah, and Caleb

But, it's all done now.  Everything from the new trainees first day in country to their homestay families, to the content that they'll be learning and training on all of the way through to swearing-in when they'll become PCVs themselves is set in place. 

Caleb (the white guy in the patterned shirt) teaches homestay host
 families how to use a "tippy tap" to promote better food preparation hygiene to avoid making trainees sick.

That isn't the end for me though.  Nope.  In April I will head back to the training center - near Chipembi, Zambia - and have the chance to teach as a technical trainer for the entire month.  If that month-long training goes anything like the past two weeks then I won't have any problems enjoying my time.