10 March 2006
10 March 2006
I guess I have to put a disclaimer on this to cover my butt...
These are our thoughts and may not be the same as the Peace Corps
Hello All,
Wondering why you haven’t heard from us in a while? On Wednesday we returned from almost two weeks of training in Polokwane – the same town where we spent the first two months of our South African stay. It was a chance to come back together after being in the country for 6 months, and share ideas and stories with the 40 other education volunteers that we swore in with. We got a few more vaccinations, some good information on getting funding for community projects and all kinds of other things. Aside from Polokwane being VERY, VERY far away, we had a really great trip. It was fun to hang out with a lot of other Americans again and hear everyone’s success and horror stories. We had a lot of laughs. It took us two days of traveling to reach Polokwane, but we got to stop off in Pretoria (capitol of SA) for two nights on the way there. Pretoria feels a lot like any American city. We got to go out to dinner, to a coffee shop, to a craft market, and even heard some live music one night.
Training was long, but like I said, just fun to see old friends again. For the last three days of our training, we were allowed to bring a ‘counterpart’ from our village for Life Skills training, so we invited our host mother. Life Skills training in general is an HIV/AIDS awareness program directed at teenagers, but it also teaches other things like self confidence and how to make a good decision, and about gender roles and self-esteem. It seems like a pretty good program, and I think we will try to get a group of middle and high school aged kids together to teach after school at some point in the future.
Also during training, we made a pretty rash decision. Adam and I both signed up to run the LongTom half marathon on April 8th – a short month away. The race is a benefit for a foundation started by two Peace Corps volunteers about two years ago. They raise money to send an underprivileged child from a rural village to a top-of-the-line high school. The first child started school in January, and I guess is doing quite well. We both try to raise $1000, so you’ll probably be hearing from us soon with fundraising details for those interested. I am a tad intimidated by the thought of running 21K (about 13 miles!), but I have a training program in the works and I’m trying to think positively. So far, I have only been training for about 5 days, so there’s not much progress to report yet. The race is somewhat famous, I guess, among ultra marathoners. There is a half marathon and an ultra marathon on the same day – no, neither of us are attempting the 56K ultra marathon. That would be insane. It’s held in a small town called Sabie in Mpumalanga Province. The marathon falls over our first school break, so it will also provide us with a reason to travel around and see another part of the country. Before the race, we are planning a trip to Swaziland to maybe do some white water rafting in a crocodile infested river and some caving as well. We also hope to visit a few game reserves and see some of those big African animals. Can’t wait!! It will be our first real South African vacation.
Andrea
I guess I have to put a disclaimer on this to cover my butt...
These are our thoughts and may not be the same as the Peace Corps
Hello All,
Wondering why you haven’t heard from us in a while? On Wednesday we returned from almost two weeks of training in Polokwane – the same town where we spent the first two months of our South African stay. It was a chance to come back together after being in the country for 6 months, and share ideas and stories with the 40 other education volunteers that we swore in with. We got a few more vaccinations, some good information on getting funding for community projects and all kinds of other things. Aside from Polokwane being VERY, VERY far away, we had a really great trip. It was fun to hang out with a lot of other Americans again and hear everyone’s success and horror stories. We had a lot of laughs. It took us two days of traveling to reach Polokwane, but we got to stop off in Pretoria (capitol of SA) for two nights on the way there. Pretoria feels a lot like any American city. We got to go out to dinner, to a coffee shop, to a craft market, and even heard some live music one night.
Training was long, but like I said, just fun to see old friends again. For the last three days of our training, we were allowed to bring a ‘counterpart’ from our village for Life Skills training, so we invited our host mother. Life Skills training in general is an HIV/AIDS awareness program directed at teenagers, but it also teaches other things like self confidence and how to make a good decision, and about gender roles and self-esteem. It seems like a pretty good program, and I think we will try to get a group of middle and high school aged kids together to teach after school at some point in the future.
Also during training, we made a pretty rash decision. Adam and I both signed up to run the LongTom half marathon on April 8th – a short month away. The race is a benefit for a foundation started by two Peace Corps volunteers about two years ago. They raise money to send an underprivileged child from a rural village to a top-of-the-line high school. The first child started school in January, and I guess is doing quite well. We both try to raise $1000, so you’ll probably be hearing from us soon with fundraising details for those interested. I am a tad intimidated by the thought of running 21K (about 13 miles!), but I have a training program in the works and I’m trying to think positively. So far, I have only been training for about 5 days, so there’s not much progress to report yet. The race is somewhat famous, I guess, among ultra marathoners. There is a half marathon and an ultra marathon on the same day – no, neither of us are attempting the 56K ultra marathon. That would be insane. It’s held in a small town called Sabie in Mpumalanga Province. The marathon falls over our first school break, so it will also provide us with a reason to travel around and see another part of the country. Before the race, we are planning a trip to Swaziland to maybe do some white water rafting in a crocodile infested river and some caving as well. We also hope to visit a few game reserves and see some of those big African animals. Can’t wait!! It will be our first real South African vacation.
Andrea
The IST fun...
Where you eat?!
Me and Shamus
Dan in a shocking surprise
The Ladies
Don't Ask
I think he is just constipated
posted by aliberatinsa at 11:35 PM
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