We are now into the second week of the New Year 2013. With confidence I can now say that I will be home to visit within the next seven months and home for good next year. It’s hard to believe that time is really flying by and that my experience may be over soon enough. Then I think to myself; time has always moved at this pace and has been constant, it is us who change. I’m so happy for the New Year because it brings many more blessings and opportunities for me. 2012 was such a fabulous year; one can only hope to replicate the successes from abroad on this new project.
This past week I visited the PC Philippines headquarters in Manila and while there attended a meeting with my fellow CYF cohort. The purpose of the meeting that was conveyed to us was to “debrief” about the last three months at site. This was a proactive gesture on the part of PC staff rather than waiting until IST. I interpreted that to mean we will share our experiences with great emotion and enthusiasm (we will complain about how awful site is and how nothing is going our way or how incredibly wonderful everything is). In fact I was so sure that this would be the mood for Tuesday that I looked forward to doing other things while in the office and we briefly vented the night before to each other. But to my surprise that was not the intentions of the facilitators of our meeting. Although we reflected on our last three months at site, it was more of a time to be encouraging to each other and be supportive. I came away feeling refreshed. I was happy to see batch mates who I have not seen since Swearing-In and happy to be around them.
Now I am back in Albay ready to get the year of projects started. So here are the projects that my Supervisor wants to be accomplished before I leave in 2014(by the way batch 270 is COSing the first of August this year so maybe we will have a similar schedule).
1. Life Skills Manual-Translated into Tagalog-Haven
2. Train House Parents how to facilitate Life Skills activities-Haven
3. Facilitate life-skills and therapeutic activities-Haven
4. Create Care-Giving Manual-Translate into Tagalog-RSCC
5. Organize at least one cross-sectored youth camp-Haven and RSCC
6. Help with tutoring and Literacy-Haven and RSCC
7. Help find funding and resources-Haven and RSCC
8. Outreach and Advocacy-Haven and RSCC
I hope to have items one through 5 accomplished before leaving for vacation in August of this year and if not then by the end of 2013. I also have to keep in mind that I will attend various Peace Corps trainings for other activities and duties that I serve.
Oh yea, there’s one more thing to add to the load aforementioned and that is . . . . TEACHING! Yes, you heard it teaching. My sector manager hinted at the opportunity to teach early on but now is confident that he would like for me to teach a social work class at the local university or mentor/supervisor a few students. I really like the idea of being able to give it a try while I am here. Those of you who know me know that teaching wasn’t a goal of mine in the future, but others of you who know me know that I love the classroom, so who knows what the future holds.
I leave you with this quote that was sent to me via text. Peace and Blessings.
The greatest path towards fulfillment is not in knowing what we want and how to get it, but in knowing what we have and how to share it. There is no greater joy than giving joy to others, no greater inspiration than inspiring others, and not greater gift than a selfless heart.
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