A Peace of Me: Reunited with the Crazies . . .

This past week I attended our In-Service Training with my fellow volunteers in Batangas (still on the main island of Luzon). This training normally occurs after being in country for at least 6 months and covers topics on diversity, safety & security, resiliency and special topics of interest to volunteers which were cross-sectoral. All sessions seemed to be interesting this time around, maybe because we had been in the field and now had more insight to add to conversations.

We were lucky enough to stay at Lima Park Technology Center again (we were there for Supervisor's conference) and this time around we appreciated the amenities such as air-conditioning in the room, a shower with a movable shower head, hot water, a tub comfortable beds, TV, refrigerator, clean towels, and the abscence of ants! That was the highlight of my week! Not to mention I had awesome roommates once again! Amelia and Yara we had many laughs and definitely a great time in our room! Anyone who knows me knows that having a shower with hot water in a hotel at a PC event means that I get to wash my hair! And that I did!

Besides the main sessions we broke up into our sectors to catch and to also learn more about VRF's and the expectations regarding completing VRF's. The VRF is the volunteer report which is completed quarterly and includes all of the activities that a volunteer has been part of at site, basically painting the picture of what the volunteer has been doing both with quantifiable data as well as qualitative with narratives.

During the latter part of the week we had our Project Design Management training. During this training our host country agency counterpart was invited to attend sessions with us in order to learn more about project proposals and about applying for grants. This training was sponsored by USAID and is one attempt at making sure that projects are sustainable once the volunteer leaves the country. In fact, we were not allowed to attend if we did not have an approved counterpart, this is how important this training is! For this training I brought my Haven counterpart Lea. Though we hadn't had much conversations in the past, it turned out to be a great couple of days and we had great brainstorming sessions. We identified a realistic need within the agency in regards to communication/relationship between houseparents and residents. The training was administered in a way that prepared the counterpart and volunteer to present the actual project for grant funding in the future. My cp and I recognized that whether or not we request funding for this project that we will pursue this for the house parents as it is necessary for the cohesion and agency dynamics. During the training we were broken up into teams and each team had chances to earn play money to buy prizes etc. My team's name was Hala-Halo and we were a live group! We had Amelia, Sam, Yara and Christina in our group. This strategy was used to increase participation among the counterparts. This was intimidating for many Filipinos. One, they were going to be around more Americans than they are used to and will have to speak more English then normally. Also some counterparts had never been out of their province nor flew in an airplane so this was a unique (free) experience. We weren't the top winners but we had awesome counterparts who were MVP and added to the training.

During the day we worked hard and mingled, and at night, we did what PCV's do best, we had good times and created memories! The next time that we will all be together will be in 6 months at MST.