posted Wednesday 04Aug
My thoughts on having gone through the Language test and now entering the last week of Training. Training has been hard and like everyone else..and well recognised by the PC Ghana staff, especially Mike and Rob...the last two weeks have just been a drag..soooooo anxious for it all to be over.
But Mike’s latest “CD Fireside Chat” was quite sobering. He asked us to consider whether we were truly ready and willing to be Peace Corps Volunteers at our chosen sites for the next two years. ( TWO YEARS!!! HE SAID ..TWO YEARS!!!!)
A sobering thought..i must admit to having been consumed by just getting to the next stage..oh, for the last 16 or 17 months..and haven’t always kept the end-goal in mind.
What’s so different (actually everything is different) this time for me as a PCV (oops PCT..don’t lets get ahead of ourselves..again) is that i know from my site visit and exchanges subsequently that this community, Whuti, is anxiously awaiting my arrival and they have a whole heap of things/tricks/projects/miracles that they need and expect me to ‘help’ them achieve/perform. I won’t slide into town unannounced..they’ll be there (again) to greet me and want to have meetings to discuss plans/ideas right off the tro-tro from Accra.
That’s good in lots of ways, of course, except for the performing miracles part.
Especially given that one is supposed as a PCV to play the role of Change Agent/ Facilitator/Teacher.
The other striking difference from “Life-Before-Ghana” .... hereinafter to be known as LBG..and not to be confused with LBL!.....is that there is obviously so much to be done..big, little, real, inconsequential ..to improve the lives of everyone that one comes in contact with..and i mean everyone from the smallest child to the grandmothers.
Two years often seems like a very long time but it may not be enough time to even make a dent in the life of my community of Whuti.
I used to walk through my community in Romania, Lugoj, and think to myself as a PCV..how can i help this community, can i help this community?
I don’t even need to get out of the house in Whuti to know a thousand answers to those questions.
So..yes, Mike K..i really am ready and willing to be Whuti’s PCV for the next two years but it remains a sobering question.
(..i was going to post some additional pictures from Maase today but since the selection would have included a randy little goat’s castration this morning..right after i came back from my run up into the jungle, i might add,...i’ll hold off on the pictures!)
baci e abbracci
You can do it!
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