This past week has been a rather busy one being consumed in large part by participating with fellow volunteers, staff, and administration in a Peace Corps training design and evaluation workshop. The aim of the workshop is to increase the measurability of our training program and trainees and has come as a result of a world wide PC mandate to improve the quantifiability and quality of our training programs.
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The few days this week that I spent back at site reminded me of why this is my favorite time of year in The Gambia. The weather in the evenings is cool, and in the mornings, it is down right “chilly.” Of course this is all relative, my sister sent me an e-mail about Chicago using the same vocabulary, but with a distinctly different set of temperatures. I deal with cold at a low of 75 or 80 (I don’t really know absolute amounts anymore), whereas my sister would remark, “Funny how your perception of cold changes when you live in a city where 30 degrees is warm.”
Nighttime is particularly enjoyable due to the decrease in temperature. The stars come out as brilliantly and clear as ever. The inner stargazer in me is happy to see that Orion has made a return, starting eastward in the early hours of the night. The pattern in the sky is yet another reminder that my favorite time of year has come again.
The children of the compound celebrate “winter” with fire. Something about this seems more than fitting in the human context. Each night they sit around a large log fire, the wood slowly crackling and popping in that ancient but comforting sound. They sit and chat, sing songs, and play games with one another till late in the evening. I sit on my veranda and watch their shadows dance and hop on the wall of crumbling and aging concrete block.
This is my home in The Gambia.
1 comment:
The training makes sense. There is allot in the news lately about PCVs not being able to do the jobs. The issue would be training.
I think it has allot to do with older RPCVs who worked for the staff who are complaining and trying to avoid the real issues at PC that do not involve the PCVs; except for negotiating budgets and contracts for staff.
The training is relied on for the job and I guess allot of RPCVs forgot that. Anyone could become a PCV with the training and excepting those without degrees was the issue for some RPCVs who were staff; the hiring of 'older' PCVs instead of those without degrees as part of a degree program or degree.
Training gave me everything I needed for the job and anyone could have taken the training. I think that is why RPCVs and staff focus on that and the PCVs - to avoid staff and PC issues.
Good luck with the new manuals!
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