I thought you said we didn't have a final exam?
Yes I'm back in Niamey already. And i go back to post today. And I'll be back in Niamey tomorrow. And I'll be back to post on Monday. Why all the running back and forth you ask? Well I'll tell you.
One of the major events of training here in Peace Corps Niger is the tech trip. This is where a group of trainees travel out to a volunteer's post and spend a couple days learning about various projects that are going on there and observing things like gardening techniques or animal care methods in a village setting. Well this year they've decided that one of the Agriculture tech trips should take place in my village.
The other half of the Ags will travel up to Gotheye for their trip. Haoua (one of our supervisors) and the Gotheye team have been planning and working hard to pull together what I hear will be an awesome tech trip. The other half, come to me, where my supervisor has not done anything and it's just me, not a team of volunteers. Needless to say I've been a little stressed.
I think my biggest problem has been that this feels like the final exam I was always told we didn't have. My school garden is pretty much a wash this year, through no bodies fault. Since that was the big project I had to show the trainees, it's really disheartening that it's a "failure." I know I shouldn't think of this as presenting my projects, but I do. And the result is there's been a couple moments where it's made me feel like my entire service is a failure. I know that's silly and I'm doing a little better now.
Because I'm the only volunteer working on this, and my boss has done little to nothing to support/assist me in this (hell, just getting information from him is like pulling teeth), I feel like if it is a disappointment then it only reflects badly on me. It's a lot of stress on my head coming at a time where I'm already emotionally agitated. Atleast it'll all be over soon and then I'm done with work.
In other news, Djimi and I went and purchased tickets for the first leg of our COS trip yesterday. We now have tickets to get off this continent on March 28th: Accra to London. w00t
posted by Seabass @ 12:40 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Wow. I can totally understand how you are feeling, NONE of this is your fault. I'd be freaking out if I was on display, had no backup or team, and didn't feel my project was at its most presentable. That's a crazy, stress inducing situation and I'd be tempted to abduct my supervisor.
Hopefully the new volunteers will be so overwhelmed at actually getting out to a site for one of the first times they'll just be blown away. They'll be psyched just to see the place, talk with a veteran outgoing PCV at his village, meet the people, etc. You're super sociable, knowledgable about the area and hardworking and hopefully the trip itself will be a blast with the enthusiasm of new volunteers.
Good luck! I'll give you as much beer as you want when you get back stateside.
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