Day three of IST is over, and most volunteers have gone to bed.  IST so far has been much improved over the semi-useless feeling of PST, though many volunteers, including myself, are feeling pretty ancy about getting back to their sites.  IST is a joy in many senses, mostly at being able to relax more completely than ever possibly at site, simply because you are with a bunch of people who you can talk to easily and who understand you and your culture.  Site involves a certain amount of stress jusst trying to fulfill basic needs and the communication that is necessary for that, and then any other interactions to be had.  But for all of that, IST has been difficult for the opposite reason of having a life that is completely up to you and suddenly changing to a schedule determined by everyone else.

Mostly its been good to hear how other people felt during their first three months and what they did to cope with it.  When I was having trouble just getting up the courage to open my door, I was making it worse by doubting that anyone else felt that way, but I’ve heard the same thing from several other volunteers, which is reassuring.

I’ve also realized that during all of PST I never talked explicitly about the types of trainings we had, so I would like to put a post together to cover what we were trained in for PST and IST and how they went.  I remember reading blogs feeling like they were not very detail oriented as far as training went, so hopefully I can rectify that.  So that leaves me with two posts I’d like to do, the other being a discussion of the various projects that have been or are about to be started.  Hopefully I will get to them soon, but many volunteers are happy to have internet for the first time in a while and looking to borrow my computer, so it may not be for a while.

So far IST has been several sessions dealing with challenges and successes that we felt at site, a few language classes.  I didn’t realize how much I like learning languages until I came here.  Part of it probably has to do with the manner of instruction, which is very hands on and intensive.  I liked language when I was in school, but I didn’t get terribly excited about it.  Now that I have some French and I am learning Malinke, I am enjoying the differences in the logical structures of the languages and how they relate.  It is a lot of fun.  I want to start learning Arabic after I have French and Malinke well started.

You might notice some unusual phrasings as I continue to live here, and there are probably some already.  I think they are a result of saying things in French that are differently ordered, and so sometimes that sequence will flow back into English, leaving me with writing that makes sense, but seems a little off.

We also did two sessions on project design and management, which was okay.  We each took a project we wanted to do and we went through the design steps of setting goals, finding resources, and developing an action plan.  Its all good stuff, but its stuff that, like most of Peace Corps training, has been a little hokey.  Maybe as a result of working in research and analysis I have enough experience with projects that I was just bored, but I think it points back to all the tools that we have covered so far in trainings, in that they all seem like the kind of seminar-type tools that consultants will use when they come in to work with a company, but that most employees never feel like accomplish much.  It seems like there is a word for that, but I can’t remember it right now.

Tomorrow we will work on village savings and loan associations, which should be cool and is something that I feel can actually give people access to capital necessary to expand production.  I hope it will be cool.  We also have a couple of language classes and a business training (how to give trainings).  The last one is being run by a volunteer that I like, but the subject matter is back to stuff that is both abstract and something that most of us already know, so I don’t have a lot of hope.

Saturday we will go on a trip to visit a farm, and next week will take a trip to learn beekeeping.  I am really excited about the beekeeping thing.

I think all the volunteers are pretty excited about the projects we want to do, and the excitement is catching and giving us confidence and motivation to feel like we can do some interesting stuff.  So if nothing else, IST will hopefully leave me with that feeling that I can take back with me.

I also stayed up till 05:00 the other morning playing poker, and I have yet to make up the sleep, so I need to go to bed.  I hope to get time to write more soon, but it may a couple of weeks before I have much of a chance.  We will see.