Training

I cant believe we have been in country for almost 8 months now!! Time has been flying by (only 19 more months but whose counting?)

We recently had our 3 months at site 6 months in country in-service training. This was originally supposed to be held for 2 weeks in January with our counterparts present for various trainings. Well the wall fell at the peace corps office and caused everything to be delayed. The training was cut from a week of inservice and a week of language down to two days of in-service and 2 days of language. It also just happened to be in the closed town to me which I was slightly bitter about due to the fact that I am there often to buy groceries and want to see other cities in the country but it was nice for everyone else to get to see the town and have the wonderful American style food it has to offer.  It was nice to see those who I have not seen since we swore in and moved to site and catch up on projects happening and the latest gossip…you think you get away from all the gossip after high school but peace corps brings it to a whole new level.

I was also given the opportunity to retake the language exam since I was just short of passing it the first time around. This time around it was much more stressful given the fact that it was pass or go home. I do like spring time in ohio and would love to see everyone at home but I am not ready to leave Africa yet. I worked with a tutor since moving to site (the first one was terrible and the second one was decent I guess). The loser group who did not pass stayed an extra 2 days after everyone else left to review and retake the exam. I could not have asked for a better group of people to be around for those days.  It was a very tense couple of days and many were not happy about the way some aspects of it were handled. I feel as though we should not have been threatened to be on the next flight back to America by some when others were saying there is no way they will send you home it just wont happen. Both were said by staff during the 2 days. I wish that it would have been more of a… we will see how hard you try and show proof that you have been trying and then decide whats going to happen…situation.  I feel those who do not try should get booted back to America and those who do try and just cant get it should be able to stay and keep trying.