The Life of a Trainee

Well as I go back and look at my blog I have realized that I have not really said much about Peace Corps training which really occupies most of my time. Its not just the fun beach visits and exploring Dominica, although we try to squeeze that part in as much as possible to keep ourselves sane. So I thought I would just tell you a little bit about being a trainee:

Let me start by saying I am not on official Peace Corps Volunteer as of right now, I am in fact a Peace Corps Trainee. Every PC Volunteers goes though an 8-week training before being sworn into the Peace Corps. I am about half way though training at this point, and hopefully will be sworn in to the PC in mid April and that is when my two years of service begins. As a trainee we are kept so unbelievably busy that I hardly have time to think let alone sleep.

Every week we go to the capital, Roseau, three times. It is about an hour and 15 min for me one way. So I get up around 6:30 to get there at 8:00  8:30 depending on how many extra stops the bus driver feels like taking. There we do training in the PC office, this includes sessions on:

-Cross Cultural Training
-Safety and Security
-Participatory Analysis for Community Action or PACA
-Working with Schools
-Tech by Track  or my NGO development class
-Language
-Project Design Management
-And a few various others

We are normally done around 3:00 or 4:00, and then we try to hang out as a group a little in town before going to our separate communities. Then its the bus trip home where I spend my time trying to hang out with my host family, integrate into the community, and do the homework I have been assigned by the classes.

The other two days of the week are set aside to visit the school we are attached to, visit our work site, and do our shadowing.

I am attached to Roosevelt Douglas Primary School. I have only been there a few times but it is looking like I will be doing some one-on-one time with kids that are falling behind in classes as well as helping set up the library. The school is lass than a year old and the classes are packed. The teachers are overloaded with kids and there is no special education at all. I hope I can make a difference with some of these kids throughout my time here.

My worksite is the Town Council and I kind of explained what my job will be there in a pervious blog entry. This is the hardest thing for me so far, its very difficult to jump into a working office and learn how things are done. But I just have to remind myself to take it slow and learn now so I can be effective later.

The shadowing has turned out to be very interesting. Each week I shadow a new person from the community and learn what they do on a day-to-day basis. The first week it was the Youth Officer for the North, the second was the Development Director for the North, and next will be the CALLS center (dont know what this is yet, but I will soon). I think I will shadow a Health Officer too at some point. I have learned more in these shadowing than in another place, just to be a fly on the wall at so many meetings, events, and in so many offices, has given me a lot of knowledge on the community. I am looking forward to my next shadow!

The weekends are normally ours to spend time with our host families and integrate into the community, although we have some field trips on Saturdays coming up. On Friday nights I go to BBQ with my host family in town. Some Saturdays all of the trainees try to get together and do some of the tourist things Dominica has to offer, just to get to know the island and each other a bit better. And that is where most of my posts have come from. I also go to market with my host mom on Saturdays at 5:30 in the morning; its quite an experience. Sundays I go to Catholic Church with my host family and it last 2:30 hours, really really long! Then we have a family lunch and hang out at home for the day. The buses dont run here on Sunday so everyone mostly stays home. Then I start the process all over again on Monday!

Well I think that pretty much sums up what I do as a trainee, and plus I need to go work on some homework :). Sorry it was so long, there is just so much that I do every week. And I am sure I left some things out to, ha!

P.S. the photo is actually from training on St. Lucia, but I dont have any of the office right now  but I will get some soon.