Long time, No post.
Happy New Year! I hope the new year finds everyone happy and healthy and looking forward to the year to come. For me, 2011 is intimidating, yet exciting, as I'll be finishing my Peace Corps service in 3 short months, and moving back to the states!
As one might imagine, a lot has happened since I last posted, 3 months ago. To spare you from reading a novel-length post, I'll just focus on the highlights: camp GLOW, CoLoRaDo, and COS conference.
Camp GLOW!
Girls Leading Our World is a girls' empowerment camp held in December for girls throughout northern province. 10 volunteers brought girls from their respective villages, and the camp included games, arts and crafts, and sessions on assertiveness, peer pressure, confidence and motivation, drugs and alcohol, sex, and HIV and STIs. I was lucky enough to be greatly involved in the preparations, which meant lots of biking to Kasama and dealing with large amounts of money. The camp was a great success, and some of the most rewarding work I've done since being in Zambia.
Colorado!
Fortunately for me, I spent a couple of weeks at home for the holidays. My time in Colorado was spent at RMV, skiing, catching up with friends and family, and eating...and eating...and some more eating. After nearly two years apart, I fell in love all over again with Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, which are easy to take for granted unless you've spent time away. Surprisingly, I tolerated the cold just fine!
COS Conference
I joined the rest of my intake at our Close of Service Conference in early January. This is a time when the Peace Corps treats us to a stay at nice hotel in appreciation for our two years of hard work in Zambia. We stayed at the Taj Pamodzi in Lusaka, and had sessions on resume building, interviewing tips, and warnings about reverse culture shock upon returning to the states. It was great seeing our intake all together two years later, a bit dirty and raggedy, but happy nonetheless. I close my service officially on April 14th! Less than 3 months to finish up my work, spend time with my host family, visit as many waterfalls as possible, and plan for life post Zambia. Good luck to me!
