In which I flop and blog about my day

Today was an eventful day at my school.

First, a big bus of foreigners arrived at school this morning, and started setting up a tent and lots of seats.  They weren't just one nationality, you could see faces from all over the world.  They taught the students and teachers first about basic health and sanitation.  Then, they divided up the teachers and the students.  The teachers were taught about more in depth health and sanitation, including hygiene, urinary tract infections, kidney diseases, and sex-ed.  The purpose of this was for the teachers to be able to turn around and teach the students about all of this.  They went over a lot of important details, on how to avoid these illnesses, and how to diagnose and treat them as well.  The teachers seemed very receptive to the information, if not a little shy about the sensitive topics.  They even brought two thousand condoms to give out to the whole community, which they ended up giving most to the health center next door.  All of the teachers were now really shy, and reluctant to take any, especially the girls.  When my co-teacher, Voleak, told me that only boys need them, I explained to her why it was important for girls and boys to have them.  She giggled at me and blushed, but nevertheless she took one.  After the education part, the volunteers set up a sort of clinic inside the classrooms.  Anybody who thought they wanted to be checked up would write their symptoms down, and wait in line.  There were rooms for blood tests, gynecology, and regular check-ups.  Most people left with two or three bags of pills, some of which were vitamins.  It was really interesting for me to see another organization like that in action.

After all that, my program manager from Peace Corps came to visit my site for a few minutes, because he is looking to put another education volunteer here after I leave. (Yay!!)  I requested to have another volunteer placed here, because I believe that there is a lot more to be done in my village and my school, and although the English level in my co-teachers and students has improved quite a bit over the past year and a half, there is still much to be improved.  My manager, Sangkhim, asked me if I would suggest having the volunteer stay at my house, to which I said yes, and what kind of personality did I think would be good for the dynamics of my host family.  I noticed that Peace Corps seems to put a lot of weight on volunteers' personality when deciding site placement.  It seems to be common, when volunteers are site mates, to put extroverts together with introverts.  Can you guess which one I am, and which one Meghan is?  (Sarcasm can be difficult to portray in text.)  It was difficult for me to answer this question, because while I have gotten along fine with my host family, Meghan got along just as well.  I think either would work, and both would be beneficial to the community in its own way.

After all of that, I flopped on my bed with my adorable kitty, and turned on the fan, because according to my thermometer, it is 103 degrees in my room right now.  It only gets hotter from here.