Action Plan

I spent the morning at a lazy pace. I hung out with friends and visited the marche. Some people are still discovering that I am back, since people who haven't seen me assume that I am still gone. Yesterday I talked with my village counterpart AKA "l'Infirmier Chef de Poste" about my remaining 8 or 9 months in village. He wanted to have a good idea of my plans since we are slowly running low on time.

I have the new volunteer training coming up in a couple weeks. After that I plan on looking into "Care groups" again, which is basically a peer-education network that meets once a month. I want to do some school sensibilistations in November and then I have to do the Mid service conference malaria training.

In December I want to prepare for a hearth model, which is basically a 2 week class about proper nutrition for women and their babies. I will also be doing an HIV education tour and HIV awareness mural. For Christmas I want to go on safari.

In January I want to go to Togo and the birthplace of Voodoo (Benin) for the voodoo festival. I also want to prepare for a family planning theater tour and women's day events.

In February I think there is a mask ceremony in Dedougou that I will have to attend.

In March I have women's days events and I hope to take a trip up to Bamako, Mali to check it out and see a friend (I'm coming whether you like it or not, Sam...haha).

April and May I will start to hear from grad schools. It makes me nervous to think about it! The plan is to do some door to door mosquito net inspections and make a lot of neem cream in preparation for the coming rainy season. In May or early June I want to head down to Ghana and check out the closest land mass to 0 latitude 0 longitude... and see the ocean.

In late June and July I will be moving out of my house to go teach English in Ouaga or Bobo if it is possible. I really want a chance to teach English in a structured setting.

So, in late July or early August I'll be on a plane home. The idea is to stop by Morocco and maybe Spain, France and/or Iceland on my way to wherever I end up getting into grad school or getting a job.

Those are the broad brush strokes of some of my work and travel plans. Of course if there is anything I have learned in the past year it is that nothing is sure and anything can change. It is nice to have and idea what I will be doing in these last months as my service rolls down the hill. I somehow barely noticed the peak...
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