Training Day 3 (Another new project)

Today was interesting. Leif, who has already returned to Madagascar lobbied to budget time for Open Space Technology (if I were a proper blogger, I would have links, but you'll just have to google it. The website is interesting, for lack of a better word) so that was the whole plan for the day. The description sounded a bit hokey, it's just a lot of conversations with a planned topic, but without a general direction. Really, it sounded like a party, but with more structure and no food. As the setup started dragging, music started coming through the speakers rather loudly in the room where we were meeting. Peace Corps staff started running in all directions to fix the speakers and complain to the management. After a few minutes, it was discovered that one of the counterparts had stolen the extra microphone and was holding her mobile up to it and playing songs. I was impressed by the cunning of this and the non-plussed expression the guilty party maintained the whole time.

As the topics were listed, I decided I wasn't actually interested in most of the AIDS related topics. We broke off and I opted to go to a discussion on corruption. It was mostly volunteers in the circle, with a teacher from Nick's school as well. Louis (a wonderful member of Peace Corps staff) also joined up for the conversation. Most people felt pretty powerless against corruption, while I kept insisting that we could all do something and tried to bring in examples from Iran and Sudan (and in spite of this, other volunteers criticized me for thinking of things too much as an American). I was glad when Louis provided the quotation: "No snowflake in an avalanche feels responsible." Louis is actually a walking Bartlett's and usually has an inspirational quotation for every situation. Still, the conversation was dwindling, so I decided to wander and find the conversation on using mobile phones to fight AIDS.

I arrived just as they were about to start. There were only about 8 of us and it was perfectly balanced between Kenyans and volunteers. Jonathan (an ICT volunteer who is known for his outspoken tendencies, but since I often agree with him, I like to hear what he says) was leading the discussion and started talking about some introductory ICT4D (information and communication technology for development) work going on in Kenya. Then we started talking about ways of finding information, and we realized that there is no HIV/AIDS information hotline in Kenya of any kind. In fact, there are a lot of misconceptions about AIDS because there is so much stigma, and most existing channels to find information are rather public. As we talked, we realized that this should not be terribly complicated to organize. We sketched out a few thoughts and then we sought out the PEPFAR staff who were at another session to ask why this was not in place. The staff member explained that they had been working on this for some time (we were aghast at the figure she gave) and explained the bureaucratic process. We were dismayed by all the channels and expressed our desire to see if we could work in parallel and get some things done faster by avoiding much of the red tape. At this point, we decided to break for lunch and then reconvene.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch again and then returned to our discussion. Unfortunately, the post lunch coma set in and we had much less energy. A few new people had joined and we explained our general idea to them, but without nearly as much passion. We jotted down a few notes and then went our separate ways. Then I wandered into a talk on religion, but found myself mostly watching the soccer match in the background. The most interesting part was when we were talking about prostitution and Jeff was explaining how it was regulated in the states while Erin (the business volunteer) was trying to say something, so his sentence came out as "In some cities, prostitution is completely illegal and in other cities, there's -- Erin?" We all had a pretty good chuckle about that slip-up. After the session, I wandered out to the volleyball court with some volunteers, counterparts and tourists. I found myself speaking 5 languages on the court (English, Spanish, Swahili, French and German ranked in exponentially decreasing order of proficiency), which was lots of fun. At one point, I found myself on a team with four French tourists and a British tourist, so I got to practice my French a bit more. I started talking with them a bit after the match (mostly apologizing for being such a handicap to the team, though I attracted a large cheering section) and they encouraged me to practice speaking French with them. I practiced a little, and then I went back to cheering (and maybe taunting a bit) some of the volunteers and counterparts in Swahili.

In the evening, a few people came to my room for scotch and cigars (courtesy of Harmony, thanks Harms!). It was my first time consuming either one of these, and I wasn't thrilled about either one. Still, we did have lots of fun. Harmony had to stand on the balcony and sing "It's My Life" to the monkeys who live at the hotel (they're lots of fun, actually). She also rapped a bit, which was pretty impressive. Tom (another education volunteer) joined us for a bit, and managed to say one of the most awkward sentences I've ever heard in my life (does not bear repeating). After that, we just talked a bit more and became tired pretty quickly, so we called it a night. This training is going by so quickly!