Busy? It's strange, but wonderful

Something seems to have flipped in the last month or so because for the first time since I arrived in my village, I’m busy! I have a lot to do! It is inexplicable and wonderful and sometimes even stressful.

I am still working with the clinic in the mornings. My focus is still on supply chain management for medicine. I introduced a 4 point plan for improving supply chain at the clinic and got approval from my supervisor to get started! Among other things, I’m going to create an excel database on our medical consumption and provide informal training days for staff on monitoring stock at the clinic in the coming months. I also now have double the number of students I use to for computer lessons. My first student successfully completed the beginner-typing program and has graduated to intermediate level typing!  I am so proud of all of their progress and am convinced that I want to expand on these lessons and bring them to the primary school as well.

These days I’m also busy working at the primary school. I started out small with the world map project, but the relationships I have built there have opened doors to new activities. Last week I had my first King’s Pack session at the school. We played tons of games and my voice was hoarse by the end. I plan to make King’s Pack a regular Wednesday fun day. We played an amazing, albeit dysfunctional version of baseball. We used a cricket bat, tennis balls, and beanbags as plates and it was endless fun. I had difficulty explaining the difference between a strike and a ball, but the kids trusted me not to cheat them out of their swings.

Hula hoops are also extremely popular with the younger kids

My favorite activity involves the rainbow parachute. I played with the same one in elementary school gym class and apparently it’s the same everywhere: when that parachute comes out the squeals are instantaneous. Everyone grabbed a handle and we started to wave the parachute up and down. Some kids couldn’t resist and lay down under it to watch the colors flow. After a few minutes we then played cat and mouse. One child is chosen as the mouse and runs under the parachute. Another is the designated cat and steps onto the parachute. Everyone else is in charge of shaking the parachute as much as possible to hide the mouse from the cat. The mouse runs around and the cat chases furiously after it while everyone cheers them on.

For my next project I have secured permission to begin my first GrassRoot Soccer class with two counterparts when school comes back in session in early August. GrassRoot Soccer will give me the opportunity to provide sensitive health education on HIV and malaria for young people.

I love that I have the freedom and trust from the people I work with to come up with my own project plans and implement them. Six months ago, starting projects on my own was incredibly intimidating, but now I feel lucky to have this much independence in my work, especially as a younger person.

So those are just some of the things I’m up to! Tune in next time for updates on malaria work, mapping, and a potential community project that I’m really excited about.

Exhausted, but really happy