For those of you who don't know yet, I'm headed to Morocco to serve as a Health Educator for the Peace Corps. My term of service is currently set from March 1st 2009 to May 31st 2011.
What will I be teaching as a health educator? Well, I don't really know, but I do know it will be in one or more of the following areas: Child/maternal health (including reproductive, STI and HIV/AIDS prevention, and prenatal health), hygiene (hand washing, dental hygiene, school cleanliness), or environmental health (water sanitation, waste disposal).
I don't know exactly where I will be assigned. I know that I'll be in a rural community. Part of my job will be to assess the community's health needs and concerns so that I can develop projects that will address those concerns.
What do I know anyway? I haven't done my training yet. Despite the couple hundred pages of information that I've read I won't know what it's really like until I'm there doing the work. When I tell people what my job will be in the Peace Corps, a lot of people ask me, "So, did you get your degree in health?" The answer is no. I got my degree in Comparative Religion at the University of Washington.
So why am I assigned to be a Health Educator? The world needs health educators. I get the impression so far, that a lot of the health information that I will be passing on is common knowledge to most of you that read my blog, but not so for many people particularly in remote areas.
My training starts at Staging. I'm flying out to Philadelphia on March 1st. All the 60 volunteers headed for Morocco will meet for the Staging event on the 2nd. We'll get a brief overview of Peace Corps and its goals, what to expect when we arrive, and PC policy on safety and security, etc. Then, on March 3rd we hop on a bus to JFK airport from there we fly directly to Casablanca, Morocco.
Then more training... We'll spend 4 days in the Tadla-Azilal region for orientation before we split into groups of 6 for CBT (Community Based Training). This is when I'll find out what language I'll be learning. I'll most likely be learning a dialect of Berber. We'll be learning some basic Moroccan Arabic during orientation. The majority of my training will take place in CBT, this will last about 8 weeks. I'll be meeting with my fellow trainees 6 days a week for a few hours. Then I'll go home to my host family in a village/community similar to the one I will be assigned to.
The Swearing in Ceremony is on April 29th, assuming the trainers don't kick me out for being slow, or incompetent. :(
Whether I feel ready or not, I'll be headed for my permanent location on April 30th. That's when the true test begins. It's not uncommon for PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) to be the only PCV in their community. At least I'll be with another host family so I won't feel so alone.
I have a strange sense of peace knowing that I'm about to embark on an adventure that has been a dream of mine since I was 16... We'll see how long that peace will last.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me since I started the Peace Corps application process. It's been a LONG process. Especially, Randy who still wants to marry me despite the fact that we'll be apart for the better part of 2 years. He never once asked me to let go of my dream.
Much love,
Felicia
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