So lately I’ve had a lot of downtime from work since we’re still in vacations from school, but I guess in 2 weeks we will start doing the planning for the entire next school year so I’ll be doing some prep in the next few weeks. I want to literally plan out what I’m going to be doing in ever session for each program that I’m going to be doing. I’m also starting planning to do another concert this year like we did for Global Youth Service Days last year. We’re looking at doing it in August for International Youth Day instead of Global Youth Service Days since the concert was rained out last time. And in August we would be safe from the rain… Since the youth group that planned the concert last time is no longer together, I’ve approached a group of youth that are currently in the process of getting started up in Pedro Carbo. The couple people I’ve talked to seem to be excited, and the best part is that they have done several fundraising events and have had a lot of success, which will be essential to having a concert without external funding sources. I’m also going help them with some project ideas they have, including doing some youth development workshops and leadership activities. Plus they’ve had a lot of trouble making contacts in the colegio (high school) that I work with so I think I can help some with that. We’re trying to get things planned really early so that we can have a successful event in the end.

Speaking of our event for Global Youth Service Days, we’ve been getting some late results from our concert etc. I got a call from my program manager a few weeks ago that the agency Youth Service America, who founded GYSD, included us in their “toolkit” for planning the event in 2011, as an example for a successful event. We’re in the following document:
http://tools.ysa.org/downloads/gysd/toolkits/introduction.pdf
on page eight of the “Introduction” document if you wanna check it out :) It’s just a short description but it’s pretty awesome that we got international recognition for the event! Also, we had a page and a half description of the event on the Peace Corps Ecuador annual report, which is sent to all volunteers and their Ecuadorian counterparts. Finally, the office of press relations from the embassy came and interviewed me, my host brother (who coordinated the youth group and did most of the planning for the concert), and one of the youth promoters I work with in the HIV/AIDS prevention program in the high school. We have a possibility of being selected to be part of the Peace Corps 50th anniversary/49th anniversary in Ecuador video that Peace Corps Ecuador is putting together and will be showing at a celebration in August. I hope we get selected :) All of this was great for not only my town but for the youth that were involved, and I was pleasantly surprised for the sudden spotlight since it has been almost a year since the event. It also has lit a fire under my butt to get something planned for GYSD (something INDOOR) and also doing another concert here in my site.

The other side project that has occupied a lot of my time for the last few months is a supplemental manual in spanish that I was writing to accompany the World Map Project. The idea is that volunteers can either use the ready-to-use activities in the manual or give the manual directly to the receiving school/agency, with the hope that the maps will be more frequently used and create a sustainable project. Well, after sitting on the idea since September, I started working on it 3 or 4 times a week starting in January, and fiiinally got it finished last week. It turned out to be 64 pages, and though a lot of the content is maps or pictures, I also edited all of the photos and maps so that was a big consumer of my time. I was so glad to have it done! Now I’m just waiting on my program manager to edit it (definitely check my Spanish!) and get it back to me. She seems happy with it from what I’ve heard so far, so I’m hoping it will work well in practice with other volunteers!

Well I don’t have a whole lot more going on. I recently went to a friend’s site near here to visit with her and some other volunteers, and that was a really fun overnight trip! And on Friday I’m going to meet with my program manager to discuss some things and decided to stay with my friend in the city for the night and hang out. I’m taking advantage of having a light work-load and travelling a little. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to travel for Carnaval this year since I have Dali. I don’t think my host family will be staying here in my site so they won’t be able to watch her, so I think I’ll be staying home with her. I’m pretty bummed about that since Carnaval was so much fun last year, but what can I do :)

I’ve been taking Dali to jog pretty much every day, for a short distance but I’m feeling healthier and happier. I saw an unflattering picture of myself and decided I want to lose some weight and get back into better shape – I’ve been slacking for too many months! And the exercise keeps Dali sane and me from killing her haha. Plus I gotta get fit for Kelsey’s wedding in June :)

Hope you are all doing well, and I’ll hopefully be updating again soon with more interesting content! hehe