Peace Corps Mid-Service Training

Since last Friday was the last day of term 3, on Saturday I was on my way up to Pretoria for our official Peace Corps Mid-Service Training conference. As the title suggests, it marks the halfway point (or little over in this case) of your service and gives the Peace Corps a chance to get all volunteers in for a medical and dental checkup as well as a few session about how your service is going so far.

Some good news from the conference:

• Of course it was wonderful to see and catch up with those few volunteers that live far, far away. There are a few people that I have not seen since our last conference in December and I will probably not see again until the Close of Service conference in May of next year.
• We finally managed to get our act together as a cohort and we designed and printed out a group t-shirt – a task we started more than 13 months ago. No matter, it got done and they look great. Because really, what experience isn’t complete without a t-shirt? Here we are in all our glory!

The Battlefields Crew: Liz, Katie, Me, Will,
Paige (SA25), and Laura (5 for 5, no ETs)

The Ohio Crew: Me, Amy, John, Erik,
and Katie (5 for 5, no ETs)

• Amazing breakfast every morning courtesy of Khayalethu Backpackers in Pretoria.
• I picked up my new glasses. As a side note, the pair that I brought with me was completely destroyed by the dust that blows at me all hours of the day and night. It looked like there was a huge smudge on both lenses, but really, it was that they had hundreds and hundreds of tiny scratches. But now I can see clearly again.
• I got some sleeping medication. Hopefully I will be able to re-train my body to sleep through the night again.
• We went out and drank most nights. Hard to say if that is good news, but I will put it under good news because one, it was fun, and two, I was able to stay up a lot later and recover a lot faster than I thought possible at 36.
• I ate a lot of McDonalds ice cream. Again, this may not sound like good news but ice cream is simply not something I have available to me, ever. And McDonald’s ice cream in South Africa is practically gourmet (and costs $0.30). Or at least you know now what I consider gourmet after a year of cooking in a hut.

That’s about all the good news I can think of.

And some bad (or maybe more correctly called, annoying) news…

• At my medical checkup, they found my blood pressure to be rather high. Now, full disclosure, apparently everyone’s blood pressure was high that day and the medical officers think there may have been a problem with the cuff. But even so, I have surprisingly never had even the slightest problem with my blood pressure, so I was a little concerned. After the Medical Officer asked me a few questions, like “Are you feeling more stress than normal?” (well, yes, as I am in the Peace Corps) and “Have you gained a lot of weight since you got here?” (if you check my chart you will see that complete opposite has happened.), it was determined that I am probably consuming ten times the amount of salt and sodium that I did in America. So, I was told to cut back on the popcorn and 2-minute noodle dinners and they would check it again next time I was in Pretoria.
• When I went to the dentist, I was given the bad news that I have 3 cavities. This was actually of little surprise or concern to me. My teeth aren’t great to begin with, and probably the person with the most reservations about my going into the Peace Corps was my dentist. He gave me three tubes of prescription toothpaste before I left and said to let him know when I needed more. Needless to say, the dentist day wasn’t so fun and in a few weeks I would be back for more.
• I did need to avoid / ignore a few of the volunteers that I feel the world would be a better place without. I’m sure there were a few people that felt the same about me. I’m fine with the idea that the whole world doesn’t need to be best friends. Civility is enough.
• Most of the Peace Corps discussion sessions were poorly done. Least surprising thing ever. Barely worth mentioning at this point.

All in all it was a fun week. Truly. It was a much-needed break from site to see friends and make sure I am not doing too much permanent damage to my health and well-being.