I realized I haven’t really explained exactly what I am doing or what I will be doing for the next eight weeks and for that matter the next two years. I will start with the next eight weeks.
After nearly two weeks of group activities we have finally split up into groups of four which were chosen based on our job assignment and our location. There are two different job assignments in our group. I am doing Community Based Organizational Development (CBOD) and there are also those who are doing TCCO (forgot what it stands for, but basically English teaching). There are three other guys who are doing CBOD and that live in my tambon. We work at the local Sub-district Administration Organization (SAO) building. The SAO is the tambon manifestation of the central Thai government. Our day now consists of taking five hours of Thai classes in the morning and in the afternoon for these first three days we are designing lesson plans to teach English to the workers of the SAO for 1.5 hours. During the remainder of the eight weeks we will be continuing our Thai lessons in the morning and during the afternoon we will be identifying community groups who have potential small projects that we could help implement. Every Monday we will be returning to the hub site to participate in group training exercises. On March 30 we will be officially sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers and will move to our sites which will be determined a short time before.
All CBOD volunteers are going to get site placements in either the far north or the south of Thailand. For the first year we are expected to mainly make relationships within our communities in order to identify projects that we can work on in conjunction with the local SAO the following year. We will be based out of our local SAO with the elected CEO being our supervisor and the Chief Administrative Officer being our counterpart. During the first year we will also be expected to teach business and/or administrative English to the SAO staff. Given that we will spend a lot of our time interacting with the local community members and groups our Thai is expected to be at a higher level than that of the volunteers doing the TCCO program. What a task I have in front of me. Like I have said, it is coming along slowly but surely. That is about the extent of what I know about the next 2.5 years of my life.
For some ambiguity creates fear, for me it evokes excitement. I love the unknown. Unfortunately up to this point we have been hand fed just about everything. There are those that do not leave a group session without asking every possible question imaginable. It is a bit frustrating, but everybody reacts to given circumstances in a different manner. A difficult thing for me is that we are so closely observed and guided by the bureaucratic structure of the Peace Corps. Most of the rules are for our own safety, but I am so used to being free to do whatever I please while I am abroad that these new rules seems very restricting. That’s life and I will be able to work through it!
After nearly two weeks of group activities we have finally split up into groups of four which were chosen based on our job assignment and our location. There are two different job assignments in our group. I am doing Community Based Organizational Development (CBOD) and there are also those who are doing TCCO (forgot what it stands for, but basically English teaching). There are three other guys who are doing CBOD and that live in my tambon. We work at the local Sub-district Administration Organization (SAO) building. The SAO is the tambon manifestation of the central Thai government. Our day now consists of taking five hours of Thai classes in the morning and in the afternoon for these first three days we are designing lesson plans to teach English to the workers of the SAO for 1.5 hours. During the remainder of the eight weeks we will be continuing our Thai lessons in the morning and during the afternoon we will be identifying community groups who have potential small projects that we could help implement. Every Monday we will be returning to the hub site to participate in group training exercises. On March 30 we will be officially sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers and will move to our sites which will be determined a short time before.
All CBOD volunteers are going to get site placements in either the far north or the south of Thailand. For the first year we are expected to mainly make relationships within our communities in order to identify projects that we can work on in conjunction with the local SAO the following year. We will be based out of our local SAO with the elected CEO being our supervisor and the Chief Administrative Officer being our counterpart. During the first year we will also be expected to teach business and/or administrative English to the SAO staff. Given that we will spend a lot of our time interacting with the local community members and groups our Thai is expected to be at a higher level than that of the volunteers doing the TCCO program. What a task I have in front of me. Like I have said, it is coming along slowly but surely. That is about the extent of what I know about the next 2.5 years of my life.
For some ambiguity creates fear, for me it evokes excitement. I love the unknown. Unfortunately up to this point we have been hand fed just about everything. There are those that do not leave a group session without asking every possible question imaginable. It is a bit frustrating, but everybody reacts to given circumstances in a different manner. A difficult thing for me is that we are so closely observed and guided by the bureaucratic structure of the Peace Corps. Most of the rules are for our own safety, but I am so used to being free to do whatever I please while I am abroad that these new rules seems very restricting. That’s life and I will be able to work through it!
No comments:
Post a Comment