MAY AND JUNE

In the last few months not much has been happening with my organization. It seems since there is no money coming in that there is no work to do. This is a bit frustrating because when I first got here we were doing things without funds. Now I think that newness or volunteerism attitude has faded. I am still trying to work through this and we are supposedly getting funding soon from the Ministry of Health for HIV/AIDS related activities. SO I hope that I will be busy soon. Well anyway I did go to a stakeholders meeting that brought together all the people in the district that dealt with health. This was very interesting and helpful to see the people that I could possibly work with in the future and to understand what their roles are in the overall improvement of health in Kenya. In addition to that the majority of May and June has been working on my Master’s international research project. Which is on jiggers and the impact that the people experience here from the disease. Over half of the residents of the village I collected data in have jiggers and this is the off season- so even more will have it come the drought season. I finished the data collection portion and now I am working on the paper and will present it at the end of August and hopefully receive my MPH…finally.  I also nominated two girls to attend camp GLOW (girls leading our world) and they got accepted and will be participating in August. This camp is provided by PEPFAR funding to encourage girl empowerment and leadership. I hope my girls will learn a lot and have fun! I unfortunately was not picked to attend with them but Breezie will make sure they are doing well during the camp, I am sure of this J I did however get chosen to go to the PST (pre-service training) for the new volunteers that arrived in June. I can’t believe it’s been 1 year since I have been in Kenya. When I help with the PST I will be talking about working with Community Health Workers. I am eager to go back to the training site and see my host family and be back in the place were it all started. It will good to go back and reflect on how far I have come. In May we also celebrated Breezie’s Bday- Jersey Shore Style…lol We dressed up as they would and had a house party at Hannah’s. I never thought that coming to peace corps that I would get up-to-date on Jersey Shore and even dress up as Snookie…lol Well it was a blast and fun to see all the other volunteers. This coming weekend I will be celebrating the 4^th of July as well as the departure of the Business/Public Health group that came before us. It will be mixed emotions to see them leave. They have been the leaders and mentors for us along this journey and now we will be taking this role. One that I hope to fill as they did for us. The exciting news of this month- I bought my ticket home! I will be home September 1st-22^nd. I cannot wait it will be very busy but I can’t wait to see my BF, friends and family- and Libby get married! I am only going to be in Princeton but anyone is welcome to come visit me. And the last thing. I got approved for a Peace Corps Partnership Grant. This program allows Peace Corps volunteers to choose organizations and individuals from the US to try to raise funds to support a volunteers project overseas. My project is that I want to treat and cure 100 people of jiggers- a very horrible neglected disease that Kenyans are facing here. I hope with this project to show the correct way to treat and cure. Currently the treatment is less than adequate and not making a lasting impact. So please check out my page on the Peace Corps website, pass the info along to whomever and if you want more info don’t be afraid to ask. Thanks in advance for your support.

Here is the website:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=615-202

Well until next time:

Sending love from Kenya

Joy J