So, internet.
As some of you know and probably more of you did not know I have gotten my hands on an unusually extended supply of internet out here and I figured that I might as well let you know why. All the volunteers in my training group have been gathered in the capital for our in-service training (IST). We have now all finished our first three months of service working on our primary assignment which is teaching and now it is time to start turning our attention to secondary projects which can be education based or can wander into the realm of economic development or health. We have been through a variety of sessions on health projects, food security, youth development, gender equality, and science camps that are available for us as well as what organizations to work with and how to write and process grants so as to finance our more ambitious projects. In my final two years in the states I developed a passion for food ethics which translates very well into food security and living in an impoverished village where there isn't really a food supply and the main population all survive by subsistence farming has peaked my interest in food security. I have spent the last three months in site reading up on food security and examining how it works into developmental economics, cultural psychology, and even primary health care and I'm pretty excited to see what can be achieved by furthering my efforts in this direction. I was elected by my training group along with another volunteer to work on the volunteer run food security task force committee which opens me up to a lot of amazing resources and will give me a great opportunity to run with some of my ideas considering food implementation and its uses in economic development. What really encourages me is that in the long term food security really helps a country develop itself on its own. Many of the people you interact with here have the drive and desire to take the steps to better themselves and their country without foreign handouts and oftentimes its simply to role of the volunteer to help them turn that final corner while standing in the background.
I'll be back in Ouaga next week so throughout this week I will try to write a few funny stories for you guys because life out here is never short of them. Thanks for reading my brief dialogue on development and hopefully its increased level of boring-ness does not scare you away from returning to my blog.
