Happy Turkey Day!

hey yall. so happy THANKSGIVING!!! more than every before in my life i realize how much i have to be thankful for. i love my family, and my friends all over the world. i love america. i love airconditioning. i love cheese. i love pie and turkey. yesteraday, i had more than lately of those things on that list. a really interesting thought i had yesterday as i sat around eating and laughing with my fellow pc volunteers and some of my best friends, is that although my family and friends from home are far away, and i have had very little contact for the past year, i still really felt a sense of home and comfort. what a far way i have come from a year ago, when i was absolutely scared to death if what awaited me here and how i would deal with a life away from america for 27 months. hmmm, well enough self reflection. one year down, one year to go:)

in other news, i just got back from the training village because G-17, a new group of trainees (my class was G-15, and G-16 arrived in july) will be arriving on December 4th and i am one of the volunteer trainers who will be helping with their "stage" (training). most volunteers who wanted to were able to sign up for a two week block during G-17's 9 week training, and we will be helping with technical training as well as emotional support and cultural integration. it was exciting to be back in the village where i spent my first few weeks in guinea. during our 3 days there, we met the new technical, language and cross cultural trainers who would be helping with the stage, and participated in sessions to design and schedule the training program. we did this by sector, so i was with all the other agroforestry volunteers, which was also awesome because we had a chance to share all our first year experiences and hear what did and did not work for who, and what we think was really important for the training and what no one has used and we think should maybe be eliminated or at least have less emphasis.

Now that im back in conakry im going to look up some information on some projects im doing, most notably bush rat breeding- like what they eat and how to take care of them etc. i also have to type up proposals for two projects im trying to get funding for. ill update you on those depending on their sucess.

anyway, i love yall and hope everyone has a happy holiday season!!! here is a little article i thought you might find interesting, i did.

sarah!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7647962.stm