runner's high

You know how some people feel this indescribable ecstasy when running, AKA runner´s high?
Well, that`s kinda how I feel right now. I guess we could call it... Peace Corps high.

I´d been feeling pretty low for the past couple of months: my pace of work slowing down partly due to factors outside my control, being out of my site often because of training newby Peace Corps trainees, doubts about the effectiveness of my work here as a volunteer. All of these things compounded and created an abyss of desultory inanition that I could not escape. It got pretty grim.

But then something happened... maybe you have to hit bottom before rising again... maybe it was seeing the work of other volunteers from the viewpoint of the new trainees... but something injected me with a renewed sense of motivation. I went to the Health Center, suggested new projects, followed up on previous ones and hounded people to make sure they followed through. This is what I´m up to now:

• HIV/AIDS Billiards Tournament to target the male population in my municipality
• Outfitting all schools in municipality with first aid kits, training teachers in first aid
• Outfitting all primary schools in municipality with fluoride, training teachers in weekly application of fluoride rinses for kids
• Outfitting all casas bases (one house per community) with first aid kits, training health brigades in first aid
• Capacitations on Sexual Repro Health in farthest comarcas in my municipality and a neighboring municip.
• Coordinating more with Ministry of Education (target parents of students, incorporate sex. and repro health in curriculum, etc)
• Working with Spanish NGO Medicos del Mundo to build casa materna / renovate casa de adolescentes, revitalize youth group, and focus on male population.
• Strengthen health brigade network (create brigadista appreciation days and give regular capacitations etc)
• Math tutoring
• English lessons

This is the most exciting period of time, when everything is still full of possibility, when things are being newly discussed. We´ll see how many of these things actually work out. But for now, at least, I feel like I have direction in my work, I feel more involved in my community, and I am excited about all of these projects. I remember why it is that I am here, that there is value in this work, that there is so much work to be done. And for the first time, I´m realizing that two years really is not enough time. That maybe there is Never enough time for this perpetual, on-going, long-term work. That I have to take full, FULL advantage of my precious two years here. That perhaps, after all this vacillation, I will decide to continue this work after my two years of Peace Corps. Next item in long-term to-do list? International Development grad school!