What's up. It's around 8 p.m. on Thursday here in Cavite, where I am in my second and final week of In-Service Training. IST is the first time I have seen my entire batch since our swearing-in ceremony in September. Its been really amazing to see how far everyone has come and all of the projects people are working on. We have come full circle, because the site of our training is the same one we started at upon our arrival in the country for Initial Orientation.The experience has been really positive overall, and I think the most valuable thing that I've gotten here is a different perspective. To be honest, I really was not looking forward to leaving my site for training a couple of weeks ago. I have pretty comfortable with my daily work in Sorsogon and it was hard to feel motivated for the 12 hour bus ride. It is also difficult to be away from site for so long because of the relationships and responsibilities you have.
But like I said, I've gained a lot of perspective from taking a break from site. IST has helped me realize that when it comes to our project at the local college, there is a lot of room to grow. The second week of the training has been focused on project design management, which we have worked on closely together with our counterparts. This has been really helpful for me, because one of the biggest challenges I've encountered so far in my service has been being able to effectively organize and manage our current project. My background is focused heavily on the clinical side of social work, so designing projects has been a really new experience for me. So far, the results of the training have been pretty excited and it will be interesting to see if we can implement them at my site. March will be a huge month for all of this, so I will update with the specifics around that time if everything goes well! Here's a shot from one of our college life skills sessions:
Anyway, between all the hard work we have still managed to have fun here at the training site. On Sunday we traveled to Taal Volcano in nearby Tagaytay and I had one of the best times so far in my service. It was a fairly rigorous hike up extremely dusty path shared by adventurers on horseback. It was a tough climb to the top, but the view made it worth it:
More to come next month! Peace ya'll.
