The final weeks of service

Trip Start Jul 05, 2003
1
9
Trip End Sep 12, 2004


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Flag of South Africa  ,
Friday, August 20, 2004

My final weeks are in process and I came to Pretoria and the Embassy in order to double check on the International Visitor's Program. I nominated a young woman from Siyabuswa and she was selected to visit the U.S. in March 2005. Although it was announced to the Peace Corps and they called to congratulate me, she, Maureen, had not yet received any official notification. Since I leave here in less than 2 weeks !! I wanted to be sure all was in order. I'm happy to say they confirmed that the 'final final' will come from Washington around the end of this year and then they will communicate to her how to proceed.
She will attend Leadership for Women workshops in March 2005 during which she will meet not only American Women but Women from all over Africa. I'm so proud and pleased that she was selected. She's in her early 30's and has stuck it out working hard for the community. Her NGO (with whom I've beeng working, one of a handful) has a 3 prong program and her volunteers are doing Voluntary Counselling and Testing, Home Based Care and care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children
catholic women caregivers
catholic women caregivers
. They are my stars!
I'm also adding pics of the 6 Catholic Women Graduates of the Home Based Care Training. The Missionaries of Africa in Siyabuswa and I started this effort among the Catholic parishes of the area. These women are also my stars because they were all new to the work and they are doing such a great job with the training they received. PJ (the priest) and I have had 2 report back meetings with them and they already have 40+ clients among them and of those 40, 14 have TB. The clients range in age from 7 - 73 and include males and females.

If I spout out this data now, it's because I've brought my data base experiences with me and often see events in terms of what information we've gathered from each encounter. Creating data out of people's lives is not intended to detach me from the circumstances under which they are living - but sometimes it helps to detach.
I think when we meet again, you may find me changed.
I'll probably do one last entry during our close of service time (Sept. 6-10). My flight leaves late the night of the 10th and I arrive in L.A. mid-day Sept. 11 2004. Erin will be there for me.
Pretoria hotels Slideshow

Comments

cksnash
cksnash on Sep 21, 2009 at 07:45PM

aftermath
In fact more State Dept. promises were broken, my nominee never got her visit to the U.S. - more budget cuts.
I did get feedback from the Priests that my training program was sustainable because the community took what I had left and used it to organize another training session in Siyabuswa 3 months after I left.
'I taught them to fish' very satisfying.
Cynthia

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