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Monday, June 21, 2010

"The Big Kahuna" Our Post Assignment

There are twelve (12) SED (Small Enterprise Development) volunteers, and there are twelve (12) posts to be filled by new volunteers. Yesterday the Togo Peace Corps Director reviewed with us the nuances and needs for each vacant post. In addition he described and explained the weather and location of each post. Following his presentation he began to have interviews with the 12 SED volunteers so that he and his team could begin to assign us to what will be our home for the next two years. Our interviews included what our own particular needs were. Did we want a small village, or a large village? Did we need electricity? Did we want to do long distance biking? What areas of development were we most interested in. Tuesday we will all receive our Post information. The following week we will each go stay at our post for a week. We will be staying with either the current volunteer, or a representative from the village. Each village has a “homologue,” a Togolese partner in the village who will help us settle in and meet the people in the community we need to meet. After our weeks stay at our post, we will return to Tesvie to complete our nine weeks training. At the end of nine weeks we will be sworn into service and go to our new homes/posts, set up our house, and begin to settle in.
Getting your Post, is the big Kahuna in Togo Peace Corps. It’s what we’ve all been waiting for since the day we applied. I’m so excited to know where I’ll be assigned. During my interview I stated that I had a preference to work on and with NGO’s, and on and for anything that might/will empower Women in Togo. That could have to do with women having their own businesses, or women in politics, or helping women overcome the many obstacles they face in Togo. Peace Corps has done a compreshensive needs assessment for each Post. Once we are assigned we will get an in-depth summary of what is going on in our particular village.

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