This is my first blog post! I am excited to be sharing with
you my experiences this summer. Who knows, I might just keep blogging beyond
the summer if I’m able to keep it up.
I wanted to start this blog is for 2 reasons. The first is because I have never been a good “journaler.” I
can’t tell you how many journals I’ve bought with the lofty intentions of
chronicling the exciting happenings of my life to only write in it a few days
and then forget about it. So the first reason I’m doing this is for myself. I
want to be able to look back and see exactly what I was thinking and feeling
and how that changed me. Often I
remember an important event, but I rarely remember exactly how I was before the
event and how I was after the event to compare the two and look at my learning
process and appreciate the difference. So hopefully this blog will help me
understand more about myself and preserve my memories of what is sure to be an
amazing summer.
Secondly, this serves as a way for
my family and friends to keep up with me! As my family knows, I’m not very good
at making phone calls and keeping everyone updated as much as they would like,
so I think this would be a great way to keep everyone in the loop. I have been so so lucky to have such a
supportive family. My family has
always supported me in my endeavors, no matter what. They might think my ideas
a little too far fetched or unrealistic at times, but they support me in what
I’m trying to do, even if it means continuously leaving them to pursue my dreams.
I might even have a third reason
that is more of a hope than a reason.
I’m hoping that my experiences, my trial and error, can potentially help
someone else. I know I’m going to be learning so much this summer as my
schooling and career continue. So maybe in one of my future posts I might have
something of worth to say to someone or about something, and perhaps I can
leave a lasting impact. Perhaps.
Now that you know my reasons for
creating this blog, let’s talk about what I will be writing about.
I am starting this blog on my first
night at SIFAT-a training center in the middle of nowhere Alabama. It stands
for “Servants in Faith and
Technology” and you can check out their website at sifat.org. Through the
Sparkman Center for Global Health at UAB I am participating in a 2-week
intensive training program titled "Training in World hunger and Malnutrition: Practical Skills to Make a Difference." There are about 30
participants from UAB and 13 other countries that have travelled here to
complete this training and, to more importantly, engage in a dialogue about
community development practices and ways we can apply what we learn. I like to
think of it as a 2-week “big kid camp.”
We are staying in dormitories, eating meals in the cafeteria, playing
cards and games and packing our days full of educational, hands-on sessions,
all in a very strict schedule. We are going to be learning about gardening for maximum nutrition, how to make a fuel-efficient stove, how to filter and check water, and many more things. Saying that I am excited is the biggest understatement ever.
I will be here for the next two weeks, and then will have a quck weekend with
my family, and then it's immediately off for the Dominican Republic to work for the
organization Project Hearts (check out their website: http://heartsdr.com/) for the rest of the summer.
I will be planning and implementing a water project in the town of
Baitoa. More on this later!
I can’t wait to share all of these
experiences with you and would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on my
learning processes as I attempt to put into practice everything I have learned
about community development and public health.
Much Love,
Meghan
No comments:
Post a Comment