Shayne's Crazy Makdo Life

Ch-Ch-Changes

OK, so now it's official and I can tell everyone. I've officially been hired as a Technical and Cultural Faciliator (TCF) for the Pre-Service Training (PST) of MAK 10 (no acronym there). While I'm still not sure on the specifics, from what I've been told, I'll be responsible for the techincal training (in my case, teaching English) for all TEFL volunteers (technically, they're trainees at that point).

Maybe I should back up a bit. Here's how Peace Corps training works: Back in the states, after finding out where Peace Corps is placing us, then finding out where the hell it's located and looking at every website possible about the country, then freaking out about leaving, everyone who's going to the same country meets in one city for a little 2-day long meeting called Staging (ours was in Chicago, coincidentally). We get to meet our fellow trainees and sort of get a crash course on what Peace Corps is all about, while they tell us nothing about the country we're going to. It's all about the surprise, apparently. Anyways, then we all fly together to our country and are welcomed at the airport by our training staff. They whisk our half-concious bodies off on a bus towards our training site. We then have 3 months of training in which we all live in villages that surround one main city, called the HUB site. We live with families, and there are usually 6 or 7 trainees living in the same villages. Also living there is a Language and Cultural Facilitator (LCF- are you writing all these acronyms down?). They're responsible for our language and cultural assimilation into the country. We have 4-hour language classes with them every day and they're also there as a support network for us. We also go into the main city once a week with all the other trainees for one big training day where we learn more stuff about our positions, the country, traditions, safety and security, etc. There's a technical trainer for each sector- Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL), Municipality and NGO (MUN/NGO) and Environmental Education and Management (EEM). They're responsible for teaching us how to perform our specific jobs as volunteers. After the 3 months are up, we are then sworn-in as volunteers and go on our merry ways to our new sites (or in my case, stay where I was) and start our 2 years of diligent work as volunteers.

Where do I come in with all of this? Well, I will be helping the techincal trainer with all TEFL trainings. This includes helping create the training sessions, setting up student teaching-like practicums for the trainees, and helping with other cultural assimilation stuff, seeing as I'm the seasoned veteran here. I'll either live in the HUB site (which this time is Veles) or I'll live in one of the other communities that the trainees are living in. This means that I'll be basically quitting my job as a teacher here in Orizari and moving out in mid-September. I have mixed feelings about this- I'm really excited about this opportunity to help with the training, and I think it'll be a fantastic experience. On the other hand, I've grown quite attached to my little village and really do love my school and my co-workers, so it'll be really hard to leave them 3 months before I was planning on it. And that's the thing, this is a pretty short stint- I'll be there from mid-September to mid-November, so it won't be very long, and then I'll go home straight from there. On the other hand, this will definitely help make the time speed by, as I was worried that the last few months here would drag on, just because I wouldn't have any new projects coming up. Also, I'll have the weekends free (in theory), so I can always come back and visit, which I plan on doing as much as possible.

So, that's that. Like I said, I'm really excited about this awesome opportunity and can't wait for the experience that awaits me. I'm sure I'll have lots of great stories to tell about the newbies and all the fun hazing....um, I mean training that I put them through. So, that's it for now- like I said, I'll be incommunicado for about 3 weeks after this, so try and continue on with your lives without my silly anecdotes, and I promise a huge loving post as soon as I get back.

posted by Shayne @ 10:18 PM