First training!

The other day (on June 22^nd) I had my first real training with a large group of people. I did a training on nutrition and taught them how to cook a meal that included all the food groups. Here, for simplicity and because it makes sense, we teach 3 food groups. Hery fiasana (basically carbs), hery fanorenana (proteins), and hery farovana (fruits and veggies). As I've touched on in past posts often times when people here eat they eat a lot of rice and not much else. The sides are often small and don't in include protein and veggies but usually just one or the other and are proportionally very small compared to the amount of rice. I think the training went very well and believe at least a few people will try and follow some of what I said. It will be a slow process but nothing good ever comes quickly.

Before the training I was very nervous. I had done practice presentations in training and am somewhat comfortable talking with people one on one but not in big groups. It can be very intimidating even in your native language. My mind was racing beforehand. I was looking for a way out. But I slammed down 3 cups of coffee to get my blood boiling and did it. Luckily I had a couple PCV friends and my Malagasy land lady/friend/counterpart/everything there to help me. She continues to be amazing and make my life incredibly easy.

I handled most of the presentation with her stepping in a couple times to clarify when I used some weird phrasing. As a side note, one of the hardest parts about learning a new language is learning the cultural side of it. A lot of times I will say something that I think is clear but the way I structured it is not. She'll re-say it with a few words moved around and everyone gets it. I'll probably never get all of it. But that's the fun of it. Anyway, the presentation was awesome. We talked about nutrition for like 20 minutes then we cooked. I had the rice pre-cooked because they definitely don't need a vazaha to show them how to cook rice. Then we sauteed some greens (called anamalao), onions, tomatoes, and peanuts for protein. It was really good if I can pat my own back and super easy. All of it is stuff you can buy in town for not too much money. And it is all stuff that they will hopefully be growing soon in their gardens. That is the next step.

After the training was over I was buzzing and on cloud nine. I'll contribute ¾ of that to the presentation and the other ¼ to all the coffee. It felt/feels so good have done it. Days like that make all the hard stuff worth it. People were engaged, asking questions, and seemed to be enjoying themselves. There were probably about 50 people there with maybe 20 adults and 30 kids. All of the adults were women of course because most men here do not cook. If even a couple people start doing a few of the things we talked about it will be a great step. I plan on doing these types of trainings seasonally so that we can use different vegetables and such that are in season to give people options when cooking.

I'm just getting started but I can see what my 2 years here should look like and hopefully I will make a small difference. I'm still excited from the training and it's been a few days. I also had a meeting set up between myself and a co-operative in the town next to mine by an NGO that works here. They (the co-op) are focused on farming which is of course what I am here for so I should be working with them a lot. The NGO is called Aga Khan and they too focus on agriculture so we will be working together a lot as well. When I get done with my Peace Corps training in July I have many standing appointments for trainings on all kinds of topics. I really need to bone up on my chicken raising because people across the board want to do that or improve that. Specifically vaccinating the chickens needs to be done more here. When I get done here I'll be an expert in administering vaccines to chickens of all ages.

There is so much work to do here which is very exciting. I have a lot to look forward to. I also am already worried about having enough time to do everything I want to do while I'm here. My ambition on projects is growing so hopefully I can get it all done. It's just nice to have the first big thing under my belt. There will be so many more.