From Laura's Camera - Laos!

These pictures are very out of order. :-P Still missing a few pictures of us on the river tubing, caving, and kayaking in Vang Vieng. Hope to get them posted soon.

Vang Vieng, Laos. The most spectacular mountains ever. Didn't love driving around them, but they were beautiful nonetheless.

A statue park outside of Nong Khai, Thailand. A mix of Hindu and Buddha images, plus some random "imaginative" sculptures won this place one of the weirdest on our trip!

Laos is just across the river!

Laos!

These pictures skip a little bit that are on Laura and Brandon's waterproof camera only. We went Nong Khai, Thailand to Vientiene, Laos. Then Vang Vieng (pictures on their camera), Phansavan with the Plain of Jars, and we are now at our last Lao stop, Luang Prabang. Leaving for Hanoi, Vietnam tomorrow!

At the northern edge of Thailand, Nong Khai. Mekong River and in the distance is the Friendship Bridge connecting to Laos. I enjoyed the evening boat cruise.

Pha That Luang - The most famous temple in Laos, and can be found on all of the currency and national seal. Was built in the 3rd century B.C. to house a breastbone of Buddha. Vientiene.

Near Phansavan are fields of massive stone jars that no one knows who created them, when,or why! So neat. It is also in the area that was heavily bombed by the US during the "Secret War". Hundreds of thousands of un-exploded ordinances (UXOs) are still there killing many people today.

Kuang Si Waterfall -- I had some fun on the rope swing and jumping off parts of the falls. :-)

The largest part of the falls. I had hiked up to the top before swimming -- so refreshing. It was about 30km outside of Luang Prabang.

Thailand Pics 3

In Pak Chong - central Thailand. Went to see 2 million bats fly out of a cave at dusk for dinner. Before that we saw creepy critters in a cave and then swam in natural spring.

Hornbill in the Khao Yai National Park.

Big Fig Tree!

Temple here in Khon Kaen! Went up to the 9th floor!

Walked around a park around a beautiful lake this morning. Fed birds with Laura. There was a dino statue - brilliant. Internet is about to run out! Going into Laos on Monday and up to the border tomorrow. Having a blast! Hugs - me

Thailand Pics 2

Mom and I riding elephants in Chiang Mai. This day also included a hike to a waterfall, white water rafting, bamboo rafting (Mom pushed me in), and a fried rice lunch. Perfect!

We learned how to cook Thai foods!! Mom's taking the picture, so there are now two Thai chefs in the family. :-)

Prachuap Khiri Khan in the southern part of Thailand. We walked to the top of this hill that had a wat (temple) that was completely over run with monkeys and school children. The view was lovely, though. We swam a ton here and in Hua Hin, which was also beautiful.

In Ayuthaya - the ancient capitol of Thailand (1350-1767). Fastinating ruins of temples cover the entire island city. We rented bikes and saw quite a few.

My favorite wat in Ayuthaya with this partial Buddha image encased by roots! Absolutely breathtaking! They don't know how it got there, but guess that when the Burmese sacked the city in 1767 it was moved and then discarded by this tree. The tree has been growing around it ever since.

Thailand Pics 1

Grand Palace in Bangkok on my Birthday... right before the rains came and forced us into a little cafe for a "few" beers. :-P

Birthday dinner at Cabbages and Condoms - an AWESOME restaurant in Bangkok that promotes Public Health! --- You can take the HIV Educators out of Swaziland but...

Reclining Buddha in Wat Pho. Mom was amazed, and rightly so. 46m long and 15m high.

Drove scooter in Chang Mai to a beautiful dam for swimming and picnicing.

Muay Thai (Thai Kickboxing) Class! We got our butts handed to us for 3 hours straight! Hitting the bag was just a break towards the end!

Hey From Bangkok! "Sa-wa-dee-kha"

My goal - already having spent three amazing weeks in Thailand - was to post a few pictures of what I've done and who I've seen. This single computer at our hostel in Bangkok seems to be bent on thwarting that plan. It is not reading anything from the USB ports. Shucks. Hopefully next time. I have been having a blast and seeing a ton! In a nutshell: Mom came and met me in Bangkok on Sept 16th. Laura and Brandon joined us the following day. We tore up Bangkok for a week: Grand Palace. Dinner and drinks with Tyler Frank & Friends on Khao San Rd. Amazing birthday at the Grand Palace & dinner at Cabbages and Condoms (look it up - awesome PH). Fabulous Massages!! Yummy food. Chinatown. Thai theatre experience - more like a Disney's Spectacular Spectacular :-). We headed north on a sleeper train to Chiang Mai: Cooking Class. Bamboo & Whitewater rafting. Hike to waterfall in mountains. Road elephants. Drove scooter (Mom on back) to swim in beautiful dam. Muay Thai Class (Intense Thai Kickboxing). More massages (this is going to be a weekly occurrence). Burmese Food. Mom left on the 30th and we lost an amazing traveling companion :-( Laura, Brandon & I headed south to the beaches on the Gulf of Thailand: Prachuap Khiri Khan = Most lovely beach ever on army base and small fishing town. Hua Hin = Swimming, swimming, massage, swimming - more touristy but more activities and night life as well Both sites had delicious seafood. Now we are back in Bangkok and leaving tomorrow for our trek up through Northeastern Thailand to the Laos border. There are about four stops on our way and we will be crossing into Laos on Oct 15th (when my visa expires). Hopefully I can keep this updated ever so often with some pictures.

Buh Bye Swaziland

Hey Everyone! Yes, I am still alive. No posts since March... wow. Shame on me. This extension year has been... many things: hard, rewarding, impossible, fantastic, educational, soul crushing, exhausting, and many more contradictory feelings. I finished at Baylor last Friday and my roommates left today. I get to go see my host family, BoDlamini, tomorrow and stay in my community over the weekend. I'm really looking forward to going down there. Then next week I wrap up everything at the Peace Corps office and get on a plane for Thailand on Saturday September 15th!! I will try my best to keep the updates more frequent and more interesting during the travels. To make up for the lost updates over the past months, I will copy and paste the final third of my DOS. A DOS is your "Description of Service", which will be the only piece of paper the PC keeps on me. I had to write a description, in third person, of every work related thing I accomplished in the past 3 years and 3 months. This paper doesn't capture the relationships, learning experiences, and hardships. It misses the growth and the breaking down. It can't begin to show the smiles of my Teen Club kiddos as they sing the "World's Greatest" or the ridiculous sexist, racist, and ageist bull-s%*t received from superiors. It will tell you my job, but not my experience. You'll have to wait until December 21st, when I land in TC, for all of that. :-) Third Year Extension Placement Ms. Crocker chose to extend her service for an additional 13 months in the Kingdom of Swaziland. During this period, she worked at the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative clinic in the capitol city of Mbabane as the Adolescent Psychosocial Support (PSS) Officer. Teen Club Coordinator: Ms. Crocker’s main role in the psychosocial support department of the clinic was to run the entire Teen Club Program. As stated previously, this is a support group for adolescents living with HIV. She coordinated all four support group sites: Hlathikhulu, Manzini, Mbabane, and Siphofaneni – one in each region of the country. The program runs on a yearly budget of $141,480 and provides support and lifeskills/health teachings to over 800 active youth. Curriculum Development: Every month a new health or lifeskill topic is taught to the Teen Club youth. Ms. Crocker created original, age and culturally appropriate lesson plans for basic savings and banking, child abuse prevention and reporting, safe romantic relationships, respect for people and the environment, medication adherence, gender equity and equality, coping with stress, as well as exercise and nutrition. Reporting: Ms. Crocker was charged with the duty to write professional program reports quarterly for monitoring and evaluation within Baylor and for donor partner organizations. Partner Organization Meeting: To better coordinate the PSS services for the adolescent population in Swaziland, to share resources and ideas, and to best plan the location of possible Teen Club expansion, Ms. Crocker coordinated and led a meeting with eight prominent organizations actively implementing programs with this age group. She then combined the information and contacts collected at this gathering and distributed it amongst all of the stakeholders. Evaluation and Internal Program Research Review: The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) financially supported an internal study of the Teen Club program to identify programming successes and gaps. Ms. Crocker worked with the Baylor Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and the research consultant to orchestrate the hiring of data collectors, see to their training of the interview form, organize the interview logistics, account for the correct representative sample size, and help review and edit the analysis report. International AIDS Conference: Six Teen Club youth and a Swazi Teen Club Coordinator attended the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, July 19th – 30th, 2012. Ms. Crocker initiated this program and oversaw every aspect of the planning process. This included, the teen selection process, fundraising $12,436, teen preparation workshops, editing and submitting scholarship applications, passport and US visa processing, a successful proposal for a Teen Club booth at the conference, creation and preparation of booth display materials, logistical planning of all transport, accommodation, travel healthcare, and per diem distribution for all participants, and managed all financial payments while working within the fundraised budget. This was the first time any BIPAI patient or youth represented the clinic or the Kingdom of Swaziland at this kind of event. It is being considered a successful pilot project in which Ms. Crocker’s report will provide the groundwork for similar initiatives at future International AIDS Conferences world-wide. End of the Year Event: The final Teen Club session of 2011 brought nearly 500 youth from all regions of Swaziland and 150 adult volunteers together for a large health education, Christmas celebration, and Teen Club member graduation event. Ms. Crocker planned, organized, and managed the implementation of this undertaking. Teen Leadership Training: Ms. Crocker planned and implemented a three-day workshop to train 27 youth to become teen leaders and peer educators at their Teen Club sites and in their communities. Topics covered were: problem solving, active listening, leadership styles, public speaking, expectations of Teen Leaders, and a plethora of health topics. Camper Recruitment and Preparations: For both the April and August 2012 camps, Ms. Crocker was solely responsible to orchestrate camper recruitment, plan caregiver information sessions, and ensure that all campers’ parental consent and medical forms were completed. A combined total of 172 youth attended these two camps from Baylor. Managing International Volunteers: Four different groups of three to five, young volunteers from the United Kingdom spent three months working at Baylor Clinic. Each group was Ms. Crocker’s responsibility to manage and supervise. She delegated tasks, organized work-loads, oversaw productivity, and provided learning opportunities for these young adults. Under her management, these volunteers worked on Teen Club tasks as well as accomplishing multiple secondary activities and projects. These included the development of a clinic library used to encourage good medication adherence in the youth. Another multi-group project completed personal story pamphlets, written by Teen Club youth, and anti-stigma lesson plans to accompany this tool for local schools. They were reviewed by the Ministry of Education. Daily Sunshine Club sessions, group activities for very young kids waiting to be seen by medical staff to dispel negative associations with healthcare seeking behaviors, were implemented, and this program was decentralized and expanded to Baylor’s two satellite clinics. Weekly, these volunteers would also be scheduled to help in the pharmacy, data room, and tidy the Teen Club supplies. Grant Proposals: During Ms. Crocker’s leadership of the Teen Club program, she worked on multiple successful grant proposals to sustain the adolescent PSS activities. Claypotts Trust, a local faith-based organization granted $20,625 (E165,000). ICAP, Columbia University’s international public health organization, awarded $24,025 (E192,200) for Teen Leadership Trainings and to hire a local, full-time Teen Club Coordinator to replace Ms. Crocker. UNICEF bestowed $19,194 (E153,550). President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) gave the flight, registration, and visa for the Swazi chaperone to attend the International AIDS Conference, at an estimated value of $3,385. Friends of Swaziland (FOS) returned Peace Corps Volunteer group approved a proposal for $511 to cover the remaining costs of the conference chaperone. Lastly, Ms. Crocker worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to secure a grant for $12,287 (E98,378) for the End of the Year Teen Club Event, which took place December 2011. Professional Presentations: During her time at Baylor, Ms. Crocker was requested to give a presentation on adolescent psychosocial support for youth living with HIV and another promoting volunteerism and community development to multiple groups of students at Waterford Kamhlaba – United World College of Southern Africa. She presented ways in which the Baylor clinic staff could utilize a newly developed, national HIV Prevention Toolkit on which she had been trained. Finally, Ms. Crocker was requested to present to Baylor’s organizational partners and stakeholders to describe and promote the program and alignment of similar initiatives. Teen Club Prospectus: Ms. Crocker wrote and formatted an updated program prospectus for Teen Club and other adolescent psychosocial support activities offered at the clinic. Organization of Network Drive: Six years worth of electronic Teen Club resources, documents, photographs, lesson plans, and tools were present on the clinic’s network drive. Ms. Crocker organized these items for easy access and use.

4 Day Conference

Tuesday March 13, 2012
7:00pm
Piggs Peak Hotel (Formally known as the Orion Hotel)

It might be hard to believe, but I’m typing this entry from the bar of one of the nicest hotels in Swaziland. I was able to come to this beautiful place as a participant in a Behavior Change Toolkit Training. This packet of implementation modules will hopefully help all of the NGOs (non-government organizations), faith based groups, and government branches educate effectively on topics of leading HIV prevention methods relevant to Swaziland. If you are interested, the drivers of the epidemic in this country have been identified as: early sexual debut (consensual or coercive), lack of condom use, lower numbers of males circumcised, and multiple concurrent partners (aka. multiple sexual partners during the same period of time). Only a few of these topics are specifically relevant to my kiddos who are already living HIV+, but the methodology and behavior change concepts have been pretty useful. Plus, they have a pool. :-)

This break from the office has really been needed. The last few weeks have really tested my resolve to stay in this position. Many days that add on overtime hours, a ridiculous amount of work, and a illogical hierarchical totem pole where I, as a young woman who is not getting paid, is on the very bottom rung. I thought living and working in a rural community with no running water and a non-existent timetable was difficult, but this is a whole different world of struggles. Please don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my kiddos. I LOVE what I get to do with/for them. I wouldn’t give this learning opportunity up for anything. But my stress levels have been showing a bit more, recently. A few more days in this bar and in the pool outside, and I should be set straight again.

I would fill you in on all the different aspects of my work life right now, but I don’t want to think anymore about that topic at the moment. Go to www.swazilandteenclub .com to see the most recent lesson plans that have been GREAT at Teen Club. Soooooo…. yeah, that is about it for the time being. Hope everyone is doing wonderfully!

2 Months Late - Holiday Stories

Wow. Every part of my Type A personality is screaming right now. I wrote the following blog at my house within the first couple weeks of January. I wanted to get some pictures from Cameron to go with it. Next thing I know, it is the end of FEBRUARY!! What happened!? I'm staying busy, that's for sure. :-) Hope you enjoy.

Vic Falls Vacation

I really want the beautiful pictures, which Cameron took, to show how much fun we had on our pre-Christmas vacation to Victoria Falls. The falls are between Zambia and Zimbabwe on the great Zambezi River. I had the pleasure of visiting these breathtaking waterfalls with my mother in March 2011, but just like the differing water levels over the falls this trip was also quite different and just as perfect… perfectly adrenaline saturated that is.

Within a few hours of arriving we both jumped off the Unity Bridge which connects the two countries. The following day we made our way down the rapids of the Zambezi River on individual inflatable kayaks. I can say that I probably swam more rapids than successfully kayaked, but it was a great day nonetheless. Our guide called it the triathlon: you hiked down and then back out of the steep gorge, you kayaked some rapids, and you ended up swimming even more of them!

On our last full day in Zambia we decided to go out to Livingstone Island situated right at the top of the falls. At the backpackers we were given two options for this adventure. We could boat out there or walk for a little less. As PCVs, we are certainly not adverse to walking or saving money, so we opted for the walk. Little did we know “walking” to the island means gingerly stepping from slippery rock to slippery rock, with strong currents up to your knees, holding on to nothing but the local guide and an equally terrified Cameron. Earlier in the year the water levels are so much lower that the way is dry and much less dangerous. What takes 30minutes to traverse then took us 1 ½ hours to safely cross. They were going to close down this activity all together within two weeks due to the rising waters. We got some great pictures at the precipice of the falls, but we chose the boat ride on the way back.

While on the island, though, you can swim up and across a current to jump into Devil’s Pool. This is a small catchment of water, held in by a small rock ledge, before tumbling over the edge. Cameron and I both sat on that ledge knowing that if we moved back more than a foot we’d be heading over as well.

With all of that unexpected excitement we decided to relax that afternoon and go out for drinks and then dinner at the Royal Livingstone Hotel, on the river, that night. We bopped over to Zimbabwe for our final morning to see the falls from that side of the bridge. It was certainly a spectacular view from both sides. From that point, though, we could see the places we were walking and swimming just the day before from a completely different vantage point. Great pictures were taken.

We hurried back across the border and bridge to grab our bags and make our flight back to Jo’Burg, South Africa. I guess I carried an unwanted souvenir back with me: a stomach bug. Our night at the Jo’Burg backpackers and 4 hour shuttle ride to Swaziland the following day was not so much fun. Luckily it didn’t last for more than a couple days.











Conference Money Update & Thank Yous!

This past week we received an update on how our fund raising efforts are going for sending our Teen Club members to the International AIDS Conference. Thanks to everyone who has already contributed to this amazing effort we are currently able to send two teens to the US! We are still working to get our numbers within our goal range of 3-6 awesome representatives, but this is such an overwhelmingly positive response. For those of you who donated for me or are planning on donating: thank you so very very very much!!! I couldn’t feel more supported and loved.

We also narrowed our selection of these stellar teens from 70 to 11, based on their age (must be 16years old or older to attend this conference), their attendance and participation in teen club, adherence to their medication and clinical staff recommendations. These 11 came into the clinic this past Wednesday for our first meeting and workshop. We discussed timelines, final selection process, conference requirements, conference programs, and then had a mini-workshop on scholarship/application writing and public speaking. These truly amazing teens will come back in this Thursday to hand in their scholarship applications and give a small presentation based on a question we gave them at the end of our previous meeting. Choosing the final six to register and submit, I already know, will be very difficult.

Christmas/New Year’s Eve

I hope everyone enjoyed this holiday season as much as I did. Even carrying back the stomach bug souvenir from the Zambezi River, I had a terrific Christmas day with my PCV family. We ate good food, went to the Christmas vigil service (complete with Swazi-fied manger scene  ), ate more good food, opened gifts from each other and Santa, listened to Christmas music the entire time, and watched one of my favorite Christmas movies: Love Actually.

Come to think of it, my New Year’s Eve was very similar. Same friends, same location, and the same caliber of amazing food and drinks! The only differences were that I was sans a stomach bug, we lit off fire crackers (per Swazi tradition) at midnight, and danced in our living room… ‘til 3am. It was a perfect way to welcome in 2012.

Visiting Site

The first weekend of January I took a trip to visit my host family, the Broodryks, and friends in Ekuphumleni. It is hard to believe that 5 months have come and gone since I have last slept in my thatched roof hut and dined on Make’s excellent emahewu (soured maize meal drink). To be honest, I was a bit anxious to get on my deathtraps, I mean public transport buses, and make the journey across the country. Luckily, the bus broke down only a little and I was to the Dlamini homestead by 12:30 on the Saturday afternoon. I’m also very grateful that the rare set of clouds had decided to follow me down from the mountains, cooling the blistering hot summer days I have not missed in the lowveld. It was probably only in the 80s. :-)

My family is doing great! I got to give everyone massive hugs, which they still laugh hysterically at, and twirl every child. Babe was home and even one of my sisis and her baby, who live off the homestead now. We played cards, talked, watched Cameron’s and my bungee videos (they were shocked), and made/ate every maize dish that I had not had since living there. They even kicked my bhuti, Lindo, out of “Zodwa’s house”, so I was able to sleep in my thatched hut yet again. The spiders and lizards missed me. :-P Lindo have even written “Welcome Back” in the house. It was good to be home.

Sunday I was able to walk up to A1 and visit my counterpart, Vusi, the Group 9 volunteer that was stationed in my community after I left, and the Broodryk family. This was also a wonderful afternoon spent relaxing, catching up, and even watching Extreme Home Makeover on TLC! Ha! I left to come back up to Mbabane on Monday with Johanne, who quite conveniently had to do some errands in the capital! No bumpy rattle boxes on wheels for me on the way back! Yay!

Data Collection/Grant Writing

The first Teen Club of 2012 was certainly a busy one! We are currently applying for grants to keep Teen Club going, and to do that we need to show that Teen Club works. To prove that these support groups are as awesome as I know they are, we are performing an evaluation of the program that includes 184 youth interviews, 4 volunteer interviews, 8 participant focus group sessions, and an interview with the coordinator: me.