The Magical Realm of Hogwarts

There comes a time in every PCV's service that he or she reads, or in my case, rereads, Harry Potter. I'm a couple hundred pages deep into the fifth book right now, but I think the third and the fourth are my favorites. Other than wishing I could turn you into a turtle at will, I just got back from a trip up to the Extrem-Nord province to surprise our friends/go to a bike tour meeting. The bike tour is an Extreme North provincial project where PCVs ride their bikes to different PCV villages in the province and do AIDS presentations for a day, culminated by an actual testimonial from a PVVS (personne vivant avec le VIH/SIDA - This actually can be quite dangerous for the infected person because of taboos associated with HIV). It was a very successful program last year, and people from my training group are planning it again for this fall/when the rainy season is just about over.

While the Bike Tour is going to be a big hit this year, I'm probably not going to participate in it just because there are nearly 30 volunteers planning on taking part. That's a lot of folks when around 15 seemed to work last year just fine. Despite that, the weekend was fun, though the voyaging gets a little tiring. But hearing "The World's Greatest" by R. Kelly at a nightclub and a Cameroonian we were with singing along to the whole song is a delightful pick-me-up.

I also get to go to In-Service Training (IST), a mandatory week-long conference that all PCVs go to after their first 3-6 months at poast, in about 10 days or so. It's going to be informative, worthwhile, and at the friggin' beach all the way at the bottom of the country. IST is a major landmark for new volunteers because it'll be the first time we've all seen each other in one place over a long period of time since training in December. We also get 3000 cfa per diem, free hotel, and free breakfast and lunch. And it's at the friggin' beach! Your tax dollars at work.