What Were They Thinking?

This week is In Service Training, or more commonly known as IST.  This training is organized by the PC Training Dept and the trainees are Peace Corps Volunteers.  I was asked to be the Project Design and Management (PDM) trainer.  I was thrilled with the opportunity and loved every minute.  I teach PDM in Ukraine a lot, but every training to teach seems to be slightly different.  In this case I was teaching the basis to mostly PCV’s and their coworkers with little or no project experience.  I love to watch them realize that they can compile a project. They can write goals and objectives.  And with the right tools, they can do it well.

This training was three days, seven sessions and 68 slides.  We had 70 attendees, 35 Americans and 35 Ukrainians.  Most of my part was in English, but there were several sessions when a translator was needed.  I had a partner in crime for the sessions.  I taught all theory and practical application, and Christina Webb, in the black dress below, presented her completed project in differing sections as we went along.  She and I had a great time.

Side Note: Christina is from Bend and she and I are already talking about attending Ducks games when we are back home. GO DUCKS!!!

   

I still amazed at times the someone in the training dept thought that it would be a good idea for me to teach all these people on a subject that is still fairly new to me, but I truly appreciate the opportunity and loved every minute.

    

There were two tracks of training for the week.  Christina and I were a part of the Civic Engagement track, and here are Michelle and Natalie, the two trainers from the NGO Organizational Development track.