July 8th is quickly approaching...3 month countdown!

I now have only 3 months of my Peace Corps service left!  It is amazing how quickly the time has gone, so many lessons learned, new experiences, unexpected challenges, and exciting moments.  Over the past month, a lot of things have happened.  To start, we successfully completed the Gender Equality Training of Trainers conference for which I was on the steering committee.  We had about 30 attendees and had discussions about gender inequalities in each participants community, challenges surrounding the usage of contraception, how gender is viewed in Armenia, and what everyone wanted to see in Armenia's future.  It was very interesting to hear the different experiences everyone faced depending on where they were from and how they wanted to hold trainings in their communities to address these issues.  We also showed a few films and, if you haven't seen it, I would strongly recommend the documentary Girl Rising, it was incredibly well done and very powerful.  Check out the website for more info:

http://girlrising.com/

Now that the TOT has been completed, I am in the homestretch!  So, at this point I am focusing on filling out the SPA completion report for our Rehab in the home trainings, updating my resume, creating a project proposal with my counterpart Diana for a playground in one of the communities we work on (I will be here to help secure funding and to help with the start of installing the equipment, but will miss the grand opening), and starting the job search.  I am still researching, but am finding D.C. pretty attractive right now and FEMA in particular (even though Seattle and the Gates Foundation are still on my mind:), so if any of you have contacts, let me know!

Dorrie and Dad also booked their tickets to come visit me after the completion of my service (July 8th), so we will be spending a little bit of time in Armenia, heading to Georgia and then spending a week in Istanbul with my dear friend Elisabeth, another PCV.  And even more exciting, they also booked my ticket home so we could all travel together so....I will be arriving in Baltimore the night of July 21st!!

This has definitely been a huge time of transition, strange to think that this experience is almost over, but also very exciting that I will soon be starting the next chapter in my life!  This coming weekend my group will be having our Close of Service Conference where we will begin to fill out paperwork for our departure, discuss readjustment to life after Peace Corps, job strategies, and spend our last conference together as a group.  A few of us have been putting together an end of service slideshow and it's been really great to see the pictures from our start to now, we've come a long way!  

My second day in Armenia!

Before I wrap this post up, I would like to ask for your thoughts and prayers for a few of my fellow PCV's.  On Saturday night, three of our guys were hit by a car while crossing the street in Yerevan.  Thankfully, all of them will be okay, but they suffered several broken bones and will be in recovery for some time.  It has been a tough experience for all here and has just been an important reminder to really appreciate each day.  It has certainly brought our PC Armenia family much closer together.  I would like to take a moment to recognize how amazing of a staff we have here at PC Armenia.  They ensured that the guys were receiving the care they needed immediately and have been incredibly supportive from the moment it happened.  We are all so grateful that they will all be okay and feel very lucky to have the staff we do.

Thank you all in advance.  I'll write another update soon and get ready to see me in July!!