IST Planning

Posted by Michelle Ross on 12/10/2007

So a call went out for people to help plan IST II. (IST is yet another acronym, in an organization riddled with them. Really, when you join Peace Corps, you are learning two new languages: that of your host country and that of the PC bureaucracy. IST stands for "In-Service Training" and is held once yearly during service. Last winter we had our first one and this winter will be our second.) Being the dork that I am, I volunteered to help. What can I say? I love planning stuff! At home it was Fun Fridays for the staff and here it is trainings.

Anyway, I was chosen to represent Gansu at the planning meeting. (Chosen may not be the right verb. If one was interested, that person was to email PCHQ and let them know. If I was the only one to respond to the email, rather than being chosen, I was forced upon them!) For the China 12s there were three of us on the planning committee. We met at the same time as the China 13s, who had four planners, at the headquarters in Chengdu.

Thad and I went down on Thursday afternoon, with plans to be back on Monday. The train that we took down was the WORST train I've seen in China! Usually I don't mind hard-sleepers, but Typhoid Mary sleeping in Thad's bunk was just too much for us!

Our train got us into the 'Du at 6:00 a.m. and went directly to the Overseas Dormitory to check-in. Thad decided to catch up on missed sleep, while I changed and got ready for the day. I had an appointment to meet with the doctors before my planning meeting began because my gall bladder (or whatever the heck it is!) was acting up again. (Of course, the issue started the week before and was gone by the time I got there, but they still wanted to run tests. This pain has been like the funny noise your car makes but then when you take it to the mechanic he can't hear anything. You swear it is happening, but the person-in-the-know never hears or sees it actually going on, so you just look a bit crazy!)

At medical, I had all the regular vital signs taken (good news: I'm still alive!) and then three vials of blood. Then it was upstairs for planning.

Our IST is only two days long, so planning wasn't a difficult process. We went through all of surveys about what people wanted to do at it and who was willing to lead different sessions and then it was just a matter of making the two match. Since we had a VERY successful IST last year, I think it was easy for us to plan and know what we wanted. The 13s had much more work than us to do because they were starting from scratch. That meant Dylan and Chandra and I spent a good deal of time chatting, which was great. I really think our second, and final, IST is going to go off without a hitch and that everyone will be happy with it. (The fact that it is optional also means that those who aren't interested will stay home, so it should be positive for everyone coming.)

Of course, when we weren't planning, Thad and I made sure to make SEVERAL trips to Pete's (a PC favorite) and Sabrina's to stock up on our Western food needs! Yum!!!

The plan was to catch a Sunday afternoon train home, but medical decided to keep me for another day so they could look into the pain issues a bit more. I had my third ultrasound (in two months) in a third hospital. I have to say that Chengdu gets top billing as far as hospitals I've been in in China. The ultrasound room was PRIVATE (a first for me!) That test came back with no problems, but when I got back to HQ with the blood work results, there were a few issues, something about triglycerides being much too high, so Dr. Jo decided that it would be best to redo the blood work.

Now, drawing blood has always been an issue for me. It is why, when my mom and sister give blood religiously, I opt out. Apparently my veins are really small and hard to get to for technicians. I had a ton of problems when I was getting blood work done to join Peace Corps and it came back to haunt me again this weekend. On Monday morning, it took the doctors (both of them!) several tries (and several bruises) to get the blood they needed to rerun the tests. It definitely wasn't the most fun I've ever had, but they did it as quickly as they could and I lived, so no complaints!

Finally, we are home and ready to get back into our regular routine. I am waiting for a call about the blood tests, but I'm not too worried about it. It is nothing over which I am going to loose any sleep.

I think tonight will be the night of the annual "tree-borrowing" expedition, so I am looking forward to decorating the house tomorrow! I LOVE Christmas-time! Updates on that to come...

• Back to Entry List
• Previous EntryNext Entry

This webpage expresses the views of Michelle Ross. It does not express the views of the United States Peace Corps.

Last updated Sep 29 2008