Training of Trainers (TOT)

Training of Trainers (TOT)

Written on 2/7/2016

This past week I experienced Training of Trainers for the first time. The next group of Trainees are coming in next week and I will be one of the people at their training.

Over the last 6 or so months, few other volunteers and I have been working with Peace Corps staff here in Mada to introduce a Peer Support Network to our Peace Corps community. The goal being that volunteers create a community of support and that all volunteers feel included and supported in this community. It is still in development processes, but is on its way to becoming a part of training and then tangible thing in Mada. Its been wonderful to work on this project and I was so excited to be a part of this training and see this network take its first baby steps to becoming a part of Peace Corps Madagascar.

It was a interesting experience as I was the only English Educator at the training, all of the other PCVs were either Community Health Advisers or Agriculture Advisers (the new words for our volunteer positions as "volunteer" doesn't accurately represent our work here in Mada). I learned later in the week that I was the first Education volunteer at a Health and Agriculture TOT. This meant I spent most of the week learning new agriculture techniques and discovering more of what the other sectors do - an enlightening experience. I am basically a SRI (a rice farming technique) expert now!

I also expanded my knowledge of coaching techniques from my time working with Housing and Residential Life at UMN and the Rothenburger Institute and worked on my facilitation skills. The best part, though, was getting to know the Host Country National (Malagasy) staff a little better. Some of the Agriculture and Health staff I had never met so it was great to get to know them and start a cross-sector dialogue.

My roll in the training of trainers was still a bit fuzzy, as we were creating the role of Peer Support and Inclusion in training while we were there. So basically I was creating my purpose and working on fulfilling that purpose at the same time. That left for some frustration, but it was great to be a little bit of a path maker for Peer Support PCVs to come!

It was a great week and I learned a lot! I am excited to meet the new Trainees in March and introduce the Peer Support and Inclusion idea to them. Hopefully, they'll feel connected and supported!

And I ended the week taking the GRE (Graduate Readiness Exam). I'll see how that went in about 6 weeks...but it felt like it went pretty well!