A sbort post

So I've officially planned the last 6 weeks of my time here. It's going to be busy. It's so strange to realize that this time is coming to an end. Two days ago I received my first goodbye gift. Last night we had a celebration for all the students who had a birthday in August. We ate pancit, a Filipino noodle dish. I started taking notes so I can make it at home.

Right now I am working on several workshops for the female college scholars. The topics are: Community Violence, Nutrition, Self-esteem and the Colonial Mentality, Healthy Dating Relationships, Women's Reproductive Health and Family Planning, and Academic stress. It's two workshops per saturday for the next 3 weeks. Then we will have two more workshops on women's rights and human rights facilitated by a woman from a local feminist human rights/advocacy group. For some of the workshops we will be creating some theatre presentations to present information in different communities. I'm trying to create workshops where half the time is information sharing and the other half is some sort of active response, like creating a skit, or some other form of media, developing a petition or letter writing campaign etc.
I'm really excited to begin and to hear the students perspectives. I am having a student advisor for each workshop to gain their feedback and input prior to the workshop. Yesterday, I had meetings for the first two workshops. It was really helpful and great to hear their insight on these issues.

The workshops start on Sept. 1.

That's all for now.