ISTs

I am a self-loathing acronym user. Jargon is one of top things hated in the Erikavers.

That said, only something like 3 other people are super acquainted with the term Erikavers, maybe 6 other people know the acronym RTFM, and surely few people recognize / “get” dozens of the segue leaps and idioms that Kiddo throws out there in the Erikavers.

Yep. So why should I be hatin on PC for things like PDM, IST, PST, PCV, RPCV, Sustainability, Goal Two, Goal Three and dozens more I'm sure not coming immediately to mind?

Because I sound like a monologue in Good Morning Vietnam. I sound like my sister fresh from bootcamp. I sound like a smarmy [insert explicative].

At any rate, IST is a term used tons by nerdy PCVs in off PST season.

I = In

S = Service

T = Training

and those nerds are current volunteers eager to teach the newer generation how to do specific things.

P = Project

D = Design

M = Management

which is the title of March's IST for EE PCVs. That is, the sort I am, English Education.

Like all things to do, we all have our different motivations for giving up vacationing in balmy Istanbul for a week in favor of teaching 20 somethings how to write a grant proposal.

Mine are nefarious: Lack of money. Lack of CV glitter.

And so, I spent my spring break in a class room with two other stricken nerds (the honorable Erin and Monica) facilitating (not teaching) sessions (not lessons) for (not to) a dozen or so M25s and their Partners.

And I enjoyed it. 10 – 12 hours a day facilitating for 2 days, a 12 hour day waiting for Joe Biden to shake my hand, and a morning of barely moderated discussion of who's done what with their two year service (like the military term, I think. Which brings me to a nagging digression. Peace Corps Volunteers are classified as “skilled and trained man power” we are a good, given to a village to help the village provide a service for itself. It's confusing without living and teaching the conundrum for two years, but Joe's visit is really niggling me to question the intentions of everyone ever to have lived...).

It was fun, tiring, and utterly fulfilling, for no other reason than how physically exhausted I was after every day. Nothing else though. Why doesn't teaching give me a glow? I thought teaching was supposed to make you feel good for imparting knowledge and watching your chicklets flutter around full of new knowledge. Huh.