Frenzy Feb

Whoa! What happened? February, why are you leaving us so soon? This month has been quite a blinding whirlwind for me, so much that I have not been able to capture any of it here until now. Well, hold still cuz here’s a frenzy recap for ya =)

If you don’t already know by now, the news is I have extended my stay here in Khujand to work with MEDA until the end of May. This is a very timely arrangement as the Gender Officer who I’ve been helping with the Small Matching Grant Program has left MEDA so I have taken over the implementing of the grant program. I will also get many other opportunities to put on my ‘trainers’ cap in the next few months.

Next week, along with the AgriBusiness Development Specialist, we will be facilitating a two-day workshop on business management, and planning. There are approx. 15 farmers who are training to be MEDA’s AgriBusiness Consultants (ABCs) and their final workshop session will be conducted by us. Once completed their training, the ABCs will go back to their different regions and work with village farmers by providing agricultural advice and support, to help them improve their growing methods and as a result better yields and quality to improve their income. I’ve spent the last 3 weeks or so putting together various modules for the training on topics like marketing management value chain and can finally say I’m done writing! Now my focus will be on how to facilitate it.

Interesting Experiment – Count how many Merecedes and BMWs you see on the road. During my 5 min walk on the main road, I saw 6 Merecedes and 1 BMW on the street…hmmm