Fitness Club “Jennifer”

That’s right, you read correctly. We named our fitness club after yours truly. It wasn’t my choice and all my protests against went unheard. My counterpart and the girls I had worked with wanted a name to remember me by. What better name than my own. We wrote the project back in June and started our renovations in July. Finally, finally everything was finished two weeks ago and we had our official opening. We invited all the important people- the mayor, PC director, officials from the mayors office, the director from the health center, etc, etc. We cut the ribbon, talked a bit, then had a big masa. I provided chocolate chips cookies and apple cinnamon placinta. My treats got eaten the fastest and everyone loved them best. Of course. The really cool thing about it though is that the village now has a place to work out for cheap without having to travel into the city.

The center was created in a section of the building that our NGO is in. We have one room for aerobics/yoga/etc. and one room with weights, a bicycle, and an elliptical machine. We have about 8 big balls for exercises and two discs full of different aerobics, yoga, pilates, ball work outs, jump rope work outs, etc. So far it has all been very successful and we have had lots of people pay to use it. I use it everyday after work for 1-2 hours. I am hoping to keep my winter weight in check. Especially with all the holiday masas coming up. But we have a group of girls who have volunteered to run the center and in exchange they can use the center for free. I am still so surprised by how successful it has been. I am glad to say that I have contributed something really big to this village and have something tangible to show for my time here.