IST through the first 6 months in Senegal (July – September. Roughly.) Intermediate Service training (IST) IST was an intense two week training back in Thies with all the new health and business volunteers once again under the same (metaphorical) roof. Side note, IST is the French abbreviation for a sexually transmitted disease and caused a comical amount of confusion for the French speakers at the health post. It was similar to PST in the sense that we had class all day and lost sleep all night trying to catch up, be social, and revel in the ability to speak English. Where it differed was in the content in the training. While PST spent a lot of time discussing what to expect in Senegal and how to speak the local language, IST dove into future projects, how to write grants, and the resources available to succeed in these projects. The last few days, we all had our counterparts from our respective sites come and partake in the training with us. A counterpart is someone sharing