1. We had our In-Service Training in Bamako and our whole stage was together for the longest amount of time that we’ve ever been together – it was a good two weeks! I have significantly more Facebook friends now.
2. I went into Bamako and ate PIZZA. If you are my friend, then you know how much I freaking love pizza.
3. I caught up on all of Glee, Season 2 – again, if you are my friend, then you know how much I freaking love Glee.
4. I got sucked into Jersey Shore, Miami, and I don’t hate it. (What time is it? Tee Shirt time!)
5. I will be spending Christmas camping at some beautiful waterfalls in my region with a few friends. Even though I love snow, waterfalls seem like a great alternative…
6. I saw the new Harry Potter movie! I’m so glad that other people know how to download movies, TV shows, and music from the Internet.
7. I saw The Social Network! And, I only fell asleep for half of it….
8. I am going to Senegal and The Gambia in February! Let the traveling begin…
9. I received some awesome Christmas cards and packages from quite a few people, and I was very pleasantly surprised by all of them!
10. Another PCV cut my hair for free, so now all of my split ends are gone. I can go back to washing my hair once every week again.
In all seriousness, IST made me pumped to head back to site, and it’s mainly because my homologue is so wonderful. She understands my frustrations with my Chef de Poste and the treatment of women, and she agrees that we need to make the women feel like their opinions matter. We talked about potential projects, and she definitely has her act together – she wants to use the women and the men to clean up the village (by making and maintaining soakpits so that the standing water, and hopefully malaria rates, will decrease); she wants to build a vaccination hangar so that we can continue to vaccinate babies and start weighing them every Monday (so that we can educate about healthy eating and malnutrition); she wants the women’s association (that she is the President of) to start a garden project where they can sell half of their crops for profit on market day (and eat the other half); she also wants the women’s association to make “neem cream”, which is mosquito repellant made from local sources; she wants to revamp the adult literacy center; she wants to take me around the village so that we can talk about the importance of birth control to the families (since the women in the village come to her house at night so that she can give them the shot or the pill for a good price); and, she wants to do a radio show with me in Sikasso-ville to talk about important health issues in our village. The best part of all of this is that she came up with all of these ideas on her own! I simply told her that I wanted to have a meeting about potential projects and listed the people I wanted to be present, and it was like she read my mind with all of her ideas! This is a great sign, and I feel positive about my future village projects.
Thank you for all of your support this past month, and I hope everyone has a great holiday! It feels more like Christmas now that there are fake trees and decorations everywhere (including blow up Santas), and now that the weather cools down to about 70 at night. Happy holidays!
No comments:
Post a Comment