Long Overdue Updates

It is really hot.
Cote D'Ivoire cuts our power...
I could not blog post.

I hope all of my avid readers appreciate this haiku apology for not blogging or sending any emails sooner. It is hot season, so the power cuts out at least once a day, and the Internet only works on good days. Not too much has happened over here, though, or else I have integrated and felt at home enough to think that my life is boring. Anyways, here are some updates about my projects and my birthday celebration!

Vaccination Hangar

My vaccination hangar is complete! Some people in my village really appreciate it, and others still don't seem to understand what I am doing as a volunteer here. I guess that you can't win them all? Either way, I am proud of the hangar. We have started weighing babies regularly, holding talks and discussions on malnutrition and other health topics, and giving weekly vaccinations to mothers and children. I am not sure what else I could do, projects wise, at my CSCOM, so I am trying to focus my intentions elsewhere. My CSCOM really understands what they are doing and runs very well, so I am focusing on something else now...

Village Sanitation

I am sick ALL OF THE TIME, and I've realized the cause of it all - my dirty village. I live in a mud hut surrounded, literally, surrounded, by cows, sheep, donkeys, children, and all of their fecal matter, as well as dirty latrine and dirty dish water. To make a long story short, some very motivated and awesome individuals in my village took my concerns to heart and organized a village sanitation committee! We had our first meeting (which was a surprise to me, kind of) and apparently, every Tuesday, we will meet to discuss sanitation projects. I want to firstly construct the soak pits that the last volunteer got the materials for OVER A YEAR AGO, but given my village's unwillingness to do work for themselves, we will see how it goes. I told them that I am not doing any more projects until the 50 plus soak pits are finished, so we will see how it goes. We are also going to construct some simple hand washing stations around the village and dig some large holes to throw our trash into and burn. (Sorry to all of the environmentalists out there - I love the environment and everything, but there are bigger problems in my village than holes in the O-Zone and such. I have no other options here!) Honestly, I do not have high hopes for any sanitation efforts in my village, but we will see how it goes. Maybe I will get sick a little less often!

Take Our Daughters To Work Day

I am also working with some other volunteers to organize a day where we take a few motivated school aged girls from our villages to Sikasso. We have them stay overnight for a few days, give them housing and food, and take them around to various women who have good jobs - such as bankers, food sellers, doctors, NGO workers, police women, etc. The goal is to show them that they do not have to drop out of school, get married, and start birthing babies at age 15 in order to be "successful". We want to have this event sometime in May or June, so right now we are trying to organize the funding for it. I will keep everyone updated as we solidify more parts of the event!

Farming

Given my village's (sometimes) unwillingness to work with a volunteer (and constantly ask for free handouts, which is NOT my role as a Peace Corps development facilitator), I will be working on some kind of farming project in a village about 6K away from mine. We will be doing formations in schools on sanitation, and then going into the fields to grow corn, rice, and cabbage with urine fertilizer to show the positive effects it has. I don't know a lot about this project right now, but the three men I will be working with are VERY motivated and have already completed a similar project in my village. They know what they are doing, they are very excited, and for once, I am excited to work with someone other than my homologue on a project that people are willing to put in effort for.

My birthday!

I am now 25, and it's not as scary as I thought it would be. I had a great, relaxing birthday in my village with my PCV friends and village friends. We killed a sheep and ate it with my favorite Malian food, tiga dega na (rice with peanut butter sauce), talked and drank tea all morning, and danced all afternoon. Even though I face a lot of challenges in my village, I really feel like I am in a good place. Overall, I had a great birthday with my friends, even if I did end up sweating streaks of dirt off of my body from all of the dancing I did. And, my AMAZING homologue made us matching dresses for the occasion! I honestly do not know what I would do without Alimata or her family.

And... that's about it. I read a lot of books, I bike a lot, and I play my ukulele and dream about the rains that should really start to pour out of they sky in about a month or so. My life is getting boring, but I like it. So, thanks again for all of your support and please keep the emails and letters coming!