6 Months Down

About two weeks ago, I hit the six month mark in Burkina Faso. It seems crazy to me because in many ways it feels like I was just trying to decide what to take out of my suitcase to get it closer to the weight limit. I am in such a different place now though and really do feel like I am at home in village! I spent a little over six months in Kenya so this is now officially the longest I have been out of the U.S. (and actually out of WI) and away from my family. I am about a quarter through my service which also seems crazy because I feel like I am just getting started. I have also been in village longer than I was in training in Ouahigouya. Training felt so long compared to the time that has flown by at site!

I want to say a huge thanks to everyone that has been supporting me emotionally and through letters and care packages! First off to my parents who have been amazing at calling and sending cards and packages. Plus they recently booked a trip for us to meet up in Egypt in July. I am very excited to see them! Thanks as well to all my friends and relatives that have shown how much they care about me. I realize I haven't been the best at sending letters (postage is just so expensive for me!) but I really do appreciate hearing from you and feeling connected to your lives in the States and around the world! Special thanks to everyone that has sent me care packages over the last six months: mom & dad, Beth, Suzy, Kim & Jim, Mary B, Jeff & Deanne, Mrs Lee, Anna, Maren, Judy E, Allison, Wayne Crusaders, and Tulane MI! You guys rock! It may be hard to imagine how excited I get over American junk food, easy meals, and magazines.

So what have I been doing you may ask? Well its hot season so I have to admit I sit around at home reading and mopping up sweat from every inch of my body. Its just too hot to do much else! I have been trying to get some planning done though. I have decided to do a girl's camp for two weeks this June so am trying to put together an application, projects & activities, and logistics. There is still so much to do but its looking like its really going to happen.

Back in April I applied for a US embassy grant on behalf of a women's soap-making group from my village and just got word that we were selected. The US embassy had a contest last year to design a pagne (piece of fabric) and then had these printed up. They are giving them to local organizations to sell and then the funds can be used to support the organization's project. Pretty cool huh? Anyways this soap group has 15 women that have all contributed money to participate in a training and received support from the local government. They now know how to make bar soap and made one small batch but don't have the funds to launch a big production. I am in Ouaga to pick up the pagnes at the embassy and take them back to village. I'm a little nervous about how I'm going to get it all back to village on bush taxi but we'll see how it goes tomorrow! The women are going to start selling them and hopefully raise enough money to purchase all the supplies to really get their soap co-op going and keep it sustainable!

I also recently started a moringa pepinaire (I can't think of the English word but its when you start seedlings in plastic satchets). Moringa is this amazing tree that grows great here and can be used for so many things including using seeds to purify water and drying the leaves and making a powder that is super nutritious. Check out this site for more info. Peace Corps really wants volunteers to start moringa in their communities so I got the neighborhood kids to help me start about 30 seeds. Once the seedlings are big enough, they are going to plant them around our compound and out in the field. Eventually I want to get others in the community on board but I figured I would start small. Plus this was a great project for kids!

Back in February I took four women to a HIV/AIDS Training of Trainers. We have now started giving sensibilizations in the community. They set the goal of doing a sensibilization in every quartier (kinda like neighborhood) and satellite village. We have done two so far with at least a dozen more to go. Turn out was great at both with more than a 100 people at the first and about 50 at the second! Plus the audience asked a lot of great questions! I am really trying to encourage the women to work on their public speaking skills and break free from the traditional lecture-style sensibilization that is common here. I saw definite improvements in our second one and am hoping that they will continue to improve as they keep doing them. Its hard for me to stand back and let them put together a presentation. I think a big part of this is giving them an opportunity to learn how to be leaders and is not just about educating the community about HIV.

I spent the past weekend in Tenkodogo with two Japanese volunteers living and working there. Japan has a program sort of similiar to Peace Corps called JICA so it was fun to meet these women and hear about there experiences. One women is working with the local government office and the other is doing health work. Its interesting to see how our jobs are similiar and different. She is posted at the district level and in a city so works with multiple health centers compared to me in a village with one health center. It seems that their organization also has a lot more funding for projects and acitivities. This is something I am struggling with in village because everyone assumes that I have access to a big pot of money for projects but Peace Corps is really about volunteers using community resources and not providing funds. An example is with our HIV sensibilizations, the women really wanted to do some elaborate stuff and expected me to find funding. I did agree to buy condoms for demos but other than that I said we had to use what we had. They are making do and I think its a lot more sustainable. I'm sure I could come up with some great activities if I had access to funding like the Japanese volunteers do but I can understand Peace Corps' reasoning.

I have posted pictures of my puppy, a HIV sensibilization, and a few other random things. I also added captions on some that had forgotten before.