Animations and Health Stuff

I'm definitely nervous for the next couple of days. I've really been enjoying being babysat by Peace Corps and not having to think. On the other hand, a minute or two of personal space will be nice especially in my own house and my own COOKING! I'm nervous about a lot of things but that's kind of exciting since I haven't been nervous at all the entire way. The other thing is that I'm really comfortable with my friends and I'm going to have to get used to not seeing them every day. On the other hand my language is going to vastly improve and all the ideas I've had for projects will finally be able to seem a little more real.

The schedule tomorrow for swear is in to be at the embassy at 10ish do some stuff swear to serve and protect the constitution, so help me God, then eat some American food at the Ambassador's house (his French is absolutely amazing) and then come back to the training center for a Linner (lunch/dinner) picnic and then go to Bamako for a big party that the current PCVs organized. Saturday we just kind of hang out in Bamako and buy stuff or eat good food before we head off into the brus (bush).

Sunday morning I'm leaving with the other people in my region very early to take public transport to Kayes. (Our stuff left yesterday and will be waiting for us in the Stage house in Kayes) Then I get installed in my site on the 26th which I think is Wednesday and then I'm all alone and officially a PCV. Crazy. I'll probably have internet access something like every two weeks or so and phone all the time, so feel free to text or call whenever.

Animations:

Our last week in homestay we worked on a bunch of technical stuff and I did a couple of presentations about topics that I felt pertained to my village and I worked with Nicole, the other health volunteer in my homestay village, to do baby-weighing and teach everyone how to make Ameliorated Porridge.

1. First we did the baby-weighing/porridge event. I say event because it takes a great deal of patience and a lot of help on the part of our language teacher to carry this out. Not to mention the fact that I was getting over an ear infection and feverish/light-headed throughout the whole thing. Basically, once we explained the porridge there was mass chaos. The porridge part was pretty important because it has a few more nutrients than the porridge that they normally feed their kids. Usually they eat rice or corn porridge with lots of sugar which doesn't have any protein, so we try and get them to add peanut or bean flour which is really easy to get and super high protein. They grow peanuts and beans and they all know how to make the flour. The hard part is getting them to feed it to malnurished children. Behavioral change is slow and difficult. Anyway, we cooked a little bit of the porridge and then handed out cups of the flour that we mixed. We used 4 different kinds of flour. After a woman would have her baby weighed we would give them some flour for participating/showing up.

2. The second animation I did was about kids using the nyegen, which I already told you about, but I'll add. We made posters with pictures of different cycles of how poop can get into your food. The posters were pretty funny and now looking back I should have taken pictures. Anyway, the moms seemed pretty clear on why their kids don't use the latrine, but they really don't have time to follow the kids around all day and force them to use it. They're super busy with other tasks, so I'm not sure how we can manage that one. Nicole and I also learned how totally incompetent we are once we've finished saying all the things that we know (ie. reading off our scripts). Answering questions was pretty hard so our language teacher obviously had to help, but it was a good experience to recognize how much more our language needs to improve before we'll be competent enough to do these types of thing alone. Nicole did her presentation on hand washing after using the nyegen, before cooking and before eating. The women were very smart but most of them don't wash their hands ever. My host mom washed her hands before eating with me but when she eats with everyone else they all just rinse their hands in the same bowl of water. She did a quiz and then handed out soap to people who answered questions. It was pretty cool.

3. The third animation I did wasn't really an animation. I just treated my host-mom's mosquito net and door curtain. Essentially we were supposed to teach them how to do it, but I have a hard time stopping my mom from cooking my dinner and dinner for 20 other people to do my homework. I showed my little sister how to do it and she understood it. Basically they have to buy the kit at the market, it's like $0.50 which is actually pretty affordable since they really only have to treat the nets once a year. Then they dissolve a tablet that comes in the kit in a liter of water and soak the net or curtain in it and then let it dry inside or over night.

I have a bunch more pictures but I'll have to wait to put them up here until after I get to site because these computers are too slow. I have a picture with me and my entire host-family, my two moms, my dad's two brothers and their wives and my dad's sister and ALL the kids. WHOA! When was the last time you got all your extended family together for a picture at 7 am? Crazy.

Today a lady from the embassy came to the training center to talk about VISAs and other things like that. She explained the process for a Malian to get a visa to the US and it is so hard. They don't even have the application in the local language and you have to fill it out entirely online. That alone is difficult, so if you make it that far, then maybe you really mean it. Jesus. I'm getting a million mosquito bites sitting here, so I'll leave you with that, look forward to more pictures!!