finding a routine

29 March 2009
It seems I have been a bit neglectful eh? I finally found some sort of routine, but it didn’t seem to include internet. I guess I can try to give an update on life au village.

One might think that 3 weeks of being busy would be difficult to write about in one post, but one would be wrong. Mondays I teach English in the primary school in Moudawa. The days vary between a lot of fun and extremely frustrating. Tuesday mornings, I teach in Gazad and the difference between the two schools is hard to believe. I can’t explain why the two schools are so different because I might get in trouble. Ask me in an e-mail and I will be glad to vent about it. Wednesday mornings I go to the health center while pregnant women and women with newborns come in for shots. I don’t really know anything about it, but I sometimes give animations on HIV/AIDS, and will eventually do some on plants that give needed nutrition to babies and moms. Wednesday afternoons and Thursday mornings, I have French tutoring. Some Saturdays I go to the market in Salak for vegetables or whatever else I need. Sundays is church and also when my meetings are held. Right now I am meeting with 4 groups, the men and women separately in both Moudawa and Gazad. They are still going pretty well, although I am trying to steer them away from big projects into things they are better able to do on their own, with their own resources. All that free time between those things (and there’s quite a bit) is spent reading, playing with kids, working on my garden, or laughing with Lowal (Claudine).

This past week has been a bit different; there has been a meeting all week in Maroua for my training group. The first few days were with our counterparts and we talked about what everyone had been doing at post, project planning, and how to incorporate things like raising awareness for HIV/AIDS, women and youth empowerment, and community unity in to the work. I think my counterparts really enjoyed it, and just spending a little bit more time with him than usual was probably a good thing as well. The counterparts all left on Wednesday and from there we talked about how to do our trimester reports, best practices, and med and security sessions. On Thursday, the agro kids went on a field trip to see a bee farm at lake Maga. We also met with a guy who buys and ships gum Arabic, which is a good contact to have so close to my village. The best part was getting to hang out with everyone again, not to mention air-conditioning, hot showers, and really great food.

Its starting to get hot. Yesterday I was sitting on the porch at the Peace Corps house in Maroua, thinking how pleasant it was. There is a thermostat out there and someone read it and said it was 106 degrees. How quickly we adjust! I guess most of you know by now that I am an aunt! Klaire Elizabeth was born on March 23rd, which was in the first minutes of the 24th for me. So I decided that her and I will always celebrate her birthday a day later. I can’t believe my brother is a dad. I don’t want to grow up, but everyone else is so it makes me look bad if I don’t. Also, thanks for all the messages on Facebook for my birthday. You all are great. I celebrated the next day with a trip to Waza. We saw antelope, tons of beautiful birds, ostriches, wild dogs, gazelle, and giraffes. The coolest part was when we got out of the car and snuck up on a group of giraffes. They are so bizarre. They look so awkward, but they move with such grace. It’s a strange thing to watch. It was a good trip, but I wish I could have seen elephants or lions. But maybe I can go again and get lucky. I better go, I still have to go to the internet café and post this and then get back to the village by 15h, or 3. Have a great week and I will try to post a little bit more often. Love you guys!