Journey is the Destination: March 2013

Recently, I have been super busy in my village with my women's club, my girls club (for girls in grade 7,8 and 9) my boys club (grades 7,8 and 9), checking in on the soya farmers, getting my rabbit program up and running, and starting the nutrition rehabilitation program. It seems as though when I have alot of things to do there is no time to even wash my clothes.

It has been nice to be busy, now that farming season is over people have a bit of free time. I also feel like the village is slowly beginning to realize what a Peace Corps Volunteer does and how to use them. Its exciting, but a bit disappointing that I have less than 6 months living with these people...which is a whole different can of worms. I am excited for the next volunteer to come, I think that the success there will begin pretty much off the bat.

With my girls and boys clubs I had them think about their future and what they wanted to be doing in 10 years, something that isn't done enough here. With that we then came up with obstacles that may get in the way of reaching their goals such as HIV, money, witch craft, drought, boyfriends/girlfriends, babies and more. From there we discuss different topics every week to help combat these barriers. It is really interesting the different topics that each group wants to talk about and the different knowledge level on these topics. HIV, the boys had a much better grasp of, but business the girls had a better grasp.

For some other things going on in the village...i think i will let the pictures do the talking.

Stickers! Who knew they could be so fun.

More and more children came for stickers

This is kapofu, its a root that can be used to wash your clothes

First you have to smash it then you swirl it around in the water.

Then you wash your clothes like normal

We had indoor residual spraying to help prevent malaria, most villagers didn't have their house sprayed but mine was..thought I could set an example

I got 4 rabbits (3 females 1 male) to try to help increase the protein intake within the community. The plan is to breed these rabbits then give a male and a female to anyone who builds their own hutch. When the villagers breed theirs taking one of the babies to give to someone who is waiting. I think that I might have a pregnant female right now....we will see at the beginning of April!

Mr. Kibese and Mr. Lupiyah checking out the rabbits

The kids like to come and watch the rabbits

I started a water fight with plastic bags...it turned into a big village event, resulting in many people soaking wet, including me!

Bamaama helping me make peanut butter for the nutrition program

While pounding the ground nuts they like to sing songs so that they can keep a steady rhythm

Lukatazho showing how wet he is and making sure I know he has water ready for me

Joseph thought that he escaped the ordeal, but as you can see we got him!

I have been working with the women's club to teach them sewing and nutrition. It is great that they call their own meetings and invite me to them. They are the most successful group that I have helped to start. They also decided to grow soya beans. I did a farm visit to their farm.

Precious 7 months pregnant and still walking an hour to the field and farming

Soya bean weeding

We have started a nutrition rehabilitation program called PS Ishiko, that runs for 12 days and uses locally available foods that the mothers bring to teach women how to better feed and care for their children. Each day the women prepare a healthy meal for their child, play games with their children and hear a health talk from my counter part.