Funny Valentine

Hi Everyone,

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! Time just seems to be moving faster and faster. I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day, and know that I am feelin’ the love in the time that you are taking to read this blog entry! I am sending my love to all of you, as I try to keep you in the loop about all the crazy things happening over here. I think about you guys back home all the time, and I appreciate your support so much. And also, at Valentine’s Day I always enjoy remembering ‘how deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure’ and that motivates me to try to show and remind people how much they are loved a little more or a little better. It is certainly something to keep working on all the time.

As for Founougo, things have been going well here, with some worthy challenges cropping up. There are now planning committees for the latrine project in Founougo A and Founougo B. In Founougo B I required that a woman be part of the planning committee, and that has been a real educational experience for me. When I met her and learned that she was a seamstress and spoke French, I was so excited to make the connection and even hoped we might be friends. However, by the first committee meeting I was intimidated, to say the least. She came to the meeting (arriving more promptly than most of the other committee members) with a huge platter of over-the-counter medicines balanced on her head, which she was selling. She also had a three month old baby with her, who she was either bouncing on her knee, breast feeding, or securing on her back with a large piece of fabric. After waiting a significant time for other members to arrive, she turned to me and said, “I am a housewife, I can’t be here all day.” In a culture where rest-time is valued, and it is difficult to be in a hurry, this woman is busy. Fortunately, other essential committee members arrived shortly after that, and we were able to have the meeting. That whole committee has been impressively knowledgeable.

In light of a few successful meetings, I traveled to the Peace Corps workstation in Kandi to start filling out the grant applications. It takes a lot of time, and I got some good work done. However, I can’t say that I was suffering, because we all ate very well. We discovered a waffle maker in the workstation, and someone had left chocolate-raspberry coffee that they didn’t want. With the help of fancy electrical appliances, we were able to have iced coffees and waffles with strawberry jelly; two things I didn’t think I would see in this country.  I also received some packages from home, which is always very exciting. Mail might not be at all dependable here, but because of that, whenever it does arrive, it’s like a mini Christmas.

Back at post I had another meeting with committee B which featured a retired health worker who wasn’t able to make it to the previous meetings. He really pushed to make nicer latrines, even if that meant fewer of them. There are a lot of politics to deciding what kind of latrines we will make, so there is still some potential to discuss and agree about something middle ground. However, I was disappointed that people were pushing for more expensive latrines, even if it means that fewer people can get them. It is an understandable desire, but I don’t think that the more expensive latrines would be as beneficial for the community; they would be more like a one time gift. The more I thought about it the more I realized how strongly I believe that it’s important to build something that is durable, but made from simple local material so that the project can be replicated by community members without the assistance of a ‘project’. The discussion continues, and we will see how it goes.

Those are the updates for the moment. Thanks for reading, talk to you soon.

With love,

Lauren