Latrine Sites!

Hello everyone,

We are coming to the end of my first week back in Founougo after vacation and in service training, and it has been a rollercoaster. I got a little time to unpack, re-settle in my cat Jack (he’s doing very well), and organize my house and thoughts from in service training.

Wednesday and Thursday things kicked into high gear and several latrine committee members and I visited sites for the latrine project! We confirmed there was a good spot for a latrine at 20 households, half the total for the project. Thanks to a suggestion from Josh, a volunteer who is doing a latrine project in Goumori, I took pictures of a person from each household at the location where there latrine will be. I hope and expect to be able to share some pictures with you the next time I am at a workstation. It was very tiring work, out in the sun, totaling to about 4 hours each day. I was lucky I had people with me who spoke multiple languages and did most of the talking. Besides the pesky details of writing down contact information, measuring distances from wells, and making sure the translators didn’t forget things, I apparently performed the role of ‘looking official’.

There were one or two households that were far enough away that you would want to take a moto, but I didn’t have my helmet. I told my counterpart Baron, and Ibrahim, our translating Committee Secretary, that they should go and check it out without me. Ibrahim said, “If we say it’s not a good site for a latrine, people will argue with us, but if you say it’s not a good site people will accept it, they will be content.” It’s good to know I was helpful!

Still I think my counterpart Baron was actually more helpful when it came to towing hard line. He would be the one that would notice first if a household already had a latrine. He was the one who would stick it to Ibrahim and say, “So we’ve seen houses in the nice part of Founougo B, what about in the center of town where houses are closer together and things really are dirty?” I really appreciated the insight (though there is some town politics to wade through).

I’ve also been spending some time writing up a grant for rabbit hutch construction. We will see how that goes. Talking with other volunteers at IST made me realize again how much projects can be on different scales for different communities. Working with a group leader who is illiterate and doesn’t speak much French cuts down your options for traveling for technical exchanges. Still rabbit raising seems like a good goal, so I am trying to reinvent my perception of the project, and trying to do my part to see it go through.

With the above tasks, some Bariba review, and a little bit of planning for summer camps, I have been pretty busy. That’s been really good though, because there definitely is a little bit of homesickness after having gotten to spend some good time with my family and friends. It’s really hard being away from you all. Usually unpacking my bags and finding homes for any new foods or things from home is exciting, but to my surprise, this time I just kept thinking, “but I’d rather be with the people that gave me these things, than be finding a place to put them.” God is good in that work is picking up and I can think of those people at their latrine sites and remember that I have work to do here.

All that being said, the visit to America has given me a major shot in the arm in terms of health and hygiene. Thanks to some Easter-basket soaps and enhanced heat-rash combatants my skin has never been so good in village (Thanks guys!). Timing has been pretty ideal too, because it has started to rain every few days (bringing cooler weather and easily collectible water) and mango season is finally here, so fruit is in abundance. All in all I am happy to say that village life is getting a significant boost right now.

Those are the updates for right now. Next week holds some in-country birthdays, and May Day. I hope you all are enjoying some good spring weather, while I am enjoying some occasional cooler weather!

Thanks for reading, with love,

Lauren