**I wrote this June 3rd, 2013**
Hello Everyone!
This week I got to really start working on a solar light
project. Planning calls and meetings have been happening for months between my
Dad and Unite to Light in America, and Baron-my-Counterpart, and a bike-selling
businessman here in Founougo. This week we got to start selling the first 30
lights, and the results have been very exciting. People have been coming to my
house and stopping me on the road asking if I was the one selling the lights,
and where they could get them. It’s exciting that there is so much interest and
that these first things seem to be settling into place. Banni, the bike seller
has proven himself to be really willing to work and generally be open and
available, which makes a big difference when I think about the future of this
project. I am looking forward to telling all of you how well the lights sell,
and what our next steps will be.
To assist the solar-light project, Baron and I went around
to 26 households and surveyed them about their current lighting habits. On a
personal level, it was heartening to see how much more confident and eloquent,
and how much better of a team I felt that Baron and I are now, than when I did
a mudstove survey back in October. I’m growing guys! Haha. The survey was also
pretty helpful.
This week I also got to visit the home of my scholarship
girl Adiza. I was relieved to get to find her house before the school year ends
because she doesn’t have a cellphone and no one has a house phone, so getting
in touch with her would be very tricky otherwise. I was able to give her a
French teen wellness magazine, and she was excited about that.
In other news, I have been persevering some digestion
related illness that has kind of put me in low gear. Nothing that forces me to
spend the day in the house (or the latrine) but enough that my energy is a
little low. There’s always something!
In other challenges to patience and fortitude, the kids who
live close to me accidentally deleted all the photos I had on my camera. I knew
it was an accident, and that they couldn’t have read the English on my camera,
but I still was a little angry about it. The kids were very quiet and polite
when they realized what had happened, and I was pretty quickly able to move
past it. My Mom often quptes my paternal grandmother saying, “the only things
in this house that aren’t replacable are the people.” Sharing my life and my
stuff with new people has run the risk that something would get broken, and it
was honestly good to remember that lesson and move on.
Well, I am excited to see what happens moving forward with
these projects. In general it seems like things are clicking together more and
more. I hope you are all doing well back in the States. I’m so proud of those
Bruins. I’m glad to hear they are doing well. Maybe someday I will get to catch
those Bruins/Penguins games, I’m sure they are something to see.
As always, thanks for reading.
With love,
Lauren
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