I finally got to go to my site! I have to villages that are very close together with a total of around 400 people, which is a small to medium sized area. I met my family and went house to house greeting the entire community. Everyone was really nice and welcoming and I'm looking forward to living there. I have my own hut and tiny backyard that contains my latrine and shower area, with a little room for some fruit trees or other plants. I technically do not have a mother or father figure, since the parents of the compound died last year, but I have three brothers that are all under 35 and their wives and children. One of their wives is around my age, and she has 4 children (including a new baby!) and the other is 18 with a one year old son. They're really excited they get to have me which makes me excited!
Also, just so everyone knows, I can get a KITTEN when I move in. Name suggestions can be given via email.
The village is in the process of building a health hut, which is exactly what is sounds like. They are all around rural Senegal, and are run on a volunteer basis. There is one person who is trained to be in charge of running it, called a relay. Here people can have access to basic medication, including instant testing for malaria which is very important in the rainy season. They also have basic first aid and medication available.
The next step up the health hierarchy is the post de sante, which is located 5k farther into the bush on a sandy road. I had a tough time biking in the sand. It's hard. I fell.... twice. But the post de sante was nice and I was able to (kind of) speak with the ICP, who is in charge of running the facility. Unlike the relay, ICPs have to graduate from high school and receive further training afterwards. My particular ICP did not speak Pulaar, so we had to have a translator. So the ICP was speaking in Wolof to her assistant, who then spoke Pulaar to the girl I'm replacing, who then spoke English to me, while the whole time I'm thinking they're speaking in French. In my defense the Wolof was saturated with French phrases.
We also stopped by the school, and I think that the middle school especially will be a good place for me to have projects. They also have a women's garden and an NGO called Totsan is in the village educating women on how the body works and what it needs to stay healthy. They are also making an effort to teach them how to read, which was really great to see. They handed out children's books written in Pulaar and a couple women read them in class. Every household got one copy and they were excited. The great thing, though, was that they kept at it! When we were greeting everyone there were a couple women still trying to read the book and we could tell they had already improved.
I'm also very close to Kolda, which is the capital of the region Kolda. It's a 5k bike ride which I thought was pretty easy. We have a regional house there were we can go if we're feeling culturally tired or need a break. There are no weekends here, or ever really a vacation since we always have to try and represent America in the best light, but the regional house is a sort of haven where we can rest.
So it was a great trip and it gave me more of an idea of what I'm actually going to be doing. I felt like when I left and people were asking me what I was going to be doing I made up answers or just flat out said I didn't know. But now I have more concrete ideas, and after PST I can ask my community directly what they think they need help with.
So that's my life right now! Things are going great and we're halfway done with PST!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYA!
EN BURINIHAN AKA BYE
No comments:
Post a Comment