Mid-Service Reflection

Its been a while, I have spent much more time in the village than I normally do but well worth it. Everything has been going well and things seem to be picking up. I just recently started to come out of my shell. LOL.

February was pretty interesting; I took a tour of my village and visiting the outlying districts to do a malaria presentation. I went to look for mosquito nets to dip with insecticides because we all know as soon as rainy season starts, everyone will fall ill with malaria. I didn’t have the best turnout however I helped train some health agents who will be able to dip mosquito nets in their respective health posts throughout the rainy season. I really enjoyed this tour because I finally got to visit all the districts and also there are some pretty amazing views I hadn’t known about.

After I finished my tour we had a food distribution at the health center sponsored by an American NGO. I love helping out but it was just so exhausting watching the bureaucracy here and knowing not everything is being distributed fairly. We gave out corn flour, sugar, salt and oil. Like after a while I didn’t mind that people were lying about how many times they had come to collect their share however it was very hard to accept my counterpart giving out sacks to military and community officials. I had taken some of the ingredients to show my neighbors how to make a corn meal that is supposed to be really good for growing babies, whom of which are often malnourished.

Beforehand I was cooking with my host mother, now I’m cooking for her. LOL. I don’t know why I hadn’t started sooner but I guess now I feel more comfortable now that I live there. The other day I made peanut sauce and rice, all alone. My neighbors got a good kick out of watching me cook outside. (They think Americans, or well at least that I, don’t know how to cook.) So I got to start the fire myself and everything so it was pretty cool. I made some American dishes for my host family, I had made them scalloped potatoes, spaghetti, French fries, pancakes and the other day I made sugar cookies and I shaped them into little hearts. Yeah kinda lame, but they were so cute and delicious.

One of my neighbors, a young girl in elementary school comes by my house sometimes and helps me cook or she’ll make gateau with me. The other day we made dried gateau and it was so good. She is probably one of the few little girls who speak French fairly well.

I am now the proud mother of two little kittens. My neighbor gave me a kitten, and then like 3 days later one of my friends gave me a kitten as well. I liked the second one so much but now I adore them both they are so cute. I named one Poo-tay, which is sweet potatoe in Pular. The other one is named Band-terra, which is manioc in pular. Both names are a type of leaf sauce, well my two favorite sauces here. So when I tell my neighbors about my cats they get a good kick out of it and tell me, ‘no, no, that’s what they eat.’ Oh silly me.

Believe it or not, I've lived in my village for 14 months now and I know i'm going to miss it so much. I can't think about leaving my friends, my family and my work (again, but this time) for a second time. Permanately. I'd like to think I'd come back and visit or even spend a vacation here but I'm very doubtful, I'm sure I'll go back to the busy American lifestyle and eventually fall out of contact with everyone. In this case I'm really hoping that I am wrong.