Happy New Year!

Ringing in 2012 was fantastic. I came back into the regional house to spend one more holiday with my volunteer family. We shot off pathetic fireworks from the rooftops, linked arm and arm and sang Auld Lang Syne after counting down to 2012. We even slowly lowered my giant glowing ball lamp that my friend Paul sent me from Thailand. As always, we do what we can here with respect to American traditions.

Back in my village, I've been talking to people about installing two water pumps, one for the health post and one for the new primary school. Hopefully that will happen soon. One thing I've learned while being here is patience. There's an island style work ethic here and sometimes its hard to get used to. Locals don't seem to be in a rush to do pretty much anything. Therefore, projects take a lot longer than they should. Good thing I have two years to do them! I've been continuing to promote Moringa, planting two moringa intensive beds at the health post and offering to plant some personal beds in some of my favorite compounds. I'm trying to convince the health post to make moringa powder from the plants and then sell it to patients and children who are malnourished. Baby Koumba loves moringa!

 Happy to update you all on my thriving flamboyant trees, soon enough they'll be ready to outplant at the schools and along the road for shade.

The mango tree in my backyard is beautiful as ever, sprouting bundles of pink flowers where juicy mangos will arrive in no time.

I went a little crazy with the muraling and painted one more at the health post about the importance of using a bed net to avoid malaria. Along side the bed net picture, I painted the recipe for homemade mosquito repellant. 

My next murals will be chronological pictures of someone using their douche then washing their hands then a recipe on how to make ORS, a rehydration formula for people with diarrhea. Locals are extremely receptive to bright fun pictures. So far it seems to be the fastest most effective way to educate them and get them talking about common problems and solutions.

After leaving the hospital and finishing my last mural, I stumbled upon a huge gathering of people along the roadside and a group of USaid workers setting up for a movie screening. Turned out they were doing a tourney on violence against women awareness. They showed a documentary of Senegalese women attesting to their experiences followed by a Q&A with the crowd. It was the first time I saw my villagers get really heated about an issue as well as the first time I heard women speaking up at a meeting. I cannot explain how powerful this night was.

This past week I attended my first annual Gender and Development conference in Thies. One of the most powerful sessions was when the NGO Tostan presented their projects about gential cutting. This organization is incredible and their tactic for working with entire communities about this issue proves a 95% success rate. By the time they leave the village after 3 years, they get the community to sign a contract promisig to end the practice of genital cutting while raising awareness on human's rights and the ways they've been violated.

It was so cool to hear about all the awesome things going on all around West Africa when it comes to gender equality. I was so inspired! Afterward was our All Volunteer conference where I learned about medicinal plants and how to incorporate all natural medicine alternatives when they don't have money for pills and sythetics. These are plants that have been working for thousands of years to cure people of simple sicknesses and I think its a really sustainable way to help.
I went to another malaria session where I received a packet of flashcards used to teach locals about how to use their bed net and prevent malaria. I'll be going around with one of the health post workers quizzing compounds on their knowledge of malaria, then a month later, I'll be going around again to see if they learned anything or if the information stuck and what kind of answers had changed. This is the first experimental thing they're doing for malaria education and prevention at a local level, so we'll see how effective it is.

Coming up this week, an amazing woman named Awa who works for Peace Corps is coming to my village to talk to the boys, girls, and their parents about teen pregnacy, early marriage, and the importance of staying in school. Hopefully this talk will go well and stimulate some progressive discussion within the households. The whole purpose is to empower young girls by setting the record straight first with the male population.