Peace Corps moments

The last month was full of “peace corps moments”. Peace Corps moments are little successes, moments of pure joy and fulfillment in the realization that your efforts are making way. The first one was when my little host sister came to me for soap. This sounds silly and insignificant, but she likes to show me what she's learned about hygiene in the process. Since she rough houses all the time and always manages to get cuts and scrapes from playing in the dirt, she’s been coming to me asking for moringa (local medicinal plant) and for my soap so she can wash her scrapes. There's all kinds of funky ways villagers treat wounds, and most all of them are incredibly unsanitary and illogical. Glad to be making progress in that department.

The next moment came when I went around to gather manure and sand for my tree nursery. The children in my village were curious about what I was doing and began taking over the project. I taught them all how to make a nursery and they knocked out 60 sacks in about 20 minutes. I’ve never seen them so excited about something.

Every day they ask me how the trees are doing and offer to water the nursery. I’ll be planting some at the school for the girl’s camp in January and along the main road for shade.

The other Peace Corps moments have been with the local middle age school girls. I painted a chalkboard in my room and almost everyday the girls in and around my compound ask me for a little English tutor session.

Some of the girls sitting on my bedroom floor studying English

Also, the 100 permission slip/invitation forms for the girl’s camp were snatched up really quickly which indicates to me that they seem pretty excited about it. I'm expecting a good turnout. The after school girls club is coming along as well. One of the female teachers, Madame Mallu, is going to help me run the club and hopefully continue running it after I leave. The first meeting is next week! I'll let you know how it goes :)