wait, you forgot the tuubab?!

that was really funny. my village no longer considers me a white person/foreigner. they'll forget about me when i try to take the car sometimes, early in the morning. how can you forget the white person?! "oops, we forgot..."

anyway, short entry...

the mural is "finished" as in if i dont have to do faces, then it's done. we'll see...

i think the village likes it. the main image in the middle is of a woman bringing her baby to the health post. it's surrounded by 4 circles - one of a mother breastfeeding her baby, one of a baby being weighed, one of a baby being vaccinated, and one of a mother and a baby sleeping under a mosquito net. i think the message is getting across...

sidenote: i'm terrified of funerals. i actually havent been to one. i've only watched from afar. people act as if theyre possessed and throw themselves against walls and the ground and wail. the wailing is what gets me. it's such a scary sound...

round 2 of causeries have begun. they are really interesting. my counterpart is talking about a couple of STDs and UTIs and how to properly wash menstrual cloth (there are no disposable pads or tampons here) and the women just giggle.

USAID has board games that teach women about proper solutions for different problems.

during the causeries, there's also a debunking myths section, sort of a "lets throw out those old superstitions type thing". my counterpart tries to correct any misconceptions that have to do with reproductive health. the talks are a hoot!

yeah, that's pretty much what i occupy my time with these days - holding causeries. and finishing up the michele sylvester scholarship. im taking up a women's garden project next month and then gotta build a health hut. then i think my peace corps service would be complete. in the mean time, gotta get that med school application rolling... (yikes)

sidenote2: my friend wrote 'development accomplished' on her wall... yeah if they forget the tuubab, we've sensitized enough and done our job...

going to st. louis in a few days for the st. louis (in senegal) jazz festival. get to eat some food!!

the outside world seems so far away...