Jacob has been working with a new internet cafe in Soma, helping them make their business more efficient and profitable. He also has been learning new computer skills (such as reformatting and networking computers) and using them to maintenance various computers in the area.' He went down to Kombo a couple weeks ago to participate in the swearing-in of a new batch of education volunteers.
I have been continuing to work at the Public Health Office at the local major health center, helping them improve their information systems and data analysis. I also have been helping Lisa with a relatively extensive research project focused on HIV stigma.
We are still waiting to the funds for our water project to come through from Washington, but we hope to be laying pipes within a month. The community has a bank account set up ready to receive the funds and they have already started collecting money for a maintenance fund and paying the monthly bills once the taps are installed.
Last month we both went down to Kombo for "reconnect," a several-day training for our whole group where we had a chance to catch up and share our experiences. It was fun and great to see everyone.
The Muslim holiday of Ramadan was early August through early September. It wasn't overly exciting, honestly...not a whole lot to say except that during Ramadan all Muslim adults (with the exception of breastfeeding and menstruating women, sick people and travellers) fast during daylight hours, which means no food and no water, even when they're out working in the fields in the sun. We gave fasting a try, but only refrained from food, not water. A month is a long time, so we're quite happy it's over.
We came down to Kombo on Monday for several reasons: 1) The Project Proposal Committee, which we were involved in establishing and on which we are active members, is having a meeting; 2) The Gender and Development Committee, on which I am our regional representative, is having a meeting; 3) The HIV Task Force, on which I am a member, is holding a workshop and planning meetings for an upcoming HIV Education Bike Tour; 4) I am helping Lisa compile data for her HIV research project; 5) Jacob is enlisting an IT volunteer to help him write an inventory tracking program for the internet cafe he is working with (in addition to offering internet services, printing, copying, typing, and CD/DVD burning, the cafe also sells movies, mobile phones and accessories, phone credit and sim cards, flash drives, etc); and 6) We are celebrating our two year anniversary :-) Like I said, we've been keeping busy!
I hope everyone is doing well at home and enjoying the beginning of fall. We miss you all a ton, so please please drop us an email if you have a minute...we would love to hear from you!
Oh and even though I haven't been writing much lately, I haven't been slacking quite as much with taking pictures, so here are a bunch:
This is for Daniel. Speaker set-up at a local graduation. In addition to precariousness of the tower, note the proximity to the ceiling fan. A few seconds after I took this picture the fan hit the top speaker. Luckily it did not fall, but still a bit scary.
Asobe (sort of) at a dinner during reconnect.
During a recent rain shower, I got caught on the opposite side of the compound from our mat and the National Geographic magazine I was reading. Luckily the camera was on my side of the compound, so I was able to capture little Ntanding immersed in the magazine.
Once the rain slowed down a bit, she decided to go play/bathe in it.
How could you not love this girl???
Some of the public health team I work with.
Isatou with her motorbike. Lovely as always.
Chocolate cake, hot out of the bread oven...heavenly!!
Birthday girl posting with her fishcakes and chocolate cake
So I finally broke down and cut my hair. It's much cooler and easier to wash now. Huge thanks to Leah for doing an awesome job cutting it :-)
Jacob with Ntanding and Bintu at the celebration of the end of Ramadan (Korite)
Saanka and Umie on Korite
Bintu all gussied up for Korite
Hawa and Bintu. I made this black and white because it was too blasted out to see their faces any other way.
2 comments:
In the spirit of list-making...
1: Jacob, I'm impressed you're doing tech support, that's pretty awesome!
2: I wholeheartedly approve of the unwieldy tower of speakers, though they could totally fit 2 speakers wide on top of the base speaker
3: Sarah, your hair looks awesome!
4: Happy Anniversary!
Yesss...I love list-making :-) Thanks and I hope all is well in Chicago! We're going to be in internet-land for about a week, so maybe we can try to arrange a google talk date at some point to catch up?
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