Hello All! We are currently in Mamou for our In-Service Training. We will be here for two weeks practicing local language and going into more depth on technical skills. We will have access to a computer for three weeks because we are going to Conakry for a week afterwards, so send us emails! Below is a compilation of what we have been doing lately in our village, best told through pictures...
A community meeting held on a Sunday, to determine the needs of the village. We waited 4 hours for the meeting to start because nobody arrived on time.
After the meeting there is always good food. Chris-Heijn eating communal style with the village leaders.
The staff of the health center. I don't know the woman on the far left, the very pregnant woman is the doctor's wife, next person don't know either, then a matron, me, the head nurse who I always work with and then another matron. The head nurse treats all the patients, the matrons clean and help administer vaccinations and help with births.
The pump for water is a long walk down a hill from the health center, so they are always short on water. Sometimes they wait a whole day after a birth to clean the birthing room, so ChrisHeijn had an idea to store bidons full of water. We convinced the CRD to buy 10 bidons and give a little money for kids to carry them up once a week, so now the health center has a weeks storage of water and can clean each day.
The start of the World Map Project at the school.
Finally starting to paint after drawing the grid and outlines.
Painting.
Nearly finished, we still need to write in a few more countries and oceans when we return.
My 9th grade class on Earth Day.
Earth day I did a community trash clean up. I thought it would just be a small project with the middle school students walking from the school to the marche picking up trash. However, after I did my presentation at the middle school about why it is bad to throw trash on the ground we started walking down the big hill toward the market picking up trash. On our way down I saw in the distance the entire primary school, and lots of village people coming our way to join us. It turned out to be a huge event with everyone in the village helping pick up trash.
One of the many trash piles we burned that day(unfortunately burning is the only way to dispose of trash at the moment).
This is the type of trash can we designed out of empty rice sacks to put around the village. Sustainability!
Teaching the neighbor how to make a mud stove. Mud stoves save wood by trapping the heat and decrease the need to chop down trees, saving the forests. Deforestation/Desertification is a huge problem in our region. It is also then less work for people because they don't have to find as much wood.
The cutest baby goat ever! Look at his coloration, I really wanted him, but he would eat my garden.
For those of you who remember, it's Marley! This is a veiled chameleon, the same type I had as a pet in college. They have started coming to our well for water because it is the end of the dry season and there is no water anywhere else. The locals are terrified of them. They thought we were going to die when we picked it up.
The newest delicacy at our market, fried bugs.
Every market day they kill a cow and sell the meat. We bought a kilo. Check out the tail and hooves, they sell it all and eat it all. The head is sold separately and is quite the delicacy.
Just before the rainy season the villagers reroof their huts. We were invited to help because it is quite the social event. Everyone helps and then eats afterwards.
The roof nearly finished.
This is where we receive your phone calls. For some reason this is the exact spot of reception, if I move 10 feet to the left, no more.
A community meeting held on a Sunday, to determine the needs of the village. We waited 4 hours for the meeting to start because nobody arrived on time.
After the meeting there is always good food. Chris-Heijn eating communal style with the village leaders.
The staff of the health center. I don't know the woman on the far left, the very pregnant woman is the doctor's wife, next person don't know either, then a matron, me, the head nurse who I always work with and then another matron. The head nurse treats all the patients, the matrons clean and help administer vaccinations and help with births.
The pump for water is a long walk down a hill from the health center, so they are always short on water. Sometimes they wait a whole day after a birth to clean the birthing room, so ChrisHeijn had an idea to store bidons full of water. We convinced the CRD to buy 10 bidons and give a little money for kids to carry them up once a week, so now the health center has a weeks storage of water and can clean each day.
The start of the World Map Project at the school.
Finally starting to paint after drawing the grid and outlines.
Painting.
Nearly finished, we still need to write in a few more countries and oceans when we return.
My 9th grade class on Earth Day.
Earth day I did a community trash clean up. I thought it would just be a small project with the middle school students walking from the school to the marche picking up trash. However, after I did my presentation at the middle school about why it is bad to throw trash on the ground we started walking down the big hill toward the market picking up trash. On our way down I saw in the distance the entire primary school, and lots of village people coming our way to join us. It turned out to be a huge event with everyone in the village helping pick up trash. 
One of the many trash piles we burned that day(unfortunately burning is the only way to dispose of trash at the moment).
This is the type of trash can we designed out of empty rice sacks to put around the village. Sustainability!
Teaching the neighbor how to make a mud stove. Mud stoves save wood by trapping the heat and decrease the need to chop down trees, saving the forests. Deforestation/Desertification is a huge problem in our region. It is also then less work for people because they don't have to find as much wood.
The cutest baby goat ever! Look at his coloration, I really wanted him, but he would eat my garden.
For those of you who remember, it's Marley! This is a veiled chameleon, the same type I had as a pet in college. They have started coming to our well for water because it is the end of the dry season and there is no water anywhere else. The locals are terrified of them. They thought we were going to die when we picked it up.
The newest delicacy at our market, fried bugs.
Every market day they kill a cow and sell the meat. We bought a kilo. Check out the tail and hooves, they sell it all and eat it all. The head is sold separately and is quite the delicacy.
Just before the rainy season the villagers reroof their huts. We were invited to help because it is quite the social event. Everyone helps and then eats afterwards.
The roof nearly finished.
This is where we receive your phone calls. For some reason this is the exact spot of reception, if I move 10 feet to the left, no more.
