Overview of January

4 February 2009

Wow, January just flew by! Which is good, seeing as it’s the second coldest, and darkest month here. December is both colder and darker. Now, spring is tussling with winter over who possesses this land. It’s still very cold a night sometimes, but the sun (when it breaks through the winter storms that march along the mountains whipped by gusts of wind) is fierce to my now pale skin. Yes, that’s right, I’ve already been sun-burned. In February.

January flew by because I was either hosting someone in my site or out of site on a lot of those weekends. After Adrienne left, Natalie came to help me care for Trouble as he healed, and then Erin came up to evaluate my site for a new health volunteer. Lots of fun hosting everyone, but after all the hosting followed by traveling for meetings, marathons, and naming ceremonies, I was cashed! So, these last days of January and first days of February have included some good down time.

It looks like I’m going to get a site mate in April or May! I’m excited about that, and hoping for the best. Peace Corps really wants to send a man, but the villagers want another girl “like me.” There are pros and cons either way. It would be good to have a guy, because he could reach out to the men of the village more effectively than ever I could, especially on issues of STIs. A man would also help them to get a wider picture of what US culture looks like in a person than a woman would. A woman, though, is an easier fit into the culture here. She isn’t a threat to the woman of the village’s honor (and thus no competition to the men either). She can work with the women easily, visit homes more easily, broach difficult topics with families more easily because of that one reason. So we shall see.

My own projects go so slowly! A new horizon or two of challenges has appeared with the building of the Women’s Center. The first and most difficult is that of infighting within the association I’m trying to work with. This fighting existed long before I was here, and now… now it continues. What do they want to do with the honey? Sell it and keep the money for helping out with building the building? Eat it and enjoy it? A lot of this seems to stem from a general lack of administrative organization and good decision-making skills. Unsurprising as none of these women have much experience in this sort of organization, and compromises don’t seem to have been forth-coming. Following that are mis-understandings, and who knows? Accusations have certainly run thick from certain quarters. I still have hope though, because they have (several of them, anyway) a strong will to succeed. And I have to believe that where there is a will… we will find a way. I started teaching English in the school. I hope that out of that and Environmental Education Club will get started. Certainly the kids are enthusiastic about learning English! There’s one older boy who comes, we can call him Joe, a friend of mine and a member of my extended host family. He’s the only person of his age who comes, and also the only of my students who will bring in long lists of words to learn. His enthusiasm makes me happy, but it also makes me sad. He’s not finishing high school, I’m pretty sure because his family needs help at home. He’s a sharp cookie, too, and a full education is something he would take advantage of, I’m sure! Literacy lessons for the women have still not happened… a million small delays in finding a place to hold them… a million more in my search for a woman teacher… And in my other project, the herders are out to pasture and that makes it really, really hard to hold a meeting. So that goes uber slowly. In short, patience and stubborn persistence seem to be my two best skills right now. J I think I can thank my time on crutches for developing those traits in me… never thought that time would have a direct impact on my later life like this!

There, that’s a bit of a summary about the past few weeks. Peace to all ya’ll!