Thursday, September 21, 2006

End of Summer

Change and progress happen slowly here and with that in mind I am pleased to be able to write that after a short 8 2/3 months in country and 5 2/3 months at site I feel like I am finally beginning to get some work started in the community. Last week, along with my doctor friend in the village and Tor, my nearest public health volunteer, we held a week long training of trainers style health education conference. We had 11 high school students that we trained first in how to plan and present to thier peers and accurate information (which is severly lacking here) about AIDS/HIV, unwanted pregnancy, and STDs prevention. The first 'board' meeting will be at the end of the month, to establish the mission statement, and to set guidelines for the group. Followed by the first all group meeting at the beginning of october.

Next on the agenda is starting a business class and getting a library program started. But before this...my parents are comming in just over a month! Their plans put them into conakry on the 22nd of oct. and then we'll be leaving for ghana after spending a week exploring guinea. If anyone has a letter or anything that they'd like to send to me (and be assured that it'll make it) just send it to my parents house before their departure date. (if you don't know the address i can email it to you individually). I also am having them bring a walkman and would love to receive a few tapes of radio boadcasts with new music from seattle or madison.

On my way out of mamou this afternoon, so it's time to pack up here. I anticipate being in cell range until next tuesday. After that I plan to be at site for a few weeks. Sunday marks the start of ramadan, a month long daytime fast from food and water that is observed by muslims (i.e. everyone here), so I'm interested to see how society will funtion during this time. Fortunatly, I cook for myself so I will be alright food-wise :)...but it will be an impressioning experience.

Take care, until the next time,
Amy

PS If you haven't downloaded skype yet, you should look into it...its amazing!