What are they learning now?!?

So a few people asked, and I thought I’d explain what exactly we’re doing here in Camp Peace Corps again, 4 months after we left. The first three months while we were at site was basically us getting to know our village, including what they had going for them and what they were missing, and what they would like to happen (realistically speaking). The past three weeks of training have us going more in-depth into our respective sectors, and finding out more about the possible projects we can carry out in our villages. Sometimes the classes are relevant, sometimes they are not; since every village is different, my needs and expectations are different than everyone else’s. Which leads to a lot of skipping, sometimes. But it gives an opportunity to find out what we can do to solve some of the pressing issues at our sites, and more ideas of other things we can do. Because the nice (and bad) thing about Peace Corps is that things are flexible and volunteers can choose what or what not to do. So although my primary responsibility here is to improve maternal and child health, work on malaria prevention and other health education projects, if I so choose I can teach English in my school, show people how to make mud stoves or raise chickens differently, or teach the women small income-generating activities like knitting and jewelry making. There are thousands of options, and we are not required nor expected to only work in our own sectors. Which means that although I’m not going to be starting a garden anytime soon, I can work on other environmental issues in my village that need to be addressed, or water sanitation, or small business. In reality everything is connected, and if we want to see a result in one area it often means tackling another issue or two in another area. For example, I am working on reducing malaria cases in my village, which includes pushing people to sleep under their mosquito nets and taking other steps to avoid getting bitten. But unless I also work on reducing the standing water that comes from people’s nyegens and where mosquitoes breed, then people will keep getting malaria. Most of our jobs come from educating our villagers, and pushing them to try doing things differently in the hope that even small changes will make their lives healthier and wealthier. Because Peace Corps is focused on self-sustainability and capacity-building, we try not to create lots of projects that require money; rather, we try to show people that you don’t need an NGO throwing you a lot of money to create a big fancy whatever to get ahead in life. A lot of problems in village can be solved simply, if people work towards a solution. That being said, sometimes if there is a big project that requires materials and funds, then we can ask for money from Peace Corps to finance it. The catch is that at least a third of the projects’ total cost come from the community; this means they can either donate food, labor, materials or actual money. This helps us in that the community proves they are serious about the project and not expecting a free hand-out. The projects are as varied as they come, just like our other objectives; we can fund something to be built or improved, like a school or new well, or support an AIDS/HIV learning day, or create a training session where, for example, women can learn to make better shea butter (the south of Mali has LOTS of shea butter) that they can then use for themselves or sell for a better price. I do not have any projects as large as that planned as of yet, although as I get to know my village better and what their real needs are, and what can be accomplished while I’m there, I will probably start planning on doing something large and grand.