Saturday, November 26, 2011

Donate to the Headless Turkey Foundation


Hello there again!  Happy Belated Thanksgiving!  I spent the day eating a delicious turkey dinner at the missionary family’s house in Linguere, our department capital.  It almost felt like a real-live American Thanksgiving as long as we completely ignore the prep –work the day before… where we purchased a turkey from our neighbors and awkwardly attempted to slaughter, defeather, and clean the enormous bird.  The height of the fiasco occurred when one of the girls chopped off the turkey’s head and then proceeded to  have a full-blown panic attack while sprinting away with a bloody knife in her hand.  The rest of kids holding down the bird freaked out and ran off too, leaving the headless turkey running directly towards me before collapsing in a heap of Thanksgiving tragedy right at my feet.  Pretty solid Thanksgiving! 
 
Korite Celebrations WITH PINK EYE!

Alright so lots have been going on here.  As far as non-work stuff goes, I am currently applying to grad schools and all that fun stuff.   I just took my GRE in Dakar, the capital city.  I was not as terrible as I thought it would be, and it’s good for me to get back in study mode, especially since English is currently my second language and I have forgotten almost everything that I’ve ever learned in school…  


Pencils, Pens, Markers, Notebooks, Calculators, AND MORE
And now work, first of all, I want to say thanks again to everyone involved in the school supplies project at Helmwood Heights and E-town High!  I really don’t think I can explain how much these supplies meant to the teachers and the children.  The day the supplies came, we spent a morning going through all the boxes, sorting and counting everything, which they insisted upon.  I am not joking, they counted every single pen, pencil, marker... ha! 

 
Organization of School Supplies!

We  are still working getting this AIDS project off the ground.  We have a four-day training scheduled for the second week of December.  We will be training two community members in twelve villages with high AIDS prevalence rates.  Those two facilitators will then return to their villages and lead a series of AIDS talks, culminating in a AIDS testing day.  Hopefully, it will all go as planned.

I also just wrapped up a hand-washing project.  Because of our lack of running water, the bathrooms at the school are filthy, and the kids and teachers have pretty much abandoned them.  I just built a make-shift hand-washing/water supply station to set up at the school.  It will store enough water so that the children can fill up their buckets to take into the bathroom and wash their hands with afterwards. 

We just finished up a garden training for the teachers in charge of the school garden and a group of women who are working on the nearby community garden we are setting up for cold season.   


AND I believe I have previously mentioned Mbowen, a small community offset from my village by a kilometer or so.  Earlier this year, we formed a women’s group within the community, and our first project together was to establish a community garden that would be managed by the women’s group.  Thanks to funding from all of you guys, a beautiful, fruitful garden is currently thriving in Mbowen.  However, we have come across a few issues since the creation of the garden --- all dealing with lack of WATER!  Water shortage is a big problem in the area.  As the community is a kilometer from my village, Diagaly, it  is equally as far from the only deep-bore well and sole source of water in the area.  Thus, the women of Mbowen, as they are responsible for providing water for their families, are forced to take multiple trips, carrying buckets full of gallons of water on their heads from the well to their houses, a kilometer away. 

Since the establishment of the garden, the villagers of Mbowen have constantly expressed concern with the current water situation.  The increased need for water in the garden has required the women to take even more trips to fill up their buckets, resulting in the majority of these women’s days spent just collecting water.  After multiple community meetings and discussions with the women’s group, we found that the best solution to this problem is to built a water pipeline from the deep-bore well to the Mbowen community center, where they women could come to fill up their buckets.  This pipeline would save time, effort, and ultimately would improve the living situation of the entire community.


Women's Meeting
Sorry if that was a long explanation, but I wanted to give you guys a little background information before I shamelessly asked for your help.  I am raising funds to pay for 75% of the total project.  The remaining 25% will be provided by the community.  We are currently collecting money from each household.  I know money is tight for everyone right now, and this is a terrible time to ask for something like this, but I really feel that this project is something that can make a big difference without a lot of money. 
As an added bonus, all donations are tax-deductable.  AND you are donating through a secured government website.  AND every single dollar donated goes directly to this project.
Total Cost: $2112.76
Community Contribution: $724.97
Amount Still Needed: $522.76

So if you might be able to give, even the smallest amount will go a long way…

Alright, more soon!  Thank you guys for all your support!


Mudstove Attempt #2

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