Today is Labor day. What does that mean...instead of working we get to have parades! I am in Mbouda, where my prefecture is to see the parades today. My postmate is marching with his bank and I am just going to hang out and watch everyone else. Unlike for Women's day where I marched, I have no stress about today. It is nice to come to a city every once in a while, but I think it makes me appreciate my post more. It is so quiet at my post; I can go running without getting harassed; it is cool out and there are a lot less mosquitoes.
Lately I feel like my life has been all over and so it has been hard to post a lot. Work is coming together at the primary schools. We have been talking about clean water and the oral fecal route recently, so our next step is to try and make tippy taps at the school latrines so that everyone can wash their hands with soap after going to the bathroom. I am trying to figure out a good model for the tippy taps right now with the available resources.
I am also working with a few womens groups on making soap. it is surprisingly easier than I thought to make soap. Three ingredients: caustic soda, water, and oil. I think the problem is that the soap does not smell well, but the women do not seem to think it is a problem; generally soap here is unscented (or rather smells like palm oil).
My health committee delegates have decided that water is the big problem. So we are going to work on an action plan for how to address the problem from the perspective of decreasing the water-borne diseases. I am happy that everyone is showing up for the meetings and excited to do work. Hopefully we can come up with some inexpensive ways to fix things and then eventually work up to the spending money for a project. My biggest fear is that we could get money for a project and then they would think that money just comes out of nowhere.
Well I am going to watch the parades now, shout out to my sister...Happy Birthday Mary, I love you and I miss you.
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