Hi all. Just wanted to let you know that I just had a nice, long conversation with Erin. She is doing great. She’s been in Abidjan (largest city) for a few days at a conference/meeting for the volunteers in her group. They spent several days at one of the beaches, which was nice and relaxing.
She’s heading back to her village tomorrow, for what she calls “deep villageoise experience.” She expects to be there until the end of October – lots of projects to do. One of her projects is building courtyard latrines – people have to dig holes, but then she works with the local mason to pour the
concrete and finish up the projects. She’s been able to get funding from UNICEF for some of the costs of materials and labor, but a lot of her work is putting together local workers and teams to carry out the work. She said that she had 55 people who want the courtyard latrines, but getting everyone to really pull it off takes some extra work.
She’s also working to dig wells in a neighboring village. Again, the prep work involved getting funding and getting people motivated. There’s a lot of “sweat equity” involved. The Ivorian government will install water pumps – but then they want to charge the villagers for the water. The villagers can’t understand why they have to pay for something that
just comes out of the ground. [editor’s note: this is sort of like Americans and their views on cheap gasoline.] As a result, the people want to dig wells, where they should continue to get the water for free.
She and her fellow volunteers have spent a lot of time talking about the events of the last few weeks. They’ve been able to watch some CNN; but I think she feels a bit distanced from the mood and uncertainty that people here are feeling.
One last comment. ERIN SAID THAT SHE WAS GOING TO HAVE THE VILLAGE "FETISHER" PUT FETISH (CURSE) ON ANYONE WHO DOESN'T WRITE. SOON.
Russ
