Letter #4 (to Marty)
Thursday 6-21-01
This will be quick as I have to get to class. A woman is dropping out and going home today, and I want to take advantage of her offer to mail things in the U.S. I'm sorry she feels like she wants to leave so soon --after only two weeks-- but they say 10% of us will drop out during training, so it's expected.
We've had enough training now that I've gotten a handle on what my job will be. Yay! Cote d'Ivoire has decentralized its government services to about 100 smaller cities. I can equate them to county seats, I think. Each county seat is responsible for that city plus all villages within a 10 km radius of the city. This structure covers nearly all the villages & towns in Cote d'Ivoire (CDI). Like I said, it's an attempt to decentralize services, and it seems to be a decent structure. So I will be sent to a "county seat" to work with that town & its villages.
They (the current volunteers) say I'll spend the first 3-6 months talking to people, introducing myself and the Peace Corps, and asking people what they want/need from me. Once they figure out what I can do, and I figure out what they need, the projects start. Sounds like clean water is a biggie -- most volunteers talk about well-digging or water filter projects. Also, latrine building, education about hand washing and latrine use. (Currently, it's often preferable to just go potty out in a field or the woods.) Those are the biggies. Also, people have talked about girls' education, farming or merchants co-ops, starting small businesses, farming improvements, and a host of other interesting things. And of course, my job is not to do any of these, but rather to help teach people how to do it so they can do it next time. Examples--how to plan and budget a project, how to find experts to help, how to save money for recurring expenses, etc. I think I'll be good at that -- my greatest detractors at Owens Corning would say I never actually did anything there. I like to think of that as a skill-pulling people together, facilitating conversations, etc.
I hope you are well. Know that however hot it gets there, it's equally hot here and we don't have a/c!!!
I gotta run to get to class on time.
Love, MKate