Hello to all those who are fascinated to read any letter written by Kate from Taabo Africa. I feel I owe it to you to send you a copy of a letter she wrote to Marilyn and me. Her time is so valuable that everyone should read the fruit of her effort. This arrived on May 15, 2002. Written on 4-23-02, mailed 5-8-02.
Transcribed from a hand written letter to e-mail by Tom Schellhase.
Hello:
I have been healthy (you wrote about some winter colds & even pneumonia for Karen - I'm sure all is better now that warmer weather is here). I really think the secret to volunteer health is being diligent with water & food. We filter & then bleach our water (3 drops per liter), and soak fruits & veggies in bleach and water for at least 30 minutes. This isn't hard if you cook for yourself. The problem is when others bring you food. Lots of volunteers eat one meal a day with neighbors, especially if they live in a small village where cooking is done over an open fire. Since I am in a bigger town & I purchased a gas stove, I cook nearly everything myself. It's definitely working well for me! I hear lots of other volunteers talking about worms & intestinal viruses.
We are in mango season right now - look like in a week or so I'll have more mangoes than I care to eat! I have two large mango trees in my backyard, each full of mangoes. In several places the branches are so heavy with fruit that they touch the ground! My neighbor girl hunts the ones that look ripe, then climbs the tree & knocks them down with a long bamboo pole. Her little brother scrambles to pick them up for me. I sure do enjoy eating the "organic produce" grown right in my backyard! I also have a lime tree which produces tiny limes - smaller than golf balls. Sometimes I squeeze them for cooking or iced tea..
I have been getting out each day and walking or jogging. I've enjoyed the extra energy and the quiet time with nature. I have been most interested in the storm patterns here. It will cloud up and get dark: the sky will rumble; and then perhaps 10 tiny drops will fall! I mean, by the looks of it, the sky is really going to open up, then - nothing. That happens about every other day now. Sometimes we even get the smell of rain and lots of wind, but no storm! My neighbors tell me by next month it will rain several times a week, but for now, it's just pretending or practicing.
On my walks I see lots of butterflies and small birds, plus plenty of lizards and insects. There are surprisingly few flowers here- mostly just green grasses, bushes, and trees. I love to spot a little sprig of flowers trying to add some color all this green.
Your letter included an article on AIDS and medicine in South Africa. Their current president is finally caving in to pressure to make AIDS medicines more available in there health care system. Eastern South Africa has an HIV infection rate around 40%, if you can imagine! And their president continues to say it's not transmitted through fluids, but due to sorcery or other sources. It's really crazy. Imagine the drain on not only the health care system, but on all of society to have 40% of its members sick. It's staggering. And then to have their president fighting against drugs that look promising! The BBC radio reports I listen to often compare South Africa's backward approach to Zimbabwe's leading edge approach. In Zimbabwe, people are living longer (and more healthily), and infections rates are starting to fall. Although, having said all that, I am a capitalist at heart, and I'm not sure how I feel about forcing pharmaceutical companies to give away drugs - even life saving drugs. If the drug companies are not allowed to profit, will they want to fund research? It's a hard question.
As for my work, I just started a big latrine project and a big pump repair project. There are five villages in the "commune" of Taabo. I offered to help build 15 latrines in each village. Actually, the design I chose is a latrine and shower combination. (Follows is a brief diagram of the design.) The shower room is just a cement floor - same as the latrine but with no hole. The walls will be mud brick with cement over them. The design is very economical because of the shared wall, the wrap-around entrance (no need to build doors), and the open air top. Each family will put up 35% of the cost and I will write a grant for the other 65%. Each latrine ends up costing about $100. It's a good project - the families are required to attend a class on hand-washing, the oral-fecal disease cycle, latrine maintenance, and other water-related health issues. Plus, the way I structured the project, the families will dig their own latrine hole (3 m deep) and water drainage pit (1 m deep). By making them do the up-front work, I will know they are serious about participating.
The pump project is much more difficult. I think I wrote about the problems on my website. I've requested that each village pump committee add two women, and make one of the women the committee treasurer. The World Bank says involving women ups the chances that money won't come up "missing." Women know intimately what clean water does for their children's health. I hope that adding women to the committees will get them one step closer to safekeeping the money for pump repairs. I have offered to look for funding to repair up to 2 village pumps in each village, but only after the committee is stable. Since the price tag is about $2000 to repair a broken pump, I don't want this to be a short term solution. The committees collect money for each container of water sold, and should be able to more than pay for repairs and maintenance out of that income - if no one "loses" the money. Unfortunately, that's a big if.
While I wait for my funding to come through on those projects, I'm going to assemble a library committee and start moving forward with that idea. It will give me something fun to work on besides latrines! The project I worked most of January on - digging ditches to help move sewage runoff underground - is being taken over by the mayor's office! They decided on a different approach, one that is more costly and more time consuming, but also longer-lasting. I'm thrilled that they are doing anything to fix the conditions in that neighborhood. And they are paying for it out of city funds. General consensus seems to be that my active work of the project "shamed" the mayor into not ignoring the problem any longer. Hey - if that's all it takes, I'm happy to spend a month planning a project that is no longer necessary! No problem!
I have lots of other projects rattling around in my head, but the latrines, pumps, and library are the bulk of it. I am quite pleased with myself that I've been writing so many project notices in French. It is really difficult to make myself try to write in French- I'm easily frustrated with it. But the rewards! I think I have learned more French grammar and vocabulary this month than I have since I left training last August. It's funny how few words you use in everyday conversation.
You asked about whether one of the new volunteers would be placed with me here in Taabo. Normally, the Peace Corps in Cote d'Ivoire doesn't partner people up like that unless it's a married couple. We have 5 or 6 married couples among our 125 volunteers here. There are certainly enough good projects to keep two of us busy in Taabo! I'm just fine being alone here, though. I think it makes me get out more and speak more French. My nearest Peace Corps neighbors - 50 km away - just finished their service and went home, so now I'm really all alone in this area! Fortunately, I feel safe and have friends here.
What a treat it was to get to work with the new volunteers! Their fresh ideas and energy were wonderful! The next group arrives June 12. It will include our first batch of official business volunteers (even though they've gotten a few people like me with business backgrounds in through other programs). I've helped plan the training sessions for the "Small enterprise Development" volunteers and have signed up to lead two weeks of sessions - a week in July on feasibility studies, and a week in August on project planning. I am again looking forward to meeting and working with new volunteers!
The mother of a young (23 years old) volunteer in this last group happened upon my website. They live in Seattle. She has been so complimentary about the info on the site - said it helped her feel better about what her daughter was in for! She has sent me 2 letters and 2 packages full of treats! What a nice family they seem to be. You never know how you will touch someone, do you?
Well, the sun is lowering a bit which must mean it's time for my jog. I try to go a little further each day. Hard to tell exactly, but I think I'm going about 3 miles now, walking 1/2 and jogging 1/2. Guess which one I do on the uphill parts!! Peace and blessings to all of you.
Love,
Kate