657 Hand Washing Stations! #done

Guess who's on a natural high!! Yours truly!!

And guess who's project is a HUGE success!! Yep, you guessed it...MEEE!!!!

Mother and child washing hands with newly built tippy-tap.

Mysteriously, (and very magically, might I add) myself and my fellow villagers were able to meet our goal of building 657 hand washing stations!! And it only took two weeks! We have met our goal of increasing the number of hand washing stations in the community by 20%! Woot woot! Now before I go getting ahead of myself, the project is coming together nicely (after a whole year), however there are still some challenges that I am facing that maybe YOU can help me with.  I've spoken with my Rwandan colleagues, Peace Corps Administration, and fellow PCVs, however I am still at a loss for how to successfully tackle one BIG challenge.

You see, my project is one that deals with behavior change; getting the people in my community to improve hand washing behaviors that they learned as children and have carried into their adult lives.  Had I known behavior change would be so hard, I may have tried to tackle another issue, but anything worth anything takes a little bit of a fight right?  And when the project does succeed in all respects, I will be that much more proud of myself; not only for taking on such a challenge, but for tackling it with persistence and unmatched dedication.

And I digress.

Here is my issue.