Global Handwashing Day

If we're friends on Facebook, you probably know by now how great the Global Handwashing Day festivities went in my community.  After months and months of stressful planning and not so promising preparations, we did it!!  The community and kids had a blast and we were even on the radio.  Woohoo!  I guess what they say is true...hard work really does pay off!

Village children dancing during GHD celebration 2013.

The day was complete with dancers who composed and sang a song about hand washing, which they danced to tirelessly until members of the audience got up to join them in all the fun.  Next up was a drama performed by the secondary  school GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Club, where they acted out scenes of a family with very poor hand hygiene, a child dying from the effects of her family's unhygienic practices, and a hygiene class where families were taught various ways in which the spread of hand hygiene related illnesses and child deaths can be prevented.

Of course the day wouldn't have been complete without Keza (me) making a speech in the local language, which always turns out to be

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. 

International Malaria Day

Malaria day, which didn't go as planned, but turned out to be a HUGE success was a blast!  One of my fellow PCVs traveled to my village to help me host a day filled with activities at the village primary school and to host a Malaria Awareness parade from the school to the village market.  We played a few Q&A games with the kids on the facts of malaria (transmission, signs and symptoms, treatment, prevention, etc); held an art contest where the children were provided with various supplies and were asked to create a positive message about malaria; and taught the children a song (in Kinyarwanda) about the prevention of malaria that would be chanted during the parade.  We also had the children make a pledge to sleep under their mosquito nets and encourage those around them to do the same.  After repeating a short phrase (the pledge), the children signed their names on a small piece of African cloth and then tied each of their cloths together to create a long chain, symbolizing their unity in the fight against malaria.  Just before we left the school to begin our parade, myself, my colleague, and my counterpart surprised the winners of the various malaria activities with prizes!!  Brand new notebooks, flashy pencils, candy, free mosquito nets; and the kids loved them ALL!  I think the prizes may have been my favorite part of the day.  The march was tons of fun, but to see the kids' faces when that something new was placed into their hands was priceless.  At one point, I just watched and thought to myself, I heart my job.  It's frustrating, and stressful, and progress is slow, but those smiles make it all worth it.  In that one instant where the children flashed their pearly whites, all of the stresses disappeared and I forgot how hard it was to make the event happen.  All that existed in that moment was me, the kids, and their smiles--and then I smiled.

Next up was the parade, which almost didn't happen, but

Work and Projects

This post is long over-due, I know, but here is what I do at my health center (or should I say what I'm trying to do).  Things are moving, but I must admit, the progress is painfully slow.  I have officially been here one full year and my primary project has yet to get off of the ground.  In case you're wondering, no I'm not sitting around on my derriere all day; it has just been tough getting the people in my community to work without receiving money for what should be community service.  I am often awe-struck at how money hungry the people around me are, but in all fairness, I will say that they are no more (or less) money hungry than Americans.  Somehow I thought things here would be different, but nope.  People are people and people like money.  And money (or lack thereof) is making my job a living hell right about now.  Maybe I'm being a little extreme because I'm so darned frustrated...then again, maybe not...

I digress.

My day to day work consists of

Preggers

It just so happens that a little while back (several months ago) I left my village for approximately one week and came back to a very pleasant (but questionable) surprise.  One of my coworkers was preggers...VERY preggers...like 6 months preggers! lol  (Unless she managed to squeeze 6 months of pregnancy into just one short week, I definitely need to be more observant...btw she's not someone who can hide a pregnancy, she's about a size 2 without the slightest bit of meat on her bones).  Anywho, this is my same coworker who just had a wedding two months prior o.O

*SN: I'm not judging.  It's just that based on Rwadan culture, pregnancy (even sex) before marriage is frowned upon...or so I thought (apparently I was wrong).

At any rate, shocked at her "unorthodox" pregnancy, I opted to ask one of my coworkers the obvious, "Is she pregnant?"  My coworker looked at me and said with a mischievous smile, "I will tell you in a moment when everyone is gone [from the office]."  When it was just the two of us and the conversation began, I  just about fell on the floor laughing at his many responses.  See the entire conversation below: