Hey today

How's it going? Today, I'm going to go through the mail bag and answer some questions you guys thought about weeks ago. Hopefully, I'll be able to get to everyone's. Oh, by the way, my friends here were amazed that my friends from college sent me all this stuff. "You still keep in touch with your friends from college?" they asked amazed and slightly in awe inspite of my age. Yep, my friends in the states are cool.
Oh in case you are wondering if your little complaints are appreciated, I read Amy's letter to some friends and we were rolling at your descriptions of kiddy b-day parties. Hilarious. I don't read all mail to my friends, but some are just priceless. Little details like that are real entertainment and relaxing to be a part of.
Onward:
Okay, you all might be wondering what I'm doing in my spare time, there's not much of it, but I do read and I've begun sketching again, so some of you may get some sketches for Xmas. They are rough, but capture enough of the subject to give an impression of the person. I have a landscape in progress, but I continually find other little sketches to start and finish instead. Folks here, are hard subjects to capture, they refuse to sit still. Oh, well, I'll have to draw faster. That's been a nice re-immergence of a quite joy that I grew up with. There were a lot of negative vibes that I experienced during my military career that seemed to squash all desire to create or draw anything. I'll call that my dry period. I'm not as good as I was, but I rediscovering forgotten techniques and perspectives which for a while were missing in my drawings, which also caused me to lose my courage to draw. Sometimes, it's scary to let other people see your drawings.
Oh, in my spare time, I also tend to stare off in to space, just wool gathering or organizing my thought or reactions to things. It's rather pleasant and it takes place of TV so easily, I'm amazed how time flies when I do this. I do it a lot by the way. I guess it's one of the methods of getting used to the slow pace.

I did recieve the pictures, and they are great, and I've been giving them to respective people and they are loving them. Thanks Encore Encore.

My new location is good, there's plenty to do, but it's bad for the same reason. It's a really large village for a Volunteer of Health. Normally, a health volunteer will be in a village of about 1500 people, and have satellite villages having a total of about 5,000 people. My village is 10,000 and the surrounding satellite villages total another 10-12,000 people. That's really big. It's good because there's plenty of community groups to work with and a lot of options for projects. The bad part so far, is differentiating btwn people within the community who are genuinely wanting to improve their community and/or be a friend, and those who are plain frauds.
I'm getting used to being in village and the pace. My schedule is starting to solidify as much as it can. Besides work at the CSPS, and traveling to villages for vaccinations or sensibilizations, I walk around like a politician saying hello to EVERYONE and try to integrate. I suggest everyone should try this one day of you week. Walk around and say hello to EVERYONE, not just hi, no. You must say, "Hello, How are you, how's your family? Your health? your sleep last night? Your kids? great, hope you have good health, See you later." Yep, I honestly do that to everyone I see around village, it's a lot. Now, do that in 4 different languages. Ugh, I still can't do that, but I'm working on it.
Oh, and if you don't do all that salueing before you start a conversation of whatever subject, you're being rude. So like, for example, you go to the shoppette for stick of gum, you GOTTA salue the dude who's working the counter like that. Little things like that, every time. Try it, I think the first time you do, you'll get some people seriously thinking your a freak, but if you do it all the time, you make friends in no time. ;-)

Oh, the other thing that fills my day(everyday) and ruins my moments of peace are the kids who come by and ask for my bottle, my glasses, my chewing gum(bad mistake on my part last Ramadan), my notebooks, etc. They aren't polite and they don't say please. Curiousity seekers, I can handle. I've been stared at ever since I stepped off the plane, but kids that are rude and expect things are just a waste of time and resource. I don't play with the kids because I'm not a playtoy for them, even though they want me to be. The kids I do like are the ones who are respectful when asking for things(when they are I'll give things if I have them) and the ones who don't ask for anything at all.

Each week I typically bike about 50-60 miles a week. Depending on my cycle of schedule, maybe 70. You'd think I'd be losing wieght, but I'm not, I'm eating up whatever I burn. The good thing is, having the protein you guys send me really helps me do this. Trying to bike during training on just a carb based diet, I had no energy and I felt really fatigued after a medium ride. The added protein helps me get through the day and have energy for salueing and rebuilding my body for the next day of riding. It's amazing how much a difference it makes in my energy level. So, I"m not joking about the request for protein, not granola, protein.

I'm the only health worker from the U.S., or from any other country for that matter, in my region. They are working hard at making a self sustaining health system in this country, the problem is the infratstructure to support all the needs of the health system. Like supplies, personel, facilities, roads, education on hygiene, and cultural traditions. Alot of factors are hindering the improvement of health, I think, personally, it's cultural. Women aren't thought of as important enough, at a local level, to really include in on education of any sort. Therefore, the majority of women in the country do no speak any languag besides their own.
I'm in fact the only health volunteer in my region.

I work with a melanger of people. A good portion of my work is with the folks who work at the local clinic, nurses and mid-wives.
I work with the local schools for sensiblizations.
I work with the village agents of health to sensiblize the people of each village.
I work with the village chiefs and prefets to organize community projects(whenever that happens for health purposes)
I work with local groups to aid in their sensiblizations or help develop micro-lending systems.
And every now and then I watch a really bad kung-fu movie off a battery powered TV next to one of the boutiques. Kung-fu is huge here. HUGE.

I do have some privacy, When I really want to just be alone, this sounds bad, but I have to close my door of my house and stay inside. Most of the time this works. If I'm outdoors at all, I'm open game to anyone.

My french is improving as my English degrades. It's interesting, but encouraging. It improves in spurts and then lulls.

OH, I got two more letters today, Yippy!
But, I think this is a pretty good post for now, I might another one later on today.
Oh, one more thing, if there is something that offends you on this blog, by what I wrote, please let me know in a letter. I would really like to hear both the good and the bad. Thanks. later
L