Letter to Steve & Jayne 1/16/06

Dear Steve & Jayne

Hey guys! I just had a nice chat with Steve & got caught up on the festivities of the New Year. Sounded like a blast & I hope I can enjoy it with you all again soon. I wanted to thank you for calling me back. It really helps out & I really do enjoy talking when I can for more than 60 seconds. A couple of other folks offered to call too & that freed me up to call a few people I haven't talked to since I've been here & it really made a nice day of phone calls.

I spoke to Steve about how the the last ???? began a nice turn around w/ potential for getting some projects going & so, fro now, I'm excited to be doing my job. I'm in the beginnings of looking into a water pump project that will encompass all the surrounding villages including mine. It involves the villagers having to pay a little for the use of the pumps, but if possible will make this area financially independent. It sounds great, but it will be difficult to convince the villages to pay anything, when they can go to the well for free. the advantages of a water pump, besides ease of use, is that water is clean, whereas the well water here is usually contaiminated by feces & such. Wish me luck, I'll need it to really make this project go.

THe other project, is to rebuild or repair all the buildings of the clinic, they are all about 20 yrs old, which is ancient for Burkina and beginning to become unstable. Last rainy season, the buildings that housed the maternity ward fell down during a heavy rain. No one was hurt. The buildings left can't keep the rain from coming in & often the floors & equipment are soaked. Hopefully in th enext year, we can get funding & construction to either repair all the roofs & structures or completely rebuild them.

The big obstacle to get over before starting all these projects is to get the health committee, who's responsible for all of the above, fiancially stable to where they meet required initial 20% starting estimates. Right now, for either project, they are no where near where they need to be. Thus, I'm looking at other methods of raising money locally to get them stable.

I'm not much of a financial guru, but I'm learning that these folks don't even know the basics of trying to save money. Thankfully, the new Chief Nurse is taking firm handle on their spending & I can see better things ahead.

I've got other little low or no costing projects that are more community-oriented. Currently trying to do a 3 day bike-a-thon with some other volunteers in my region, focusing on AIDS sensibilization. Sensibilization is information & training classes. There's a soccer tournament here in March, I'd like to do something for that, but I'm still fishing around for ideas that cost nothing & can be prepared in 2 months. Wish me Luck! I"ll let you go, hopefully talk to you again soon. Take care.

Always,
Laura