Saturday 13 September 2008

My new home

So it has been about 3 weeks since I have been on my own. I have a very interesting post to say the least. Especially now since it is Ramadan, 3/4 of the community is fasting throughout the day which makes me look even more like an outsider when I sit down at an empty restaurant during the day. Of all things; lack of food has been my biggest obstacle. It has been difficult especially in regards to finding cheap sources of protein. During training my host family would prepare soy based tofu that was an excellent and delicious source of protein. At my post, however, I simply cannot find it anywhere. The reason is because there is an abundance of beef and chicken in the north that satisfies the needs of the community. The problem for me is that in order to buy a chicken I need to use a half of a days pay, which I am simply not going to do. Beef on the other hand is adequate sometimes, but you never know which part of the cow you are getting. Kind of like a mild episode of fear factor without Joe Rogan telling you what you are eating. So one of my future projects will be to increase the amount of soy in the community for it is not only inexpensive; but also a complete protein that can be utilized to promote growth and development with children. Speaking of work right now I am helping the local hospital with their weekly baby weighing sessions. The goal is to identify babies who are underweight and provide the mothers with nutrition counseling. Because of language restrictions this can be a frustrating process but the Togolese who work at the hospital are very nice and help me out a lot. Once the dry season comes which should be soon I will be working with my counterpart in the community on a village saving and loans project in a small village outside of town. Ill have more information and details later on when we are going to implement it. Other projects that I will be working on eventually will include health and english clubs at the local primary school, HIV sensibilisations with at risk groups, and a garbage collection project and or sanitation improvements to the community. Basically I have a lot of brainstorming to do and hopefully I can implement a sustainable project for the community in the near future.

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