where does the time go?

so i realize that a lot of time has passed since the last post. although it hardly seems like any at all...time moves surprisingly fast despite the fact that you only have about five hours a day to actually do any work within the community. what i mean is, by the time i get up in the morning and clean, pull water, etc it is nearly 9 in the morning...and there is only about two/three hours before it is super hot outside and then there is lunch. then after lunch there is the "foftere" or rest which lasts until 4 or 5 giving me another two or three hours before dark. these are the only times people are willing to go to meetings/causeries/or do any work. so that said there is a lot of time where i don't have much to do and that has been a much bigger challenge for me- filling time.

there are a few health posts within the area i live in; one in taredji (6k south), one in mbantou (3k southeast), one in diambo soubalou (1k south and where emily lives), one in ndiawara (2k north), and one in podor (16k north). emily and i are starting to paint at each post-specifically growth charts and health murals and colleen, another volunteer who lives near us (and puts my art skills to shame) has started a huge project in podor which she has graciously allowed me to help out with. the health center there just has some major expansion and is more like a mini-hospital than clinic. so when there isn't much to do in the village we've been painting at these places.

i've also successfully grew a few (fifteen out of forty seven seeds) been trees for the village and next week i will be handing them out to a few guys who will plant them so they can grow (inshallah-note previous post)...these trees are like the super tree here. they can grow anywhere and grow fast, their beans and leaves are edible (the leaves used in my favorite dish here), the roots are natural water filters...they are great. i really really really want to be able to do a few gardens of them and spread the bean tree love throughout the village.

there's also vaccinations days at the clinics, causeries that we are sometimes able to do, routine house calls, and in between at all that we got the potato study i'm helping out with which is very interesting and i'm glad to be a part of it. it will be exciting to see how each distribution and weighing goes. i could even blog about in the project in detail...

for another day perhaps.

so yea, it's been a busy time. i've even turned a year older in the midst of it. i even got birthday haako and it was goooood. best i've had in country yet. so october just flew on by and i can't believe that november is nearly half over too...with thanksgiving right around the corner-yikes!

well, that's all for the quick update. now that we got internet at the regional house i hope to be able to post more frequently and share a few of the more exciting stories.

cheers!
jaime