Hello lovely people,

This past month has been INSANITY mostly due to that dreaded Closing of Service Conference. What the conference basically entails of is experts telling us how to handle job interviews, write resumes, and trying to help us figure out what we want to do with our lives. Basically we all left that conference about 50 times more stressed than when we went into it... mostly because we're terrified of the real 9-5 work world and have no idea what to do with our lives... And we're also slightly panicked about how we're going to integrate back into American society after perfecting the art of sitting and doing nothing for hours, not to mention the fact that we've all become a bit... unrefined... since being here. :) I think the only thing that saved me from a life after Burkina meltdown was a visitor from back home! After much coaxing she helped me realize that the real world wasn't that scary and that if nothing else I would get to do something wonderful - see family and friends. I also don't think she thought I had turned into a complete weirdo so I felt pretty good about that as well...

Heading home is really becoming a reality. Despite the fact that the amount of time left in my village is dwindling down, the amount of work has actually seemed to increase. Sustainability is the goal in most all projects we undertake in Peace Corps and unfortunately it is one of the hardest goals to attain. None of us want to feel like our 2 years here have amounted to nothing, we all want to be able to come back 20 years from now and see that the same projects we started are at the very least continuing and at the very best see that they've made an impact on lives, groups and communities. I'm not going to lie, the thought of all the projects falling apart once you've left - all the projects you've dedicated the past couple years of your life to and all the things that you gave up for those projects (namely Chipotle Burritos, cheese and ice cream...) is enough to keep you up at night. Fortunately I finally figured something out: the quantity of people that I train isn't nearly as important as the quality. While that might seem obvious to others, I thought that the more lives I could change, (which for the most part mean the more income I could help people earn) the better. However after a year of doing trainings and activities with large groups of people I realized that while many people talked about changing their lives and incorporating these projects, the 'best practices' trainings and ideas into their daily routine, not a lot of people actually take any actions. Basically everyone is amazing at 'talk the talk' but very few can actually 'walk the walk.' Absolutely one of the most frustrating parts of working here. Luckily there are some people who follow up their 'talking' with some 'walking' and those are the people I'm banking all of my hopes and dreams on. No pressure right...? :)

I've found that selecting leaders of the group is a lot easier during rainy season... mainly because either everyone has left my village for the faster-paced lives of the big cities or they've decided to spend every moment of their life in their fields. (I tried the second option again this year in hopes of having a pretty little plot of my own but after 30 minutes of dripping sweat and only a 2x2m weed-free area and 6 blisters to show for it, I decided that once again I'd just stick with flowers and leave the corn, millet and peanuts to the experts...). The selection process has especially been easy with the soccer team. Out of the 10 randoms and 15 regulars that came during the school year only 4 are left in village. 4. So basically we've been playing a lot of 2 on 2 lately... By some random stroke of luck though 2 of the girls that I already considered to be captains of the team stayed in village. It was these two that I sent to Coaching for Hope this year (the soccer camp that incorporates soccer and HIV/AIDS trainings) where I hoped they would learn some leadership and coaching skills. While I didn't get to do the camp with them, I was able to see that their excitement for the sport and our team as well as their overall confidence in themselves had definitely increased after their 10 days were over. These two girls are motivated, hard-working and love the sport... in a way they remind me a lot of a younger version of myself... :) I've gotten really close with these two and with a few more months of practices with them I think female soccer in our village will have a bright future.

Another exciting project I'm starting to wrap up is our trash/recycling project. Thanks to some funding I was able to collaborate with the environmental department to purchase 8 trash bins for the community. Now 8 is clearly not going to hold the trash of all 20,000 villagers but it's a start. Again, by some stroke of luck one of the guys who works at the environment is super motivated and has talked to the Mayor about paying a women's group to empty them and is looking for a spot in village to put all the trash. Our very own trash heap. I'd like to think that we're fulfilling every pig, sheep and goats dream. All that's really left with that project is making sure that before I leave they've found a practical way of emptying out the garbage and figured out where to put it all. The other half of the recycling project is making thrown-out plastic bags into women's purses/clutches - the women take discarded plastic bags lying on the ground, wash them, iron them together to make them more durable, then cut them out into different patterns and sew them into hand purses. A lot of women in village are interested in making them and a lot of Peace Corps volunteers are interested in buying them so I'm hoping that before I leave there will be a few women/groups who can make the purses well and sell them both to villagers and volunteers. (I realize that I definitely have no idea how to explain this project but I'll refer you to the pictures on the right of the women sewing the plastic together to make bags... I also do need to thank my friend for helping out with a couple training sessions, making different hand-bag models to add to the collection and putting up with 4ish straight days of sewing plastic. Now there's a true friend :)).

I'm wrapping up my work with the other 2 women's groups as well. With one of the groups we had trainings on gardening, found funding for fencing and will be installing an irrigation system. The cool thing about this project is that the higher ups are interested in turning this group's garden into an example/experimental garden for the village. That means that they'll probably always get help from the agriculture and environmental department as well as become an amazing example to other villagers who are interested in starting a garden. Group #2 has made enriched baby food and is currently selling it in pharmacies and shops around the city. The hard part about this project is that women are typically pretty shy so getting them to market and sell the product has been a bit of a challenge. Even if they don't continue to sell the baby food I hope the project will, at the very least, give them more confidence and skills when it comes to selling a product.

Well naturally since I've written out a majority of things that I have to do I'm starting to once again get a bit panicky about being able to finish it all before I leave.. keep your fingers crossed that I'm able to get it all done, and make it sustainable!!! Probably make sure both hands are crossed.... and feel free to throw in toes as well...

Cannot wait to see all of your lovely faces in just a short while!! Hope all is well back home!
Much love.