Work that Works!

The last couple weeks have shown me that not all work I do here is in vain. It sometimes feels like that. I have been working with other volunteers the last couple of weeks on what are considered as my secondary goals. I am an ag volunteer so when I do health or business work it goes under that title. Ngoudiba is a village about 15K from me and I helped the health volunteer there paint murals on the "House of Health" there. There were three of us and it proved to be true that a picture says a thousand words.

We made murals depicting Malaria, AIDS, Pregnacy, and hand washing. While we were painting people asked a lot of questions and even stopped as driving by! After we were done we heard people talking about them and what they meant. People in my village over the next ccouple days were like I saw what you did in Ngoudiba why haven't you done that here? I will, next cold season, too hot to paint more now. After the mural madness ended I helped another couple volunteers with a training for teachers who want to have school gardens. We had 9 teachers show up. They were all teachers of the elementary level. One volunteer Susan had made manuals including a five week lesson plan. The lessons included math, nutrition, and agriculture as well as other subjects. Hopefully the teachers utilize their knowledge to create a school garden. This could not only provide a medium for valuable lessons in the school but generate a school lunch program or income for study materials through vegetable sales.

It feels good to have done work where I can see the direct benefits. Sometimes when I'm working with a farmer I don't know if he is listening or will use the technology again. Both of these activities left me felling like I had shared knowledge that could really help the development of the community.