Thanks Given

I was in Ouaga this week working at MSC. I worked with Dr. Claude (my awesome boss) to present about Malaria to the first group of volunteers who came in after my group. It went really well, but I can't help but feel like my workload has been quite American lately. That is certainly not a negative comment, but it is definitely a big difference from my first year in village. The malaria work mixed with my responsibility at the trainings has been keeping me busy.

Because of my workload, I wound up staying in Ouaga for Thanksgiving which was really great. A group of us helped our Country Director cook. We made apple pies, chocolate mousse and stuffing. The whole thing felt more American than my Thanksgiving in Koudougou last year, but I missed my Koudougou Crew since they were all out in village.

We just got the word that the money is coming in for our World AIDS Day (it'll be a whole month or two in this case) project that will be reaching 70 different communities in Burkina Faso. It is the largest project that I will likely be involved with before the end of my service. I am excited to see how it turns out. We are painting murals in each community and teaching the communities about HIV and AIDS in the process. It is the first time I've been part of the leadership for a wide-spread natonal-level campaign. It's exciting, but we've already realized a few logistical changes we would make for next time. For instance, the leadership is a little too centralized. We wanted to make the project as accessible as possible because volunteers are often intimated by the grant application process.

I can't believe that it will be December any moment. I'm already planning details for January...