ooOOooooOOO My Life in Photos! ooOOOOooooOoOooOo

Making Lasagna
 @ a Wedding in Diebougou
Getting Henna done.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST….

JAZZERCISE!!!!

oh… I’M AN AUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to the world Bethany!

Mail Received:
Kirstin
Heather

5 month mark

I am officially more than half way through my 3rd year. I don’t really have much to update. Just the same usual things. I had the Director of Peace Corps Response come and visit with me in my village. I had Peace Corps do a tour of my village, meet my association, and then we went to a CREN(local malnutrition hospital) where I did a demonstration on Neem Cream. Neem is a tree that has a multiple uses. It’s a natural insecticide, reproduces like crazy, and it very durable. People can use the bark to brush their teeth, or mix leaves with water to make a natural insecticide spray, or pound a lot of leaves to get oil, to add to soap.

Volunteers use this for a variety of projects. I love to use it to make a mosquito repellent. It’s a cheap way for women to protect themselves from mosquito’s. It’s rainy season which means it’s also malaria season!!!(I will try to upload pics next time I make this with my women)

To make this awesome cream you need a bar of soap, some Shea butter, and a huge bowl of Neem leaves. To start it cots 325 cfa which is about .70USD. Some women sell it and can make over 3 mille or 6.5USD. So lately I have been teaching women at this CREN to make it. I have gone twice to teach the nurse’s and some women. The CREN receives private funding, so they are really motivated to continue doing this on their own. I don’t think they plan to sell it, but they will make the women use it while their sick children are staying there.

Some facts on Malaria:

• Malaria is responsible for 20 percent of all childhood deaths in Africa.
• 10,000 pregnant women in Africa die each year because of malaria-related causes.
• In 2009, only 10 percent of Burkinabe children under the age of five were sleeping under treated bed nets.
• About 90 percent of Madagascar's population is at risk for infection.
• Most Malian children under the age of five suffer at least two episodes of malaria each year.
• Over 4.5 million cases of malaria were reported in Burkina Faso in 2009.
• From a recent UN Human Development Report, Guinea ranked first out of 94 countries in malaria cases per year (with 75,386 reported cases per 100,000 people).

I discovered a Bunny Farm in my village!

Mail Received:
Beth and Kristen
Kirstin
Sarah
Mom