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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

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 make it is 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