Water Water Ev--Uh....Where?

Can you imagine having to leave your house to collect water? During my first few months at site, my water was supplied to me by lines women carefully walking into my house carrying over 20 liters of water on their heads and dumping it into my 260 liter trashcan of a water reserve. This lasted about a month or two. In an effort to be independent, I attempted to pull water myself. Unfortunately, this effort was thwarted--not only by my feeble upper arms, but also by my counterpart who thinks I can't be trusted with my own life and fall helplessly to my dark, wet death. Independent or not, the closest well (within 100 m of my house) dried up. All that was left was brown and opaque. So, my next water source was the water pump 1.5K (about a mile). I'd attach a big yellow 20 liter jug to the back of my bike (as if I didn't already look cool enough with my rad helmet), bike to the one of two pumps in my village, wait around and chat with the group of women in line to get water, pump my water and head back. Depending on how many women are in line and how lazy I'm feeling, this can take anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Sometimes I would make several trips a day, most days however I try to go as little as possible, adapting to a lifestyle of less than 20 liters a day. You can imagine what that lifestyle looks and smells like.

I'm still biking to get water (though I've been known to coax friends into doing it for me), though, now the twist cap to close the opening of my jug has sadly disappeared, so my bike ride back home can sometimes result in an unfortunately large loss of water. I was just informed this week though that we will be getting faucet water within months! This is not faucet-from-your-home water. This is 4 faucets that are being strategically placed in village to accommodate as many villagers as possible. Thankfully, one is being placed within 300m of my house, making this water endeavor far easier.

Speaking of water. Other than in the pumps and soon to be faucets, there's none. Its dry season once again. It hasn't rained since August and it probably won't until May or June. But gardens are blooming with all kinds of vegetables, its not too hot and its cool at night so all is good. Now that is in full force, harvest begins, wedding and funeral parties are in abundance, women are busy pounding corn and millet into flour, and villagers are looking for work to make some money for their families. Association Gonyonmon, the women's savings and credit group aimed to help entrepreneur and vulnerable women alike, is dwindling in membership. Many of the women sell mangoes and other seasonal fruit on the side of the road. That is their priority because that puts money in their hands immediately. So, setting aside 100 CFA every other week is a difficult commitment, even if it is used to take out loans of 50,000 CFA later down the road. Membership has certainly declined, though many have just lately showed up again to pay their late dues. Word is getting out that women are learning important skills to help themselves and their families and their earnings is slowing but steadily increasing, so I think membership will bounce back up.

The next two weeks will prove themselves to be rather interesting. Fandjora is a satellite village in my CSPS's "aire sanitaire" (health region). It is 30 k away on very rough dirt roads. No one speaks French. So, their relationship with the CSPS is rather, uh, neglected. A CSPS worker will go there once a month to give vaccinations to children (if they're informed about it) and thats it. If someone in Fandjora needed medical attention, they would be expected to transport themselves to the CSPS to get that attention. So when my counterpart and I travelled there to measure babies for malnutrition, the results were expected. Nearly half of the children measured were malnourished--many of them were even considered severely malnourished. So, I decided I would live there for the next two weeks to conduct two separate HEARTH models, a program designed to help mothers prepare nutritous meals for their children as well as sensibilize them on other health and sanitation topics. I also plan to paint several murals of health maternal and child practices to sensibilize villagers on a day to day basis. This is the most ambitious project I have started, and if half of it works out I'll be thrilled. I still don't know where exactly I'm staying, who I'm staying with and how I will cook or bathe (or get water...) but I'm really hoping all those things will sort themselves out.