live up to my word of posting more often. Well I have less than two
weeks before I come home to visit so I think I can do better in the
short term. The lightening of my workload will also help with that as
well.
We wrapped up our WASHE program out at the schools this week. This
week we taught the kids about disease transmission. As always the
students were very receptive and enjoyed the activities we had. My
mom sent a blacklight that we used for a germ spreading activity. It
went ok. To work best we need liquid soap made with blue dye (like
Tide) but I couldn't find any but I did find out that green dish soap
does work, kind of. In the activity you put some soap on your hand
than then proceed to shake hands and touch arms or clothes of other
people. Then you go around in the room (with the lights off) with the
blacklight which makes the transfered soap glow. As I said, the green
worked ok, though didn't glow as well as blue. The other hurdle was
the dark room. The classrooms here all have large windows and no
curtains or curtains made of light fabric. Small windows and/or heavy
curtains would just be a ridiculous choice for this climate. To
improvise we brought blankets (yes, the Red Cross has blankets. They
were donated to us as part of the relief supplies. Evidently by a
person with the geographical knowledge of a two year old). We used
the blankets to cover all the windows in one room so it was dark
enough for the activity. It worked but we had to keep the activity
short because once those blankets were up, the room was cooking! At
some point in time, someone left the blacklight on which killed the
batteries. I had spares and replaced them but the light didn't last
long after that. I have reserved a swift kick for the person who left
it on, if I ever find out which is unlikely. Good thing I am coming
home so I can pick up a few spare bulbs.
Now we are getting a report on the program prepared and the Health
Coordinator at the Red Cross wants to continue it and expand it next
year. Which is awesome, in theory. We do have a lot on our plate at
the Red Cross though so over the next few weeks we will be planning
the next years programs and activities. While it would be cool to
have this program that I spearheaded continue I really want to make
sure all the other programs that are already highlighted in the Samoa
Red Cross workplan are scheduled and adequately staffed. Planning and
assessment are two things I hope to work on closely with the staff and
volunteers at the Red Cross and be some of the sustainable skills and
knowledge I can share with them.
Today was International Volunteer Day and the Red Cross in cooperation
with the UN offices here organized a replanting and trash pick-up
day. Overall I have to say I wasn't all that impressed with the day
though I think the high demand on those who needed to coordinate the
event with tsunami recovery related tasks allows some room for
forgiveness. There was a large turnout of volunteers, though I don't
know the exact number. The attendance by Peace Corps Volunteers is
most accurately described as piss-poor. Me, Chris and Blakey were the
only PCVs to come to the event. Way to represent! The group of
volunteers Chirs, Blakey and I went with went to Satitoa village. The
replanting went ok, with trees donated by the UN, buuuuuut, we came to
find out after the fact that the trees were meant to be planted inland
a little ways and do not grow well next to the ocean/in the sand. The
volunteers planted them along the coast and mostly in the sand. Son of
a !!!! Because there were a limited number of trees and tools, I
picked up garbage the whole time, which there was still a lot of it
around and on the beach in Satitoa. The problem here was, no garbage
bags. So we piled the garbage up and were told that someone was going
to come through later that day with a truck to pick it up. I hope it
happened.
So next week is going to be a good week. Just planning mostly and
probably doing some work on the website and the database. I still
need to get a volunteer up to speed on how to update the website
before I leave for my 4 week vacay. Since i won't be going to the
schools four days a week I should be able to finally find some time to
make it happen.
Tatoo is tomorrow, looking forward to it. I am hoping they don't
postpone it or any thing, I ahve heard that can happen sometimes. I
want to give it a chance to heal a decent amount before I head home.
I will try to get some pictures from the WASHE program and our water
tank painting project up sometime this week. I'll also get some pics
of the tat up (unless it goes horribly wrong!)
Tofa Soifua (oh and my Samoan is getting a little better thanks to my
having to use it in the schools, now I just have to try and not lose
everything I picked up over the last month during my vacation)
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