hygiene

Here's an interesting cultural difference when it comes to health education. This comes from an Ethiopian booklet on hygiene.

tomorrow's schedule

Disposal of child feces = for children too young to use a latrine (under 2).

Happy World Toilet Day!

Happy World Toilet Day! (November 19th) Here's a picture of my toilet. Several of the families I work with do not have any walls or ceiling around their latrines - just the hole. The Health Extension Workers and I are working with families to improve their latrines.

World Toilet Day was established by United Nations Water and the World Toilet Organization. Their slogan in 2012 was: "I give a shit, do you?"

veggies

This family's vegetable garden is growing really well! Healthy carrots, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, and even broccoli!

enset

This is one of the first steps in making food from enset, the false banana plant. Food made from enset is a staple in southern Ethiopia.

swiss chard

One of the families I work with didn't know how to cook swiss chard - one of the veggies they grew in their vegetable garden. So today we cooked it, as well as shiro (a chickpea flour dish) and ate it with injira (a sour flat pancake and Ethiopian staple food).

another garden

We planted another household vegetable garden: tomatoes, carrots, cabbage!

first WASH club

We had our first WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) club today and after played football!

first Girls Club / Gender Club meeting

We just had our first Girls Club / Gender Club meeting at one of the primary schools. We asked the girls what they wanted to learn about/talk about and they said:
1. Staying in school
2. How to be a successful student
3. To control genital mutilation
4. To reduce child marriage

I was surprised that they mentioned the last two, especially since they are only in primary school (9-14 years old) and this was our first meeting. I'm guessing that there are some public health campaigns through the schools about child marriage and FGM and this made them think of those topics. I will start the club out with practicing life skills like communication, decision making and self esteem and we'll move onto these heavier topics later. Leading a discussion on FGM as a foreigner will be tricky, so I will let a female teacher take the lead on that one. I will give them the facts and leave the morality of the issues to my co-teacher and the students.

Lily

Enjoyed visiting fellow PCV Lily at her site in the Hadiya Zone this weekend!

wish list

Wish List:
- notecards
- fly strips
- highlighters
- nonperishable (and lightweight) food from Trader Joe's
- letters

Send to:
Erica Ward, PCV
c/o Peace Corps Ethiopia
P.O. Box 1767
Hawassa
ETHIOPIA

Thank you!