What, When, Where, Why

If you haven't read the book, this post is for you. I decided to give a brief summary of the book. So, I went to Côte d'Ivoire in 1998 with the Peace Corps to live for two years in a very undevelloped African Village. It was my first stint with the Peace Corps, and since I love to write, I wrote a book about it, as you probably know if you've been reading this blog. I lived in a small house by their standards, hut by ours with no electricity. It was a challenge at first, but I enjoyed the simplicity. I was the only white person in the village and one of the first white people to visit since the 1800s. As I was there I worked mainly with women but worked as a health care worker promoting AIDS awareness, and birth control as well as treating malnutrition, acting as a midwife, monitoring the growth of infants and diagnosing every thing from the flu to malaria. I wouldn't have been called a specialist by any means.
My biggest success came with an AIDS awareness seminar day for the entire village. I had been giving classes to women on market day about simple health care issues that were completely foreign in the village, such as not drinking standing water or washing dishes. Anyway on this seminar day the entire village gathered and volunteers from the health clinic in Ferké joined us to pass out condoms and birth control pills, and the coolest part was these women who had been participating in my little market day classes presented! Now the main reason this is so cool is that, like in many western african communities, women looked on as far inferior to men, so for the men to be taught by women was a huge breakthrough! Plus the village was incredibly receptive of all the information being given to them.
Another wonderful thing that came about during my presence there was the first electricity ever in Nambonkaha was introduced. It was amazing, around 7:30 one evening during one of my last weeks there, the clear bulbs that had been hung on black wire suddenly burst on with and orange yellow glow and a slight buzz. It was quite a scene, the women standing in their doorways, the men gathering the bulbs to inspect them with wonder and the children dancing ing the pools of light. It's always a cool eye opening expereince to see something we take for granted in America, become such a big deal in a place that doesn't have nearly as much.
So ya that's a little bit more about my trip and the amazing experience I had, hopefully if you read the book you have a clearer image of my journey and if you haven't read the book, you understand this blog better and even more importantly that maybe you'll want to read the book.
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