Blog #9: Wait, there's stuff to do?

5/30/2012

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated because I’ve sort of fallen into a rhythm and there’s not been much to tell. But recently I’ve had some cool experiences, watching this big water project come into fruition, so I’ve decided to write a short blog.

Below I have a couple of action shots from being at my friend James’ site and teaching either about HIV/AIDS or water/sanitation depending on the age group.

Oh, and the Catholic church has lemurs out back...?

Below I’m doing a house-to-house interview about hygiene habits, sanitation and water use and purification techniques. At the end, I’ve been doing a summary of the three messages central to WASH education. It’s okay, but it’s pretty much unofficial for now. I don’t write responses or anything; we just talk. I’m hoping to build decent communication with the people in ambanivohitra (towns on the commune fringe, literally “below the big town”). Soon I’ll conduct real surveys and do some focus groups and hopefully will be able to figure out how well the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach is working toward affecting behavior change as part of this RANO HP project.

 

Town meeting for WASH education

I got to meet the Minister of Water for Madagascar, pictured below, as he came to explain some of the legal aspects of the water project, the contract to be signed with a service provider, and the role of government in oversight and regulation.

From left to right: CARE representative, Minister of Water, Director of Water for the Eastern Region, Deputy Mayor, and the guy making a talking point represents a Mada NGO called Voahary Salama.

Then I got to meet the head of water and sanitation for CARE International—not just for Mada, but the world. It’s pretty cool, and pretty unexpected, to be honest, to have the opportunity to meet some of the people that have come to my site. I count myself lucky in my Peace Corps assignment. In addition to seeing development work from the perspective of rural communities, I’m able to see how NGOs work and partner to do projects, which really interests me.

From left to right: Edmond the deputy mayor (and one of the town presidents, too), Jonathan (CARE Madagascar), Madame Vola (NGO SAF Moramanga), a community health worker, and Peter (CARE Int’l, based in Atlanta).

This is the mayor of my commune (right) and a representative from the private sector company Velo (left) signing the 10-year contract that will hopefully ensure sustainable, acceptable service of the new water systems for the people of the community.

Another general update for the country is a little less optimistic than things are going at site. There have been strikes in major country sectors, so far including teachers at schools and now doctors are starting too. There have also been a lot of political demonstrations in the capital, some of them escalating to riots and broken up by tear gas, etc. I don’t say this to worry people, but just to make them aware, because there is so little news coverage of it (even here in Mada), that things are tense away from the rural parts of the country. Anyway, I’m hoping it calms down, obviously. I’d like to finish my service here and all.

That’s all I have for now. Still figuring work and research out, but it’s coming along. My girlfriend Tricia comes to Mada in mid-July, which I’ve been looking forward to since I got here, and she’ll be here for a few weeks, so we’ll travel around. The next blog will be sometime afterward, and should at least have some good photos.