Thank youuuuuuuu!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

to everyone who have supported the victims of the flooding in BF!!
to everyone who have supported our new library and literacy program initiative!!

Thank you for your generosity, huge caring hearts, and devotion to my projects!

Updates on library progression coming soon!

Love yall
-Meighan

Torrential Rains and Floods leave 200,000+ people homeless in Burkina Faso

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8235040.stm

Im currently collecting donations to provide food stuffs, soap, and clothing for the hundreds of thousands homeless in Burkina Faso's capital. Homes have been destroyed and people have been left with nothing, forced to live in schools and other public buildings.

I know times are tough in the US right now, but if you can spare anything please contact me. Any and all help is appreciated.

Love,

Meighan

Back in Burkina!

Made it home for a while (a few days late due to some scandalous airline incidences)..

Butttt.. now Im back to the wonderfully hot Burkina Faso. It was great to see everyone and experience the precious amenities that come along with being in America but Im more than happy to be back!

More updates on my village to come.. I leave to site tomorrow!

oh yea...

almost forgot..

Happy Belated Mommys day!!
Happy Belated Birthday Dad!!
Happy Fathers Day in advance!!

village hopping

Due to some complicated circumstances I will be village hopping for a month untillllll coming home to see all of yalls beautiful faces! Will be spending 1-2 weeks in Sunyatas village in the East working on girls camps and an awesome photo project with her... then hopping into the north to Anne's village to work on yet another girls camp, micro credit/savings project, and other activities.. only to finish my month out in ouaga where I will be working with a theater group to give sensibilizations on HIV AIDS and girls education before hopping on AIR SENEGAL for about 10 hours to come home to sunny florida :)

Ill get home the 3rd of July and will be staying at my parents house... sooooo if you wanna see me come find me!

Only requests are no hot tea, no rice, no pasta, no luke warm soda or beer, no starches.. lots of ice cubes, air conditioning, friends, laughter, and fun

1 month and counting!

UPDATES

Hello from BF!

Yes its been 3 months but please forgive me.. Ive been busy..

Everyone has been emailin me like crazy and with limited internet access.. cant even seem to get internet in the regional capital anymore.. ive been a lil behind on gettin back to yall and havent had time to update in a while.. so if ya love me please forgive, and lets move on to the update shall we? :D

Ok yea so the first 3 month "adjustment" period is over and the real work has started.. right now I'm in the midst of many projects and activities and would appreciate any help, suggestions, advice, networking yall have to offer!

Weekly activities include.. 

• work in the kindergarten class with writing and reading.. just imagine.. one teacher teaching 70 6year olds in french when they dont understand french and she doesnt speak the same local language as they do.. so yea the white girls gives the teacher a break and inspires the lil ones to come back regardless of the beatings at school or how little they understand the both of us.. 
  
• baby weighing/vaccinations at the local clinic.. I do this every market day (every 5 days) with my counterpart.. its a good opportunity to meet and know the new mothers in village and our surrounding 29 villages while throwing in some girls education, HIV/AIDS, and nutrition sensibilizations while I'm at it..
• study groups... all ages, male and female students from the primary school.. come to my house 3/4 times a week to study under my solar flash lamp
• girls theater group.. just getting this up and started.. but going to coupled with study sessions.. and theater will be focused on controversial subjects such as excision, forced marriage, girls education and other themes that the girls choose
• english class... every saturday afternoon.. for the civil servants (aka teachers, directors, nurses etc)
• collaboration/aid at orphanage in the regional capital at least once a week.. working with troubled teens, especially girls, to keep them off the streets
• girls education sensibilizations.. I live in the commune of Perigban which also has 29 smaller satelite villages.. each week I go and give small sensibilizations regarding girls education while helping the staff of the local clinic give vaccinations to newborns and children
• language classes.. taking french classes and starting to take lobiri (our local language) once a week

Other projects...

• fundraising for a Womens Center... in village there are many motivated women's groups.. and building a womens center in village will 1. give them a place to work 2. give them a sense of pride and 3. foster a better economy in village... almost finished writing the project.. waiting on a last few details in regards to a budget.. but hope to have it completed in april.. to start looking for sponsors/partners/financers in the US.. WE NEED YOUR HELP!! Please let me know if you would like to donate or know of any groups or organizations willing to help!
• Sex Education/HIV/AIDS Workshop for middle school girls in June.. we just had another pregnancy in our school.. this time she is only 13 years old! Thus to counteract the lack of general knowledge, lack of sex ed in school, and rising pregnancy rates.. I'm holding a 2-3 day workshop for my girls at the end of the school year with informational sessions, group speakers and demonstrations.
• fundraising for a small enterprise project with the protestant womens group... like I said earlier, the women are motivated they just need a little help in the right direction! The Protestant Womens Group want to start raising chickens and selling the eggs. I personally think its a great idea!! Because for one thing, no one else does this in village which = good market and demand, and for another I LOVE eggs! I will definitely will be a loyal client :) So yes once again almost finished with the budget to complete the project write up and will again need some love sent from home in the form of help and donation to make it a success!
• Girls Education Bike-a-thon... projected for September.. starting to organize a 200km bike-a-thon to promote girls education.. we would like to sensibilize at least 10 villages, specificially parents of girls, on the value of their education and the necessity of sending them to school for the new school year to start in October 2009
• Village Library.. this will be an ongoing project for all of my service or until we collect a substantial amount of books.. thanks to a french group of students who visited village in december, we are already off to a good start with approximately 30ish books.. thanks also to the Darian Book Aid and BooksforLife organizations who are supporting our village and have books on the way!
• Moringa sensibilizations.. originally learned about this amazing tree in Fort Myers and am still promoting it here.. it has an outrageous amount of vitamins and many other medicinal uses.. so I am starting my own moringa garden and giving sensibilizations to my womens groups, csps, and schools on how to incorporate it into their diets to fight malnutrition in village

Other things in village.. well.. March 8th is International Women's Day.. a very important holiday in Burkina Faso especially for us girls education and empowerment volunteers.. so I am helping organize the festivities which include a bike race for the girls, a soccer match between the girls and women, theater presentations, and a dance that evening.. so for all the men out there.. think about us on Sunday and do something special for your wives and daughters!

Overall, things are going well.. I have adjusted well to village and am trying to keep busy.. besides work Im the unofficial mother of about 20-30 (no exaggeration) children under the age of 10.. who come to my house to play or study pretty much everyday.. I love it.. they are my sanity and relief when I get frustrated with the stubborn mentality I confront day to day in village.. they make up most of my neighbor kids and now call themselves djiabloh ker bisana which translates into the white womans children in lobiri.. i love em to death and they are the reason i hate leaving village for extended periods of time.. when i told them i was leaving for a week to do a training (why i have the time to write you right now) in ouaga, the capital, the little ones cried and begged me to stay.. it breaks my heart to leave them now.. i can only imagine when my 2 years are up..

so yea.. things are good. im happy and healthy.. and need all the support and help I can get from yall back home! I promise to update more regularly than every 3 months.. but bare with my nonreliable internet..

miss you all

think of yall often

-meighie

Happy Thanksgiving

Hello everyone!!!

Love you miss you dont have time to write much today but be expecting a blog next week!

thinking of you all

Happy Turkey Day