It's funny what boasts your confidence

so after the entire peace corps community found out about my mango flies, i was surprised to find that many others have recently suffered the same terrible fate. while in tamba for regional IST i was talking with another who had gotten them on his bum as well, and he asked "Don't you now feel like a badass, like you can do anything now?" oddly enough, i do! this has probably been the grossest thing i've ever experienced, the next closest is the whole leaking appendix thing, but we won't go there today. i kind of feel like now i can do handle just about anything senegal has to throw at me, i mean i squeezed 7 larva out of my body. regional IST was actually better than i expected. i got some good feedback from 2nd year volunteers on the big project i'm wanting to do. so i'll break it down for you here. in my village we have a really nice health hut, it was built by an NGO a few years back, but they failed to do any follow-up to make sure it was functioning properly. it's a very nice two room building, with two hopsital beds and nice cabinets for storage, plus a big nice desk. problem is my counterpart doesn't know how to run it, this was told to me by a few different villagers. so i'm wanting to work with him and show him how to manage and run this health hut so that we have a functioning health structure within the village. first i need to set up a health committee to make all decisions and formulate a plan of action. then we will need to raise funds. i'm not wanting to be just another white guy who brings in all this money for stuff, so i'm hoping to raise the money within the village. maybe a health tax, something small, that would raise money to by medicine and books for record keeping. then i would work with my counterpart teaching him accounting and inventory management. it sounds simple enough, but the problem is i'm going to work at their pace and i'm hoping my counterpart will down for it all. the problem i've noticed is that my village is so used to white people just paying for things, and they're not the most motivated of people. other than that when school starts i'm going to start a girl's health club, i'll do little health lessons, but i'm going to focus on gender development. in most of the research i've done, most found working with young girls has the greatest impact on development within a community.

so some people have been asking for care-package ideas. here is just a list of things i would like, so pick and choose from here for care-packages.
Aveeno sunblock, flavored teas, high protein bars(low carb), high protein drink mixes, cashews, raisins, turkey or beef jerkies, trail mix, mac and cheese, sour patch kids, mags(GQ, Details, trashy mags(we all love those), also any good books you might have recently read. that is about all i can think of now, but you get the idea of stuff i would like. i hope all is well with everyone, take care and send letters.

james