Projects rarely go as planned. Perhaps the best way to ensure success in the implementation phase of a project is to have taken the time to thoroughly led your community through a participatory analysis for community action (PACA) framework. This video gives an example of how this process can make even the least successful of projects play a role in achieving sustainable change in the long run.

PACA TOOLS:

1. Peace Corps PACA Training Manual
2. Peace Corps Model Sessions
3. How PACA looks.. really: a current example

I’d like to post more examples of this process in action. If you’re a volunteer currently serving in Senegal (or anyplace else, really) please send me a video or photos with a description of how it worked (or failed) for you and I’ll add it.

The photo above was taken in Gouloubmou, where we performed for primary and middle school students. The school director was very excited, and has asked the group to return. Over 275 in attendance.

Once we’ve arrived in a community we send a ‘relais’ out with a microphone. He or she runs around announcing the event at full volume while we set up speakers. Once the speakers are up its only a matter of cranking up everyone’s favorite Pulaar songs – the crowd materializes pretty quickly. Once there’s an audience, the group does a little dancing to get things going. Hassan (the eldest in our group) is featured above.

Once we have an audience the group preforms their first sketch: HIV/AIDS. A young chauffeur visits a mistress who attempts to explain how and why he should use a condom. He has never heard of this, and her explanations seem to puzzle him. She tells him first that it is medicine, so he asks if its for a cold, while stretching the condom over his noze. She politely tells him, no, you must put it on below, in front (polite Pulaar). He proceeds to take his pants off and shove the material into the condom (see video below). She finally breaks down and speaks bluntly. Upon understanding he excitedly agrees to faithfully use condoms.

The next sketch is about malaria. Two scenarios develop involving a family who refuses to purchase a mosquito net, and a family who does and uses them regularly. A number of popular mythes and jokes surrounding how malaria is spread are parodied and debunked. In the video below, a malaria stricken ‘elder’ struggles to cope by clutching a small charcoal heating unit close while he shivers.

Health theater is the back door to the human soul. It creates an environment where forbidden can be discussed, playfully, and emotions can be worn in unique ways. The results are measurable and astonishing. In a recent follow up visit to Medina Afia, a town where we recently preformed, the health agent said she has gone through several boxes of condoms since our visit, an item no one had ever asked for since she began work in the village. The sketches are played over the radio, and when we show up the players are celebrities: people can be seen mouthing words to the sketches during a performance. They have already memorized the parts.

USAID Small Project Assistance (SPA) Grant:

Research has shown that adolescents, the world over, perceive their peers to be among the most legitimate, trustworthy sources of information. How better to address sexuality and behaviors that lead to the transmission of HIV than by training youth to train one another?

The theater group in Manda Darou Salam has been independently working for years to do just that. With no outside funding, they have been able to deliver comedy, music, and accurate health information to hundreds of people at a time.

Over the next 5 months I will be working with the group to bring their act to 10 villages in the Kolda region. Several are smaller than a few hundred people, one has the largest weekly market in West Africa. Recordings of performances will be sent to radio stations to advertise the events. More than 100,000 men women and children will be exposed to performances on HIV transmission, unwanted pregnancy, forced marriage, and malaria, through live performances and radio broadcasts.

The following video clips were shot in the first village of our tour. The performances were carried out at the primary school, and coordinated with the primary and middle school principles’ enthusiastic support. The event went so well the theater group has been asked to return for a repeat performance.

Theater Group in Senegal

It’s difficult to convince families in West Africa to educate their girls. Fathers point out that many middle school age girls get pregnant. Mothers worry about teachers taking advantage of their daughters (a very real threat). Girls themselves point out that education doesn’t always lead to employment. They are all right. The odds are against girls’ education in most West African countries. This is certainly true in Manda Darou Salam, Senegal.

Behavioral studies among adolescents throughout the world show that young people respect and listen to young people. When your friend encourages you to stay in school, or avoid unprotected sex, you listen. Unfortunately most western models concerning behavior change assume self-efficacy, believing you have everything at your disposal to carry out a decision once made. Most girls in Manda are easily convinced that education betters their lives. They do not, however, have say in whether they can continue schooling (this is a father’s decision), they cannot control unwanted advances by teachers (whether they take the form of rape, or coercion with grades as leverage), and they cannot control whether employers prefer to hire men or women.

HIV/AIDS Prevention with youth Theater

So our maternal and child health focus has to involve parents. One way Peace Corps influences parents’ decision to keep their girls in school is through the Young Girls Scholarship Fund.

This program gives families financial incentive to keep their girls in school, provides students with a monthly stipend, and is based on financial need and scholarly merit.

Our maternal and child health theater tour (10 villages in 5 months) is training young girls in theater techniques, and disseminating information about forced marriage, unwanted pregnancy, HIV/AIDS transmission, and malaria prevention. In Manda the program pays for itself (a small free at the door pays for the generator and sound equipment). In neighboring villages we are depending on SPA, a USAID/Peace Corps initiative, to fund transport and food. Even funded events reach between 300 and 2,000 people for less than 100 USD per event.

Two of our more talented theater members

If you’d like to contribute to girls education in Senegal please visit the Young Girls Scholarship link and find out how to get involved. Our tour is underway and already an enormous hit. Three radio stations are playing the sketches developed, and we’ve visited two villages (over 500 spectators). Its encouraging to see young people so enthusiastic about affecting their peers – and easy enough to make an already successful program replicable on a grander scale – when the ideas, education, and motivation had nothing to do with me. I show up and take pictures.

Pulaars Cross Dressing!

A baseline survey is how to find out the way things are. Assuming you know nothing, ask some pointed, measurable questions about a family and their health. Record your answers, do the math, and ask more questions.

“For only through assiduous repetition is it possible to redistribute skewed tendencies.” -Haruki Murakami, Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

The idea is to get a snapshot of what things were like before you started work, so that you can measure progress and setbacks realistically: measurably. This is a real job, and I want my work to be transparent. If I’ve succeeded, you’ll know with hard, indisputable facts. I don’t want to go home and tell heart-warming stories. I want my community to learn that expecting more from ‘development workers’ means demanding accountability.

Glaciers move faster than this census. We talk to pregnant women and ask if they’ve been to the local health post for their prenatal exams. We talk to mothers of new-borns who have delivered at home and know nothing about how to apply for birth certificates. We talk to fathers who have no idea how many buckets of water their family use in a day, a few of whom have only vague notions of exactly how many children they have fathered. We talk to women in their third trimester who pull all the water for the family, because who else is going to do it? We talk to children who know exactly how many buckets of water the family uses. We talk to grandparents who know exactly how far it is to the nearest well, and how many grandchildren they have, how old they are, and whether they’ve been vaccinated or not. We talked with an angry, sick woman, who cut the conversation as short as possible.

I can’t remember a time before this survey began. “We use traditional medicine most of the time, we’d go to the pharmacy if we had the money.” “And how would I go about affording modern medicine?” “We travel to the Gambia when we’re sick, they have real doctors.” “When my wife delivered a Guinean driver made us pay 10 mil for the drive to Tamba: I’m still paying.” “She was pregnant this year, no.. no, we do not have a newborn.”

These 15 Pulaar questions are burnt into my mind: I go sleep every night asking what you would change, if you could have one thing to improve your health? Sometimes I’m asked a question, and like a child who sits down to say the Lord’s prayer, and accidentally begins to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, I answer with a random outburst like “We are here to count you, and to ask about your health.” I know of three subtle ways to ask if a woman is pregnant, if she has a newborn.

Before we began this survey I knew of a bustling crossroads town, somewhere in Southern Senegal, that had a few wells and some faucets running from a water tower 2 kilometers out of town. Now I sit on a rock, 47 meters above water, with 5 hand-dug wells, and 3 public faucets that serve 4,288 people. I can tell you if a family draws their water from a well or pay at the faucets by shaking a wife’s calloused hand.

I met a elderly gentleman who moved to Manda when there were 10 family compounds. He points to large mango tree that he planted upon arrival. This month he has been told he does not own the land his hut sits on, and that he will have to move. I asked an elderly women if she is involved in a women’s group, she looked at her feet and said “no, I’m too old to work.”

In the past 40 days a village health worker and I visited over 500 family compounds. We hope that our completed census will draw government attention to a quickly expanding population that is grossly under-served. Statistics from our survey will be shown to the community in an open meeting, where participants will be asked, in an open forum, to evaluate information about their village and begin the process of planning their future (a process known as PACA: Participatory Analysis for Community Action). A village health committee will be formed. Those volunteering to serve in this way will be expected to report to the village every 6 months. They will be responsible for arranging a set number of informational health meetings each month, and will be expected to keep track of how many community members they expose to specific information. When government vaccination programs come to Manda, we now have a master list of every family in the village, and can easily assess whether or not enough vaccines have been procured: whether or not the campaign has been a token effort or a valid public health program. Exacting accountability from your government starts at home: it starts with knowing your community well enough to say, accurately and with data-driven precision, that your community has, or has not, been sufficiently served. I am happy to say that this is exactly the model of accountability the United States Peace Corps is required to follow.

As a community health education worker I am responsible for planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating programs that better the health of my community. In the United States Peace Corps, we submit reports to our supervisor every 6 months. Our supervisors, in turn, submit their reports to the country director, who in turn reports to Washington D.C. Ultimately it is the United States congress who approves our annual budget, and they are held responsible to tax-payers if the work we do is, or is not, worthy of their valuable resources.

The United States Peace Corps has consistently rated among our government’s most accountable programs

(2010) Peace Corps Chief of Staff Stacy Rhodes and acting Chief Financial Officer Thomas Bellamy accepted the award on behalf of the agency at a ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. last night. The award is given to federal government agencies whose Performance and Accountability and Annual Financial Reports achieve the highest standards of clarity in communicating financial information and demonstrating accountability. This is the third year in a row that Peace Corps has received the AGA award.

Survey Questions: (Pulaar/English)

The following are sample questions. This is not a comprehensive survey. I haven’t included the survey developed for my community because it is a list of questions that stake-holders in Manda Darou Salaam decided were pertinent to their specific situation. Your community will, no doubt, have their own concerns. If you have linguistic questions while developing your own community’s survey feel free to get a hold of me!

1. Ko honno joma galle on innete?

• How is the head of the house called? (What’s his name)

2. Ka ender galle ga, mawbe ko ngelo duubi sapo e jaytati nabi dow/sukabe nabi ley?

• In your household, how many are older than 18 years of age and and how many younger than 18?

3. Honno hebirton ndiyan? Honno Sodirton?

• How do you obtain water? How do you pay for it (how much)?

4. Kori on jogi kabine?

• Do you (lit.and polite: I hope you)  have a latrine? (the word kabine is not old pulaar, but what they used in my area: find out what people use where you are)

5. Honno wurirda? Ko hondon woni gollay ma?

• How do you live (How do you make a living) ?  What is your work ?

6. Ko hondun buraton remude? Ko hondun buri doodude?

• What is your most weeded crop (What do you plant the most of) ?

7. Kori sukabe ben fow nesike? Be tobinaama?

• Are (lit. are your) children weighed? Have they been vacinated (polio drops: tobingol is the verb for water droplets falling)

8. Si on nowni ko honto nawndoytodon?

• If you (plural – always use plural form when formally addressing someone) are sick where is it you are healed?

9. Si on nawni ko kekke le balebe yettudon wala lekke toubako?

• If you (plural) are sick is it traditional medicine you take (lit. munch) or modern medicine (pharmaceutical drugs) ?

10. Ender sengo cellal ngal, ko hondon burdon faalede? (sengo means side: many pulla futa speakers in my community use the Wolof word bange)

• In the side of the health (Healthwise) what is most needed (faalede is the passive form of to need/want – used here to imply a community need, not an active singular desire) ?
  • Prepare for some problems with this one. The grammar is correct and they’ll understand what you’re saying – but it requires some thought and many people (especially women) aren’t used to venturing opinions – especially because they will want to tell you what you want to hear, and might not know what that is in this instance.

11. Hidon tawa e fedeji?

• Question for women: are you involved in a women’s group? (another word for meeting is Noodiyotere: lit. “the call”)

12. Debbo redo no woodi?

• Is there a pregnant women (in the household) ? Kori on yaha ndartugol hore mon? (Use the polite form of pregnant when possible: Sooido – literally “suckling/nursing mother”)

13. Bobbo ketcho no woodi? Bobbo on, no betede?

• Is there a newborn (in the household) ? The baby, is he/she weaning/weaned? (Use the word muninowo for “suckling/nursing child”)

14. Question to clarify what you’re up to: Meden yelti fii tefugol ko yimbe ngelo woni ka saare do

• We have gone out (we’re out) inquiring as to how many people there are here in town

15. Honno herbiton ndiyan dan – ko robine, ka ka ka wayndu (yes – there are three ka’s: hold the first and use the second two in rapid succession)

• How do you (plural) obtain your water – at a faucet or at the well?

SURVEY RESULTS:

(Survey overview downloadable in English: Neighborhood data downloadable in French)

Download Survey Overview

Download Neigborhood “1″ Data

Download Neigborhood “2″ Data

Download Neigborhood “3″ Data

In Francophone countries we call informational meetings “causeries.” As a preventive health volunteer I am responsible for holding a certain number of health-related causeries every year. We are in the middle of the rainy season right now, and malaria in my village is rampant.

Despite Peace Corps’ recent universal coverage bed-net campaign, malaria is a huge issue in Manda. Mosquito nets alone can’t solve this problem. As I’m sure you can imagine, Senegalese enjoy nightlife. People are observing Ramodon right now- which means fasting during the day, but eating special foods at night and late night tea-making sessions. None of this occurs beneath mosquito nets- and mosquitoes come out at dusk. So what can we do about those all-important social gathering hours between sunset and when people climb into their mosquito nets at night?

So Peace Corps Senegal’s response to this problem is Neem Lotion. There is a tree that grows here (and many West African countries) in great abundance, that produces leaves mosquitoes tend to avoid. Neem tree leaves, boiled, mixed with soap and peanut oil, and then rubbed on one’s skin, works as an amazingly cheap and effective mosquito repellent. This takes almost no time to make, costs less than a dollar to produce enough for a family of 5 for several days, and happens to wildly popular among every group I’ve introduced it to.

The woman pictured above is Mariama Diallo. She is my neighborhood’s woman’s group president. This last week she called a meeting and we made some neem lotion. 30 women showed up, and most intend to make and sell this lotion in the local market. I’d like to find out how many women go home and make this for their families. That, however, will be a part of my next project. In the coming months I’ll be working on a community-baseline survey. I’d like to find out how many people live in my village, and ask them some health related questions. More about that later! If you’d like to get involved with Mariama’s women’s groups (or any of Manda’s other active women’s groups) please get a hold of me – sometimes the most important contribution isn’t money: sometimes its just knowing people on the other side of the world care. If you’ve got a creative way to do that I’d love to hear from you!

We learned how to dig latrines, graft mangoes, work with radio stations, locate appropriate funding sources, conduct causeries (short, informational talks), teach integrated pest management, and more. There was also a Non-Profit Organization fair where volunteers networked with local organizations.

During our latrine digging session I asked about the method being taught (volunteers in Niger do it quite differently). We discussed what “appropriate technology” means. The pits being dug by volunteers here in Senegal are cheap, and relatively simple, but they don’t last. Some volunteers call Appropriate Technology “shitty things for poor people.” This isn’t necessarily my stance on the matter, but I see their point. Should organizations like the Peace Corps be promoting projects that won’t last because they are affordable? Certainly promoting expensive projects that are beyond a populations’ means is problematic as well. Its an interesting argument, but not one that lends itself to all projects in exactly the same way. As far as latrines go, I’d rather build it right (especially because in this instance the cost of a durable latrine is comparable, or only slightly more, than a cheap one). The way I see it, digging a new latrine every three or four years is taking up space in your compound, an enormous hassle, and certainly not a great way to introduce people to a new idea.

If anyone knows of an organization or group that works with innovative latrine digging solutions please let me know: for the moment the best way I know to do it involves welding two oil drums together, sinking them into a pit, and covering the top (when possible, using some PBC pipe to create a ventilation shaft).

So I met with a few ladies who know a thing or two about making money. Quite a bit, actually. Women’s groups in Maanda sell produce at a weekly market that draws people from Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Gambia. A newly paved road will connect these countries as early as Early August, 2010, and many speculate its completion will draw much of the business from one West Africa’s largest weekly markets (in nearby Diowbe) to the Maanda crossroads.

While working with different neighborhood groups to become fully incorporated many women asked me about could be done to increase the output of their produce. I did some asking around and found a local horticultural expert who offered to hold a two-day training on gardening: free of charge. So I organized an event that would incorporate some Peace Corps initiatives (moringa tree planting and sustainable agriculture techniques) and asked for some money to feed folks for two afternoons. Where do you go about getting money?

Turns out Peace Corps Senegal has an extremely active group of volunteers who spearhead activities related to gender development. SENEGAD, or Senegal Gender And Development, is a newly formed non-profit organization set up to fund projects that take women and children into account and promote gender equality. I talked with the current president, Ellen Jefferys-White, and got money to feed the ladies for two days. Cost: $100. Absolutely amazing how well bureaucracy moves here: I got the funding approved in less than a week.

The training was led by Maanda’s Parent Teacher Association head, who happens to be an experienced horticulturist. Maanda’s primary school was chosen for the training’s venue, as the director is excited about establishing a tree nursery and school garden. School is out at the moment, but when students return they will have a place to learn and practice gardening and tree nursery techniques.

We spent the first day in the classroom, learning a history of gardening in Senegal, and discussing how and why gardening techniques have changed. Women present were curious about companion planting, different varieties of seeds available, and how to go about procuring their own pesticides and fertilizer. We discussed why it is important to use organic materials, why industrial chemicals can be dangerous, and how to rotate crops to avoid depleting nutrients in the soil.

Classroom learning isn’t for everyone. Notebooks and pens were provided for each group’s secretary (chosen specifically because they are literate), and information was recorded, but seeing isn’t always believing. It’s one thing to hear about a new practice, and quite another to demonstrate it for others once you’ve returned to your neighborhood! So the second day of our training was all practice.

We discussed how moringa seeds can clarify turbid water, and then we mixed some up. We talked about how to moringa leaves can be a very important part of a healthy diet, and then we planted some seeds. Women learned about soil aeration, and then got their hands dirty double-digging. After learning about how composting can improve the quality of garden soil we made a pile. The next step will be ensuring each representative present at the training goes home to spread the word.

One of Peace Corps Senegal’s major initiatives is the introduction of moringa trees. This tree adds nutrients to the soil, produces leaves that are incredibly nutritious, acts as excellent live-fencing, and is used to make medicines of many kinds throughout the world. During our training we introduced the tree and its many properties, discussed how to establish moringa nurseries, and practiced planting seeds. Women expressed interest in setting up neighborhood moringa beds. In the coming weeks we will work neighborhood by neighborhood to locate places to plant, delegate watering responsibility, and decide how and where to out plant the trees once they’ve grown.

Word has spread. Two neighboring communities have asked to participate in a similar training if it can be arranged. The president of our community’s rural government stopped by and promised support in future endeavors. The local forestry official has expressed interest in planting moringa seeds where the new road passes through Maanda. Follow-through for this project will include the long-term process of community mapping, during which each women’s group will decide what their community’s needs are, and how to proceed. Water & food security issues have already been voiced.

Project Proposal:

Download the Peace Corps Partnership Garden Training Proposal

In Peace Corps, if and whenever possible, volunteers are paired with a village counterpart. In Senegal, individuals who work in a volunteer’s sector are invited to a workshop (months before the volunteer is installed at site) where Peace Corps roles and responsibilities are explained. My counterpart is Manda’s ICP. An ICP is a health agent with several months training who dispenses basic medicines, coordinates health prevention efforts, and refers seriously ill individuals to a health center. He is not a nurse. He is not a doctor (even if people refer to him as such). My ICP does, however, take his job very, very seriously. He took the Peace Corps counterpart workshop to heart and did an amazing job of bringing my arrival to the community’s attention.

My counterpart’s name is Opa Diallo. In preparation for my arrival, Opa met with each of Manda’s five neighborhood women’s groups (previously there were many, many groups: a year prior to my arrival the president of the rural community attempted to organized these groups into five coalitions, one for each neighborhood) and arranged for each to meet with me. So for my first five days in Manda I met with a different women’s group (about a hundred women each) each evening! This is kind of a big deal. For me.

The community plan to organize Manda’s groups into five coalitions was incomplete when I arrived. Opa used my installation to remind groups that the two neighborhoods that had not yet incorporated themselves of the importance of group coordination. During the first week of meetings we met with the remaining groups, facilitated leadership elections, and started the process of incorporation (this involves a considerable amount of paperwork, according to Senegalese law). These first two videos were taken during my first two meetings. One of these groups is now incorporated, the other, unfortunately, is not. This particular neighborhood’s leader and women’s groups do not see eye to eye. As I’m not particularly interested in stirring up village politics, this potential 6th neighborhood will be left be for the time being.

Peace Corps language trainers are amazing. Community-based training combines a small class experience with host family life and all the time in the world to practice what you’ve learned from day to day. Seriously, you sit under a tree with good friends all day playing with new sounds and then go home to try them out with your new family. And you get paid to do this. Its not always easy, but the rewards are immediate: prices fall as you learn to negotiate, family relationships grow with each new word, and all the little oddities and difficult misunderstandings come to light once you learn to ask about them.

Peace Corps Senegal requires each volunteer to test Intermediate Mid in one of three oral proficiency exams. I am happy to report I reached that level the day before yesterday! I hope to reach intermediate high before swear-in. I’m glossing over a lot, but there’s no reason counting specific frustrations and hardships: they’re different for everyone. What I didn’t know in Niger, that I know now, is that confidence is everything. The confidence to go out and practice in town instead of reading alone in your hut each evening makes a huge difference. Willingness to make an absolute fool of yourself helps. You’ll do it anyway, might as well look like you’re enjoying it and learn something while you’re at it.

Here’s a video that illustrates Peace Corps community-based training. We learned vocabulary related to neem lotion making (lotion made from neem tree leaves will ward off mosquitoes in the evening hours before folks jump into their mosquito nets), and then asked some local women if they’d like to learn how. As you can see, its hilarious. We have NO idea what we’re doing, the women find the whole thing wildly entertaining, and in the end, they run out and tell their neighbors. I watched one woman leave the compound and summarize the whole experience in something like 30 seconds to another woman, who then promptly stormed into the compound and demanded we repeat the demonstration. The lotion costs nothing, the leaves are everywhere, and recent statistics gathered by Peace Corps volunteers in Senegal have attracted national attention: the stuff works if you use it.
This might take a while to load but its entertaining..enjoy!

Necessary Items:

1. One or two changes of business casual clothing (include one pair of dress shoes). As you read your Peace Corps invitation kit you’ll see that formal attire is required for in-country training. This is not a suggestion! There will be times when you will meet foreign and U.S. representatives of State and religious leaders. Despite what you may have heard Peace Corps is not a hippie commune, and this is not band camp. There will be plenty of time for playing in filthy clothes and shower flip-flops later.

2. AAA battery LED headlamp. When the sun sets your light source is out. Most of the time the sun will not set when you are used to going to sleep, or at least before you begin cooking or set up your mosquito net for the night. Even volunteers placed in urban posts will likely experience outages from time to time. I found triple-A batteries easy to find even in rural markets.

3. Water Bottle. You can spot a new volunteer a mile away by the gleam of their brand-new Nalgene water bottle. As you might imagine, every country and culture on earth has a means of carrying water, and you are definitely capable of adopting their method, so this isn’t by any means an absolute must. I was tempted to include this on the Things you Shouldn’t Bring (but probably will anyway) items list but other volunteers I consulted reined me in. I will admit that durable water containers are a good idea.

• Note: Clear Naglenes marked with a recycling No. 7 do break down over time, and chemicals (bisphenol A) released into the water may reduce sperm-count in men. Click HERE for more information. Those trendy new aluminum bottles are a better bet if this concerns you.

4. Bag. This is stating the obvious, as you will need something to bring the afore-mentioned items in. Just remember that shiny, name-brand-recognizable items tend to walk away (this is not specific to any particular continent or country). I recommend something that looks just crappy enough not to attract attention. Swiss military surplus gear can be found at Mills Fleet Farm for under $10 ! Seriously, this isn’t the Appalachian trail: you don’t need to show off your brand new Northface gear.

• Note: If you buy some large tip-lock bags its easy enough to put articles of clothing in them and suck out excess air before closing them up. This shrink-wrapping will save room, and the zip-locks may be useful in keeping critters out of spices, flour, and misc. cooking items once you get to post.

5. Photographs. You are charged with sharing the best of yourself, and your country while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. Bring pictures of your family, your home, your friends, typical holiday celebrations (keeping in mind your new friends might be Muslim: no bars), and anything you value and consider an important part of your life as an American. I forgot this on my first trip and wish I hadn’t.

Believe it or not this is all you need! Other items necessary to life in training, and at your post, can be purchased there, or belong in the Comfort and Things You Shouldn’t Pack (but will probably bring anyway) items lists.

Comfort Items:

1. Underwear. Peace Corps Medical staff will confirm this fact: underwear only keeps a warm, moist, bacteria-petri-dish-like area more warm, moist, and petri-dish-like! I understand most Americans will not heed this advice. There may be times when underwear is desirable, but I’m going to keep this blog rated- G (General audiences of all ages approved). Suffice to say, if he/she won’t love you without underwear, perhaps it isn’t love.

2. Playing Cards. You will have lots, and lots, and lots of down time. This 27-month commitment involves serious work, time, and dedication, and will be the hardest job you’ll ever love. It can be a bit slow at times though. If you bring a pack of durable playing cards people will love you (or at least tolerate your presence for the duration of a game, which in many cases will warm your heart beyond expectation).

3. Male/Female Reproductive Health . This category is as broad as the variety of human desires and needs. If you are traveling to a Muslim country don’t assume less-than-conservative-items – whatever those might be, will be readily available for sale. Peace Corps will provide you with the means with which you may prevent pregnancy, should this be a concern of yours. Actually this should concern you: pregnancy results in an immediate ticket back home. They also provide female monthly necessities that I will pretend to know nothing about.

• Note: you may not have grocery variety available to you but female volunteers have informed me that ’several’ options are provided.

4. Music. Everyone loves music, especially volunteers who have been in country for awhile and depend on new volunteers for New Music. Consider anything that does not require batteries. I’m not saying you have to buy a solar charged or hand-crank device, but if you don’t want children running around with your used up batteries in their mouths these are considerate choices. I’m not about promoting name brands but iPod’s are great! You can charge them when you’re around electricity and bring back up re-chargeable battery packs. There are solar chargers for these as well.

• Note: playing anything by Journey during Peace Corps functions is generally considered good form.

5. Sandals. You can purchase sandals of all kinds in-country, but some volunteers prefer expensive brands not available throughout West Africa. You can buy name brand sandals from CHACO at almost half price with a copy of your Peace Corps Invitation letter! Contact their customer service department and they’ll give you a form once you’ve provided a copy of your invitation letter.

6. Bungee Chords & Tie-Downs. This might sound odd, but then maybe you’re not used to traveling in a donkey-cart or by bush taxi either. Both instances might involve strapping your belongings to moving vehicles of an almost certain state of disrepair.

6. American Pillow. Real pillows are hard to find. If you absolutely must have something substantial to cling to at night this may be smarter than chasing volunteers… then again it takes up a lot of space!

Things You Shouldn’t Bring (but probably will anyway)

1. Compact water purifier. Peace Corps will supply you with a large water filter and tablets that purify your water. This is a large, non-portable filter. A portable water-pump or purifier of some kind might come in handy when you travel but I rarely used mine.

2. Books. You might want one for the flight: don’t bring your library. Believe it or not other volunteers will think of this. Other volunteers before you certainly have. Hostels, Peace Corps bureaus, volunteer houses and huts will be filled with books. Believe me, you aren’t the only one who adores Harry Potter, and you aren’t the only one who has stumbled across and fallen in love with Barbra Kingsover’s Poisonwood Bible. Trashy Danielle Steele romance novels are not rare. You may be astonished (hopefully horrified) to find that copies of fairly current US Weekly, Glamour, Star Magazine ect. are everywhere. This ties in well with our next item..

3. Toilette Paper. I’m going to break this to you the easy way: you may not use this. Certainly there are volunteers who stubbornly choose not to learn local sanitary methods, but you should know that this is not necessary, and not common in rural areas. They’ll probably ween you off of it in training, or at least provide it there and leave you to your own devices once you’ve been installed at post. You may decide to take the middle road: forgo purchasing actual toilette paper in favor or using pages of those US Weekly magazines! “Go Green” and recycle these pages by putting celebrity faces where they belong.

4. Electrical Devices. These things break, die, and walk off easily. The shinier and more hip they are, the faster and more inevitable their disappearance. This is not country or region specific: volunteers themselves are as guilty of ‘accidentally’ walking off with these as anyone else. No one’s saying you won’t want a laptop, digital camera, an array of solar or hand-crank charging devices, or a nifty new GPS unit: they just might not last. Don’t bring you new iPhone.

BONUS MATERIALS FOR THOSE WHO READ THIS FAR:

You’re probably in the minority of the very few people who bothered to visit this page if you’re still reading. Your reward is a few suggestions that may just make you instantly popular among older volunteers.

Do bring chocolate, cheese, less-than-conservative/Muslim-items (mentioned but not elaborated on for obvious reasons earlier), spice packets, SPAM (hey, its pork so you don’t have to share with the Muslim neighbors), Valveeta Cheese (never goes bad, makes even ’sauce-gumbo’ tasty), beef jerky, nice pens, LED keychain lights (insanely popular in the village), un-sweetened Kool-AID packets, American stamps, envelopes, girly comfort things, and a bottle or two of ANYTHING sold in the duty-free shops.

• Note: they’ll probably love you anyway if you just show up clean, optimistic, and smelling like America. Don’t be offended if they stand real, real close and breathe in deeply on first encounter. No matter how filthy these old volunteers look, they’ve probably ‘freshened up’, by their own standards (might mean they are wearing that one seldom-used pair of underwear) just to welcome and impress you.

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