We had pancakes this morning. Which isn't really that special. What was special about this morning's pancakes is that we had an egg! Not that we don't get eggs regularly, we just haven't gotten any recently. We included the egg in the pancake batter. What a world of difference! Pancakes are so much better when made with an egg.
We finished a PHAST workshop this past friday. They gave us a chicken as a going away gift. We couldn't carry the chicken back with us on Friday night because we had too many other baskets and I was drunk off kava. Our friend brought the chicken down on Monday. He's a young boy - the chicken, not our friend, our friend is a thirty-something father. We tied our chicken to the bush kitchen - like a dog leash except that it was tied around the chicken's leg. We cut him free this morning - Wednesday, we think he'll stick around as he seems used to this place now. Our big rooster keeps pecking at the new guy since we freed him. We are hoping he doesn't run away because he gets tired of being bullied by the big rooster.
We have another workshop next week, it's a youth (18-30 year olds who aren't married) workshop, we are going to facilitate actives on hygiene, child spacing and money management. Our co-facilitator came over this morning and Alex and her went through the hygiene part of our workshop while I prepared lunch.
An Australian aid agency gave our community grant money a few years ago to build a classroom on the school grounds and a toilet at the health dispensary. Representatives came here yesterday for an opening ceremony for both the classroom and the toilet. I got a chance to speak with the representatives briefly. Apparently, they -the representatives- are traveling up Pentecost island, visiting each of the projects that they have funded over the last few years, which seems to be many, many projects.
Each day they start at 6am, going from one small village to the next, scrutinizing their funded projects, with little ceremonies and small speeches at every village. Our village was their last visit for the day yesterday. They arrived here a little after 9pm and were finished a little after 10pm. I heard their boat leaving this morning around 6am, they were off to the next village.
There is a village to our south that won a grant to build a market house in their village, the supplies came and they started building it a few years ago, they quickly lost interest and the market house was never completed. We are told it's now completely overgrown in bush. Flush toilets were built at our dispensary though we have no reliable water source. A vocational school to our north, where another Peace Corps volunteer works, was given a rather large solar power system a few years ago. It no longer works, we think the problem is either the batteries or the inverter.
These are three of the less than ideal visits that the aid agency representatives made yesterday and today. I am sure there are many examples like our school classroom too - a well-constructed building that the community can be proud of and will be put to good use. And I am also sure there were many other visits like the three I described. I guess mixed results are to be expected in such a business. I imagine the worst part being the range of possible emotions arriving in each village, not knowing if you are going to get an overgrown foundation or a classroom that 40 students use everyday.
I think I prefer my job; worrying about our chicken, enjoying pancakes and convincing people not to eat their own excrement.
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