Our primary job here is to teach about preventive health and help the locals construct infrastructure that goes along with it- sanitary latrines, concrete floors in houses, high efficiency wood stoves, etc. However, something important every Peace Corps volunteer gets into is Secondary Projects. This is when you see a need in the community, and tackle it. We’ve each already got a great one started, and we’ve only been here three weeks.

Emily’s project is cool. She’s starting a women’s handicraft cooperative. The women here all have several traditional handicrafts they excel at, and no market. So they’re looking into starting a co-op to sell these crafts in the fair-trade world marketplace. It’s a great project because of the open-ended nature of it: the women can develop business skills, accounting, computer and internet use. It’s a way for them to hold onto their cultural heritage and use it to prosper. Emily also noticed that they have tons of sheep here, and they eat them. They don’t do ANYTHING with the wool. With this fantastic raw material ready to be used, it’s too good an opportunity to pass up.

The women are getting pretty excited about it; the picture on the left is during their first meeting. The next two are of a few of the women, and their morales, or handbags. Someone once said that Emily’s knitting would be beneficial, and they were right.