December Pointers

Dean McEvoy visited the last couple weeks and I am anxiously awaiting his comments, which I will post on the blog sometime in the next couple weeks. He had a pretty incredible stay getting to see a lot more of the village than Becky and I saw in our first month.

This week we have been building chicken coops and giving out chickens to kids to help them get enough protein and, perhaps, generate some income for their family. Also weeding the peanut field, again, as we have been told it will help keep away the squirrel that has been attacking our peanuts. I know - squirrels in Africa, who would have thought. I think the blood pressure stuff will have to be put on hold because the nursing assistant has been sick and John had to take care of a lot of other stuff, so we will look at blood pressure and water later. Richard and I fixed the inverter, giving us power and reliable, bright lights for the first time since we left the United States. There may even be enough power for us to charge computers and inundate you with more blogs. After pouring through two manuals as nighttime reading and re-learning circuits, I realized that there is a switch missing in the old inverter. Single, tiny switch that kept us from power is back, which makes us all very happy (the other inverter could run a couple cell phone chargers or a couple 15 W light bulbs.

So blogs. The next blog (Christmas Eve - Happy Birthday Evan) will hopefully talk about some of my thoughts about culture and the west and scrape the surface of a question Professor Pease asked a couple months ago. The following blog (New Year's Eve) will be "A Day in the Life" blog in my attempt to give you a little more detailed picture about a typical day (I think Becky's blog is mostly daily matters as she describes it, but I lack in this department). I think I will try to give a better picture of Ddegeya in blogs to come...

I will be visiting Dave Shulman, another Minerva Fellow, working in Malawi for Partners in Health next week (December 23 - January 4). There Dave will show me a little bit of Africa Malawi style and I will get to help him out in some of his work for PIH if all goes well. Really looking forward to spending birthday, Christmas, and the New Year with Dave. Won't be bringing the computer so I have posted blogs already.

One last thing. I would love to hear what you all want to hear about on the blog - more rants like the Christmas Eve blog? More about Ddegeya? More about the Physics Department? Something else? Coffe production in Ddegeya? Anything - just name it. At the very least I'll reply with a comment, but perhaps it will make a good blog.

Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, Happy New Year, etc. Talk to you all in a couple weeks.