This month MHOP worked to
provide clean water with our javelisation
(bleaching) campaign. For many
years, it was the role of the mayor's office to
bleach private and
community wells each year in order to keep them
free of parasites and
other bad things. However, this program
has fallen by the wayside in
recent years. The CHAG (the community
group that advises us) suggested
that we do that as a service to the community,
and we decided it seemed
like a good idea. So, Moustaph (the CHAG
member who had the idea), Awa
(our Malian intern), and I went to all the
houses of our target
families to check if they had a well, and then
we got the CSREF (the
health center for this side of town) to provide
technical expertise in
bleaching the actual wells. Within a few
days, it was all done! Here
are some photos from the day; the first is from
when we talked to the
dugutigi (village chief) to tell him what's up,
and the second is from
bleaching the first well:
In other work-related news, the construction of
the clinic is very
close to completion, and even the painting is
almost done. Choosing
paint colors proved to be one of the larger and
more complicated tasks
of the month. While it might seem simple
to choose paint colors and be
done with it, it took some significant back and
forth between the
construction company (who essentially wanted
the building to look as
much like other buildings in the area as
possible) and us (who wanted
the building to remain clean from the dust and
dirt of the area longer
than two weeks after being painted).
After many instances of me saying
something like "how about we try this color I'm
pointing at", them
trying a color 5 shades too light, and me
saying "well, okay, but what
if we tried the color I mentioned before", we
finally had made some
decisions. The outside is not yet
complete, but the inside is a color
combo of dark blue and light blue, which (in my
opinion) is pretty
nice! It's definitely a step up from the
brown/beige combo that was
originally proposed. Here is a single
photo of the interior
paintwork. I'll have better photos in the
coming days:
