Distractions

We've been making steady progress with my house - the main framework is in place, and the roof is almost covered. We ran out of the palm leaves the day we were covering the roof, and collecting more is an exhausting task that the group just wasn't up to. So add another week onto the time of construction.

I can ride a calm horse now, and enjoy that. I tried without a saddle but that just doesn't work for me.

I've finished (roughly) a comprehensive community analysis of where I live, identifying the resources the community has, the resources that are being abused, potential threats, and opportunities. One of the critiques of Peace Corps as a development agency is that not enough assessment and evaluation is done for both determining what work to do and then determining if that work had any effect; for this reason, I'm making sure I collect enough data to show the current status of the community and then repeat the data collection post-projects. I'm not alone on this; I'm collaborating with another volunteer and we're hoping to help see this sort of assessment and evaluation become standard practice.