shipping out

HEY! welcome!!!

i'm leaving in the morning -- CMI-JFK-Casablanca-Bamako -- for an eleven-week internship with the Mali Health Organizing Project in Sikoro, in Mali's capital city.

I love you guys. this blog is for you.

(thanks in advance for leaving so many comments that the world wide web crash-lands on this very cyberspot - RIP.)

alright. time to rearrange power bars, capris and cans of tuna so they're magically under 50 lbs.

xxxooo Colette

the following is nicked from my post to the starr fellow blog (check it out at siihub.com!)

In a couple days, I’ll be tugging my rolling suitcase along the gravelly streets of Sikoro, one of the poorest districts of Mali’s fast-growing capital city of Bamako. I’ll be flipping and flopping in potently new-smelling Chacos, lugging a backpack crammed with instant oatmeal and Sudoku, and blinding onlookers with a violently orange rain poncho that didn’t fit in my luggage. “Hey, I’m Colette! How do I feed myself??” Ready to rock my second toddler-hood.

I am apprehensive and excited by the work to be done this summer – something I haven’t thought about concurrently with touching down in my polka-dotted cultural flying saucer. My work experience so far with MHOP has combined baby-steps – clacking on Word at my laptop and wondering what the heck a real health survey is supposed to look like – with breathtaking and terrifying leaps, as my efforts are emailed straight to Dr. Marietta in Sikoro in time for community health worker training. I feel under-qualified and respected -- welcomed to the work-site of Malian and U.S. experts and invited to jump in. I’ve been empowered by this incredibly competent, intimate and fast-flying organization called MHOP – and I have no idea what my niche will be. But I’m confident it’ll come in its own time. Caitlin Cohen will be in town.

Siguida Keneyali – Health In Our Homes – is a community-health-worker initiative that will reach sixty families this summer, bringing high-impact health services to moms and their kids in the home. Instead of unthinkable cash fees, adults will pay by performing three Action Fees – community service, like voting, helping out with trash collection or peer health education, and working in the clinic. Action For Health. The pilot was designed and steered by an elected committee in Sikoro – the Community Health Action Group, or CHAG. Since this is a pilot initiative, evaluation is needed for CHAG to monitor its success and reshape the program as it happens. What does women’s empowerment mean in Sikoro? Is Project Chubby Baby (fortified peanut butter) reaching those who need it? How can action fees be monitored, and how will they impact health outcomes?

Let us know if you have ideas -- we’ll be trying our hardest. Wow…I get to say “we.” By that, I mean CHAG and MHOP -- inspiring Malian and American minds that have let me follow and join them as they tackle a neighborhood’s crisis of health and empowerment. More to come.

wut