I also began working on making washable menstruation pads. This creates less waste and is less expensive as you do not need to keep buying disposable ones. While I was making a sample, a woman in my village made a disgusted face when I told her what I was making. I don't know if it was because of what I was making or that I said something about menstruation. The health post workers at a health post nearby were very interested in learning how to make it and after showing them, they plan to teach the FCHVs! (Female Community Health Volunteers) This is what PC strives for - empowering Nepalis to take information and spread it.
Our Framework that our Food Security program works under has been changed so more trainings were offered for our group. The trainings I was really interested in since it is what I am working on were nutrition and behavior change. We were able to ask about things we have seen come up in village and how to broach the topic. Ie. One of the volunteers has a child under 2 in her house that eats lots of candies, biscuits, etc. The child does not eat much rice or lentils and is often constipated. That is due to the lack of fiber in the child's diet.
Did you know that there are 7 essential nutrition actions for optimal nutrition? I'm really excited to get back to vil and talk with people about them! It will be interesting to see the response since I have observed many people uninterested in the information I share. I am still in a city because later today we are meeting for our first discussion on creating a GLOW/BRO camp. (Girls Leading Our World and Brothers Respecting Others) As plans and details are made, I will keep y'all posted!
The last day of training, I was not feeling well and my body rejected the medicine I took when I was able. For quite some time afterwards, my stomach was queasy. Finally, after a couple days I feel much better! It was weird though 'cause a couple others experienced the same thing, but at different times and some of us that weren't feeling well had eaten at different places for dinner. (I started not feeling well in the morning while others began to not feel well in the afternoon or later.) Weird, eh?
Please continue to pray for Nepal. Noises are being made of progress on the unofficial blockade, but there is not much optimism on volunteers' parts. I went with my Didi (older sister) to cut wood for cooking over fire. I tried to help, but when the road to the forest ends up being on roads that don't really exist and are covered in leaves...it is hard to walk down! I did help pile up the wood as others equaled it out for the families to take to their homes. I am amazed at Nepalis' abilities!