It's Finished

On June 27th Tourningal officially inaugurated its Community and Women’s Center. After many months of arduous work and cumbersome planning, I’m frankly relieved the pomp and circumstance is over. In the words of one of my counterparts, “this will be the biggest ceremony that Tourningal has ever hosted.” I’m not sure if that was true; however, it was a gallant affair. The ceremony was held to thank us Americans for our collaboration and help to the community. Everyone is deeply grateful for the donations that Americans made to the community. Some notes on the ceremony:
-Was attended by hundreds of villagers and 5 PC volunteers.
--My Peace Corps Director assisted the ceremony to show PC support. His presence was greatly appreciated by the community. He came via the treacherous 17 hr. train.
-Over 60 women bought matching fabric to show solidarity.
-The community brought together over 1,000 USD to buy food for the ceremony. -Women from surrounding communities that I work with came; which was very exciting for me to see. The fact that the women left their houses and husbands to come dozens of kilometers away is quite a feat in this culture.
-It was supposedly the first ceremony ever in the community that women and men assisted and were able to sit next to each other especially in the presence of elites.
-A large soccer match was organized to commemorate the Jersey’s that Milwaukee University donated after the ceremony.
Of course like any event, there were vicissitudes. It rained after an hour, and there were scrambles for the food. In other words, mass disorganization. Putting hundreds of dollars of varieties of food in front of Africans that rarely mix of their diets, and not having properly planned who would serve the food, is a recipe for disaster. Many Men were very avaricious putting loads of food on their plates when other women didn’t get served. C’est la vie. All is well that ends well.
With that said, Let’s just hope the Community and Women’s Center comes to fruition and is properly managed, taken care of and, most significantly, used. If not, the project will have been a failure.
Hope this finds everyone well. Happy July. Less than a month and I’ll be home Enshallah. Health and Happiness to all, Ali