Thursday, November 20, 2008

Its my Birfday

Just wanted to tell you all that I am about to turn 25 and celebrate my quarter century in Tangier. I am so excited! Then it is back to work... I love you all and wanted to give a shout out to my mother, Nikki Josefson, who 25 years ago gave birth to me. She has been a great mother and I appreciate everything she has done for me in the past 25 years, all starting with being in labor for 36 hours.
Love
Emmy

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Reinvigorated...Again

I just had training in Azrou last week and it was great. I don't know if I learned that much but I definitely got inspired. It was also great to be back with all of my friends again. Training was a great time to bounce ideas off of each other and learn about each others sites. This week I have started working on my training of birth attendents project. I will be working with my friend Carrie setting up a training for birth attendants. Most women living in small villages, like ours, give birth in their homes and most of the time the women give birth in very unsterile rooms. There are also lots of urban myths the women believe in like pushing on the belly with extreme force will make the birth faster, which maybe it does but is very dangerous for the mother and baby. So Carrie and my job is to set up a training of women who are interested in being present at these births to make sure it is sanitary and safe. After training I have a new found motivation and have lots of project ideas. I am planning on doing a bathroom project in my market area so the men stop going to the bathroom beside my house. I also want to do a eye glasses project to get the people in my village glasses, but this project wont happen for awhile. The project I am most excited about is health lesson vidoes. The girls at my neddy will help me make the videos and in doing so they will learn about health stuff. Then we will show the videos to classes and the girls will become the teachers as well, which makes the project more sustainable.

After training I went to Fes and it was amazing. The street food was amazing and I found out that is where Algebra was invented, which is cool but I hate Algebra. Now I am back home for about a week and then I am off to Rabat for a shot. Then I am going to Tangier for my birthday; which is going to be a blast.

I love you all and hope that people are still reading this. I am trying to keep up with it but not doing a great job at it.

Love
Emmy

Life is good here right now.