fication of the beneficiaries in a town called Qoqar (to ensure we were targeting the most vulnerable people in the village), I snapped some pictures of the children there. They always ran from the camera at first, until I showed them their pictures. Then they loved them and they wanted me to take more.
Mercy Corps is doing cash programming in these villages to ensure that families 
are able to access food immediately and support the local economy at the same time. I explained a little more about this is one of the blogs on the Mercy Corps website. http://www.mercycorps.org/jillmorehead/blog/25910. After two weeks in the northeastern county of Wajir, I flew to our program in northern Somalia to work with our staff from two different field offices on cash programming there.
It was a totally different scene. The UN flight I was on touched down on a gravel airstrip a few kilometers outside of town. As we got closer to town and the car rolled down the paved streets, past the concrete houses, I noticed how fat and healthy the goats looked. Goats wander the streets in this town like stray dogs in other parts of the world looking for food among the discarded items on the side of the road. Their udders seem to be full and producing milk, something I didn’t see much in northeastern Kenya. My third day in northern Somalia it rained. It wasn’t a downpour or anything, but still. In Wajir, the sky got all gray and stormy looking and then….nothing. Here, the sky got dark and gray and rain wet down the dusty side streets and provided puddles for children to play in and goats to drink from. It watered the pretty trees and flowering bushes outside our office. It was a welcome site for the people here, but I couldn’t help thinking about ho
w nice it would be for Wajir to get a little rain, even just a smattering like this. The good thing is that the meteorologist is predicting that the shorts rains will actually come in October, so…fingers crossed.
So twelve staff have come together from two different offices to sit with me to learn about cash programming and discuss the challenges they are having in the programming they are already doing. We talked about the schedule/agenda for the training on Friday and Saturday…boom…I was giving the training. Normally, I like to make them a little more lively and interesting, but I’m afraid this was a lot of info to get across in a short period of time, so they’re stuck listening to me drone on all day long. J Luckily, they seem interested. See! I can be interesting!! They look to get a little bored now and then, so I make them play Simon Says, sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and make them do other games I’ve collected from trainings over the years. They’re pretty good sports.
The situation in south central Somalia is not so rosy. That is the agricultural center of the country and the drought has had a severe effect on the food production. People are literally starving and are migrating hundreds of kilometers on foot to try to get to some place where help is available. To compound it, there is now an outbreak of cholera in the camps and hospital in Mogadishu. The situation in the southern part of the country is dire and tragic. Mercy Corps is working in Mogadishu in the camps, which are 70% women and children to try to provide some relief. It is difficult because of the security situation, but the staff are amazing and seemingly fearless. I'm holding out hope.
I had to go to the market in Kenya and get appropriate dresses for Somalia (b
ecause I don’t really do skirts, so I didn’t have any with me). I got three made, which was fun. Basically, they had reams and reams of material and I just picked the ones I liked and they folded them in half and sewed up the sides (and cut out a hole for my head, of course). Then I bought the shawl to go over my head and cover up my arms. This is my favorite of the three I had made. The other two have lavender, but I like the blue. And…it’s super comfy!! Well, I had a hard time wearing the shawl correctly and keeping it on my head, but the dress is way, way comfy. Kind of like what I got to wear in Pakistan. Feels like jammies….best work clothes ever. Did I mention it’s super hot here? So the breeze through the thin fabric was great. I turned into Sweaty McSweaterson here. Whew!
So we’ll finish up the training tomorrow and I’ll leave the materials and their certificates for them Wednesday, then I’m heading home. I’ll be in DC a whole 22 hours before heading out again. Portland….here I come (first time ever), then on to Phoenix to visit family for three weeks! Can’t wait! Everybody…cross your fingers that there are no disasters and I have to miss my Phoenix trip. :)
Till next time…..
