36 Bracelets, 36 Life Lessons

On September 6^th, I put on my 36^th bracelet signifying my 36^th month in Mali, West Africa. It was common place amongst many female Peace Corps Volunteers in Mali to add a bracelet each month of their service. Though PCVs were evacuated from Mali following the Coup d’Etat in March, I returned to Mali to finish my research and continued the bracelet tradition. 

Serving in Mali has taught and reinforced many life lessons for me. I thought it prudent to write at least one down for each month I have spent in Mali. The lessons may not exactly correspond to the month and some lessons were learned over several months or years. 

First Year

1. Poverty has many levels.

2. Somethings just don’t translate.

3. Patience is a virtue.

4. Doni Doni (Literally small, small in Bambara or little by little. A commonly known proverb is "little by little, the bird builds its nest)

5. Three cups of tea, or more like three thousand…

6. Being full is a wonderful feeling.

7. You can live on very little and still be happy.

8. Small, slow, simple.

9. Development isn’t easy.

10. Practice what you preach.

11. Walk a mile in their shoes.

12. I’m proud and lucky to be an American.

Second Year

13. It is amazing what you can learn in a year.

14. Mmm…Mayonnaise is delicious.

15. Kalan nafa ka bon (Education is very important).

16. Things can always get worse.

17. Take things one at a time.

18. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver).

19. Bee ani I ka baara ye (Everyone and their own work).

20. We all make mistakes. It is what you learn from them that matters.

21. Kuruni menna ji o ji la, a te ke baama ye. (No matter how long a canoe stays in water, it will not become a crocodile)  

22. An bee ye Adama den ye (We all are Adam's children)

23. Baara ye timinaja ye. (Work is/is about/requires courage)

24. Behavior change is hard/ near impossible.

Third Year

25. Appreciate what you have in life, and stop focusing on what you don’t have.

26. Diyen ye sogomada caman ye (Life has many mornings)

27. Monitoring and evaluation is essential to project continuation and success.

28. Shit happens

29. Learning a new language is a process that you can’t do in a day or even a year.

30. The importance of family

31. Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.

32. Seli diarra, an kenema y’a ke.(The holiday was good, we were healthy)

33. Bambara proverb version of “you can lead a horse to water”: You can put the chicken in the coop, but you can’t make it turn around.

34. Look up at the sky once in a while, it is pretty amazing.  

35. N’shallah (God willing)

36. I bora I ka so, I nana I ka so (You left your home, you come to your home)

My Third Year in Mali: Pre and Post Coup d'Etat

So it has officially been a year since I updated this blog. I think it is important for updating everyone and would be great to write regularly but it has always gotten pushed to the side with other work. Now there is so much to say but I don’t think people would want to read a ten-page blog but I will make an attempt to summarize this past year and then hopefully update again a few times before I return to the states at the end of November/beginning of December. 

So, much has happened since last year. My last entry was about my transition to Bamako for my third year in the Peace Corps as a PC Volunteer Leader and working with a women’s water and sanitation cooperative. I certainly didn’t anticipate the events that occurred and sometimes still don’t believe what happened. There have been five major events of this past year that I will attempt to summarize below: 1) my five week home leave in December, 2) my Father’s visit to Mali in February, 3) the Coup d’Etat in Mali and subsequent evacuation of PCVs in Mali, 4) a five week French immersion in Nice, and 5) my return to Mali to finish research for my dissertation.

1. HOME LEAVE

As part of extending for a third year, PC grants you a month, paid home leave which I took during December to be home again for the holidays. The first two weeks I spent back in Tampa where I kept busy meeting with my adviser and committee members. I successfully defended my dissertation proposal, becoming a doctorate candidate! The other three weeks I spent with family and friends mostly, it seems, eating (gained another 10 lbs like last year…). It was great being home and I have found being so far away has made me value family that much more.

2. FATHER’S VISIT

I was lucky to have my Dad visit Mali for two weeks in February. This included a few days in Bamako in the beginning and end with a visit to the PC office and women’s cooperative. His visit happened to coincide with his birthday so we had a cake at the women’s cooperative and everyone sang him Happy Birthday in French.

The second day we rented a taxi for the day and visited my village where I had spent my first two years. The villagers gave my Dad a grand welcoming. The women’s association I worked with on the garden project presented with a painted calabash and morroca as well as a chicken. Most all the village showed up at the public square and there was dancing and drumming. We only could spend a few hours before heading back to Bamako before dark but everyone wanted to take pictures with my Dad and we gave him a tour of the village as well. The women in Bamako had given him the name Sedouba and ofcourse his last name would be Konare as most everyone in my village and my own Malian name. Though my Dad could not speak a word of Bambara and even had trouble with his new name, we made do with my translations and lots of laughter.  By the end we had three chickens and had presented the chief of the village with a sheep.

The next day we had to leave well before sunrise to go to Segou (a region further north in Mali) for the music festival. We spent several days enjoying the festival. All the hotels had been booked a year in advance but I had managed to book a room on a boat with four small bunks though lacking hot water and a western toilet. My Dad didn’t let that hamper his fun and we made sure to make a daily trip to the hotel’s pool and enjoy the festival.

At the conclusion of the festival we headed yet further north up to Dogon country in the Mopti region of Mali. There we did a three day, two night hike with a guide and a group of Senegal volunteers. My Dad held his own and often was ahead of over half a dozen twenty somethings which involved a lot of climbing on rough terrain.

The days up in Dogon flew by much like the whole trip and then we found ourselves on a 12 hour bus ride, returning to Bamako. My Dad was excited for a hamburger and a real toilet by then. We spent the last two nights in a hotel in Bamako with air conditioning and a pool which was a nice end to my Dad’s African Adventure. My Dad said he wants to come back for the music festival and Dogon festival some years later.

3. COUP d’ETAT

Fortunately and unfortunately, my Dad’s trip occurred before March 22^nd when there was a Coup d’Etat where the military overthrew the former Malian president, Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT). Now his visit would not be possible. Just days after the Coup d’Etat, rebels took over three regional capitals in Mali (Timbuktu, Kidal, and Gao) dividing the country in two. Visiting Dogon country is out of the question now.

To say we (myself, PCVs, staff, and Malians) never saw this coming is an understatement. Even writing this now, I find it unbelievable. Before the Coup, there had been protests against ATT’s handle of the situation up-north but elections were scheduled in April; ATT had served two terms and was expected to step down. 

The day of the Coup was like any other in Bamako. I had gone to the women’s cooperative that morning but then we received a text from the embassy like similar ones before that there would be protests and to stay away from the presidential palace. Then around midday the embassy sent a message that there was gunfire around the presidential palace and to return home. That night, the military took over and ATT went into hiding. For five days I was told to stay put by myself in my apartment in Bamako. Each night and sporadically throughout the day, I would hear gunfire sometimes very close. Needless to say, not a very pleasant time.

After the Coup, things were quite a blur and I won’t go into all the political details but when the military refused to give back power, ECOWAS threatened and instituted sanctions. Gas prices sky rocketed and getting money from banks became near impossible which made operations for PC very difficult. They had consolidated volunteers to regional capitals. We were all put into a state of waiting. The volunteers in the Mopti region had been brought down to the PC training center and I was there when our Country Director told them they would have to take interrupted service as the region was no longer safe and with the situation for the rest of the country, unsure, they could not be placed in other places in the country. It was heart breaking news and I tried to offer comfort, only a few days later I found myself in their shoes when we received an e-mail at night from the Country Director; all PCVs in Mali would be evacuated. Just a few days earlier some volunteers had played an April fools day joke on me when I had woken up that we were being evacuated. That joke didn’t seem as funny anymore. I immediately called my family and my advisor to tell them the news.

Packing up my apartment not knowing if/when I was coming back was one of the hardest parts. I was just starting to feel at home in Bamako, it had been a more difficult transition than I expected. Of course, the hardest was saying good bye to the women at the cooperative and me and my old site mate rented a taxi to break the news to our villages. It also didn’t help when I closed my bank account, the woman asked “So when things get tough, you all (westerns) just run?” I felt really bad for my replacement who had not been able to stay a year in Mali and had just started a WATSAN project and her Bambara was getting good. It is hard to say who the evacuation was hardest on but it was really difficult for the volunteers that had just completed training or had not quite served a year. At least myself and the training class after mine had pretty much completed our service.

Shortly after news of the evacuation, a plane was chartered and we all left for Accra, Ghana for a week long transition conference.  The conference was packed with sessions and well organized. It did help that it was held at a five star hotel with a gorgeous pool. PC had done this before and staff was flown in from the states some even that had experienced an evacuation when they were volunteers. Nevertheless, things were hectic and everyone was in different stages of grief. A week is also short period of time to close out all the paperwork for 180 people. A close of service ceremony was held on April 14^th where I officially became an RPCV.

Before and during the conference I had kept myself so busy organizing things along with the other training class “chiefs” from organizing t-shirt orders and the final dance to helping staff collect paperwork, etc.  I had not been able to give much time to think let alone plan my next steps. I know I had to go back to Mali to finish my research for my doctorate though the when part was a bit difficult (now? Two weeks? Two months? A year). Two years of data collection is a lot to lose and plus I wasn’t ready to leave Mali.

I stayed another week in Ghana in the house of a PC staff member who had married a Malian. Her housekeeper, husband, and brother all spoke Bambara so it really helped with the transition. I took the week reading Malian news updates and talking to people in Mali to gauge the situation.  

4. FRENCH IMMERSION

In the end I decided to take at least a month to let the situation calm down but in the mean time I would improve my French in France. I enrolled in a five week intensive course with Alliance Franciase (4 hours a day, five days a week) in the South of France, Nice. Nice was amazing and breathtaking. It is on the French Riveria where the sea is a beautiful blue. I went running most every day on the promenade near the coast. I made friends in my class from all parts of the world: the US, Malaysia, Spain, Italy, and Brazil and visited other cities along the French Riveria (Monaco, Ville France, St. Tropez, Cannes). I ate a lot of great food and drank a lot of good wine and was amazed by the cheese, wine and yogurt isles in the supermarkets.

Though Nice was a great experience, and really helped with my French, I was still getting over the shock of the evacuation and worried about the situation in Mali and anxious to get back. I made good friends with classmates but found French people much less patient and welcoming than Malians which doesn’t facilitate learning a new language as well. In the final days of my last week of class I made the plunge and bought a ticket back to Mali for that weekend. Things had seemed to calm down and a transition government was in place. Though I was still not 100% sure it was the right decision, it was good to have at least made one.

5. RETURN TO MALI

On June 2^nd, I returned to Mali late at night and had a friend meet me at the airport. I wasn’t quite ready to go back to my apartment. After 5 weeks including many dust storms, I knew it would be a mess so I stayed at a hostel I had stayed at before as a volunteer, The Sleeping Camel. Through the first two days, I didn’t get out much but everything seemed normal if maybe a little quieter especially at the Camel and restaurants. On the third day, I visited the PC office and it was great to see all the staff and then I visited the women’s cooperative. It felt like no time had passed though it had been almost two months since we had been evacuated.

Going back to village was even more of a rush and not a shock like I was expecting after living in the luxury of Nice with its rich French foods to fetching water from a well and no electricity. I fell back into my normal routines and soon checked to see if the Tippy Tap hand washing stations were still there. It felt like coming home and I felt happier, more relaxed than in France. It was really inspiring to see that Zeala had finished the project my replacement had started (including three top well repairs, over 30 soak pits and 30 latrines) and the Shea cooperative had built a house from their own funds to store their soap making materials in.  

Now it has been two and a half months since I have returned to Mali as just a researcher. Things are very much the same and very much different. I really miss the support of volunteers and PC. You ofcourse don’t realize how good you had it until it is gone. I get very few text messages let alone phone calls now from volunteers asking questions or just random musings of their day. Ofcourse the first weeks when I was back, I got a bad rash and cold and wished I could call Dr. Dawn (the PC Medical Officer). The first several market days I walked, rode on someone’s lap in the front of a speeding van, and rode on the back of a motorcycle several times. I really missed our PC trek bikes and everyone kept asking where my bike went. I had always told them it wasn’t mine. A friend let me borrow his bike which doesn’t have brakes, the chain often falls off, and I think riding with the bar up my butt would be more comfortable than the seat they made out of wire and cloth. Nevertheless, I am thankful and it is better than not having a bike at all.

Even now I get questions of when Jeneba (the volunteer that replaced me) is coming back and I have to explain for the hundredth time that she probably isn’t coming back and no, I don’t know when another volunteer will come as PC has yet again pushed back the arrival of another training class until March. Though the situation in the south of Mali has stabilized, the North is still in the hands of the rebels and there has been little progress made to take it back.

I am keeping very busy with my research on the hand washing stations and shea butter. I guess a positive from this whole situation is I have really been able to focus on my research as before I had many responsibilities with PC. I have been weighing the shea nuts in different stages of the process and hopefully will have a total amount of nuts collected and butter made in the entire village. Also, I have been conducting ethnographic interviews and surveys in respect to Shea butter and its role and importance during the hungry season for an anthropological methods course I took as a directed study.  Data collection for my third topic of research, latrine usage at schools, should start in October at the beginning of the school year.

Hopefully, if all goes to plan (though I’ve learned things can turn out quite different), I should be back in the states at the end of November/early December. I may go to USF for a few weeks to work on research and make sure I have a place to live and that I am registered for classes in the Spring. It will be nice to be back in the US for a significant period of time and in the same country as my family. Hoping Allah will see me safely through the rest of my time in Mali and then home and also pray for a solution to the crisis Mali is facing and soon. Thank you to all my family and friends that have supported and continue to support me through this transition.

Bye bye Village, Hello Bamako

So I have officially moved into Bamako as of August 16th. As I mentioned before, I will be extending for a third year in the capital of Mali to serve as the PC Volunteer Leader in my region and work in a WATSAN Women’s Cooperative in Bamako. It was difficult leaving village and has been an adjustment living in the city but I think this year will end up going by very fast.

FAREWELLS
The Sunday before I left village, my community had a big farewell ceremony for me. We couldn’t invite the whole village since they wouldn’t be able to provide food for everyone (each committee I worked with pitched in the equivalent of $20 and I bought the sheep ~$60). There were over 70 people including the WATSAN, Garden, and Shea committee officers, the village chief, the mayor, his wife, and the people that work in the mayors office, teachers from Torodo I worked with for teaching English, two representatives from PC, my replacement, my site mate, people originally from my village that live in Bamako, and people from the neighboring village I worked in.
The program included speeches from each association, the mayor, village chief, etc. The village presented me with a “Chiwara” statue which symbolizing hard work which was very special for me. The mayor also gave me a framed certificate of appreciation for my work. They reserved the last speech for me and I was pretty nervous to give a speech in front of that many important people let alone in Bambara but I think it went well and I gave key people that I worked with in the community each certificates. It made me realize how far I have come in two years with language and integration. I described in my speech how I had changed and how I felt I owed them more than they did me. How though life is difficult in Mali there is the community, family, and happiness.

The whole event put some of my accomplishments in perspective since near the end of leaving I felt that there was so much more to do and so many things I should have done but you only have so much time and resources available. It seems that finally after you figure things out and have good language skills, you need to leave. After all the speeches we took many pictures and planted 5 trees thanks to my site mate’s project that has been growing trees to sell (he is an environment volunteer). They had me plant a Baobab tree which can get very large and they said even 100 years from now they will call it “Mariam ka Zira” or my (Malian name) tree when they cut the leaves which are rich in vitamins for their sauces. Altogether, I know the day will be one of my most cherished memories in Mali.

REPLACEMENT
I was lucky to be able to overlap with the volunteer that will be replacing me (PC usually tries to have a series of three volunteers in a community). I helped her during site visit in the middle of her training, and I stayed a few days after she was installed into my village to help explain the village and the work I had done. She seems like a really intelligent and motivated person and (Ni allah soona) she will do a great job. I told her I am always available to her for any help and we will also be teaching the women how to make Soap at the end of September.

BAMAKO LIFE
After the farewell ceremony and market day on Monday, I took a more permanent trip to Bamako on Tuesday, August 16th. We visited my apartment in the afternoon to sign the lease and there were some issues with squatters still in the apartment and it was filthy. I found it pretty quickly there isn’t as much of an expectation to move into a clean apartment. After we paid for the cleaning products, the guard cleaned that afternoon and it looked much better the next day when I officially moved all my stuff and went to the Women’s cooperative to announce that I would start work the next week.

The apartment is pretty simple: two rooms (bedroom and a living room), a bathroom (with a real toilet and a shower), and a storage room that is my kitchen. I have electricity, running water, and fans which are all pretty exciting. It is in a small “complex” with only about 7 other families who are mostly from Cote D’Ivore but speak pretty good Bambara. My apartment is on the second floor which is fun for taking my bike up and down but good airflow). I bought furniture and a mini fridge from a volunteer in Bamako that will be leaving so I feel pretty spoiled with that and a store next to me with cold sodas, bread, Malian spam, etc. every day.

My apartment is in a section of Bamako on the outskirts since that is where the women’s cooperative is that I will be working. It takes me about an hour and a half in public transportation to get to the PC office. This makes things a little challenging since it is an expensive cab ride if I am coming back late and my apartment is off the main road and it is unpaved and almost impassible as well as dark but I’m sure I will get a schedule worked out.

COFESFA (Cooperative of Women for Family and Health and Sanitation)
The first week I spent most days at the cooperative’s office. Since it is August, most people are on vacation so there is only the secretary and accountant. I have mostly just been getting to know the office and asking a lot of question of the secretary to get to know the cooperative and their history.

1989-The cooperative was started by 16 women who had graduated from University but couldn’t find work in Bamako. At that point the trash collection system in Bamako was basically non-existent though money for the service was taken from peoples taxes. They did a feasibility study and determined there was a need and willingness to pay for trash collection services. The cooperative was granted two dumpsters from UNIFEM for their business. They spoke to the governor but he said they would not be able to charge for services that people were being taxed for so the Women kept being persistent but, in the mean time, transported sand from the river to make money.

1991-The governor agreed to pay the women the tax money allotted for trash collection and they started their business. They were also granted some money to help with educating women on water, sanitation, and hygiene. The cooperative members would collect the trash and drive the dumpsters themselves in the morning and come back in the afternoon to individual households to hold talks about these issues.

1993- Young men in the area the cooperative was working in noticed that they could make money by collecting trash instead of sitting around all day and making tea. Thus, the governor did not renew the Women’s contract and gave it to the young men in the area. In the mean time, they went back to transporting sand and some of the women would be hired by projects for sensitizing communities on water, sanitation, and hygiene issues but business was slow.

1995-Present- The cooperative received major funding for the UN and a foundation in Luxembourg and they sold the original dumpsters for larger ones and built their office. They began work in outside villages of Bamako including building pumps, two hospitals, working in slums outside of Bamako, and were turned over the management of a center for HIV/AIDs. They also received several volunteers from Canada annually.

They still continue trash collection and also own three public latrines in Bamako, sell water at two taps (one of which is working), work in surrounding villages, and offer cleaning services for offices (has been difficult since the companies/government, doesn’t always pay for their services).

So far I am very impressed with this cooperative and I think that there needs to be more of these such cooperatives and organizations in Mali that are founded and managed by Malians instead of people from other countries (yes, I know that means PC). They have two major project ideas that have not received funding but seem like very good ideas: one is to sort the trash they collect and turn it into compost which they would apply to crops and sell and the other is to have a center for women that have had early pregnancies and provide literacy and small business training so they can support their children.

Working with this more “advanced” cooperative compared to the village committees where only a few people could read and write is certainly be different and I will need to find how I can help though they seem to already have great ideas and practices. They said that soon I will go out with the dump trucks and see the trash collection in action (sadly, I’m excited about this) as well as visit the public latrines and their work outside of Bamako.

PCVL
As for the PCV Leader position, I will be slowly incorporating those responsibilities as I adjust to Bamako and get to know operations at my cooperative. I will be providing support for the WATSAN sector and PC trainings as well as peer support to fellow volunteers.

RESEARCH
Part of why I extended for a third year was to continue my research towards my PhD which I have three topics developed and have written draft reports: 1) Human and Embodied Energy in Shea Butter Production, 2) Hand washing Monitoring, and 3) Latrine Usage in schools. I will also be taking an online class in Biostatistics and going to Tampa for a week to defend my PhD proposal during my month leave in December.

CULTURE SHOCK pt. 2
Overall I am very excited for the work I will be doing. It has been a little difficult adjusting to living in Bamako. I was so focused on making sure all projects were closed and everything was prepared for my replacement that I didn’t really think of the next chapter in my service. This first week I have missed my village. Electricity and running water aren’t worth the constant “Toubab” (white/french person) chants from children and adults alike as well as people always speaking to me in broken french, traffic, people asking for money, and spending a lot of money myself. Sometimes I wish I had a shirt/sign on my head that said “I lived in a village for two years, I speak Bambara, and I have no money.” I know it is just because I miss my host family, work partner, and friends from village and I don’t have a host family in Bamako yet. As time goes on, it will get easier.

So I think that should catch everyone up on things and I now I should be able to update more often since I have more internet access. My third birthday in Mali is coming up (August 29th) and it’s hard to believe but I will be 25 (quarter of a century). My Aunts, grandma, and mom sent me two packages which I have been waiting to open until the “big” day. I also went to a smaller city outside of Bamako for a Harry Potter party and finally watched the last movie (so good!). There is another Colleen in PC Mali and it is her birthday on Tuesday so we shared a funfetti cake which was really nice 

The end of Risky Business (in Mali)

Lunar Eclipse
There was a lunar eclipse on the night of June 15th (sorry, those in America didn’t get to see it since it was still daylight) and I think it will be one of my most memorable nights in village. I heard about the eclipse several weeks ago but totally forgot until about 5PM that day at which point I got up and told my host father “kalo be datugu shuena” (tonight the moon will be covered since I didn’t know the word for eclipse). Accustomed to my primary school (or maybe at least 6th grade now) bambara, he understood. There is no word for eclipse in bambara but they refer to it as “jakuma ye kalo mine” or the cat took the moon.
They were in awe that I could predict such an event and sure enough we watched the moon closely that night. At first we didn’t think the moon had come out but realized it had already been eclipsed (the eclipse started at 5PM and the sun sets at 7PM). We were probably the only family to know there was an eclipse in my village but later the rest found out. Since they think the cat took the moon (cats are sort of regarded as “shubaka” or sorcerers here) the children in the village gather together and must make lots of noise or risk the cat never returning the moon. At least 50 children toured the village and sung a song about the cat stealing the moon while I explained how an eclipse “really” happens to an avid audience though I think I prefer their explanation.

Third Year
So it is finally official with my medical clearance, I will be staying another year in Mali. I will be changing sites from my village to the capital, Bamako and working with a women’s water and sanitation cooperative and serving as the PC Volunteer Leader (PCVL) for the Koulikoro region. In these last months in village I find myself really excited for the change and nostalgic. I know I am going to really miss my village however much Bamako is appealing for electricity, running water, and the food. The most challenging things for me in PC have not been related to lack of amenities which have become second nature after two years so while it is a comfort it isn’t a necessity. But at least I will have internet more to update my blog though I need to think of a way to reengage my previous audience…I think writing more often will be part of that.

Things I will miss about Zeala:
-Runs in the early mornings just around or to other villages to greet people
-Market days with my site mate eating bruchettes for lunch (my only meat for the week) and frozen juices (probably not that sanitary)
-Living with my host family that have been so easy going and gave me space during my service at the same time supporting me especially in those early stages with basically no language skills
-Drinking tea and chatting for hours with my homologue. He has really become a close friend.
-My language tutor and the director of my school. We also have long conversations about Mali, politics, education, etc.
-Rainy days in my mudd hut reading or just watching the storm from my window
-Nights during cold season spent by the “camp” fire
-Cutting okra, shelling peanuts or beans, etc. for hours

COS Conference
June 22-24 what was left of the Risky Business training stage met at Hotel Residence Bouna for our Close of Service Conference. Though the hotel didn’t have a pool, very warm food, or water pressure it still felt like luxury with air conditioned rooms, meat at every meal, and two pause café’s a day (tea and pain du chocolat!). The hotel aside, I really enjoyed the time to spend with people from my training class whether I spent a lot of time with in my service or not still had a deep connection because of our two years of service together. It was a little sad that it was our last time to probably all be together in a group. We had sessions on resume writing, interviewing, applying to grad school, life after Peace Corps, etc. Though these sessions didn’t necessarily apply to me since I will officially be spending a third year in Bamako and I have at least two years ahead of me in grad school when I return to the states to get my doctorate it still was an excuse to update my resume and get motivated for my future. We heard from an impressive panel of RPCVs (Returned PCVs) who have basically never stopped working abroad since then. I asked them how they made the decision to continue to work internationally since I still haven’t really decided on that one but I guess it is not such a black and white decision.
It is hard to believe that my two years of service is over so I am glad to be pursuing another year here since I’m just not quite ready to leave.
At the end of the conference we had a prom which included a flash dance and the announcement of prom king and queens (there was a tie for queen at which point we did a dance off but decided since we were in Mali it was appropriate for the prom king to be polygamist). Though I do have an extra year left it is going to be difficult without my fellow Risky Businessers to share it with.

Finally, A Post!

So, once again, it has been a long time since I have written and I apologize. Things have been really busy with the project that many of you helped make possible. The only things left of the project are one soakpit, 4 latrines, and mosquito net distribution. Though we are not quite on schedule, much has been accomplished in the past several months: the pump structure was destroyed and built anew, a pump training was held with five people from my village and two from a neighboring village, 15 soak pits and 6 latrines were built, and, most recently, 81 mosquito nets were purchased.


Overall this project has been a valuable learning experience for my village and I; bigger than we anticipated. My village and the WATSAN committee worked extremely hard throughout this project but, ofcourse, “fien tunbe yoro dow la” (there was wind in some places). So I guess I can break it up into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good
-All the cement arrived on time and under budget
-All the village showed up to pick up good quality sand we purchased in a nearby village about 6 miles away. About 20 donkey carts made 4 trips in two days to collect over 200 wheel barrows of sand. It was a long way and a heavy load. PETA may have something to say about using pregnant donkeys…
-The soak pits have been a big hit and relatively easy. People have noticed a difference and constantly remark in the amount of mosquitoes.
-Most everyone on the WATSAN committee shows up each week for 2-3hour meetings on project updates and makes plans for moving forward.
-Everything was basically on schedule except for the latrines
-I learned a lot from the pump repair training held by a person from Zeala that had worked for the National Hydraulic Agency.

The Bad
-Getting ripped off: Shipping the pipe and rebar was about $30, way overpriced…This resulted in me throwing a hissy fit at the car station which resulted in only $1 off. When my homologue and I arrived to buy the sand the guy we originally talked to said he can’t sell it by the wheel barrow and we have to pay for a big silo which we did not budget for. We then went to the guy next to him and convinced him to give us the original deal.
-Groups were not coordinated properly for when the mason was in village to rebuild the pump structure so few people showed up to work after the first three days except for one family. I would often be doing hard labor and when the women also didn’t show up for watering the concrete, I would make many trips to the well myself. This resulted in work stretching 6 extra days outside the budget and me being very discouraged. This was a very difficult time for me but I made my disappointment very clear to the village elders and committee so that this does not happen with the next volunteer.
-Pump rules were created and read at a meeting with the elders with things such as not wearing sandals inside the pump structure, not jumping to pump water and breaking parts, not eating inside the pump walls, not giving animals water right next to the pump so that they urinate and defecate in the area, etc. In the beginning this seemed to all fall on deaf ears and people continued with their old practices though they would shout my name when I came to the pump and quickly take off their sandals and stop jumping…This was very frustrating since the pump was repaired like new and I guess I expected a rapid behavior change. I worked with the committee and we continued to reiterate the rules at village meetings and members would watch the pump more closely to educate villagers. Lesson learned: Behavior change is difficult and can not change over night.

The Ugly
-The mason I was given by Peace Corps to repair the pump structure was illiterate and not very skilled outside of building walls. Thus, not everything turned out like the plan I drew, some things aren’t very level, and places do not drain properly. However, it works…so far. We’ll see in several years but the proper cement mix ratios were used so that concrete should last for a long time!
-We found during the pump repair training that the neighboring village’s pump both did not have a plastic lining so would bring up dirt from inside the forage and that the major pump piece replaced by a project last year was a old piece (the new one was probably sold and the Malians working on the project probably pocketed the money). I ended up applying for $500 from Water Charity to replace the pump part but, really, the village needs a new pump. Without the plastic lining, the water is not up to quality and the mud gets into the pump parts and breaks them early. It was really upsetting to see the corruption in projects in Mali especially having to do with something so essential to life, water.
Here is a link the project if you would like to donate: http://appropriateprojects.com/node/631

COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION
It is important to note, and something made really evident to me through this project, that other projects/NGOs have created a dependence in villages that they will do and provide everything making community contribution and labor difficult to coordinate. I thought a lot about this during the project and whether community contribution will lead to project sustainability or not. Really, these are services the government should be providing anyways. Though they may be working to give equivalent to 33%/25% of the project total, a project is a project and it is still a discount. That does not automatically ensure future community buy in and maintenance. However, as Malians say “little by little, the bird builds its nest.”

SHEA ASSOCIATION
I’ve been working with the officers of the shea association to plan for a training on how to make soap in September and to purchase a grinding machine for shea nuts to alleviate the work of pounding or traveling to the next village to use their machine. There is a machine in village but it is constantly breaking down and has management issues, including people stealing money. We plan to provide intense training on machine operation and maintenance. They have already cleared a field to farm in rainy season so they can get extra money for their association.

FOOD SECURITY
I’m still continuing to work with the food security committee in my village. Meetings are basically every two weeks with everything else that is going on. We have been working on a comprehensive, food security plan to improve the situation in my village. Basically July-September families run out of grain from last harvest and have to buy it at expensive prices on credit. They also have begun clearing land for a community farm and hope to store their harvest in a cereal bank next year so they can provide grain to those that run out during the difficult months.

THE GARDEN
So I have not said much on the progress of the Women’s garden project that I started last year. We’ve encountered many setbacks with finding dependable well diggers (we are now on our fifth and he stills asks for money all the time though we have not reached water yet). The rock inside the wells is very difficult to dig. We have decided to put all our money into just trying to get water when the rest was supposed to pay for concrete well tops and seeds. The time is ticking down until rainy season and when the project really needs to be closed. I’m crossing my fingers and saying many blessings in Bambara. I will let you know what becomes of the current fenced in area with two, 10 meter deep holes in the ground.
Overall, this project has been very wearisome for me and the women who have put in many hours of labor pulling dirt for the well diggers. Some of the previous well diggers that just stopped showing up or basically lied about money they were “spending” for digging materials were even from my village. Project money here is often seen as a free for all or never-ending which makes Malians ask for more than what they would work for for another Malian by factors of 2-100 and change their price half way through working. A lot of times I think of America’s tax dollars or the donations from hardworking people to help those less fortunate and how that money is regarded. This is not an obligation for other countries and they work for the money as well. Then I just think of the women in the association and the work they have put in above their contribution and know why it is worth it.

THE YEAR OF ANNIVERSARIES
On a happier note, as some of you may know, this year is the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps and 40th Anniversary of PC in Mali. The major celebration we had was that the swear in of this years stage was at the president’s residence. He gave a very encouraging speech about PC even stating that if he was an American he would be a PCV. It was great to get the chance to meet an African president (a democratic one…at least for now. Election in 2012) . The security was sure a lot different from what it would be for Obama. We didn’t even have to do a security check and afterwards the president, Amadou Toubmani Traore (ATT) walked amongst the PCVs and staff as we mobbed him for pictures. He provided tasty treats, pop, and dessert! I , unfortunately, wasn’t lucky enough to get a picture with ATT.
It is interesting thinking back to how service in the PC was in the beginning compared to now; without cell phones or internet. Though I sometimes feel very disconnected from America and my family and friends at least my correspondence with them can be online every 3 weeks instead of writing a letter and waiting over a month to two months for it to get there and then get a response.

SECOND YEAR THOUGHTS
It is hard to believe that in two months I will have been in Mali for two years. So much is different and easier from when I arrived, not least of all language. So much is easier but as you may have read from above, there are many challenges. Already at meetings we are planning for when I won’t be here and mentioning “the next volunteer” and how I’m “taa tow” or on my way out. The time really went by fast and it is going to be really difficult to leave. I will provide you more updates on my plans for next year soon.

Thanks for reading if you got this far! I apologize if I may have seemed negative towards the project and development in Mali in general. This does not mean I think my time here or the project has been a waste or that aid should be ceased. At times I catch myself noticing the sanitation differences in my village and it really gives me a sense of fulfillment but I find as an American or just me it is easy to spot the imperfections/faults.