Some Initial Reconnaisance...

I am back in Ségou to celebrate Thanksgiving amongst my Peace Corps peers. I am going to get an entry up on the Muslim holiday of Tabaski (‘Seliba’ in Bambara) later, but I first wanted to post an update on the work I am embarking on in my village.

Currently, I am still within the timeframe before IST (In-Service Training, December 6th through the 17th) where we are to spend our time integrating and learning the language. I feel very comfortable on those terms, and I have also nearly completed my Baseline Survey to assist in determining the most critical water and sanitation needs of my village.

However, I am currently working on gathering initial information to repair the two broken water pumps in the village. Through some initial reconnaissance work, I have found out that the two broken foot pumps in the village actually used to be India-Mali pumps, which are the hand pumps widely used across the country, and therefore are more easily maintained.

One of the abandoned, broken foot pumps in my village.

Apparently, approximately 7 years ago, there was a widespread outbreak of Cholera in the village, which caused many deaths throughout the village. The Malian government decided that the problem was the hand pumps, so they switched the two pumps to foot pumps in June 2004.

An example of an 'India-Mali' hand pump, common across Mali.

I couldn’t understand what logic was behind that, because regardless of what type of mechanism is used, the pumps are still accessing the same aquifer, the same water. But my sector head found out that the concern resulted from the fact that people in my village do not wash their hands with soap as a general rule. A person infected with Cholera could use the hand pump, in-turn infecting the pump, and spreading the disease to the hands of any subsequent users. Then those users would eat with unclean hands, and infect themselves.

Although their reasoning makes sense logically, it seems like the wrong way to attack the problem. The main problem is general hygiene. I plan to attack that issue by educating the villagers on the importance of hand-washing, which I am already beginning to do with some result.

A quick picture as I crouched down for a lunch of 'kini ni tiga dɛgɛ na ni misi sɔgɔ' (rice with peanut sauce and beef) with some elder men during the Muslim holiday of 'Seliba.'  In the foreground is a man washing his hands, with soap, after I explained to them the importance of doing so - '...Safini bɛ banna faga.' (Soap kills illnesses).

Since we eat our meals communally, out of the same bowl with five to ten other people, I have been able to educate people on a smaller scale, with hopes that those people will then become hand-washing ‘ambassadors’ for the rest of the village. When I eat with any group of people now, be it my host-family or a group of men during a holiday such as ‘seliba,’ I break out my soap before the meal and insist that everyone joins me in washing their hands with it. I subsequently explain why this is important, and even give them the Cholera outbreak in their own village as an example. So far, I have converted my entire host-family, even the women whom I do not eat with (culturally inappropriate), as well as a few other men.

In terms of the pumps, we will be working to replace both broken foot pumps with functioning India-Mali pumps, since they seem to have less issues and are easier to maintain due to their prevalence in the region. The original India-Mali pumps in my village apparently lasted upwards of 20 years without any major issues. I have obtained an initial cost estimate, and will be meeting with the pump manufacturer alongside Lassana, my homologue, and Adama, the Assistant Water and Sanitation Sector Head of Peace Corps Mali in Bamako while I am in Bamako for IST next month to determine our plan of action.

My next move will be to assist the village in forming a Water and Sanitation Committee. Through this committee, I plan on working with them to determine the village’s contribution for the pump replacement project, begin more formal hand-washing education in the village, and assist the villagers themselves in determining which projects we will attack next. By leaving the decision in their hands, I hope to encourage the villagers to really buy into the projects, thus ensuring sustainability.

After the two weeks of IST, my sister will be visiting me for three weeks, which I am very much looking forward to. Therefore, it will be mid-January when I will really begin moving hard on these projects. I am very excited about this potential work and am looking forward to that time.