A busy final week at site for 2010...

Pig Pickin', Peace Corps Mali style.

After an amazing southern-style Thanksgiving in Ségou, complete with a pig pickin’ and some Eastern North Carolina-style vinegar barbeque sauce I prepared, I had some trouble getting back to site the following day.

After waiting 8 hours, the bashɛ (bush taxi) finally arrived after dark. The driver asked me to pay double the normal fare, sit on the roof, and told me they might not even be able to take my bike. Also considering the fact that after the bashɛ ride, I would have to bike back from my market town in the dark, I decided to cut my losses and spend a couple more days in Ségou before taking another bashɛ back to site the following Sunday.

With my timeframe constrained and only 5 days remaining at site before heading back to Ségou Saturday (today) in order to catch Peace Corps Transport to Bamako for IST (In-Service Training) and my sister’s subsequent visit, I had a busy week ahead of me.

First off, I wanted to complete my Water and Sanitation Baseline Survey, including my supplemental women’s garden survey. I was able to successfully accomplish this task, and in a previous post I went through my intentions from the information gathered therein.

I also wanted to complete an additional Baseline Survey on Food Security, which involved interviewing five men and five women in different concessions throughout the village. I succeeded in completing those by Wednesday morning. I was happy to find that my language has improved to a point where I could be successful on these surveys, even without the aid of my homologue, Lassana, who had gone to Dioro.

Unfortunately, as part of the Food Security survey, I learned some very troubling information regarding the diet of the majority of villagers. Namely, most families have insufficient supplies of food to feed their families during the hot, harvest, and/or farming seasons (covering the months of April through November). This includes millet supplies, the staple of the Malian diet, going bare. When this happens, most families look to borrow food from neighbors while also reducing the number/size of their daily meals. Additionally, most families do not eat enough vegetables throughout the year, often less than once a day, although there isn't a strong consensus on which seasons are the hardest hit.

On Thursday, I began working with Lassana, who had returned from Dioro to work on repairing my ɲɛgɛn (latrine).

Adama, the Assistant Peace Corps Mali Water and Sanitation Sector Head, had come out to perform a routine site visit Saturday, October 30th. While there, after entering my ɲɛgɛn, he asked “Do you ever feel like you are ever going to fall in to your ɲɛgɛn?” To which I replied, “No? Should I?” He then explained that the ɲɛgɛn slab is very weak because the concrete thickness is too small.

My existing ɲɛgɛn slab, with a thickness of about three centimeters, much smaller than the recommended seven centimeters. Behind the ɲɛgɛn hole and platform itself, you can see the hole my foot punched through the concrete while bathing.

Well, the day I returned from Ségou after Halloween, I was taking a bucket bath in my ɲɛgɛn, and while walking within it, my foot fell through the concrete. Luckily, not over the actual ɲɛgɛn pit, but it was enough to raise concern. With this hole, any water infiltration could begin to undermine the slab ‘cover’ over the ɲɛgɛn pit. Falling into years of accumulated fecal matter is certainly an experience I could go without.

Lassana with the donkey cart we used to transport sand within the village to my concession.

So back to this past week… on Thursday Lassana and I used a donkey cart to collect sand from within the village and pile it into my concession. Normally, concrete is mixed 1 part cement to 3 parts sand to 5 parts gravel. Unfortunately, gravel is not readily available nearby my village. So our concrete was mixed 1 part cement to 4 parts sand.

On Friday, Lassana, Bamadu (another local villager), and I worked on constructing the ɲɛgɛn slab. While the existing slab was only about 3 centimeters deep, the new slab will be 8 centimeters in depth.

My role was primarily to plan, calculate, and measure, while Lassana and Bamadu provided most of the labor. The following is how the construction went, in pictures:

We began with myself and Bamadu tracing the circular footprint of the slab on the ground using string and stakes, which Bamadu and Lassana then dug out.

Next, I traced a second circle in the dirt, and began measuring and laying out the steel rebar for reinforcement, as Lassana cut the rebar to size using a metal stake. Once I finished laying out the rebar grid, we all tied the bars together to hold them in place with metal tie-wire.

With the form-hole dug and the rebar grid prepared, Lassana and Bamadu proceeded to mix the concrete (first the cement and sand, then adding water to the mix).

With the initial 4 centimeters of concrete placed in the form and compacted, we laid the rebar grid atop. But then I noticed we forgot the most important thing, the hole to the ɲɛgɛn pit! Whoops!! What good would that do for a ɲɛgɛn?!

With the ɲɛgɛn hole dug and the form successfully laid in place, the rebar was then set, and the final 4 centimeters of concrete placed to finish off the form hole.

The ɲɛgɛn hole form was then removed, and plastic placed within the hole, allowing us to pour the cover for the ɲɛgɛn with a handle made from leftover steel rebar. The use of this cover will cut down on odor and flies around the ɲɛgɛn. The wooden board shown was used to lay out the foot platforms, which were then formed atop the slab.

A picture of the completed ɲɛgɛn slab. The slab will now be watered and allowed to cure for seven days while I am studying at Tubaniso. The slab should be placed, and the rest of the concrete flooring of the ɲɛgɛn set by the time I return from Bamako, much to the delight of my sister! Lassana decided to leave his mark on the slab, by adding the date in long-hand Bamanakan format.