The Work Begins...

It has been a productive couple of weeks at site since I finally returned on Wednesday, January 13th after two weeks of training outside of Bamako, three weeks of traveling with my sister across the country, and five additional days in Ségou to prepare my Pump Replacement project proposal, with the transport troubles that followed. I just arrived back in Ségou today to attend the 'Festival sur le Niger,' which takes place from February 1st through the 6th.

Below is a brief synopsis of the projects that I currently am working on at site:

Village Water and Sanitation Committee

The 10 members of the village Water and Sanitation Committee and I following our first meeting on Wednesday, January 26th.

The day after I returned to my site, on Thursday, January 13th, Lassana, my homologue, and I met with the 'dugutigi' (chief of the village) and his son in regards to setting up a Water and Sanitation Committee. I told them my intention to select 5 men and 5 women, varying in age, representing all 4 cartés (regions), each with a genuine interest and enthusiasm for improving the lives of the villagers. The men agreed, and decided that the 'dugutigi' would select the 5 men, while the 'musokɔrɔba' (elder woman) would select the 5 women.

On Friday, January 14th, Lassana and I met with the village men's committee, and subsequently on Monday, January 17th with the village women's committee to discuss the formation of a village Water and Sanitation Committee. With the community informed, the selection of the members was completed, and we scheduled our first meeting for Wednesday, January 26th.

The first meeting went on without a hitch. On the agenda was to elect officers, determine rules for the committee, and discuss future meetings. The officers included president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, organizer/community 'crier,' 'secretary of logistics' (meeting place preperation), and, my personal favorite, 'keledabilala,' which in Bambara literally means 'the fight stopper.' Gotta love this language.

The members decided amongst themselves who would take each position, then determined the rules they would abide by as well. I only asked them to make one change... they decided that if a person does not show up to a meeting without informing the president in advance with a valid excuse, they would have to pay a fine. After three occurences, that person would have to pay a bigger fine and buy the committee a bag of candy. I told them that if a person missed three in a row, they probably are not interested in the committee and are adversely impacting the rest of the group. In that case, they should probably be kicked off the committee and replaced by another member of the community to be determined by a vote. They agreed to that change, as appealing as the candy may have been.

When I return to site after the festival, I plan on beginning PHAST with the committee. PHAST stands for Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation Series. It is a series of activities and discussions which a group of villagers, in this case the Water and Sanitation Committee plus 10 other villagers (each villager will bring one other person of the same gender to each of the PHAST meetings), work through in order to determine for themselves the water and sanitation needs in their community, and later, select strategies and projects in order to address these needs.

At the conclusion of the PHAST activities, my hope is that the committee will then be informed enough to select for themselves the projects they would like to tackle. It will then be my job to simply facilitate the implementation of these projects and assist the committee as required. By allowing the community to take the foremost role, I hope that the projects we tackle together will be sustainable long after I return to the states.

Pump Replacement Project

The pump replacement project is now in the works. The funding for this project will come from two sources; the Small Project Assistance (SPA) grant program of USAID and the community itself.

I submitted my proposal for SPA funding to the Peace Corps office on Tuesday, January 12th while in Ségou. This proposal includes funding for the replacement of the two broken foot-pumps in the village with India-Mali hand pumps, the procurement of maintenance/repair tools for the village to keep on-site, and the training of three members of the Water and Sanitation Committee on the proper operation, maintenance, and repair of the pumps. By providing this training, it is my hope that the project will be sustainable in the future by eliminating the village's dependence on outside assistance for maintenance and repair.

The Peace Corps Mali office has approved the proposal, and I am now waiting for the forms to make their way through the proper channels, and for the money to show up for use.

During the meetings with the men's and women's committees, during which the formation of the Water and Sanitation Committee was discussed, Lassana and I also informed the community of the details of the pump project, including the community financial contribution. The community then selected four men to collect the money from each family.

Once both the SPA and community financial contributions are available, I will then take the money to the SETRA (the India-Mali pump manufacturer/installer) office in Bamako. Within a couple of days, the SETRA workers will arrive in my village, install the two pumps, and train the villagers. The entire project should be completed within a week on-site!

2/1/11 Update: My Pump Replacement SPA proposal was approved today. I should receive the funds in 3 weeks, allowing me to begin the project.

Women’s Garden Seed Trial

Women fetching water from a well within the Women's Garden to water their plants.

During my 'yala yala's (walk-abouts) throughout the village over the past several months, women have constantly approached me with two main concerns they have regarding the Women's Garden. The first issue is that the wells within the garden go dry during the afternoons throughout the year, and are often dry throughout the day during the hot season. I am waiting for the Water and Sanitation Committee to get off the ground so that they can decide on their approach to solving this problem.

Onion plants (in the foreground) within the Women's Garden.

The other issue that the women have raised, however, is the difficulty they have in obtaining seeds for the garden. They have trouble with both obtaining diverse varieties of vegetables, as well as obtaining quality seeds which would lead to thriving, healthy plants.

I got in contact with Karim, the Food Security program coordinator with Peace Corps Mali. He told me that if I could provide him with a list of the types of vegetables the women would like to grow, complete with the land area for each type, a seeding company will provide the village with the seeds for required this year on a trial basis. In other words, the women will be able to try these seeds for free this year, and if they are happy with the results, they will have to buy the seeds in subsequent years.

From front to back, hot pepper and onion plants within the Women's Garden.

On Tuesday, January 25th, Lassana and I met with the women's committee, and we described the process to them. They were thrilled at the prospects, and are more than willing to pay for the seeds next year if they work out this year. I first asked them to tell me which vegetables they would like to grow. Next, I asked them if 100 'places' are available in the garden, how many 'places' would they like to dedicate to each crop (that was my way of explaining percentages). They decided upon planting onion, lettuce, potato, cabbage, carrot, okra, cucumber, tomato, melon, green pepper, beets, papaya, and hot pepper.

Currently unused land within the Women's Garden. Once the new trial seeds are delivered to the community, this land should be put to good use!

I just forwarded on the information to Karim, and am now waiting for his response to finalize the project and arrange delivery.

Fish Pond

A view of the fish pond within the village. Since it has not rained since mid-October, and there are no additional water sources, the water level in the pond is currently very low.

The village's fish pond was previously constructed through the coordination of Kyle, the first Peace Corps volunteer in the village and the University of Pittsburgh Engineers without Borders (EWB). EWB is still involved with the project, from assisting the community in obtaining fingerling fish to begin the population to designing and implementing changes/improvements to the pond.

Sidiki, a village fisherman, casts his net wide into the fish pond.

Lauren, the head of EWB Pittsburgh, has been in contact with me regarding the pond, and has asked me to provide them with information to facilitate the project. They asked me to test the water quality on a bi-weekly basis with a chemistry set they provided me, which I have started doing with Lassana. Additionally, they asked me to provide them with measurements and weights of a sample of fish from the pond.

Lassana, my homologue, measuring a 'dɛbɛ' fish.

There are currently two varieties of fish in the pond, 'dɛbɛ' and 'manɔgɔ.' The latter is effectively a catfish. So during the past couple of weeks, Lassana, Sidiki (a village fisherman), and I did some catch and release of the fish to obtain the required information.

A 'manɔgɔ' fish being weighed on a scale.

Lassana is concerned at the moment because the pond will likely go dry during this coming hot season. We are also working on improving the fence around the pond to keep small animals from entering and feeding on the fish. So at this point, I am going to continue to assist EWB in monitoring and improving the fish pond as necessary.