IST and the month to come...

I am now at the end of IST (In-Service Training), a two-week training period at Tubaniso, the Peace Corps' training facility just outside of Bamako. The first week was spent on technical training, such as learning the methods to construct various Water and Sanitation facilities, including latrine slabs (already had that one down!), irrigation systems, drinking water wells, etc. The second week, with our homologues, involved learning meeting strategies in order to better assess the needs of our community and encourage community involvement, and thus sustainability, in our projects.

It has been somewhat of a long two weeks sitting through these training sessions. Quite frankly, I am ready for a vacation, which is great because I am about to embark on a three-week excursion through this expansive country with my sister. Our plans right now include heading East into the city of Djenné on Sunday, December 19th after she flies into Bamako, taking a 5-day guided hike through the cliff-side dwellings of Dogon country, spending a few days at my site, celebrating New Year's Eve in Ségou, enjoying a few relaxing days on the banks of Lake Manantali in Mali's Western Kayes Region alongside monkeys and hippos, before heading back to Bamako for a day or two before my sister flys back out on January 7th. Unfortunately no Timbuktu... there's some sketchy characters up there.

After this vacation, I plan to return to site and begin laying the foundation for my remaining two years of service. The first step is to form a Water and Sanitation Committee in my village. Once we do that, I can hold discussions with the villagers on what projects we will tackle together to improve their living conditions. The first two items on my agenda are hand-washing education and replacing the two broken pumps currently in the village. On Thursday, I received a cost estimate from SETRA, the local pump manufacturer, for the latter. The next step is to discuss with the village their contribution to the project, including financial, labor, and material contributions; then to write a funding proposal through the SPA (Small Project Assistance) program of U.S. AID for the remaining amount.

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).