Below is a brief rundown of the projects that I have been working on over the past three weeks at site:
Village Water and Sanitation Committee
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| The Water and Sanitation Committee working on preparing a community map during one of our meetings this month. |
Since I returned from the festival, we have been holding regular committee meetings twice a week; Monday and Friday mornings. We have held five such meetings this month, making steady progress on PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation Series).
The intent of the PHAST activities are to facilitate discussion amongst the villagers themselves, which allow them to learn on their own about proper water and sanitation practices and analyze their own community’s practices, thus empowering them to later select the projects they would like to work on to improve their community.
Included in the activities we’ve completed thus far are discussions on good and bad hygiene behaviors, investigations of illnesses and diseases found within the community, the development of a community map with current water and sanitation facilities, and the development of charts showing how ‘feces gets to your face’ (This is actually the way you phrase it. The purpose is to force the members to think about their village and how diseases are spread.).
Shortly, the group will be determining what are the ‘barriers’ they can use to prevent disease transmission. They will then rank these barriers in terms of effectiveness and ease of implementation. This analysis will then be used as a tool for selecting their future projects.
Anyone that has been to Mali will tell you that punctuality and reliability are not in the vocabulary. So imagine my surprise when on Friday, February 18th, eight out of ten members were on-time for our 9:30 am community mapping meeting. One woman, who is pregnant, had not been coming due to sickness, and one man has been in Côte d'Ivoire. I was impressed.
Unfortunately, the following Monday, we held another meeting on 'good and bad hygiene behaviors.' Only four out of ten people were on-time at 9:30am. I then found out that the pregnant woman was still sick, the one man was still in Côte d'Ivoire, and a young man had gone to the fields, skipping the meeting. That made three definite no-shows!
At 10am, the remaining man showed up, and the two remaining women came at 10:30am; two claiming to have overslept, and one woman apparently came early, then left for the garden after hearing that some goats had invaded it and began eating the women's vegetables. The committee President and Vice President, to my delight, decided to replace the pregnant woman and the man who left for Côte d'Ivoire without notifying them of his trip in advance (a rule that was set during our first meeting). The two people selected maintained our balance of gender and village regions, and both had actually participated voluntarily in previous meetings on their own accord, simply because they were interested. So we then had our meeting, an hour late, but with nine out of ten members.
At the meeting's close, I took the opportunity for a brief lecture on the importance of attending all meetings, on-time. All of the activities build upon each other, and in order to work effectively and make good decisions, the knowledge base obtained by the group now is vital. Not only that, they've made a commitment to serve their community.
For our meeting the following Friday on 'how diseases spread,' I arrived at the meeting place a half-hour early. Already, six people had arrived, and by our 9:30am start time, all members were present! We shall see what happens as we move forward, but hopefully the commitment is now entrenched. Hearing the stories of other volunteers though, this will likely be a constant battle.
Pump Replacement Project
I am heading down to Bamako tomorrow, and will head to the SETRA (the India-Mali pump manufacturer/ installer) offices on Monday. My hope is that we will begin installation of the two pumps by the end of next week, completing the project during the following week. The village will then have a clean, reliable source of drinking water before the crux of hot season!
Women’s Garden Seed Trial
I have now received two shipments of the seeds I had requested for the women’s garden. For 2.5 hectares of garden area, I expected several large sacks of seeds to be delivered. I was disappointed to find only the small cans pictured above.
Now, I am not a gardener, so all of this is new to me. My understanding was that I would be given enough seeds to distribute to all of the women in my community at once. Apparently, however, the standard practice is to begin by preparing what are called pepinieres, or nurseries.
A pepiniere is a small garden plot that allows seeds to germinate and propagate. The seeds are allowed to grow in this small plot, and once they break through the ground and grow for 3-4 weeks, they are then transplanted to their particular plots in the garden, planted with the required clearances from other plants to allow them to grow.
So now my task is to learn exactly how to construct one of these, and assist the women in doing so when I return from Bamako. I plan on tasking a couple women to tackle each type of vegetable. Once the plants are ready, they can then be divvied up amongst the other women.
Fish Pond
Lassana and I have continued to test the water quality every other week. Other than that, no actual work has been done to report.
The Fish Pond Committee held a meeting on Thursday night, where they informed me that they only plan on harvesting a significant portion of the fish this year if the pond goes dry. Their strong preference is to leave the fish in the pond for next year to allow the fish to grow and multiply.
The engineers from EWB (Engineers without Borders) plan on coming in May to construct an auxillary retention pond to collect more rainwater, preventing flooding of the surrounding roads while also helping to alleviate the water shortage the pond experiences in the hot season. I am currently serving as the intermediary between EWB and the villagers regarding the specifics of this design.
The intent of the PHAST activities are to facilitate discussion amongst the villagers themselves, which allow them to learn on their own about proper water and sanitation practices and analyze their own community’s practices, thus empowering them to later select the projects they would like to work on to improve their community.
Included in the activities we’ve completed thus far are discussions on good and bad hygiene behaviors, investigations of illnesses and diseases found within the community, the development of a community map with current water and sanitation facilities, and the development of charts showing how ‘feces gets to your face’ (This is actually the way you phrase it. The purpose is to force the members to think about their village and how diseases are spread.).
Shortly, the group will be determining what are the ‘barriers’ they can use to prevent disease transmission. They will then rank these barriers in terms of effectiveness and ease of implementation. This analysis will then be used as a tool for selecting their future projects.
Anyone that has been to Mali will tell you that punctuality and reliability are not in the vocabulary. So imagine my surprise when on Friday, February 18th, eight out of ten members were on-time for our 9:30 am community mapping meeting. One woman, who is pregnant, had not been coming due to sickness, and one man has been in Côte d'Ivoire. I was impressed.
Unfortunately, the following Monday, we held another meeting on 'good and bad hygiene behaviors.' Only four out of ten people were on-time at 9:30am. I then found out that the pregnant woman was still sick, the one man was still in Côte d'Ivoire, and a young man had gone to the fields, skipping the meeting. That made three definite no-shows!
At 10am, the remaining man showed up, and the two remaining women came at 10:30am; two claiming to have overslept, and one woman apparently came early, then left for the garden after hearing that some goats had invaded it and began eating the women's vegetables. The committee President and Vice President, to my delight, decided to replace the pregnant woman and the man who left for Côte d'Ivoire without notifying them of his trip in advance (a rule that was set during our first meeting). The two people selected maintained our balance of gender and village regions, and both had actually participated voluntarily in previous meetings on their own accord, simply because they were interested. So we then had our meeting, an hour late, but with nine out of ten members.
At the meeting's close, I took the opportunity for a brief lecture on the importance of attending all meetings, on-time. All of the activities build upon each other, and in order to work effectively and make good decisions, the knowledge base obtained by the group now is vital. Not only that, they've made a commitment to serve their community.
For our meeting the following Friday on 'how diseases spread,' I arrived at the meeting place a half-hour early. Already, six people had arrived, and by our 9:30am start time, all members were present! We shall see what happens as we move forward, but hopefully the commitment is now entrenched. Hearing the stories of other volunteers though, this will likely be a constant battle.
Pump Replacement Project
I am heading down to Bamako tomorrow, and will head to the SETRA (the India-Mali pump manufacturer/ installer) offices on Monday. My hope is that we will begin installation of the two pumps by the end of next week, completing the project during the following week. The village will then have a clean, reliable source of drinking water before the crux of hot season!
Women’s Garden Seed Trial
 |
| The cans of vegetable seeds that I will be distributing to the women for their gardens. |
Now, I am not a gardener, so all of this is new to me. My understanding was that I would be given enough seeds to distribute to all of the women in my community at once. Apparently, however, the standard practice is to begin by preparing what are called pepinieres, or nurseries.
A pepiniere is a small garden plot that allows seeds to germinate and propagate. The seeds are allowed to grow in this small plot, and once they break through the ground and grow for 3-4 weeks, they are then transplanted to their particular plots in the garden, planted with the required clearances from other plants to allow them to grow.
So now my task is to learn exactly how to construct one of these, and assist the women in doing so when I return from Bamako. I plan on tasking a couple women to tackle each type of vegetable. Once the plants are ready, they can then be divvied up amongst the other women.
Fish Pond
 |
| A current view of the fish pond and it's ever-shrinking water level. It still has not rained since mid-October. |
The Fish Pond Committee held a meeting on Thursday night, where they informed me that they only plan on harvesting a significant portion of the fish this year if the pond goes dry. Their strong preference is to leave the fish in the pond for next year to allow the fish to grow and multiply.
The engineers from EWB (Engineers without Borders) plan on coming in May to construct an auxillary retention pond to collect more rainwater, preventing flooding of the surrounding roads while also helping to alleviate the water shortage the pond experiences in the hot season. I am currently serving as the intermediary between EWB and the villagers regarding the specifics of this design.
Hey Mike, this is Danielle, one of the EWB-Pitt kids you met with the Water Quality tests. Lauren sent us your blog and i thought it was really cool to read about the pond! Hope life in Makili is treating you well! Tell Karamogo and Lasana I say I ni che and miss them!
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