On the role of a development aid worker…

The people of Africa face enormous challenges in their daily lives, and the roots of their problems are certainly complicated. Now living in Mali, it is amazing for me to realize that this country has only had it’s independence from France for 50 years, as the days of empirical conquest had seemed to be ancient history.

The causes of Africa’s lack of development have frequently been debated, but there is little doubt that the period of invasion and exploitation from the west was the most damning. And unfortunately, this exploitation continues today, with foreign companies gobbling up the continent’s vast natural resources whilst its’ people see not a dime of it. The widespread political upheaval we continue to see in the region today is also of grave concern and many of the region’s leaders are corrupted by the money from foreign entities, as their people, seemingly centuries apart, continue to suffer.

So where does this all leave us today, as development workers in Africa? It is well regarded that most of the development work taking place today is heavily flawed and counter-productive. The emphasis continues to be on providing for the people of Africa, as opposed to helping the people of Africa learn the skills to provide for themselves.

Many of the NGOs of today spend all kinds of money to build schools, pumps, health care facilities – but where will the education on how to utilize these facilities come from? Who will train the future generations of educators and doctors? When a pump breaks, will it simply sit unused, as a play-thing for the local children? When the funding runs out, who will feed the hungry or build the new wells required for a growing population?

I subscribe wholeheartedly to the theory that only through educating the African population to provide these facilities and services for themselves can we ever manage to reverse the continued trend of dependency.

I bring all of this up because of my recent experiences in village. During the fourteen Water and Sanitation Committee meetings we’ve held the past couple of months, I have found myself facing the decision of what direction my two years of service will go.

The month to come...

I just returned to Ségou after my quick jaunt into Bamako. I had a brief, yet productive trip, accomplishing what I had hoped to. I will be heading back to site this afternoon (Wednesday).

On Monday, I made a trip to the local bank in Bamako and picked up my SPA funds for the 'Pump Replacement' project. I then delivered that money to SETRA, the pump manufacturer/installer, and scheduled the work to begin on March 20th. On that date, the SETRA crew will arrive in my village, and they will begin their work, which includes both the installation of the two pumps, as well as the training of three members of the Water and Sanitation Committee on the proper operation, maintenance, and repair of these pumps. These two tasks will be performed together and should last approximately one week.

I also had discussions with the Environment sector head, Yacouba, while I was in Bamako. We discussed which vegetables should be planted in a pepiniere, and how to properly construct the planting beds for both vegetables that require pepinieres and those which do not. Over the next month, I plan on holding a meeting with the women's committee to distribute seeds, and will try my hand at providing instruction to them regarding planting technique.

Lassana, my homologue, also mentioned that he would like for us to establish a Women's Garden Committee. This committee would be responsible for collecting regular dues that women would be required to pay in order for the right to use the women's garden. This money would then be saved to be used for maintenance, repair, and/or supply purchases in the future. I was thrilled with the idea, which should develop a sense of responsibility and independence within the community for the women's garden, promoting sustainability throughout the future. We hope to begin this process in the coming month as well.

In addition to the pump and garden projects, I will continue to facilitate PHAST activities with the Water and Sanitation Committee, as we continue to move closer to selecting future projects which the committee would like to tackle within the village. As always, the testing and coordination of the fish pond will also proceed.

February in village...

I left my village today to return to Ségou. Tomorrow, I will be taking transport down to Bamako, where early next week I will kick-start the Pump Replacement project.

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

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

Festival sur le Niger

The seventh edition of the Festival sur le Niger, a music and culture festival in Ségou, took place from Tuesday, February 1st through Sunday, February 6th. Mali is a country well-known for its impressive array of diverse and quality music. Two major festivals showcase this annually within Mali; the Festival au Desert in Timbuktu and the Festival sur le Niger. The Festival sur le Niger is a more recent entrant, but due to the security concerns present in the northern reaches of Mali over the past several years, it has taken it's place as the preeminent music festival in Mali, drawing the top acts within the country, as well as from the region.

I feel privileged to have attended this year's festival. From Tuesday night through Sunday night, each day from 10am through 6pm was filled with concerts on a side stage and several smaller performances put on by different 'troupes' of musicians, griots, dancers, acrobats, 'jacko(s)' (or masks/ mascots), marionnettes (puppets), and the like. These events were free to the public. Each night involved a concert on the main stage with the major acts. Access for the night shows required a ticket, but at a much-reduced rate for Mali nationals. This resulted in a festival that certainly attracted it's share of tourists from across the world, but was heavily enjoyed by the local population.

The main stage at the festival, where the nightly 'Concert géant sur le fleuve' took place. The stage is set upon a barge, which was pulled up along the shore of the Niger River.

I could not have been more impressed with this festival. The concerts may not have always been on-time, but they were pretty damn close, more-so than most festivals in the states. The setting was incredibly scenic, being along the Niger River. Just a month prior, the Niger River was still brown and swelled, I'm assuming due to sediment runoff from the rainy season, which ended in October. During the festival, the river was stunning, with rather clear, blue water. Small beer gardens with food and drink were set up throughout the festival grounds, and a large area of booths was set aside for local craftsmen, as well as a couple local bottlers of food and beverage, including some tasty mango juice.

Another view of the main stage at the festival.

I have always enjoyed live music and festivals, and have been to my share back in the states. But the Festival sur le Niger was by far the most entertaining and enriching festival experience I have ever had. The music was phenomenal and diverse, and the varied aspects of all the diverse cultures represented was incredibly interesting. Below are some pictures of what I would personally consider the highlights. Unless otherwise noted, these are all Malian performers:

Wednesday

A traditional hunter performance troupe dancing and playing wooden whistles during the opening ceremony.

A group of Tuareg musicians closing out the opening ceremony. A traditional gourd drum provided a constant, monotonous percussive rhythym while a traditional Malian guitar drenched in effects played overtop. The end result was incredibly hypnotic and addictive.

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

An ye yala yala Mali kono kosobɛ...

My sister's visit to Mali has just come to an end. We had a very eventful and enjoyable 'yala yala' across the country. Below is a brief summary of our excursion:

On Sunday, December 19th, Kim flew into Bamako. We immediately took a bus to travel up to Carrefour, then rode the rest of the way to Djenné on a bashɛ. The bashɛ to Djenné has to cross over the river Niger on a ferry to get into the city, and the bashɛ in front of us actually got stuck on the beach while driving onto it. I had to help the other men pull the bashɛ onto the ferry with a rope - just one of the many nuances with our transportation.

We spent Sunday evening and Monday in Djenné. Djenné is a very scenic and distinctive city full of large mud brick buildings, including the largest of the sort in the world, the famous Grand Mosque of Djenné. It was very cool to see the sights, but the Monday market was a bit overwhelming, as the local traders hassle tourists to no end to buy their goods.

The Great Mosque of Djenné is the largest mud brick building in the world, and is the focal point of the city. The weekly market every Monday is situated in front of the mosque.

The City of Djenné is a network of narrow alleys winding between multi-story mud-brick buildings.

On Tuesday, we took another bashɛ out of Djenné; this time a smoother operation, however uncomfortable it may have been. We arrived in the city of Sevaré, where we waited for another bashɛ to leave for the city of Bandiagara. There, we stayed overnight and began our Dogon hike the following morning bright and early.

Our Dogon hike was 6 days/5 nights, and involved us traveling from village to village along the southern portion of the 'falais,' beginning at Djiguibombo at the South end of the escarpment up to the village of Dourou, veering off the last day to visit the beautiful village of Nombori. I must give a shout-out to our guide, Ibrahim, who is Dogon himself and was incredibly accomodating and informative throughout the trip. If anyone is planning a trip out to Dogon Country, I highly recommend hiring Ibrahim as your guide. Just drop me an email and I will give you his contact information.

I cannot say enough about how incredible this experience was. The natural scenery, with the mountains, plains, and encroaching desert lands, was stunning. When you take into account the villages situated upon these lands, and often carved into the sides of the rock cliffs, the result is nothing less than breathtaking. And beyond that, the culture of the Dogon people is just as unique as their architecture, and it was incredibly interesting to hear about their history and take in their customs.

A definitive highlight for me was roaming the villages alone, unguided, where I found that although the Dogon people speak their own language, the majority of them also speak some Bambara. So I was able to effectively communicate with the villagers along the way, learning even more about their culture and their way of life. It was fascinating to me to see the subtle differences between life in a Dogon village and life in a Bambaran village (my village). I plan on returning to Dogon country before my time in Mali is up to hike the Northern section of the falaise we unfortunately did not have time for.

I took many pictures of the sights along our travels, and I feel that this is the best way to share our experiences:

Wood carvings supporting a meeting place 'gwa' in the Dogon village of Kani Kombole.

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.