Building Bridges

I come from a line of growers and builders. My Grandpa Kuntz has made an honest living farming in North Dakota for the entirety of his life, his father was a farmer and I bet his grandfather was a farmer. My grandfather on my dad's side was a contractor based out of Montana. I've heard stories about my dad working on bridges, or my mom's tales of the farm for as long as I remember. If someone would have told me that I would be following in the steps of my forefathers a few years ago I would have hidden a scoff. However, I currently find myself a sorghum farmer researching seed varieties and companion planting possibilities. Now, the time has come to emulate the Cave side of my family, but I need your help. To put it simply there is bridge that needs to be built and I'm the only person in a position to facilitate its completion.

This next paragraph will be a basic summary of the problem that needs correction, and what steps need to be taken in order to alleviate the issue. I will give further information on how the project came about, implementation and exactly what you can do to help in following paragraphs. My site consists of a collection of four villages lumped together and given the name Zana. These four villages are Sobala, Zanso, Dangaso and Dombala. Most of the resources of the villages are located centrally in either Zanso or Sobala. These resources include a grinding mill and cereal bank which were built by Peace Corps. Additionally, the school, womens cooperative headquarters (main shea processing area), major meeting places and the market are all located in either Zanso or Sobala. Resources like a school, grinding mill and a market increase incomes and impart skills. Unfortunately, the citizens of Dombala don't have access to these important resources for a good portion of the year. During the rainy season (starting in June). a stream appears between Dombala and Sobala rendering the road impassible to cars and wagons and dangerous to pedestrians, bicycles and motorcycles. Consequently, Dombala is isolated from the rest Zana; Dombala's ability to use valuable community resources located in Zanso and Sobala is cut off. The road also poses a health risk due to motorcycle accidents. Labor to repair the road somewhat usable is not available until there is a lull in farming, this lull often doesn't come occur until December.                                              

Map of the area highlighting the problem

This project will improve the most dangerous section of the Dombala road by evening out the road and reinforcing it with concrete and rebar. Villagers will also take erosion prevention measures upstream from the improved section of road by planting trees and placing larger rocks. The community will provide all of the labor and locally available materials. Partners will provide concrete and rebar for construction. The number of Dombala citizens using Zana's resources will be used to measure success.

To give a bit of background on the project, I'll recount how the project came to be at the state it is currently in. I remember walking around village during my first week at site and running into a man who was excited to meet me, this man was a farmer from Domabala named Bakari Sogoba. Bakari took me over to the road that connects his village, Dombala, to my home, Sobala. Both of these villages are part of my site and the road that connects them does not so much resemble a road, it's more of a gorge. The road was definitely a problem, but it did not fit in with my ideas about what I wanted to do at site. As the months turned into a year, people of all sorts told me that fixing the Dombala road was a priority of their's. All four of Zana's village chiefs, the imam, pastor, dozens of mothers and farmers showed enthusiasm toward the idea. Support for improving the road was widespread and deeply held. It came as no surprise that during Participatory Analysis for Community Action (a meeting designed help establish reasonable priorities for development) that improving the road came out as the number one priority for both men and women. After witnessing the road further erode during rainy season and seeing a young man seriously injure himself trying to cross the road on a motorcycle, I decided to do what the community wanted/needed and focus on the road.

Upon expressing more interest into looking into the issue of the Dombala road, one of the masons in village came to me with a design for the road that would solve the problems and be relatively low cost. Peace Corps had built these type of road improvements in the past in a village about fifteen kilometers away (see picture below). In further meetings, two of the village masons volunteered their services and the village chiefs arranged other labor for the road improvement. Additionally, the village chiefs made it clear that maintenance of the bridge and erosion control would be a priority for the group of villages that currently works on road repairs biannually. For the most part this project was conceived, designed and will be executed by the people of Zana; I have just been a facilitator.

My counterpart Esayi inspecting a “bridge” similar to what we are looking to build

In order to construct the bridge the community will follow the implementation plan presented in the next few paragraphs. Construction will start as soon as funds are available, but we would like to start by mid-March. To begin with, community members will gather the required locally available materials (rocks, gravel and sand). Given the amount of these resources needed collection will take a week. Once the locally gathered materials are gathered, the concrete and rebar will be bought in San. Transportation of all of the cement and rebar could take three days. Once all of the materials are gathered and arranged to the mason's liking, excavation will begin.

Currently the stretch of road that we are going to work on is uneven and features some impressive drops. Before any work is done with the cement and rebar the road will have to be evened out. The road will be worked into an elongated U with consideration given to water drainage. Along with the leveling, three holes for the piers need to be dug to the depth of a meter. All of this excavation is estimated to take nine days. Once excavation is complete concrete will begin to be poured and rebar will begin to be laid. The rebar will intersect with another piece of rebar at a perpendicular angle every 20cm. Once the concrete is poured and finished, construction work is complete. Construction is estimated to take ten days. During the concrete laying/drying process great care has to be taken to ensure that no one/thing ruins the concrete before it dries.

1.) State of the road currently 2.)Post excavation 3.)Post Construction

Maintenance and upkeep of the road will be passed onto those members of the village that are chiefly in charge of road maintenance currently. The masons already possess the skills needed to keep the road running well. The road that Peace Corps repaired in a neighboring village is functioning under a very similar arrangement and is currently in great shape. Monitoring and evaluation of the project will be ongoing and primarily done by myself. I will get the different associations to keep track of the number of people whom are new participants from Dombala. Additionally, I will track the number of buyers/sellers using the Zana market that arrive on the improved road. Now that you know the work that the people of Zana are going to do, you probably want to know what you can do to help.

The people of Zana need a good road in order access available resources and have already invested a lot of time and planning into the project. However, we need your help in order to purchase the cement and rebar used in the repair of the road. Construction of the road requires three tons of cement at 125000CFA per ton for a total of 375000CFA in cement. Additionally, 45 bars of rebar #8 need to be purchased at 2000 CFA a bar for a total of 90000CFA. All together, partners need to supply 465000CFA in order to buy all the needed supplies. Using the current exchange rate of 501.73CFAs per dollar, the sum comes to $926.80. However, rumor is that the CFA will be devalued at the beginning on 2012 (which could lead to higher cement prices) and I've been advised to wait till early January to submit the final application for bureaucratic approval. If you are feeling the Christmas spirit and want to help some of the world's poorest people out, I'd ask you to set aside a little bit of money to donate to the project once it is up for donations. One hundred percent of whatever you donate will go to the construction of the bridge. There is no administrative costs and I will give regular updates as to the progress of the project. Oftentimes when you donate money to a charity and do not know what happens with your money after you give. With this you'll have an amazing and competent person that you know (me!) managing a project that will do lasting and concrete good to an entire community whom are willing to work for it! Additionally, the donation is tax deducible. I bet you're just salivating at the prospect of donating, but you'll have to wait to early January :( Once the project is cleared to receive funding I will post a link on this blog to where you can donate.

In summarization, some people in Mali need your help to improve a road that is dangerous and impassible. Improving the road will improve access to markets, make it easier for kids to go to school, improve food security by improving access to a cereal bank and grinding mill and reduce risk of injury. Once the funding is in we can start work.

I think that we are going to be friends!

The last month has been such a change from my normal life in Mali that I've been left breathless. To recap, I've left my village and am living in Bamako for about a month working as a trainer for the newest group of volunteers. My role is to pass along technical skills (gardening, extension techniques, pest management, etc...) along with serving as a role model/peer support. Consequently, I've been spending a lot of time on a computer (a major change from village life) gathering information to present. Afterwards, I go off to a home-stay village and present this information to a group of trainees. I'm really enjoying my new role and I've been told that I'm alright at it. It's good to be working with staff and having a say as to what a new generation of Peace Corps Mali learns is nice, but the most rewarding part so far is getting to know the trainees. Three weeks back forty Americans came to Mali and with some determination in another month forty new volunteers will venture forth into Mali.

The trainees are not the only people that I've met during my stay in Bamako. As the holiday season approaches peoples families are pouring into the country. Most notably for me was the father, mother and brother of my friend, partner and site-mate Tom. It is always interesting to see where a person “comes from”, and it was apparent that Tom's family shares the friendliness, humor and sense of adventure that I admire in Tom. It was truly a pleasure to get to know them. Meeting other peoples families has brought out a sense of homesickness in myself. For two years PCVs leave home in order to go to a far off place. In this place they see, experience and feel things that simply cannot be expressed in words. In order to gain an understanding of what we do/where we live one would actually have to come to Mali. Knowing that you are experiencing something that most of your family and friends can't relate to is mildly depressing, but on the other hand it binds PCVs together forging a bond between volunteers. As Thanksgiving and Christmas approach I'm probably going to miss Mom, Dad and Rob more and more, but I have another family here to fall back on. Dozens of volunteers that have been my support for months and a group of forty new friends to bond with.

Act Three

It seems that I am turning the page on a new act of my Peace Corps service. Many of the people that have meant a lot of me over the past year have left. The work that I've done is starting to yield results that are appreciated within the community and new doors are opening. While my focus remains on my village, I now have the opportunity to change things up in the structure of PC-Mali itself.

A few weeks ago, my friend Bakari wanted to show off his millet field to me. I had given him improve seed to try out and record his results. The new millet was the first to bear seed (something that grows increasingly important as desertification increases). Additionally, the millet looks more healthy previous varieties use in the similar conditions. These tangible visible benefits are rare in development work and when you get this kind of victory you have to savor it. Other projects are starting to develop, but I think it is too early to talk about them in depth.

I've been chosen to be a trainer for the new batch of volunteers coming to Mali in October for the Environment sector. This means that I will have some input in designing the training for Volunteers that will be stationed all over Mali. I'm excited and honored to have this position, but it is somewhat bittersweet. I'm going to be away from village for Tabaski and most of harvest. I'm sure that I'll miss village and will have to have faith in my friends to report on crop progress in my absence.

As a closing remark, I had the privilege of meeting Jennifer Davis' mother during my last trip to Bamako. Jennifer was in my village before myself and stayed on with PC-Mali for a third year in Bamako. She has showed me nothing but kindness and has been ultra helpful. If I am to be consider to be a successful volunteer, then Jennifer is a major reason for my success. Jennifers' mother was just as sweet, kind and thoughtful as her daughter.

A Farewell to Departed Friends

When one contemplates joining Peace Corps, there is often a accompanying vision of what a PC service is going to be like. Visions of cute kids playing soccer, a tight knit community and a new sense of worth are common features of said vision. However, one thing no one thinks about is what happens when friends leave (If fellow volunteers fall into you ideal vision at all). How at some point in your service your life is going to change drastically. You’ll know this change is coming and there will be other distractions once it does, but one day you’ll look at a poster board full of people that are no longer in Mali. Your home has changed.

When I came to San a little over a year ago there were three PCVs, that had already been at site for a year, here to welcome me and show me the ropes. Assistance was given constantly and a friendship was developed. Before I knew it I had two new sisters and a brother here in San, people so much a part of my Peace Corps service that it is impossible to imagine it without them. Now they are gone and new volunteers will have no idea who they are. This is bittersweet. Most people are ready to leave at the end of two years, but no one likes to see a friend leave. So long Risky Business, it was a good time.

Farming is still farming, but in one week most of the “heavy work” will be done. After this we just wait till harvest. Esayi is going to Bamako for the month of September and as a result I plan to do a whole lot of walking around and drinking tea.

Things are swell

P.S. In addition to the slew on volunteers leaving, one of my cats here hit the bucket. R.I.P. Caya you killed a lot of lizards.

Farming Season (A Summary)

I haven’t written in a while (a reoccurring theme in this blog), but I have a reason for this. It is hard to write about things you’ve done when it doesn’t seem as if you done a lot. In a village the size of mine, farming dominates everything else and doing any sort of development work is really tough to do once the rains come. I’ve distributed new varieties of seed to some of the farmers to try out in small test plots, but that is about it as far as Peace Corps related work goes.

That being said I’ve spent a lot of time in the fields. Either plowing, weeding or planting begins as soon as breakfast is finished and is an all day affair. If one were to walk though village during midday they would be lucky to see an old woman. I now live in a place that is a ghost town from 8:00am to 7:00pm. Added onto this Ramadan just started, which means fasting for a good portion of the village while the sun is out. Everyone grows millet, sorghum, fonio and peanuts; a few people grow cotton and rice. Most people are initially shocked when tell them that I farm. “Eh!! I be se ka senneke! Eh!” (You can farm!). There is a general perception that white people are incapable of doing manual labor. I’m not sure if this is as strong as the perception that all white people have money, but it is certainly less true.

Life is good, Mali is pretty and I always have a place around the food bowl.

No complaints.

The Triumphant Return of Adama Coulibaly

Over a month has past since my last blog post and a lot has happened. A trip back to America to see two dear friends get married. The start of rainy season and the beginning of farming along with it. Lastly, I put together another formation this week.

When you join Peace Corps inevitably you do a lot of reading on the organization and the lives of other volunteers. During this literature review one will discover that many people (and the Peace Corps itself) warns volunteers of the dangers of going back to the States. A once well integrated and well functioning volunteer at site will come home to find comfort, excess or security. The volunteer asks themselves “Am I really doing any good over there?” Before you know it the volunteer decides that going back to their host country would be a mistake. I am probably over simplifying the issues, but once I came to Mali I realized those fears did not apply to me. I love Mali and to put it simply Mali is the place I belong right now, not Montana. I decided months ago that the idea of missing Jennifer and Mikey Burrall’s wedding would be a giant mistake. Coupling the wedding, a law school visit and seeing visiting family I tried to make the most of the trip. To put it simply I had a excellent time and wouldn’t have changed a thing. One thing has occurred to me since returning to Mali. This was more than likely my last trip to the Great Falls of my adolescence. Between marriages and relocations many of the people that have made Great Falls a special are leaving. Montana was excellent, but it’s good to be back in Mali.

Hot season is done. YAH!!!!!! San is staying cool in the nineties and thunder that amazed me upon coming here almost a year ago has return. As has a large percentage of my sites population whom had been working in urban areas to make some money. What was once desolate earth now has grass and tomorrow I start farming.

This last week I put on a formation with the women’s cooperative on shea butter. This is the second shea butter formation I have done and this one encompassed the entire process of shea butter production from fruit to butter. It seems to have been successful with many women sharing concerns and talking on some of the bad habits in shea production Mali is known for. For instance, Malians often smoke the shea nuts making them mildly carcinogenic. I am excited to see if the training sticks.

One last things, thanks largely to two of my Uncles and my father, there is now a horse in my concession. The horse should help a lot come harvest time and will shorten the trips into San by around seven hours total for those taking the horse cart. To say this is a big deal for myself personally and for the rest of the Coulibaly clan would be making a gross understatement. Once again to Jim, Andrew and my Dad thanks a lot for the help.

New people and home

Work has been fairly slow since the last blog post, but other events have occurred of interest.

The first of these is that the Peace Corps Mali family now has new additions. On April 11th a new group of volunteers took the oath to become full volunteers. The ceremony took place inside ATT’s compound (the president of Mali) and was widely attended. Three of these volunteers have been placed in San, two of them are incredibly close to me. Now, the nearest English speaker is a mere twenty minute bike ride away. This adds a new twist to site life and I’m very much looking forward to getting to know the new member of San Kaw.

One thing that having new volunteers has highlighted to me is how far I’ve come. Not only in my ability to speak Bambara, but also in how integrated I am to my community. Recently I helped administer the Polio vaccine (it’s an oral vaccine) to the children in my village. This entailed walking from house to house and it became clear that everyone knows me to some degree. I’m hoping to use my familiarity with the village to help improve farming techniques. In early June I’m looking to get trained in the most effective in farming techniques with my homologue and some other volunteers. Hopefully, this will lead to weekly classes with the farmers that will take place in the fields in order to pass these techniques along.

I’m going to be going back to the states for twenty days in order to attend two of my friends wedding (shout out to Mikey and Jen). Expect a lot of pictures to be posted while I’m home.

If you can take the heat, don't come here

So it's hot here. Real hot. I'm talking 108 degrees and windy as can be. To those of you reading this in Montana, with snow on the ground from a harsh winter, this might sound appealing. It's not at all. For instance, I'll be checking my email and begin to realize that while I've haven't done any physical activity I'm covered in sweat. As much as I'm conplaining it has become clear that I've acclimated to this climate. The idea of going on a long walk in 100 degree heat would have not been on my list of things to do in Montana, but I do it every day now.

Besides the heat other things are on the rise. My Bambara has been improving quite a bit which has led to some new and interesting conversations at site. For instance, I've learned that the proliferation of wagons has enabled women to gather more wood. As a result women now have a surplus of wood that they sell. From time to time their husbands like to make a fire, and this is where the interesting part comes. Some of the village women are making their husbands pay them for the wood if they wish to use it. A few of the village men are fairly upset about this.

In Mali there is no combination of finances upon marriage. The women get to keep all the money that they make, and this never amounted to much... until now. In Malian society the men are responsible to provide for food, schooling, medicine and other essentials. I'm going to say most men do their best at this, but that does not mean that there are not expensives purchases for themselves from time to time. The men complain because they have to "pay for the family" and they are having to pay for the firewood. This argument would hold more sway if the major of the money that women make here didn't go to buying the kids better clothes and food. This might give to looking into gender and development issues in Mali.

Work and Pleasure

I’ve had a pretty interesting past few weeks. I traveled to Senegal for a softball tournament for West African based ex-pats. My first bit of substantial development work was finished yesterday and another job is already in the pipeline.

WAIST (West African Invitation Softball Tournament) is a annual softball tournament put on by Senegalese based ex pats. Every year people come to Dakar for a weekend of fun and softball. However, the major thing I drew from my time in Senegal is how a “developed” West African country looks. At least in Dakar everyone spoke French fairly well (not the case in Mali). Multistory buildings were commonplace and there was even a mall. I felt like I stepped off a bus and entered some bizarre parallel Africa.

One other major difference was my inability to communicate to the people around me. My Bambara is to the point where I can carry on a decent conversation with pretty much anyone on the streets. Things like asking for directions and trying to figure out how much stuff cost is super simple. In Senegal the native language is Wolof, not Bambara, and whatever French I learned during my one semester of French has atrophied in village. As a result the entire experience felt like amateur hour. Since I was a little kid, I’ve never had to rely on other people as much as I relied on my French speaking friends while I was in Senegal. Before I travel out of Mali again I am defiantly going to brush up on my French.

One last endorsement, Senegal has some amazing beaches. If that is what your looking for and aren’t against going to Africa you won’t be disappointed.

As soon as I got back to village, I had to put the finishing touches to a shea butter formation that I put on in village. There were a few headaches, mostly caused my vacation, but come time for the formation to actually start the entire thing went off without a hitch. The shea tree is only found in Mali and the countries immediately surrounding Mali. The butter obtained from it’s nuts is used in skin care products. The formation that I put on, with considerable help from a shea cooperative in San, showed the how to produce high quality oil.

Now my host dad wants me to work on putting on a formation for the local cereal bank.

Bad times in a good place

I know I haven’t written a blog post in a while. This is especially strange given that the staag house actually has internet now. However, January has not been the best month as of yet.

In addition to some issues state side, I had some tragic events happen in village. First my homologue injured his hand while gathering wood. I could not understand exactly what happened; however, it involved a donkey, a rope and a good deal of panic. Understandably my homologue was under the weather (his thumb was nearly severed).

This was just a small setback with what was to come. As I have said before my host mother and father had a new son when I was in Bamako. Of all the women in my village Annie takes the best care of her children, and goes though a lot of effort to do so. So naturally I expected a little boy in the picture of health when I got back to site. Instead, what awaited was an underweight sickly little boy that would not get better. Daily reports on his progress ranged from well to poor, but he never looked near 100%. One week I decided to come to San on Wednesday instead of Monday to attend a baby weighing. When I got back to site my host mother was attending a training for her position as a literacy teacher, and took John the baby with her. I did not see John for nearly a week. I returned to San for my usual Monday run and got a call from Jennifer, the girl I replaced. John had taken a turn from the worse. I hurried back to site and gave my family some money some money to bring him to the hospital in San. The child did not make it back to site from San. I was pretty shaken up, but as one of my little friend here reminded me, in Mali babies die all the time.

The infant mortality rate here is very high for a number of reasons, but in John’s case I don’t think he had a chance. The hospital did a radiograph on him that revealed that he had one fully functioning lung and his heard was in the wrong spot. Surgery would have been necessary to even attempt to save him, and there wasn’t anything close to a guarantee of success.

I truly love this place, and at this time in my life I would not want to anywhere else. There are times that I think we have everything wrong in states. That there is something that has just been lost in life in a state a ultra development, but times like this are when the benefits of a modern developed society become incredibly apparent

Pictures