Great news! I finally know what I am supposed to be doing here, and it only took three months! This week I had a tutor from Bamako come up to my site and stay with me. I had around 30 intensive hours of Fulfulde training and I am now able to speak about my work, conjugate the differenet verb forms with a lot more fluidity (I still speak Fulfulde like a Dogon because of my village), and have really increased my vocab knowledge. My tutor, Dauo, acted as a translator one night in a conversation between me and my homologue. Basically, my village has three main goals that they would like to accomplish. First off, the village received funding a few years ago for a seed and cereal bank. A small stoarage house has built and some seeds and cereals were bought. The village was able to increase profit by loaning seeds at first. People were able to pay back the seed loans with interest and the bank was running successfully. One day, the accountant running the books just up and left with all of the moneym leaving the villagers back at square one. My first job will be to find more funding to build a new and improved storage house and large stock. In January I will return to Bamako for inservice training and learn all about the Peace Corps Partnership Program and how to write grants/proposals and receive funding. This goal seems easily attainable and I am really excited to get it going in the coming months.
The second goal or the village is to improve the productivity of the community garden. Right now (mini hot season) the village is harvesting the millet that was grown in the rainy season, which is their main food staple. This will be accomplished within the next month. The next step is to begin working in the garden during the cold season. The villagers grow tomatoes, onions, garlic, bananas, mangos, papayas, lettuce, lemons, and other various fruits/veggies. Basically, they want me to introduce ways to increase crop yield so that they can eat more food that contains the necessary vitamins to maintain good health and to increase profit when they sell the goods in market. For the next three months I will be doing "farmers field school" experiments in order to see what works best. This means that I will take a plot of land in the garden, divide it into sections and change one variable (while the rest remain constant) in order to see what works best to increase crop yield/health. I will be experiementing with different natural fungicides, insecticides, and fertilizers. This should be some really exciting work that produces results that I can see and share with the villagers.
The third goal is more complicated, but it includes water conservation techniques during and after the rainy season because they receive so little rain this far north and it always comes and goes at different times. I am not too sure as to what I can do for this, but I will be able to look into digging wells, building irrigation canals, slowing soil erosion, and working on compost. This job should be a trip, but I will go into it head first.
All in all, I'm pumped to finally know what my village wants to do and it is really driving me to learn Fulfulde faster so I can work more effectively.
I might get a dog today! I am just waiting for these little kids to bring it over to the house I am staying in. I told them I want a black male puppy. The black dogs here always look so much healthier and cleaner, and I don't want a femals dog because I don't want to deal with 10 puppies in the future. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Anyway, it's about that time for my 25km bike ride home woohoo! Caggal Jooni.
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6 comments:
Hey Dave, It's Audrey Sundin, Deb's daughter. I have to do a project for my senior social justice class and have chosen to do education and literacy in Mali. I need talk to a person connected with the subject and thought you'd be the perfect person! You can answer specifically about the village you're staying in. I just want to now how children are schooled, for how long, how old the children are, what they learn and in what languauge. Anything else you can think of would be extremley useful! Thanks so much!
Hi Dave, it sounds like you have your work set out for you. If anyone can do it..YOU can. I am a very proud father!!...Please don't bring home a dog..Love Dad
Hey Dave
It will be very exciting if you can help Audrey with her project! I will give her your email and cell. I am going to tell her about SKYPE. One way or another, you tow will be able to connect.
How did the dog shopping go? I sent you out a care package with all kinds of dog supplies!
Dad's comment cracked me up!
Your upcoming projects are awesome. Dad is right. If anyone can do it, you certainly can!
Love
Mom
Hey Davey, it's Zack, your real little brother...not the frat little brother.
Glad to hear your finding your purpose in the community. Sounds like an awesome growing experience. It appears that your village has had a lot of ups and downs. I'm positive your going to do a great job helping the growth and prosperity of their community.Word of advise, Don't let the next Bank teller take the towns money and run.It hurts me to hear that someone would do such a terrible thing to his/her community. Anyways, I miss you and hope the best for your future plans. Good luck out there, keep safe. Also good luck on finding a dog, i hear they are a good source of protein and vitamin D. YUM!
Love,
Zack
Sounds like an AMAZING experience.
I actually met someone today who did two years in Peace Corps Mali from '04 to '06, and he also worked in the Mopti region! He warned that when you hit the hot season, things will be really rough. And he said he never really got used to the whole men holding hands thing :)
Keep up the posts. It's great to read them.
-Matt (husband of your cousin, Liz)
bHi Davey --
Good speaking with you last nite!!
Love the turtle picture --- there must be more than 1 turtle around, huh?
How's the new puppy? Got a name? Do they have rabies there? What do you feed him? Can we send you anything?
Your projects sound amazing -- what a lucky village you have to have you!
love, cookie and mike
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