What is Dave gonna do?

After 2 weeks of training, I'm finally done and my head is full of ideas. The question remains: What do I do next? Well, to begin I am going to travel back north relatively slowly. Tonight, I am going into Bamako in search of a hot shower ("Insh Allah!"), American food and a beer. I'll spend two nights at a hotel and then take a 10-12 hour bus ride to Sevare on Monday morning. When I get to Sevare, my first project will begin. My buddy Phil and I have decided to go hunting for supplies to build solar food driers. We have two different plans, and aren't sure which one is better. The plan is to build both of them and try them out... a little experiment with fruits. Solar drying will be a small income generating activity (IGA) that I hope to introduce to the village. Already, my village grows mangoes, papayas, bananas, guavas, onions, garlic, etc. The problem is that they eat them right away. When they're gone, they're gone. By introducing a solar drying technique, the villagers will be able to conserve fruit for later consumption (benefit = intake of vitamins at a later point) and/or be able to sell them in the various surrounding markets. Now, I am unsure how well they will sell, but it is worth the try. I figure that I will fund the first solar drier, as it will only cost a few dollars to build. Once I make it, I will bring it to village, teach the people how to use it and tell them what the benefits are. If they are interested, I will then offer instructions on how to build one for themselves. There is a village 10km away that sells bamboo at an extremely low cost; just a short donkey cart ride away! I will speak with the man that sells bamboo and builds bamboo furniture about the feasibility of providing wood and/or building the driers himself. Either way, he makes money... added business.



Next comes the BIG project! Well, one of the big projects. I have spoken with ICRISAT, an experimental agricultural organization. They have been developing millet varieties that are drought resistant, have higher yields, seed faster, grow bigger, etc.... basically they are attempting to create super-millet without the use of chemicals. They want to work with Peace Corps volunteers and their communities in order to test out the millet varieties in the different regions throughout Mali. As of yet, I don't think any one has tested the millet varieties up north yet. My plan is to speak with the main families in village and convince 4 of them to share a plot of land with me (roughly 1/2 a hectare each). These plots will all have to be pretty homogeneous in terms of soil condition, shade trees (preferably none), compost composition, water availability, etc. Once I determine where the 4 plots will be, I will divide the 4 plots into 5 subsections. I hope to acquire 4 super-millet varieties for each plot, plus use the local variety as a constant (I get to play scientist! Who would have thought?). In terms of organization, this is going to be a huge project to get running. Everyone is going to have to be convinced to donate land for the experiment and be dedicated to working equally as hard. The variables really shouldn't be changed between plots in order to get consistent results. The project comes with a few guidelines, but it gives a good deal of leeway. The benefits of this project are that, if successful, the village will have new and improved millet varieties that they can eat and/or sell to generate a small income. As they will be receiving the initial seeds for free, I hope that they will also pass some results on to other farmers if their is a high success rate. I will begin organizing this project as soon as I get back to village, writing up a proposal in about a month, receiving seeds around April, tilling the soil and composting through May, planting in June/July, weeding the fields until September/October, and harvesting sometime in November (so Allah jabbi). Phew... it's gonna be a lot of work!



In terms of other projects, there is also the cereal bank that I want to build, but I don't have enough information on that yet. When I get back to village, I will organize meetings to determine who will be responsible for forming the association needed for the bank. Once the association is formed I can then work on drafting a funding proposal. If anyone wants to donate, I will be putting the draft up on the Peace Corps Partnership Program website. This won't be for a while, but keep your eyes open! I will have a lot more info on this subject and how it will benefit the village within the coming months.



There is also the seed bank that needs to be updated. Since I've been in Bamako, I picked up some baobab, jatropha, moringa, and Senegalese acacia tree seeds. It will be nice to go back to village with something tangible. Also, I have learned valuable gardening techniques that have to do with composting, raising soil fertility, erosion control, channel irrigation, aeration, etc... that I hope to implement when I return. I really just want to grow some carrots, actually. I also have ideas in my head about building a library and additional school building in Beguma, getting 4-6 India/Mali pumps for the well in my village, and a trash collecting campaign in Douentza. I probably have too much on my plate as it is now, but it is good to have available options in case of failure or if the villagers aren't motivated towards a certain idea. I will learn to practice patience, flexibility, and motivation over the coming months.

Info for Mrs. Kelley

After all these years, we're reconnected! And, I don't even have to stand on my head and spit wooden nickles! You didn't leave a contact e-mail on the blog, so I am hoping that this will be effective. Yes, I am interested in keeping contact with students at St. Francis. There is a program through the Peace Corps called the Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools Program. It connects volunteers around the world with students and teachers back in the States. I have not fully looked into the program, but I know it works more effectively when the volunteer sets himself up directly with a teacher. Also, I'm pretty sure that the Peace Corps reimburses postage (always a plus!). If your students are at all interested in learning about Malian culture, the education system, agricultural practices, or even just life in general, I would gladly correspond with them. You can contact the Peace Corps through this website (http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/), or we can just write back and forth... depending on if you would like the formalities or not. The Peace Corps may even send you educational supplies for you and your students, so it is definitely worth looking into. St. Francis provided me with a strong educational background; therefore, I look forward to giving back any way I can... except monetarily at this point! Also, there is a village next to mine where the students are beginning to learn English. Perhaps they will be able to write as pen pals with the students at St. Francis if their English improves. If not, I am friends with the teacher, and I am sure he would be thrilled to act as translator in order to bridge the cultural and language gap. The students could learn so much from each other. Contact the Peace Corps from the website or send me an e-mail/regular mail with details.

My e-mail is: davemunsell@hotmail.com

Or you can write to:

Dave Munsell, PCV
Corps de la Paix
Douentza, Mali
West Africa

A jour e bon?

I'm back at the Peace Corps training center for two weeks of Agricultural/French/Fulfulde lessons and it is awesome. I am eating really good food. I had green beans today and nearly peed myself with joy. Back in, say 1992, had my Mom said, "David James, you're going to eat this green beans now because one day you won't have them and you'll even crave them," I would have called her a big liar and said I was just gonna eat my french fries and candy bars. Well, those green beans today definitely filled my belly with pure food-joy.

I have been here a week and am looking forward to another week because the food and company is just so easy to appreciate. In the Peace Corps, the number one lesson to learn is the value and quality of what you normally take for granted (such as green beans!). When you're at site out in the sticks eating "To," reading by a kerosene lamp and listening to people you barely know babble on in Dogon in front of their rock houses, you can only imagine how good a burger, a beer and someone to speak English would be at that time. Comfort food has a way deeper meaning for me now.

Besides the food (can you tell how happy it makes me?) I am actually learning a lot of really practical information that I will bring back to site and implement there. My first goal is to train the villagers to make and use compost. As of now, they take straight up cow poop and just place it on the fields. Generally this adds too much nitrogen to the soil and causes the plants to turn yellow and "burn." Although making compost seems like such a simple and small project, it is the education of the villagers that will be the toughest part. I have to convince them that this project, even though it will tend to be more labor intensive, is actually worth the extra effort. If you've kept up with this blog, you'll remember I wrote about the experimental Farmers' Field School. With compost, this is were I will finally be able to test out the theory/practice.

The other day we built a water containment cistern out in the garden from a mud brick form, chicken wire and mortar. Getting the mortar to stick to the chicken wire was the most difficult part and it took me a good 20 minutes to get the right wrist/arm motions down. Had I built a cistern in village without any prior experience, I would look like a complete jackass trying to toss mortar onto the frame. This is the best part of IST. The Peace Corps training staff has prepared a full schedule of programs to train us on. We are able to do all of the activities through a hands-on process in order to work out the kinks and learn how to create them successfully. Over the next few days there will be more training as well as developing a calendar for the next 3 months at site until the next IST. I haven't given my individual site calendar too much thought, but I have many ideas floating around in my head. I'll write it up later in the week when I have a more concrete idea.