Making it happen

It's well into February. Hard to believe that I've been in Mali for almost 7 months already; I have 19 more to look forward to. After returning to site post-IST, project implementation has been in full effect. I was a bit nervous at first proposing my ideas for potential projects, as I've been sitting in village learning Fulfulde for 3 months straight. In terms of getting work done, I hadn't accompolished anything (don't worry.... it's not due to lack of motivation, it's the Peace Corps' rule). I practiced speaking about the projects to myself and my to my PC friends in Fulfulde before unveiling them to the villagers, and I worked out many kinks in the language. It's amazing how much a dictionary helps here. For the last week, I have been holding meetings at various places around the village in order to gain support for the projects, organize material lists, translate work between English and Fulfulde and back again. I pretty much just jumped into the work instead of trying to get my feet wet first. This has been a surprisingly easy transition and everyone I am working with in village is more than motivated to get going on the projects.

For the millet field test projects, I have already singled out 4 farmers to work with, devised a tentative work schedule, worked out cost benefits, and have made plans to store successfully grown seeds in the seed bank to sell to other communities the following planting season. That works out the best because it allows me to take out two projects in one. Those would be finding a drought resistant millet strain and updating the seed bank. Check.

Furthermore, the cereal bank project is going faster than I had imagined and is actually going to be a hell of a lot easier than I had initially thought. There is a pre-existing structure in village that housed grains at one point until the ceiling caved in (this happens often, as the homes are made of rocks, sticks and mud). We measured the dimensions of the building and plan to tear it down in the coming weeks and build a new one in it's place to roughly the same dimensions. This makes my job easier, as funding projects in Mali requires a minimun of at least 25% contributions from the village. My village will be supplying all of the rocks for the structure, all of the wooden cieling beams we salvage, all of the workers and hours. a strong metal door from the existing structure and will hopefully be able to kick in some grains. When I write up the proposal, I need to create a very specific materials cost and needs sheet that is divided up into community contributions and monies requested. This is well under way, in both Fulfulde and English. It's been difficult work, but has been keeping me very busy... obviously a big difference from the initial 3 months in village. Basically, the village will need the money for bags of cemement, record keeping materials, a new lock, scales, cereals, bags, lamps, etc. This is much less than I had originally thought.

I spoke with my APCD (Oumar, who is in charge of the Ag sector) today and he is thrilled to see that my work is taking off so quickly. He put me on a list of seed recipients for the millet field testing, but I want to call the project manager directly in order to ensure I get exactly what I need. We're looking for varieties that will seed in roughly 60-75 days, as we don't get much rain here. I also told him about the cereal bank project and asked about funding opportunities. More specifically, I wanted to know if the Peace Corps funding options covered the cost of the grains that will be stored and sold in the bank. He said it coveres everything as long as the commmunity contribution is at least 25%. So, I'm set there. Also, I met with a local NGO today and pitched my projects to them. They were very positive about my work and would like to collaborate on projects in the future becasue I live in village and am a valuable resource. We spoke about the cereal bank, and they have actually funded, built, and stocked multiple cereal banks in the Douentza area. They are willing to work with me on that project, so that's another win for me.

These projects will keep me busy through the next harvest season (until about December). After that, I will begin gardening projects during the next cold season with the villagers that are aimed at income generation. Really, I just want to grow vegetables to eat that aren't onions. I could go for some carrots about now.

In other news, Mike and Zack bought their tickets and will arrive in Bamako on June 12. They'll be in Mali for roughly 3 weeks, so I have a lot of planning to do before they get here. Also, I'm going to Bamako for more training in early April, and hopefully after that, taking a trip to Ghana with some friends to escape the hot season and get to the beach. I'm going to need a vacation by that point. I can tell that the hot season is inching closer and closer because it is getting near 100 degrees by mid day and I can't sleep inside anymore. My house is just rocks that bake in the sun all day. Funny how they showed us how to build a heat conserving mud brick stove that is built just like my home.