work

waitin on money for my clean water project. guess I can talk a little bit about work...

to start, this work really isn't what I had in mind. the scale is a lot smaller than I expected. I'll end up leaving with maybe a few concrete items to boast about my stay. hopefully, and within the goals of peace corps, where are work really makes a difference is the number of people we reach with capacity building. there's just a complete lack of resources here - knowledge, tecnology, capital, etc... if we could hook the bush up with some of this modern stuff, they could turn the corner with a vengeance

so I'm gonna improve eight village wells with a concrete well wall, head wall, apron and metal cover. also purchasing a 1/2 million cfa pump repair kit to fix all the pumps in my area. within this work is the more important capacity building that will occur, by showing villagers how to do quality concrete work and other construction techniques. introducing them to engineering with pump diagrams and disassembling the pumps for basic troubleshooting. what frequently happens is that an NGO will install pumps that end up breaking down and leave the village without the technical capacity to fix them.

NGOs also do a lot of other things that probably do more harm than good, like throwing money at big projects, which ends up getting pocketed by corrupt government officials. more often than not. that's more in regards to those big first-world contributions and programs that make the bulk of the development industry. it seems like local malian NGOs are a different story... usually smart, savvy and well-intentioned people who've seen shit at its worst and decided to do something about it. they've experienced the problem first-hand and tend to be the most qualified to remedy solutions. instead, most aid money is the product of feel-good. many people who contribute aren't informed about what's really going on, they give and it feels good no matter where it goes. once you've been here and seen what's going on and realized what it'll take, you see a lot of work wasted in a place that can't afford lost opportunities. the most unfortunate thing is the difficulty in explaining the situation here to people in the first world; it's hard to comprehend all this without a personal account. but a discouraging fact remains... you can't empathize by simply giving. their plight is still an abstraction.

so I've also been increasing awareness about water-borne diseases and their prevalance, via oral-fecal transmission. diarrheal diseases that most developed parts of the world have eliminated are still a serious problem in the third world, especially since it contributes to high infant mortality rates (mali's high in the top 10, with 23 percent not making it to age 5). there is a wide variety of preventative measures that can be taken, including adequate hand-washing, ending open-defecation (O-D is just people not shitting in the nyegen, but in the streets or fields instead), increasing access to potable water, practicing sanitary water-taking practices, etc. also doing well treatment demonstrations and motivating the village's water and sanitation committee to make monthly collections to purchase the bleach used for treatment.

hosted the country director at site. talked about everything from getting kicked out of the bamako transit house to projects to development work in general. had beers together, a real chill dude. an authority figure I can respect and a smart man with lots to share. I'll soon be hosting a photojournalist from the states who wants to do a story on the water situation in mali. he'll stay at my site for a couple of days, that'll be pretty cool. until then...

cruisin

...greeting eating digging sleeping smoking. hot high and dusty winds. no ice, ice cream, a/c, swimming pools, cool lovers, cold covers. I'm in hell. we dance at night, the sweat heat and dust rise into the starry night sky. the women throw a fit and the men stare at the village idiot, the town fool. kids chewing on black rubber and sucking on their shit filled fingertips. sometimes I can't stop laughing...

ups n downs. village has been pretty quiet, a lot of my people went to damandala to dig for gold. really diggin site lately... maybe hot season won't be so bad. my homologue and I went to a commune party in kumakeri. it was a buck to get in, a big deal out in the bush. this bought meat and macaroni, some television shows, and the dance party. we sat for like three hours watching terrible malian music videos and nature shots. they started playing the fifth element, in english too not french, but everyone freaked in the beginning when the big metal aliens come down. they don't really like that sci-fi garbage. action and guns and martial arts. fbi cia cops and robbers and detectives. that's more like their thing.

my sense of humor is finally comin around, it helps to be able to laugh with them, laugh at them. you have to start joking with these people or it's gonna be rough. most things are pretty laughable anyway.

helps to open up too. share ideas, motivate, be social. I'm not really, definitely pickin some up though. reading a lot... finished Dandelion Wine and Choke. dandelion was a nice escape into small town old school america. haven't read Ray Bradbury since grade school, I think maybe I got a little bit of how I write from his style, way back then subconsciously or something. choke was way different and more enjoyable, reminded me not to be so damn uptight. I try too hard sometimes, gettin caught up in my head. once again, open up and shit will just come, just be yourself. I'm not myself so much that I can't even think straight, can't find any reference. we're all a little messed up, but it's all good. it's good that I'm out here. nothing I expected but everything I wanted.

in the middle of Basic Economics, a really good read if you wanna understand how the world works. how our world works, the world of wants and needs and how we affect each other. but that's where it stops, in this reality. if you're lookin for an alternate reality or maybe spiritual growth then don't bother. after that I'm pickin Anna Karenina back up and finishing it once and for all. also got The Enormous Room and Tale of Two Cities on the roster. drop suggestions if you have them. though we have a limited selection. I've never read this much in my life.

I'm really just having a good time. no distractions, start thinking about your life. get a handle on it. realize how much you can do. no one around to follow or worry about.

this is the local language summary that prefaced my project proposal, if you're interested in some malian tongue...

Sayn n kana Marembilia, dugu mogow tun b'a fe ka miniji nyuman caman soro. Sisan, u ye ji la bana caman famuya barisa u mana taa ponpe walima kolon na, u be samara bo ani u te juruflen bila duguma. U y'u jija ka kolon ko yiriwa, nka u ka baara ma dafa barisa u t'a cogo don. Ola anw ye ji ni saniya ton sigi sin ka, ka masala caman ka ka, ka ben kan kelen kan.

An bena kolon segin laben ani ka ponpe fila dilan ka dow bo ji ko toorola. Miniji yoro nyuman kelen bena bo kelen na ka se tan ni kelen. N bena kolonji furake cogo yira dugu mogow la, ka jaw yira u la. N bena ponpe baara cogo, ka ponpe minaw, ani simon baara cogo nyuman yira dugu mogow la, i ko kordelapay yan kalan na cogo mina. Nin bee kofe, an ka baara nin bena men barisa dugu mogow bena fen caman kalan. O saba b'u la dugu mogow fene bena se ka dugu were kalan.