back to school

class is back in session and several of marembilia's teenagers have relocated to the larger towns with middle and high schools. marembilia has a broken down middle school that was built by pdrik (programe du development rurale integre de kita or whatever) in 2007. the structure was poorly designed and constructed, and before its grand opening the roof on a majority of the school was destroyed by high winds. look:

after telling my village of their presence on the internet, a media savvy local told me to fuck pdrik and their 20% OPEC arab/oil financing because they don't really give a shit about their development work. he wants me to post pictures of the school that never was, to show this unfulfilled potential to the rest of the world, and explain how valuable a fix would be to the community. he said sure pdrik shells out lots of money and buildings, but they could give a fuck about the marginalized rural poor. I, a supposed partner in development, have been told personally by pdrik representatives to not inquire about the situation anymore because it could be damaging to my career. I'm more just dissatisfied with yet another poorly managed affair or neglected project and I'd really like pdrik to face the music and finish this shit.

instead, the internet and its ability access resources worldwide has been the avenue chosen by several villagers, and like I've said before, I've been feeling acquiescent to most of my malian family's wishes. so we have a building to house grades 7-9 that would enroll kids from a large surrounding area, including six other smaller villages. right now the closest middle school is 13 miles away. but the structure was poorly designed and villagers confessed that the construction contractor used bad materials (I've been drilling concrete quality control into their heads for a while now, even they know how it should go). pdrik sent out some dudes to make estimates on the repair after my pushing but they were assholes. didn't really greet or listen to what anyone had to say. we were told to wait for formal estimations on paper to arrive, that was over a month ago I think. so my village got it's own estimate from a contractor trusted throughout the area, with a reputation in kita and a seemingly sincere dude. 804,000 cfa or almost $2,000.

basically marembilia has been getting fucked around for three years, getting uh-huhs and we're-comings from pdrik. apparently 5% of the project cost (~700,000 cfa) is set aside in the event that problems of construction or something else arise. the way their admin works, the different levels of payouts and pushoffs rinses their hands clean of responsibility. anytime you get close enough, it's never pdrik's fault, but the contractor or project accountant or someone else that you can never get a hold of. and if you want that 700,000 cfa, you just gotta wait for that one dude to come back from bamako or the other guy from vacation. or talk to the mayor so you can get lost in that whole other sea of malian red tape and inefficiency.

and all marembilia wants is to get this opened for the coming school year. what a party they'll throw they said. their want is there, the interest. they got the papers approving the placement of a teacher for 7-9th grade, they just recently renewed it in some exercise of blind faith that the roof would be fixed. and now I tell you because sekou says, "just throw it up on the internet, www.ericbraaten.com, so the whole world can see and someone will surely want to help." I wanted to explain to him that it's not that easy, not everyone looks at what I write, and that things have to be done more formally than that since we're dealing with $$. but it really is that simple. all he wanted was the pictures put up and the story shared. so we'll see what happens.