Mali

Monday 1/5/2009 - Volunteering in Kori-Maounde, Teaching English in Bandiagara

We heard the call to prayer at 5:15 am. After taking the Unisom which Tina had generously given him, Craig had finally gotten a decent night's sleep, and we got up at 5:55. There was no hot water in the shower, but there was some in the sink. So we splashed each other with sink water and washed our hair under the tap. Good thing that there is a drain in the middle of the tiled bathroom floor.

We went down to the courtyard for breakfast, and discovered that Susan was sick today and would not be able to go to the school with us. We felt sad about this; Susan is a garden afficianado, and had really been looking forward to the service project. We had bread with marmalade, Laughing Cow cheese, Nescafe, and watermelon for breakfast. It was funny, because they would only give you enough cheese for your party. If you asked for extra (as we did to leave with Susan) they would bring back a single packet of cheese. We could ask for as many as we wanted, but they all arrived one at a time. We also enjoyed fresh tamarind juice.

Anna met us at the hotel at 8 o'clock to leave for Kori-Maounde, but we were running a little late. We hopped into the car and Bouba drove us to the village. We were hoping that we wouldn't miss the 8:30 flag ceremony. As we drove down the dirt road to the school, children were waving at us. We arrived at around 8:40, but they had waited for us. All of the children were gathered around the flagpole. A couple of children greeted us as we approached the school courtyard, and Anna identified them as Daniel's children. The kids folded their arms and said "Bonjour, Madame. Bonjour, Monsieur!" They were so polite and sweet. All of the children were in their school uniforms this morning. When everyone was in position, two boys very slowly, deliberately, and respectfully raised the flag while the rest of the student body sang the Malian national anthem. Then the boys marched away from the flagpole.

Tina was taking video footage, and the kids were enthralled. They would watch their friends in the viewscreen, and wave to them through the camera. Everyone wanted to see and she had a crowd of at least 35 kids around her. Daniel ushered the kids into their respective classrooms. A couple of girls had little whisk brooms with which they swept the patio. Daniel took us into the classrooms to be greeted by the children, We started off in the third grade classroom, and immediately recognized Daniel's daughter in the front row. The children folded their arms and said in unison "Bon jour Madame, Bonjour Monsieur!" as we entered. They sang a song for us.

Then we went next door to the combined first and second grade classroom. There were paintings of animals (frogs, giraffes, lions, etc.) on the walls. These younger kids greeted us the same way, and also sang a song. We met their teacher, a pretty young woman named Djeneba Perou. Then we crossed the courtyard and went into the fourth grade class. French lessons start in first grade, so by now these children were quite proficient. They sang us a song in French. There were geometry problems on the blackboard. Daniel showed us some of the few materials that they had, including a radio provided by USAID with which they listened to a weekly educational broadcast.

We then headed out to the garden to begin work. Daniel decided that the children would not have classes today, and that they would instead help us. He would use the entire project as a learning experience. We were excited to be able to interact with the kids. The students' first job was to water the existing plants. They took plastic buckets and USAID tin cans down to the seasonal water hole to get water. Although they have a pump for their well, they take advantage of seasonal rainwater whenever possible.

We took a minute just to assess our surroundings and pinch ourselves to see if this was not a dream. The school, garden, and outhouses were on a flat patch of ground near the agricultural fields (it was just past harvest time, so the fields were idle). There were cliffs off to the right, and on top of the cliffs were the other village buildings. There was a split in the cliff and it seemed to be a popular way of getting to and from the village, as we would see women and children emerging from it with empty water buckets, and after a trip to the water hole they would disappear into the large crack with full water buckets balanced on their heads.

The village men started to show up for work. Mr. Amadou Napo, the village chief, was dressed more casually today, with a wide brimmed straw hat. Oumar Degoga, the mason, was wearing a pair of denim overalls and wellies. Daniel got some tape measures, and he and Oumar measured out the location of the new water basin. They hammered stakes in the ground to mark the corners, and then wrapped twine around the stakes to mark the perimeter. They were anxious to have a photo to commemorate the groundbreaking. Our group nominated me, and I was handed a pickaxe and stood next to the chief, who was holding a shovel. We both began to dig while people snapped photos, and it was quite an honor.

Soon the village men took over, taking the pickaxe from me and doing some hard-core digging. Craig got his hands on a pickaxe and started to really get in there as well. But it was as if the villagers didn't want us to have to work too hard. Any time there was even a momentary break in Craig's rhythm, they would take the tool from him and start going ahead full-steam themselves.

Pam commented about a small gourd she found on the ground. Daniel disappeared for a moment and then returned with a large bowl made out of half a gourd, which he happily presented to Pam as a gift. The children who were in school scurried around the garden, watching and helping. The children who were not in school congregated on the other side of the chain link fence, watching the whole process with interest. While the majority of the men worked on digging the water basin, Daniel instructed the children on the placement of the trees. Pam, Tina, Anna, and I helped the kids to dig evenly spaced holes with the pickaxes and shovels. At first, mostly boys were involved, but soon the girls really got involved as well. We dubbed Daniel's daughter "the inspector", as she was taking on a leadership role of checking all of her peers' work.

We were careful to follow Daniel's lead. He had a certain diameter and depth that he wanted the holes. We wanted to follow his procedure. We didn't want to be foreigners who assumed that we knew best. Daniel was a local here and was knowledgeable about the climate. The Dogon were farmers and made their money by growing crops, so they certainly know what it takes to successfully grow plants in this environment. In fact, they had just harvested their crops, and all of the fields around the school were ready for their next planting cycle. The community ultimately is responsible for this project, and they will prosper or suffer due to its success or failure. Nothing would be worse than for a bunch of know-it-all westerners to assume that they know better, implement a system that ultimately fails, and leaves the village worse off. We were not here for our knowledge of gardening nor our skill (or lack thereof) with a pickaxe. We had provided resources (money to purchase tools and plants) and motivation (via our visit) to get the villagers excited to implement their own plan.

I tried to subtly take photos of the process, but any time kids realized that was what I was up to, some would jump in front of the camera and others would congregate behind me to see the image. Sometimes it distracted them from the job at hand too much, and I would have to put the camera away for a while.

The men were making quick work of the water basin hole, and as it got deeper, some of the men started to dig the 31 meter trench between the existing water basin and the new one. Bahini jumped right in and did a lot of manual labor himself, which was really nice of him as he certainly was not obligated to do so. He seemed really happy that we were helping out the village. With all the hard work, one of the handles of one of the picks broke. It was great to look around and see everyone so engaged and involved in the project.

When the holes were dug for the trees, we added some compost and then the kids brought buckets of water to moisten the soil. The mason sent a bucket brigade to get water for starting to mix the concrete. One man was hit in the head by a pickaxe. He was ok, and more embarassed than anything else when we went up to him and said in quite rehearsed Dogon that we hoped that he was well soon. Anna put a piece of gauze on his head and he was soon back in the trenches continuing to work. We were actually surprised that there weren't more injuries, as the kids were especially spirited with the pickaxes and we often had to warn bystanders to take a step back.

After a morning of work, we broke for lunch. The school normally takes a lunch break/siesta from noon until 3pm. Everyone goes home for lunch, including students who have to walk several miles to school. Some kids barely get home before it is time to turn around and walk back to school again. It seemed like such a shame, and we started to brainstorm ideas. Couldn't they bring lunch from home and eat it at school? Could they eat at friends' houses in the village?

But our western minds were not taking into account all of the factors that complicate life in Mali. It becomes strikingly apparent that though westerners can have the best of intentions and want to help, our solutions sometimes don't take into account the realities of life here. Malians (particularly the Dogon) don't really eat food that is portable. Lunch is a hot meal cooked on the spot. If a child were to bring a lunch to school with them, the mothers would have to wake up before dawn to cook for them. And as for eating with a friend or relative in town...none of these families have extra money or food. Sometimes they can barely afford to feed their own children, let alone someone else's. Daniel's hope is to one day secure funding to build a cafeteria. Of course, they would need to staff it and stock it, which would be the ongoing expense. It brings to mind that you really need to know the community that you are helping; as sometimes what we would view as "obvious" solutions are in fact much more complicated.

We walked down a dusty dirt path in the direction of the road on our way to Daniel's house, and stopped in the shade of a tree for several minutes. A villager was there with his bicycle, and another villager had a large sack of dried hibiscus blossoms. These are called "bisap" and use to make tea or juice. Bahini bought some for us to try. We crossed some sandstone sedimentary rock which at one time was at the bottom of the ocean. Looking at this dry landscape, it was difficult to wrap our brains around the fact that this was once an ocean!! We reached the village and stone walls divided houses which were situated along winding paths.

We approached Daniel's house, and entered the courtyard through a break in the stone wall. We entered the house and were seated in his "hangar", an addition to the house which was sort of like an enclosed mud-walled porch where guests are entertained. The ceiling was made of sticks. Daniel's wife Marie emerged from the curtained doorway which separated the hangar from the private interior of the house. We wondered what the actual living quarters looked like, but it would have been inappropriate to ask to enter the house.

Bahini made tea, a process steeped in tradition. It is usually prepared by a young male in the family. Tea is always served on a platter containing two glasses. The teapot is heated on a small metal charcoal stove. He prepared bisap (hibiscus) tea, which was a ruby red color. Bahini poured the tea from one cup to another and added lots of sugar. He served Craig and I the first two glasses. It was deliciously sweet.

Marie and Daniel brought out the lunch which Marie had prepared from ingredients bought by Anna. It was a garlicky spicy delicious spaghetti and chicken. We all passed around a green plastic tea kettle on top of a covered bowl. The tea kettle had a crescent moon and star adorning it. We poured water over each other's hands, and the runoff fell into the plastic bowl. It was a brilliant design, and hand-washing before meals is ritualistic here. Lunch was absolutely delicious. We learned not to let Bahini serve, however, as he gives gigantic portions! Daniel ate with us and we all chatted.

At 1:30, teacher Djeneba Perou arrived, and she joined Marie and the children inside. Marie hooked a small television to their solar-charged car batteries and they watched a Brazilian soap opera. Anna explained how everyone in Mali is hooked on this soap opera, men included. She said that Malian men pride themselves on not showing much emotion, and she thought that they really enjoy the vicarious melodrama of the soap, which is dubbed in French. We could hear the sappy music emanating from inside the house, and it was quite amusing.

Daniel left for a little while in order to pick up a student. Boureima Napo, the head of the school's parents' association, stopped by. Bahini made another batch of tea - Malian tea this time. It is a Chinese tea with a strong mint flavor, very bitter but at the same time sweet, due to all the sugar that Bahini had added.

We relaxed and chatted until Daniel returned at exactly 2:59 pm, and then we headed back to the school. En route, we ran into some of the village women (so far we had only really interacted with the men with the exception of Marie). An older woman approached Tina very enthusiastically and greeted her, shaking hands. We came across a couple of boys who were sitting on the ground with a small puppy. As we walked toward the school, we encountered many students, also returning from lunch. Most had changed out of their school uniforms and into clothes more suitable for working in the garden. They all greeted us individually, with folded arms and a polite "Bonsoir, Madame. Bonsoir Monsieur." We looked each one in the eye, wished them bonsoir, and extended our right hand, which they eagerly shook. We felt like rock stars; everyone wanted to say hello, and we made sure to give time to each individual.

When we arrived back at the garden, it looked as though Oumar the mason had not even taken any lunch break. He was creating the foundation of the water basin, using home-made bricks and concrete. We all got to work on the trench, which was now knee-deep. Tina and I started into a chorus of the late great Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" as we swung our pickaxes, much to the amusement of the nearby kids. Many of the village men had not returned to work this afernoon, as today was their market day and they had things to buy and/or sell. The children got more water to water the plants and the holes for the new trees.

One girl insisted on using the watering can to water the holes. She had a plastic bucket of water on her head and a watering can in her hand. As she walked, water from the bucket would slosh down her back. She would transfer the water from the bucket to the watering can and then add it to the hole. It was quite cute to watch. At one point I took her photo and then she went dancing off smiling.

We also dug some more tree holes, and composted and watered them. When the trench seemed deep enough, the PVC pipe was laid down in order to test the depth and angle of the trench. Oumar finished the foundation of the water basin, and started building up the walls with cinderblocks. Kids scraped the dirt off of the bottom of the cinderblocks before Oumar placed them.

Before we knew it, it was 4:50 and we could see Bouba's car approaching. We gathered up our things and noticed that we had created a pile of discarded water bottles (it was warm in the sun and we all drank a lot to remain hydrated). Bottles are a very valuable commodity here, and in Segou and Sangha, many children had asked for our water bottles. The schoolchildren here had given our possessions a wide berth, but their eyes belied the hope that we would leave the bottles for them. As we started to walk away there was a feeding frenzy and the kids dove for the bottles. Pam watched one girl rip a bottle from another's hands. I had one empty bottle in my backpack, and gave it to the girl whose bottle had been stolen. We realized just how much these seemingly insignificant (to us) things meant to children who lived so simply, and we knew that in the future we would have to make sure that we were fair in the distribution of such items.

We said our goodbyes to everyone (each child came to us offering "Au revoir, Madame, au revoir Monsiour" and we shook their hands again). As we approached the car, a group of women approached us and said hi to Tina. I addressed one with a small baby on her back, and she turned to proudly show off the "bebe". Then Bouba drove us back to Bandiagara. On the way, we reflected on the day's events. In a mere day, the community had rallied together to dig a 6 foot deep water basin, a 31 meter trench, and 54 tree holes had been dug, composted, and watered. It really highlighted how much can be done when you have a large workforce. We thought of how different the garden looked today than it had yesterday evening, and we realized how amazed Susan would be when she next saw it!

When we got back to the hotel, our air conditioning suddenly wasn't working. We were dirty and sweaty after our day of manual labor in the garden and once again took quick "showers" from the sink. Anna met us at 6:15, and we all walked down the street and around the corner down the dusty streets to the dormitory where we would be teaching English to the student residents. Susan still was not feeling well, so she did not come with us. We made a quick stop in front of Timothee's house (a block or so from the dorm) so that Anna could pick up her chalkboard.

As we approached the dorm, kids met us and greeted us. "Bonsoir Madame. Bonsoir Monsieur." A boy took the chalkboard from Anna. We went into the small courtyard outide the dorm building. Students began to congregate and brought some benches outside and lined them up. The blackboard was propped up against the wall with a broken bench. The whole courtyard was illuminated by a single fluorescent bulb.

At least 75 kids showed up during the course of the next hour for this completely voluntary lesson. Pam wrote an English dialogue on the blackboard, and Anna asked Craig and I to act it out. Anna then asked the kids to explain the meaning of the dialogue in French. She would practice unfamiliar English words with the kids, in a call and response fashion. It was great the way that she would modulate her voice...saying the word with different inflection, as a statement, question, exclamation... Her enthusiasm was contagious; the kids were eager to learn and participate. One in particular (a 10th grader who turned out to be the dorm "captain") would often raise his hand, snapping his fingers to get Anna's attention. He had a notebook (or "copy book" as they call them) and was taking copious notes.

Tina practiced numbers with the kids, and she was a real natural at it. She got them enthusiastically counting by 10's, etc. I took photos and the flash was really bright in the darkness. I kept startling one girl in particular in the front row, and she would jump and catch her breath every time I took a photo, and then she and her friends would start to giggle. "No more photos!" she joked with me.

When we were saying sentences for the kids to repeat, I said "Craig is my husband." They understood my words, but looked at us curiously. They asked "Really?" Craig said, "She is my wife." They got very excited, like it was very hard for them to believe that a husband and wife would be teaching them. They all broke into applause. It was really cute. We met Aminata, the woman who had organized the dorm and helped to care for the kids. She knew a little bit of English as well, and she was very pleased that we had come. We gathered up our things, and I realized that one girl was carrying my bag. When we got out to the street I thanked her and took it from her. I realized too late that she was probably intending to carry it all the way back to the hotel for me. Any initial reticence about working with high schoolers was gone. These kids were awesome. They were polite, friendly, helpful, and serious about their studies. They were away from their own families, living in town together so that they could continue to go to school.

We walked back to the hotel and went upstairs to the restaurant. We were happy to learn that Susan was feeling a little better, and she decided to join us. We told her all about the immense progress we had made today and she was very proud of us, and of course wished she could have been there. She flipped through some of the day's photos on my camera. We decided to order the same items we had ordered last night before the menu misunderstanding, so Craig ordered the chicken curry special, and I once again ordered spaghetti bolognaise. I tried the D'jino Pomme, a fizzy apple juice drink which Bahini had been drinking with each meal. It was quite good and refreshing. Craig loved his chicken curry, and the spaghetti bolognaise was quite good too. It was different than the one I had had in Segou; the sauce was thicker and had lots of garlic and meat. Tina ordered a rum and Coke, and was brought a rum and a coconut-full-of-ice. We got a lot of laughs out of that - Tina and I had a way of getting each other laughing. "Rum and Coke-o-nut..." She was able to explain that she wanted a Coca-Cola, and the waiter then brought it to her.

After dinner, Susan and Bahini called it a night, but Craig and I sat in the courtyard with Pam and Tina, chatting. We had a lot of fun hearing about prior trips they had taken together, and various celebrities (Sean Connery!) they had run into along the way. I wrote in the journal as there was so much to record about the day's events. At midnight we retired to our rooms and went to bed.

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