The Four Little Chicks

So, part of my service is working with IEP which is the Institute for Popular Education and it teaches teachers how to teach in the national languages such as Bomu, Bambara, Fulani, and about 6 others. So depending on the area they have IEPs with different languages. So schools that have IEP trained teachers begin teaching students how to read in the local language before getting into French using the theory that if you can read in one language, reading in another language should come more easily (their results show this is the case. Also, I'm living proof that it's possible because I can easily read in Bomu and Bambara... I just don't understand it). The argument against it is that in the end the students don't actually learn one language and fully as they could have if they had started only in French. Regardless, one of the things they do is they write short little books in the local language and then give them to as many students as possible. This is where I come in, I have written a small story on nutrition that I hope presents it in a fun way. As you're reading, think of it as a children's book with lots of pretty illustrations.

Les Petits Poussins

One day there was a hen, a very proud hen who could lay 3 eggs at a time. One day, this hen laid 4 eggs and 4 very different chicks were born. The chicks played all day and night and followed their mother everywhere she went. But each chick was very picky.

The first chick found that he was afraid of being sick, so he went to the wise rabbit flying in the sky and asked him, “Wise rabbit, I have seen you flying around and never getting sick, how do you avoid becoming sick and live so long?” To which the rabbit replied, “Well, I never get sick because of what I eat. I only eat fruits and vegetables because fruit fights diseases.” So the little chick decided that for the rest of his life, he would only eat fruits and vegetables.

The second chick wandered off one day and saw a lion. The chick was terrified but was amazed at the strength of the lion. So, overcoming his fear, he approached him and very cautiously asked, “Mr. Lion, you are so strong and so big, one day I want to be as big and as strong as you, how can I do that?” To which the lion replied, “Well, as a lion, I only eat meat, and this makes me very strong and has allowed me to grow. If you want to be big and strong like me, you need to eat lots of meat, peanuts, beans and drink only milk, this way you will grow big muscles.” So the second little chick decided that for the rest of his life, he would only eat meat and drink milk.

The third chick was happily running around the concession when he saw a goat race past at an incredible speed, jumping very high and full of energy. The chick watched in amazement as the goat raced through the fields and nobody could catch it, even the fastest dogs. So one day the little chick went to the goat’s house and asked him, “Goat, how is it that you can run so fast? It’s amazing, if only I could run that fast I would be the champion of all chickens and nobody could stop me.” To which Goat replied, “Well, I only eat millet, corn, and rice and nothing else. These foods give me lots of energy which make me go really fast.” So the chick decided that he would only eat millet, corn, and rice for the rest of his life.

The fourth chick was not picky, and ate anything he found.

As they grew up, the four chicks became famous in the community. The first chick became a doctor who was famous for he himself never becoming sick, but often took naps and was not very strong. The second chick grew huge and strong and always won the wrestling competitions, but he often took naps and had to go see his brother the doctor often. The third chick won all the races and was never tired. There wasn’t a single animal in the community that could catch him or outrun him in a race, but he was not as strong as his brother and went to see his brother the doctor very often. The fourth chick was known for being good at everything. He was only second fastest to his third brother, he was only second strongest to his second brother, and the only animal that got sick less than he did was his oldest brother. But the fourth chick rarely ate at home. On one day he would go to his oldest brother and only eat fruits and vegetables, on the next day he would visit his second brother and eat only meat, and on the third day he would go visit his third brother and eat only millet or corn or rice. He always ate a balanced diet that allowed him to be strong, fast, intelligent, and to never become sick.

One day during planting season, the four brothers were out working hard in the field. But after a time, the first chick and the second chick began to get tired and had to stop often. The fourth chick and the third chick however, did not seem to get tired, but kept working. The first and second chick could not believe it so they asked the fourth chick, “How is it that you can keep working so hard without getting tired?” To which the fourth chick replied, “Come eat with us when I go visit out brother the third chick and you will see why.” So the next day they went to visit the third chick and ate only millet and corn and rice. The next time they went to the fields, the first and second chicks were able to work all day from sun-up to sun-down without getting tired. So the first and second chicks decided that they would include rice and millet and corn in their meals so that they would not get tired.

One day during cold season, the fourth chick went to eat at his second brother’s house. It was cold at night and the second chick had fallen ill. The second brother asked his fourth brother, “Brother, how are you not sick when it is so cold outside, I am always sick and cannot perform in competitions anymore.” The fourth brother told him, that next time he should come eat at the first brother’s house. Then the fourth brother went to see the third chick. The third chick was also sick and exclaimed, “Brother, how are you not sick when it is so cold outside, I am always sick and therefore I cannot race or work anymore.” To which the fourth brother replied, “Come eat with me at our first brother’s house and you will see why.” So the next day, the four brothers met at the first brother’s house to eat, and they only ate fruits and vegetables. The next day, the second and third brother’s were not sick and they were amazed that their muscles and bodies did not ache as they had before. So they decided to include fruits and vegetables in the meals.

One day during hot season, the four brothers were helping build a new house for their mother. But the first and third chick could no not lift the big bricks while the second and fourth brother lifted even the largest bricks easily. So they asked the fourth brother, “How can you be so strong and lift such big bricks? We are full of energy and are not tired, but we can only lift the small bricks.” To which the fourth brother said, “Come eat at our second brother’s house tomorrow and you will see.” So the next day the four chicks went to eat at the second brother’s house and ate only meat and drank only milk. The next day, all the brothers were able to lift the big bricks and build the house together.

And so the four little chicks learned that to stay healthy, strong, and energetic they must each all kinds of foods.

Other updates, I played with a monkey on market day. He was trying to sell it to me, but not only is it against Peace Corps policy, but monkey trafficking is bad! If you buy a monkey or ape you are encouraging people to catch more monkeys and apes in order to sell them, endangering the already dangerously low population of monkeys and especially apes. Also, I started working in the fields. I was helping one of my friends start his fonio fields. The first morning we didn't do very much, but the second morning we did half a hectare in a 2.5 hours just the two of us. It's a great work out but it tears your hands apart. Almost all farming here is done by hand and only wealthy people have the opportunity to buy a plow. Once the big rains come and I'm back in village they'll be planting peanuts I'll take pictures to post.

If you have the opportunity to see the second episode of Human Planet, it's basically half about Mali. They show images of Dogon country and Hombri (where there are elephants). Also, when he pronounces the work Diallo, it's pronounce Jallo and it's a typical Fulani name, the same ethnic group as the child herding the cows. When they are showing images of the children in Dogon country all happy about the rain, it's true, rain is good because it means that it's finally cooling down and planting season will start, we have to remember a couple things. 1) Heavy rains are often terrifying for Malians. Their houses are primarily made of mud and especially near the end of rainy season it's not uncommon for houses to collapse and that becomes very bad if it's at night and people are in these houses. 2) Particularly in Dogon country where this footage was shot, latrines are in poor condition and most children and all animals defecate outside, so all the water washing down through the villages, especially during the first rains are full of bacteria and fun stuff. The images of the people fishing (also in Dogon) is done in many parts of Mali including San. I went to a festival called Sangue Mo (also known as Bobe), and although I missed the beginning, I saw thousands and thousands of people doing exactly that. Apparently they begin not with a gun shot, but an elder goes to the middle of the river, puts his basket in, and as soon as he pulls out a fish, everybody rushes in. It was really an awesome festival, I'll post pictures.

Currently on my way to Manantali to celebrate the 4th of July and my 1 year in country mark!

Blessing the Wells for Planting

A Malian festival not far from my village where they take a statue of the Virgin Mary to all the wells and bless them so that they will be full during rainy season and give good crops.
Riding donkeys with clothes on them.
Partying Malian style, on donkeys and with guns.
Everybody is drunk off millet beer! I felt like I was walking to the big house, and did yell "Go Blue" a couple times. I saw this with a Peace Corps Response Volunteer who is now near my site, and she had done 2 years of Peace Corps in the Kayes region so seeing drunken Malians was incredibly strange to her and she didn't know how to act. It's more common in my area because they are primarily Christian/Animist, and because they are Bwa (who really like millet beer).

The Virgin Mary dressed in Malian fabric with her face on it for the celebration.

Besides the obvious holidays like Christmas and Easter and such, it was cool to see how Christians have incorporated a traditional holiday like blessing wells, which has nothing to do with the Virgin Mary, into a Christian holiday and therefore converted more people. I always knew that it was done, it was just interesting to see it in a place where Christianity came only within the last couple hundred years and people still understand the true reason (and care about the true reason) for doing what they do, unlike the Easter Bunny or Santa Clause.

It let me upload today.

This is my house, very fancy for a Malian house. There's also my iron horse (my bike), my mini compost pile on the left which I used to restart my moringa trees, and my tippy- tap on the right (which I talked about in my last blog post). The blue jug is filled with water and has a string connecting it to the stick on the ground. When you step on the stick it causes the water to fall. Also in the purple cup on the right is soap which is on a rope so that it doesn't fall off during high winds and rains.
Public transportation! I rode this guy for 2 hours on my way to visit another volunteer during her market day. Those big baskets on the back are filled with mangos on the way out and the truck is packed with bags of rice and millet and other grains. There was a guy on the edge that had hid leg dangling off and he fell asleep for a good 10 minutes, needless to say, without a seatbelt. I have no idea how he didn't fall off. They also pack goats and sheep with us on top.
Sarah, my griot friend's daughter, who has heat rash and so was covered in baby powder.
This is my griot friend that has been teaching me how to play the "talking drum" that you can squeeze to change the pitch. I'm wearing my crazy pants.
Camel Spider!! On the prowl!! Not nearly as big as the ones you see from Iraq but still pretty big and creepy, and they move really fast too. This one isn't quite the size of my hand. We also valiantly battled one at my house (my homologue took his flip-flop off and beat it to death), then looked at me and said "A ma ni de, a be se ka mogo kin." (Translation: Very bad, it can bite people)

Happy 11 Months!

Since getting back from the States I’ve spent the last 5 weeks at site without leaving. It was something I felt that I needed to do because since I’ve moved to this site I haven’t had a chance to spend a long stretch of time without leaving. When I was in Nioro I only left once and it makes a huge difference in terms of integration and getting work done. One thing that I’m doing that isn’t very difficult but very time consuming and hopefully helpful, is going to every house that is currently housing a student teacher and asking them if I can include them in a list with their name, the number of rooms, the number of students that can stay per room, the price, whether or not there is electricity and whether they have to draw water from a well (there is no running water anywhere in Tominian but there are spigots around the town where people can get treated water). This will allow new students to find a place more easily and give them bargaining power for a house. Not all students can afford to pay a lot of money, and so some are willing to rent houses that don’t have electricity and spigots outside. It will also help the house owners to find students to rent the houses because by being on the list, students will know that they exist. Unfortunately I have gotten resistance from some house owners for writing their names down. More often than not, they think I’m going to give it to the government and that they’ll then have to pay taxes on their houses (almost all houses look unfinished because the law says you only have to pay taxes on finished houses). Many times I’ll find the women at home, and they’ll say they are the house owners, but as soon as I tell them my purpose, they tell me no, they aren’t house owners, their husbands are, or that the house owner died (that was a funny one because I then asked her if she buries the money she receives for the house). Also, most of the house owners don’t actually live in or around the houses that they are renting, so finding them has been a challenge. I’m worked on this off and on for about 2 weeks and I’m still not done. The students themselves love the idea and feel like it will definitely be help, which has kept me motivated. Also, it’s has really improved my Bambara because I have to talk with so many different people and has gotten me out in the community getting to know a lot of people. This is an example of a project where if I couldn’t speak the local language, there would be absolutely no way for me to do it, much less on my own. As I said, they become very suspicious of my motives, and the fact that I speak Bambara makes them trust me and understand me more easily. Most of these people are uneducated and so maybe 10% have been able to speak French.

Although spending 5 weeks at site was fun and good for work, but I also had frustrating moments, especially around week 3. One of the things that gets to me is when they tell me how useless my work is. It seems like more so recently, but a couple people have tried explaining to me the difficulties and make it sound as if what I am doing won’t work. This takes a lot of patience to listen to and explain my motives, especially when it happens more than once a day. I built a tippy-tap, which is a handwashing station, I’ll post pictures, and a student from the professional school asked what it was for, and when I told him, he proceeded to tell me that nobody wants to wash their hands like that because of cultural norms and that nobody will ever change that and regardless of what I was saying he was extremely pessimistic about it. I understand these cultural problems, partly because every time I explain things I hear the same cultural explanations all over again, but my stance on it, and what I try to tell them, is that if I don’t even try to change something, nobody will ever change anything anyways. So yes, most people will not begin washing their hands this way, but I understand this and the only way to begin something is to try, and if I don’t try, then I might as well go home. The other time (in the same day) was when I went to the assistant director of the CAP (the center for pedagogy who takes care of problems within the schools and gives advice), to ask him what kind of solutions or ideas he had about a problem I was trying to overcome. The problem being that many of the middle school kids come from villages around Tominian and have to walk 3-10 km each day to do so. Well, if their families are too poor, or don’t care, they don’t eat breakfast or lunch and still have to study all day. So the only meal they eat during the entire day for the entire school year is dinner. I have been trying to come up with a sustainable solution to this problem but it’s not easy, so I went to ask his opinion. For the next half hour, I listened to him tell me how poor everyone is and how difficult life is Mali is and how everybody in this town is lazy and nobody is going to do anything. Very productive in my opinion… I understand that Mali is poor, I understand that it isn’t easy, I understand that the students parents are poor, I understand that nobody wants to help these children individually, I understand that other students and parents will not necessarily be nice to these students or their parents because they will feel a sense of ownership and un-payable debt and that there might not be a single solution to this problem, but if I don’t even try to find a solution, then these kids will continue to be hungry for 9 months out of the year… during the day at least. I might have found a small solution but it will also be time consuming and I have to make sure that there isn’t any corruption. There are many associations or groups in town, and each of these associations or groups gather money either every week or every month depending on how often they meet. My idea, is to find one association that will take this on as their project and be like a “leader” association. I’ve identified one, but they have been slow getting back to me. Anyways, what they would do, is ask different association if they would be willing to increase their contributions to the group by 100 CFA or 20 cents (typically if they meet once a week they collect 500-1000 CFA, and if they meet once a month they collect 1000-2000 CFA), so adding another 100 CFA wouldn’t be that big a deal for an individual. However if these groups have 30 members and meet once a week, it means that they could pay for the lunch of 4 students for a month. That’s if they pay the minimum and the students receive a minimum. This also does not take into account weekends. Anyways, this is much easier than asking a single individual to pay for a student to eat lunch. We’ll see, but if I can get this properly organized which implies sustainability, and accounts for the 100 students that can’t eat lunch, then I would be very happy with my service.

With the rains coming, everybody is getting their fields ready but this also means that hungry season is coming. There period of planting and harvesting is usually a very difficult one because not only is everybody working very hard in the fields, but there is very little food left over from the year before.

I also just realized that I have spent my last 3 birthdays out of the country and will have spent a fourth by the time my service is over.

Happy 11 Months!

Since getting back from the States I’ve spent the last 5 weeks at site without leaving. It was something I felt that I needed to do because since I’ve moved to this site I haven’t had a chance to spend a long stretch of time without leaving. When I was in Nioro I only left once and it makes a huge difference in terms of integration and getting work done. One thing that I’m doing that isn’t very difficult but very time consuming and hopefully helpful, is going to every house that is currently housing a student teacher and asking them if I can include them in a list with their name, the number of rooms, the number of students that can stay per room, the price, whether or not there is electricity and whether they have to draw water from a well (there is no running water anywhere in Tominian but there are spigots around the town where people can get treated water). This will allow new students to find a place more easily and give them bargaining power for a house. Not all students can afford to pay a lot of money, and so some are willing to rent houses that don’t have electricity and spigots outside. It will also help the house owners to find students to rent the houses because by being on the list, students will know that they exist. Unfortunately I have gotten resistance from some house owners for writing their names down. More often than not, they think I’m going to give it to the government and that they’ll then have to pay taxes on their houses (almost all houses look unfinished because the law says you only have to pay taxes on finished houses). Many times I’ll find the women at home, and they’ll say they are the house owners, but as soon as I tell them my purpose, they tell me no, they aren’t house owners, their husbands are, or that the house owner died (that was a funny one because I then asked her if she buries the money she receives for the house). Also, most of the house owners don’t actually live in or around the houses that they are renting, so finding them has been a challenge. I’m worked on this off and on for about 2 weeks and I’m still not done. The students themselves love the idea and feel like it will definitely be help, which has kept me motivated. Also, it’s has really improved my Bambara because I have to talk with so many different people and has gotten me out in the community getting to know a lot of people. This is an example of a project where if I couldn’t speak the local language, there would be absolutely no way for me to do it, much less on my own. As I said, they become very suspicious of my motives, and the fact that I speak Bambara makes them trust me and understand me more easily. Most of these people are uneducated and so maybe 10% have been able to speak French.

Although spending 5 weeks at site was fun and good for work, but I also had frustrating moments, especially around week 3. One of the things that gets to me is when they tell me how useless my work is. It seems like more so recently, but a couple people have tried explaining to me the difficulties and make it sound as if what I am doing won’t work. This takes a lot of patience to listen to and explain my motives, especially when it happens more than once a day. I built a tippy-tap, which is a handwashing station, I’ll post pictures, and a student from the professional school asked what it was for, and when I told him, he proceeded to tell me that nobody wants to wash their hands like that because of cultural norms and that nobody will ever change that and regardless of what I was saying he was extremely pessimistic about it. I understand these cultural problems, partly because every time I explain things I hear the same cultural explanations all over again, but my stance on it, and what I try to tell them, is that if I don’t even try to change something, nobody will ever change anything anyways. So yes, most people will not begin washing their hands this way, but I understand this and the only way to begin something is to try, and if I don’t try, then I might as well go home. The other time (in the same day) was when I went to the assistant director of the CAP (the center for pedagogy who takes care of problems within the schools and gives advice), to ask him what kind of solutions or ideas he had about a problem I was trying to overcome. The problem being that many of the middle school kids come from villages around Tominian and have to walk 3-10 km each day to do so. Well, if their families are too poor, or don’t care, they don’t eat breakfast or lunch and still have to study all day. So the only meal they eat during the entire day for the entire school year is dinner. I have been trying to come up with a sustainable solution to this problem but it’s not easy, so I went to ask his opinion. For the next half hour, I listened to him tell me how poor everyone is and how difficult life is Mali is and how everybody in this town is lazy and nobody is going to do anything. Very productive in my opinion… I understand that Mali is poor, I understand that it isn’t easy, I understand that the students parents are poor, I understand that nobody wants to help these children individually, I understand that other students and parents will not necessarily be nice to these students or their parents because they will feel a sense of ownership and un-payable debt and that there might not be a single solution to this problem, but if I don’t even try to find a solution, then these kids will continue to be hungry for 9 months out of the year… during the day at least. I might have found a small solution but it will also be time consuming and I have to make sure that there isn’t any corruption. There are many associations or groups in town, and each of these associations or groups gather money either every week or every month depending on how often they meet. My idea, is to find one association that will take this on as their project and be like a “leader” association. I’ve identified one, but they have been slow getting back to me. Anyways, what they would do, is ask different association if they would be willing to increase their contributions to the group by 100 CFA or 20 cents (typically if they meet once a week they collect 500-1000 CFA, and if they meet once a month they collect 1000-2000 CFA), so adding another 100 CFA wouldn’t be that big a deal for an individual. However if these groups have 30 members and meet once a week, it means that they could pay for the lunch of 4 students for a month. That’s if they pay the minimum and the students receive a minimum. This also does not take into account weekends. Anyways, this is much easier than asking a single individual to pay for a student to eat lunch. We’ll see, but if I can get this properly organized which implies sustainability, and accounts for the 100 students that can’t eat lunch, then I would be very happy with my service.

With the rains coming, everybody is getting their fields ready but this also means that hungry season is coming. There period of planting and harvesting is usually a very difficult one because not only is everybody working very hard in the fields, but there is very little food left over from the year before.

I also just realized that I have spent my last 3 birthdays out of the country and will have spent a fourth by the time my service is over.