Well, I did a rather slow job at updating this before I was done. I have a series of half finished entries that maybe I will complete when I get the chance.
I am done in Senegal now. Quick update:
Right now I am on vacay in America and will soon be heading out as a volunteer in China in a little more than a week. Senegal was amazing and I learned so much about Senegal, about Seereer, about other cultures and people and of course about myself.
Im starting a new blog on my China experience so check that out if you are interested.
bismillah!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Playing in Cement
I really should have done an update here long ago, but, well, I have been in my village pretty continuously, with short, non-computer filled stints into cities. The village is a bad place to hang out if you want to update people on your life, write a blog entry or things like that. But as it turns out, it seems to be a pretty good place for going and getting some work done. Go figure.
Ok, so the latrines are going. They are taking slightly longer than I had expected, but honestly we have had hardly a wasted day. As of the current tally, this the 11th of March, forty-two families have fully contribted to the project and another two have given a good chunk. While I am hoping, nagging, enouraging, doing everything I can think of to have the full fifty familes involved in the project and finishing next month with a latrine, there are a few that have all but come out and said they arent or cant participate with the rest of the village.
One is one of the Pulaar families, most of the children and the family have already moved to the city, the father I hardly ever see even going over to his house several times in a week. According to the neighbors he is thinking of moving himself and has changed his mind and doesnt want to invest in a latrine.
Another is a very small family, the rest of the grown children or relations have apparently moved away. So it is just a middle aged guy and his wife and three small kids. He says he cant afford the contribution portion. Additionally the neighbors who might be inclined to help, say his house is one some really hard ground and besides the few of them could just as easily use a neighbors latrine.
One last guy just hasnt seemed very into the project from the get-go. He has an average sized family but didnt really see the point of a latrine, despite my best convincing until his surrounding neighbors, some his brothers, joined in the project. Now he is saying he will contribute as soon as he gets the money, but he hasnt made a move to dig a pit either.
But then, even with these three, I am fairly certain that we can get the other forty-seven done. And if once we are done with them and certain that the other three are not getting on board, we can consider other nearby families, up and coming heads of households and all that. But all that is politics. Really what I have been doing the past several weeks is playing in cement.
If you havent seen them, I have been taking pictures of our progress. Two days ago, we "finished" our twenty-fourth latrine. I say "finished" because they are not actually usable yet, they still need the pipe that leads to your toilet, a small but in fact critical piece. I have asked the masons why they havent finished them up thusly and they tell me that it will go so quickly that they might as well wait and do a whole area of them at once so they dont have to repeatedly go back and forth for such things in different parts of the village. That does sound resonable i guess, but means that a latrine might not be usable until next week at the earliest, where the first swath of the village should get all of its completed latrines- the ten houses furthest to the west.
I need to go and put captions on all those pictures, but basically how we have been doing it is that the brickmaker comes in and makes four or four and a half sacks of cement worth of bricks. He can usually do two or three houses worth in a day. Then after a few days to let them dry the masons come and brick up the pit all morning till lunch time. Then they go to latrine that they bricked up the previous day and prepare and cement the lid for it. Its a pretty cool thing. They are going to have little doors such that when they are full - after more than about 5 to 10 years with an average sized family according to my calculations- then a truck can be sent from Mbour to come and pump them out.
Ah, composting, I almost forgot. So after much discussion, mostly with PC staff and my counterpart, the consensus is that, no, thats not going to work. Basically it boils down to the people refuse, the culture and religion does not allow for the handleing of even ones very decomposed waste, no matter how awsome it would be as fertilizer. The truck would dump out the moist soil junk out in peoples fields though, so in a way a very small space might see benifit, but then wherever it was they probably wouldnt be farming there. So, yeah, I hear these kinds of things have worked well in South America and work in Southeast Asia, but in West Africa, people regularly refuse to do such a thing. Sad.
Anyway, so more pictures are coming, oh, and I have been keeping my self busy with other stuff too. I made a second mud-stove the other day, much better than my first one and I think looks pretty awesome. I also went to the nearby college recently and did an English lesson that involved gender inequality. I thought it went ok, but it could have had more discussion or questions or something. I needed to wrap up better I guess. But it was really cool and I think they enjoyed it too.
Us Seereers in country, particularly Bethany and one tech savy Jack Brown, and I have been getting this Seereer-English dictionary into some final book like stages, so that will be awesome to have a version done by the end of my service.
Right, so those latrines will keep on coming and I will keep yall in the loop with pictures too. Mexe nosa
Ok, so the latrines are going. They are taking slightly longer than I had expected, but honestly we have had hardly a wasted day. As of the current tally, this the 11th of March, forty-two families have fully contribted to the project and another two have given a good chunk. While I am hoping, nagging, enouraging, doing everything I can think of to have the full fifty familes involved in the project and finishing next month with a latrine, there are a few that have all but come out and said they arent or cant participate with the rest of the village.
One is one of the Pulaar families, most of the children and the family have already moved to the city, the father I hardly ever see even going over to his house several times in a week. According to the neighbors he is thinking of moving himself and has changed his mind and doesnt want to invest in a latrine.
Another is a very small family, the rest of the grown children or relations have apparently moved away. So it is just a middle aged guy and his wife and three small kids. He says he cant afford the contribution portion. Additionally the neighbors who might be inclined to help, say his house is one some really hard ground and besides the few of them could just as easily use a neighbors latrine.
One last guy just hasnt seemed very into the project from the get-go. He has an average sized family but didnt really see the point of a latrine, despite my best convincing until his surrounding neighbors, some his brothers, joined in the project. Now he is saying he will contribute as soon as he gets the money, but he hasnt made a move to dig a pit either.
But then, even with these three, I am fairly certain that we can get the other forty-seven done. And if once we are done with them and certain that the other three are not getting on board, we can consider other nearby families, up and coming heads of households and all that. But all that is politics. Really what I have been doing the past several weeks is playing in cement.
If you havent seen them, I have been taking pictures of our progress. Two days ago, we "finished" our twenty-fourth latrine. I say "finished" because they are not actually usable yet, they still need the pipe that leads to your toilet, a small but in fact critical piece. I have asked the masons why they havent finished them up thusly and they tell me that it will go so quickly that they might as well wait and do a whole area of them at once so they dont have to repeatedly go back and forth for such things in different parts of the village. That does sound resonable i guess, but means that a latrine might not be usable until next week at the earliest, where the first swath of the village should get all of its completed latrines- the ten houses furthest to the west.
I need to go and put captions on all those pictures, but basically how we have been doing it is that the brickmaker comes in and makes four or four and a half sacks of cement worth of bricks. He can usually do two or three houses worth in a day. Then after a few days to let them dry the masons come and brick up the pit all morning till lunch time. Then they go to latrine that they bricked up the previous day and prepare and cement the lid for it. Its a pretty cool thing. They are going to have little doors such that when they are full - after more than about 5 to 10 years with an average sized family according to my calculations- then a truck can be sent from Mbour to come and pump them out.
Ah, composting, I almost forgot. So after much discussion, mostly with PC staff and my counterpart, the consensus is that, no, thats not going to work. Basically it boils down to the people refuse, the culture and religion does not allow for the handleing of even ones very decomposed waste, no matter how awsome it would be as fertilizer. The truck would dump out the moist soil junk out in peoples fields though, so in a way a very small space might see benifit, but then wherever it was they probably wouldnt be farming there. So, yeah, I hear these kinds of things have worked well in South America and work in Southeast Asia, but in West Africa, people regularly refuse to do such a thing. Sad.
Anyway, so more pictures are coming, oh, and I have been keeping my self busy with other stuff too. I made a second mud-stove the other day, much better than my first one and I think looks pretty awesome. I also went to the nearby college recently and did an English lesson that involved gender inequality. I thought it went ok, but it could have had more discussion or questions or something. I needed to wrap up better I guess. But it was really cool and I think they enjoyed it too.
Us Seereers in country, particularly Bethany and one tech savy Jack Brown, and I have been getting this Seereer-English dictionary into some final book like stages, so that will be awesome to have a version done by the end of my service.
Right, so those latrines will keep on coming and I will keep yall in the loop with pictures too. Mexe nosa
Friday, January 29, 2010
Go Go Projects!
So, lots of stuff, gee, good news, bad news, great news.
Of course latrines are taking up nearly all of my time, but other stuff is going on: I have been going to the local middle school twice a week and have helped in a few English classes. I even did a lesson on environmental problems, in English! I, like totally, like speak that language! And I know all about environmental problems, that is like what I do! Anyway, so that went well, some of them even asked some good questions afterwards, like when there are less trees and plants is there also less rain. It was fun, they got to hear a native English speaker talk for a while, they learned some useful vocab, they all copied all my little bullit points into their notebooks and so may actually think about things like pollution and deforestation.
I also did a really fun lesson at the kindergarten. A big part of my service is supposed to be around supplementing teachers lessons with environmental and health knowledge, to give them a more rounded understanding of their environment and health and sanitation. I havent really been able to for my whole servie, mainly because the school has been such an extreme headache to work with- constant strikes, teachers never following through with plans, constantly leading me on then not doing anything, and more strikes. The local kindergarten teachers are a lot, a LOT easier to work with and I dont know why I havent done more with them. Mostly they are easier because they are local, they are from the village, and they are private, so dont strike. There is a building recently built next to the kindergarten that suddenly has a class in it. Evidently there is a private teacher there now with the youngest grade of primary school -the public school youngest class is tiny now- and he is supposedly going to take the same kids through the years teaching each class till they graduate primary school. It is pretty cool deal, he isnt a local guy, Wolof but nice, but he also doesnt strike, so big plus. I got all of them together one day, the one primary school class and the two kindergarten classes, about sixty children in all, and we did a lesson on handwashing. I had a bottle of glitter and after one of the kindergarten teachers, the most take charge, a woman named Marie Sarr, gave a nice simple engaging talk about where disease comes from and how microbes get you sick, I presented my glitter as bad microbes. The teachers and I put it all over our hands and hten went around shaking everyones hands. The children then looked to see if they had gotten it, if they were 'sick'. Then in small groups they all came up in front of the class and washed their hands well with soap and water till the glitter was gone while the teachers explained more about how washing was important and when they should do it. Definetly the best part was near the end when a teacher in wrap up asked where it was that people got microbes. Several students shouted 'from that bottle!' and 'from Ndiouma!' (my name). We all paused for a beat, then 'umm, ok, and where else?' That was awesome.
I have also been given premission to do some gardening and a tree nursury in the protective walled enclosure around the kindergarten. My school garden area has completely been destroyed once again, fence posts stolen and plants completely eaten. It was a failed project before I began and now it just needs to be moved somewhere else.
More fun, I also am doing a few mud stove repairs and building a couple from scratch. People here know how to make them from other trainings they have had in the past but people arent so motivated to do it unless someone takes some initiative. I hadn't done one on my own before and I am waiting to see if it all falls apart before I move on to the others. They are a great thing, they make the stove more efficient by channeling heat, you use less wood, food cooks faster, you dont have to gather as much, cut down so many trees in a year, everybody wins and it is free.
Lastly, latrine news, I will have to do a long entry on this one by itself when I have more time, but I can give some highlights: Construction is underway! We have gotten full monetary contributions from 23 families and partials from six others. Most families have dug their pits. The village doesnt like the composting idea, can explain later. And we have essentially finished construction on five so far! Well, we still need to but in the pipe that will actually make it usable an dnot just a box in hte ground, but they are basically done. Go go gadget- douche!
Of course latrines are taking up nearly all of my time, but other stuff is going on: I have been going to the local middle school twice a week and have helped in a few English classes. I even did a lesson on environmental problems, in English! I, like totally, like speak that language! And I know all about environmental problems, that is like what I do! Anyway, so that went well, some of them even asked some good questions afterwards, like when there are less trees and plants is there also less rain. It was fun, they got to hear a native English speaker talk for a while, they learned some useful vocab, they all copied all my little bullit points into their notebooks and so may actually think about things like pollution and deforestation.
I also did a really fun lesson at the kindergarten. A big part of my service is supposed to be around supplementing teachers lessons with environmental and health knowledge, to give them a more rounded understanding of their environment and health and sanitation. I havent really been able to for my whole servie, mainly because the school has been such an extreme headache to work with- constant strikes, teachers never following through with plans, constantly leading me on then not doing anything, and more strikes. The local kindergarten teachers are a lot, a LOT easier to work with and I dont know why I havent done more with them. Mostly they are easier because they are local, they are from the village, and they are private, so dont strike. There is a building recently built next to the kindergarten that suddenly has a class in it. Evidently there is a private teacher there now with the youngest grade of primary school -the public school youngest class is tiny now- and he is supposedly going to take the same kids through the years teaching each class till they graduate primary school. It is pretty cool deal, he isnt a local guy, Wolof but nice, but he also doesnt strike, so big plus. I got all of them together one day, the one primary school class and the two kindergarten classes, about sixty children in all, and we did a lesson on handwashing. I had a bottle of glitter and after one of the kindergarten teachers, the most take charge, a woman named Marie Sarr, gave a nice simple engaging talk about where disease comes from and how microbes get you sick, I presented my glitter as bad microbes. The teachers and I put it all over our hands and hten went around shaking everyones hands. The children then looked to see if they had gotten it, if they were 'sick'. Then in small groups they all came up in front of the class and washed their hands well with soap and water till the glitter was gone while the teachers explained more about how washing was important and when they should do it. Definetly the best part was near the end when a teacher in wrap up asked where it was that people got microbes. Several students shouted 'from that bottle!' and 'from Ndiouma!' (my name). We all paused for a beat, then 'umm, ok, and where else?' That was awesome.
I have also been given premission to do some gardening and a tree nursury in the protective walled enclosure around the kindergarten. My school garden area has completely been destroyed once again, fence posts stolen and plants completely eaten. It was a failed project before I began and now it just needs to be moved somewhere else.
More fun, I also am doing a few mud stove repairs and building a couple from scratch. People here know how to make them from other trainings they have had in the past but people arent so motivated to do it unless someone takes some initiative. I hadn't done one on my own before and I am waiting to see if it all falls apart before I move on to the others. They are a great thing, they make the stove more efficient by channeling heat, you use less wood, food cooks faster, you dont have to gather as much, cut down so many trees in a year, everybody wins and it is free.
Lastly, latrine news, I will have to do a long entry on this one by itself when I have more time, but I can give some highlights: Construction is underway! We have gotten full monetary contributions from 23 families and partials from six others. Most families have dug their pits. The village doesnt like the composting idea, can explain later. And we have essentially finished construction on five so far! Well, we still need to but in the pipe that will actually make it usable an dnot just a box in hte ground, but they are basically done. Go go gadget- douche!
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