tracyinthewild: N ka bo Kadiaradugu

It means "I come from Kadiaradugu," the name of my new home. Last week I went on "site visit" to Kadiaradugu to see my new home, new house, village, meet people, explore, etc. It was really great! PST (pre-service training) has been a bit rough for me (again, as expected) and the housing/village situation could have gone anyway, so I was overwhelmed with joy when I saw how perfect my little hut/house is for me :) I teared I was so happy. These past 7 weeks have been hard and I've heard a number of horror stories about Peace Corps housing, but when I saw that little 2 room house with separate newly constructed kitchen hut, and little gwa (overhang) right outside my door with a table and chairs, a little wooden lockable gate, a lovely clean negen (bathroom) and separate showering stall, green plants planted all around my concession (walled-in area that is just mine) and the lovely mango trees outside of my concession, I felt so relieved and so happy. I don't say this often, but at that moment I felt blessed, truly. It was a long road here and it will continue to be difficult, but the universe knows how much I appreciate a safe, comfortable and secure home, and that I was granted! It may be a dump to many people out there ;) It of course does not have electricity, running water, cell reception, and I still relieve myself in a hole in the ground, but for me it's perfect! It almost resembles what I've imagined to be my first dream house. Cute and contained and has everything I need, including a hammock in the front yard! I will post pictures soon (when I have a better internet connection). The new wooden gate is very picket-fence-esque and it has a lock, making it perfect for when I start raising a puppy! My homolog/counterpart (his name is Hady) said that a puppy will be waiting for me there when I get installed (move in) in January :D I can't wait!

But let's move on to the meat of what I'll be doing! The good stuff. The stuff I'm here to do...

Luckily I am following 2 amazing volunteers in my village. From 2007-2009 Chelsea served in Kadiaradugu as a Water & Sanitation volunteer; from 2009-2011 Katherine served in the same sector. They have done fantastic work! If I have my details correct, Chelsea built 22 latrines during her service, and Katherine completed 2 waterpumps! (apologies ladies, if I have those numbers wrong) Before their work was done, the only water source in the village was an open-air well that happens to be right outside of my house. Now that the village has TWO waterpumps (a great number for only having about 400 villagers) gardening will be so much easier and efficient! And that is where I come in. I am the first Environment volunteer that Kadiaradugu will have. The head of the women's association of the village, Teneba, took me on a tour of the gardening situation of the village, and I luckily was shown what my work will basically be the next two years (which is fantastic since a lot of volunteers struggle with finding out what their village wants/needs). Teneba showed me the lovely women's community garden, only a 2-3 minute walk from my house. It's about the size of Common Good City Farm, the urban farm I worked on and loved in Washington DC. Two main tasks seem to be of interest for the women: 1. an updated, secure and long-lasting fence, and 2. a revamping and rejuvenation of the garden plots to grow numerous and healthy vegetables. This is quite exciting to me! Fencing is one of the most difficult issues Malians face with gardening and food production: animals are everywhere (goats, sheep, chickens, donkeys, etc.) and they are hungry! The current fence in the women's community garden consists of heavy wooden stakes about 3 feet apart each, and some quite weak chicken wire/fencing connecting all of the stakes. The chicken wire has clearly been trampled by animals and is quite easy to overcome. So it seems my first main project will be rallying the village to coordinate efforts to raise money and construct a new fence! This will allow the women to really make the most of their garden. Gardening in Mali is so important for small villages because Mali is one of the poorest/hungriest countries in the world. Every year a hot season (up to 130 degrees F) brings a wave of hunger to Malians, so creating and sustaining a food source for villagers themselves is key. Most of the garden is overgrown with large wild grass that needs to be dealt with. Since waste management is so poor in Mali, people usually burn their trash, and they would most likely burn all of the grass to get rid of it. But my idea is to cut it all down and use it for compost! Once it's cut down, the beds need to be revamped, including soil turning, adding compost to healthy-up the soil, and basically designing/creating new beds. I'm thankful for my experience at Common Good City Farm, where I helped build new beds from a totally new/revamped garden design. After I'm done here, that garden will be secure with a new, solid fence, and every inch will be rich with life and designated to the women in the village. The village is so sweet that they gave me a little plot in the garden ;) It will be my test/experiment/example plot for what I want to make of the whole garden. Then again, I have no experience gardening in such dry, hot conditions!

Ok, so I wrote a lot more to this blog entry then the internet cut out (to no surprise) and I lost a bunch of stuff. I don't exactly remember what I lost, but I hope you did enjoy this little update from Africa. And...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Time for some pictures (these are from my home-stay village...site pictures to come later!)