First, some questions, then second, my work

Part I: my educational post for the day

Since I typically pick a theme that I hope people will find interesting, this time, I thought I'd list questions that I've been getting from Americans.  Since I live here, I forget which things are considered odd or unknown by Americans!

Where (and how) do you eat?

Malians eat outside, sitting in chairs or stools close to the ground.  A single communal bowl is placed in the middle of 4 or 5 people. Houses are generally too small, dark, and hot to even sit in, much more eat a meal in, so nearly everything happens outside in the courtyard. Malians generally don't have tables at which to sit, eat, chat, etc.

What is your bathroom like?

My 'bathroom' is a pit latrine: this means that a very large pit is dug, then a slab of cement or wood is put over it. There is a hole in a cement floor with a mud wall built up around it. Nicer latrines have cement floors, since they can be swept and cleaned, while many of my neighbors have a rocky dirt floor in their latrine. My latrine also has a door, while with others, the wall is built up around it like a maze.

How do you bathe?

There are these 25 liter buckets available all over West Africa.  This is considered the 'standard' bathing bucket. With this large bucket, you take a smaller 1 liter plastic cup to pour water on you to lather and rinse. Parents will bathe kids up to about age 8 or 9 right in the courtyard, while adults bathe in the latrine area. Some people have a shower/urinating area and a seperate area for defacating (obviously, the one with the hole in the ground).

I really don't mind bucket baths at all--in a place where the low temp is somewhere around 80 F every day, outdoor baths with cool water are very refreshing.

How do you wash clothes?

Remember that 25 liter bucket used for bathing?  Two are used to wash clothes: one to wash, one to rinse. Yes, by hand, and with a washboard if you have one.

What is it like living without electricity? Do you miss it?

It's not so much that I miss it, it's more that it's just...not there. You can't miss electricity when there are no electric appliances, no outlets, no physical evidence of there being something to miss.


What kind of wildlife is there?

Honestly, not much--I think the words of the Lonely Planet West Africa guidbook are that West Africa is an "environmental basketcase" which is effectively stripped it of most wildlife. You don't get any of the bigger animals till you get to East and South Africa.

In the southern portion of Malin, there are many snakes (poisonous and not), lizards, spiders, and insects as well as the occasional hippo. My village is right on the transition zone between desert and savannah, so there isn't nearly the variety of reptile wildlife that's found in the south; I get little gecko-type lizards sunning on my window and hiding in my house, but that's it. There ARE many many types of birds in my area: if you go out en brousse, there's blue, red, green, and turquoise birds.  Several times, I've seen a bird like Zazu in "The Lion King." Also, my village tells me there are wild rabbits and wild boars.

Reciprocally, here are the most frequent questions I get from Malians about America:

Why are American families so small?
How do you wash your clothes?
What kind of food do you eat?
Why are American women so small?
Why are men only allowed to take one wife?
What do men do if their wife dies?
What's the inside of an airplane like?
How many bathrooms did your house have? Were they indoors?
Why do Americans like to fight? ("Delta Force One" and Chuck Norris are very popular here)
If Americans aren't farmers, what do they do exactly?
Where do Americans get their food?


Part II: the product of my most recent efforts over the past few months!

I've been working with a village to help them repair a pump which was built (and broken) about ten years ago. I've agreed to help them raise funds to buy replacement parts and fix it. I strongly support their endeavor for several reasons:

First, they spent the time trying to dig more and deeper wells... to find that no more water could be found at an easily reachable level. As a result, they contacted the local pump technician about fixing this pump and figured out where to get parts to fix it. Since they have done the legwork (and are contributing 25% of the cost) I see them committed to making this pump an effective and sustainable solution.

Second, I do feel like there is a real need to have a working pump between these two villages. During hot season, there is a single well to share between two 250 person villages. Half of these women must walk 1 km to get to the well, and further, during hot season, the well is nearly 30 meters deep--my water is about 20 to 25 meters deep during hot season, a markable difference. In over 100 F heat, to haul water from that deep a level to then transport it 1 km is just plain exhausting.

Third, I've been working with these villages on the importance of clean water. With women constantly pulling water and leaving the water sack on the ground, overusing a well makes already dirty water even worse. I'm working with this village to establish a system to continually treat the wells, to at least kill the really bad stuff, but a pump will always be far cleaner than a well.

Through this project, I'm reaquesting 75% of the cost be covered by independent donations. If you would like to contribute, please do the following:

1. Go to http://www.peacecorps.gov/
2. On the left hand column, find and click on the heading 'Donate Now.'
3. Search by any means you desire, I'm in Mali, West Africa, and I'm from Virginia.
4. Find my name, click, and follow instructions.

If there are any other basic questions like in part one, or questions about my project feel free to email me (jilisham@hotmail.com) or post a comment and I'll do my best to answer.

My hearth mothers!

I just completed a nutrition project with five mothers in a neighboring village. My five mothers...











...and the next day, with kids in tow. We met every morning for a week, made porridge to help wean their kids, and talked about a health topic every day. The woman in the green tank top was my lead mother, helping me get everyone organized and set up at her house every morning.















This is Yaya, the dugutigi's spokesperson. The dugutigi, or literally village keeper, is the oldest person in the village who you go to for all important events or decisions. Yaya sells beans, peanuts, and millet from his store, behind him, and is a generally large influence, being quite old.