The True Power of Technology

Now that I spend a good deal of time keeping up with all the blogs in my Google Reader, the people I follow on Twitter, and all my friends on Facebook, I've started to realize the true power of technology to bring worlds together that 5 years ago would have never been possible.

5 years ago I was just finishing up my Peace Corps service in Mali. I had never owned a cell phone before my service as they were just starting to become popular towards the end of my college career, and in Mali they were just starting to pop up in the big cities. Now my wife talks to her family who live in a rural farming village with no electricity or running water weekly via a cell phone we bought her brother. Now everyone in the village has cell phones.

(Here's a link to an interview with Jeffrey Sachs on how cell phones are connecting the world.)

When I was serving in Mali connecting with the outside world was via occasional trips to the capital or regional capital to use email or make a phone call home on a land line. There was also, of course, snail mail. I was bad about writing letters and keeping people up to date on what I was up to. Now it seems more common than not for volunteers to have blogs where they post regular updates of their experience abroad. I've seen people using Facebook and Twitter to share the work they're doing and even seek professional help and funding.

When I tried to organize a project to dig a well in my village, I had a hard time connecting with the right resources to figure out what to do. I had to travel long distances to meet with various people and wait a long time to get answers. Now the potential is there for a volunteer in even the most remote places to connect directly with in country and stateside professionals for immediate advice.

When my wife and I first came back from Africa together and were facing the first challenges of her adjustment to life in the US and how to stay connected and help her family back home, we struggled to face these challenges on our own. Now through Facebook, Twitter, and blogs we have become connected to others facing the same struggles and were able to harness the generosity of our family and friends (something we were always too timid to ask for directly before).

For the past 5 years I've been struggling with how we might find a way to start to truly make an impact in Mali. I'm was never an expert in development and was never well connected to any "experts". I didn't really know where to look. Now thanks to Facebook, Twitter and blogs I am starting to find a path. Just through posting various links of personal interest to me on Twitter people with similar interests have started to follow me....and following these people has led me to find even more resources than I could find on my own not to mention finding and connecting to the "experts" I wasn't connected to before. I'll admit that I haven't quite found the exact path I want to follow, but thanks to social media I think I'm a lot closer to figuring that out than I ever was before.

I hope in the next 5 years to put these powerful tools to some good use. And I can't wait for the next great tool to come along that brings us all a step closer to bringing the world together.

Millet Drive Update

This past Saturday we wired the money from our millet drive to a friend who purchased the millet and rice for us. Thanks to the generosity of all the individuals who contributed we were able to raise almost $900. This has enabled us to buy 25 100 kg bags of millet (that's 2500 kg!) and 5 100 kg bags of rice (500 kg). We spoke to the village chief, Moussa Keita (Modiere's uncle), who was very happy. He expressed his thanks and said that now the burden of having to worry about food has been lifted off of them. The food purchased should go a long way in getting the family through to next season's harvest.

One of the greatest side benefits in my mind is the ability of the children from her family to continue their studies in the neighboring market town, Mahina. Last year, Modiere and I (mostly Modiere through her hard selfless work at The Breadsmith 5 nights a week) helped her father purchase a house in Mahina. This was critical for the family as most of the kids were now past the grade level that was offered in the village school. Therefore, they had to go to Mahina to continue their education. Without a house of their own, they would have had to rely on relatives to house the children which usually results in problems and tension because everyone is struggling to provide for their own families, or pay money for the kids to stay elsewhere. Another less than desirable alternative would have been for the kids to walk 6 km in the morning, study all day without lunch and walk 6 km back home in the afternoon. So we decided it was important to help them get a house of their own. So we did that last year, and this year the issue would have been that with food stretched thin it would have been hard to feed the kids in Mahina and the family in Sitafoula both. Our fear was that the kids education might have been sacrificed. But now we don't have to worry and the kids should be able to continue to go to school with full stomachs!

Thanks again to everyone for your generous support of this effort. We are grateful beyond words to all of you.

Top 10 Pieces of Peace Corps Advice

*I've also posted this to my FaceBook notes and Peace Corps Connect.

I decided to jump on the bandwagon of "25 Random things" and start my own list. This list is intended for Peace Corps volunteers, but is really open to anyone who has served anywhere or has development experience. The main goal is provide useful advice to future and current Volunteers/workers from former or current ones so everyone can have the best possible impact in the developing world and have as positive an experience as possible.

So it's simple: List where and when you served at the top; Llist the Top 5 things you would have done differently; List the Top 5 things you would definitely do again. On Facebook you would tag me and other volunteers but I guess here just use comments.

Here are mine:

Mali 2002-2004 (Peace Corps)

Top 5 Things I would have done differently:

1. While I mastered Bambara (local language) I didn't learn enough French, so I would have made a better effort to learn French. Bambara is great for within Mali but once you travel to neighboring countries you really need French.

2. We put a sheet metal roof on a schoolhouse but did not secure it with cement bricks on top. A windstorm damaged a good part of it. Definitely should have put bricks on top.

3. I planted trees all over the village but did not protect them from the animals. As soon as the hot season came and animals roamed free again a lot of the trees were destroyed.

4. I built a water basin to catch pump runoff to be used for feeding animals as well as water for work (making mud bricks, etc.) but there were 3 problems: too deep making it difficult for animals, no cover so it got dirty fast (mosquito breeding ground), it needed a drain that could be controlled to occasionally wash out the dirty water.

5. I made the mistake of lending/giving people money, and of course that leads to dependency which is not sustainable. So definitely try to avoid that trap, stick with truly sustainable work that involves community contribution and buy in. Even though the other might seem easier in the long term it just leads to more problems.

Top 5 Things I would definitely do again:

1. Focus on projects that relate to your community's needs and not just what sector you're in. This is what I did. Don't feel constrained by your sector/specialty.

2. Learn the language of the people. I mastered Bambara. For me, learning from young kids and youths my age worked better than anything.

3. Integrate with the community. Don't isolate yourself. Open your door, hang out with the locals, help in the work they do, eat the food they eat. I ate, drank, worked and danced with them. They respect you so much more when you do this, plus it makes the time go by much faster.

4. I spent a lot of time at my site (in my community). I know everyone has their unique experience, but for me this is something I would not change (Relates to number 3).

5. Share yourself: educate people about you, about America, about why you are there. This is something I wish I had done much more of, but I would not change the fact that I tried to do as much of this as possible. Remember the 2nd goal of Peace Corps here.

Lessons in Patience: African style

Today I got more stressed than I've been in quite some time and a lot of the stress was due to time constraints...I had to finish a task by a deadline that resulted in rushing home to get somewhere on time that resulted in.....

My first reaction was that it made me miss my time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali when I used to spend every afternoon sitting with friends, drinking tea, greeting the other villagers and just hanging out. I did a lot of that in Mali...just hanging out (and 3 rounds of tea played a crucial role in that experience).

As my stress subsided, I started to think about all the lessons (most on patience) that I learned while in Mali (in no particular order):

1. Despite every one's need to have their Casio watches synchronized to the second....time did not really matter and there was no official time for anything...things just happen when they are supposed to happen...wake up at dawn, lunch and rest when it's hottest, dinner at dusk...

2. Expect everything to start 5 minutes to 5 hours late....a reasonable window in Mali

3. Chickens, donkeys, and women at the water pump are a much better alarm clock than the $20 clock/radio by my bed

4. waking up to a yard full of donkeys, sheep, chickens, and goats is nothing to get stressed about, just a friendly reminder to mend the fence

5. counting the mice dive bombing your mosquito net are a good alternative to counting sheep

6. 12 hours in 100 degree heat with very little water was a good first lesson to the public transportation schedule

6a. lesson 2: night spent on the open train car waiting for the 7 PM train that arrived at 7 AM

7. Almost being trampled by the mob trying to rush onto an arriving train in Bamako only to learn the train would sit for 3 more hours before leaving

8. expect the train to take anywhere from 12 to 30 hours

9. I'm sitting in the back of a bush taxi. Man in the back of the truck stands up and fires rifle off in the distance. Driver stops. Man jumps out and runs off. Man returns 15 minutes later with a goose in tow. Man jumps in. We all jump out to push car up hill to start. Continue on our journey. Perfectly normal.

10. I need to ask a Chinese acupuncturist if he knows the PC house in Kita. I don't speak Chinese. He doesn't speak English. We both speak Bambara.

11. Blaring music all night is perfectly acceptable.

12. In America we think duct tape is the all in one fix-it solution, but we haven't met "mana" --the strips of rubber that can be used to repair bicycle tires, donkey carts, farming equipment, and even bus axles

13. As much as Malians wait for everything else...waiting for food to be cool enough to put your hand in is not "normal"

14. Early afternoon naps under the neme tree

15. Greetings are 90% of 80% of conversations

16. Nights when the only thing you hope for is a cool breeze as you lie sweating on your outdoor bed of sticks...and the occasional late night cold water bucket rinse off

All of this made me love Mali and love Africa.

All of this prepared me for my last experience in Africa and one of my most memorable (although I have trouble with all the exact details) that wast the ultimate test in patience:

After our wedding in Mali my wife and I had to travel from Kayes, Mali to Dakar, Senegal. We decided to try the bus as I had taken the train in and it was over 35 hours.

Wednesday 4 PM: Get on bus in Kayes.

Wednesday Early evening: After a few hours we arrived at the Senegal border where we had to wait around to go through border customs. Waiting but not too bad yet.

Wednesday Late night: Set out and drive through most of the night without event (at least I don't remember much).

Thursday morning: The bus stops before dawn and they don't let anyone out. We sit for a long time wondering what is going on before we see men outside siphoning all of the gas out of the fuel tanks into large plastic jugs (apparently there was a leak). My first thought is that we'll have to catch another bus. Nope. A man brings the jugs inside the bus amongst the passengers and opens up a little hatch in the middle of the aisle. He pulls out a rubber tube (wonderful "mana") and starts siphoning gas directly into the engine's fuel line. He takes a seat to man his siphon and we depart.

Thursday Late morning: We drive for a few more hours into the middle of the day.

Thursday Noon: All of a sudden there is a big "thud" and it seems like the bus is grinding on something. The bus stops and we all crowd outside. The driver and his partner disappear down the road and us passengers are left to sit by the side of the road in the blazing midday heat (luckily we bought a thermos with ice the day before).

Thursday an hour or so later: Clueless as to what is going on. Most passengers don't seem too concerned yet. Finally, the driver appears carrying a large chunk of wood that he had just chopped down. It seems that the piece of metal that holds the bus frame up from rubbing against the wheel axle broke off, and this piece of wood is what he intends to use in its place. So with a little rope and, of course, "mana"....

Thursday another hour later: We're off again.

Thursday mid afternoon: Amazingly that block of wood holds up for quite a few hours...but alas eventually it breaks out and another "thud" and grinding halt. We all pile out again and the driver says he has to try and hitch a ride to the next town for "a part" and will be back. He hitches a ride on the next passing car and is gone leaving his partners behind. So we all take our places in the shade on the side of the road and wait.

Thursday late afternoon: Now we're over 20 hours into the trip and the events that have been occurring are starting to surpass "normal" so people start to complain. Some approach the workers asking for their luggage so they can hitch other rides. At first the bus workers don't comply so people start to get it themselves. My problem is that my luggage (along with most of the other passengers' luggage) is lashed to the top of the bus along with a few sheep and goats. So I'm forced to wait and wait and wait....

Thursday not too much later: The driver comes back and lets us know that the bus is beyond repair so we have to hitch other rides. They get our luggage down and we wait for the next car.

Thursday still late afternoon: It isn't too long (or at least not too long compared to everything else) before we find a small minivan to take us. So we hop in and ride for 6 more hours to a pit stop

Thursday 6 hours later: We have dinner and are transferred to another minibus that must wait around until it's full before departing on our final leg to Dakar. Finally, we depart.

Friday 4 am: We make it to Dakar where we have to take a cab to a hotel which ends up being full so we have to walk and find a really shady hotel for the night....oh...and did I mention, we had a very important appointment at the American Consulate in Dakar that morning at 8 am regarding my wife's visa.

So if ever there was a time to be stressed...it was on that bus thinking making our appointment (that I waited a year to get scheduled) was impossible and I would have traveled thousands of miles to marry and bring back my wife only to have to leave her behind....but "Allah Sonna" and the rest is history.

So after that you would think nothing can phase me, but alas I find myself slipping into the constraints of time that we all operate by here in the developed world. But my stressful day has caused me to think back and remember how silly we are to be so worried about time and all the other things we stress about....so maybe next time I start to have a day like today I need to remember these lessons and use them like a mantra to recenter myself.

Peace Corps Partnership

Today, thanks to @pcorpsconnect on Twitter I came across a nice article on a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali who is bringing clean water to a community in Sikasso. This reminded me of my largely unsuccessful attempt to bring more water to my host village, Sitafoula, in Mali. And my wife knows too well the burden Malian women bear in having to rely on limited water resources.

In Sitafoula the 2 biggest needs were Education and Water, and I believe those are probably two of the biggest needs throughout much of Mali and Sub Saharan Africa for that matter. Sitafoula is in the heart of the Kayes region of Mali that is very rocky. Thus, digging wells becomes a huge challenge as my friends from Manatali who helped dig the well in Sitafoula learned. I tried during my service to make strides towards both of these, but I am not wholly satisfied with my efforts. So I am determined to find a new way to confront both of these issues in Sitafoula and hopefully beyond that. But, I'm still trying to figure out where to start....so more on that in a later post.

So for now I want to highlight the other thing that the article mentioned above reminded me of: the Peace Corps Partnership Program. It is one of resources volunteers are presented as an option for funding projects during their service. Basically, you write up a proposal which then gets submitted for approval from the Peace Corps officials in country (like any project you have to show community support and contribution). Once approved Peace Corps puts it up on their website where donors can search for volunteers by name, state, country of service, sector or region. I completed one of these myself while in Mali. Mine was to complete construction of a 3 classroom schoolhouse in Sitafoula to serve 3 villages. I successfully secured funding from 4 or 5 different donors. It's a great program as it is a way for friends and family to help volunteers and have a direct impact and participate in the volunteer's service. I'm a big advocate of grassroots development and "on the ground" sustainable projects, and that is exactly what this is. I feel like the program isn't too well known, which is unfortunate. If you think about it, this is probably one of the first places you could go online and find small projects to contribute to that you knew were making a direct impact. All your funds go to the project and it is the volunteers job to outline their use of those funds. And of course there is an approval process so you can be confident that thought was put into it and sustainability was considered.

Now there is stuff all over the place online where you can go and donate to this or that cause, which is great. Maybe it's personal bias (I am an RPCV), but I wish the Partnership Program got more attention. Why don't you hear about it more? Why haven't I found a Facebook group for it? Maybe I need to start one....

Here are some cool projects (of course I have to highlight Mali, but go to the site and search for what you like):

Children's Garden

School Construction

Women's Garden Association: Well and Fencing Project

Viewpoints and Ideas on Development & Peace Corps

I just read an interesting blog post from Devon with the Mali Health Organizing Project in Sikoroni, Mali:

http://devongola.blogspot.com/2009/01/ambiguities-of-peace-corps.html


Devon offers an honest assessment of Peace Corps from the perspective of a development worker who is not a Peace Corps volunteer. Her overall assessment is that despite many positives Peace Corps is not successful as a development organization. It seems that her primary reason for believing this is the lack of experience of volunteers.

If you've read my first post, you can see some of my own views on Peace Corps agree with Devon's, although I am much more optimistic about the importance and future of the organization. The main point that we agree on is the lack of volunteers' preparedness to fulfill the 1st goal:

• Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

Most of the men and women joining the Peace Corps are not well enough trained or prepared for what they will encounter. Most volunteers are fresh out of school and spend almost half of their service learning the language and the culture, so they don't bring the right skills necessary to make a lasting impact in sustainable development.

Devon suggests that Peace Corps needs to change its structure and be more selective in choosing volunteers. In my earlier post I asked those same questions, but I'm still not convinced that is the only answer. Of course, in an ideal world all Peace Corps volunteers would be experts and well trained for their service, but I fear that setting standards too high might affect the positive impact Peace Corps is able to make towards its other 2 goals.

One idea I've had (it might not work or maybe it exists already, but I'll throw it out there anyway) is to create a better system of support for volunteers, but to do so in a creative way that doesn't have to get stalled in the bureaucracy of a government institution. What if there existed a way for volunteers in the field to link up with experts in the US and for those experts to serve as mentors to the volunteers in the field. Communication technology has come a long way since I left Mali in 2004. Cell phones are everyone, Internet is more available, digital cameras and flip video are widely available.... What if there was a LinkedIn for the development world or some similar social network where people with technical experience can collaborate with people on the ground. RPCVs who now have experience could link back up with their host communities and current volunteers to continue to make an impact toward the 1st goal. Who knows, if you can prove a mentoring model, maybe you could get Peace Corps to treat the mentors as volunteers themselves and finance trips to host countries to help with major projects. But I don't think one needs to wait for Peace Corps to change. Why can't we change Peace Corps? Maybe someone else is doing this already? Maybe the National Peace Corps Association has it in the works already? I haven't found it yet, so maybe I'll start something. Anyone takers?

Peace Corps' Role at a Pivotal Moment

I was happy to find an article today in my Alma Mater's student newspaper, The Observer, an article celebrating an increase in the number of alumni volunteers serving in the Peace Corps. This was especially encouraging to hear after reading several other articles noting a decrease in the number of overall Peace Corps volunteers worldwide. It was also an added bonus that the article features a PC in Mali, my former country of service. PC Sara Snider captures the heart of Malian culture quite well in this quote:

"Often I would just walk around the village and join in with whatever a group of people were doing. The culture here is such that anyone is more than welcome anywhere and anytime," she said. "It's completely acceptable to invite yourself to any activity."

Here she not only captures the spirit of Mali, but also captures one of the most important aspects of Peace Corps, the connection you develop with the people by living with them every day and just doing what they do.

My experience as a Peace Corps volunteer was a very positive one, but I'll be the first to admit that I was not well prepared for what I was getting into, nor was 2 years enough time to really figure it out. I did a couple big projects, but looking back I am not satisfied with any of them as now having more experience I can see the faults in them.

However, the one thing I have taken away and am very proud of is the connection I made with the people in my village. I lived with them in a mud hut with a thatch roof, no electricity or plumbing, ate all my meals with them, hunted with them, built houses with them, farmed with them, harvested with them, and danced with them. It never ceased to amaze (and amuse) people when they would see the toubab (white person) with a daba tilling the soil in the peanut fields. But eventually I succeeded in getting many of them to accept me as one of their own. In fact they even allowed me to marry one of their daughters and take her all the way to America. And I think at the same time I gave them a new perspective on the American toubab. And I was left with a lasting impression of a different world I could have never truly understood had I not lived there.

This impression is so lasting that I can't help but feel drawn back from time to time...wishing to be shelling peanuts over 3 rounds of tea in the hot African sun instead of sitting at my computer...or even entertaining the idea of going back for good some day.

Back in the US, working full time, raising a family, it's easy to start to forget this "impression" or let it fade. But recently, after reading about RPCVs' experience marching in the inaugural parade (like here) and hearing President Obama himself mention Peace Corps at the "Be the Change" ball and hearing about the call to service and sharing in the general sense of hope that the United States will renew its image in the eyes of the rest of the world, the "impression" is getting stronger again. I remember now how important, now more than ever, the last 2 goals of the Peace Corps mission are:

• Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
• Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans

While there are a lot of great Peace Corps projects that have been done and are being done, which will have a lasting impact on the people they serve, my own experience tells me that for a lot of volunteers these last 2 goals are our best chance to make an impact. Its hard in 2 years to learn a language, understand a culture and develop the skills to make great progress in sustainable development. But, in 2 years one can definitely leave a lasting impression on a community of America. And one can definitely come back and open Americans' eyes to life beyond our borders.

Thus, at this time I believe that Peace Corps and other institutions like it are vitally important to the renewal of the positive image of the United States for the rest of the world. It is real Americans going out and living with real people from other countries, and truly trying to walk in their shoes with humility.

With my extended family in Mali, I'm still working on number 2 and I now have renewed vigor to look for more opportunities to do number 3. And now that I've got some experience in the real world (both outside our borders and within) I hope someday I'll get the chance to try to fulfill goal number 1 again:

• Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

Maybe Peace Corps needs to realign their goals. Or maybe they just need more experienced men and women to follow the call. But, in either case I know that 2/3 of the goals are essential to the future of our nation and our world.