BILAN D’ACTIVITES DE LA VOLONTAIRE DU CORPS

Introduction :
Dans le cadre du renforcement de sa collaboration avec l’Artisanat du Mali, le Bureau National du Corps de la Paix du Mali met à la disposition de l’Union des associations d’Artisans et de la Chambre Consulaire de Métiers de Koutiala, un ou une Volontaire du Corps de la Paix. Ce dernier appuie et accompagne les OPA précitées en leurs apportant son expertise et son savoir faire. Pour la facilitation de l’exercice de ce travail, les OPA (UAAK et CCMK) fournissent deux homologues représentatifs de chaque Structure. Ceux-ci sont chargés de guider, d’introduire et de traduire au volontaire les idées de la conversion avec les artisans.

Ainsi un plan de travail couramment appelé Plan d’Action est établi et exécuté chaque année conjointement avec les présidents de l’UAAK/CCMK et d’Associations.

Ce présent rapport sans pourtant être exhaustif tente de ressortir les grands axes des activités réalisées au titre de l’année 2009.

I. Activités organisationnelles

1. Auto organisation :
La volontaire a assisté à plusieurs réunions mensuelles de bureaux et AG des Associations.
Les ateliers d’artisans visités ont bénéficié de son conseil en matière d’organisation de travail au sein de l’atelier.

2. Au niveau de l’UAAK/CCMK :
Définition d’un programme de travail avec les deux organismes (répartition des jours de travail entre homologues). Participation aux jours de séances de travail et aux réunions de l’UAAK/CCMK.

II. Activités d’appui aux associations et entreprises

2.1. Activités promotionnelles et commerciales :
Diagnostic des besoins de formation des Associations et Ateliers :
Chaque visite d’ateliers ou d’associations donne occasion à la volontaire de faire l’état des lieux de la situation trouvée sur place. Les difficultés élevant du cadre général c'est-à-dire communes aux ateliers sont traitées et traduites en besoins de formations ou de conseil. Certaines difficultés se résolvent en réunions d’échanges d’idées et d’informations entre personnes concertées et d’autres par formation.

Dans le cadre promotionnel :
La promotion du Bogolan :
Dans ce domaine contact a été pris avec un salon revendeur de bogolan de Ghana lors d’une mission de visite de Ghana de la Volontaire et Korotimi Diallo. De futures relations de partenariat sont en cours.

Une exposition de gammes de bogolan suivi d’explications sur ce que c’est que le bogolan a été faite par la volontaire en juin dernier en USA dans la Ville de Vashon.

De nouveaux modèles de sacs à main ont été confectionnés par la volontaire, un artisan tailleur a été formé sur la confection de ces sacs.

Une cliente fidèle de l’Association Bogolan de Koutiala du nom de Haoua Check a été rendue visite par la Volontaire lors de son passage à Oregon aux USA.

2.2. Activités de formation :
Les actions de formation de la période allant de janvier à ce jour portent entre autres sur :
- L’Extraction du beurre de karité : trente six (36) femmes issues des Associations d’artisans et des femmes rurales de onze (11) villages ont pris part à la dite formation. L’action de formation a porté sur la méthodologie d’extraction de beurre de karité de qualité et sans odeur susceptible d’être exporté hors du Mali.
- L’Alphabétisation : trente neuf (39) artisans de treize (13) Associations membres de l’UAAK et CCMK ont été formés aux méthodes d’écriture, de lecture et de calcul niveau i de la langue Bamanakan. La presque totalité de ses artisans ne savaient ni lire ni écrire dans aucune langue.
- Journée de travail avec la présidente de l’Association des Teinturières : la visite rendue à la présidente a permis à la volontaire et à son homologue de l’assister dans une séance d’imprégnation de support tissu (Bazin). Le travail de production de Bazin teint a été assisté durant toute la journée.
- Le renforcement de capacité des membres du bogolan : les membres de l’association bogolan de Koutiala a sur facilitation de la volontaire à participer à un atelier d’apprentissage de nouvels Design à Ségou pour cinq (5) jours. Hormis les matières d’œuvre et les frais d’hébergement et de transport la formation a été dispensée gratuitement.
- Développement de produits : un artisan tailleur partenaire de bogolan a été initié aux techniques de confection d’un nouveau type de produits (sacs à main).

2.3. Infrastructures et Equipements :
Le projet de Galerie des artisans de Koutiala a été revu et discuté avec les présidents de l’UAAK et CCMK. Un partenariat de collaboration a été établi entre ces Organes et l’Université d’Oregon aux USA. Des projets de plan de Galerie ont été faits à l’UAAK/CCMK
L’Atelier de l’Association bogolan a bénéficié de la part de la volontaire de petits matériels de travail.

III. autres Activités desfemmes :
La volontaire a participé à la célébration des festivités des journées de huit (8) mars et 31 juillet, journées de femmes travailleuses et Panafricaines.

IV. Difficultés rencontrées :
La principale difficulté rencontrée reste celle de la langue car la plupart des artisans et artisanes ne comprennent pas le français ni l’anglais, la volontaire également ne maîtrise pas la langue locale le Bamana kan.
L’autre difficulté demeure celle de l’offre de prestataires sur place. La plupart des prestataires résident hors de Koutiala ce qui contribue à élever souvent le coût de des formations.
V. Perspectives :
Elles portent sur :
- La finition et la recherche de partenaires au financement du projet de Galerie des Artisans et du Centre multifonctionnelle des femmes d’Alliance Couture.
- La formation en Alphabétisation Bamana Kan pour doter les artisans de compétences afin de pouvoir tenir l’administration correcte de leurs ateliers
- Une session de formation en lobbying à l’endroit des leaders artisans de Koutiala afin de renforcer leurs capacités de négociation avec les partenaires et l’administration publique
- L’organisation d’une Exposition vente de produits des artisans pour la consolidation de leurs marchés et la découverte de nouveaux clients





La Volontaire de Koutiala



Maridee dite Kounandy DIALLO

A LUNCH IS NOT JUST A LUNCH

A LUNCH IS NOT JUST A LUNCH

After 17 months here in Mali I am stepping back and reflecting on what went on and looking at things beyond my work here. When I first arrived I surrendered to what ever came my way. At the time I thought I was doing it to help me to learn the language to and live here but in reflecting surrendering helped take in the deprivation of the culture that I would be living in for 27 months.

The food is the fist thing we Peace Corps volunteers realize has very little variation. Rice and sauce and rice and sauce for lunch and dinner as for breakfast there’s tea or coffee and French bread. The markets where we end up living don’t offer much variety either. If a volunteer is up north it is even worst, they get tô three times a day everyday. The first year I lost over 26 pounds some from being sick and some from just trying to figure how to eat nutritiously here in Mali. The Malians suu suu all their ingredients so even if there are vegetables in the sauce they have been pulverized and cooked into non recognizable form. When rainy season hit here in Koutiala and everyone went back to their village to farm there was hardly a tomato in town let alone some lettuce. Most of the packages I get from home have some kind of food in them. My food cravings started with a ceasar salad and ended with things I never eat at home like ham sandwichs. Going back to America for a month got back my appetite and some of the weight I lost.

Everyday I surrendered to what ever cames my way. If I was offered African tea I drank it, if I was to watch a sheep being slaughtered I watched it, if I was asked to walk miles around town to greet people I walked miles. I wear skirts that I would never wear back home. All that I could do to keep going everyday was to go along with what other people had in store for me, not my usual way of doing things.

All that I knew was different even my role as a volunteer. Peace Corps Mali handed me a card during training with the expectations of a Peace Corps Volunteer here is what it said

1. Commit for 27 months
2. Share/Learn skills
3. Be flexible expect hardships
4. Build trust integrate
5. You are on duty 24/7
6. Respect and cooperate with Malian partners
7. Work within Malian & US laws and rules of Peace Corps
8. Be responsible, protecting your health and safety
9. Bring Mali back to the US.

This seemed like a tall order and still does most days. On those days that it is too over whelming I just hide out in my house. Over whelming comes when the children yell Toubob boo, toubob boo over and over again where ever I go gets to me, when I can’t remember a word in French or Bambara, Its been months since I did something for myself (this being very American), maneuvering in another culture has exhausted my mind and body, I can’t face cooking tomatoes and onions for another meal and during hot season there is always the heat and the list goes on.

A big splurge was buying a broom with a handle on it. Others are when I have some else do my laundry because the thought of doing them by hand stooped over gives me a back ache just thinking about it, going over to Koro's for a meal and I don't have to cook or do the dishes or go shopping for that matter. Malians are so much better a cooking here then I am.

Recently I went to a photo show in Bamako the 8^th Bamako Encounter with the theme of Boarders this year. The deprivation that came through in the photographs brought tears to my eyes. The show reinforced the deprivation that I feel here in Mali everyday. This deprivation covers all parts of live, food, politics, health you name it Mali and Africa as a whole comes up short. I have tried to keep my blog on a positive note to show my love of Mali and it’s people but I do want to give people a glimpse of the hardships, of the deprivation endured by everyone in Mali. Yet I wouldn’t have missed this experience for the world.

The Face of Poverty

Historically the world has been trying to “relief” poverty for many centuries. The three concepts used to define poverty since the 1880’s include subsistence, basic needs and relative deprivation. In a collective where I worked for four years we debated the difference between wants and needs every time we processed our pay. The debate became heated every time. How do you define wants and needs and how would you measure substance, basic needs and relative deprivation which in some form have been and still is at the center of defining and measuring poverty. Do your own experiment when you are out with friends start a discussion on what each person believes are their needs as opposed to their wants.

Today alternative perspectives have refocused the concept of poverty as a human condition that reflects failures in many dimensions of human life – hunger, unemployment, homelessness, illness and health care, powerlessness and victimization, and social injustice; they all add up to an assault on human dignity. Working against any aspect that assaults human dignity is why so many development organizations focus programs on gender and development as it relates to poverty. Measuring only subsistence, basic needs, and relative deprivation without looking at social needs is inadequate particularly when measuring gender inequality. As Peace Corps volunteers I believe one of our biggest impacts is on the social needs of our communities both where we work and back home. Poor people are not just the victims of a misdistribution of resources but, more exactly, they lack, or are denied, the resources to fulfill social demands Looking around in my community of Koutiala I am aware that most of the women in affluent families have more freedom to have a career, choose their husband, and are able to meet more social needs then their less advantaged counterparts. In doing gender and development work our main goal is to relief poverty by giving women the ability to meet social needs for a full and happy life with opportunities. Thus the means of giving women access to meet social needs leads to the end of poverty for the whole community. Working to end poverty needs a multiplicity approach to the solution.

In asking the question what is poverty we need to ask the question, “What is Income?” In my home town of Seattle many people do bartering for a lot of their needs and have little income. There was a time that I helped start a food coop, a women’s health clinic, and day care center to improve the lives of people in my community. As an active member of these organizations I did not pay for healthcare which I could not afford, I got a discount on the food I ate, and even though I didn’t have children at the time a woman in my household was included in my family and got a discount on her child care. My income was way below the poverty level for 1974 America. Yet I had access to health care, was well fed and since I lived in a collective house hold I had very good housing. Thus poverty can not be determined by income alone but by some other means.

Let’s look at International Development and how it addresses the issue of poverty. In the new millennium development theory has gotten so complex and some call sophisticated that the United Nations has developed a program called the Millennium Campaign with eight goals to end poverty to be accomplished by 2015. These goals are measured by 48 indicators. They never mention the views of poor people and what poor people consider poor or talk to them about what they have, what they need or what they want. The agencies defining poverty include the United Nations and the World Bank. My questions to the development businesses are; How will development end poverty; Who sets the standard for what is developed; If the developed world keeps raising the bar how is the rest of the world going to catch up; When are you going to empower the people.

When a good friend of mine died several years ago because she lacked access to health care I wondered what poverty looked like in America. In the US there are people who can hardly read, live on minimal wages and don’t have access to health care. Today in America we are all faced with the question of who has access to health care. Access to health care is one component in measuring and defining poverty the world over. We throw the rhetoric around but what is poverty and what does it look like, is it different in the US than in other parts of the world. Since coming to Africa this question of poverty is on my mind everyday.

Some Peace Corps volunteers made comments during training that started me thinking about what influences us as Americans when we define poverty. One volunteer who lived in a good size house with a single mother of four, all girls, made the comment that the family would be on welfare if they lived in America. Another volunteer said that his family just didn’t have much money. The first volunteer’s family had the best food of all our families, the oldest daughter was in higher education and hoped to get a job in a bank, all the girls were well dressed, the family had a TV, and nice living room. The second volunteer’s host parents were school teachers; one son was in nursing school. They were building a house for retirement. This started me thinking, as Americans by what standards do we see and define poverty.

Another incident that got me thinking about what is poverty came one evening in Abidjan as I was sitting around the court yard with four Africans most of them Malians. We talked until the wee hours of the night. One person was a teacher of physics, one a law student, one a bogolan artist and one was unemployed. We sat around on wooden benches in a courtyard cluttered with kitchen utensils and crowded with people. These people were not at the bottom of the scale of have’s and have not’s in Africa. As we talked the rats ran in the urinal, through the kitchen and where else I don’t know. Thirty people lived in this court yard habitat all of them related in some way. I was visiting here for several days with Koro, the bogolan artist, we are good friends.

I don’t know if any of the people I work with here in Mali would fit the UN’s or World Bank’s definition of poor but when I go to Koro’s house just blocks from where I live and she has no electricity, no running water and her and her husband live in two rooms with minimal furniture I am aware that she has none of the conveniences of the Western World.. I eat over at Koro’s several times a week and am well fed. I even went to the hospital with Koro when she had a bad cut on her foot; she recovered but paid for the visit out of her pocket. Most of the children I know don’t have toys; run around in minimal clothing; and are not getting a very good education. But I ask myself on a daily basis are these people poor.

So far I have not come up with the answer of “What is Poverty.” But where would you draw the poverty line? Would you look at family income, at the nutritional intake, the clothes they’re wearing, what furniture is in the house, do they sleep in beds or on the floor, can they read or write, are they healthy. How would you separate out your western conceptions of the “good life” from what is needed and what is wanted?

The Niger River

Its been a hole year that I have waited to take a boat up the Niger River here. Coming from the Northwest I miss the water, the boats and the reflections the sun rises on the water.

The Niger River brings mythical images of ancient times. Whether things have changed much over the last several centuries. Many of the boats have motors. You can see western dress on some of the people although many are dressed in traditional clothing from their regions.

The connection to Timbuktu just fed the imagination. Many people think Timbuktu is a mythical place that does not exist. When you tell someone you’re going to Mali they get a blank look on their face and ask where is that. I respond by saying it’s the country where Timbuktu is.

The culture and language gets more diverse as you head north. Bambara the dominant language of Mali is hardly spoken up there. In Dogon Country alone there are hundreds of dialects with each village having their own. That's just the gateway to the northern regions of Mali.

The boat we took was a little more upscale then I had envisioned but the landscape and the people were amazing. We left in the dark with a bustle of people, animals and goods being loaded for the voyage. Our accommodations did not include anything but a deck on board the ship. We fortunately took a scenic spot where river life unfolded starting every morning with the first light becoming muffled every night.

Every morning I woke with the first light then witnessed the sun rising over the lush green flood plain of the Niger River. Even thought it hadn’t rained in several weeks the water ways this far north flooded out into seasonal lakes stocked with an abundance of animal and plant life. People took a back stage living with the bare minimum of land.

How the captain navigated through the main channel is beyond me. Most of the water ways are shallow yet we only came grounded once. We were heading to the boundary of the Sahara Desert surrounded by water and green as far as the eye could see. This is not the Mali I live in. How refreshing to see another side of a great country.

Photography Malian Style

Mali has a long history of photography. The pinhole camera is an important part of that history. Lani and I found a man on the street in Mopti that had one. The best we could tell he mostly did passport photos for Malians. He displayed one photo of other tourist posted on his camera.

We sat on the bench poised waiting fascinated by every move he made. First he mixed the developing chemicals in little plastic bottle bottoms and placed them in the camera. The whole process would be done in the camera by feel. The camera took pictures and became a dark room for developing the photos.

He set the lens on the focusing mode looked through the black fabric at the back turning the lens just right. He put the lens cap back on turned the lens setting to the right exposure took the lens cap for just the right amount of time. He got busy with both hands in the camera through the black fabric so we could only conclude that he was developing. What he came out with was a negative print of us. He placed the negative on a holder set the lens to the focus mode followed by setting the lens with an exposure mode and again developed some photos. This time the photo came out a positive.

The pictures here are copies this one of the negative and the other a copy of the copy of the negative. We paid our 1,000 Cfa (about two dollars) for each print. We got two prints one for each one of us and he through in the negative for free. As a photographer that was the real treat.

Another photo phenomena is the photo studio, the portraits at weddings, holidays, and baptisms. Koro took me to met Photo John during our meet the artisans of Koutiala marathon. Photo John has a big studio at a major intersection in town. He has an automated printing machine, a computer that he showed me some incredible touching up jobs on old photos. Photo John invited me and Koro next to his portrait studio. He tried several back drops before settling on the one he thought would be the best. Several days later Koro showed up with some prints for both of us. Months later as we waited for the bus to Ghana a man started talking to us he spoke somewhat good english and said he was from Ghana and going to Ghana. He recognized us from our photos on the wall at Photo Johns where he worked. Again this is a copy of a print didn't turn out too well did it.

As a photographer I did not give the art of photography here in Mali the scholarly attention it deserved. In neither an art history context nor as an anthropology cultural phenomenon. Photography here in Mali has been shaped and reshaped in order to fit into the local fabric of imaging and imagining. People are at the center of Malian life so it makes sense that the art of photography centers around people and major events in their lives. I caught myself between the art form, the technology and the culture. We have a saying in Peace Corp "Cross Cultural." Cross cultural studies is a major part of our training. How to apply that in everything we come across depends on our outlook and understanding. And as my outlook and understanding expands so does my ideas of things I run across in my everyday life here in Mali.

Full Circle

Two bogolan artists and I just came back from a training in Segou, a town 159 kilometers north of Koutiala. As I reflect on the training one of the first activities I did with Koro and Awa comes to mind. The activity was the first time I introduced product development and as it turns out was a good introduction to the Segou training. In this introduction Koro, Awa and I went to the computer place, googled bogolan and looked at products made from bogolan clothe.

The goal of the internet session was to look at what bogolan artist were exporting. You could call it “Product Development 101.” We saw greens, reds and yellows not used by Koutiala bogolan artists. We saw purses made of straw and leather with bogolan accents. We saw candle holders, photo books, wallets and much more with a dash of bogolan From that day on one of my goals for the bogolan artists here in Koutiala was to think outside the box and explore new ideas. How to accomplish this at the time seemed out of reach.

Early on I had a bag made by the leather guy at the market with a bogolan accent around the middle. When Koro saw it her only comment was “Oh that’s nice.” I carried the bag around town for a while but it didn’t seem to inspire the artists to try something new. As time went on the goals expanded to talking about quality control, sizing the scarves differently, thinking about new techniques, how to display the products and the list goes on and on.

The Segou training only cost $30 for materials and came out of a networking trip back in May when I went to every bogolan gallery in Segou and asked the people if they did trainings. At the Soroble Cener Mr. Coulibaly responded enthusiastically. Since May several volunteers told me that Mr. Coulibaly had talked to them and was willing to do the training for free and he wondered why no one had called him. Things have been so busy here calling him back took several months but I was glad when I did because this training was one of the most successful projects to date.

During the training the artisans learned to dye 10 colors, use different processes to make the dyes, they learned different techniques for applying the white and black, and Koro set up an agreement to buy scarf material from the Soroble Center. The material is finer cotton and the size is perfect for scarves.

Many ideas and projects fell into place with this Segou training. The supply and equipment project funding came through just before we left. During the training the bogolan artists observed the equipment and supplies that were well maintained and some used in different ways than the Koutiala artisans use them.

Upon returning Koro and the man who weaves the fabric talked about how the scarf fabric could be made here in Koutiala. They measured the size of the scarf material and talked about getting better quality thread. We started right away at replacing some supplies and equipment that make good quality production possible.

The Koutiala Bogolan Association has come a long way to making new and better products from that first exploration on the internet. All of the trainings including the literacy training have made the bogolan artist better prepared and closer to their dream of exporting more products. I would like to thank the three people who donated to the Supplies and Materials project through he Peace Corps’ website and all of the people that support me back home, I could not do this work with out all of you.

Just need a few of you to help out

In a couple of weeks the Bogolan Association will be going to Segou to participate in a week long training that Segou bogolan artist are gracously offering for free to help out their fellow Malians. Since my National Counterpart Koro who helped me intergrate into the community and has been a major help on all my projects here is a Bogolan artist my next few projects will be focused on helping the Bogolan Association of Koutiala.

Before we begin this next phase the bogolan artists are in great need of new equipment and supplies. Thier main work table top is roating, the other tables are ready to fall apart and if they repair any of thier stenciles one more time the quality of their work will not be exportable.

I would like to ask some of you to go to http://www.peacecorps.gov/ click on "Donate Now" in left menu and search for Mali. I am asking for $138 for supplies for the bogolan artists. It is not much but will mean so much to the people I work with.

Thank all of you who have helped get me to where I am today I could not do my service without all the support of my friends and family back home.

Ghana and Beyond

Months ago I suggested to Koro that we go to Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire to visit her family and then I would go on to Accra, Ghana to meet Lani to travel around. This would have been the perfect way to go. Koro wanted to stay in Koutiala for the feast at the end of Ramadan so we left two days later which meant Koro came to Ghana with me and I couldn't meet Lani at the airport, this made me nervous.

As we approached the boarder of Burkina Faso I called another volunteer who was heading down to Ghana where we had made plans to meet at a hotel. She only agreed to meet Lani if things went
well when she arrived in Accra. At least she didn't say no right off.

Koro and I spent the night in a bus station in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In the morning we took off for Ghana. When the Ghanaian boarder was within an hour the thought crossed my mind that Koro had never been in a country with different currency. You see many West African countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Senegal, Niger, Guinea-Bissau use the West African CFA Franc. This startled Koro's new experiences.

In Ghana the national language is English, I am not sure how many local languages there are. Not many people speak good English so the language even challenged me. For Koro this meant that she didn't have people to talk to and my French is not that good. Even finding food in Ghana that Koro would eat became a challenge. Malians are not an adventurous people when it comes to breaking out of routine. Malian routines are like their rituals that haven't changed in decades, in centuries particularly at the village level.

My friend did meet Lani at the airport. Koro and I arrived in Accra about 4 am sleeping on the bus until taxis started their day on the streets. Arriving at the hotel Emily and Lani had got acquainted and a good nights sleep. Lani, Emily and I decided to go out to eat and Koro stayed at the hotel to get some sleep. This hotel was too expensive so Koro, Lani and I moved to the Salavation Army and Emily stayed with a friend.

The next morning Lani and I took Koro to a bus station to get her on a bus for Cote d'Ivoire but the bus only leaves Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4:30 am this was Saturday. We ran with the flow and headed to Cape Coast. Koro didn't seem very happy about all this and even got a little cranky she wanted to stay in Accra.

Cape Coast lies on the Ghana shoreline with a rich history during the time of slave trading. Walking around we found some bogolan in one of the artisan stands. I introduced Koro as a bogolan artist from Mali and asked the guy if he was interested in buying some. He said come back later in the day. We also found a fair trade retail store where all three of us bought some kind of a bag made from plastic water bags. The store even had some shea soap that I pointed out to Koro.

Later that day Lani went for a walk and Koro and I went to try and sell some Bogolan. When got there the guy said that he lent his money to a friend because the fish catch for the day was good so everyone in town bought fish. He said he would go and get his friend who might be interested in buying the bogolan. His friend showed with dreads and speaking both bambara and french, he is from Burkina Faso. Koro and I went over to his store. He makes musical instruments. We sat and visited in the usual Malian fashion.

Koro negotiated price and talked about home. The guy has lived in Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and now Ghana.

After Cape Coast Koro went to Cote d'Voir and Lani and I continued on to Kumasi, Hohao, and up to my friend Rhoda's village in the Volta region of Ghana. This region is situated on the Togo boarder and during rainy season which is when we were there is green lush cool with water falls and hilly terrain. We hiked, Lani cooked us great meals and we visited with Rhoda and her site mate Leanne for a whole weekend.

What a great visit with Rhoda. It was hard to leave and head back to the big city of Accra where we had business to attend to and arrange the bus transportation to Cote d'Ivoir. We have figured out public transport in Accra so taking taxis is at a minimum. The bus for Abidjan leaves at 4 am, we report to the station at 3:30 am. As usual the bus left at 5 am. The ticket price was 1.000 cfa for the bus and 8.000 cfa for the boarder crossing bribes and as we found out there is a person at the boarder that does nothing but gets us trough the board. This frontier was the most guarded so far. The way we breezed through in three hours I would say the bribing worked.

In Abidjan we did nothing but visit with Koro's family. They are the greatest people. We were fed good, they took us around to artisan places, and when we left we got a ride in a truck and several of the women Lani's age took a taxi to the bus station to see us off. This was a great
brake from the heat and hardships of Mali.

The elders of the family. Lani and I estimated that about thirty family members lived in the household and there was a serious of three household where we were and more accross the street. Koro's family just goes on and on. We even went to Yamoussoukro to visit Koro's sister for a night.

Dancing at Weddings

Many have asked what some of my favorite things here in Mali are. Here is my doing my favorite thing Dancing with women at weddings.

Celebrating the Literacy Formation

The participants showed their enthusiasm by coming to class regularly and on time and did good work. And let me tell you for a Malian to come on time is a big deal.

So when they wanted to send out invitations for the closing celebration to the Prefet (county executive) and the Mayor as well as many other community leaders I did not hesitate to use some of the left over money to help make the closing celebration a big one.

For me this meant that I had to participate more then I have in the past. This last year at all public events I have been asked to say a couple of words. I usually answer “Non Merci.” Language has been my biggest struggle in my Peace Corps Service. But since I knew all the officials in Koutiala were coming my language tutor Sadio helped prepare and practice a speech. Here is what I said.

Monsieur le Préfet de Koutiala,

Monsieur le Maire de Koutiala,

Mesdames et Messiers. Bonjour

C’etait un grand plaisir pour moi d’être parmis les organisateurs de

Cette formation.

L’alphabéisation ouvre de nouvelles opportunités.

Je voudrais remercier l’Union, la chamber des métiers et le

RAC pour tout leur travail. Merci.

Not much but saying a couple of words made everyone there so happy it was well worth it and will be easier next time.

The celebration gave back to me so much of what I have given in the last year. There are little things on a daily basis but this with so people that had been touched overwhelmed me. I held back the tears, Malians don’t cry in public and they sure would not understand tears of joy.

The participants in the literacy class would not be considered the poor in Mali, many have moto’s most have cell phones but they could not read, write or do math and they sure didn’t know French. Making money in Mali obviously does not depend solely on knowing how to read and write. This made me think of the times this last year when someone in the market didn’t give me the right change. At the time I thought I misunderstood the price that we had negotiated but after this class I am not sure that merchants in the market know who to give change out.

As we say in Mali things happen dunnie dunnie.

The Diary of a Sewing Machine

From the first day of seeing the peddled sewing machines here in Mali I wanted to get my hands on one and sew away. At home sewing is relaxing, an escape, a way to create. In Mali with the fabrics there seemed like so much potential to create. Then there were the irons that heated up with charcoal the vision that came to mind wuth the possibility of using one of these was medieval times, a time with different sources for the creative energy. Yes I am a dreamer.

Every volunteer here in Mali tells a story of a tailor botching a sewing job. Its not that their bad tailors it just that volunteers try new and foreign designs out on them and it really isn’t something they have been trained for. Another volunteer bought a sewing machine; it cost 30,000 about $60. That’s a lot of money for a volunteer. I did my blotched tailor jobs over with hand stitching.

Going to America gave me the opportunity to bring back some purse patterns. One of my objectives for the Bogolan Association has been to help with product development. The day I arrived in Koutiala I showed Koro the patterns and told her I wanted a sewing machine to make purses out of Bogolan. She said she would see what she could do.

The next day Koro talked to the President of the UAAK and told him what I wanted to do. He seemed to think it would be no problem but Koro still had follow Malian protocol. She talked to the President of the Chamber des Metiers too. Then she talked to the president of the Sewing Association Ami.

Ami (on the right) has been around since my first day and we are joking cousins. Joking cousins is a cultural way of getting to know someone and sharing your heritage. You can also call on joking cousins to resolve a dispute. Always good to have some around, they will usually help you in any way possible.

The Women’s Association came next in the change of protocol. Luckily Ami and her best friend Jenibob are actively in leadership with the association so no problem there.

Last but not least we attended a Sewing Association meeting. The meeting was the first association meeting I even knew about, for a year I have been wanting to attend more meetings. Not that I understand everything that is going on but they would give me a feel for the organizational structure. I guess going through the protocol to get this sewing machine has given me an idea of the organizational structure which just goes to show the sewing machine idea will full many objectives some have yet to be revealed.

Right after the meeting Koro, me and a member of the Sewing Association hired a push cart and went and got the sewing machine.

Mali protest against women's law

Fresh off the press from BBC News

Tens of thousands of people in Mali's capital, Bamako, have been protesting against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage.

The law, passed earlier this month, also strengthens inheritance rights for women and children born out of wedlock.

The head of a Muslim women's association says only a minority of Malian women - "the intellectuals" as she put it - supports the law.

Several other protests have taken place in other parts of the country.

The law was adopted by the Malian parliament at the beginning of August, and has yet to be signed into force by the president.

One of the most contentious issues in the new legislation is that women are no longer required to obey their husbands.

Hadja Sapiato Dembele of the National Union of Muslim Women's Associations said the law goes against Islamic principles.

"We have to stick to the Koran," Ms Dembele told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "A man must protect his wife, a wife must obey her husband."

"It's a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law - the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country - the real Muslims - are against it," she added.

Literacy in Mali, Or Not.......

My dream is that someday everyone can at least write their name and do simple math.
Most of the artisans here in Koutiala can’t write their own name. When the Union of Associations of Artisans of Koutiala (UAAK) has a meeting and the sign up sheet goes around some one who can write follows it around to write the names of the people who can’t.

The Peace Corps initiated the Shea Butter formation I organized last April because USAID offered a free trainer. USAID selects several initiatives, Sea being one of them. The Peace Corps in partnership with USAID trains the Small Enterprise Development and Environment sectors in processing Shea.

Even though the Sha training was a huge success I didn’t feel that it was a priority of the people I work with. The literacy formation however was a grassroots idea. The UAAK wrote the proposal including the budget. They even had a trainer who was available and well qualified. Koro (if you don’t know by now is my homologue and best friend here in Mali) and I agree that doing a literacy formation annually would be a great idea.

Figuring out what to do has not always easy. The first three months I fretted over how, what and who should I focus on in my service. When Macki my APCD came to site he helped by saying that I didn’t need to work with everyone and could focus on the Bogolan Association if that is what I wanted to do. During all this time weighing what I think “They” need and what they think they need was a challenge. With this literacy training I feel like I have reached out to all the people I came here to help.

In the literacy classes they are learning to read and write in Bamabara the local language as well as doing basic math. Two thirds of the class are women.

West Africa has a huge illiteracy population. It is even a bigger problem among women. In Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger still fewer than three in ten young women aged 15 to 24 can read and write. Not one of the nine countries here in West Africa with literacy rates below 50% in 2000-
2006 is expected to reach 50% literacy by 2015.

Mali the stats for total literacy rate among adults ages 15-49 is 23%; Male literacy rate 31%; Female literacy rate 16%;

Peace Corps Mali has stepped up their Education sector this year with 15 new volunteers. In my stage there were only six. When all us volunteers no matter what our sector do something about illiteracy here in Mali my dream may come true.

Koutiala Artisan Center Project

Gwynne’s Concept

A design studio class at the University of Oregon with the help of professor Naoto Sekiguchi is collaborating with me a Peace Corps Volunteer to generate design proposals for a new artisans’ center in Koutiala, Mali.

There are just some projects that come along that everyone involved is excited about. The exchange with the University of Oregon Architecture School is one of those projects. Carmen, a volunteer was visiting Koutiala who I knew was an Architect graduate and it just so happens that the Union of Associations of Artisans of Koutiala has several building projects coming up. Carmen got excited from the very start and that excitement has carried on through all the phases and all the people involved.

Here is the link to the project's website, www.uoarchkoutiala.com. The photos are examples of the student's ideas.

By Stacy Hsu

Sharing information on Mali and my work is always rewarding. This project has not only been rewarding but touches on all three Peace Corps' Goals;

• To help the people of interested countries meeting their need for trained men and women.
• To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of people they serve.
• To help promote a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans.

Watch for updates on this project and visit the website there is more information on Mali there then anywhere else I have seen. Enjoy!

Ameriki

Went home to Vashon Island in Washington. My father became ill in Hawaii where I am from and the hospital called and said get there fast before he passed away, which he did within hours of my arrival. This gave me the opportunity to come to the Northwest to see my daughter and friends.

Even though I was not in Mali my Peace Corps work continued. Giraffe a fair trade retailer had agreed to highlight Malian Bogolan during July's First Friday Art Walk. Priscilla the owner is also interested in helping out with design and product development. She has an idea for an upscale purse made from multimedia.

Giraffe is committed to supporting alternative methods of business that emphasizes sustainable and equitable living wages for artisans all around the world. Goals that she shares with the Bogolan Association of Koutiala. For all you on Vashon here is link to Giraffe's website; www.giraffevashon.com

Working with the Bogolan Association for the last year the artisans have focused on export ready skills as defined by the West African Trade Hub and Aid to Artisans. The skills include managing a bank account, processing an order with invoices and packing slips, quality control during production, and product design and development. Transportation has been a big obstacle in exporting. Partnering up with Priscilla at Giraffe is a great opportunity to developing products and a great outlet for exporting the goods.

Another work related task I planned was to visiting a Malian woman who has been buying products from the Bogolan Association for several years. She lives in Oregon and has been a great resource. It was a great visit we talked about bogolan and other export opportunities. Haoua Cheick understands where Malians are coming from yet helps me know what I need to work on with the group.

As one of my projects I hope to have a series of trainings such as product design, how to process an order, what does exporting intail, and tech exchanges with other bogolan and soap making places in Sagou. Sagou is a big tourist town here in Mali and the artisans there are much more developed as far as products and exporting.

It's not just the Work

It’s been a while since I have written an update. Things have been busy here in Koutiala.

Also it’s been 103 plus degrees every day for a while. The good part is that I have been waiting nine months for mango pancakes and finally along with hot season comes mango season. We eat mangos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I haven’t experienced anything like this since I was a kid in Hawaii.

As for my work I am still very busy. When I first came here there was no way I could see how I could help the people I was meeting. I didn’t know the language, the customs, the office politics, when the holidays were and I didn’t need to go to work. I barely knew how to buy and cook the food that was available.

Today months later the work is overwhelming. The bogolan artisans need to do some work to get export ready. The UAAK has asked for help with a literacy formation, the women at the NGO that does Gender and development would like to do a joint project and if that won’t keep me busy there is an NGO here that does AIDS/HIV work that has been wanting a volunteer for some time. (And all volunteers are supposed to be working on this issue.)

My schedule goes like this Monday’s I meet with Omar to speak English, Tuesday morning Omar and I do Jr. Achievement at a fifth grade class, Tuesday afternoon I go to the NGO for the women’s group, Wednesday I spend the morning at the Bogolan workplace, Thursday is market day here in Koutiala and language class, Friday morning is language class. In my spare time I visit the Union of Associations of Artisans of Koutiala and planned a formation on Shea Butter, wrote articles on Gender and Development for the Mali Rag (the volunteer newsletter), attended Gender and Development Committee meetings since I was elected as the Training/Research coordinator for the committee.

It isn’t just work, the people have found their way into my heart. When the women at the Shea Butter formation broke out into song I was almost in tears.

In my travels around the world I have searched for the words to express the joy found even in the poorest countries. Reading Thoreau’s Walden I found them;

However mean your life is meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as your are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.

This sums up what I see in the poorest people of the world. Through what lenses is poverty defined and how do you know when something is acceptable and when it is intolerable.

International Women's Day

International Women's day is a big deal in Mali. Last when I arrived in Mali I remember seeing IWD fabric and promised myself that I was going to get an outfit for IWD 2009. So here is Koro my homologue and me in our matching outfits. In the morning Koro and I walked all around town buying food for the mid day meal. All the Malians kept commenting on us. The women where I buy my lettece all came up and spoke to us when we were ther to get some food. Koro and Awa cooked a feast for the mid day meal. We had chicken, salad, french fries and Mali Koolaid. After the mid day meal I went home for a short nap. It's been getting up to 98-100 degrees in the afternoon. We all went to the festival at the Women's Association of Koutiala. Most of the women were dressed in the IWD fabric, we listened to speakers including the Mayor of Koutiala. There were some Balafon instruments and we all danced until dark.
Music and dancing is an important part of any celebration here in Mali. Women dancing is a commen place event.
Even the girls get into the act


A good time was had by all.

Gender and Development (GAD)

It all started with a session during Post Service Training (PST) on GAD. The training left mes thinking. I started researching on the internet on what GAD means and what kind of activities people who work in development do to promote gender and development.

During In Service Training two GAD committee meetings were scheduled. Out of that came ideas and a plan to meet at least quarterly. This can be hard since many volunteers need a day or two to travel anywhere here in Mali and places to stay when they get to Bamako or where ever the meeting is going to take place.

Koro, my homologue attended one of these meetings and asked a volunteer who's Bamabara was good to explain what GAD was. When I got back to Koutiala Koro set me up with an NGO that does GAD work. So every Tuesday afternoon I go and attend a group that teaches women and leadership as well as dealing with some hard issues such as female excision and birth control.

When the announcement of a West African Gender and Development conference sponsored by Peace Corps Volunteers in Senegal I emailed the Country Director right away to get on the list of participants. Here is a link to SeneGAD's website http://senegad.org/index.html. The conference had a lot of good information and stimulated a lot of ideas.

Peace Corps Mali has a long way to go to establishing a GAD committee but hopefully we have several dedicated volunteers that will see this project through.

One study I read is quoted as saying;

"The poverty reduction agenda, in particular, would benefit from paying attention to gender issues. One study (Klasen 1999, cited in World Bank 2001) estimates that if the countries in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa had addressed their gender gap in schooling similarly to East Asia—which began tackling the issue in 1960 and closed the gap by 1992—their income per capita could have grown by 0.5–0.9 percentage points"

Since Mali is in Sub-Saharan Africa this would apply to all of us doing Gender and Development work here. And it's true the educated people speak French and so far I have met very few women artisans who speak French, many can't read or write.

This work seems overwhelming so I try to look at the little things that seem to be making a difference and hope that I can contribute.

In Service Training Bamako

After three weeks in Bamako for an in service training. Back in Koutiala a cloud of dust has settled over the city and it hasn't rained in four months. The temperatures have ranged from 41 to 94 degrees.

The trip to IST started from Koutiala at 8:00 am in the morning. About mid morning the bus broke down and low and behold they did a break job in an hour and a half and we were on our way. This bus ride was a big improvement to our 20 hour bus ride going to Mopti. The bus from Koutiala to Mopti should takes six hours, we spent the night on the side of the road because the bus was broken down. Got to love West African transportation.

This is how my IST started. I met my stage (training group) at Tubaniso in January for more training. I call Tubaniso “Camp Peace Corps” because we stay in dorms three to a room, eat in a cafeteria, and our time is not our own.

The first two weeks we were there without our homologues. Small Enterprise Development has sessions on accounting Malian style, illiterate accounting, along with sessions on our sub-sectors of Tourism, Artisans, and Government. I work with artisans. There many field trips planned and I went to the National Tourist Artisan organization in Bamako and a radio station.

Several days I escaped to Bamako. Since I brought my bicycle this turned out to be real easy as well as a good way to get to the capital city. The first day I went in the same circle three times. Giving directions here is hard with virtually no street signs, people not wanting to disappoint you so they tell you how to get somewhere when they don’t necessarily know themselves. Finally realizing the med unit was close to the Niger River I headed that way until things looked familiar.

Many volunteers met during IST to start forming a Gender and Development committee and/or sector here in Mali. In February 2009 Peace Corps Senegal is hosting a Gender and Development conference that Peace Corps Mali has given me permission to attend. I am looking forward to this opportunity.

Koro, my homologue received a certificate for attending and I gave a speech at the closing ceremony. Now it is so good to be back in Koutiala, Home Sweet Home.