emily christine doerr: Moringa Formation at the Gold Mine

Lately I've been a little bored so I've been trying to connect with some different organizations in Kayes. In April I met a woman who runs an organization in Kayes that I think helps women, but they also do lots of other things not related to women, although, I'm sure you could argue that they somehow are related to women. Anyway, this lady, in my opinion is a little nutso, but she is very motivated and has a great thing going. I mentioned to her some things that I know about and she jumped on the Moringa idea. She helps out with community development in a village that grew up next to one of the gold mines about 200 km southwest of Kayes and asked if I would do a training on Moringa there. At first the times she suggested didn't work out so I outsourced the project to another volunteer but then my schedule opened up so I was able to go. (When I say my schedule opened up, I mean that I decided to go on vacation for my birthday a few days later. I'm not busy enough to actually have a "schedule.")

Meanwhile, this woman, Mariam (my namesake) and I had a little disagreement. I had lost my patience with her, which I know must seem strange to all of you, but I was trying really hard, she is just incorrigable. Here is what happened. Earlier in April she said she wanted to put a volunteer in these two villages near the gold mine. I was fine with this and said I would help her fill out the request forms because she CLAIMS that she doesn't speak French. I don't either, by the way. I know that SHE speaks French because everytime she THINKS I don't understand what she's saying she says it all again in French. The times when she thinks I don't understand, she gets this horribly lost and confused childish look on her face and usually she thinks I don't understand because I'm disagreeing with her. Anyway, the request form asks what the volunteer will do and she more less told me to write down what I think a volunteer is supposed to do. I asked her if she had informed the village what a Peace Corps volunteer was and what they might want and she said she had not informed them that she was "helping" them get a volunteer. I explained to her that I would fill out the form but that she needed to take it to the village so they could sign it and say what they think because Peace Corps volunteers usually thrive in communities that take initiative and have a plan for their volunteer. The most annoying thing about this woman is that she cannot understand my Bambara. For the life her, she cannot understand a SINGLE thing I say. I constantly have to repeat myself and, as there is always someone else present, this other person has to "translate" what I say to her into stupid people Bambara. The miraculous thing is that the third person always understands what I say, so I think that Mariam is faking it to be more difficult.

In any case, I met with her again one day because she tells me I HAVE to come to her office immediately, so I hop on my bike in 110 degree heat and get my butt across town. In this meeting she wants me to tell a guy from a nearby village what Peace Corps volunteers do so that he too can fill out a request for one. I was already annoyed which was not good with this woman. I asked the guy what he wanted a volunteer for and he said "I don't know, what do they do?" He was perfectly nice so I explained to him the problem with him asking this. While on the one hand it's good to be informing Malians about Peace Corps because a lot of villages could be productive with a volunteer, but there are already so many requests coming in from villages that already know what a volunteer does and have credible work suggestions for a volunteer that I find it a little ridiculous to tell this guy step by step how to get your very own Tubob. Also, I was in a cynical mood. I told him to go back to the village and talk to them about what kinds of problems there are in the village and then to come talk to me. Then I used Mariam's situation as an example of why it doesn't make sense to tell people how to get a volunteer when they may not even need one and Mariam stood up and gave me a huge diatribe about how Malians won't know about Peace Corps unless we go and tell them and without her these villages wouldn't know what happens outside the villages and bla bla bla, because I stopped paying attention.

When I told her to calm down and I explained that I didn't think what she was doing was bad, it just wasn't coming from the right people she pretended not to understand me and the other dude in the room had to tell her what I said. Then she said what I consider to be one of the biggest insults in the Bambara language. She said, "No, you don't understand." Now, I know that might sound trivial, but it's not, it is a method of showing your superiority, or so I've gathered from my many interactions with intelligent and not so intelligent Malians. I said to her that I did understand and said what she said back to her. We continued to argue over the proper ways of informing people about development and aid and she said it again. This time I told her that I do understand and if she says it again I'm going to leave. She said it again. I left. After that we briefly talked on the phone to discuss when she would be picking me up to take me down to these villages to Moringa training but nothing more.

Now, onto the training. For the training, Nicole and I got to stay at the Somila Gold Mine in the village of Loulo/Djidjan. This is a little bit like taking a trip to Florida. Most of the employees at the mine are from South Africa, Holland and Australia, so they live in these cute little condos on the compound. There is also an airport, cafeteria, grocery store, restaurant and pool. The condos are air conditioned and have full kitchens and satellite tv. We got to stay in one of these condos.

When we arrived we dropped off our stuff then went to the village to meet with the president of woman's association with whom we'd be doing the training. Mariam had led us to believe they knew more than they did, but they were helpful and eager to work so we agreed on all the supplies they were to bring and planned the training for the next morning. I was kind of hoping to only have to stay one night but after seeing the place where we were staying Nicole and I were more optimistic about hanging around for a whole afternoon in air conditioning. The first night we were given tickets which were like coupons to eat in the restaurant, which is also a bar. Some of the South African dudes there bought us drinks (I had a corona...which costs $8 in Bamako IF you can find it) and then we had American food for dinner. I had a Hamburger with cheese, so I guess it was a cheeseburger. We went to bed early because we had to get up to do the training even though the dudes all offered to buy us more drinks. :)

The only thing that was bad about the training was that it started 30 minutes late, which is to be expected so basically it went perfectly. The women provided all of the materials except for the things that we brought (Moringa powder and Moringa seedlings to give away). They were enthusiastic and good listeners and a general joy to be around. They were really helpful with all of the activities and at the end we did a quiz and they knew all of the answers. It was such a great experience, it made the entire trip worthwhile and it prevented Nicole and I from feeling guilty for going back and watching Days of Our Lives on Sattelite in air conditioning while eating swiss cheese on sliced bread toast. :)

Here are some highlights from the Training:

When the women use these cauldrens to cook they coat the outside with mud or in this case ash and powdered soap and water. After they're done cooking it's easier to wash the black carbon off the outside.

While Nicole was explaining the importance of vitamin-enriched porridge to the women they were sifting the different types of flour we were going to add (Corn, Millet, Peanut and Bean).

The first step is to mix the different flours with water to make a paste. When you add the paste to the boiling water it mixes better than adding just the dry flour.

Every step of the way the women were up on their feet watching everything we did. It was so amazing to see their energy, it was really motivating and uplifting.

Here they're mixing the paste with the boiling water.

While the porridge thickened and boiled, I did my schpiel. I showed them a tree and then we learned the name they call it in their town. In almost every place I've done a Moringa training they have a different name for the tree.

After explaining the benefits of using Moringa I taught and demonstrated how to plant one.

Then I asked for two volunteers to plant two more trees and everyone raised their hands. Again, it was awesome to see such enthusiasm and it really made the trip worthwhile.

Watching the women plant the trees.

More planting.

After they planted the two trees I asked questions about all the things that I had said. If a woman got a question right she got a tree to take home and plant in their yard. Everyone ended up getting a tree anyway, but they loved the game and everyone answered a question right.

Here Nicole is adding Moringa powder, then she'll add sugar, baobab powder (it's a preservative) and lemons (also a preservative). Then we dish it up and they feed it to their kids 3 times daily.

Here's the whole group with their trees after the training.

Here is one of the houses on the compound. We met an American guy there, his wife gave us homemade ice cream and he took us on a tour of the mine. He was so amazing and generous, we could not have asked for better hospitality, both from the people in the village and from the foreigners on the compound.