Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, marks our 1 week point and during this week I have learned much about myself, about the culture, about the people, and been pleasantly surprised at how well I still understand French-after decades of a dry spell.
During our first week we had much to do, understand, and implement.
Day 1
Oxfam: It turned out that our meeting with the Deputy Director in Dakar would have to be postponed as he was caught up in The Gambia for a family feast and festival. It is our hope that we will have the opportunity to reschedule for this Monday.
Action Aid: Moussa Faye introduced us to Action Aid which is a NGO based on implementing community projects and education many of which, revolve around sustainable agriculture. They instill a sense of power, ownership and entrepreneurship among villages. We intend on a very successful partnership with Action Aid. "We are keen to using appropriate technology for improving agriculture and climate change" Moussa.
Sanoussi Diakite: Inventor/winner of the Rolex Award for his decorticator machine. Much of our conversation with Sanoussi revolved around a small seeded grain popular in 16 countries from Senegal to Chad-Fonio. Fonio is as small as a pin point, and it is/was our hope to gather as much imformation about this crop, process, and post-harvest to model best practices for improving their yields. Currently the seed is simply thrown or broadcast over the ground, this lends to a large amount of grain wasted. Traditional ways of processing grain in a mortar/pestle takes 4 cycles and produces 2.5 kilos of flour in 2 hours. CTI's equipment can process 2.5kilos of similar grain in 10 minutes.
CARITAS: Is an NGO we met with the latter part of the first day that works with local farmers in agriculture. The meeting proceeded very positively in that we have a follow up meeting with them on Thanksgiving Day while they wanted to invite their farmers for a second demonstration. The engineer and I had discussions about "Can a women, or small group of co-ops of women easily work this machine. I spoke with him about myself building, disassembling, working, cleaning and lifting the machine-facile une petit femme.
Day 2
Tuesday marked our day at NCBA/USAID and introductions around the office. It was a pleasure to meet our host institution and Yaguemar the director of our project has been such a refreshing and essential and helpful part to the success of this project. Bamba, our 3rd, in-country partner on the Farmer to Farmer project gathered preliminary results prior to our arrival. Bamba is a true leader, and on top of everything.
Next we drive an hour and a half to the village on roads that have not been repaired due to the contractors and government fighting over being cheated. The contractor was jailed for some time, and the roads therefore have not seen repair in ages. And we thought Minnesota pot holes were bad...
We drive into the village to thoughtful greetings and praise for our arrival. Many of the elders come to shake our hands and welcome us warmly. There are children peering around every corner to catch a glimpse at what is happening. We are seated under a Boboa tree in the shade and begin to have introductions and discussion on what their needs are, what they currently are using, how they process the harvest, crops they use among many laughs and praise. We are ushered to the truck and an eagerness to begin work is felt by all-despite the language barriers.
Day 3
We arrive early to F-t-F office to debrief and meet the Director of the program, Alfonse Faye. He reminds me of that uncle you had growing up that you always looked up to. Alfonse proves later in the week to be so much more than a kind set of eyes, and a deja vu memory of your family member. More later...
We arrive (after another roller coaster ride) at the village to children rushing to the same Beobub tree and the elders (men and women) gathered and ready to help. We setup the trio of machines in order: Thresher, Winnower, Omega Grinder and begin our work. I have taken post atop a plastic chair so I am able to record everything that is taking place. The children are beautiful, the women are stunning, and the men are grateful. Many of the women-and even some of the men-take turns at each piece of equipment, some shy away, but then warm up to it with Bamba's encouragement and openness. His demeanor with the people is unparelleled to anything I have seen. We spend nearly 7 hours, including lunch prepared for us at one of the elders homes, at the village, and the women are still bringing baskets to process, unfortunately it is our time to go, but will return the following day we tell them.
We get back to the hotel and I am so exhausted that I finish some follow up work and pass on dinner. I cannot even keep my eyes open and it is 7pm. That is really the only thing I have had a bit of strife with is the jet lag/time difference. Right about the time we are to get going, my body knows it is 2-4am and it is a hard thing to snap out of. Especially when we have a hypnotising 1.5 hour drive ahead of us. I reflect a bit before I turn in, and think to myself, I have gone without for one day, and many of the faces I have met today have gone without much of their lives. The time warp we have witnessed today is so dramatic that I am humbled and honored to be a guest in their home.
Day 4
It was determined the prior day to make the grinder work more efficiently, we would have a table fabricated, Bamba took this and found a fabricator around the corner at the market and he began work on our addition. We sat with Alfonse again this morning and with a single phone call arranged for us to meet the head of another large USAID project with which we were able to secure a meeting with him in Dakar the following Monday. Additionaly, he recommended, no...he insisted we meet also with the partner organization of that project, and we made that meeting for Monday as well. It is our hope to meet with the Director of WARC and also reschedule our Oxfam meeting and are awaiting conformation.
We returned to the village today and many of the young women were present. It is generally around the age of 10-16 that many of the homestead responsibilities are passed on. However, the little wee ones are given tasks such as collecting water and peanuts. One by one, we were brought baskets of millet, sorghum, peanuts and each round I timed, logged the number of individuals it took, and the kilos produced. Once again, 2.5 kilos of similar grain can be processed in 10 minutes, which would normally take 2 hours of traditional means. After 6 rounds of various crops, I stepped in and Rokhaya, a 12 year old girl who was very smart and per Bamba's interpretation, was quickly instructing others to "Tighten the burrs...we want fine grain"...asked her to help me take apart the grinder and clean it, so that she would be able to assemble and disassemble it...and teach others the proper way She did a fine job.
Day 5 and 6
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, we will meet in the morning with CARITAS and their farmers and we have been asked to tend to 2 more villages. One working with sorghum and one with fonio. We are eager to see what similarities, differences and needs they have in terms of post harvest.
Week one is coming to a close and there have been many lessons learned. I think the one that stands out the most in my mind is that Thankfulness is a universal language that needs no interpretation.
Thank you for your support and encouraging words.
A benevolent mind
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