Back in Mali!

Hello all! I am back in Mali to do research for my Master's thesis. It has been so wonderful to be back here in Mali with all of its craziness and joyfulness. Part of my work was in my old Peace Corps village of Kissa, and it was kind of a dream to be back, chatting with all my old friends, and hiking through all the old forests and fields I used to explore.  I have been resolute about taking lots of pictures this time, as I did not take nearly enough during my Peace Corps stay. So here are some of the more interesting and illustrative pictures.

 This is Toh, pretty much the national dish. You take a handfull of the goop, made from millet or corn flour and kind of textured like polenta, and then you dip it into one of the bowls of sauce. The sauce is made from combinations of okra, peanutbutter, tomatoes and hot peppers. With a good sauce, Toh can be delicious, and I thoroughly missed it while I was away.

This is how Malians do tea: with two shot-sized glasses, two little tea pots, and a lot of sugar! The tea is boiled down into a thick, syrupy shot, and one round of tea can provide about 3 to 6 people with a sip. Usually there are 2 or 3 rounds, taking place over the course of a conversation-filled hour. There is lots of pouring the tea back and forth, to thoroughly mix it in and to cool it off.

 

 Here is a hunter playing a hunters-guitar (donsongoni). There was a big celebration in Kolondieba for Malian independence day, and lots of hunters came in traditional garb with guns and musical instruments. I was invited to sit up with the Mayor, and the hunter was going around and singing to each person so that they would give him some money. He came straight to me, figuring the American would have the most money. I snapped some pictures and gave him some change. You put it directly in the guitar, actually, and the hunter rattles it around and makes it a part of the instrument.

 Here's an interesting picture: a satellite dish, surrounded by Mango trees, mud huts and thatch roofs. I was out for a walk and I came across this bugu-da, a household out in the middle of nowhere. Often people will choose to live out here because of the virgin soil and empty space, which helps to grow more productive crops and raise more cattle. I've noticed that these people tend to be more wealthy, as you can see that this particular farmer, Lassina Kone, was able to buy a satellite dish and a color TV! Lassina was very friendly and curious about America, and offered me some yams to take with me.

This is one of my favorite pictures of one of my best friends, Adama. He is both very curious and very informed about the world, and loves when I get National Geographic magazines sent from home. Here, he is using an inflatable globe that I brought to explain to some people how it is the earth that moves, and not the sun. This is actually a pretty controversial subject in my village, but luckily Adama and his new globe should help settle the debate.

My Research...

I got a grant from the West African Research Association to look at malnutrition in Mali, and how it is correlated with other factors like cotton production and environmental degradation. I used a map that I published before on this blog to apply for the grant, and I think it explains a lot of the context of my research. I will be doing work in three different villages, and for each village I will be doing household surveys, as well as forest and land cover surveys.  The idea is to see if healthy forests and certain livelihood strategies (like growing cotton) have any significant relationship with patterns of malnutrition. Here are some picture from the research.

 

Collecting a list of all of the household heads' names from the village secretary, Lassina (black hat). I randomly picked from the list to determine which households to interview. Also pictured are my good friend Oumar, who worked with my during my Peace Corps service, as well as my host Amadou, in the blue shirt. Lassina and Oumar were both incredibly helpful when I showed up and explained what I had to do.

Here are some shots of me conducting interviews. They were taken by Oumar, who really enjoys using the camera!

 This is me measuring Mid-Upper Arm Circumference, a good indicator of a child's overall health. For all the children in each study household, I have to measure their arms. Often they are terrified, having never seen a white person before. To make the experience less traumatic I give them candy.  Also, notice in this picture, someone in the background wearing a shirt that says something in English. There is a 0% chance she knows what that shirt says.

 

Finally, I give the kids candy. Actually, these are those vitamin-fortified candies you can get in America. If the kids have really skinny arms, I give their moms a couple, and tell her to feed the child one a day.

So that's my research so far! I can't wait to start the forest surveys.

Ebola Prevalence

I am leaving in three weeks to do my research for my Masters thesis in Mali. I can't wait. However, something that has been on my mind lately is the ebola outbreak in nearby Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The media sure is talking a lot about it, and my family and friends are quite worried about this epidemic in West Africa.

But how much of an epidemic is it really? Well, there are about 21.6 million people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries most affected by the outbreak. In those countries, there have been 959 Ebola deaths as of August 8th, according to the Word Health Organization. That means that 0.0044% of the population died from Ebola since the start of the outbreak, in March 2014.

To compare that to US statistic, we had 32,482 fatal car crashes in 2011. Given our population of 316 million, in a five month period, the average American had a 0.0048% chance of dying in a car accident in 2011.

That means an American was just about as likely to die in a car crash in a 5 month period as a West African from Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia was to die from Ebola in the 5 months since the outbreak began.  Fatal car accidents are a real problem in America, and everyday we do things to minimize the chances of such a car accident happening to us - we drive carefully and soberly, and we wear seat-belts.  Similarly, Ebola is a real problem in West Africa, yet there are things you can do - I that I certainly will do - to minimize your exposure and make it a manageable risk.

Ebola is dangerous, and something the world should deal with quickly and decisively. But it is not rampant, just a fatal car accidents are not rampant here in America.

Sa Pilipinas!

So here I am in the Philippines!

I just finished two weeks in Manila, the capital, for training.  Manila is a city of extremes - it has terrible pollution and poverty, as well as some of the nicest, cleanest malls in the world.

Here's some shots from the Mall of Asia, with a parking lot so clean you could eat off of it, and even an ice skating rink!

Nevertheless, the usual street scene is choked with motorcycles, pedestrians, cars and tricycles.  The air is noisy and dirty.  The most common form of public transit is in elaborately decorated and personalized vehicles called jeepneys.

Although Manila has plenty of western malls and supermarkets, old fashioned street markets abound, filled with fish, meat, produce and lots of random oddities.

(live eels)

This is my training group, after a day at the beach.  Since a very common means of transit among these 7,000 islands is leaky wooden boats, we had to go through water safety training.

And this is us with the American ambassador to the Philippines, Harry Thomas.  I'm wearing a Barong, the traditional Filipino formal wear.

I just got to my site on Friday night, and have been enjoying a relaxing weekend after the chaos of Manila.  I start work for the first time tomorrow.  My housing here couldn't be more different from how it was in Mali - I have running water (hot AND cold), electricity, AC... actually I live at a wakeboarding resort!  The provincial government here owns a wakeboarding resort with lots of space, and since I will be working for them and they are responsible for housing me, they decided to put me up here.  So this is more Posh-Corps than Peace Corps I guess.  In fact, here's the view from where I'm sitting now:

Alaska!

So I found myself unexpectedly back from Peace Corps: unemployed and living at home.  A situation I never wanted to be in.  So I applied for stuff like crazy, back in Africa and all over America.  I finally found a position though the SCA with the Juneau Forestry Sciences Lab.  This stuff is a lot more like what I was doing in Ohio than for Peace Corps.  I love working with forests and doing research in them.  I also love working internationally, in other languages and with other cultures.  Someday I hope to combine those two loves and work with forests and communities on a global scale in the fight against climate change.

Anyway, I'm in Alaska now!  Probably till Christmas but maybe longer.  Most of the work I'm doing is inside, analyzing and organizing data.  I do get some exciting field time, though. Here are some pictures. (The last four are thanks to my friend Andrea!)


Here are some shots of the Mendenhall Glacier, literally down the street from my house:

"Bergy Bits" - little icebergs that have broken off the glacier

A photo from on the glacier, which is actually really dirty 

These are from a 8-day data collecting trip I took down to Prince of Wales Island

 The float plane that I took to get down there!

 Some of the crew and our leader, "El Jefe" at snack thirty.

 A visual sample of the slash we had to deal with.  Slash is all the crap (branches and logs) left behind after logging.  It is unstable, rotten, and often several feet deep.  Probably the most challenging terrain to get through anywhere ever.

Our camp!

And finally:

The northern lights!  Felt so blessed that I got to see them.  It was such a miracle that the sky was clear at the same time as Auroral activity this far south, it really felt like it was meant to be!

Mali ends

So my time in Mali was cut short.  What an unexpected disappointment.  I had put so much work and personal investment into Mali: committing my time, learning the language and culture, making amazing friends in my village, getting close to other PCVs...

It took months, the better part of a year, to adjust to my life in Mali.  But I saw it as an investment: work hard to live in such a strange and uncomfortable setting, so I could get to know people from a totally different way of life as my own.  I wanted to get to know them on a level that could only be achieved through two years of total immersion.  I wanted to make lifelong friends, and even, possibly help them improve their lives.  

I was really looking forward to that second year.  It was all set up to be one of the best of my life.  I was just beginning to have an amazing time, and getting the ball rolling on some big projects.  I guess I didn't get as big a return on my investment in Mali as I was expecting.  But I still got a lot.  I met some amazing people, learned Bambara, and fell in love with West Africa.  And even if I didn't get the full Peace Corps experience, I got enough to be certain that I'll be back.

And as disappointing as it was for me to leave early, my troubles are nothing compared to what the people of Mali have had to endure: an ethnic revolt, islamofascists, civil war, a coup d'état, an embargo for a landlocked country, destruction of ancient religious shrines, a drought, withdrawal of much of the Western aid Mali has become dependent on.  And no clear resolution in sight...

Ala k'a nogoya

Seasons in Africa

Last October I took a walk around Kissa and brought my camera with me.  It was at the very end of the rainy season and the land was at its lushest and wettest.  I took some pictures of Kissa's giant Baobab tree, the pond, cornfields, paths and lanes, houses and even a well that was filled to the brim.

Then, a few days ago, I went around re-creating all those same pictures.  Except now Kissa is at the end of the dry season.  The grasses are all dead and burned away.  The pond and wells are dry.  Trees have lost their leaves.... So here are the pictures:

The Baobab Tree:

A Cornfield

The Pond

Mango Trees

Oil Palms

Houses

More Mango Trees

The Well