Introducing phase two of the Segou Ecolodge Project

The ecolodge is now approaching being operational, but there is still much to be done. The three huts need to be finished, the restaurant needs a floor and a roof, the trails need to be fixed up, and much more. The first phase of funding, provided through USAID's Small Projects Assistance and the contributions of the village, is almost used up. It is now time to introduce the second phase of the Segou Ecolodge Project.

Where the goal of phase one was to construct enough of the ecolodge that it could house tourists, the goal of phase two is to turn the ecolodge into the best tourist lodge in the area. In order to do that we need to finish the bathrooms in the huts, build the storeroom for the restaurant, build the kitchen, and do all of the finishing touches necessary. Of course, all of this will require additional funding. The village has committed to contributing 26% of the costs but that still leaves a $7,741 USD need. To explain the what is needed, how it will be accomplished, and how you can help out by donating I created the Segou Ecolodge Project website (sites.google.com/site/segouecolodge). Please take a look at it and consider donating. Every little bit helps and a donation of only $77 dollars will cover 1% of the total. Also please forward the link to anyone you think might be interested in learning about the project.

First guests!

The ecolodge had its first guests!!! I can't describe what a great moment it was. After a year of working on the project we finally saw some results!

It is still not finished, at the time they stayed there the windows and doors were not up, but the four American students were able to accommodate that in exchange for having the honor of being the first guests. While I had been involved with the project for a year, it was a much more exciting moment for my counterparts who have been trying to realize this dream for many years. I told them, "Jooni, menen acii fudugol golle keso e jooni ha yesso golle amen ko gaynugol ko menen fudike hari." "Now we are done starting new work and now the rest of our work is just finishing off what we have started."

The other really exciting aspect of having our first guests was I could see how the benefits of the ecolodge are going to spread throughout the community. Even though they were the first guests and we were unprepared to host them, as I was walking around town I counted over a dozen different people who were involved in preparing food, finding things to sell, or trying to find their old ceremonial dance equipment. The whole time I have been working on this project I have been dreaming of all of the auxiliary projects that will be possible for the community: selling shea butter or baobab power, selling rope made from local trees, teaching Pula Futa lessons, telling traditional stories, creating a community development fund, and much more. These are the side projects that will extend the benefits of the ecolodge out into the village and will be much more fun to execute than supervising construction. They will also be much more mentally challenging. I can't wait to start taking them on.

It's rare that PCVs get to see the fruits of their work so clearly. Now I see not only the physical buildings we have created but a vision into the future of how the ecolodge, and my work, will function to the benefit of the entire community. This is the moment that I joined the Peace Corps for.

Photos

Not my photos, but they are very good. I don't have any photos like this because most Senegalese do not like their photo being taken by a stranger (tourist/white person). Looking at the photos I can't help but imagine the photographer being yelled at by the people in the photo immediately afterwards. Anyway, really good stuff:

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/senegals-changing-urban-landscape/?ref=africa

More about the rain...

Visual Music

Visual music,
bathes the earth
as a mother lovingly bathes her child

Stilling solice,
dampens the burning ball
of intense inner fire

Cleansing clarity,
clears the air
of immediate concern

Descending droplets,
return grounded
in growing pools of reflection

Running rivlets,
springing up in the sand
inspire new directions

Nourishing nectar,
fuels growth
towards a higher purpose

Rain in West Africa, a rare regularity,
is welcomed by parched soils
and parched souls.

Lightning Tree

I LOVE the rain here. I loved it in America, but rain is so refreshing here it makes me pause everytime. I have been trying to capture exactly it mood it puts me in. Here is one attempt:

Lightning Tree

The current of something greater

flashes through your mind

as a desire to be more thoroughly alive

burns its roots into your psyche

yes, there is something growing now

with ions for leaves

breathing ozone not oxygen

it is this feeling that you want to catch

as it momentarily illuminates new synapses

this power of potential

the beauty of inspiration

but its gone in an instant

too electric to hold on to

leaving behind only smoking tendrels

of growth

in the smoldering hole of what could be

but isn't.

z.swank

8/2/2010

Ingli Trip

Fording a river

This photo was taken in a village 30 km from any sort of road. They have internet.

The Ingli waterfalls, come to Senegal and I'll take you out to see them.

There are some beautiful villages out here.

and another post!

Things have gotten GREEN! It has been raining twice/thrice a week for a couple of months now. This part of Senegal gets as much precipitation in the five month rainy season as Western New York gets in a year. It shows. The grass is up to four feet and the corn is up to ten. It does my eyes good to see green, my body good to feel a cool breeze, and my soul good to feel rain. Back home in NY I loved each season equally for the different aspects of the world it brought out. Here, I just love the rainy season. So much so that I have thoughts of looking for year round green in my next surroundings of residence.

People are leaving. The volunteer community is sort of a bizarre social atmosphere. We are thrown together as a group of strangers that shares a common tongue, background, and set of challenges. We generate great camaraderie while still not really knowing each other. Then volunteers start finishing their time and leaving before you know it, only to be replaced immediately by new faces. In Senegal, a group leaves and is replaced every six months. Sometimes groups of outgoing volunteers can slip away without affecting your social network. Other times you can loose all of your good friends and be forced to start building new friendships as if you just arrived in country. I probably feel this more acutely than most volunteers since I lost nearly all of my friends twice, when I transferred from Mauritania and then now that I am extending. I do not mean to lament too heavily, it’s always exciting when a new group comes in, but the group leaving now is taking the two people I have been closest with since Mauritania.

Fun. The volunteers in the Kedougou region put together a show for the community radio station every week. It is a great activity that I support wholeheartedly, in principle. Really though, I have no real interest in taking part even though nearly everyone else pitches in. Recently I was asked by another volunteer why I would not help out with the upcoming show and without thinking I deadpanned, “It doesn’t sound like fun at all.” To which another volunteer within earshot responded “I like your work attitude!” I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but it stuck in my mind in that fateful way that hidden truths do. Time passed and when it popped up again I realized what else it meant: all of the work I do, is fun to me. While I am sure that my interests and attitudes have adapted to the job I am currently doing, being in the completely unstructured work environment of a PCV has given me the freedom to choose only the work that I find fun, and on a day to day basis. It is often hard for me to tell if I am what I am excited about is my work, or is my life. I realize I might not always have this, and I am therefore appreciating it all the more, but knowing that this type of feeling about one’s work is achievable, it is going to be something I am willing to sacrifice for in the future, if need be.

The campement. Little progress has been made on the campement lately. From the beginning of the year up until my trip to America we were out working on the campement more often than not. Since coming back from America, things have been moving much more slowly due to a variety of reasons. First, we have nearly used up the funding we have received thus far. Second, the rains started which means everyone is very busy out in their fields everyday and don’t do a lick of work anywhere when it rains. This is a tradition I like very much and think we should adopt in the States. Haven’t we reached a point of development where we can just kick back whenever there is any sort of weather? Of course not, it would be contradictory to the Puritan (can’t we just call it American at this point?) work ethic that built our nation. Any slackening in our efforts and we’d fall from the grace of the bleeding, beautiful, destructive edge of progress. So, I take advantage of the rains here just as much as everyone else. The third reason is it is Ramadan. Not to be insulting to your cultural knowledge, but I don’t think I could have explained Ramadan to someone before coming to West Africa, so I’ll attempt do so now.

Ramadan. Is the holy (lunar) month for the Muslim world. If you want to know the theological significance of it, I’m not the person to ask. I just know what happens here. For the whole month of Ramadan all practicing Muslims (except those who are sick, infirm, pregnant, or nursing) fast from sun up to sun down. That means no food or water from dawn to dusk. In my village, they wake up at 5am to eat breakfast and suck down as much water as they can. Most people still work out in their fields or prepare food for at least half the day, because, well, they have to. Towards midday people start lying down, a trend that continues throughout the afternoon. Then around dusk everyone gathers around a bowl of Mboydi, little balls of corn flower in a tangy sweet sauce. They all sort of stare at this until the evening prayer is called and they can break their fast. Then they can drink water again. Dinner happens around 10pm, then everyone goes to sleep in order to get up at 5am the next day. This is now the third Ramadan I’ve been through. I’m only convenience fasting this time (skipping lunch but still drinking water), but I’ve fasted enough to have appreciation for the men and women who are out there working in the fields with no water. Ramadan starts 11 days earlier every year because it follows the lunar calendar and right now it is slowly marching its way backwards through the most busy time of a West African farmer’s year. Which brings up the other aspect of Ramadan one notices; everyone is a little on edge for obvious reasons. I’ve spent most of the month hiding away at the PC house taking care of my new PCVL duties. Only eleven more days left now though and this should happily be my last Ramadan.

PCVL. Each region in Senegal has a third year volunteer, or group of them, that extends to take on the responsibilities of Peace Corps Volunteer Leader (PCVL), essentially a regional coordinator. In the past we had a wonderfully active PCVL that did a lot to support the other volunteers in the region, but he has decided that after four years of service in Senegal, without even going back to visit the US, it was time to go home. Including myself there are three volunteers who are extending and due to the nature what we each wish to accomplish in our extension, we have decided to divide up the duties. This allows me to semi-officially take on the responsibility of taking care of the regional Peace Corps house, something I was leaning towards doing anyway. Robert Pirsig, and probably some other famous people, said that if you want to improve the world, you need to improve yourself first. Liking this quote, I’ve always applied it to my physical surroundings as well. I find that having my room in order, makes it easier to keep my life in order. Using that metric, and looking at the state the regional house is often in, it’s a wonder the volunteers are able to accomplish anything at all. So I find myself building new shelves, fixing plumbing, picking up trash, repairing doors, and replacing electronics when lighting strikes (three times so far). It is not development work per say, but it needs to be done, I enjoy doing it/having it done, and like I said the physical attitude of a place affects the mental attitude of the people in it. It also works out quite neatly that this responsibility keeps me in Kedougou where there is, among other amenities, a blender that I use on a daily basis to pump out smoothies. J