Shades of the Earth: February 2012

Monday, February 20, 2012

Happy Birthday Muhammad

So as I'm sure everybody knows the 4th of February is Muhammad's birthday. In village this resulted in some interesting experiences. The night before we had goat with our rice and sauce, and on the morning of the fourth I went to wander around village. I ended up at the mosque where things were getting serious. Everyone had gathered around the mosque and were just kind of staring off into space (perhaps it was a look of religious fervor)... Some people were dozing, and there was some sort of sermon on the radio that they had hooked up to the mosque's "call-to-prayer" loudspeaker. This sermon thing was being broadcast in Arabic which might account for the dozing and staring as very, very few people in my village actually understand any Arabic. Almost everyone can say the Arabic prayers, but they are just repeating sounds. Most don't actually understand what they are saying.

Occasionally, there would be a break in the prayer and a gruff voice would bark something like "hit the dirt it's prayer time!!!" The people in the mosque itself would quickly put their heads on the ground in "prayer position," and the people outside the mosque in the chairs (it was full) would cover their face with their hands and some also put their heads between their legs. Others (like my host dad) were slightly less involved. He kind of covered his eyes with one hand and continued to pick at the dirt under his toenails with the other. The radio would give a few "allahu ackbars" and then some other prayers then the sermon would continue.

During the prayer break many of the kids would throw themselves onto the dirt and press their foreheads to the ground to, I guess, show their devotion to Allah, but the funny part is that many of the kids did face the correct direction (being East in this part of the world). Of course they are just kids, but I have asked some of my friends in village why they pray towards the east and they don't know. Religion can be a powerful thing I guess. Imagine the potential power the imams have in a country whose people can't read the religious text, and have little contact to the rest of the religious world (for comparison).

"Uh.. So it says right here that you have to give the Imam 70% of your wealth or uh... you'll burn eternally."
"Really? That seems like a lot."
"Uh, yeah. It says so right here."
"Well okay, here ya go."

After a little while I left, one because it was fairly dull as I couldn't understand anything. It was sort of like listening to static. And two because it just felt strange to sit with a bunch of people in the heat who were listening to something they couldn't understand...and why? Well, they were just told to. The perfect soldiers. Following directions without question is not an activity that I can be part of comfortably.

Later I came back for lunch, and I had a sort of refugee camp experience. Many cows were killed in honor of Muhammad. All the adults got to eat first, and so there was only one bowl for all the kids. The bowl was put down and a fight broke out over the food. Watching that felt like I was watching a movie or a news broadcast about a refugee camp. But it was a good experience with some tasty food.

Well...Repairing wells.

Oh dear... I've got some catching up to do. Time to stop panicking...okay. Go time.

I've finally completed my first project which I had projected to finish in October, but after many delays getting funding and then a delay due to villager work overload during potato planting time, work has finished. When we started doing the work I decided I wanted to take pictures of the process because a picture is worth a thousand words, but my lovely camera has decided it no longer likes turning on so now I am left with writing many, many thousands of words, or just doing a mediocre job of explaining the project. (I've decided on the latter).

First, I went to a welder in Sikasso and gave him the dimensions of the doors I wanted built along with a pulley "system" design I came up with that the villagers will make more use of than the designs I've seen around Mali so far which very quickly stop being used (Explanation later). Then we had to dig up all the old "structure" from the tops of the two small wells that we fixed. The structure on one consisted of an older tire and some rotting logs, and on the other some rotting logs, old poorly mixed cement, and rocks.

After that we built the metal framework that was to go inside the cement. The mason we hired knew how to do this, and it is made of rebar that he bent in whatever shape he needed then secured with pieces of bailing wire. Probably not the strongest system, but I guess you make do with what you have here. However, it makes me a little nervous about some of the major infrastructure here...

"Say Bob, looks like our welder broke. How are we going we going to finish this bridge?"
"Uh...I've got some shoe string. What do you think?"
"Yeah... that aughta work."

After the metal framing was built we constructed two wooden frameworks: one to go inside and one to go outside of the metal, and to the wood we strapped aluminum plating. This was our cement casing. In places where the frame did not meet the contour of the well making an open gap between the frame and the well (which would mean the cement would just fall into the well) we jammed some rocks. Then we mixed cement and filled the casing, and built a cement pad around the wells. This happened over several days as we had to let certain parts dry before building the rest. Also, for parts I'm not entirely sure about the sand to cement to gravel ratio that we were using. The mason seemed to know what he was doing (more so than me at least), but based on the brownish tint to some of the cement, I feel like they might have been putting more than the recommended sand quantity to stretch the cement. They haven't broken yet though so I guess that's good.

After everything was dry we attached the door to the tops using what else? Bailing wire and cement. Then we filled the area around the cement pads with gravel so all the spilled water running off the cement wouldn't become a mud pit.

Finally we attached the door to the big, round, professionally done, NGO provided well. This well previously had a door, but it has since rusted to nothing so I had a new one built. This is the well I designed the pulley system for. The others are too small so the pulleys wouldn't work well due to spacial constraints. I've seen pulley systems where there is a framework above the well and a pulley or two hanging off it with a fixed line and bucket thingy. But when the rope breaks it seems that it is not replaced because in Mali everyone has their own rope and bucket thing since most wells don't have fixed lines. So why replace a community rope when everyone has their own anyways? Also, those systems only are able to use one or two buckets at a time when its time to get wash water after dinner, for example, there would be a huge line if only one or two people could get water.

The reason I wanted pulleys is because the young girls who frequently get water don't have the strength or height to pull the water without rubbing the rope along the edge of the well and consequently the rope wears through the metal frame of the door after many years of doing this. So I decided to have pulleys attached to the door framework sticking out into the well so instead of having the rope rub against the door frame they can put the rope in the groove of the pulley wheel and use that and since it rolls it won't get cut up. Of course having a pulley just kind of sticking out into empty space isn't all that strong, but for what they use them for they should be fine, and as long as they paint the door and frame and pulley housing every so often it shouldn't rust apart...though I don't have very high expectations for the painting schedule.

So far, everything works well my villagers seem very happy with them. I've had a number of people come up to me and tell me and say that they hold me in a good light because I've helped them, and that it means a lot to them. That makes me feel really, really good and I'm very proud of getting that project done because it wasn't easy and it gives me a tangible impact that I can see everyday which isn't necessary for this kind of work, but it really helps boost morale.