Recent Work Projects

October 05, 2017

Access English: Right after our technical training in August, my dear friend Kimler (sadly he’s since decided to go home to the US) and I signed up to be camp counselors at an English camp in Dakar for 5 days. We were joined by a third volunteer Nicky (wonderful human being), and got to stay at the regional house in Dakar the whole time (usually restricted to volunteers without a good reason to be there). It was a crazy busy week. We planned the entire camp for 64 students – the 3 English teachers were just assisting. It included water balloon fights, relay races, ice breaker games, team cheers/competitions, a debate, and lots of English language games. My favorite activity though was our eco-bench. The kids collected bottles all week, and we filled them with trash from around the school. They were then used as bricks to make a pretty bench for the school.

If we had any free time that week (not much), we spent it spending way too much money on good food, or drinking wine (they had boxed wine in Dakar and we almost cried) and playing Settlers of Catan. It was magical.

Parboiled Rice: I’m pretty proud that this happened so quickly after I got back to site after training. It definitely could have gone better, but for a newbie, I did a pretty OK job. Right before my training, a woman who volunteers at the mayor’s office in Fanaye told me that she’d learned how to make parboiled rice (a way of processing rice that makes it much more nutrient rich), and she wanted to teach it to people in Fanaye. She needed money to provide food/resources for the training though – it would last 4 days. I agreed I’d try to get money, as long as I could also teach some basic business skills to help the women sell the rice we’d make.

It turned out that the community economic development fund had money they needed to use for food transformation before the end of September, so I didn’t even need to apply for a grant (a much longer, more complicreceated process). I got the money quickly, we had our training, and for the most part, I think it was a success. It got me thinking a lot though about all of the important details of a project like this. I still need to follow up to see if the women actually learned anything, or if they’ve decided to make the rice, or sell it. My language skills also are not so great, so there was some miscommunication about how much money I’d be giving the trainer as a stipend. That was super uncomfortable and stressful, but we got it worked out.

Girls Camp: The volunteers in my region work together to lead this camp every September and April. Each volunteer brings 2 middle school girls from their sites, and we teach them about business, health, and agriculture (the 3 sectors of volunteers). We planned fun activities, and tried to tailor it to middle schoolers. We had a full afternoon on women’s health and pad making for example. I taught a game called the BEST Game, in which each team has to start a hat making business and try to make a profit. The camp was exhausting, but it went well and I think my girls enjoyed it!

Soap Trainings: One of the most common things economic development volunteers teach is how to make and sell soap. The people in Fanaye are always saying there aren’t enough products to sell. Everyone’s competing to sell the exact same things. Soap is a perfect way to teach about creativity in product design. People already sell soap in Fanaye, but they don’t sell mint soap, or carrot soap, or coal soap (apparently it’s great for the skin). We can also teach about packaging, record keeping, and how to calculate profit along with how to make the soap. I’ve done several of these trainings. They’re simple, and can be put together quickly as long as the women I’m teaching have enough motivation to buy the materials.

Chicken Coop: I’ve only just barely started this project, but I’m excited about it. I have a very dear friend at site named Ablye Ba. He speaks a little English, is very interested in development projects, works incredibly hard, and is just generally kind and patient. He’s also super motivated – showing up randomly at my trainings just to help, or learn something. I don’t know what my service would be like without him. Anyway, Ablye really wants to start a chicken coop for him and his farming group to share. The volunteer I replaced (who was in a town 15k away) did a very similar project, so I already have a lot of information about how to get it going. So far, we’ve only gone to that town to talk to the group there. There’s a lot of planning that’ll go into it, and I’ll have to apply for a grant, but I’m ready to get it going!