Tales from the Borodula and Motivation Nation

Malinke Lesson of the Day

The Malinke Lesson had to come first today so you'd understand my first title. I think I've already mentioned that I jog some mornings and that some people have a hard time grasping the concept and always want to know where I'm going. The concept that I would run without a destination doesn't register. So they've compromised, and decided that I'm going to the "running place" - borodula. People often ask me, "Did you go to the borodula today?"


Tales from the Borodula

A few weeks ago I left my hut for my morning jog like any other day, and followed my normal course. About ten minutes down the road I saw some animals up in the distance. "Are those baboons?" I asked myself, "I haven't seen any baboons in a while, awesome!"

As I approached and their images became more clear, I verified that they were, indeed, a group of about seven or eight baboons. Usually, when I approach baboons in the road, whether on bike or foot, they run into the woods when I get close. But these baboons just sat and stared until I was uncomfortably close. I considered turning back to avoid conflict, but decided I couldn't live through two years of baboon fear in Africa, so stayed the course.

Just before we would have met, they ran into the woods. I stopped where they ran in to peer into the woods and get a better look. I expected to see their backs as they ran away, but instead found a group of twenty or thirty standing about fifteen meters deep in the trees staring right back at me and barking ( a baboon sign of aggression). One stood up on his hind legs and measured - at the very least - as tall as I.

With no interest in a baboon brawl, I continued on my jog, hoping to leave them behind. But instead they remained about fifteen meters deep and ran next to me. Contrary to monkeys, baboons make a lot of noise moving through the bush, so I was all too aware of their presence as they crashed from tree to tree and along the ground. Finally a big truck came from the other direction and scared them all deeper into the woods and I could finish my run in peace - almost.

I got to my turn-around point and headed back to my village. As I ran past the same place that I had seen the baboons before I crossed my fingers that they wouldn't be back. Luckily, they weren't in the road waiting for me, but when I was about 100 meters past the point, three of the biggest came out into the road to stand on their hinds and bark, as if to say "And don't come back!"


Motivation Nation

Peace Corps Senegal received a new Country Director (CD) almost exactly as I arrived, and the entire program has been in dramatic transition ever since. Volunteers who have been here longer constantly remind me of how lucky I am to be here with such a motivated adminstration and tell me they envy my position and the work I'll be able to do.

A point the new CD emphasizes more than any other is cross-sector collaboration. A common criticism of Peace Corps is the lack of communication within the organization and a consequential lack of effect on our communitites. Peace Corps Senegal has six sectors of volunteers: Agroforestry Extension, Sustainable Agriculture, Urban Agriculture, Health, Environmental Education, and Small Enterprise Development. In the past Agroforestry volunteers and Small Entrerprise Development volunteers conducted their projects independently of each other, with no infrastructure in place to share ideas or offer each other help. Each volunteer had his/her own agenda and did what he/she could to help his/her own village (sorry for all the slashes in that sentence - just trying to live the gender equality I preach).

The new CD wants to not only encourage, but actively enable cross-sector collaboration through an overhaul of the current system. He has chosen the volunteers in Kedougou as his pilot group, partially because we're one of the smallest, most manageable regions, and partially because he is a former Kedougou volunteer and has no shame describing himself as "Kedougoucentric."

On Friday all the volunteers from Kedougou went to Dindefello, a near-by village with a small, rustic hotel and a beautiful waterfall, to draft a Regional Strategy and six-month action plan. We used the Millenium Development Goals created by the U.N. as a launch board and created a realistic, practical strategy for the development of Kedougou until the year 2015. We addressed the broad areas of Malaria, Nutrition, Food Availability Extension, Economic Growth, Water Availability / Santitation, and Protection of Natural Resources. We discussed not only the work that we can do, but also work that other NGOs can do, with a plan for how we can all collaborate toward a common goal. From that, we created a six-month action plan for the volunteers of Kedougou,with specific projects and concrete, quantifiable goals, and a point-person for each project.

It was a weekend of long hours and tedious work (on Saturday we worked from 8 a.m. until 11:30 p.m.) but we finished with a document of which we can be proud. The energy of our group has drastically changed and we are more excited than ever to attack our goals with vigor and hold each other responsible for the good work we are committed to do. As I looked around the group, I realized that never in my life have I been surrounded by a group of individuals that I found more intimadating and humbling. However, they are simultaneously so supprotive and encouraging that those forces will serve the positive roll of helping me find the initiative to get projects off the ground. I really am in the Motivation Nation.