I'm not the best at it, but it's nice to know what the villagers mean when they say their whole body hurts from farming all day.
Now les get to it. Ladies and gentlemen. It's time for a blog of what has been going on here in Senegal these past couple of months. I've been meaning to blog, believe me. But I've been waiting for this current chapter to close so I could give the whole story, and as of now, it is finished!
I have four new wells in my village. Count that, four.
So it started with a thought. Followed by some research. A lot more thought. Many discussions with many villagers. And finally, a decision. After that I had to accept the fact that what I was doing was giving me the feeling of walking barefoot and blindfolded off a plank into an unknown never ending ocean of some sort that could be filled with any sort of life, poisonous snakes, sharks waiting for their next feeding frenzy, or, perhaps, nothing but cool crisp waters and a couple of peaceful sea turtles.
How does a village of 1,200 people really work? Villages are all different, how will MY village react to this project that is happening for these new garden groups and in turn, for the whole village?
Can I just say that four wells were completed in the small time frame of about six weeks. Four wells, each 1.5 meters in diameter, average of 8 meters deep, and fully lined with cement. Each single well was done by hand, by local villagers (a neighboring village called Gingara, paired with some people from my village).
May I just say, I'm still in shock of how smoothly this endeavor went down. I've been in this country for over a year and a half. Nothing is supposed to happen this smoothly. Ever. Postponing things and putting things off, not matter now important or official they are, always happens. It only takes one person, one sentence, or one small decision by one piece of the puzzle to delay a project this large.
But some reason, for me, every piece of the puzzle came together, everyone stayed on track, and now my village has 4 new beautiful, reliable water sources that aim to help them:
increase income,
increase nutrition,
increase knowledge in gardening techniques AND
increase knowledge in tree planting techniques.
And a side goal of these wells which has come up between the lines and has also decided to be one of the more important goals of these wells, combines with the garden groups who own them:
To be s starting point in organizing a community.
So, let us reenact the key points in this project.
Why dig wells? The above reasons that I listed quite nicely, of course. Each of my four wells is different, and has a different group of villagers behind it, and a different type of politics. I won't get in to the nitty gritty of all of that, but just know, 4 wells means 4 very different miniature political systems. Each political aspect is now coming together. Can't imagine what that means? Come to my village and ask the people.
The need. Water is one of the important key factors in the way a community works. It can make or break a person's day, month, and year. While there is water in Thiabedji, I must say, there is not nearly enough. Most water sources there were either public and overcrowded or private, with a purpose to water cows. No water sources were there for community garden groups, or for farming technique improvement and demonstration. With water available specifically for these reasons, it allows certain people to excel in something other than the necessities of daily life. And if success is seen in a village, it will be imitated, right? Especially if those who succeed are there to teach and help those who want to.
Organization. It helped that I already had my garden groups. And a couple of amazing farmers to help me with these groups. The groups were brand new groups started by neighborhood, and they had proved to me this past season that they have the desire and the ability to work together for a common purpose. Now they just needed water. They were already hyped up from their harvest, so when I mentioned wells they just got very excited. They were ready to do what it took to get them. And I was confident they could do it. Same with my farmers.
Financing. That is my main job, according to the villagers. I organize that stuff. They need to pay a percentage, and I bring in the rest. For one well I got funding from a website called Water Charity. They are an organization that funds small projects that give people more access to water. They funded the well for my farmer, Numusara, whose field is to become a demonstration site. It will be perfected over time, and people will go there from all around the region to learn technologies that they also are able to see.
The other three wells were funded by grant that promotes food security: AKA gardening and nutrition. With this grant, the people contribute 25% of the cost of labor/money, and the grant covers the rest. That was a lot of paperwork and I learned a lot filling it out.
Workers, materials, village cooperation. All this is a lot more complicated than it sounds, and t's a village by village basis. I got lucky with workers. There is a village next to mine, a Bedik village called Gingara, who are trained well diggers thanks to a Catholic missionary from France who devoted his life to teaching skills to Bediks. He has recently passed away but his legacy lives on. Pierre was the boss well digger in my village. Here he is, working.
My well blog.
He had already started one well, the well of Numusara. Then my villagers and I hit him with a big question. “Can you, Pierre, do three more wells in 6 weeks, before the farming season begins? Pierre just got a huge bomb dropped on him. A huge question that came with a huge responsibility, and a lot, lot lot of heavy work. He thought about it, and he agreed. It was to be done.
There was a big meeting with the well digging team (Pierre had helpers), and the main villgares in charge of the wells. We needed the materials... tomorrow. We calculated how many of what we needed. Pierre, Issa (my counterpart), and I were to bike to town the next day and get ALL of the materials delivered the next day. The whole day was a blur. We got every single item that we needed for the wells to my village in one day. Not a single thing went wrong. Everybody worked together. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off making wild commands to everyone. . And everyone did what I said. It was quite an experience. I could not have done it without Issa and Pierre helping me.
Villagers. I could not have done this without them. The wells were for them and I needed their free manpower. They did it amazingly. Many villagers broke their backs (metaphorically) helping in the construction of the wells. Yes, they spoke of their pains. But more often than “ouch,” I heard “thank you's.” They were very happy with the prospect of new wells in their village.
Now, for fun. How do you make a well? I sure as heck didn't know. Which is funny because I was the “boss,” according to my villagers and the diggers. But they knew I knew nothing. They had a lot of fun teaching me, and I had a lot of fun learning.
The digging part is the easiest, according to Pierre. I don't know if the diggers would say the same thing. These four wells were dug by hand, with really dull picks. We were very lucky that they did not hit hard rocks. Only soft ones..
Every morning, my six Bedik diggers would walk/bike about 4 miles to my village. Then they would work from sunrise to just before sunset. They were fed lunch and tea by my villagers. With digging, one or two men would be in the hole digging, and one or two men would be above the hole, taking the dirt out of the whole, one bucket after another.
The next step is to make the cement lining. This takes many steps. First, you need a mold. This is a heavy hard to find item. Luckily, we got one.
Iron bars needed to be cut and assembled to be the skeleton of the cement molds. Here is Tamba, one of the well diggers, attatching them.
For each bag of cement, there needed to be about 3 bags of sand and 3 bags of gravel. It was up to the villagers to bring this. They did it with wheelbarrows, bikes, and donkey carts. This was the most difficult job for the villagers, as this stuff is very heavy and they needed very large amounts of it. But somehow, they all managed.
The cement, gravel, and sand are mixed on site, and poored into the mold.
Each lining needs to dry for 7 hours. They can only made 2 linings per day. Each mold needs to be watered two times a day, for cement likes water. If too dry, it will be feeble and crack easily.
I was watching the cement linings pop up one by one. All the time I was noticing how heavy they were, and always wondering how the heck they are going to get those nicely stacked in the well without any sort of machine. Finally, the day came where I got to see what happened. Manpower was called for. All the villagers knew the wells were being made, and many were eager to go see what was going on. So maybe 30 or 40 men would go to the well on “lining” day. The hosts of the well were offering some sort of compensation, either tea, mangoes, or lunch. Basically, it's a well party.
Each lining probably weighs a up 400-500 lbs. Ha! How the heck do you move something so big and kinda fragile and drop it down a big hole? Materials, ropes, logs, and sheer manpower. Wow.
First, the pried the linings off the ground and tied ropes around them.
They put big logs over the well. Then they lifted the linings by hand and carried them to the top of the hole, where they placed them on the logs.
There was one main rope over the lining. It was long enough for about 20-30 men to hold on to in a line. They were the manpower. There was also a crew of people surrounding the well to take the logs out of above the hole.
On command, everyone pulled the rope and the lining was lifted off the logs, suspending. Those who were around the well scurried to remove the logs. The lining was now suspending over the hole.
On command, the people slackened the rope, little by little. The lining was lowered into the well.
As it reached the bottom, one of the diggers would grab the rope and swing down to the bottom of the well, he would then grab the lining and direct it to it's proper place in the well. This was done with each lining, one by one.
Next, they seal the linings together with cement. They seal the other gap, and then make it pretty at the top.
Here are my four wells.
Well number one is Numusara's well. I have a story about him on a previous blog. His well was funded by a group called Water Charity. It pre-funds necessary projects and counts on donations to be reimbursed. I have had a few people give very generous donations. I need $200 more dollars to reimburse the people who funded me. If you are interested in helping me out, please make a donation of any size. No pressure to you folks. It's just an opportunity. Here is the link to the site with a project description.
http://appropriateprojects.com/node/126
And finally, Numusara's beautiful new well!
Well number two was put in a location that is to be an example for the garden groups. A model gardener, you could call it. Through all the difficulties of organization groups, if there is one perfect garden that is open to teaching others and showing them the success possiblities in gardening and tree planting, it can “take off” other efforts. Here is the owner and teacher, with his well.
Well number three. A group garden well. It is finished except for it's beautification. The group is very excited for this up coming season.
And the final well, for another group. Yes I know they all kinda look the same. But they aren't. Not really.
That is four wells. Count that. And the cool thing, it's only a symbol for what opportunities are arriving for my people. Because really, it's the people that make the changes, and they are doing well at starting this.
I have only a few more months in country. I am in the process of closing up my work, yet my to do list is overflowing. I have people in my village and neighboring villages coming up to me with all kinds of ideas, and, surprisingly, they are good ideas. I am still working constantly to help my groups organize themselves and work through problems that come from... well, starting new groups. Organizing people. Every day I learn, and every day I see progress. It's pretty neat.
I will try to write again soon :)
Until next time!
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