Anniversary Party

I was flattered this December when my village told me they wanted to throw a party to celebrate the completion of my first year of service in the community. They had traditional balaphone players (balaphones are like xylophones made with dried gourds) and the women danced.

They also took turns presenting what we have accomplished and anecdotes about my first year in Karfiguela (A lot of the stories were about my infamous bat problem. When I first moved to site my house was a bat cave -- literally) to a representative of the mayor of Banfora, traditional village leaders and the village members.

I was very touched when they presented me with a wrapped gift.

It was a traditionally woven blanket. The design signifies the settling of the Karaboro ethnic group in Karfiguela. The red signifies the two hunters that first settled in the village, the blue represents the water from the cascades, and the white represents the clarity and freshness of the water.

I took my turn at the microphone to thank the village for their hard work, hospitality, and support.

We spent the rest of the day singing, dancing and eating rice. We took a dinner break and then met back up and danced until morning. It was a great party!

Pictures

Eating Mangos

Eating Corn

Fun

Tea Time at Chez Katherine

Soap Formation

Soap Formation

Kid Picking Roniers Palm Fruit High in a Tree With No Ladder

Party In Karfiguela

Pumping Water

Picking Mangos

My Neighbor

The Moringa Project

Part One:
Siaka and I collected used water sachés from the cascades tourist area. We cleaned and cut them and then used my compost mixed with sand and dirt to plant about 160 moringa trees with my three year old neighbor girl. We talked about the benefits of moringa and technique for growing moringa. (We planted this nursery in two waves of 80 trees each. Unfortunately, the second planting did not sprout because some kind of small animal ate the grains out of each saché. We ended up with about 75 trees in the end.)

Part Two:
Over the course of two months, Siaka and I went door to door on our bicycles and gave every family in Karfiguela a moringa tree from our nursery. We also gave out manure with each tree for planting. Siaka’s father raises cows, so the manure was easy to get and free. We talked with the head of each household about how to plant the moringa, water it, protect it, trim it, and about potential uses and benefits of the tree. We often planted the tree with the head of each household at the time of delivery. It was interesting to see all of the creative and inexpensive ways in which people protected their tree, everything from old buckets turned upside down with the bottom cut out to old fishing nets that they were no longer using. They often expressed that they wanted me to see them plant the tree so that I would know that they appreciated this type of project. Altogether, we planted 64 trees and visited every courtyard in the three quartiers of Karfiguela. This activity took a lot of time, but I think that ultimately, it resulted in a better understanding of the Peace Corps on the part of my community and a better understanding of Karfiguela on my part. This project was feasible because of the relatively small size of my village. There are about 1,000 residents. It was great meeting every family in the village. We often sat and talked with families and answered any questions they had about my work in the village and the Peace Corps. It was a rewarding community outreach.

Part Three:
Siaka and I began going back to each courtyard to inquire about their moringas and help them trim their trees if necessary. Over the course of 5 days we visited all of the courtyards in the third quartier and about half of the courtyards in the second quartier. Community members were very excited about the rapid growth of the trees. Some people had already cut the tops of their trees. We trimmed 15 trees, 4 were too small to trim and several had died. We intend to plant another nursery to redistribute trees to interested parties. We intend to visit the second half of the village after another month to check on their trees.

Part Four:
I took all of the leaves from the 15 healthy trees that we trimmed and dried them. I cleaned and removed the stems from the leaves and then spread them out on a pagne that I suspended from rafters inside my house. I covered it with another pagne to protect them from bugs, dust, etc. I occasionally mixed the leaves and they dried after about four days.

On November 17th, Siaka and I gave a formation on what to do with moringa once its been harvested. First, we discussed the nutritional benefits of the leaves. We then used the leaves that I had dried and demonstrated how to pilé them into powder. We sifted the powder and put it in sachés to demonstrate how one could use the powder for an income generating activity. I then facilitated a session on how to cook with moringa. We made a bouille with the powder.
I also made a tomato sauce and a peanut sauce to which I added fresh leaves during the final 5 minutes of cooking time (we had harvested the fresh leaves early that morning). I emphasized the importance of not over-cooking the leaves. The women collected and prepared rice and then we all ate together. After we ate we had a question and answer session. Women who responded correctly to my questions got to take home a saché of moringa powder. I also gave away the rest of the fresh leaves so that the women could try cooking with them that night. 20 women attended the formation.

Hand Made Pots

I visited a near-by village to watch a woman making clay pots. It was interesting to watch as she used an old plate like a potter's wheel and dried corn cobs, used wrappers, and broken pieces of a plastic bucket for tools.