What is your job anyway?

Someone asked me the other day, “what exactly is your job as a Peace Corps volunteer?”

That is a really good question.

Answering that question is an ongoing process.  I’m learning more and more about what my job is every day.  I think for each individual volunteer the answer to this question is very different, but I’ll try and explain to you what my job is and what it will be over the next couple years. 

First I’d like to share with you the Peace Corps Act.

“The Congress of the United States declares that it is the policy of the United States and the purpose of this Act to promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower, particularly in meeting the basic needs of those living in the poorest areas of such countries, and to help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the peoples served and a better understanding of other peoples on the part of the American people.”

Now, here’s a little about the early stages of actually becoming a volunteer.  During our first 9 weeks, we completed an intense training that focused heavily on language and cultural aspects of living in Mali.  Then, in January, we held our swearing-in ceremony after which we were all sent to our individual villages to begin our work.  For the first three months, we have been instructed to focus on getting to know our community, building good relationships, drawing community maps, learning peoples’ schedules, identifying resources available, and identifying people in the community who are motivated and ready to help implement sustainable projects that will meet community needs.  Integration is the key word during these first three months.  We are also learning how to live and complete simple daily tasks.  Needless to say, it’s been an adjustment living without electricity or running water.  Simple tasks that are taken care of at home in the US are all of the sudden, not so simple anymore.  But you know what the best part is…it’s do-able, and it’s really helping me realize how little I really need to use in a day as far as resources are concerned; fire, food, shelter, clean water are the main 4 items.  I think freedom from violence and access to education are other important ones too, but I’ll write about those another day, another blog. 

As a volunteer we have been given a number of responsibilities.  I’d like to talk specifically about two of them that are very important to me. 

1)      I will become an integral member of a Malian community where I will spend the majority of my time working and living with the people I’m serving.  I will strive to integrate into my community spending more time with Malian colleagues and counterparts than with other Americans and expatriates. 

2)      As a development professional, I will embrace a grass-roots, community-based approach to development, working to meet the needs and wishes of as many community members as possible.  I will support Peace Corps objectives of capacity building and sustainability by working with Malian community members and counterparts on all projects, ensuring that they are active participants at meetings, planning sessions, project implementation, and evaluation activities. 

These are the two responsibilities I’ve been keeping in mind as I learn more about my community and what my job will entail as a volunteer.  With these responsibilities I’ve recognized many areas where my village needs assistance.  People in my village regularly express to me their concerns, and the main ones that continue to be brought to my attention are lack of water, lack of health care facilities, and lack of resources for the school.  My job here will be to capacity build, help people recognize resources available in their community that can help generate income and initiate development to improve living conditions.  Through my experience and training I have been assigned as an environment volunteer to place priority on gardening, farming activities, and natural resource management, but I think I will be working a little in other sectors as well.  In addition to my focus on environment, I will be working to help connect my community with local resources and form partnerships that will facilitate further development with regards to water and sanitation, public health, and education.  These partnerships will be with local associations, NGOs, government representatives, and others.   

The key to all of this, of course, is keeping the community involved.  If I want any of the projects I’ll be working on to succeed, I’ll need to make sure that motivated and qualified people in the community are identified and willing to take on roles and responsibilities to keep the projects alive long after I’m gone.  Two years really isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things, and more than anything, I hope to help people in my community recognize their strengths and help them see their village through a fresh set of eyes.  I am almost positive I will not undertake some hugely funded project while I’m serving my community, but I want them to see that infrastructure and living conditions can be improved little by little when you can devise a method for maintaining the projects to keep them running efficiently and effectively.  Really, it’s not all that different from maintaining heavy machinery in a factory to keep production going smoothly.  It requires qualified persons to accept responsibility,  project structure and design, setting goals, establishing time frames, determining budget limitations, acquiring resources, providing a means for producing tangible results, and conducting project evaluation to make adjustments when necessary.   

My community already knows where they would like help.  Now it’s just a matter of getting to work.  First and foremost, they want another water pump installed in the community.  There’s only one pump in the village and it’s privately owned.  People have to pay to access this water, and most people just opt to drink the well water for lack of funds.  This is problematic because the well water is prone to contamination AND during the dry season, the wells dry up, so people are forced to travel multiple kilometers, on foot, in the heat, to fetch water.  It’s a bad situation.  

On the positive side, my village has a number of motivated people and they’ve started a pump association.  They have already started saving money to have a pump installed.  We have a rough idea of the total cost, and in the coming months, they’re going to continue saving until they’ve put aside enough to have the pump installed.  This will be a pump used by the entire village, free of charge.

 

Community members have also told me that they would like to boost income generation for our mango plantations by drying mangoes and selling them in addition to selling fresh mangoes in the market.  They also want help organizing the women’s gardening associations.  My village is known in our region for having very talented gardeners; however, they want to be more organized.  I can definitely help with this.  I’ve already got my foot in the door because I’ve been working in a community garden with a number of women, and I’ve been meeting many of the key members of the gardening community who sell their products in the local markets.  They are showing me all of the gardening techniques for the region, and this is helping me integrate on so many levels.  Not only am I building solid relationships with people, they’re paying me in greens!!  After every shift, they load me up with buckets full of the most delicious lettuce.  Seeing as I only get a small stipend as a PC volunteer for a living allowance, these greens are well received, and well devoured at the end of each day.  It’s so nice because I can share with my host family and they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE salati.  It’s always a treat because normally, our meals consist of grains and sauce with very few vegetables.  The greens definitely bring a smile to everyone’s face, not as much as Rambo does, but they’re a close contender. 

So this is my job.  This is my task; capacity building, forming relationships, being an integrated member of this community.  Honestly, I’m scared shitless.  And I’m beside myself with excitement.  I guess you could say I got a skin full.