Solar Panel Project Update

This update is long overdue and for that I apologize. Do not attribute the delay to a lack of gratitude to those who donated to the solar panel project, but rather to my intermittent internet access and to the fact that the project itself took longer than expected to realize. However, I can’t be completely let off the hook, for I could have easily written this update during one of my visits to the city months ago. 

Issouf checks out his book under proper lighting

To briefly recap the project, we provided a lighted study area on school grounds using solar energy. The need was simple but could be overlooked by those who have never lived in a primitive village lacking electricity (this would include every person I have ever known before coming to Africa). The average village courtyard lacks basic study necessities such as a light source, tables, chairs, and sometimes even a cement floor. To further exacerbate the problem, distractions such as roaming chickens and goats, crying babies, and never-ending domestic housework also prevent students from effectively studying. Creating a work place at the school gives the students a sanctum where their studies take unabated priority.

Funding for the project (~5000USD) became available to me in September 2011. To save money, I went to the city myself to buy the materials. With the help of two trusted professors who speak the local tribal language and know the lay of the land, we were able to buy all the materials at roughly 500USD under budget. Buying the materials was the easy part. The 150K transport, half of which on BUMPY dirt roads, was the real challenge. In a bind, I approached the boss of an Australian gold mine based in a neighboring village. After having explained my situation, he agreed to let me tag along in a land rover during one of their weekly trips to the city. One the way back, we transported free of charge four bulky solar panels, three heavy batteries and a big box of fragile light bulbs. Without their help, I would have been facing a potentially dangerous and certainly costly transportation nightmare. I extend my gratitude to my friends at Griffon gold mine.

Having a part-time librarian increases drastically the amount of time that that the library is open to students. Excess project money was used to buy reference books (right cabinet).

In the weeks following the arrival of the materials deep in the African wilderness, an electrical technician, carpenter, metallurgist and a clumsy American all played their role to properly electrify four classrooms (two more than originally planned), the community library, and the administration building. Installed and still in functioning order are four 120W solar panels mounted to rooftops, three batteries, 35 light bulbs and 400m of electrical wire. I now have a new respect for construction managers, a profession in the future I will avoid like the plague.

Before listing the immediate benefits of the project, I should explain that in order for the project to be approved, the community had to donate 25% of the project’s total cost. Approximately 5000USD was received from donors obligating the community to contribute 1750USD. In underdeveloped countries, community contributions such as this rarely take the form of hard up-front cash. In our case, the APE (French equivalent to PTA) signed an engagement committing them to employ as long as the solar panels are in working order a guardian and a librarian. The guardian prevents theft and the librarian assures that the library doors are open students nearly around the clock. Not only did the project create a study place for the students, but it also created two jobs that in turn ensure the sustainability, durability and maximal utilization of this study environment created by the project.

Here is a short list of successes and challenges:

Successes

• ·         4 classrooms illuminated and open to students until 10PM Mon-Sat
• ·         Library illuminated and open to students 7AM-10PM Mon-Sat
• ·         Guardian Employed
• ·         Library Employed
• ·         Administration building illuminated allowing administrator s to work at night, charge laptops, and use printer
• ·         Energy available to run photo-copy machine set to arrive next year
• ·         Leftover funds used to construct 6 outdoor blackboards facilitating group study

Mason repaints blackboard in library to eliminate glare.

Challenges

• ·          Dust accumulation on the solar panels mounted to the rooftops temporarily created insufficient energy supply. Solution: Had ladder made and guardian cleans panels weekly
• ·         Insects crawl into light bulb casings frying circuits. (4 of 8 external lights fried within 4 months – not a problem with internal lights) Solution: Testing new model of light
• ·         Some of the kids, like most kids in the states, need to be dragged into the library kicking and screaming. It is really frustrating to see students failing all their classes because they cannot adequately speak, write, or express themselves in French when the library is readily available to all of them. They do not speak French at home or among friends. The only time most kids use French is in the classroom where students primarily copy from the board. With all the harm that television causes in the states, it does serve as a source of not-stop language exposure which kids here do not have. Despite reading competitions and frequent encouragement in the classroom to use the library, the majority of the students fail to recognize its’ true value. 

School-wide concours de lecture (reading competition) acts as an incentive to bring kids to read. Notice most of the paper is blank as participation has been lower than expected.

After installation was completely finished, we found that we completed the project at roughly 400USD under budget. This was even after we illuminated 4 classes instead of the 2 originally planned. The extra money was used to build 6 outdoor blackboards on which students can work in groups to complete homework assignments. To date, all of the money has still not been spent. The remaining funds will be used to by replacement light bulbs, benches to accompany the outdoor blackboards and possibility a replacement battery to place in reserve for when one of the batteries die. 

Confused students....

No worries! Mr. Josh is here to save the day with the help of outdoor blackboards paid for with project money. Unseen, light above allows students to use blackboard at night. I apologize for minimal pictures. I don't own a camera

I would like to say thank you again to all of those who donated to the project. To Bryant, Danielle, Kyle and Elwell, your generosity was received by me as a warm gesture from home when family and friends seemed far away. To the donor who anonymously funded the majority of the project, I am humbled by such generosity in the absence of the slightest recognition. The students of Loumana will long remember and benefit from your gift.

 A letter from the students of Loumana:

Nous vous remercions de votre offre. Maintenant, nous arrivons à bien étudier dans la nuit et dans la calme. Nous n’avons plus de dérangement comme nous étudions à la maison avec des torches, des lumières faibles et les dérangements des enfants. Mais avec votre aide, ca nous encourage de bien travailler pour préparer pour notre examen. Nous souhaitons que votre travaille s’avance bien et que vos besoins s’accomplissent.

Signée :

Koné Lassina

Konkobo Inoussa

Zongo Adama

Au nom des tous les élèves

English translation: 

 

We say thank you for your gift. Now, it is possible to effectively study at school at night and in the calm.

We no longer have the distractions like there are at home with flashlights, weak lighting, and the annoying children.But your help encourages us to work hard to prepare for our big exam at the end of the year.

We wish that your work goes well and that all your needs are met.

Signed:

Koné Lassina

Konkobo Innoussa

Zango Adama

In the name of all the students

The Hyatt Life

Much has happened since I last posted to my blog. The school year is finished. I visited Obama Land. And now I am on the tail end of a ten day vacation to Ghana. For those of you who pity my life which lacks water, electricity, climate control, fast food, Starbucks and paved roads, please don’t. 

I left my village June 25^th to catch a flight leaving to the States from the capital city July 4^th. I took my time getting to the capital city and spent the week visiting friends, sitting poolside, and eating chickens. Once in the states, my days were filled with golfing, playing scrabble with my mom, hitting the links, catching up with friends over drinks, teeing it up, and road-tripping with my family.  There were many nights when I got in late from hanging out with friends knowing that my dad would be waking me up early the next morning for a 7 AM tee-time. My waking moments were filled with so much good that sleep seemed to be a waste of time. 

Taking out the trash. With FIRE!

Returning to Burkina Faso, I spent two weeks in my village. Coming back to my new home was nice, but my village seemed deserted. My fellow teachers had left to spend summer vacation with their families in the city, and my village friends spent all day in the fields. When I could sleep and read no more, I wandered around my village and explored the wilderness beyond. An hour’s walk from the village center and I still found myself among fields with people busy at work. In an area the size of a football field, I commonly could count 30 pairs of hands busily prepping the soil and burying seed. Field after field, all full of working boys, girls, old men and women, cows and mules, it became clear that every pair of capable hands and hooves was devoted to cultivation. My hands suddenly seemed baby soft and my clothes embarrassingly dirt-free. Coming from America, I was culture shocked. But it made me smile. 

Family compound at the base of Loumana Mountain

Overgrown field before cultivation nestled in Loumana Canyon

 After two weeks, I hopped on a bus to the Ghanaian coast. Barged, haggled, forced, and ‘jammed myself into’ could all replace the word hopped. And a bus actually means several buses, taxis and tro tros (Ghanaian version of bush taxis). The 2-day hassle of actually getting to the beach was quickly forgotten when I found myself eating lobster, body surfing, boogie boarding and sunbathing on pristine wilderness beaches. Imagine Hawaii 100 years ago. Vast stretches of the coastline are yet to be developed where the only thing between impassable rainforest and crashing waves is a white sand beach – and the only thing on the beach, me.  Sunbathing.

Butre Beach and Lagoon. Didn't sleep there but will next time.

This picture will look much different 100 years from now - more resorts, people and pavement.

I am writing this from a balcony on the third floor of a hostel next to the bus station in Kumasi, Ghana. Kumasi is home to the largest open-air market in the world. I walked there this morning. To get a better view of the market, I climbed a two-story building crowded with one-roomed telephone stores with a surprisingly wide selection of smart phones. Looking down over the market reminded me of standing on top of the Grand Canyon but looking down on a sea of people, carts and tin roofs instead of open space and the Colorado River. I descended the steps, never went into the market, and returned to the tranquility of this hostel balcony to write this blog. 

Incredibly massive but I'll pass. I'm not much of a shopper.

I said goodbye to Leslie Otto yesterday. We traveled together and had the beach to ourselves between the rainforest and crashing waves. Having finished her two years, she is on her way to Europe en route ultimately to the states leaving me to travel solo back to Burkina Faso to finish my second year of service.

It is now 1:30 PM. My bus leaves at 5 PM. Again, words in italics are loosely defined. I wish myself Godspeed.  

One last thing, my September will be devoted to the solar panel project as I just received an email confirming the money is in my account so I can give the green light to get the project underway. Exciting times! Again, thanks to all those who donated and know that every cent will go directly to helping the students of my school.

Welcome to the real world

Sitting at Charles de Gaulle in Paris, I am surrounded by so many interesting people! The most interesting of these were there three people that just sprinted past me while sitting patiently at gate E74. 

Over the intercom, a voice speaking in French with an Japanese accent called three individuals to the ticket counter. Stress, worry and anger filled the three travelers on one side of the corner. Apathy and annoyance flowed from the Japanese workers on the other. 

Having finished their business, the three travelers rushed away to catch their flight at another gate that could have been very far away. The three voyagers were three very different people in body type and fashion sense. 

The first voyager to pass, the voyager in the lead, was a young lean man who reminded me at the same time of the hip men I saw in turkey sporting classy Euro-mullets and the brutes I see on T.V. when watching Jersey Shore. He was clearly going to be the first to arrive at the new gate leaving the two others in his manicured wake. 

The second was a tall bald guy, a few inches taller than me, wearing a pink button-up shirt and grey dress pants. His style of running was less urgent and vainer. My guess is that, he was aware of the hundreds of Asians gawking at the silly white people who went to the wrong gate. 

The third voyager was my favorite. An overweight American in her forties, she wore a tight pink T-shirt and mom pants that probably fit properly during her first pregnancy. I think she has gained weight since then. She was already in a full sweat and out of breath as she passed me just 50 feet away from the ticket counter. I couldn’t help but turn around and watch her as she ran off down the terminal. The other two men were already out of site. Poor woman. 

I was sitting in a seat closest to the aisle leaving most of the terminal seats in front of me, all of which were filled with Asians. I turned back around from watching the women leave, and all of the Asians in front of me apparently hadn’t had enough of the spectacle. Their heads were still all turned watching the poor woman bounce away. The spectacle ended with wife turning to husband and brother to sister to share in a short chuckle in mutual appreciation of what just happened. I didn’t have the benefit of a travel companion to laugh along with me. Something about laughing at the expense of another is so much better when there is someone to chortle alongside you. Perhaps that is why I felt the need to write this blog; or perhaps I am just that bad of a person. I blame it on the culture shock.

Solar Panel Project FUNDED!!

Mabougouri (center), after being held back last year, earned the highest average of  82 boys and girls for this year's third trimester.

Three months ago posted a single blog and a single Facebook update describing a project to install solar panels at my school giving my students a place to study after dark. I wanted to send personal messages to all of my family and friends, but SONATEL, the sentinel phone company in Burkina, was on strike the weekend I came to the city to use the internet. The internet came back on Tuesday giving me just a few hours on slow internet to get the message out. I had to return to village unsatisfied with the number of people I told about the project I care so much about – a project my village is so anxious to see become a reality. 

I was nervous when I recently came back to the city to check the status of the fundraising for the project. My stomach dropped when the project was no longer listed on the Peace Corps website. I thought perhaps that there was a problem and it was taken down before all the money could be raised. A few phone calls and emails later, the Peace Corps is a great organization, but like all be organizations, talking to the person to whom you really should talking is always difficult, I confirmed that the project is indeed fully funded!

Shortly after I put my project online, friends started donating. A special thanks to Danielle Hutchings, Jordan Elwell, Bryant Crubaugh and Kyle Huffman for your help. Your willingness to help is a personal encouragement to me and a warm comforting taste of a home that often feels so far way.

The fifth donor, whose identity still remains a mystery, decided to fund the remainder of the project (the project in total will cost around 5,000 dollars)! My personal thanks and the gratitude of everyone in my village are extended to the person whose generosity will greatly impact the education of the 500 students at my school for years to come.  I am humbled by such generosity and do not take the responsibility lightly to ensure that every cent goes directly to helping the students of Loumana. 

I am returning home to America in four days! I am so excited to spend time with my family, see my friends and hold a golf club in my hand while standing on green grass. I return in August and will begin working with an engineer to purchase and install the materials so that everything will be ready for the first day of school October 1^st (also my 24th birthday). 

To all my friends and family, I will see you soon.

Things to miss...or not

I am sitting on a bus destined for the Oaugadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. I have completed my first year as a teacher along with my first year abroad away from my family and the lifestyle I grew up with. Being on the verge of go back to America after living a very simple life for the past year, I find myself thinking about the things from the states that I really missed, and other things that I thought I would miss but found rather easy to live without. 

Grinding coffee keeps me in shape

Here is a list of things I definitely missed and anxious to enjoy during my three weeks in the states:

Ice cream: All things cold were missing from my life for the past year. Ice cream, being the king of all things cold, is going to be quite the treat. 

Golf: In a country without lawns, I expect to have a new appreciation for trimmed fairways and greens.

Hot tubs: the idea of sitting in hot water is appalling in the heat of Africa, but being in cool Michigan air craving to soak my body in hot water will be quite the contrast to my experience in village. Such a contrast should be appreciated. 

Sports Center: During long hot nights in my bed at night, I dream of the theme song… da ne neh, da ne neh.

White people: My celebrity like status in village is quite taxing. I look forward to being ignored and blending in. 

Carpet: I miss the touch, soft to the feet- and clean. 

Guitar is still difficult

Things you’d think I’d miss but haven’t:

Air conditioning: Okay, climate control is nice, but sleeping under the stars in nothing but basketball shorts and a light blanket is something I have grown to love. 

Indoor plumbing: Some inherently dirty acts, such as pooping, are best done outdoors. When using indoor plumbing, I now feel that I am doing an outdoor activity indoors. I expect someone to slap my hand and berate me for dirtying the inside of a house.  

 

Junk food: Food in plastic packaging just seems to be extra work. Almost everything I buy comes straight from the gardens. I also have no other way to get food.

When it comes down to it, food is food, comfort is comfort, and luxuries are luxuries. They are merely things. Even my yearning for pints and pints of Ben and Jerry’s is nothing compared to my excitement to see my family and friends.  

Solar Panel Project

Renewable Energy Renewing Minds

EIGHT DOLLAR KING

I make eight dollars a day and I am rich.

I do not mean figuratively rich enjoying God’s blessings anew every morning. I literally have a lot of money and often search for ways to spend it. My salary is eight dollars a day.

Two weeks after graduating from Taylor, I boarded a plane bound for Burkina Faso officially becoming a teacher with the Peace Corps. After a year’s worth of burnt candles and bucket baths, I can’t say that I miss either running water or electricity, both of which I live without.

I send a boy to the pump every other day to fetch water for my 80L cistern. He straps a yellow 20L plastic jug to the back of my bike and makes the trip four times. I pay him one dollar a week and his friends are jealous of his job.

Every other Saturday, I give a neighbor girl my dirty laundry, a packet of powdered soap and 40L of water. Also for a dollar, she happily does my laundry laboring over buckets bent-over straight-legged forehead to knees scrubbing my clothes over the washboard.

Everything I eat, with the exception of spaghetti, tomato paste and Blue Band (margarine), I buy at a farmers market to which I bike 8 km every sixth day. In absence of a fridge, my weekly diet is a function of which foods spoil first. Meat, for example, taken from slabs of cow or goat hanging from the butcher’s tree, needs to be fried and eaten within 36 hours. If kept wet, leafy greens can keep for up to 48 hours. Since meat and leafy greens spoil first, I often have meat and salad on market day – a meal fit for a king.

Day three after the market, I make a tomato or peanut sauce from scratch. Cabbage, eggplant and lentils give the sauce substance but don’t spoil like meat would. This allows me to eat the same sauce for several days cooking new only the rice, spaghetti or macaroni.

Yacouba does English exercises at the blackboard 

This brings me to day 5. Having eaten all the vegetables, I am forced to make do with peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Village peanut butter makes Whole Food’s peanut butter seem like Wal-Mart’s. The process is simple. Grind campfire-roasted peanuts at the local generator powered mill and out comes nothing-but-peanuts village peanut butter.

Waking up on day 6, I face an empty house, nothing to eat. Thankfully it’s the sixth day and I can bike to the market after teaching class.

Keep in mind that I live the most posh lifestyle in all of Loumana. The sauces I make, sauces fit for a king, would be cut and diluted many times over to fill the many stomachs of a large African family. The stomachs may be full but the bodies are left malnourished and fatigued.

I am at a loss when I discipline a student for sleeping in my class when staring back at me are eyes sunken and bloodshot seeing nothing but hunger. I try not to think of my thick and hearty sauce waiting for me at home. I tell them fatigue can be overcome by a strong mind knowing that the strongest of minds cannot function without proper nourishment. I would invite kids to eat at my home, but between my four classes, I have nearly 300 students. Even the richest man in Loumana can’t daily fill 300 stomachs.

The obstacles preventing my students from advancing in their education are sobering. Class sizes exceed 100. Overworked teachers often juggle 30 hours of class per week making a mere 200 dollars a month. From crumbling chalkboards, students copy diagrams of chemistry experiments and drawings of plants as the majority can’t afford the eight dollar textbook. Beakers and graduated cylinders are foreign objects the teachers can only explain in theory.  

It is not surprising that every year nearly half the students fail each grade. Their scholastic careers are ended if they fail a second time relegating them to a life of farming or herding.

How do you choose who to help when it can’t be everyone? One answer is to find projects that empower people to help themselves.  

The students at my school have no way to study at night. There is no electricity in Loumana rendering the homes pitch black after dark. The lack of tables and chairs leaves my students crowded around lanterns on plastic mats sprawled around dirt courtyards.

Additionally, the children must help with chores around the home. Studying is set aside until the chickens are fed and in the coup, wood gathered, cisterns full, dinner cooked and dishes cleaned. Children also help the parents with whatever their family trade may be: making soap, baking bread, butchering meet, making furniture, watering the garden. These distractions create a chaotic, not to mention dark, environment making effective study nearly impossible.

Students flood out of the afternoon's English clss

To give their students a place to study after dark, the community has expressed an interest in illuminating the village school. Since the slow-growing electrical grids of Burkina Faso are a long way from Loumana, light would have to come in the form of solar panels and car batteries.

Solar panels and other necessary equipment are no cheaper here than they are in the states. The community needs five thousand dollars to get the project off the ground. This money would light two classrooms, the on-site community library and the administration building. For the first time, students would have access to a place devoted to their studies with proper tables, desks, chalkboards and textbooks away from the distractions and duties of home. Go to my blog (gatorsinafrica.blogspot.com) for pictures and information.

Go to https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=686-148

if you are interested in helping.

The day I am writing this is a market day. After lesson planning, I look forward to enjoying my weekly meat and salad, a meal fit for an eight dollar king.

Only in Africa

The day of a math test, a student approached me saying he couldn’t take the test. 

“Why?” I asked. 

He showed me his hand – his writing hand. 

Due to a parasite, it was swollen and black. He was partially correct. There was no way he could use his normal hand to write. 

I was faced with a decision. His hand may never get better. If that is the case, he will have to learn how to write with his other hand. 

“You are going to take the test.” I said. “Use your off hand and don’t worry about time or penmanship.

I told him he could finish the test at my house over lunch if he failed to finish on time. I gave him computer paper allowing him more space to work. He finished on time with a passing grade. Too tough? I think not.

Add parasites to the long list of obstacles facing education in Loumana:

1.      80+ kids per class

2.       Limited textbooks

3.       Classes taught in a second language

4.       Strikes

5.       No lights*

6.       Parasite infested limbs

*Working on solution in soon to be introduced solar panel project. Keep an eye out for it on my blog and Facebook in the near future.