Mboumbaye Micro-Management (and other news)

I've been quite delinquent in posting, I know. To make up for it, I've finally finished posting my pictures from Saint Louis and the Jazz Festival to facebook. (If you don't have a facebook and want to see them, post a comment and I'll put the link up.) It didn't take very long at all - I uploaded the pictures from work, while I was working on other things. I think the internet connection must be much better at the office than it is here in my homestay.

I have a new neighbor, a new SEM employee. Matteo was born in Italy, traveled all over, spent quite a bit of time in London and speaks fluent English with a very thick British accent. He met John Fay, founder of SEM Fund, in China, and found out about the organization. He's been hired as a consultant of sorts, for environmental initiatives. He just got here a few days ago, so he's literally still figuring out what he's going to do for the next six months. It's quite pleasant having someone to speak English to (I'm afraid I've basically talked his ear off for the past 12 hours, straight) and to show around. He lives in my homestay with me, in the room next door. I just helped him get his mosquito net put up.

Funnily enough, he arrives on the heels of two American girls who showed up at the office on Monday, asking for information about visiting the ecovillages. One of them, Meredith, has been corresponding by e-mail with John Fay, who told her to come to the office once she got to Dakar. I was instructed to tell them about the ecovillage I'd just come back from and the other ones I've visited, to see if I could help them figure out where they wanted to go. I ended up talking with length about the ecovillages, helping them plan their stay, taking them to buy appropriate homestay gifts, and getting a delicious western-style lunch with them (they wouldn't let me pay!). It was a lovely afternoon - I didn't feel at all guilty about playing hooky from work for an hour or so to show them around the neighborhood, because the ecovillages desperately need more tourists coming and visiting. I was happy that they decided to go to Mboumbaye and stay for a few days. I'm hoping to see them again this weekend, when they get back. The weirdest part? Over lunch I mentioned that I'm attending Connecticut College... both Meredith and her friend Danica have younger siblings that have graduated from CC. Meredith's brother just graduated this year, so we were both at graduation three weeks ago and didn't know eachother then. Only to meet in Dakar! How bizarre.

I'm leaving tomorrow for a village called Louly Ngogom and will hopefully be back on Saturday. Then I'm hoping to spend my weekend hanging out with Matteo, Meredith, Danica, and Ellen (my peace corps volunteer friend) who will be in Dakar for medical checkups, etc. It should be a wonderful weekend. Ellen is staying until Tuesday - I'm looking forward to introducing her to Matteo (got all these names straight, guys?) because he is interested in the solar ovens project that her Peace Corps site (the Keur Gu Magg ecovillage) is implementing.

So that's what's coming up... as for what I've been up to since I last wrote, I've been sick but also doing actual work! I spent about four days in Mboumbaye, interviewing/talking to the men and women who have received micro-loans from The SEM Fund. Most of them were financed by Kiva.org, so here are the links to their Kiva profiles. You can see that they have started paying back, but soon the page should include the updates that I've written. (I'm not sure what soon means... in a few days, or a few months?)

The interviews went well, although the village stay was far from perfect. I had a run-in with some obnoxious 7-10 year old kids, which somehow left me feeling humiliated and depressed. The "cultural difference" thing is hard to remember when you're trying to figure out why an entire country of kids seem to be brutally rude and poorly raised. However, the family I was staying with, and the young girls who taught me hand games and shell-tossing games were warm, clever, and kind, and more than made up for any trouble I had.

As for the actual micro-loan recipients, I found their stories very similar and positive, with one exception. Most of the groups divided up their micro-loan and the individual members used the money to advance their personal small trade, business, agriculture, etc. However, one group decided to use their loan for a group venture: building and stocking a chicken coop to sell poultry to local villagers. Thus far, the plan has failed spectacularly. It appears to have been thought out fairly well, and the chicken coop was well built, but there have been several economic problems (such as markets and storage for the poultry) that have been impossible to overcome. I think it is highly likely that they will default on their loan, the full sum of which is due in November. This loan was financed through SEM donors, not through Kiva.org, so you won't see my write-up of the situation online. I will post it here, if I get permission to, however, and anyone interested can ask me for more details. It's a little depressing, but the borrowers are fairly blameless and have learned a good deal about their local market from the experience. They have a better idea for a future loan (if they ever get one) that reflects what they've learned about the situation, and they are committed to continuing to sell what chickens they can to pay back the loan, no matter how long it takes.

So here's my question for you all: Who are you, and what do you want to read? It's hard for me to figure out if anyone reads this blog (besides my immediate family, of course) so I never know exactly who I'm writing to. If you read this, leave me a comment! Let me know what you'd like to hear about from Senegal (the food? the goats? the plumbing? interesting wolof idioms?) and what is boring you to tears. Should I stop linking to so many articles about kiva? (Wait, just ONE MORE, I promise!)

I really have to go to sleep now, but I want to put in a quote from the above article that I thought was sort of cute:

Some guy in Mongolia needs feed for his cattle? You and 50 total strangers front him $25 each. A cabbie in Beirut needs to fix his taxi? Maybe 50 other people chip in online. A beauty salon in Tajikistan is running short on supplies? Point, click, loan money.

Metaphorically, it's not giving someone a fish, and it's not teaching someone to fish; it's helping a fisherman patch a hole in his rowboat so he can get on with life.

More pictures to come very soon... although I bet I'd update sooner if people left me comments and told me how much they loved me. What? A travlin' girl needs love!

Avec amour et persévérance,
Robin Mariama

Quick and Shameless Plug...

I've been meaning to write for awhile. And now I'm sick, so this isn't the update. Really, update is coming, but I have a fever and was throwing up my anti-nausea medication (Irony?) all night, so I have a good excuse! This is just to say sorry for not saying anything. Er... and to give you this link to the Against Malaria Peace Corps Fundraiser for Senegal that is being organized by my friend Ellen. Well, it's being organized by the Peace Corps in Senegal, but she's the contact on the facebook event page. :p

I met Ellen last year when I visited Diourbel (I think I wrote about that visit and her on this blog) and she was kind enough to share her bed and mosquito net with me then. She was just moving in to her Peace Corps site... I saw her again in Dakar recently, which was lovely, and gave her the peanut butter I had brought from the states for her. (It's weird the things you can't get overseas.) She's recently gone vegan, not an easy thing to do in Senegal, so I'm gad to give her some protein. Hee.
Anyway, this is a good cause, and a cause I can vouch for in terms of money being well-used and going directly to people who need it. Plus I've given so many shameless plugs for Kiva.org (and more still to come) that I figured I should plug something ese for a change!

Okay. Really, more to come soon, once I am feeling better.

What I'm Doing Here

My internship here at The SEM Fund is going well. I thought I would update you all on exactly what I’m doing while I’m here. (Other than enjoying the sun and the music!) I’m hoping that most of the next 8 weeks or so will be spent traveling to the different ecovillages that GENSEN has here in the northern part of Senegal. (They’d love for me to go to Casamance, but traveling back roads to get to villages is exactly what toubabs are NOT supposed to be doing – I think my parents would have heart attacks.) I’m hoping to leave for Mboumbaye on Sunday or Monday. It’s just north of Saint Louis, apparently, which must make it very close to Mauritania, so I’ll have at least 5 hours in the taxi or bus to read Middemarch. Once there, I’ll be meeting with each group that has received a loan from SEM micro-credit. I need to gather enough information from them to be able to write an update for both Kiva.org and for SEM’s own website. (These updates are basically the same thing, and will probably be in English although I’ll also provide a French version.) I need to know background information on the village, the group receiving the loan, the business venture being attempted, and how the repayment is going. I’m going to try not to sugarcoat it – if there are problems then the Kiva journals are expected not to gloss over them. However, what SEM chooses to send to Kiva or publish to their website is up to them, so I’ll be interested to see if they make any changes to what I write.

I’m also charged with taking pictures (I know, do I have the best job or what?) of the businesses and ecovillage staff for the website and for Kiva. Basically all of this sounds like a lot of fun, but I’m anxious to get started. I knew things would be moving on Senegalese time, here, but having someone else paying for me to work here (namely CELS and CISLA and Connecticut College) makes me feel guilty about the pace of things. I’ve spent this week writing out the information that I need to know, having some refresher Wolof classes with my old SIT professor, Moutarou, and reading through the documents and guidelines for journaling that Kiva provides its field partners with. Sorry if this is unclear, it’s hard to keep straight all the NGOs I’m working with. GENSEN and CREPS are basically the same thing, and SEM micro credit is a integral part of their ecovillage system. Then when you add in Kiva, it all gets confusing.

While in the villages, I’m also tasked with figuring out how SEM could best be expanded to fit the ecovillages needs. I think they have in mind buying some equipment to lend out to their ecovillage members (equipment for agriculture, transformation of grains, fabric dyeing, etc). To that extent, they are going to (eventually…) provide me with a questionnaire for the ecovillage staff/members. I’m not sure how long it’ll take to do the questionnaire, so in the mean time I’m just going to go ahead and include it as a question in my interviews.

That’s enough work update for now – I have to get back to work! I’m trying to meet with a group from one of the two ecovillages located here in Dakar. We’re having some difficulty reaching the president on the phone, however… ::sigh:: Still, it’s nice to be back in the SEM office. Everyone is friendly (if exceedingly busy). I forwarded them Nicholas Kristof’s article on microcredit in Africa from a few days ago. Ata, who is from here but attended NYU, is teaching everybody English. Tuesday and Thursday are ‘English days’, and from the sound of it, everyone is really good! I don’t know how much of the article they will have been able to read/translate but I’m curious what they thought of it. Here's the link, for those of you who are interested – the comments are more interesting than the actual blog. He also wrote about microsaving in general before that.

Later I’ll try and post an update with my ‘walking tour of Yoff’, which is the neighborhood I’m living in. Ba ci kanem! (See you later!)