Koutiala shea formation

This last week my teammate Maridee and I hosted an improved shea butter training in Koutiala that was both successful and inspiring. It had been a frustrating journey up to the launch - we didn't feel PC gave us the support we needed and our host service had visions of aid money piled on their tables. So, instead, we pulled it off on our own and had an incredible learning experience, and we explained in a way that I think was understood about the rules of this game preventing over-inflated budgets. Maybe. But regardless, half-way through this project I swore I would never do anything like this again, but my community just approached me with a valid need and a genuine interest, and armed with these lessons I'm ready to start again.

It was an interesting group of women we had in town for the training. We had originally budgeted for 15 women from Koutiala and 15 from the brusse. This is interesting in itself: half the city women who were slated to come failed to show up. Their slots, however, were filled by the plethora of brusse women who just appeared. The first day they were nervous around each other; the city mice dress, hold themselves, and speak differently than their country mouse counterparts. Maridee and I despaired a little that 5 loud and bossy voices would monopolize the whole training and the shyer ladies weren't going to get their bit out of it. But luckily, by the afternoon, a couple of boisterous country voices had prod their sisters into participation and there was a good dynamic in the room.

The morning of the second day, which does involve a bit of standing around as water is boiled out of the butter, I overheard a conversation that went something like this: We have a lot of nuts but we don't really process them; if you give me your phone number, I'll be in touch and we can arrange for your village to buy our nuts to process. Warms my little heart.

Oh, yeah, and I got a boyfriend. His name is Mamidou and he's probably about 3 and he sat on my lap and wore my sunglasses and didn't even pee on me. He thinks I'm awesome and isn't even afraid of my skin. We have a lot in common, and his mom offered to give him to me, but I 'm afraid the timing might just not be right, what with him being only 3 and all. Oh, well, its good to see that quality men are, in fact, still out there.

Malian trainers - well, this is just another one of these lessons from this that I am in the process of learning. I know that I'm from a different culture, but if I were treated like that by a trainer, I would stand up and leave. Maridee assures me that it is appropriate, and that the women like being yelled at and belittled. They don't look unhappy, so I guess its just another one of those things that I'm not sure I'm going to learn to understand.

After the end of the formation, it was incredible. I had at least three different people come up to me and say, hey, I want to have a formation on this, or I want to teach a formation on that. I love to see them interested in learning new skills. I would love even more to see them interested in applying the new skills they've learned to better the lives of themselves and their children. But that, I believe, is something that people have a lot of trouble with in the States, too, so if anybody has any ideas, I'm all ears.

If you're in the Peace Corps, I can't emphasise enough that the most important lesson I learned doing this is: Do it with a partner your first time!