Jan. 24, 2012 at 12:41pm with 3 notes
faqpeace corpssenegalretroactive peace corps
So what exactly did you *do* in the Peace Corps?

Worked, Played, Lived, and Breathed.

Note: Peace Corps is a complicated thing. These “FAQ” posts are a movement towards making sense of it all in a fair and honest way.

  • Distributed improved varieties of seeds of common subsistence crops (corn, millet, sorghum, beans) to pilot farmers in 3 villages. Visited the farmers and their fields weekly during the rainy season - these visits, the interactions and what I learned from the farmers, were my favorite part. On one visit to an incredibly talented farmer he sent me home with a backpack overflowing with mangoes and freshly picked corn. Collected yield data and wrote an annual report analyzing this data.
  • Wrote a grant through USAID’s Small Project Assistance (SPA) program to continue digging a well in my placement village. Someday I’ll dedicate an entire post to The Well as it’s quite a story both from a development success/failure perspective and a practical perspective (have you ever seen a 150 ft deep well dug by hand? With a hammer, chisel, and pick axe? Neither had I.)
  • Made some top-notch, lifelong friends.
  • In partnership with 10 other volunteers and Senegalese organizations helped establish a now-annual leadership camp for academically high-achieving middle school girls.
  • Played some softball at the annual West African Invitational Softball Tournament (WAIST), once dressed as a superhero, once wearing lederhosen, knee socks, and a charming cap.
  • Worked with the women’s collective in my placement village to start a garden. Acquired funding to expand the garden, build a fence, and purchase some tools, and supplies.
  • Got really good at doing lots of math on my cell phone’s tiny calculator (see: grants, budgets, reports)
  • Went on a few incredible and ambitious bike trips.
  • Agroforestry. Worked with farmers to plant the right trees in the right places for the right reasons. Worked with the women’s group to create a large tree nursery - the saplings were sold to nearby villages for profit. Inter-cropping, orchards, wind breaks, etc. Fruit trees and fodder trees and soil enriching trees. Tree nurseries, tree grafting, trees trees trees!
  • Made many mistakes, learned, practiced selective stubbornness and grew thicker skin.
  • Collaborated with three other volunteers and one outstanding Senegalese counterpart to establish a Master Farm. Some photos.
  • Traveled: Within Senegal, through the Gambia, and to the archipelago of Cape Verde. After finishing my Peace Corps service I also ventured to Mali and Tanzania.
  • Many other smaller side projects, some successful some not so successful. Those listed above are the primary ones though.
  1. ekf posted this