It's holiday time (Tabaski AKA the sheepfest, where every family slaughters a sheep and feasts) but things are rolling along for Karim and his group. Due to Karim's sphere of influence we were invited to some kind of official function (we briefly met the minister of Elementary Education) for the education of orphaned children, where we feasted. In the afternoon we got down to business: preparing the materials needed to teach a group of women who represent women's associations how to build solar box cookers. The workshops were pretty thrown-together-last-minute, but have been going over very well.
The women saw what a box cooker can do (we had bisap which is Hacaranda flowers stewed in hot water, then cooled with mint leaves in it) and were impressed, and so when I gave a presentation with pictures of Solar Fire technology, it was received with significant enthusiasm.
The major player in Karim's network on the Mali end is named Lalla, she's the president of FIMB-Mali (Femmes International Murs Brisés), the Malian branch of an international organization dedicated to gender equality and women's rights. FIMB-Mali is a federation of many women's assocaitions with an aggregate membership of some 2500 women. She also has a high position in ASSOPROFEN (Association Pour la Promotion de la Femme et de l'Enfants) which runs daycares, teaches women to read, runs workshops to teach women and kids about things which might improve their condition and more. She is doing her best to enable us.
Due to her influence, ASSOPROFEN has put us up in the "little angels" daycare/school, where there are currently no children. Her brother makes metal doors and has a workshop we can share to build a demonstration model which we plan to show off to whoever is interested.
The solar workshops, run by Pierre, go from the 21 to the 25th (two groups, two days each). I helped out as I could, but I was pretty busy: Lalla's network is pretty high up; a couple of the more enthusiastic people there said they knew such and such minister, or director of XYZ. One such man, Tomota, has talked to the President's wife's brother about us, and says once we have something to show we can arrange a meeting. Tomota says that if the machines perform as advertised he thinks we can make this a national project. It has been decided to build a Helios ASAP.
Karim hits the road on the 26th for personal reasons and will be back in Bamako around the 5th of Jan. He has to be in Nouakchott, Mauritania on the 19th of January, which gives us slightly less than two weeks to promote the project together.
Wanting to help out, Tomota introduced me to a young man named Konan. Konan has participated in the solar box cooker formation and is pumped up. He wants to bring Solar Fire to his home in Ivory Coast, which is a major cocoa and coffee producing nation. Understanding the urgency of the situation, Konan introduced me to a friend of his (Titi) who made himself available to drive me around town investigating material availability and costs, plus taking care of some random tasks which would have taken me a great deal of time on my own.
Not seen in the above picture is the gasmask I should be wearing. Honestly, the pollution is gagging.
We found pretty much everything we'd need, despite the fact that many places were closed due to holidays. It was purely a scouting mission, but I was happy with the prices I found (my final price report is pending).
RV is totally onboard with the Project, he will spend the rest of his time in Mali (until around the 20th of Jan) assisting me.
No comments:
Post a Comment