Madu Diarra Brings Service Learning to Mali

Service Learning Training in Mali
As you might have noticed from the previous post, I have been in Mali for the past two weeks. I was lucky enough to have Fulbright and the US Embassy cover my costs to do some service learning training at the University of Bamako. This was a plan that my Malian big sister Maria Diarra and I had been working on for a while, as she is desperate to get the University involved with service learning so that they can send students to work with her "Read Learn Lead" project. (Check out Maria's organization's website for more info on the RLL Project, http://www.iep-kati.org/). So, with the embassy/Fulbright covering my airfare and a week's stay in the "Grande Hotel" in Bamako, and Maria covering all other costs, we put together the first service-learning training EVER in Mali.

We had 17 professors from the University of Bamako, 10 teachers and staff from Maria's organization Institut pour l'Education Populaire (IEP), two friends of mine who are language teachers at Peace Corps, and even two University students. We met for 4 days at the National Museum of Mali, where I did sessions on the history and theory of service learning, and then a couple days on curriculum development. Then, we went out into the field, and they had two days to actually try it out with real students and real community projects. Here's a picture of the participants, all wearing t-shirts from Maria's project that say "YES WE CAN" in 4 national languages.

The training was exhausting, as I did it in French (last time I worked in French was 22 years ago!), in a room that had shaky air-conditioning, in a country where the daily temperatures hovered around 110 degrees! Thank god for shaky air-conditioning. Amazingly, the participants were incredibly engaged. They came on-time every day, they stayed late (we were supposed to end around 3:00pm, but inevitably ended up going until 5:30 each day), and seemed really interested in trying this new approach to teaching. ACTIVE, ENGAGED LEARNING that gets students connected to REAL ISSUES that matter to their communities.

Believe me, this is VERY NEW, as most profs and teachers here in Mali have only ever experienced the stand and deliver approach to teaching through rote memorization. They were about as familiar with project-based, active, student-centred approaches to teaching and learning as they were with a snowball fight. Not to mention teaching about issues of social justice and social responsibility, and ideas like equity and student voice --heretical concepts in a very traditional society that gives a lot of respect to authority and seniority. Anyway, they really got into some of the simulations that we did, such as "Paper Chain," which recreates a very unequal and unfair social system, and were pretty intrigued by the "active" approach to learning. "What, learning can be fun and engaging?" (But, did you ever try this with 1,200 students in an overcrowded lecture hall on a 110 degree day in dusty Bamako?)

Well, after 4 days in the world of theory, it was incredibly refreshing to go out into the real world and actually do some service-learning. We had two "community schools" to work with. One was Maria's "Ecole Chiwara" in Kati, and the other was the school where the two students form the university had come from. This town was called "Soninkegny," and was about 45 minutes from Bamako. There are 40 graduates of the elementary school who are now at University in Bamako, and who have formed a group to do development projects in their home village. So, this was also the first chance to try some actual work in their home town.

We had three projects in each town. In one project, newly literate adults were trained to be "reading monitors" with 1st-3rd graders. The picture above shows one of the adult volunteers working with a group of 10 students. Imagine how different this looks than the usual scene, which is 120 students and 1 teacher! In the second project, the 9th graders were trained as "reading buddies" and partnered with the 3rd graders. It was so cool to see a room full of kids working on their reading; especially since it was in their own language, Bamanankan! The 9th graders then had a reflection activity around their own experience, having learned to read and write in French, and discussing the pros and cons of NOT being able to use your own language in school! At the end, the 9th graders decided they wanted to learn to read and write in Bamanankan, and so asked for a meeting with the director of the school! It turned out, that the School District Chair was visiting the school that day, along with the head of the PTA and the actual Mayor of the district. So, the students got a great opportunity to "speak truth to power," in their own language! It was a very powerful experience, both for the students and for the profs, who got to see the whole cycle of service-learning in action!

The third group worked on the issue of pesticides and herbicides with another 60 9th graders. The students discussed the dangers associated with using pesticides, and then went home and discussed the isues with their parents. Then, they came to class the next day with local seeds that they grow, the first step in creating a local seed bank to protect the bio-diversity of their ag production. It was also very inspiring to see the students be so expressive in what is usually a very teacher-centric classroom. They identified 30 different types of vegetables and plants that they grow for either food or income, and actually brought in 19 varieties for the start of the seed bank. Again, it was amazing for the profs to see what an animated, engaged classroom looks like. And, it was even more powerful for them to see how talkative the students can be, when they are dealing with subjects that reale to their lives --and when they can use their own langugage!

Next Steps?

I don't want to be too naive, and claim that we have transformed education in Mali. However, we definitely planted some seeds. Hopefully the profs will get a chance to actually develop some service learning projects with Maria's "Read Learn Lead" progarm, and they will start to see some results. On the other hand, given the level of dysfunctionality in the education system, especially in higher education, this could be the first and last service learning that happens in Mali. Afterall, with 1200 students in a classroom; with almost no books or materials; and with 110 degree heat with no A/C, it hard to imagine much happening in terms of "active, engaged learning." But, there were some inspired educators who emerged from the group. And I don't think anyone could have made this workshop more relevant and accessible that I did. We will see what Maria might be able to make happen to keep these seeds nurtured. All I know is that the US taxpayers got a whole lot from their $3,000 investment in Madu Diarra dong service learning in Mali!

Blog ya later.

Seth (dit "Madu Diarra")./.

A Peaceful Afternoon in Genguan

Have" mobili" will travel. Arriving in Banamba with Maria's LandCruiser was a great opportunity for Sambou and I to take a road trip. When Naomi and I and the kids were up in Banamba in December, we didn't have the time to visit Sambou's family in their "farming hamlet" called Touroukoro, 18 km from Banamba. So, this time, since we had all day and no other plans, we loaded up 3 of his sons (actually 2 sons and 1 nephew), and hit the road.

We headed north from Banamba on dirt donkey-cart roads, as Sambou and I reminisced about the many trips we made over 20 years ago on my motorcycle. We had some great times, including getting lost at night coming back from a baptism, and getting stuck in a rainy-season pond on our way to a wedding. This time though, we were riding in style in this cushy LandCruiser. It is hard to set the scene, because Sambou is the last person that anyone would expect to drive up in a LandCruiser. So, each stop was pretty memorable, as we were always greeted with lots of cheers of astonishment, and cries of "Sambou, is that you?" and, "Madu Diarra, i ni fama!" (Madu Diarra, it's been a long time!).

This time, our first stop was a small village called Sinzana, where we visited the family of Sambou's second wife, Hatmata. Then we kept driving toward Tourokoro. About 10 kms away, we saw a someone walking next to a someone riding on a horse, with two other horses in tow. It turns out that was Sambou's brother, Madi (in the picture below), so of course we stopped. He was walking to Banamba for the market on Monday, accompanying a more wealthy merchant, taking care of the horses along the way for some money. But, when we stopped, Madi was not going to turn down a ride in a LandCruiser, even if we were going the opposite direction (yes, we just came from Banamba, his destination). So, Madi jumped in the car, and said goodbye to his merchant friend --and his little commission!

When we got to Tourokoro, we got to greet Sambou's family: cousings, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. It is very cool to see how the "Moores" greet each other. When a younger person greets an older person, he/she comes up to them and doesn't extend his/her hand, but rather gently leans toward the person, making a slight bowing motion. Then the elder takes his hand and puts in on the younger person's shoulder, all the while, asking "how are you? how is the family? How is mama and papa? etc." Very sweet. We had a great visit with Sambou's aunt in her hut. She's now blind, but she had lots of memories from twenty years ago, and kept talking about the time I slept over there for the baptism of the twins which were her grandchildren. Unfortunately, neither of the twins lived.

Sambou kept asking me if I could recognize how things had changed. And I had to say honestly, no. There are about the same number of houses, but they have moved around a bit. That's the nice thing about building out of mud bricks: if you want to move, you just pick a new spot and build a new house, and your old house eventually melts back into the ground.Madi stayed in Tourokoro and we headed further down the dirt track to "Genguan," another 12 km away, taking Sambou's cousin (who he called his "brother") Bakary with us. Genguan is actually the town where Sambou's family comes from, though his father and one other brother left Genguan and settled in Tourokoro. So Genguan is really the family homestead, and Beya, the last living brother of Sambou's father is considered the "village chief."

As we were about to arrive in Genguan, we saw a group of men and dogs scouring the bush. They were folks from Genguan, on a group hunt called a "fele." They try to flush-out small game (rabbits, antelope, quail etc.) from the bush, to take home for a nice Sunday brunch! It was so hot, and the brush so sparse, that it didn't look like much fun to me. Among the men on the "fele" was Beya, Sambou's uncle, who greeted us profusely, was so glad to see us because he really didn't feel like going out on the hunt! So, we were a perfect excuse for him to drop-out, and head back home. He then convinced us that we had to spend the day there with his family, and absolutely couldn't leave until after lunch. So, of course, we agreed.

What an afternoon we had. It was as if time had stood still for the past 800 years. We were treated like kings, as the straw prayer mats were brought outside under the "gua" or "sukka." The elders of the family all gathered, and we relaxed while eating peanuts while the elders threw the cowrie shells and did some fortune telling. Then, little by little, people just dozed off to sleep, including me. Then, after a couple of hours had passed lunch was brought. 3 bowls of milled porridge (known as "to"), with a nice hearty meat sauce which included the chicken and the guinea hen that were killed in our honor! After lunch, I watched as Bakary and Beya set up and then played a game of "M'Peri," which is something like checkers. What was so cool, is that it started by Beya asking one of his grandsons to bring him some sand, and then some dry twigs. The next thing I realize, they are creating the game board from the sand, and the game pieces from the twigs. Of course, the old man Beya beat Bakary 3 straight games in a row. I guess he is not Village Chief for nothing! Enjoy the video of Bakary and Beya playing M'Peri that follows, and just try to enjoy the simplicity of passing the day under the "gua" with us in Genguan.

Blog ya later.

Seth (aka, Madu)./.