Category: Adam

The beginning of the week was frustrating. The cycle of going home early due to the lack of work assigned to me perpetuated for three days. I felt like my time and money were being wasted as I would catch a taxi to work every morning to find out that there was no work for me to do. Although my preceptor-student meeting was coming up on Thursday, I decided to approach my supervisor on Wednesday with my concerns. I first asked my supervisor if he’d be joining the student-preceptor meeting set for Thursday. He expressed that he’d like to attend if he gets invited by the head director. Due to my uncertainty about his attendance at the preceptor-student meeting, I decided to share my meeting content with him because the information would be useful to him when considering future international interns. I shared with him some pros and cons I had experienced thus far at Mali Health and possible solutions for future interns. The pros I shared with him were how pleased I was with the work Mali Health was conducting and how I loved the work atmosphere and the individual characters of my colleagues. The cons I shared with him were how I was displeased with the slow pace of the work being conducted and how I felt like my time and money were being wasted every time I came into work and left early due to the lack of work being assigned to me. I explained to him how I expected to contribute to the Sustainable Community Project (SCP) every day, but instead, I come to work early and leave early due to the lack of work being conducted. I thought sharing my thoughts and feelings with him would make him upset, but instead, he listened and smiled with acknowledgment. After expressing my thoughts with him, he explained to me how Mali Health was backed up in work due to the hiccup we experienced last week with the office being shut down. He said that currently he and the financing team were working towards approving the finances of the SCP project and that once the financing was complete we could move forward with the project. He also acknowledged my concerns by agreeing with me about the slow pace of the work. Thus, together we came up with several solutions to avoid this in the future. Together, we agreed that interns should be assigned weekly assignments ahead of time that focus on their projects. We also agreed that the workload should be average with several onboarding meetings held before their arrival to Mali, thus allowing Mali Health and the student to plan their weekly activities together. After speaking with my supervisor, I was excited for my preceptor-student meeting as I was initially nervous to open up and be honest with my team. My dialog with my supervisor allowed us to grow closer as a team with a level of respect that was previously absent.

Embrace

Let’s Get To Work

On Friday, we finally started working on the Waste Composition Analysis by hosting an orientation with our team of investigators responsible for conducting the in-the-field research on physical waste generation by households, and marketplaces in our three target peri-urban communities. The orientation was successful, and we were able to identify possible challenges with our strategic plan for conducting the in-the-field research through demonstrations on how to analyze waste generations. During the orientation, I loved how the Mali Health team and the team of investigators engaged with each other. There was this familiarity between them like that of a family. Seeing this was humbling as this is not something I feel is highly valued in the United States. It’s rare to work with an organization or company that centers its success around the chemistry of its employees.

May Your Trash Be My Treasure

Our goal at Mali Health is to turn waste into a profitable commodity. To do so we borrowed the Sustainable Community Project from Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) in Ghana. Like GAYO, we want to work with peri-urban communities to convert everyday trash into reusable products. But our very first step towards achieving our goal is to conduct research. Our research is composed of five analyses, three of which I am currently working on; waste generation analysis, social norms analysis, and stakeholder analysis.

This week we focused on the waste generation analysis as it is the most time-consuming and physically demanding one. Along with our team of investigators, we went into our target communities–i.e. Sabalibougou, Ciscoroh, and Kalababougou– to physically analyze the waste generated by our participating homes. Investigators were provided with a spreadsheet that categorized the different types of waste that are typically found in waste sacs. Teams of investigators were responsible for adequately weighing the waste sacs and identifying the waste found in the waste sac along with weighting each category of waste found. Later, this information will be used to identify which waste products are recyclable and the total waste per category will be quantified. Through our analyzes, we will understand the types of waste generated by our targeted communities, and how their waste can potentially benefit them.

-Adam

Welcome Home (Week 1)

Sabalibourou | Meeting with the Chief  

This week, it was an honor meeting the chief of Sabalibouro, a peri-urban community in Bamako, Mali. My team introduced the Sustainable Community Project (SCP) to the chief and his councilmen. We expressed our interest in working with their community to implement SCP. Our meeting with the chief went very well to the point where the chief expressed immediate prioritization to be given to us to start the implementation of SCP.

During the meeting, I intended to observe, actively listen, and take notes. However, I spoke up after hearing about the chief and the councilman’s plan to initiate a project that aims at converting waste products, such as compost, to biomass (or some type of charcoal-like substance) used for preparing hot meals. After hearing his idea, I thought to myself what a bad idea this was. So I brought up my concern to the chief in a respectful manner. I said to him that I understood the logic behind their idea, which is to reduce waste by recycling them into a biomass that can be used for preparing hot meals, however, the burning of charcoal and/or biomass has many negative effects on the human body. I continued by saying that waste products produced by food (compost) can be used for enhancing the soil in which we grow our fruits and vegetables, which in turn boosts the economy by producing resalable produce. I further added that gas is preferable to biomass when it relates to human health. The chief agreed with my concern, however, his response was that before they (the community) use gas they must first use biomass (charcoal) because many of the members are not educated on the use of gas compared to biomass. Thus, their biggest concern with biomass vs. gas was benefit vs. harm. They considered gas to be more dangerous compared to biomass due to improper knowledge of the use of gas. Therefore, to avoid deadly fire accidents they preferred charcoal or biomass as their main source of cooking fire. The chief also expressed that they need to take it step by step and use what makes the most sense to them while they figure out the logistics of using gas for cooking. Additionally, he noted that recycled material to create biomass will help reduce waste products in their community while stopping deforestation. Hearing the chief’s responses to my concern was very humbling and honorable. I was glad to have had this fruitful conversation with the chief, he is an honorable man who has great ambitions and goals for his community.

Language | & Barriers

To best approach the implementation of SCP, my team and I met to discuss GAYO’s waste management analysis document, which gives detailed information on the steps taken by GAYO for the waste analysis report production. This meeting was interesting. First, I gained a lot of perspective on how Mali Health plans to adapt the SCP to fit its capacity. Second, I felt like during our first meeting, my supervisor spoke to me like a child with very minimal ability to read and understand. It felt weird and discomforting to me at first to be spoken to in that manner because generally I’m spoken in a manner of professionalism. In American culture when an adult is spoken to like a child it comes off as impolite. However, as an observer/visitor, I decided not to take any offense to it because I understood that my supervisor was trying to help me improve my Bambra by speaking to me in that fashion. Therefore, he went into great detail when explaining the document to me during our first meeting. The extent to which he explained the document was timely, therefore, we ran out of time and had to schedule a second meeting to finish the GAYO document discussion. In the second meeting on my second day at Mali Health, I noticed my supervisor’s manner of speaking with me had changed. He spoke to me with more dignity, trusting that I understood the document. Therefore, we were able to cut straight to the point and I was able to ask questions related to how we would adapt the document to meet the needs of our communities while being able to ask him to elaborate on areas of the document that were not clear to me. The second meeting was much more efficient and beneficial for everyone. But, Alhamdulillah, this was a wonderful lived experience that I will share with my other communities.

Merging (Week 2)

Last week I had an in-depth fruitful conversation with my aunt and cousin about pre/post-colonial Mali. So, basically, our conversation was about Mali in the 1880s & 1960s. We spoke about how Mali was succeeding with the ruling of President Modibo Keïta. My aunty expressed that around the time of Modibo Keïta, Mali was functioning sustainably and the streets of Bamako were so clean. She emphasized how the community was centered around the culture, and how traditional ways were respected and followed as laws. For instance, people were frowned upon if they littered or did not contribute to community efforts to keep the country up to par. Mali was united regardless of tribalism or religious beliefs. After our conversation, she told me to take a look at Mali’s original constitution. Therefore, this week I focused on finding Mali’s first constitution right after gaining its independence from the French government. However, during this research, I learned that Modibo Keïta had ruled as Mali’s head leader during colonialism and post-colonialism from 1915 to 1977. But now my main question is who ruled Mali before colonialism in the 1880s? and what was the constitution or constitution-like understanding of the people of that time? I hope that my Bambra Teacher who studies the history and social structures of Mali will be able to fill the gaps in the questions I have about Mali and its history. I honestly believe history is important to understand the future. My motto used to be don’t get stuck in the past but focus your energy on the future. That motto has always come in handy for me and has allowed me to advance in many ways in my life. However, as of today I now understand that it is important to look back at the past and analyze for gems that have worked for people or communities and utilize those hidden gems in the future. I hope by revisiting the past I can bring to light the gems of the past to the future, and hopefully what I find can be helpful to my Malian communities.

Resilience

As I complete week two at Mali Health, I’m grateful that the front doors of the Mali Health office are back open, and that I get to spend quality time with my colleagues. Our office was shut down and held responsible to pay for the reopening of our doors. What was most upsetting about the situation was the amount of money being requesting from the organization knowing that most of the organization’s money was allocated towards serving underserved peri-urban communities. But from this experience, I observed the resilience of my Malian colleagues as they fought to have the doors of Mali Health opened back up while sustaining their previous work without any delays. I applaud my team; they did a great job handling the situation. But what I loved most about their attitudes was the level of humility and humbleness they continued to bring to work. Every day I saw beautiful cheerful smiles on their faces, while they continued to amuse and encourage each other to keep the same tempo or better than before. What an honor to be surrounded by such a team. I am learning a lot about what good character means from this beautiful group of people. I’m learning how to speak with kindness, how to greet with grace, and how to have humility and humbleness before my elders and peers. Yah Allah, I am very grateful to you for this beauty! Alhamdulilaahi Robbil Alaameen.