Backyard Work and Baseline Survey
During the two weeks after Christmas, I spent a lot of my time in the village working in my backyard and getting to know some more about the agriculture and agroforestry practices in my village.
My back yard work commenced with clearing out the remains of the second hut that used to exist in my backyard. The first volunteers at my site were a married couple, so they had two huts. During the last rainy season, the second hut fell down. When I went to see my site in October, one wall had fallen down. When I installed in December my family had knocked the rest of it down for me. It was then simply a big pile of rubble that had to be cleared before anything else could be done in the space. I spent the first few weeks at my site hoping that the job would do itself, but unfortunately that didn't happen.
It took two days of solid work to clear the pile from my backyard into my family's garden area where a pit with some rubble already existed. I worked from about 9-11am and 4-6pm each day; my backyard is not shaded and it was far too hot to work during the afternoon hours. I started out each work session on my own, but I was often joined by kids who kept asking if they could help me until I said yes. Normally it is difficult to get a view into my backyard, but in order to make my work possible my host dad had untied the fence on the back side of my yard, leaving it open for anyone who wanted to watch me from the path or walk around the house to join me.
During the two days, I was joined by multiple groups of kids. I broke up the rubble and shoveled it into the containers while my helpers hauled it to the pit in my family's backyard. If I had no helpers, I also hauled the rubble. I came to the unexpected conclusion that kids around age 7 are the most helpful for this type of job. Kids under around 5 are too small to be a big help, and the kids older than about 9 who helped me for a little while quickly became bored with hauling heavy buckets of rock. Four or five kids aged 7 would be the sweet spot; they bring the empty containers back just fast enough for me to fill, but there are not enough of them to overcrowd the area and start getting in arguments that stop the work. The kids usually lasted thirty minutes or an hour before the heat and the work started to tire them out. By this time I was usually very tired myself, so we sat down in my yard to eat peanuts, drink water, and wait for the heat to go away many hours later. I took a week or so off after rubble-clearing and then dug a garden bed, which I will seed with some vegetables soon.
In addition to working in my backyard during, I have been working on completing a baseline survey of my village that Peace Corps has given me to complete before my two-week In-Service Training (IST) in February. This survey covers basic information about the farming practices, agroforestry practices, schools, water, and demographic information about the village. I have been talking to a lot of different people in my village to learn about these topics; the questions I asked have led to some very informative conversations about life in the village. It was after a couple of these conversations that I realized Peace Corps' goal for having me complete this survey was not, in fact, to read closely my responses (the survey is not standardized enough to accurately compare sites to one another), but rather for me to engage in these conversations with people in my village about topics that will be relevant to my work. Once I finish my report on the survey questions, I will plan to post it here on the blog.
Here are a couple pictures of my backyard:
My back yard work commenced with clearing out the remains of the second hut that used to exist in my backyard. The first volunteers at my site were a married couple, so they had two huts. During the last rainy season, the second hut fell down. When I went to see my site in October, one wall had fallen down. When I installed in December my family had knocked the rest of it down for me. It was then simply a big pile of rubble that had to be cleared before anything else could be done in the space. I spent the first few weeks at my site hoping that the job would do itself, but unfortunately that didn't happen.
It took two days of solid work to clear the pile from my backyard into my family's garden area where a pit with some rubble already existed. I worked from about 9-11am and 4-6pm each day; my backyard is not shaded and it was far too hot to work during the afternoon hours. I started out each work session on my own, but I was often joined by kids who kept asking if they could help me until I said yes. Normally it is difficult to get a view into my backyard, but in order to make my work possible my host dad had untied the fence on the back side of my yard, leaving it open for anyone who wanted to watch me from the path or walk around the house to join me.
During the two days, I was joined by multiple groups of kids. I broke up the rubble and shoveled it into the containers while my helpers hauled it to the pit in my family's backyard. If I had no helpers, I also hauled the rubble. I came to the unexpected conclusion that kids around age 7 are the most helpful for this type of job. Kids under around 5 are too small to be a big help, and the kids older than about 9 who helped me for a little while quickly became bored with hauling heavy buckets of rock. Four or five kids aged 7 would be the sweet spot; they bring the empty containers back just fast enough for me to fill, but there are not enough of them to overcrowd the area and start getting in arguments that stop the work. The kids usually lasted thirty minutes or an hour before the heat and the work started to tire them out. By this time I was usually very tired myself, so we sat down in my yard to eat peanuts, drink water, and wait for the heat to go away many hours later. I took a week or so off after rubble-clearing and then dug a garden bed, which I will seed with some vegetables soon.
In addition to working in my backyard during, I have been working on completing a baseline survey of my village that Peace Corps has given me to complete before my two-week In-Service Training (IST) in February. This survey covers basic information about the farming practices, agroforestry practices, schools, water, and demographic information about the village. I have been talking to a lot of different people in my village to learn about these topics; the questions I asked have led to some very informative conversations about life in the village. It was after a couple of these conversations that I realized Peace Corps' goal for having me complete this survey was not, in fact, to read closely my responses (the survey is not standardized enough to accurately compare sites to one another), but rather for me to engage in these conversations with people in my village about topics that will be relevant to my work. Once I finish my report on the survey questions, I will plan to post it here on the blog.
Here are a couple pictures of my backyard:
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| Before clearing what used to be hut #2. The fence on the far right of the picture is the one that was untied to allow me access to my family's yard |
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| Another "before" picture, looking back toward my hut. Rubble visible in foreground |
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| After clearing all the rubble. All ready to dig the garden bed (which I did not take a picture of yet). Also notice the pick lying in the cleared area--the stick broke during the first morning that I started to work. For the record, it is more tiring and less effective to use a pick with a 1-foot handle than one that has a 3-foot handle |
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