Donation Time!!

Janet spinning the cotton

My first official project for my Peace Corps service has finally fermented.   I am really excited about it because the women of my village initiated it on their own.  I am just aiding them to improve their product!  Last November my host mother and work counterpart attended a training on how to spin cotton into string.  From there, she has taught 20 other women how to spin the cotton and they are now using it as additional income for themselves and to feed their families.  

Cotton is grown in my village and the surrounding towns (fun fact: Cotton is one of Mali's largest exports).  There is plenty of raw product, however the problem is the way they are spinning it...all by hand.  There is only one machine that the women have to make the process faster.  Now, when I say machine I mean a bicycle wheel frame that is operated by ones foot.  When I first saw it I immediately thought of our vacations to Colonial Williamsburg!  After the women spin the cotton into string, we then are able to sell the cotton for 4x's the price of what it is sold for when it is just the raw product.  In April, my women sold 32 kilos of strung cotton to an all women's bogolan co-op which makes artisan work with the natural products.

  

My need is this:  I am working with another NGO to get the wheels from, so this is a very straight forward project.  I just need to raise the $500 to pay for 6 machines and 6 paddles in which to brush the cotton so it is fine.  Now, I will be working with an American NGO-African Sky to get the money.  

Here is their website: http://africansky.org/  

This non-profit was started by a Peace Corps Volunteer here in Mali, and he just wanted to continue work here after his service.  

Please Please Please, I know the economy is horrible right now, but even if you can just send $10 it would be such a great help.  This is a project where 100% of your money will go directly to helping out these wonderful, self-motivated women.  I also need the money fairly quickly, so no haste!  

As for getting me the money, his website is still being updated, so the most difficult part of this process is that the money has to be sent by CHECK!  Yikes, sorry but we all must make some sacrifices and anything that is easy isn't always so rewarding! 

Directions on how to donate: 

Make your 'RE':

Monica Garcia Kamona Womens Cotton Project

this is very important so African Sky knows where the money has to go to and not to just any project, but MY project!

Address: 

African Sky 

PO Box 203 

Munroe Falls, OH 44262

Thank you to all who will be donating!  This is such a good deed and really really a great project for these women.  

Dogon Country and Tombouktu!

Sunset after the massive sand storm Janel and I got stuck in-Kamona

The 4 banditas in Timbuktu, about to ride off on our camel adventure!

Me on the roof of the manuscripts musuem, in front of the oldest mud mosque, or the biggest?

Trekking through the Sahara

Camel Riding!

Dogon houses- Day 1 of our 3 day hike

Alright, so now that I've got your attention, here is the explanation of why I haven't written in almost 1 whole month!  W'allahi! I've had my friend Janel visiting since late May.   It's great when having a visitor because I get to be a tourist in my current country of residence, and explore explore explore!  For attention span sake, I will be brief on what we did- as we really got to see and do many things here:

In Segou, Janel got to meet all of my wonderful friends.  We went boating, made Bogolan (malian art, using mud and all natural dyes to decorate all natural cotton).  We also did a lot of shopping for gifts and hanging by the pool.  The calm before the craziness!

From Segou, we bussed up to tour Dogon Country.  It's on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list (I always try to visit WHsites).  We met up with a fellow PCV-Hannah and her friend Kat that was visiting her.  It was a great 3 day hike through the villages.  Dogon villages are built in the cliffs and the people disappeared a long time ago, in short-due to deforestation and lack of food (they were hunters, not so much farmers). 

From Dogon, crazy Monica thought it was a good idea to go to Timbuktu.  My friend convinced us we should go up there to visit him.  Timbuktu.....why not!?  It took us 7hrs to get there in a 4x4 car-which that in itself was an experience.  It should have only taken 4hours.  Thats life here in Mali.  We got there, and I thought Mali was hot....but this place was SOO hot.  Like 120 degrees.  Thank God my friend has A/C in his house and we just got to relax on the 1st day there.  The second day we did some more shopping, and then started off on our camel ride.  The camel ride was fun, of course I got the 'special' camel.  First my saddle wasn't on correctly, then the camel kept tripping over it's feet (just like me!), then he just couldn't make it up the his and boom.  Down he went.  I'm alive and it's an entertaining story to tell.  No more camel rides for me though.  

Overall, it's been an amazing 3 weeks.  I now need to get focused on my work and get some things accomplished.  I'm sure I'm forgetting tons of things that I need to add, but I'll have internet access for a few more days.