Gaston Kaba - Health APCD in Niger Retiring

Wrote this in tribute to my old Associate Peace Corps Director for Health in Niger - Gaston Kaba:

My wife Andrea and I were PCV's in Niger form 97-01. We were Ag volunteers so we didn't report directly to Gaston. However, we found him to be a very useful and helpful Nigerien to talk to, especially in the beginning before we really knew what we were doing. We were volunteer leaders during the second half of our service and I had the opportunity to install new Health PCV's in their villages with Gaston. He would always keep his cool - while PCV's would be getting themselves very worked up and upset over perceived misjustices or misunderstandings, Gaston would always be able to work things out. I think in time the PCVs would come to understand how much Gaston helped shape the enabling environment in their villages. Having Gaston on your team as a PCV helped give you that gravitas - of having an educated, respected, literate and fluent dotijo - vouching for you, so your villagers knew you weren't totally crazy.

I went to Gaston's office one day to ask for some Child Survival money - about $500 - for a garden well in my village. At the time in the late 90's he had a huge amount of money to spend on anything related to Child Survival. He asked me for a proposal, which I provided, and then I returned to my village for a couple of weeks. When I got back - he said - "I've got $3000 from the Rotary Club of Truckee for you - let me know how you can use it!" That money ended up continuing and expanding the Torodi team garden well project and the installation of at least 10 wells that year. And that's really just a drop in the bucket of the 13 years Gaston was Health APCD.

So - from the bottom of my heart - I thank Gaston for his service - Na Gode, Ay Sabu, Mi Yetti, Merci Beaucoup! Sannuka da Aiki sosai.

Defending Young and Inexperienced PCV's

I just read an interesting article on DevEx about a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia. The author is a volunteer with VSO in Zambia who is professionally blogging in DevEx about volunteering, and he has some good counter-arguments for those who disparage the Peace Corps for sending young and inexperienced PCV's to developing countries.

For anyone who has worked in development - you know that behavioral change takes a long, long time. Crockett - the author of the article - highlights that many development experts who disparage inexperienced PCV's wouldn't be able to hack it in the village for 2 days, let alone 2 years. And it takes a lot more than an afternoon presentation with free food to convince subsistence farmers to change their farming styles for the better.

In Niger - it was common to have a demonstration field. You get the village chief to cede some land to you for a couple of years so you can experiment with the new methods you are sent to teach. The novelty of a foreigner working in the fields already attracts attention; if you carefully practice what you were taught in training, you can really help people see, over time, that you can increase your millet yields and use compost effectively, for example.

The other thing is that it is more than just the work - it's the intangibles that count. Each PCV is an American Ambassador. They leave two years of stories behind and the villagers never forget "their American" or their Americans...

So as long as there is the money and the political will - we should remember that sending intelligent, articulate, and motivated young people (possibly without too much professional experience) to serve as PCV's in remote countries is not a waste of time.