Never Underestimate the Value of a Good Road

We have been blessed to travel a lot in our lives.  We have also made it a priority, meaning that we value travel over many other things.  The operative word is "things".  We try not to accumulate too many things or possessions - we instead focus on the experience of travel and accumulating memories. 

There are a few places we've been to many times over the years.  Chile is one of them.  We've probably been there thirty times since our first trip in 1985.   Another place is Senegal in West Africa.  We have taken on average two trips a year for 23 years.

This gives a vantage point that can track changes over a long period of time.  If you visit a place repeatedly over years and years, you can see the difference taking place. 

In reference to Senegal, where I am writing this blog post, the changes have been enormous.  It's like watching time pass, with barely perceptible developments  

Let's start with Roads:

It's impossible to overstate the importance of proper roads.  With decent roads you have transportation of people and goods.  It makes the economy better, and allows movement of products and services.  Things expand with better roads. 

Senegal has made a commitment to invest in better highways and it has paid off.  The transformation is almost hard to believe.  There are four lane super highways across the desert landscape.  A trip that used to take all day can be made in just a few hours.  

This means farmers can get produce and livestock to distant markets.  You have access to more places, jobs, opportunities, education, and medicine.  You can move around much more easily than ever before.   Good roads make everything a whole lot more efficient. 

As a small example, you can get spare parts for all the machinery that breaks down frequently, and keep the economy running.  Another example of that same concept is that vehicles don't break down as much because of poor roads.  When you say "help is on the way" it means something now. 

If you want to get your economy going and raise the prospects for your people, build better roads.  

Another big change - phone service - meaning cell phones. 

The citizens of Senegal, in West Africa, made a rather big leap in a fairly short time in the last few years.  Almost everyone has a cell phone here these days, and many of them have a smart phone. 

In the past, you had to wait years (or forever) for a land line wire to be strung to your house in a remote area.  Now they have put cell towers all over the country and there is very good coverage in most places.  

They bypassed the entire telephone circuitry system and everything is done wireless these days.  It is not unusual now to see a guy crossing the bush on a donkey cart, talking on his cell phone.  

It can often be rather hilarious.   We were walking through the outback with an old guy in traditional attire, loose clothing, and we heard a sound.  It was his cell phone ringing, and he reached into the fold of his clothes, pulled out his phone and had a conversation, out in the middle of nowhere.   

And they have internet too, which goes hand in hand with the wireless networks.  And because many of the companies here are European or African, the prices are lower and the services are better.  (that's a not too subtle dig at the American carriers, who keep raising their prices and cutting their service)

So it's safe to say that in comparison, they have better cell service in Senegal that in the United States.   This has transformed society in many ways, and people can get in touch with others easily - and keep in touch.  They can send money easily on their cell phones, another area that is more advanced and widespread than the US.

And if you've never had access to the internet and now you well, the possibilities are endless.  That can be both good and bad, but in this case, it's really good.   

There are many other ways that change has come to these developing countries, and we can take a look at more in the future. 

What's Up Doc? Actually, They Don't Have Doctors Around Here ....

 
Imagine a place where there are no doctors within 50 miles.  And no medicine, and no emergency services.  And no options available to employ against easily preventable diseases. Or basic care to enable babies to be born to healthy mothers and thrive. We have just described rural Senegal in West Africa.


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In the last few days, we’ve taken a look at how to help those without resources begin to improve their lives. This is the mission of The Andando Foundation. With a few relatively simple solutions, you can put people on the path to healthy lives (and prosperity?).


Initially, it was all about getting water to those who need it. The Andando logo is comprised of ladies carrying water on their head. This strenuous task took as much as two hours a day, to go fetch water from a far away source and carry it all the way back to your house.


That led to the process of where we looked to help them grow food and dramatically improve their nutrition - along with all the benefits that come with it. It might be over simplified to say, but in this sunny land, all you need is water and good seeds and otherwise fundamental instruction to succeed.


Then we looked at how to help them learn and teach their children. If you can feed them at school, you ensure their attendance and enhance the learning environment, and then you can provide them with low cost and efficient classroom facilities.


These are important first steps. There is another big factor in quality of life that is in short supply in much of Africa - proper medical care.


Once you start to meet basic needs, you can proceed up the ladder to something a bit more sophisticated. Health care is often a challenge - look at the hurdles and high cost in our own country of America. But just getting started is a big step, and there are feasible things that can be done, often at low cost. 

 

For example, in these remote villages, you need a facility to offer clean, hygienic care, and keep medicine secure, and put this in easy walking distance for the local citizens. If the best place (or only place) to birth a baby is a five hour donkey cart ride, then you are going to have problems.


For a few years now, through Andando, we have built what are called Health Posts in far off villages in the bush. A better description for an outside audience would be Health Clinic. Again, for a small fraction of what a medical facilty would cost in the “modern” world, you can offer life saving medical care.


The best way to treat a disease if prevent it from ever starting. With proper pre-natal care for expecting mothers, and proper care for babies once they are born, you can solve a whole lot of problems before they happen.


And running water and proper sanitary facilities makes a huge difference. You need to teach people that proper health means keeping clean and washing your hands and avoiding contact with germs.

And even having simple medicines on hand can eradicate persistent problems like diarrhea, or rural parasites and other nagging problems. So much of medical care means educating people of what causes illness and how to treat it, or better yet, prevent it.


But you have to get a facility established. One of the challenges is getting qualified staff a place to practice medicine. Once a Health Clinic is built, the government and local authorities are much more like to provide a proper nurse or medical professional. And medicine, drugs, and even proper things like bandages follow.


We have made solid strides to get health facilities in place. There is a lot more to do. 

One of our own crew, demonstrating the weight scale ...

 

A positive success story:

These local folks are rather fertile, and there are a lot of babies born around here. But there have always been problems and challenges. Now those problems can be addressed. 

Since we have gained a lot of ground (pardon the pun) with our gardens, nutrition and food security has sky rocketed. People are eating much more healthy organic food. The result of this has seen an increase in twin babies being born. In fact, there has been a noticeable “boom” in twins!


In the past, underweight babies have struggled to survive.  But now, the babies are born to healthy mothers and are maintaining good weight gain.  We know this because we measure their weight, (picture above) and they are thriving, even as they come two at a time!

Did You Learn Anything Today?

It is beyond the scope of this blog to examine a world without education.  It is so important to learn even the basic things like reading and writing.   Without proper education, you are going to learn (or not learn) the hard way.

"Without the education of people, a society cannot flourish or grow because it does not have the knowledge to build and maintain the society."

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In review, with the help of Andando, the village of Keur Soce has water and gardens and nutrition and a way to make a little income.  We want to enable them to meet the needs of today.  

What about the future?  What about the children?  How can we improve their prospects for a brighter day ahead?

In this remote place, they do have schools, but it's a struggle to provide quality education without any resources.   

One of the problems is that kids often don't show up at school. And if the kids don’t come to school they will never learn much.   If they show up hungry, they are not focused and they lack motivation.  If you can feed them, it is a proven encouragement for them to show up.  

And if they show up, they learn.  

We started a feeding program.  It was simple - or the goal was to make it simple and keep it simple.  We came up with a recipe of simple porridge, made of rice, peanuts, millet, corn, and beans.  It is very easy to make and is very nutritious.   And easy to serve.  

The local ladies and moms cook it each morning (at the school) and the kids have food to start their day. They are fed and eager to learn.  And it works.  Attendance improved and test scores went up and the schools got more crowded.   

And then we needed more schools.  

So we built them.  Keep in mind, the government is not responsive in this remote corner of the country.  They don’t have resources (or choose to deploy them elsewhere).  Some of the schools or “classrooms”  actually meet in a grass hut.  The learning environment can be brutal.  So we rolled up our sleeves and started building classrooms.   This is not quite as hard as it might seem.  

The design is very basic and is pretty much uniform.  You just have to get the process down and repeat it.  We have a builder who is good and efficient, and once you get the ball rolling, you can get a lot done.  We have built 30 classrooms so far.

It costs us around $6,000 for a classroom.  A classroom in America probably costs what, $200,000?   The Andando Foundation is a very lean organization and we can get a lot of bang for the buck.  So if you do the math, we have built 30 classrooms for less than the cost of one in the United States.   

The world is changing faster these days, and you need education to compete.  Heck, you need an education to operate a smartphone.  If you can’t read, you’re gonna get left behind.  If we can help, we’re going to do our best.

For example, most school kids in Senegal don’t know much about geography.   So we painted murals of the world on large outside walls.  They can see that other lands are far away.  Funny thing, when they see Senegal on a world map, they often say “It’s so small!”  

To summarize:

Get ‘em fed

Get ‘em to School

Teach ‘em how to read and do some math.

Teach ‘em about geography and teach ‘em a foreign language, you know, the stuff we teach in the United States ... oh, wait, what?

Is This Place a Desert? All you need is Water ...

This place is a desert.  The annual rainfall in Senegal is 10 inches, compared to Oregon which this year had almost 50 inches.  To put that in perspective, the monthly record for rainfall in Portland is 13.52 inches.  That would be a year and four months in Senegal.

However, the ground here in Senegal is pretty fertile.  If you add water, then you can grow stuff here.  In fact, you can grow almost anything.  You just have to get water to it. 

The water does not come out of the sky.  But surprisingly it’s in the ground, if you drill down for it.   Or actually, the best way is to dig for it.  Like send guys down into a really deep hole till they hit water.   The deepest hand dug well is 50 meters - which equals 164 feet.  

The diggers are lowered into the well with a rope, and they dig with a shovel, and the guys on the surface pull up the dirt in a five gallon bucket.  Obviously it takes a long time to dig a well, but the good news is - it lasts for a long time.  A good hand dug well should last an average of 50 years.

But hold on!  Before you head out with a shovel and a five gallon bucket, you need to know where to dig.  There’s water down there, but ... where?  So there are special people here who, well, they just know.   
They walk around and look for tell-tale signs, such as certain plants, or lack thereof.  They are pretty much always right.  

And once you hit water - life changes.  Water in the desert is like magic.  However, there are still some challenging ingredients.  

For example, how do you get water up out of the well?   By hand?  It’s down there 164 feet!  Pulling up a bucket of water from that deep is hard.  A full five gallon bucket weighs about 40 pounds.
You will eventually have arms like Popeye, if you last that long.  There must be a better way.  

How about a little help here?  Can somebody help me get this water out of a really deep hole? It’s not like we have electricity or anything.  We’re in the middle of a remote desert.  Heck, I’m gonna burn 500 calories just pulling on a dang rope.   

Tell you what, how about we put a pump on it and bring the water up?   And while we're at it, let's put a solar power system in place to run the pump and take advantage of all that bright sunshine.  After that when we get the water up out of the well, let's store it in a big tank, about ten feet up above the ground. 

That way we can use the water any time we want, without power, because gravity comes into play and the water drains out of the tank.  So we can distribute the water throughout a garden at all the right spots. 

And stuff grows.  And since it's the tropics, there are no seasons, so stuff grows year round.  

All this means that with a little bit of advice and assistance, people in a remote village can thrive, at least in terms of growing healthy food with good nutrition.  And then other good things happen, which we will talk about next time.  

They Didn't Used to Have a Lot to Do

This time last year, way back in 2017, found us in Tierra del Fuego, at the southernmost tip of South America.  Over the next three months, we made our way home traveling overland, through eleven countries.  

This year, at least as far as it goes, is not shaping up to be quite as ambitious.  However, we tend to find our way to other lands on a regular basis.  

Take today for example.  As I write this, we are in JFK Airport in New York, on a stop over to our flight to Dakar Senegal.  We go there on a regular basis, on behalf of our Andando Foundation, doing work to benefit those with few opportunities.  

On this trip we are joined by our friends, Scotty & Crystal, who are long time supporters of Andando and have done many good things in Senegal.  They lived there for a year in 2009.

Our trip will consist of around fourteen days, with several stops in different villages.  The Andando effort has really expanded greatly into many more programs, locations, and projects.  We hope this continues.  

One interesting aspect of this trip is that we will arrive a few days ahead of our son Lewis and his wife Ruby, and their infant son (and our grandson) Sullivan.  They are moving to Senegal for three months.   We hope to assist them with settling in.  They have a full slate of activities and work to do, mostly in a town called Keur Soce.  

This is a village that we have been involved with for many years.  With a targeted focus we have chosen to sink some roots into this local area with the purpose of providing development aid.   In the past, we (like a lot of other organizations) were somewhat prone toward a wide distribution of effort.  We have seen big benefits from reinforcing our resources in this place. 

One of the priorities of this trip is to continue the remodel of our newest facility in Keur Soce, a place we call the French House.  We refer to it that way because it once was ... a French house.  The country of Senegal was a colony of France for many years, before achieving "independence".
Because of our work in the area, the local municipality granted us the open ended use of the house and property and the land.  

There is a big garden there now - that's what we do - and a solar well system, along with a large training facility.

There are not a lot of jobs in Senegal.  The country is just now beginning to show progress toward becoming an "emerging nation".
The citizens of Kuer Soce - and many other parts of Senegal - often don't have a lot to do.  They scratch by getting just enough to eat and keep a roof over their heads.

But with the help of Andando, they now have a purpose and can take some control over their food supply and even generate some earnings.  It's very gratifying to help be a part of this.