Another In-Service Training (IST)

Hi everyone! Nothing too new to report over here...I'm back at Tubaniso for the next week for more "In-Service Training." It's more for our homologues than for us volunteers, so it's been a bit slow here. I'm finally starting to get some project ideas in motion, which I'm really excited about. I've been touring around Segou and meeting with various artisan associations (everything from construction metal workers to women fabric dyers). I've been getting ideas of what their current needs are, and how I could help them out. One of the biggest challenges I've found here is to try to help without taking over. Ideally, the best projects are ones where the Malians express their needs, organize the project needed, and then implement it and follow up with it themselves. The best role I can play is to serve as a resource for them and help connect them to other resources that would be beneficial (e.g. funding sources). This is a huge challenge, though. It's really hard not to just create a project plan, find the funding myself and lead the way toward implementation. In the end, I believe it's so much more valuable for Malians to do all this, so when I leave, they will be able to continue doing it. Anyway, that's what's new over here. Hopefully sometime soon I'll be writing about an actual project taking place with the artisans! So far I've been busy helping CRAS (Coordination Regional des Artisans a Segou) plan their 12th anniversary celebration, which will take place this Saturday (complete with a concert, soccer game and fashion show). I'll make sure to take some pictures and put some up. Right now my memory card is full...but I'll take care of that this week. Take care!!