Geekcorps Mali’s LMI Blog

It has been a flurry of activity over here in the past week. From deciding the Canon PowerShot A410 might be a slightly better fit than the A400, to Matt Berg our director negotiating tooth and nail for the Yamaha motorcycle we need for the project. By the end of the week we had the photo printer ordered, the camera on the way, lots of ink ready to be turned into photos, a shiny new YB100 moto, and an action packed Saturday lined up.

The printer we ended up choosing was the Epson PhotoMate Deluxe. It has received numerous strong reviews and was highlighted in Wired Magazine among its Best Picks. The price should be between $0.218 and $0.30 per photo, leaving a generous enough margin for us to work with. On top of that, the quality of the photos are good, and they are smudge proof and water resistant. The paper is supposed to be quite durable too. From everything we’ve seen, it all seems like a perfect fit for Mali.

The moto is the YB100 model, here known as Chinois premiere qualité since they are manufactured in China and rank the first of the three qualities of bike. A local colleague did substantial research a week ago for his project and referred us to the fellow he negotiated with previously. In true Malian style, Matt Berg fiercely negotiated the price down for the bike, helmets, and all its accessories. We left the place with all the gear, a little bit of gas, had a mechanic tune it up, and all the essential parts paying just about the same price we thought we’d have to pay for just the bike itself. As is said in Bambara, the predominant local language, “I ni baara, Matt” [translation: “You and your work, Matt” - meant as an acknowledgement of someone’s efforts]. Here’s are a couple shots of the bike and of Hamadou our guard-extraordinaire with the bike:

Saturday at the Geekcorps office we hosted a group of Mali Peace Corps Volunteers to talk about what Geekcorps does here, how we can find ways to work together, and particularly hash out a few ideas on the LMI project. It was here when we stumbled onto the name with the help of Katie McDonald, a third year PCV who lived in the most rural of rural villages. “Why not call it ‘Cyber-tigi’? After all, that’s what they’re going to call it in the villages anyway.” Bingo! Thank you Katie. We liked cyber-something; we liked tigi because of the way it sounds; we wanted to lean away from mobili because there’s so much more to it than just the moto [and mobile is vehicle not moto]. Cyber-tigi. Perfect. From this point forward our LMI has a name: Cyber-tigi.

Today we has the moto licenced and tuned up just perfectly – nice, tight, and fully fuelled. Tomorrow I (Brennan) will be heading out to Ouelessebougou (lat=11.99474, lon=-7.91285 if you want to see it through Google Earth) and then on to Faraba to begin field assessments of some of the other rural communities we plan to service. I’ll be heading to Ouelessebougou first, then immediately on to Faraba, located about 30Km West of Oueless on a well packed dirt road. I’ll arrive, meet the dugutigi* and the mayor again to carry out protocol, and then spend the rest of the day collecing information. I’ll spend the night in the village with a jatigi* I’ll find at some point over the course of the day, and then head out the next day for the next village 30Km on a seasonal road south of Faraba called Dalalaba. Following Dalabala I’ll return to Faraba and then head onward to the next site, Miagandia, 40Km Northwest of Faraba. Miagandia back to Faraba, back to Ouelessebougou. Get all that? Riveting isn’t it, especially when you don’t have any idea where these places are and have one-of-a-kind names thrown at you. Don’t worry, early next week you’ll have pictures.

For the moment how about a Google map? We have begun using Google Earth to help track some of the spots we plan on servicing. Because so many of the little hamlets we will be passing are on no maps we will be taking GPS readings and then placing them on Google Earth to help better organize and identify our sites. For the moment, here’s an idea of where we’re heading:

(on the top is a close-up of the Ouelessebougou region. Beneath is West Africa - look for the blue writing in the southwestern part of Mali to find Ouelessebougou)

So that’s it for now. Check back soon and we’ll have plenty more to tell you. And pictures too!

On that note, here’s one for the road, so to speak. We’re certainly not mean enough to be Hell’s Angels, nor do we hold a candle to Marlon Brando in The Wild One. So who are we? We are the coolest Geeks in Mali with what is soon to be the most technology-equipped bike in all the land. Word! ….wait…. OpenOffice Writer!

Cheers.

*dugutigi: Chief of the village.

*jatigi: Host family. When a person is housed and fed by someone the host is called the jatigi.