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February 14, 2005 Vol. 76,
no. 5S
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| CULTURAL
IMMERSION: Above, first-year environmental
engineering and public policy graduate student Eleanor Kane poses
with children from the Mali village where she served almost two
years as a Peace Corps volunteer. Below, Kane points to Mali on
the world map that she painted on the outer wall of the village
school. She also disinfected wells using chorine and helped improve
drainage for bath water.
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Life in
West African village gives CEE student insight into cultures and smart
development
Eleanor Kane still dreams
in Bambara, though she hasn't spoken the language since last June.
That was the last month she spent in the West African nation of Mali,
where she had served for two years as a water and sanitation volunteer
in the Peace Corps. Kane, a first-year environmental engineering and
public policy graduate student, says she went to Mali to help alleviate
suffering and put her education (a B.S. in environmental engineering
from MIT) to use. "I know every Peace Corps volunteer says this,
but I really learned more than I taught. It was hugely humbling."
In Mali, Kane trained for the first couple months. She and her fellow
volunteers practiced French and Bambara, the primary native language,
and learned skills like mixing cement and building latrines. The training
put things in perspective. "Here we have these fancy educations,
but we didn't even know how to do something like make cement,"
she says.
After the training, Kane went to her assigned worksite, a village of
150 people in the Mali bush. She lived in her own hut, went to the market
every week, and joined the women in the fields. The women, in particular,
amazed her. They spent their entire day in demanding labor, says Kane,
either procuring food or raising children. 
The Peace Corps volunteer contributed in engineering and nonengineering
ways. She disinfected wells using chlorine to help stem a cholera outbreak.
She taught villagers good hygiene practices and why they're important.
She helped improve drainage for bath water so it wouldn't stagnate
and breed disease-carrying mosquitoes. She taught math and English to
high school-age children. She also painted a giant map of the world
on the exterior wall of the village school.
Now back in Berkeley, Kane says she's interested in development,
but development in a smart way. "I learned that the only way to
do real development work is to become immersed in the local community.
You can't parachute in, build something and leave. You have to
involve the community in a serious way. They have to be invested."
When she graduates, Kane says she'll stay in the U.S., protecting
water resources and shaping water policy. Wherever she goes, she'll
take her Mali knowledge with her. "It was a really hard experience,
but amazing and mind-expanding at the same time," says Kane. "You
learn a lot about humanity and about yourself."
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