One month ago, CTI volunteer, Andrea Brovold, and Executive Director, Roger Salway traveled to West Africa to share CTI's new thresher and winnower prototypes with farmers in Mali and Senegal. While most of us were preparing food for our yearly Thanksgiving Day feast, Roger and Andrea were helping women in rural Senegal with their daily six hour ritual of threshing, winnowing, and grinding their family's meal by hand. Here, Andrea shares her impressions from the trip that would test her physical and emotional limits, and leave her with unforgettable memories and lifelong friends.

Upon arrival to the Kuer Ali Guey village in the Kaolack region of Senegal, we were welcomed with open arms.  Awa, President of the Women's Association said "Andrea, you look like you are a peaceful volunteer".  It was the warm reception of Kuer Ali Guey and the surrounding villages and organizations from the very inception of this project that the rest of the trip would live up to, even surpass.  Come to think of it, while there were parameters in which we were expected to work towards, per NCBA/USAID along with objectives and outcomes to strive towards, my expectations--as per the opening title--were  "Going in with an open mind and heart"...and little more.

Quickly, I found that the universal language of love and compassion transcends any boundary or constraint, personal, professional or otherwise.  Put simply, the more you are willing to give of yourself, the more response and progress one will find.  Many village visits, meetings and relationships were forged due to our determination to serve.  And serve we did.  The thoughtful technologies of CTI, coupled with the sensitivity to cultural and individual differences, advanced this month long journey to a caliber of unexpected proportions.

Some dialogue that we observed from various sources were "If you could visualize our interest, it would be as tall as a skyscraper!", Ahmed Dame Cisse from Lat Mingue village; "You have a friend here...in me", Dougal Guey in Kayemon village; and "C'est bon C'est bon C'est bon!", a farmer from CARITAS. Most touching for me was a departure from a life-long friend I made despite the language barriers "I have left my heart with you", said Therese, wife of CARITAS Geo-Scientist Renee with whom we dined at a Thanksgiving Feast to help us feel at "home" in their home.  Touching is the fact that each of these people are tickled by what our simple technologies can provide--a way and means for a better life--and touching is the fact that I have been blessed to have had the chance to help secure that opportunity.

Recently, at our December board meeting, I explained my obsession with taking photographs of doors. Each of us have had doors closed, only for others to be opened, and until CTI and pursuing my Masters in Development Policy with a concentration in Africa, it seems that there was a less definable period in my life.  Many "doors" and opportunities have been presented to me within this organization that I think so highly of, and I have been keen to act on those opportunities. Beyond that, I feel that it is my job to continue to open similar doors for the people CTI serves, those who are equally deserving, but without the ways or means. It is unconscionable to me to think that what CTI is able to provide will not be visible to most rural communities.  So I, like each of the equally passionate and eager volunteers at CTI, happily forge an exodus towards a goal of creating and supporting sustainable environments that will provide future generations with tools, education and kindred roots.

I had a lot of reflective moments during this trip, and I also blogged our adventures, seemingly because it would have been impossible to re-create most of these experiences after the fact.  But what resonates loudest in my mind are the moments that rendered me speechless (something that rarely happens).  It is these silent moments, personal exchanges, accepting smiles, joyous laughter and dancing that are impossible to prepare for, which allowed me to reflect most authentically and honestly that I am truly the most fortunate woman in the world.

We are called to do certain things in our lives, and it is what we do with that time that matters most.  Cliché perhaps, but I enjoy very much a quote I once heard, "In the end, it is not the amount of breaths you take it's the moments that take your breath away."

 Andrea Brovold

Africa Co-Chair/Volunteer

Many of us know that rice is one of the world's most important food crop (rice alone accounts for more than 1/5 of the world's total caloric intake), but few people realize that the vast majority of the rice consumed in the world is grown in developing countries by subsistence farmers--a population that constantly struggles with severe hunger and poverty. When you hear about poverty in developing countries, much of the time you're hearing about subsistence farmers-men, women, and children who barely manage to produce enough food to survive. These families make up 75% of the world's poor, and these are the families that CTI projects are designed to help in Bangladesh.

This November, we traveled to Parbatipur, Bangladesh, to help subsistence farmers with a staggering problem: farmers in Bangladesh currently lose as much as 15% of their rice crop after it's been harvested, and in some countries, post-harvest rice losses can be has high as 50%. Much of this loss--a significant portion of their livelihoods-can be attributed to the use of inefficient traditional rice processing methods. Before rice can be consumed, it needs to be threshed, winnowed, dried, cleaned, and hulled-all of which are done by hand.

Like most rice farmers in developing countries, farmers in Bangladesh still de-hull their rice by beating their harvest against the ground or smashing it with a mortar and pestle--an extremely inefficient and laborious process.

We came to Bangladesh on behalf of CTI to test a new grinder burr was developed by CTI volunteers to de-hull rice. The rice hull is a hard, protective coating that needs to be removed from the rice grain before it is consumed. We spent several days working with local farmers to test the new burr, with very promising initial results. In just one pass, the grinder successfully de-hulled 10 kilo of rice in a matter of minutes. After separating the rice hulls from the rice, the result is "brown rice", which can then be prepared for eating, with all the nutritional value of brown rice intact. Or the brown rice can be passed through the grinder once again to produce white rice.

We are very pleased with these initial results, and have left the new burr and grinder with farmers in Bangladesh to continue to use and provide CTI with feedback on the durability and effectiveness of the burr. If the burr's durability is proven, we believe there are significant opportunities for application of the grinder and rice hulling burr to the many places in the world that depend on rice as a staple.

Dr. Nancy and Steve Laible

Asia Committee Volunteers/Bangladesh Project Leaders

"Pepper Eater"-- a device being developed by CTI and Stanford students-- featured in National Geographic

For several months, CTI has been collaborating with Stanford University students to help them further develop their class design project, the "Pepper Eater"--a small mill for crushing dried pepper. The students came up with the device to help the thousands of women in Ethiopia that support their families by processing pepper into flakes by hand. The Pepper Eater, and other products created in Stanford's Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability course were featured in the November issue of National Geographic (scroll through the photos to find the Pepper Eater).

Providing clean Water for Thousands in Nicaragua

CTI has worked more than ten years to provide clean water for families in Nicaragua, the second poorest country in Latin America. Today, CTI's water chlorinators are delivering clean drinking water to more than 20,000 individuals living in rural Nicaragua, where 2/3 of the population typically drinks untreated, polluted water.  Thank you to CTI's volunteers, donors, and the communities in Nicaragua for helping us expand access to clean drinking water!