Senegal

These past few weeks I got the opportunity to travel outside of Mali for the first time since I moved here. It was an insane week, and completely worth the time and money.

The trip began with about 40 Mali PCVs meeting in Bamako to get on the bus we chartered to take us all the way to Dakar. We left at about 8 am, and the party started by 8:30. The first leg of the journey lasted about 12 hours, from Bamako to Kayes (supposedly the third hottest city in the world), where we spent the first night. We left early the next morning for the roughly 24 hour ride through Senegal on a terrible road to Dakar. What should have been an extremely long ride was actually insanely fun. We don’t get to see each other all that often, so throw 40 of us on a bus and we’ll have a good time. We spent all hours of the night and day listening to music, talking, playing cards and dancing (yes, on the bus).

We definitely went through culture shock upon arrival in Dakar. All the roads are paved, there are no open sewers, trash is not littered all over the streets, there are tons of tall buildings, most of which are finished, and there are countless restaurant choices. In other words, Dakar is a city that could fit into the US.

After dropping out stuff at a hotel we headed out to the American Club, which was incredible. Overlooking the ocean, the club has a beautiful pool, tennis and volleyball courts, a snack bar and regular bar, and, of course, the softball fields. The first four days were spent in pretty much the same fashion. After taking public transport to the club, we’d spend the day swimming, going to the softball games, drinking, eating delicious food, dancing and hanging out with other volunteers. Every night there were parties at various clubs or houses, which were always a good time.

Peace Corps Mali brought about 50 volunteers. The tournament brought in somewhere around 300 English speakers total. Peace Corps had volunteers from Mali, Mauritania, Benin, Senegal, the Gambia and Guinea. There were also several ex-pat teams. Our team did pretty well, winning the first four games and then losing in semi-finals. We did, however, have the best uniforms and cheering section.

Our jersey’s are traditional Bobo shirts and the hats are traditionally Dogon. Yes, people do wear those hats seriously here. We had a ton of people at the tournament trying to buy our outfits. What can I say, we just looked that good.

After nearly a week of insanity, we needed a few days to recover before the long ride back. About 30 Mali PCVs ended up at the beach together. We rented three houses in the little town of Popenguine, about two hours south of Dakar. The beach was stunning, and we had a great time swimming and body surfing every day. It definitely took all our will power to get off that beach.

The ride back from Senegal could be a blog entry in itself. It was eventful, to say the least. About 15 of us left Popenguine together on a crappy little bus hired to take us all the way to Kayes. 24 hours into a truly terrible ride, we arrived at the border, where our driver refused to take us any further. After spending six hours at the police station (luckily the police we on our side), we finally got some money back to hire a different car the rest of the way to Kayes. Once in Kayes, we were tricked into taking a bus later than we had intended after our taxi driver was bribed to lie to us. Then the final bus to Bamako kept tripping over that final stretch before the finish line. It left hours late, broke down several times, stopped to pick up people whose bus had also broken down to drop them in the next town and got us into Bamako quite a bit later that expected, causing us to have to spend the night in the capital.

However, all things said and done, the trip was incredible. I feel very lucky to have been able to make the journey, and hope to do so again next year. I'll try to get some pictures up, but I am having some computer problems. I'll get them up when I can. Let me also state that I am thrilled (can you hear the sarcasm?) to have returned in time for hot season. Bring it on, Mali, I’m ready.

The internet has arrived in San!

Well, I’m back at site (off and on), where life has continued without change for the past few months. Being away for so long, I felt like things would have changed…but people barely noticed I was gone.

Upon returning to site I had a meeting with my homologue, supervisor, a few women from the association, and my APCD (Peace Corps boss). We gave my town a deadline, the end of February, to pull things together. They have since assigned me an assistant homologue who speaks only Bambara. The plus side is that it forces me to use my Bambara, which is slowly coming along.

I was also able to read the five year development plan that the mayor’s office wrote. It was useful in getting project ideas, though overwhelming in seeing everything that needs to be done. I also find it frustrating that the budget has a section of “necessary” funds from NGOs. About 90% of the money needed to complete the goals is expected to come from outside funding. In other words, they haven’t done anything to further these goals besides wait for some tubob to hand them money.

The main project in Yangasso is the women’s garden, which is slowly coming along. The first thing the women want me to do is give them money for a new fence. I’m hesitant to hand over the money before they show me any willingness to work. However, once the garden is further developed, there are possibilities for other projects such as solar drying and new fertilizing techniques.

In other news, I just returned from the Festival sur la Niger, the music festival in Segou. It was a great experience. The festival lasted three days, with artisan and cultural dances during the day and incredible concerts at night. The stage was built on the river (as a matter of fact, one of the performers, Habib Koite, fell off the stage into the river at one point). I feel lucky to have been able to attend. Now I’m looking forward to WAIST in Senegal…we leave next week!

Sorry this is short, but there’s really not much to say. We finally have internet in San, so hopefully I’ll be able to update more often (though not too much because it’s insanely expensive). I’m trying to put pictures up today, so check them out!