Malian Birthday

I wanted to thank everyone who made by birthday so enjoyable. I had a wonderful day. It started with a surprise phone call from some friends from home and was followed by my finally being able to open the birthday gifts that have been sitting in my room for weeks. I loved being able to talk to family, as always. My friends here were fantastic, and ensured with the kitchen staff that I got a fantastic cake. Thanks again, and there are a few new pictures up on flickr.

Installation Logistics

Since swear in is fast approaching, we have finally received the logistics for our installation at site. I hate the word "installation" that PC uses to refer to our actually moving to our new homes. But Peace Corps is all about integration, so there it is, I'm being installed. Here's the schedule of my coming week or so:

• Friday, Sept. 21st: Swear in! Party it up all night in Bamako.
• Saturday, Sept. 22nd: Recover. Malian Independence Day.
• Sunday, Sept. 23rd: Leave by public bus for Segou with about 10 other new PCVs. Spend the night at a hotel in Segou.
• Monday, Sept. 24th: Shop in Segou in the morning, then take a PC car to San to spend the night with the rest of San Kaw (my group).
• Tuesday, Sept. 25th: Shop in San. The first PCV of the San Kaw, Nicole, is installed. Spend the night in San.
• Wednesday, Sept. 26th: Move into my new home! Set up my house and get organized. Begin to freak out about having no idea what I'm doing. Start the next two years of my life.

As soon as I move out to site, I will not longer have internet access. The closest is in Segou, about a three hour bus ride away, so I'll be lucky to get there every month or so. However my phone will have great service and I'll have access to my San mailing address regularly...and I will be in need of support!

The End of Homestay...Finally

So homestay is finally over…and I couldn’t be more pleased. It has been a very trying past few months, and my host family has not made it any easier. This last week was especially challenging as my host father beat one of his wives on several occasions. I’d never seen a man strike a woman before, let alone to this extent. It was insanely difficult not to get involved (as is Peace Corps policy for our own safety). At the same time, I couldn’t act like it didn’t happen. I’m glad to be out of that house.

Now we’ll train for a few weeks here in Tubani So. I’m not really sure what all we’ll be learning, besides logistics for our first few months at site. My LCF, Oscar, said he’d give me as many Bambara lessons as we can fit it. I’ll miss him at site; he’s been fantastic and as helpful as possible over the past two months.

We swear in as official volunteers on Friday! I’m very excited. We had our first chance to pass the language requirement a few days ago. I was thrilled to pass the first time, as the pressure is now completely off and I can focus on Bambara. Learning two languages at once is not easy. It also guarantees that I’ll be able to swear in, as well.

Field Trip

Some days it just hits me that this is absolutely where I want to be. Today was one of those days. I’m bursting with so much happiness that it makes me want to cry.

Nothing particularly exciting has happened recently. There’s been a lot of language tutoring, and a fair amount of technical training as well. My favorite sessions were about a week ago when all of the SED and NRM (natural resource management) volunteers went to Siby, a little town an hour out of Bamako. We spent the morning learning about the shea nut industry and ways in which local production could really boost local economies. It was wonderful to finally study something applicable.

After lunch we were all able to go on several incredible hikes. The best was up to a seasonal waterfall that overlooked the countryside. We felt like little kids climbing on rocks and splashing in the water. If in two months time we all have schisto (a charming worm you can get from running water), it will have been well worth it. I’ll try to upload some pictures soon.

Now I’m off to play 151, a Malian card game (in French), with my favorite Lindsey in the world. Wish me luck…she’s going to kick my ass.

Malian Glossary

Acronyms:

• PCT - Peace Corps Trainee
• PCV - Peace Corps Volunteer
• LCF - Language Cultural Facilitator; responsible for teaching us the language and helping to integrade during training (mine is Oscar Coulibaly)
• CD - Country Director (Kateri Clement)
• PCMO - Peace Corps Medical Officer (Aissata and Andrea)
• NGO - Non-government organization, non-profit we work with
• CSCOM - A health center, I don't know what the letters actually stand for
• COS - Completion of Service; the date I officially finish as a volunteer
• ET - Early termination; leaving early for any reason
• WAIT - West African Internation Time; meaning late
• TIA - This is Africa; used by volunteers in shock
• WAWA - West Africa Wins Again

Random Terms:

• Homologue - Malian work counterpart; the person I’ll be working with for two years
• Tubob - Any white person
• Dja Tigi - Host family; in my case the people I eat, but do not live, with
• Dugu Tigi- Chief of the village
• Stage house - The common house for PCVs in the San area
• Bruce - A location in the sticks, away from any big town
• Nyegen - Malian bathroom; a walled hole in the ground, usually with no roof
• Bush Taxi - Green "buses" (for lack of a better term) that cram more people, chickens, goats and luggage than you'd ever think possible

Site Visit

My site visit was fantastic. I’m absolutely thrilled with Yangasso, and can’t wait to get back there. There’s so much to say, so this will have to be a quick overview. I'm exhausted.

I took a bus with three other PCTs and our Malian coworkers. It took about 7 hours to get from Bamako to San, which is the closest large town we will use for banking and shopping. In San we were greeted by the current PCVs of the area who cooked us a fantastic curry dinner and brownies. We stayed the night in the stage house. It’s basically a small western style house for volunteers to use whenever they need to come into town. It has electricity, a refrigerator, oven, running/drinkable water, ceiling fans and tile floors. I can’t describe the joy we felt upon arrival.

The next morning we all set out to our respective sites. My house in Yangasso is cement with a tin roof and no electricity. It’s a long building with two apartments of three rooms each. My rooms are painted bright blue with a yellowish border. The concession is huge, and a pain to cross at night in the rain to get to my nyegen. There is a well in the center of the concession for bathing water. Drinking water comes from a public pump. They’re also building a hangar for me (a thatch roof canopy thing for shade), and there’s plenty of room to start a garden. My street turns into a river after a storm.

I share the concession with a Malian family. I’ve only met the father, but he’s as nice as can be. The second morning there was a huge rain storm, so my host family couldn’t get to my house to deliver food. Worried that I hadn’t eaten, my neighbor went out in the storm to get me bread, eggs and coffee, and refused to let me pay him back. He was completely disappointed that I left before his wife and 5 children returned from Bamako, and I can’t wait to meet them next month.

I spent my three days at site meeting absolutely everyone of any importance in town, eating with my supervisor’s family, attempting to learn a little more French and Bambara, and playing with the local kids. Actually it wasn’t so much playing as me reading or writing while they watched. One of my favorite moments was meeting my supervisor’s extended family, including a new nephew who was just a few days old. As soon as I walked into the room the baby was dropped in my arms while the women chattered away in Bambara.

I was given the new last name of Coulibaly, which means I’m joking cousins with pretty much everyone. It was great ice breaker with everyone in the community.

After three days at site we went back to the stage house in San where we made delicious tacos and cheesecake. We stayed up all night listening to music, dancing and talking then slept on the bus ride back today. It’s past 11pm now and I can’t remember the last time bed sounded so good. I’ve finally added some new pictures to Flickr (they took forever to load, so there aren’t many); be sure to check them out.

Harry Potter, a phone and Bamako

Harry Potter finally arrived! I'm very excited it came before homestay, because apparantly I'm gong to have a lot of down time.

In other news, I also finally have a cell phone. It's a Peace Corps issued one, so I should have it for the rest of my service. Basically how it works is I buy phone cards to add minutes to my phone. It's really expensive, so it works far better (for me) to have you call. I'll add the phone number to my contact information.

We went into Bamako for the first time this week. It was not nearly as exciting as I'd hoped, but still good. We went to a tubob store (grocery store geared toward white people) where I bought paprika Pringles. Then we went to a restaurant for pizza and ice cream. It was fantastic. Unfortunately that's all we did because we only had a few hours and the restaurant was really slow.

Tomorrow I head out to my site...I'll let you know how it goes.