So, although I am sure that Peace Corps was just trying to prepare us for the worst, we arrived back at Tubaniso (training center) yesterday to rumors that there was no internet and the repairs (something had been struck by lightning) would be around $20,000. There was in fact no internet yesterday, but I'm skeptical about the 20 grand as tonight it is back up again and working fine! This made everyone (including me!) extremely happy as we thought it was going to be another week before we could even attempt to check emails, blog, etc. And now I can tell you all about the beginnings of my homestay adventure!
My site is south of Bamako and extremely small (if you want to know exactly where, email me). I got off to a bit of a rough start with my host family, as they had never had a volunteer before (my homestay village is new this year). They seemed to think that the best way to keep me from getting sick was to only feed me to (pronounced tow) with leaf sauce for almost every meal. This is a staple food in Mali, but to be honest, I think I will be avoiding it as much as possible. While they were just trying to protect me I'm sure, they actually made me sick! Since My Bambara skills were nearly non-existent at that point (and are only slightly better now haha) I talked to my teachers in site and they spoke to my family. While things have not gotten a whole lot better, just not being sick any more has really lifted my spirits! You definitely contemplate why you are in Africa though when you are in the nyegen (open air latrine) in the middle of the night with a headlamp and its raining. I figure that if I made it through that, nothing else will seem like that big of a deal haha.
My days at homestay are pretty much filled with language and cultural classes. On breaks for lunch and dinner I attempt to talk to my host family, and then am usually in bed or in my room reading by about 9pm. A rooster (whose demise I am currently plotting) wakes me up at around 5:30am, but I usually don't get up until 6:30ish. I take a bucket bath (my host mom heats the water for me!) eat bread and drink tea for breakfast, and then head off to language class under the mango tree. My host family is incredibly nice (aside from the food miscommunications) and they really try to talk to me even though I usually have no idea what they are saying! It took me about the whole two weeks to figure out the family tree, which was complicated by relatives who are just visiting and some who are out of town, but I finally think I figured it out! They generally refer to any children in the compound as their children, so it took me a long time before I discovered who the biological parents of each kid were! Also, in Mali it is common to send your children to live with other family members, even in different villages, especially if these people have no children of their own. You can also pretty much make any child younger than you do whatever you want, which is really funny to watch among the siblings in my concession. For example, even though one boy is only a year older than the other, he can kick his younger brother out of a chair and take it for himself, which he does every time he gets the chance! Chair possession is a big deal here, as is the age heirarchy. You only need to be a day older than someone to steal their chair, make them get you water, or do other sorts of ridiculous things.
While there are definitely some drawbacks to having a rural homestay site (no electricity or running water relative to one group of people that has a site with flushing toilets and an internet cafe!) I think in the long run it will be for my benefit because if I can make it through this experience, I can definitely handle even the most rural site. And in fact, my site will most likely be slightly bigger than this homestay village because it will have a CSCOM, which is a clinic where I will be working. Thus, pretty much any site will be a step up from homestay! Speaking of sites.....tomorrow we find out!!! I have mixed emotions about this, because while I am incredibly anxious to know where I will be living for the next two years, I still have another week at homestay before I can go to my site visit. I think that we are not allowed to post our actual sites on blogs (some sort of safety and security issue) but I will try and at least post some general details, and if you want the specifics, email me and I'll email you back with my site!

Kan ben sinni! (See you tomorrow, or in this case write tomorrow, in Bambara)

Moving!

Tomorrow is the end of "Camp Mali" and the beginning homestay! We have all felt like summer camp kids since arriving in Mali as we have not left the the compound at the training center and have been eating all three meals in the refectoire (dining hall). Happily, tomorrow we venture out into "real" Mali and move in with a family that will house us for the next two months. My village is very small, I think only about 400 people! The family, and I am assuming most of the people in my town, speak Bambara. This is one of the more prevalent languages spoken in Mali, and the one I will be speaking when I get to my actual site. I actually did much better than I expected on my French language test, but they still said I need some practice (obviously, since I can only speak in the present tense haha) so I will most likely have a French tutor as well, at least for a bit. Bambara is pretty fun to learn, but at this point I can really only say some greetings, goodbyes, and "I'm full". Moving in with an only Bambara speaking family is going to be entertaining to say the least! I most definitely will not have wireless internet (or electricity lol)while at homestay, but I will be coming back and forth to Tubaniso every couple weeks or so, which I think will be a nice break from spending all three meals a day with people who have no idea what you are talking about haha. Other than that, not too much exciting has been happening, which sounds strange, but training is pretty much sessions all day, meals, and sleeping. I have a feeling this will be a little bit different than the happenings in homestay!

In ni su! (goodnight in Bambara!)

The night before...

First of all, welcome to my blog! As you can tell by the URL, I am not usually a huge fan of blogging, but I thought this would be a much more efficient way of letting everyone know what I am up to while I am in Mali, especially since I have no idea what the internet access will be like! I am currently in Philadelphia, where I have just finished staging. This was basically a day and a half of sessions to at least give us some idea as to what living in Mali will be like. I also actually got to meet and somewhat get to know the people I will be spending the next two years of my life with! One interesting thing, at least I thought, is that I am the only person from Florida! How weird. This whole staging thing has only made me even more ridiculously excited to get there, and now it is almost time!!! We are getting up MUCH earlier than I had been before staging haha to go the clinic tomorrow and get a yellow fever shot....WOO HOO! Not. After this wonderful morning activity we will be driving to the airport and waiting around forever until our flight finally leaves and we are on the way! My brilliant plan is to sleep the ENTIRE way so as to not be too tired when I actually get into country, which will actually be on Thursday night (after about 13 hours on planes total, blech). We shall see if this actually works.

Other highlights from Philly: I saw and took my picture with (you should be proud Mom!) the liberty bell, walked past the US Mint, and did a few other touristy things. I did eat a delicious philly cheesesteak too!

I will hopefully be able to update somewhat regularly at least in training as Tubaniso has wireless (yay!). Too bad my giant computer battery only lasts about an hour before death.