Stacy in Mali

Wrapping up

2010-06-06T07:12:00.001-07:00

With only a few weeks left to go, I am headed to Bamako for our close-of-service conference. This is supposed to help us get ready for adjusting back to life in Ameriki, getting ready to look for jobs, go back to school, etc. Lately, I've been having very mixed emotions about leaving. I know it's going to be really hard to leave the people here, especially since I know there is a good possibility I might not ever see some of them again. Up until this past week, I was pretty much avoiding tell anyone exactly when I was leaving, instead simply saying "soon, soon" which in Mali could mean tomorrow or next year. However, since I effectively have about two weeks left in Djenne, this past week I decided it was time to be a little more specific, but unfortunately it didn't go exactly as I hoped. While many of my friends said they would miss me, and wanted to make sure I would still call, about an equal number took the opportunity to ask if I was keeping all my buckets, if I had any clothes I didn't want,if I could help them get to America too, or if I was going to wire them money from America. While I know this isn't meant to seem rude, even after almost two years here, it's still hard not to react like an American. It makes me wonder, were we really even friends, or are you just using me? Do you even care that I'm leaving or do you just want my stuff? I know a number of other volunteers have had similar experiences, but it's just a little discouraging after all this time. That said, just as many people have seemed genuinely sad (which in some ways is almost harder, because then I can only be sad as well, instead of mad/annoyed, which I am when people ask for things). Should make for an interesting last two weeks, but for now off to Bamako!

It's been a while!

2010-04-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

How the time has flown by since my last post! I know I've been a bad blogger, but with limited internet time, something else always seemed to be more important than updating my blog, but now I'm going to try and post a few more things before I leave! And speaking of leaving...I am officially closing my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer on July 2! That means I should have a few months at home before I have to start graduate school. I'm still holding out for some sort of miracle in which at the last minute another school offers me a full ride, but if not, I'll be heading to Denver in the fall. I'm really excited to get back to America and good food, hot showers, etc, but I'm also going to be sad to leave my friends in Djenne. Especially since I might not see them again for a very long time (if ever!). That said, I'll be trying to put in some quality time in the next two months.

As for work, I've been trying to keep up with the schools, but they seem to be either on strike, on vacation, or playing soccer (the latest reason for cancelled school this week). Also, I've been hoping to finish up an art project, but the teacher has been on vacation since she just got married! Hopefully when she gets back we'll be able to finish everything up.

A few weeks ago, I went on vacation with Shelby (a friend from college) to France and Italy. It was absolutely amazing and extremely COLD! A very nice break from the ridiculous weather we've been having in Mali, but I was definitely not prepared or well dressed for the cold! We hit up all the major tourist spots in Paris and Rome, and made a few other stops along the way. I'm going to post some pictures to my Picasa account now if the internet cooperates, and I'll try to update again soon!

School and such

2009-11-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

School has finally officially started in Mali, after a little bit of a rough start with the teachers being on strike...again. Luckily though, they've been going to school now for the past three weeks without interuption, so hopefully this means the teachers have worked out most of their issues and will keep on teaching! I've started working at a couple of the schools in Djenne teaching basic health topics to 6th graders, a series of reproductive health classes to ninth graders with another volunteer, and just recently I did an art project with a fourth grade class my friend teaches. We had the students each draw a picture of something that they think represents their lives in Djenne. I supplied the paper and crayons (not every child is required to show up with crayons on the first day of school like in the States!) and they went to work. It was definitely very interesting to see the ideas they came up with. I had to really stress that everyone not make a drawing of the same thing, and some students did get creative, but I also have lots of pictures of the Mali flag or drawings copied from their book. Creativity is just not valued as much here as it is back home, but hopefully this gave them at least one opportunity to do something fun and artsy! I will be mailing the pictures in to OneWorld Classrooms who will then send us back a bunch of drawings done by students from all over the world! I'm excited to see what kind of pictures we'll get, and we're thinking of doing a mural of a world map so that when we get the drawings we can locate the countries (and also clarify that you cannot, in fact, drive in the bashe to get to America!).
Other than that, life in Djenne had been good, Sally is still hanging around (although she seems to have scared her only remaining child away) and it's finally starting to cool off a bit!

Selifitini!

2009-09-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

Ramadan has finally come to a close, and I have to say, I was more than ready for it to be over! I believe in Islam they follow the lunar calendar, so for the month of Ramadan they started towards the end of August, and finished up a week or so ago. Every year, it moves up a little bit, but this year luckily it wasn't in the hot season! For the entire month, between sunrise and sunset, you cannot consume anything...no food, no water, and if your mouth is watering you are even supposed to spit that out (which they do!). Since you can't eat after sunrise, everyone wakes up before then to eat some food and drink lots of water and then they all go back to sleep for an hour or so. In the evenings, they would play a special thing on the radio so that everyone would know it was time to break the fast. They drink a certain tea, eat some porridge, and then go to the night prayer before eating a big dinner. I fasted for two whole days this Ramadan, just to get an idea of what is was like, and let me tell you, it's hard! Not so much the no eating part, because around lunch time I got pretty hungry, but after an hour or so of just not eating, I stopped being hungry. I cheated a little bit though because I still drank water (it was too hot not to!), but I definitely didn't drink as much as normal, and even that was difficult! I was ready for it to all be over though because by the end of the month it really seems like people start to get cranky and you can tell they are definitely ready to be done. Seflfishly, I was also ready because it threw off my usual schedule of going to visit people or eating lunch with friends (obviously since they weren't eating at all). I would also eat or drink water in secret, since I didn't want anyone who was fasting to see me eating. They also stayed up much later than usual, because after eating so much and drinking all that tea with sugar, no one was ready for bed around the usual time. At the end of Ramadan though, they usually have a celebration with lots of food and meat. This year, someone told me that for this holiday since it's the small one(seli means prayer in Bambara, and fitini is small), they just buy meat and good ingredients for sauce and then mostly relax. Having to buy good food and lots of sugar all month I guess leaves most people running low on cash, so they don't always have a big celebration. For Tabaski, which is 70 days after the end of Ramadan, they will actually buy a whole sheep to kill and eat (that holiday is seliba, ba meaning big). Everyone does get new clothes for the party though and it was really cute to see all the little kids walking around town all dressed up, with their hair done and all. In Djenne, they would go into people's concessions to sing songs for small change. I didn't have much in the way of small change, so I pretended it was Halloween and gave out candy. This was going really well until word must've gotten around and tons of children started coming to my door! Thankfully my host mom got them under control, but all in all, it was quite the interesting holiday!

Hail!

2009-09-11T03:25:00.000-07:00

Even though we should be nearing the end of rainy season, it seems like it's only now really been raining a lot in Djenne. This is going to make for an interesting year in the fields, as so many people in and around Djenne (and pretty much everywhere in Mali) are entirely dependent on their crops for food and money. They've been holding special prayers at the mosque to pray for rain, and they say that Inshallah (god willing) it will come. I'm hoping that this last bit of rainy season will be enough! One interesting thing did happen a few weeks ago. There was a huge storm that we had seen coming towards us practically all day. Finally in the evening it looked like it was going to reach us, but then the wind got so strong that we wondered if it would just blow over. Instead of passing us by, it hailed! It was strange because even though it cools down some in rainy season it didn't seem cool enough for golf ball sized hail! The kids all went wild, running out into the storm to collect the pieces and eat them. I didn't eat any (as most of them were a little muddy) but later a friend at the clinic told me I should have. She claims that if you are having trouble with your heart and the hail comes, it's a sign that things will change and you should eat the hail because it has medicine in it that can cure you. She also said it's good to eat it just in case since it doesn't come very often and you never know when the next time will be. If there is a next time while I'm still here, maybe I'll wash some off and make a cold drink, just in case!

In other news, the new kids had their swearing in ceremony and party and are now getting ready to head out to site to start working! I'm going to help them do some shopping for their houses when they come up to Mopti since a lot of them speak minority languages that you won't necessarily hear in the Mopti market. Also, the volunteers that have been around have a better idea of what the prices of things are supposed to be, so hopefully we can keep them from getting the toubab price on everything! Then it's back to Djenne for hopefully the start of the school year!

1 Year Down, 1 to go!

2009-08-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

So hard to believe that the day I flew back to the States for vacation was one year to the day that I was leaving for Mali! I gt back and had to do my mid service medical check up, which was also strange, because that means I have only about one year left here n Mali! While some of the days have maybe been a little long, it seems like the year has just flown by. Hopefully I will be able to get a lot more done this year, since I finally feel like I'm able to work in Bambara and French, but that means this year will go by even faster!
It was nice to come back to Djenne and see that they hadn't forgotten me and were really excited to see me. Also, they were excited to tell me that I was locked out of my own house! I had given my host family the key to my porch in order to watch my cats while I was gone, and apparently somehow the door handle had fallen off but they still managed to lock the door (with the handle inside). Then it finally started raining in true rainy season style, and the door warped so we couldn't get it open! My neighbor was eventually able to pry the door open and I got a new door handle, but it was still pretty funny that before I even made it to my street kids were telling me about it.
Tomorrow I head back to Djenne with the new volunteer who will be living in Senossa, about 7k from me! I hope I can make her site visit a little less traumatic than mine was (ie no mouse bites!). We'll be back in a week for the annual site visit party!

Mudding of the Mosque

2009-06-08T08:35:00.001-07:00

This past Thursday, after much speculation about what the actual date was going to be, the mudding of the mosque in Djenne finally happened! Hot season is also construction season in Mali, since people aren’t working in the fields or gardening, and they want to repair/build things before the rain starts. Being the largest mud structure in the world, the mudding has a big tradition in Djenne. Lots of people from the town all get together to help, especially the kids. They started the afternoon before the official day bringing mud up from the riverbanks to the front of the mosque. I was told that each quartier in Djenne is its own “team” and so I think those were the groups I saw that afternoon running with Malian flags, chanting as they went back and forth for mud. Supposedly each quartier team has its own section of the mosque to work on and they kind of have a race to see who will finish their part first. I’m not sure who one this year, but I think they had to switch things up a little since an NGO doing repairs to the inside of the mosque had already done some parts.
The morning of the actual mudding, they started at around 6am (to beat the heat that is pretty intense even by 10am). Boys were in charge of transporting mud, hauling it up and down the sides of the mosque, and mixing it by jumping up and down in it. Girls carried water on their heads to and from wells or the river to mix the mud. Of course, all the children participated in the throwing of mud at each other, which at first seemed mostly to be boys versus girls, but quickly escalated into hit anyone you can (and probably bonus points for getting a toubab, but I’m just guessing). Needless to say, but about 10am everyone was splattered with mud and people were starting to get a little wild, so my friends and I made our escape. I don’t think this blog entry really does the whole day justice; it really was amazing to watch people scaling the walls of the mosque barefoot and throwing baskets of mud up and down to each other. Thus, some pictures hopefully to follow so you can get a better idea of what it was like!

The Cat Came Back

2009-06-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

I almost lost a member of my Djenne family this week, but thankfully she narrowly escaped death (but not a traumatizing bath afterwards!). Sally and Jack (mom and one kitten that are left at my house) have been spending more and more time outside when I’m not at the house so they can catch lizards and run around. Usually, they come in when I get home in the early afternoon or evening, since their food and water bowls are on my porch. A few days ago, however, only Jack was waiting by more door when I got in. I figured his mom had probably come while I was still gone, given up, and found somewhere else to hang out. By 10pm though, there was still no sign of her, so I asked the Aminata (woman who lives across from me) if she had seen her. She told me to check the roof, and I knew there was a little room up there where the cats sometimes go, so I headed up. Turns out, she was not in the room or on the roof, but had fallen down the nyegen that’s upstairs! (Note: the nyegen is basically the latrine, and in Djenne most of them are on the second floor. Luckily, this nyegen is not the one that everyone uses, so it was basically just a whole with a dirt floor). I could look down and see her in there, and she didn’t look hurt or even like she really wanted to come out. I went back down, and told Aminata, who seemed to think Sally went down there often and could get out on her own. I figured maybe this was why they didn’t use that nyegen, since there was a hole to the outside or something, so I waited until morning to see if she could escape without help. When Kate and I ventured up the next day though, she was still in there! She wasn’t really crying, but you could tell she was getting hungry and thirsty because she wasn’t moving to fast. We tried everything we could think of to get her out; everything from lowering baskets of fish down to tying a hole in a rope and attempting to loop it over her. After over an hour and one sacrificed basket, we had to give up. It was really hard to do, but we just couldn’t think of anything else. My host family still kept saying she would get out, but we didn’t know how. The next day I spent the day in another village painting a mural, and when I got back everyone was asking about the cat. I was kind of wishing they would stop talking about it because they kept saying how she was probably still alive (which made me think of her starving down there). My host mom told me I could call someone to get her, but I don’t know anyone in Djenne who rescues cats, so they said they would get someone. I really thought there was no way, since Kate and I had tried for so long, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. And lo and behold, after only 5 minutes with a rope and some sort of special knot, Sally was free! She was definitely starving, and still didn’t smell good, but other than that no worse off than before! In fact, I’m pretty sure the bath I gave her (with antibacterial soap!) was more traumatizing than falling down the nyegen. Jack was very happy to have his mom back, and my host family is going to cover the hole so she can’t fall down there again. Always something to keep it exciting here in Djenne!

Wedding Weekend

2009-06-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated, but I had typed these entries as they happened so I’ll just post them all!

In between stopping at the med unit in Bamako and heading to Segou for a training session with an NGO, I spent the weekend with another volunteer in her site (rather than come all the way back up to Djenne for just a few days, and also it’s always fun to see everyone else’s villages!). I couldn’t have picked a better time, because it turned out to be wedding weekend! In her village, all the weddings take place on the same weekend. We think this is to prevent each family from having to give money to every griot, because if the weddings are all happening at the same time, they have to split up and can’t all be at the same one. Usually you are born into a griot family here, and they generally attend weddings, naming ceremonies, and other events and give people blessings. They sing songs about the people and how they are going to find money or peace in the future, and then whoever the song was about gives the griot money. In a bigger village, if your wedding was the only one happening, you might have to pay a lot of griots for coming (even though you didn’t invite them!). Anyway, it was really great to be in her village that weekend since a member of her host family was getting married and we got the inside scoop as to weddings in Mali (or at least in her village). Marriages here seem to just be about totally different things than what I was used to in the States. For example, it’s possible that the woman has never met the man she is going to marry, and normally the marriages are arranged by family members. Also, in the case of the man we knew, he was marrying his second wife, who was probably not more than 16 years old. The saddest part for me was that these women are basically leaving their families forever and going to live with someone they maybe don’t know at all. Obviously, that’s pretty upsetting to think about, and the women cry during a lot of the wedding events. I’ve been told that this is what they are supposed to do, because they aren’t supposed to seem excited, but I also think they are probably genuinely sad to be leaving their families and friends. One girl’s husband had even come from a different country just to marry her, and then they were returning, so she may never see her family again.
I don’t want this to sound like weddings are all bad here, but there are definitely some sad parts. There’s tons of eating of good food, dancing, and visiting, and family members travel from far away if they can to be there for the wedding of a relative. The bride also gets to stay inside for at least three days, which might sound boring (and probably is a little) but I think it’s probably also nice for the women to have all their meals cooked, and not have to work so hard for a little while. They also get really dressed up to go to the mayor’s office, and everyone comes and gives blessings and greets the new couple.
All in all, it was definitely interesting to see, and something that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to experience unless someone I knew well in Djenne was getting married (and pretty much everyone I know already is married!).

Timbouctou

2009-04-21T04:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Timbouctou!

We rode camels out into the desert and spent the night by the sand dunes, then rode the camels back in the next day. Wearing of a turban is apparently required for camel riding!

The lead camel gets to wear a fancy headress!

One of the mosques in the city

The 4x4 that drove us through the desert. They definitely don't make it easy to get there (unless you want to fly directly in but where's the fun in that!?)

Film Festival!

2009-03-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

The film festival in Burkina Faso (in the wonderfully named capital of Ouagadougou, actually) was a blast! I don't think I've ever watched that many movies in one week, but it was well worth it (and the 12 hour transport adventure it took us to get there). It was really interesting to see another capital in West Africa to compare to Bamako. We definitely did our share of walking around the city going from one theatre to another so I feel like we got a pretty good feel of things. It was a little weird to be a tourist again though, after constantly telling people in Mali that no, I do actually live here! As for the movies, there were shorts, documentaries, feature length films, etc. Some of my favorites in the feature length/documentary categories (which I've heard can be found online or on netflicks with a little searching were:

La Maison Jaune (in Arabic with French subtitles, but pretty basic French I thought)
The Day After Peace (in English)
Teza (again in local language with French) This won the festival!!

Back in site other than the usual work at school and CSCom the most exciting thing to have happened (for me anyway) was my start of hot season present to myself...a big fan! It definitely makes the house much more bearable during the day...and I think it'll definitely be worth it. I figured, if I have electricity, why not?

Also: I finally downloaded skype to my laptop, so although I don't get to hook it up to internet too often, my skype name is stacyjeanw. Just in case you wanted to call me!

Sira Samake on Air

2009-02-16T03:18:00.000-08:00

After a little over a week in Djenne post training in Bamako, I’m getting back into the swing of things. Going from such scheduled days at Tubaniso to the typical two hour lunch/nap break in the middle of the day took some adjusting, but it was also nice to get back to the house and not be living out of a suitcase anymore! I also came back to 6 cats instead of one…Sally had her kittens! I’ve managed to find homes for a couple of them already with other volunteers, so hopefully I won’t be living with 6 cats for the next year and a half!
While at Tubaniso cold season came and went in a flash. There were definitely days when I wore long sleeves all day, but by the time training was over (3 weeks later) it was hot during the day again. Typical desert weather I suppose. Currently, it’s been hot during the day but still nice enough at night that I’ve been able to sleep inside. I hear from the volunteers that lived through hot season last year that by the end of February, it’ll still be 80 or 90 degrees in the evenings…blech. This makes even Florida winters look chilly!
One nice thing since I’ve been back is that I’ve finally started a couple of the things I wanted to do prior to training. The most fun one being a radio broadcast! It looks like I’ll get to have my very own time slot each week to talk about health related topics. The health hour was already on the schedule, but the midwife who used to do it moved away, and no one ever replaced her so they had just been playing music. Perfect for me, since it won’t be a big deal if I can’t make it one week or am out of town. Basically, I write out what I want to say beforehand (since my Bambara isn’t quite up to ad-libbing on air yet) and then I talk a little, the Dj plays a little music, and back and forth like so until I’ve finished my talk. Then of course we have the “shout outs”. I greet my host family, homologue, and the people in the village whose clinic I work at. This seems to be everyone’s favorite part of the broadcast, but hopefully they’re learning a little while they wait to hear their names on the radio. Eventually I’ll probably play some American music and maybe even have a guest speaker or too, but for now I’m content to read my scripts and say a few hellos.
After doing our first lessons on HIV/AIDS at the 9th grade here, it’s been like walking around a whole new town for Kate and me. I don’t know if it’s just wishful thinking, but I do feel like I’ve heard less “Toubab!” and more “Sira!” when I’m in town. Probably that’s because with 80-90 kids per class and the three classes we’ve gone talked to so far, there are a whole lot more kids that recognize me, even if I don’t remember all of them from class. We’ll see what happens after I do my first health lessons at the elementary school this week…I’ll be practically a celebrity haha.

Joking Cousins and other adventures in training

2009-01-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

Only three days left of in service training and then it's back to the real world in Djenne. This means no more showers, delicious food, or wireless internet, but I'm suprisingly ready to get back. Being at the training center is a little like what I imagine sleep away summer camp must have been like, with all of us eating meals in the refectoire and sleeping in little huts. All in all, it's been a lot of sitting in sessions learning about health/development, but there are a few things that have kept it interesting.
One being, I learned how to knit! My tentative plan, should I eventually become any good at it, is to knit a whole bunch of baby hats so that after educating women on the importance of going to the doctor to give birth (they currently prefer to do this at home) I can reward them with little knitted hats for their newborns! This may not fall into the category of sustainable projects (as in will be continued after I leave) but I think it will be fun and the women will really like it.
On the subject of joking cousins: In Mali, there are relatively few last names (as your last name usually indicates your ethnic group). In the history of Mali I guess there was a lot of infighting between these groups, and so in order to keep the peace, they developed the joking cousins system. Basically the way it works is this: If two people are fighting, or there is any sort of problem, and it is discovered that they are joking cousins, they immediately begin making fun of each other and the crisis is resolved. It may sound too easy, but I have actually seen it in action and it works! It is also just fun to joke with people, so they do it ALL THE TIME. For example, I was in the doctor's office the other day having some blood drawn (nothing major) and in the middle of everything another guy walks into the room. He of course asks my last name, and lo and behold we are joking cousins! So while the woman fills three vials with blood, he tells me that the reason I am sick must be because I eat SO many beans. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if I had some in my bag right now! I called him a crazy donkey and said yes I do love beans, which he thought was so funny he about died laughing and the nurse almost kicked him out! hehe. Even in the doctor's office you can't escape it. Other common jokes include: "you are my slave" or "you are not a person." What makes it so entertaining, I haven't quite figured out yet, but it is pretty fun, and it never gets old!
One last anecdote from training so far. My homologue, Nana, who I work with in village has been here this last week (as have all the homologues to get some training). Today we were talking about when I first came to Mali, and she finally told me that when I rode up on a donkey cart the first day and all the little kids surrounded me she thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen! A tubab in the middle of a circle of Malians, on a donkey cart, saying "Nana be min?" (where is nana?)and as she claims, looking very scared. I guess it does make for a pretty funny portrait, but I didn't ever realize how funny she thought it was. She then told the story to a bunch of homologues who thought it was equally hilarious! I probably shouldn't have, but I did tell her about a time in village when I had to ask someone where my own house was, because I had gotten lost and I knew they would know where the tubab girl lived (which they did! haha). When we finally got over our laughing fit, she at least did say I never would have been able to tell her that with how horrible my Bambara was before! At least I think that implies it is a little better now, right?

Holidays Mali style

2009-01-09T02:38:00.000-08:00

First and foremost, I finally managed to post more pictures! I haven't figured out how to get them on my blog yet, but at least if you click on the link you should be able to find them. I'll work on adding some captions, but for now most are from the hike in Dogon country, Christmas and New Year's, with some of my host family and house thrown in. Also, thank you to everyone who sent christmas cards or packages! It really made my holiday so much better.
Now, since the last post I've mostly been traveling and getting ready for in service training which starts Monday. Over Christmas we hiked in Dogon country to see the villages that have been built up into the cliffs. There are some houses not in use anymore that you can see way high up and I honestly have no idea how the people managed to get up there to live. When we asked our guide, he matter of factly said, "Because they had a sacred language that allowed them to walk like lizards". Oh. It was really interesting to hear about the Dogon and Tellam (people who lived there before the Dogons) culture because they are pretty much the last remaining animists in the area. We had to go with a guide to avoid accidentally stepping on any sacred spots. If you should do this, the price is the sacrifice of a goat or cow (incidentally not cheap). Luckily we managed to hike all around without offending anyone or ruining any sacred spots. It was really amazing to see how these people live in the cliffs though. As we were slowly making our way up the cliff, some men practically ran past us with huge baskets on their heads. Turns out they were bringing our food up to the campement! Women also manage to climb around with buckets of water on their heads. For some of the villages they have to climb all the way down the cliff to get water from a pump at the bottom. Definitely made me appreciate the spicket outside my house.
As for New Year's, I spent it with a bunch of other volunteers in a village in between Gao and Sevare. We all had a good time, but it was a little sad that for the first time I had a little bit of a hard time staying up until midnight! Way past my usual 9pm bed time.
One of the pictures I wanted to add to the blog but unfortunately couldn't get to work was of Sally, the new addition to our household. We inherited her from another volunteer that left early. She is only a year old and pretty small, so we were surprised when we got her home and only a week later she seemed to have gained a lot of weight. Lo and behold, she's pregnant! So now my mission while with other volunteers for IST is to find homes for however many kittens she ends up having. I did find out though that there is cat birth control available at some pharmacies here! I thought she was a little young to be starting that already, but clearly I was wrong. Naive parenting on our part I guess, haha.
I'll be at the training center for the next three weeks, so I'll hopefully be able to post some more and fill everyone in on what else I've been up to since thanksgiving time!

Basa Bana!

2008-11-28T00:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving yesterday first of all! We went to a hotel for dinner and had some pretty yummy pork, mashed potatoes, and pie! Good stuff.
Until coming in to Sevare for thanksgiving I had been at site for around a month and I think it's possible that my Bambara is finally starting to improve! I've begun weighing babies and doing some other small projects, so I think once everything really gets going it will improve even more. It will also be nice to have a busier schedule.
Now on to more important news and the reason for the title of this blog: a basa is a giant lizard, and they are everywhere here. If something is a bana in Bambara it is dead. This particulary basa became a bana because I killed it in our house with a broom. Normally I really don't mind having the little lizards in our house because I tell myself they eat the mosquitos and other bugs that get in. This particular lizard however, was ENORMOUS and I have no idea how it even got inside the house! I never saw it come in while I was going in or out, so I guess there most be some hole somewhere that it came in through. I think that it also didn't really want to be inside the house, but once it got in it couldn't get back out, so it was just running wildly around the house going in and out of boxes and other stuff and making lots of noise. The first night that I realized it was still inside, it tried to come in my bed, but thanks to my trusty mosquito net being tucked in, it couldn't get me! I thought about trying to chase it out then, but it ran away and I couldn't find it so I went to sleep and hoped it would find its own way out. Sadly (for it), it did not find its way out, and the next night the same thing happened except I actually had been asleep when I heard it running around and getting into things. I tried to look for it, and noticed that it had given up on trying to get in my bed and instead had actually gotten into and standing in the middle of Elizabeth's bed! (she was fortunately not in the bed because she had gone down to Bamako). I decided at that point that I was going to just chase it out or trap it somehow and have the children get it out for me. It wasn't really very afraid of me, so of course it didn't run away until the last minute when it then had to run over my feet to get into the other room. This explanation is getting a little long, so let's just say that I eventually decided there was no way it was going to leave quietly, and I eventually trapped it in a corner and killed it with the broom. The children who came in to get the dead lizard out were in awe when I told them that it was in fact me who had killed it. They then proceeded to tell everyone so that the next morning when I came out for breakfast I had to retell the story to all the people in the concession, all of whom were amazed, but also thought it was hilarious because why would I have a problem with a lizard in my house?

What exactly am I doing here you ask?

2008-10-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

I’m finally typing this entry from my house instead of the internet café, thanks to the newly installed battery in my computer! With a little luck, my laptop may actually make it through two years here!
This past week (as well as the week coming up) was pretty eventful. Although we do not have to start any real work or projects for the first three months, there is only so much wandering around and talking to people I can do before I get antsy. I was also getting a little tired of the people in village asking me what I am going to do here for two years. Thus, I did my first animation at the clinic in my old village (which I have still been going to once a week). I talked to a pretty big group of women actually about how to make a rehydration drink that they can give to their kids if they have diarrhea (the drink is really just water with sugar and salt). This may not sound riveting, but it actually is a pretty important topic because many babies and young children die from dehydration caused by diarrhea, which they get all the time. This is partly because they don’t like to wash their hands with soap (which I think will be the topic of my next chat). I taught them how to make it with the help of my homologue, and then I let all of the kids (babies mostly) taste it. It was pretty funny to watch their reactions because some of them cried and spit it out and some of them absolutely loved it! It was also nice to see that almost all the moringa trees I planted a few weeks ago have sprouted! Aside from getting a flat tire on my way home (luckily close enough that I just walked the last little bit as I of course forgot the pump at home) it was a really good trip to the village. Soon the water will have receded enough for me to take the shortcut, but this also means that I will be even more covered in red dust by the time I get there. Between the dryness and the wind, my feet and legs are usually completely red by the time I get to the village! This only adds to the amusement of the health workers at the clinic who already think it’s quite hilarious to see a toubab riding a mountain bike wearing a helmet, backpack, and pants, and now covered in dust. I’m sure if I saw myself like this I would laugh too, but thankfully there are no mirrors at the CSCom, so I can pretend I don’t look completely ridiculous.
This week I am going to paint a mural with another volunteer close by so that when I start weigh babies (which is mainly to check for malnutrition) I can show the moms on a chart on the wall where their child falls and they can see how they are growing. Not a very major project, but at least something to keep me busy, and people really seem to like murals here (we also painted one in our homestay village which everyone loved). After that, I’m off to see some other volunteers for Halloween and then we are having an election watch party here in Djenne! I’m really excited to be able to actually watch the results come in on TV, even though it will be probably 2 or 3am here. Sadly, my absentee ballot never made its way to Mali (not that surprising coming from Florida I suppose) so I didn’t get to vote, but at least I will be able to watch!

PS: I’ve had several people ask me about good things to send, so if you are feeling generous, I’m going to post a list shortly of things I can pretty much always use (or always want!). The best bet so far seems to be the flat rate boxes, because then it doesn’t matter how much it weighs, but for just a few things, envelopes work two because sometimes the post office here will just put them in my box instead of labeling it as a package which I have to ask about and sometimes pay for (not a lot luckily!). Thank you to everyone that has already since something!

Good thing there's a shower in Sevare

2008-10-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

In hopes of filling out my absentee ballot this weekend, I came to Sevare, but alas, no ballots to be found. It's still always nice to use the internet and eat good food though, and coming into town worked out especially well for another reason. At my new house, I share a yard with three other families, and in the middle of our yard is the faucet we all use to get water. The payment system for said faucet usually just rotates, so one family pays this month, another the next, and so on. I had noticed that there seemed to be something going on between the families because there was more yelling at night and people seemed to be angry, but of course, with my limited Bambara I pretty much had no idea what was going on. On my way to get water this morning I found out. Apparently, whoever was supposed to have paid the bill this month (I'm assuming not me because no one ever presented me with any sort of bill or mentioned anything about water) decided that it was way to high and something must be wrong, but instead of doing something about it, the decision was made to simply not pay it at all. So this morning, when I went to get water, there was a little box with a lock over the faucet. Thankfully I was planning to shower upon arrival in Sevare (public transport is usually a sweaty, dusty process) so it wasn't that big of a deal, but I do hope it gets turned on by the time I get back! I'm not all that optimistic though because when I was leaving I noticed some of the people in my concession waiting in line to get water from a public faucet where you just pay 25CFA to get water. I hope they aren't just planning on doing this indefinitely, but it wouldn't really surprise me. Soon I too may be waiting in line to get my bucket bath water. At least the public fountain is right outside the door to my yard!
I've adjusted pretty well to life in the city, and I think I am really going to like living there, despite the children constantly asking for my water bottle. Peace Corps sent a tutor to do a week of language training in French so that it would be easier for me to work with my local tutor, and I think I've really improved a lot. Learning two languages at once is a little confusing, but I think it will work out because I'll probably be speaking more French in my work, but I practice Bambara a lot with my host family as well. As for work, I am still going to help out in my old village once a week, and I hope to paint a mural there next week, which I think will help prove to them that I am not totally abandoning them! Things with the Mission Culturelle are also starting to get underway, so that should keep me busy for a while and help me practice French. The Mission Culturelle recently received a grant from the US Embassy, because of the World Heritage Site, to try and promote education about the importance of protecting the city's heritage as well as stopping pillaging. There is an architectural site right outside the city that has lost a lot of interesting artifacts due to pillaging, so hopefully this project will help explain why people should protect these areas instead of stealing things and selling them. I think most of our work (Kate and Elizabeth and I are working together on it) will be with the schools and potentially going to different villages to talk about it. It's not exactly health related, but definitely very interesting, so it should be fun!
In other news, we are all anxiously awaiting election day! I've been listening to the BBC world news most mornings, so we get some updates about the debates and such, but it would be really nice to actually watch the results come in on TV! There are a couple of potential watch-party sites, so hopefully we will be able to work something out, even though it will probably have to be a sleep over because the results won't be in until 3 or 4am here! That's a little past my usual 9pm bed time, but worth it I think!

Movin on Up

2008-10-06T03:27:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post is being typed on a French keyboard, so I apologize in advance for the grammar and/or spelling mistakes! After much thought and discussion with my boss in Peace Corps, I have decided to move from the village I was placed in to a bigger town nearby. We are not supposed to say exactly where we live, but lets just say that now I have electricity and a water source that isnt 2k away! There were a lot of factors in my decision to move, but the main problem was language. It turns out that the people in village dont speak as much Bambara as we were told, and as it is not a written language, it would be difficult for me to even learn it. On top of that, I wasnt really thrilled that I would then be trying to learn three new languages at the same time! I am still going to do some work in this village (I will probably ride my bike out once a week or so) but the rest of my time will be spent on projects here in the city. I am really looking forwrd to it because it seems like there will be a lot for me to get involved with here. Im running out of internet time, but I just wanted to post a quick update to let everyone know about the move, and hopefully next week I will be able to post more about what Ive been up to!

Into the Brousse!

2008-09-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened in the past three weeks at homestay and few days at Tubaniso, so I'll try to recap some of the highlights. First though, and more importantly, I passed my language test, so all systems are go for me to swear in on Friday and officially become a Peace Corps Volunteer! Following swear in on Friday morning (which will be broadcast on national Malian television!) we are having a little BBQ at a place with a pool in the afternoon and then going out to celebrate that night. They have arranged for us to stay in a hotel in Bamako that night and we have Saturday to get any last minute things we need before heading out on Sunday morning. I will be actually getting installed in my village on Tuesday, so it may be a while before I am able to access internet again, but once I'm settled I'll try and write a little more in detail about my new home!
Some highlights from the last three weeks at homestay:
I was actually able to do some techincal training, and we learned how to weigh babies, make a porridge that helps rehabilitate malnourished children, and animate groups of women on a drink that helps with dehydration. Animations (basically little 10-15 minute talks to small groups) are probably going to be a lot of my job for the next two years, so it was good to practice, especially since I had to give my talk in Bambara! We also visited a malnutrition rehabilitation center, which was of course sad, but it was also upsetting to find that the center is completely supplied by outside sources. The milk, porridge, and other high calorie foods offered to the children are all given to the center for free by NGOs. We spend a lot of time talking about sustainability in PC and to find out that the center would not exist if NGOs decided to leave or ran out of money was a little disheartening. Malnutrition here is an interesting problem because in most cases it isn't the result of a lack of food, but eating the wrong foods or getting sick and not being able to recover. The pediatrician in charge told us this outright and said that sustaining the clinic major concern, which at least demonstrates that she recognizes the problem. A step in the right direction, but they still have a long way to go to function without foreign aid. I also painted a mural with the other girls from my homestay which turned out really well! We did a picture of the food groups (there are only three in Mali) with the foods you would need to eat from each one. Then we had a community leader talk to the village about the importance of eating from all three food groups to be healthy. I'm not sure how much actual health information they got from it, but they really appreciated the mural and it was nice to leave something behind in homestay village.
One funny thing about leaving homestay was an incident with my host family. The entire week before leaving, they kept talking about photos and a camera, and I thought they wanted me to take their pictures. While I did want to take some of my host family and the village, I didn't want to take it out all the time because kids tend to get really crazy when you take their picture! I wasn't exactly sure what they were saying, so I told them that the batteries in my camera were dead, but I would try and get some new ones. Apparently, they were not talking about my camera at all, because a few days later after eating dinner, I was sitting around chatting with my host brother and a "professional" photographer came into the concession! My family hired him I guess, and I had to take a picture with every single member of the family, then me by my house, me sitting in the concession, me with the whole family together, etc. It was quite a photo shoot! Needless to say, I'm sure they'll be showing pictures of the toubab that lived with them to anyone that comes over haha. They also wanted to send me with the lovely parting gift of the rest of the chicken that they killed for my going away breakfast, but I respectfully declined and gave it to the kids to eat. I'm sure my new host family will come with a whole new set of interesting things to write about, which will be in my next post as an official PCV! Wish me luck en brousse!

Now I know how the people on Oregon Trail felt

2008-08-18T13:15:00.001-07:00

I made it back from site visit, and mostly in one piece. I am only missing a tiny little piece of my finger where I was bitten by a mouse my first night in village. Lucky me! Two rabies shots and a hamburger in Mopti (to make myself feel better) later, I am fine, and my host dad at site promised to catch the mouse and "take care of it" before I get back. Other volunteers have told me that there are plenty of ways to keep mice out, the easiest one being to get a cat, so I may be inheriting a pet in the future. Getting to site was probably the most eventful part of the whole week as it involved a 10 hour bus ride, followed by a bashee (old station wagon turned taxi) ride through brousse, a river crossing via ferry, and finally a donkey cart adventure to get to my actual village! Riding on a donkey cart was eerily similar to the beloved elementary school game Oregon Trail. I sat on top of the cart on bags of rice with about 10 other women and my bike strapped to the back. We forged a river, lost some bags of rice off the back that we had to go back for, and helped another cart get unstuck from the mud! Thankfully no one got dysentery, at least that I know of. All in all, a memorable trip on public transport in Mali. My site is really great (minus house guest)and I have two rooms, my own nyegen, and my own concession, which is like a little front yard with a tree. My host family (jatigi) is really great; they seem much more excited than my host family at homestay, and they didn't feed me to once so I think we are going to get along quite well! The village itself kind of reminds me of Emerald City in that the road literally ends at the entrance to the village, except its a red dirt road and not yellow brick haha. I do get cell phone service at the clinic where I will be working, but no electricity and no market, so I'll be going into Djenne at least once a week. I think it'll be nice to do this actually because there is another volunteer in Djenne, so it will be fun to get together even for an afternoon. Djenne also has a couple of hotels, restaraunts, and internet cafes since it's pretty tourist-y, so it'll be nice to have access to all that relatively easily. One not so nice thing about it being such a center for tourism is the little kids. They have learned how to say "give me" in french and will ask you for anything from money to your water bottle to presents! This gets annoying pretty fast, especially since they seem to travel in groups of ten and like to tug on your clothes while asking for things. I'm just hoping that since I will be there regularly they will eventually figure out that I am not a tourist and do not want to give them my water bottle haha.
It's really weird to think that I have been in Mali for over a month now! Sometimes it seems like much much longer, but it's also crazy that training is almost over. Let's just hope I can get through the next 20 days at site with my homestay family and not have to eat to every day, inshallah!

Technology Hates Me

2008-08-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

So an unfortunate incident occured yesterday...the death of my trusty computer. I think that the battery has simply died, and cannot be recharged so this post is going to be short as the computer's at the training center are rather frustrating to type on. Saturday I leave for my site visit! I have a 10-13 hour bus, taxi, and finally bike ride from the capitol to my site, so I am pretty sure this is going to be quite an adventure! My counterpart is going to be with me, and I am hoping that between French and Bambara we will be able to make it to site! I will be at my actual site for a few days meeting the chief, seeing the clinic where I will work, and hopefully seeing my house! Then I will be in my banking town to set up my account and finally the regional capitol to meet some of the current PCVs before heading back to Bamako. All in all it should be an eventful week, and I will do my best to write all about site when I get back! Until then, I am giving up on this keyboard and going to take a shower (not bucket bath yay!) before bed.

2008-07-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-07-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-07-08T19:48:00.001-07:00

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.