I'm here in Bamako, still cooling my heels waiting for some tests. I feel 100% better but they want to make sure they know what it was before they send me back. I'm quite content with a diet coke and a twix right now-doesn't take much to make me happy.
First let me say, "Issalan" (tammasheq for what's up) or "Bonjour" to Ms. Betz's french class in Pennsylvania. I'm really excited to be your pen-pal and am ready to help you in any way I can. Please check out the pictures and posts I have up that will give you an idea of what I'm doing here and where I'm living and let me know if you have any questions or ideas that you want to share.
I'm enjoying a nice respite from Malian food here in Bamako where they have all sorts of restaurants and grocery stores with things like cereal,cookies and candy bars. We made pasta and sauce last night at the med office and for not having all the ingredients you would normally expect, it was actually pretty good. The best part about being here is there is a patesserie not far away that has Cafe au lait like you would find in France. It made my week yesterday.
However, I'm making it sound like we don't have food at site when we're actually pretty lucky when it comes to variety. My town being fairly large there's almost always fruits and veggies each day at the market, usually bananas and oranges but somtimes guavas and mangoes. From what I understand they come all the way from Sikasso, the southern most region in Mali that has fruits and veggies year round. For veggies there's always sweet potatoes, onions and usually cucumbers. There's also a woman who sells salad and tomato from Gao when its available. Gao is along the Niger river so they're able to grow rice and veggies in the desert. Usually its only us and some of the fonctionaires that I've seen by the salad and tomatoes. Fruits and Veggies are expensive and hard to find up here and so they aren't a big part of the diet. There's a bunch of big gardens that surround my town too but people mainly grow onions, okra and hot pepper all to sell. Gardening up here is hard with no rain and poor soil and very labor intensive. We're growing our own little garden right now and having loads of problems with water, soil and too much sun. I can't encourage others to garden more until I've figured out how to do it myself.
When i eat with my family its always rice or eesink(called "to" in the bamabara speaking mali but eesink in tammasheq, which roughly translates to "food")which is a doughy substance made from millet. The rice of eesink is always served with a sauce that is spread ove rthe rice or that you dip the to in. Sauces vary from tomatoey ones to fakoy(sp?) which is a leafy green sauce and there's even a peanut sauce. Because there's so many of us in our family, usually there is only a little bit-size piece of meat for everyone. While the tammasheq people raise cattle, goat and camels for their livelihood they don't eat it as much as we do in the states. Its expensive and usually big pieces of meat are reserved for holidays or special occasions, when they will slaughter a goat or sheep or even more than one. Their herds of animals are like their bank accounts. When they need money, they bring in an animal to sell at the livestock market. Otherwise, they're kept out in huge herds in the bush with someone in the family or a group of the family who lives with them. The Muslim holiday of Tabaski is right around the corner (on the 20 of decemeber this year) and its traditional to slaughter a sheep or more than one to commemorate Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son for Allah. All the prices on sheep have skyrocketed (this is what i hear, i haven't exactly been out looking for one myself)in the last couple weeks, as everyone secures their sheep. Because the islamic lunar calendar is much different from our roman calendar, its a coincidence that tabaski is so close to christmas this year but its nice that we all have a holiday coming up at the same time and can celebrate together. Bess and I (if i get back in time) are going to bake cookies and cakes in our solar ovens in celebration of both holidays!
While I just made it sound like my daily life revolves around nothing but food, I do have other things I do each day.Apart from chores around the house, which take up more then you'd think (I wash my laundry by hand once or twice a week and dishes the same way when I have made myself or my family something.), I've been conducting interviews and attending meetings around town, trying to find out as much as I can before we start work on projects. I'm focusing on Biodiversity and reforestation as one project and eco-tourism as another. I won't bore you with the details now but rest assured I will get into it later on and probably won't stop talking about it. I'm also working with the Women's associations and the union with organizational stuff and teaching english with Bess and Jared. Bess and I also want to start a girl's bball team although its tough because the court is so far away from the rest of the town. We've also been kicking aruond the idea of expanding Bess' original idea of a library to a whole youth/community center type thing. more details on that too. The last couple months we've been having Tammasheq lessons at my house with our tutor and then our LCF came for a week and gave us intensive training the week after Thanksgiving. It just takes time with language but I do feel like I'm understanding more of what's said to me and learning some new phrases.
Outside of site, not too much new info. I'm spending Xmas in Gao with the other volunteers that live on teh dark side of the moon. We're having a bbq with a kiddie pool and slip and slide and we'll be exchanging gifts through white elephant. I believe we'll also be having our own version of the "dundys" (just like the office) including a best couple prize (wonder who that will go to....).After christmas and New year's, I'll be back here in Bamako at Tubaniso for two weeks of training which I'm semi-looking forward to. I don't want to be away from site for so long!
Mom Dad and Evan are coming to AFRICA! in February and I can't wait for their arrival. Al is going to love the birds and wildlife and lee will get to use her french. Evan will keep me sane. (just kidding!) They're going to see my town, Gao and maybe dogon country too over a two week span.
I hope everyone has a very happy holiday, i love and miss you all very much! Check out more pictures on facebook as well. And if anyone knows anything about skype forwarding to international cellphones let me know. i might be able to get a US skype number that's cheap to call from the us but i think its really expensive on my end to forward. Anyone know?
Evan-congratulations on the win! get dad to take more pictures at your races so i can see you in action!
Mike and Caroline, i hope you get my letters soon. I'm constantly thinking of you and hope that you're doing ok. Carla, Aunt Mims and Aunt Anne, thanks for your posts! hope you're doing ok too. You're all in my prayers. Please give all of the family my love, especially Gogo.
Ladies of cedar turret around the world, Happy Holidays! I love and miss you all terribly!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Hey yall
the last post was a check to make sure things were working. here are pics
etc from the last three months. This is the first time ive had a fast enough internet connection to get things up. Im down in Bamako because I was pretty sick last week and they couldn't figure out what it was over the phone so im down here for a BRIEF stay, hopefully out of here on Monday. Im feeling great now so hopefully whatever it is is gone.
Ill write a long update tomorrow on projects etc and how everythings going but i wanted to get these pictures up.
They include, camels at the Gossi livestock market, bess with camels, pictures of the family, halloween etc.
the last post was a check to make sure things were working. here are pics
etc from the last three months. This is the first time ive had a fast enough internet connection to get things up. Im down in Bamako because I was pretty sick last week and they couldn't figure out what it was over the phone so im down here for a BRIEF stay, hopefully out of here on Monday. Im feeling great now so hopefully whatever it is is gone.
Ill write a long update tomorrow on projects etc and how everythings going but i wanted to get these pictures up.
They include, camels at the Gossi livestock market, bess with camels, pictures of the family, halloween etc.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Hey friends and fam!
Happy THANKSGIVING!!! I’m here in Gao where the internet is finally working so I’m able to respond to emails and “fingers crossed” post some pictures. I should have internet regularly from now on as I’ve made some new friends who have wireless, but I may also be jinxing myself right now.
We’re celebrating tomorrow with Turkey and all the fixings including pies and mashed potatoes. Almost all the volunteers in the region have come to town and we’re also having a bunch of ex-pats over as well to celebrate with us. Bess and I are going to try to make a pumpkin pie( fingers crossed) and scalloped potatoes and stuffing are already in the process of being made. Its amazing what you can find and make here if you put your mind to it. We’ve had Mexican, Indian, Mac and cheese all in Gao and in village we’ve figured out how to make cakes and cookies in our solar cookers and have also had some delicious meals of tortillas, cucumbers, onions and meat! I usually eat lunch and dinner with my family, which is usually rice or to with a sauce and a little bit of meat. Malians do not get close to enough fruit and veggies and meat but when you’re cooking and buying for twelve, you have to stay in budget and rice is cheap. I’ve been trying to buy my family what’s missing from their diet when I can and they’ve graciously chowing down. Can you tell I have food on the mind??
Site is good and I’m really coming to love it here. My language is actually improving and I’m understanding around 20-30 percent of what is said to me (to be fair this is a high estimate). Either way I’m feeling better about it and im thinking that I may actually be able to communicate with people in two years in tammsheq. However, I am so grateful to have my French because I think its kept me sane .
Work is also going well and I’ll definitely write more about it next time. I’m learning a lot about all the different associations and projects that are already up and running in town and the possibilities of expansion or new projects. The elephants are just getting to the mare now, so hopefully I’ll have pictures of them as well as some other spots in town for next time.
Promise you won’t tell my village—but I’m actually not married. The marriage proposal thing was really starting to irk me so I made up a husband in America. His name is alternately Michael or John, depending on what comes to me, and i tell everyone that he will be really upset if I had a husband in Mali. To which the response usually is," oh he won’t know, you must have a husband here in Mali." I’ve been trying to explain how there’s laws against this but its just not getting across. A lot of other volunteers, both male and female, have been facing the same problems and they’ve advised me to try the “you can’t afford me” response, which refers to the large dowry that my family would obviously demand. I’m not sure if I’m going to take that route as I don’t want to come off as perpetuating any sense of superiority so I’ll just have to get more creative.
So im sorry this is a short post, but I’ve got more emails to tackle! I miss you all very much and thank you for the bday wishes! I wish you all a very happy thanksgiving and hope you’re with the ones you love.
Here’s a post I wrote two weeks ago…..
So internet up here isn’t really… per se…reliable. Its been out for the past month and as I’m writing this on my laptop, I don’t know when I’ll be able to post it. If you want to reach me, or really love me a lot, you might have more success in sending me a letter or oreo cookies.
I’m enjoying life here with new surprises around the corner every day, whether it be a new word in Tammasheq or the climax of a four hour long Union meeting, where the two eldest gentlemen erupted in insults at each other, which seemed like it came out of nowhere, but I may have missed something, as I don’t really speak the language. I now have a cat, named “Ma Moos a wa”, which translates to “what is this” in Tammasheq and Bess and Jared have a dog, which they gave the more traditional name of “Chewy”. My family is awesome. My dad is named Aguissa (prounounced Reesa), mom Tuckamanit (spelled phonetically), oldest sister Asahara 23, followed by, in order by age, El-Mehdi20 or 19, Abubacrin(abu) 16/15, Suleyman14/13, Ousman13/12, Moussa10/9, Zeinaba (6 or 7 girl, also my bff) Oumar 3/4 and baby Xadijatu who is about 8 or 9 months. Two of my cousins also live with us, Alxamis (says he’s 23 but not a day over 20) and Abdoulay(14), so that they can go to school in Gossi. Their families are living out in the bush with their animals and there isn’t any yellow school bus to pick up the nomadic kids Harunna my eldest sister’s son also lives with us—he’s 5 but acts like he’s a 75 year old man. Its in his walk and attitude. I guess you have to see it. . My family is without a doubt the best they could possibly be. My dad LOVES his kids so much, especially his baby girl and my mom doesn’t take crap from anybody—how could you with 12 kids? She also loves to laugh and has learned to say “hey Raisha, whatsh up” after we taught this, the most important of all American phrases, to Zeinaba, Harunna and Oumar. Everyone has chores to do which include feeding the goats, milking the goats, washing tons of dishes, cooking (often done by Abu, who prefers to stay at home and cook rather than going to school and he’s realllly good at it!), fixing dad’s moto, working in one of four gardens, getting Raisha’s water….etc. When the kids aren’t doing chores, they’re usually off running around town or hanging out in our concession and most of them are very good students as well, practicing their lessons on the giant chalkboard we keep around. Oumar Harunna and Zeinaba have taken a particular liking to hanging outside my house, under my hangar, watching whatever I’m doing, talking to me or to each other about whatever I’m doing, and occasionally helping me with whatever I’m doing if they’re not climbing on me. Recently when we were having one of our hang out sessions, Oumar and Harunna started a really interesting conversation prompted by my question about what the word for stick was again. They talked for five minutes about what all the different words for wood were of which I believe there were about 8 or 9. It was so funny to watch a 3 and 4 year old discuss the different words for the different lengths and sizes of wood, as if they were having a frank political conversation. The discussion was frequently punctuated with exclamations of “BAHU-NES” which roughly translates to “FALSE” or maybe even a “NO WAY”.
Getting back to Gao two weeks ago was another interesting trip and I’ll spare you all the details—I’m sure you’re sick of hearing transportation story that gave me laughing in church syndrome for a good half hour of the trip. To set the scene—it was the second day of the “emeut” or end of Ramaddan holiday so there were no big regular buses coming up from Bamako towards Gao. Just as we were absorbing this news and wondering how we were going to get to Gao, a form of transportation arrived in the form of a small bachee van packed with 25 people (this van would hold ten people tops in the US). After hour and a half long customs difficulties (customs checkpoints are stationed across the country along the big highways, sort of like weigh stations in the US, except these are manned by customs officials and military guys who sometimes check ID’s) we finally pulled away from Gossi and the gentlemen seated next to me reached into his knapsack and pulled out a clicker counter, like the Amtrak or Metro North conductors use to count the number of people on the train. He starts clicking away vigorously every few seconds leading me to believe, ok gov’t official, counting houses or people or goats along the side of the road(there’s NOTHING else he could have been counting). Yet as we continue past Gossi, he keeps up this pace and there’s nothing left he could be counting other than trees or bushes, but they’re going by way too fast. This keeps up for a good half hour and then he stops, puts it back in his pack, rummages around, pulls out an apple, looks at it almost fondly and filled with satisfaction bites in. Now I wouldn’t have thought this was strange if the exact same actions hadn’t been repeated about three hours later and as he rummaged around this second time, I couldn’t help but think of that sex and the city episode where Carrie has jury duty and one of her fellow jurors has that briefcase from which each day he pulls out a different kind of tropical fruit. I honestly was hoping that this the second time around my fellow bache rider would pull out a pineapple or coconut. No such luck tho. Also on this strange ride---our “chauffeur” could have been Ben Twoomey’s African Twin (Jackie or jackie’s family if you’re reading this, feel free to pass this info onto Ben- if he ever wants to come to Mali, he has a twin and subsequently most likely a place to stay.
The end of Rammadan holiday was really very nice. You could feel it was a holiday, the feeling in the air was sort of like that of Thanksgiving or Fourth of July. For the whole month prior, Men and women, who weren’t sick or nursing had been fasting during the day, only eating before sunrise and after sunset. Rammadan represents the days that Muhammed spent in the cave outside Medina when he received his visions from Allah that would become the teachings of Islam. So the “emut” is a celebration of the end of an intense month of prayer and fasting. Everyone wears their nicest clothes and visits family and friends in the village or town. My family slaughtered a goat for the special occasion-I didn’t watch-and we had grilled meat and couscous for a special meal. My little sister, Zeinaba, my big sister, Asahara, and I went and visited the Mayor, my teacher and my homologue in our new duds, henna and our braids. Bess and I had spent the whole day before-at least 5 or 6 hours- at the Malian equivalent of “the spa” or sitting on a mat in a concession, having our hair braided and our feet and hands hennaed. We looked about as Malian as we could but it was tough sitting still all day and we were both anxious by the end to get the plastic bags off our hands and feet and to get to a mirror to see whether the compliments of “a wa ihooskat” were really true.
So to sum up I really miss you all and would love to hear about how everything is going over there.
Happy THANKSGIVING!!! I’m here in Gao where the internet is finally working so I’m able to respond to emails and “fingers crossed” post some pictures. I should have internet regularly from now on as I’ve made some new friends who have wireless, but I may also be jinxing myself right now.
We’re celebrating tomorrow with Turkey and all the fixings including pies and mashed potatoes. Almost all the volunteers in the region have come to town and we’re also having a bunch of ex-pats over as well to celebrate with us. Bess and I are going to try to make a pumpkin pie( fingers crossed) and scalloped potatoes and stuffing are already in the process of being made. Its amazing what you can find and make here if you put your mind to it. We’ve had Mexican, Indian, Mac and cheese all in Gao and in village we’ve figured out how to make cakes and cookies in our solar cookers and have also had some delicious meals of tortillas, cucumbers, onions and meat! I usually eat lunch and dinner with my family, which is usually rice or to with a sauce and a little bit of meat. Malians do not get close to enough fruit and veggies and meat but when you’re cooking and buying for twelve, you have to stay in budget and rice is cheap. I’ve been trying to buy my family what’s missing from their diet when I can and they’ve graciously chowing down. Can you tell I have food on the mind??
Site is good and I’m really coming to love it here. My language is actually improving and I’m understanding around 20-30 percent of what is said to me (to be fair this is a high estimate). Either way I’m feeling better about it and im thinking that I may actually be able to communicate with people in two years in tammsheq. However, I am so grateful to have my French because I think its kept me sane .
Work is also going well and I’ll definitely write more about it next time. I’m learning a lot about all the different associations and projects that are already up and running in town and the possibilities of expansion or new projects. The elephants are just getting to the mare now, so hopefully I’ll have pictures of them as well as some other spots in town for next time.
Promise you won’t tell my village—but I’m actually not married. The marriage proposal thing was really starting to irk me so I made up a husband in America. His name is alternately Michael or John, depending on what comes to me, and i tell everyone that he will be really upset if I had a husband in Mali. To which the response usually is," oh he won’t know, you must have a husband here in Mali." I’ve been trying to explain how there’s laws against this but its just not getting across. A lot of other volunteers, both male and female, have been facing the same problems and they’ve advised me to try the “you can’t afford me” response, which refers to the large dowry that my family would obviously demand. I’m not sure if I’m going to take that route as I don’t want to come off as perpetuating any sense of superiority so I’ll just have to get more creative.
So im sorry this is a short post, but I’ve got more emails to tackle! I miss you all very much and thank you for the bday wishes! I wish you all a very happy thanksgiving and hope you’re with the ones you love.
Here’s a post I wrote two weeks ago…..
So internet up here isn’t really… per se…reliable. Its been out for the past month and as I’m writing this on my laptop, I don’t know when I’ll be able to post it. If you want to reach me, or really love me a lot, you might have more success in sending me a letter or oreo cookies.
I’m enjoying life here with new surprises around the corner every day, whether it be a new word in Tammasheq or the climax of a four hour long Union meeting, where the two eldest gentlemen erupted in insults at each other, which seemed like it came out of nowhere, but I may have missed something, as I don’t really speak the language. I now have a cat, named “Ma Moos a wa”, which translates to “what is this” in Tammasheq and Bess and Jared have a dog, which they gave the more traditional name of “Chewy”. My family is awesome. My dad is named Aguissa (prounounced Reesa), mom Tuckamanit (spelled phonetically), oldest sister Asahara 23, followed by, in order by age, El-Mehdi20 or 19, Abubacrin(abu) 16/15, Suleyman14/13, Ousman13/12, Moussa10/9, Zeinaba (6 or 7 girl, also my bff) Oumar 3/4 and baby Xadijatu who is about 8 or 9 months. Two of my cousins also live with us, Alxamis (says he’s 23 but not a day over 20) and Abdoulay(14), so that they can go to school in Gossi. Their families are living out in the bush with their animals and there isn’t any yellow school bus to pick up the nomadic kids Harunna my eldest sister’s son also lives with us—he’s 5 but acts like he’s a 75 year old man. Its in his walk and attitude. I guess you have to see it. . My family is without a doubt the best they could possibly be. My dad LOVES his kids so much, especially his baby girl and my mom doesn’t take crap from anybody—how could you with 12 kids? She also loves to laugh and has learned to say “hey Raisha, whatsh up” after we taught this, the most important of all American phrases, to Zeinaba, Harunna and Oumar. Everyone has chores to do which include feeding the goats, milking the goats, washing tons of dishes, cooking (often done by Abu, who prefers to stay at home and cook rather than going to school and he’s realllly good at it!), fixing dad’s moto, working in one of four gardens, getting Raisha’s water….etc. When the kids aren’t doing chores, they’re usually off running around town or hanging out in our concession and most of them are very good students as well, practicing their lessons on the giant chalkboard we keep around. Oumar Harunna and Zeinaba have taken a particular liking to hanging outside my house, under my hangar, watching whatever I’m doing, talking to me or to each other about whatever I’m doing, and occasionally helping me with whatever I’m doing if they’re not climbing on me. Recently when we were having one of our hang out sessions, Oumar and Harunna started a really interesting conversation prompted by my question about what the word for stick was again. They talked for five minutes about what all the different words for wood were of which I believe there were about 8 or 9. It was so funny to watch a 3 and 4 year old discuss the different words for the different lengths and sizes of wood, as if they were having a frank political conversation. The discussion was frequently punctuated with exclamations of “BAHU-NES” which roughly translates to “FALSE” or maybe even a “NO WAY”.
Getting back to Gao two weeks ago was another interesting trip and I’ll spare you all the details—I’m sure you’re sick of hearing transportation story that gave me laughing in church syndrome for a good half hour of the trip. To set the scene—it was the second day of the “emeut” or end of Ramaddan holiday so there were no big regular buses coming up from Bamako towards Gao. Just as we were absorbing this news and wondering how we were going to get to Gao, a form of transportation arrived in the form of a small bachee van packed with 25 people (this van would hold ten people tops in the US). After hour and a half long customs difficulties (customs checkpoints are stationed across the country along the big highways, sort of like weigh stations in the US, except these are manned by customs officials and military guys who sometimes check ID’s) we finally pulled away from Gossi and the gentlemen seated next to me reached into his knapsack and pulled out a clicker counter, like the Amtrak or Metro North conductors use to count the number of people on the train. He starts clicking away vigorously every few seconds leading me to believe, ok gov’t official, counting houses or people or goats along the side of the road(there’s NOTHING else he could have been counting). Yet as we continue past Gossi, he keeps up this pace and there’s nothing left he could be counting other than trees or bushes, but they’re going by way too fast. This keeps up for a good half hour and then he stops, puts it back in his pack, rummages around, pulls out an apple, looks at it almost fondly and filled with satisfaction bites in. Now I wouldn’t have thought this was strange if the exact same actions hadn’t been repeated about three hours later and as he rummaged around this second time, I couldn’t help but think of that sex and the city episode where Carrie has jury duty and one of her fellow jurors has that briefcase from which each day he pulls out a different kind of tropical fruit. I honestly was hoping that this the second time around my fellow bache rider would pull out a pineapple or coconut. No such luck tho. Also on this strange ride---our “chauffeur” could have been Ben Twoomey’s African Twin (Jackie or jackie’s family if you’re reading this, feel free to pass this info onto Ben- if he ever wants to come to Mali, he has a twin and subsequently most likely a place to stay.
The end of Rammadan holiday was really very nice. You could feel it was a holiday, the feeling in the air was sort of like that of Thanksgiving or Fourth of July. For the whole month prior, Men and women, who weren’t sick or nursing had been fasting during the day, only eating before sunrise and after sunset. Rammadan represents the days that Muhammed spent in the cave outside Medina when he received his visions from Allah that would become the teachings of Islam. So the “emut” is a celebration of the end of an intense month of prayer and fasting. Everyone wears their nicest clothes and visits family and friends in the village or town. My family slaughtered a goat for the special occasion-I didn’t watch-and we had grilled meat and couscous for a special meal. My little sister, Zeinaba, my big sister, Asahara, and I went and visited the Mayor, my teacher and my homologue in our new duds, henna and our braids. Bess and I had spent the whole day before-at least 5 or 6 hours- at the Malian equivalent of “the spa” or sitting on a mat in a concession, having our hair braided and our feet and hands hennaed. We looked about as Malian as we could but it was tough sitting still all day and we were both anxious by the end to get the plastic bags off our hands and feet and to get to a mirror to see whether the compliments of “a wa ihooskat” were really true.
So to sum up I really miss you all and would love to hear about how everything is going over there.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
The saying, “hotter than hell” was coined in Gao, in case you weren’t aware. Its day four here of waiting to be installed and we’ve all established a routine. Wake up at 6-6:30 ish, when the sun rises just high enough and the bright light and white heat start to hit where we’re sleeping. We all sleep outside at night on the roof under the stars because its too hot inside the house, --ironically enough this is where we will spend most of the day seeking refuge from the heat. After I’ve tried to fall back asleep a couple times, all vain attempts because the heat is so permeating already, we head into town to the market to do our shopping for the items we’ll need for the next two years. By 10 am its gotten so hot that the sweat starts dripping down my face and I can see it pooling on the faces of the other volunteers shopping with me—disgusting, I know, but I don’t know how else to convey this massive all encompassing behemoth that controls our lives. We come back to the house and then wait around, reading, finishing season 1 of Buffy the vampire slayer or passed out on the floor or mat until it finally cools down a little in the afternoon. Then, we venture out again to barter and do more shopping. I’ve bartered in Tammasheq and have talked people down a couple times. We all have this immense source of pride when we think we’ve gotten a good price, when in reality there’s definitely a foreign and a native price- I’m happy to pay it as long as I feel that I’m not being 100 percent ripped off. So far I’ve bought a big bucket for doing dishes and laundry in, a big cooking pot, frying pan and a charcoal stove, sort of like a miniature weber grill, except you can put pots and pans on it. I’ve also bought bowls, cups, forks, spoons and a big cutting knife in the cooking department as well as a mirror and two beautiful fabrics in the “don’t let yourself go” department.
There was some extra furniture lying around the Gao stage house, which is where all the volunteers in this region stay at when they come to town for banking and mail, so the volunteers who’ve been here a year decided to have a competition to give them away. I happened to win the big ticket item, a large red table about four and a half feet tall, in an intense rock paper scissors tournament… I know, I know I make you all so proud. Im going to get some stools made in Gossi to go with it so I’ll actually have a work/cooking/dining/writing letters table in my house and wont have to do everything from the floor.
So far in Gao other than shopping, we've met the deputy governor and the police chief as well as the immigration people when there was a little cofusion about whether we were all set with our paperwork. The driver for the police cheif is this really fun dude who likes to wear a cowboy hat and randomly shows up around town to chat with us. We've also made friends with some of the market people and the fabric sellers. Its nice to have people who recognize you and smile rather than staring at you or shouting at you. Alot of the people here are so incredible too, most of them speaking at least 2 or 3 languages and sometimes 4, 5 or 6. Walking down the street ive had more whoa i'm in africa moments, with everyone in turbans or flowing ekarshes (the traditional dress of the tammasheq women) and this amazing multicultural, multiethnic mix all living together, tammasheq, songhai, bambara, arab...
I’m really excited to get to Gossi and start using my tammasheq more and really getting to know the town and its people. I have a lot of research and interviewing to do, although I’m pretty sure the first few weeks I’m there I’ll have no idea what anyone is saying to me. I’m fortunate to have my French to fall back on but I’m going to try to resist. I plan on conducting a biodiversity survey in the first three months, along with doing my NatCat, which is the Peace Corps Natural Resources Management sector’s assessment tool that helps the volunteer to figure out what has been done, what needs to be done and what can be done over the next two years in terms of projects. Bess Jared and I feel very fortunate in that there are three of us in one town with the potential to be a peace corps dream team and accomplish so much in so many different areas. We’re already thinking about starting a public trash cans program and maybe teaching basketball along with the eco-tourism and organizational development stuff I’ll also be doing.
For a good laugh I have to fill you in on the trip up here--You all will probably become used to these stories but each time I think I’ve seen (or heard) everything, it turns out I’m wrong. We left the training center at about 6:30 am and as the bus pulls away with all the volunteers headed north of Segou, the driver of our chartered bus puts a tape in and out comes, blasting from the old bus sound system, the most fitting soundtrack for our departure- Tracey Chapman. It was one of the best laughs I’ve had so far in Africa. I was almost crying . And then after we’ve listened to side a and b and then the first two songs of side a again, the bus driver decided to switch it up and what luck—it was Phil Collins. We were only ten minutes into this album, I believe it was song two, “another day in paradise”, when the horn blaring from our driver went on a little bit longer than usual and we had to slam on the brakes and veer off the road to avoid another vehicle and a moto carrying bags of onions. No one was hurt although we were a little shooken up but we did have to switch buses and in the process, lost our driver and his great taste in music, who had to stay behind with his bus and the gendarmes who had showed up to assess the situation. This essentially consisted of them taking out a measuring tape and measuring everything—from the bus to the car, from the onions to the bus, from the front of the bus to the back of the bus and from their head to their toes. It reminded me of those activities in elementary school when we were all learning the metric system and had to go around measuring everything in the school yard and classroom. To their credit they arrived pretty swiftly and all the Malians handled themselves with much more composure than any Americans I’ve seen in the same situation. They realize yelling at each other won’t accomplish anything—that and its just too hot. The rest of the trip was a breeze in comparison but I’m taking public transport to Gossi tomorrow so I’m sure in two weeks I’ll have something more to share. Until then….
There was some extra furniture lying around the Gao stage house, which is where all the volunteers in this region stay at when they come to town for banking and mail, so the volunteers who’ve been here a year decided to have a competition to give them away. I happened to win the big ticket item, a large red table about four and a half feet tall, in an intense rock paper scissors tournament… I know, I know I make you all so proud. Im going to get some stools made in Gossi to go with it so I’ll actually have a work/cooking/dining/writing letters table in my house and wont have to do everything from the floor.
So far in Gao other than shopping, we've met the deputy governor and the police chief as well as the immigration people when there was a little cofusion about whether we were all set with our paperwork. The driver for the police cheif is this really fun dude who likes to wear a cowboy hat and randomly shows up around town to chat with us. We've also made friends with some of the market people and the fabric sellers. Its nice to have people who recognize you and smile rather than staring at you or shouting at you. Alot of the people here are so incredible too, most of them speaking at least 2 or 3 languages and sometimes 4, 5 or 6. Walking down the street ive had more whoa i'm in africa moments, with everyone in turbans or flowing ekarshes (the traditional dress of the tammasheq women) and this amazing multicultural, multiethnic mix all living together, tammasheq, songhai, bambara, arab...
I’m really excited to get to Gossi and start using my tammasheq more and really getting to know the town and its people. I have a lot of research and interviewing to do, although I’m pretty sure the first few weeks I’m there I’ll have no idea what anyone is saying to me. I’m fortunate to have my French to fall back on but I’m going to try to resist. I plan on conducting a biodiversity survey in the first three months, along with doing my NatCat, which is the Peace Corps Natural Resources Management sector’s assessment tool that helps the volunteer to figure out what has been done, what needs to be done and what can be done over the next two years in terms of projects. Bess Jared and I feel very fortunate in that there are three of us in one town with the potential to be a peace corps dream team and accomplish so much in so many different areas. We’re already thinking about starting a public trash cans program and maybe teaching basketball along with the eco-tourism and organizational development stuff I’ll also be doing.
For a good laugh I have to fill you in on the trip up here--You all will probably become used to these stories but each time I think I’ve seen (or heard) everything, it turns out I’m wrong. We left the training center at about 6:30 am and as the bus pulls away with all the volunteers headed north of Segou, the driver of our chartered bus puts a tape in and out comes, blasting from the old bus sound system, the most fitting soundtrack for our departure- Tracey Chapman. It was one of the best laughs I’ve had so far in Africa. I was almost crying . And then after we’ve listened to side a and b and then the first two songs of side a again, the bus driver decided to switch it up and what luck—it was Phil Collins. We were only ten minutes into this album, I believe it was song two, “another day in paradise”, when the horn blaring from our driver went on a little bit longer than usual and we had to slam on the brakes and veer off the road to avoid another vehicle and a moto carrying bags of onions. No one was hurt although we were a little shooken up but we did have to switch buses and in the process, lost our driver and his great taste in music, who had to stay behind with his bus and the gendarmes who had showed up to assess the situation. This essentially consisted of them taking out a measuring tape and measuring everything—from the bus to the car, from the onions to the bus, from the front of the bus to the back of the bus and from their head to their toes. It reminded me of those activities in elementary school when we were all learning the metric system and had to go around measuring everything in the school yard and classroom. To their credit they arrived pretty swiftly and all the Malians handled themselves with much more composure than any Americans I’ve seen in the same situation. They realize yelling at each other won’t accomplish anything—that and its just too hot. The rest of the trip was a breeze in comparison but I’m taking public transport to Gossi tomorrow so I’m sure in two weeks I’ll have something more to share. Until then….
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Swear-in
braxton, jared and daveSorry to keep you in suspense but I'm still alive. I keep saying to myself that I dont have anything new or exciting to share when in reality almost every day is another adventure. But these daily surprises and adventures are just that--daily--and so I've begun to normalize them.
So a quick update on the last several weeks in a fun backwards format, im hoping that this will jog my memory. We swore in as official volunteers on Friday at a very nice cermony at the American embassy in Bamako. Most of the volunteers wore Malian outfits and there were speeches by the Ambassador etc and volunteers who gave short speeches in each of the languages we've all been learning, bambara, french, fulfide, songrai, dosono (one of the dialects that the dogon people speak). Jared in full ceremonial attire tore down the house with the speech that we had all written for the Tamasheq group and our homestay families were very happy and proud, although Bess, Susmita and I all got questions about why we weren't wearing our ekarshe's. After that we went to a reception at the Ambassador's house and from what I've heard the food was excellent. Of all the times to get sick, my body decided to pick the worst and so for the festivities of the last several days, I've been running a fever and unable to really eat. I did my best to try and get through it and actually felt ok at the picnic later on in the afternoon.
the new volunteersThe volunteers arranged a party for us in Bamako last night and we had a hotel to stay at with a POOL! I think everyone had a really great time, perhaps maybe even a little too much. I managed to dance for a couple songs but when i woke up the next morning I went straight to the medical office down the street and now I'm waiting to hear back as to whether or not I have amoebas. It should be an interesting trip up to Gao tomorrow but hopefully the medicine I'm taking will make it bearable.
The week before swear-in was more training at Tubaniso including natural resources stuff, health , safety and even a session with snakes, which i did not attend. I passed my test in Tamasheq too, although now without having spoken it for the last week I feel like I'm losing it all. Its weird to think that the routine that has been my life for the last two months is finished. To be honest though hardly anything surprises me or throws me anymore and I almost expect constant change and adventure. A regular day now involves ensuring I have safe water, having an upset stomach, seeing a 6 inch long millipede, being enveloped in the smell of the trashpile I'm walking next to, the constant mental struggle over how to possibly help EVERYONE around me and then the frustration in the moments that pass where I've missed my chance or where there's been nothing I can do.
Before we came back to Tubaniso, we all said our goodbyes to our homestay families at which I of course cried and which they of course had no idea what to make of. In just that short period of time that I was living with them and in the very little that we could communicate to each other, I really felt as if I was a member of the family, even if at times I served as entertainment or as a distraction for the kids. My mother, Xedijetu, gave me a beautiful little bag and a key chain as goodbye gifts, both of which she made and both of which I've fallen in love with. The touregs use such beautiful colors and paints in their crafts , deep purple, light blue, pink gold etc .
i officially leave for my site tomorrow to spend the next three months interviewing community members and conducting other research, assessing the work they've already done and the work they want me to help with and working on language. I also hope to maybe start from small projects to get a scope of how the people and associations work together. This week I'll be in Gao to buy new things for my house which Im very excited about- market shopping is my new favorite thing.
I hope everyone is doing well back in the states, sorry again for the long delay in my post. If you're in New England, drink some apple cider for me. I'm very nostalgic for the fall! Also my address has changed it is now,
Natalie Grillon Corps de La Paix, BP119, Gao Mali, West Africa
Also i dont know if ive said this before but for even more pictures and stories you should check out jared and bess's blog, the link is on the side bar. He's a great photographer and is a more dedicated blogger than I.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Site Visit--you haven't lived until.....
The latest pictures i took from my site visit won't upload so here are Jared's. crazy story follows below.
Walking through the town in the am
Walking through the town in the am
The lake surrounding the town and some of its inhabitants
My HOUSE!!! Im going to put a little hanger/tent out front just like.....
...this one! THis is the huge hanger my host family has in our concession
My host brother and his posse. Our house was party central while my family was out in the bush.
Bess and I in front of one part of the lake. Its 46 km long.
The market on an off day.
in mopti on the road to my site
on the Road to my site
Part of the Gao region group
The landscape near my site
More landscape near my site
I'm not really sure how I can begin to describe the insanity that was my trip to my site. The first bus ride up there was long but absolutely beautiful as you can see from some of the pictures. The Mopti region reminds me alot of the Southwest in the United States except more green and with CAMELS! I saw my first one two days ago and then saw 20 more immediately after both in the Gao and Mopti region. We left Bamako at 3 in the afternoon after a day long wait at the training center. Bess, Jared and I finally arrived at our site the next day at 10:30 am. We were exhausted but after a rest and seeing our future houses, we met the mayor, police chief/military chief, government rep, chief of the village, secretary general etc. They were all really motivated and optimistic and it seems like there is so much potential for positive and sustainable development in a lot of different ways. Bess and Jared stayed at my house because the house that was selected for them had too many problems, the major one being termites in the roof. We slept under my families hanger, because its too hot to sleep inside my house, but our first night in our town also happened to be a windy one--aka a mini-sandstorm. I woke up with a coat of sand on my face, arms and legs and a small pile of sand around me in my mosquito net. We soon came to discover that sand is everywhere-shoes, clothes, soap, BREAD, sauce etc. Its really satisfying to bite into a piece of bread and get a nice big grain of sand in there too. The next day we had more meetings to meet more people around town and to pick out Bess and Jared's new house. Then that night we went to a wedding, were introduced to all 200 people and then pushed out into the middle of the circle to show off our tammasheq dance moves. Up until then we'd only danced sitting down, but up north they actually dance standing up and less conservatively so we now have some new moves to practice. I forgot to bring my camera so I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of me making a fool of myself.
The next day was our last full day at site. We had some language class with our language tutor Moussa, who is going to be really helpful once we get to site. Then we toured the gardens (pictures above) around the town. There's alot of great land right there next to the lake and the town has already started some gardens and fields but for the most part, because these people are traditionally herders, they haven't had much experience with agriculture. We talked a lot about looking into drip irrigation from the lake into the fields, as well as setting up co-op wells out near the fields. We visited the hospital in the afternoon which is located across the lake. Its run by a french nun named Anne-Marie who has been serving as a doctor for 20 years here to the nomadic people. They've set up several clinics out in the bush and the main hospital in our town serves as the headquarters for births and other things that can't be treated "en brosse". It was really motivating and inspiring to see a woman who had dedicated her entire life to living in a different culture and serving others. The town has really welcomed her and is so appreciative of her work that they've named the quarter where she lives after her, as well as the school that she helped found in the town. That night we had spaghetti with a yummy sauce which Jared's homologue, Bobacar, brought over for us. His wife is a great cook and Bess and I are hoping to take lessons from her. It was some of the most delicious pasta I'd ever had and was an improvement from the night before when dinner had been forgotten about and we ate the cornflakes we had left over from the trip up.
The next day was when the real adventure began. We left early in the morning to head to Gao but about an hour into our trip we pulled over to the side of the road next to four other buses and dozens of people hanging out on the side of the road. We learned from some french tourists and others on our bus that the road up ahead had been washed out and that we had to wait for transport. This was at 7:30 am. We spent the next several hours watching transports arrive (really small pick-up trucks or suv's), only to watch them take away passengers from the other bus companies or luggage and whisk them away on a dirt road into the bush. For the first couple hours it was amusing to be stuck out in the bush without a cellphone signal and without any idea of when we would be getting out of there. But by noon, when bess was really starting to feel sick, when I was beginning to get frustrated with everyone I asked telling me that the transport for our bus really was on its way, even though half of our male passengers had just been whisked away in a pickup truck, and when Jared had taken all the fun pictures he could, this was when I started to worry just a little bit about the water situation and dreaming of a Peace Corps vehicle coming around the bend. Fortunately, not soon after a huge dump truck showed up and after another round of questioning anyone who would entertain the white people's questions, we discovered this was our ticket to another bus waiting on the other side of the washed out road. All the luggage from two buses, including a motorcycle, boxes of food, some mattresses etc. was piled into the dump truck and then, even though we'd initially been told they'd come back or passengers, we watched everyone start climbing on top of it so we joined them. By one pm, after traversing the bush and unloading all the luggage, we were back in a bus on the paved road and on our way to Gao. We were all definitely dehydrated especially Bess, but we got some much needed r&r at the Peace Corps house in Gao and got to see all the gao volunteers bright shining faces! We've definitely learned our lesson about water and also calling Peace Corps before we leave Gossi.
We did our banking in Gao the next morning- a three hour long process. The most time consuming part was the laminating of the account card but it was great to see that alot of people were in using the bank and actually keeping their money in an account. Anytime I need to get money its going to be at least a couple hours in line, but I guess it will be great people watching, right?
We started our trip back to Gao at 12 pm and would finally arrive in Bamako the next day at noon. The road was still out on our way back, so we did the dump truck trip again, this time fortunately much quicker because they had one waiting for us. While bess jared and I were seasoned pros, the other Gao voolunteers hadn't experienced it yet.. I think they enjoyed it but personally two dump truck rides is enough for me for the time being. We made it all the way to Sevre without incident but then once again, pulled over to the side of the road without an explanation. This time it was armed bandits ahead on the road, no im not kidding, so we had to wait for enough trucks and buses to come so that we could form a convoy. The Malians on the bus started pulling sheets out of their luggage and mats from below the bus so that they could sleep on the side of the road. We were not as well prepared but instead actually a little scared, but really so tired because by this point it was midnight and we'd already been on the crowded bus for a long time. We finally started out again later that night and arrived in Bamako, gross and tired, but happy to be back with all the other trainees.
Today we went on a eco-tourism fieldtrip and went hiking near by Tubaniso. We saw some beautiful stuff and I'll post some pictures here. I'm really happy that all the stuff I'm learning in technical training is really going to be applicable to my site. Also being at site also made me feel more optimistic about learning Tammasheq. Everyone there is so enthusiastic about helping us and being immersed in it really forces us to push ourselves.
I took some really pretty photos today on our trip...
a little friend that followed us on the trail
Hiking up to the cave!
from inside the cave
Me and AMY!
The waterfall
sorry its unedited and poor grammar! love and miss everyone and looking forward to hearing from you! thanks for the letters, packages, emails, facebook messages!
The next day was our last full day at site. We had some language class with our language tutor Moussa, who is going to be really helpful once we get to site. Then we toured the gardens (pictures above) around the town. There's alot of great land right there next to the lake and the town has already started some gardens and fields but for the most part, because these people are traditionally herders, they haven't had much experience with agriculture. We talked a lot about looking into drip irrigation from the lake into the fields, as well as setting up co-op wells out near the fields. We visited the hospital in the afternoon which is located across the lake. Its run by a french nun named Anne-Marie who has been serving as a doctor for 20 years here to the nomadic people. They've set up several clinics out in the bush and the main hospital in our town serves as the headquarters for births and other things that can't be treated "en brosse". It was really motivating and inspiring to see a woman who had dedicated her entire life to living in a different culture and serving others. The town has really welcomed her and is so appreciative of her work that they've named the quarter where she lives after her, as well as the school that she helped found in the town. That night we had spaghetti with a yummy sauce which Jared's homologue, Bobacar, brought over for us. His wife is a great cook and Bess and I are hoping to take lessons from her. It was some of the most delicious pasta I'd ever had and was an improvement from the night before when dinner had been forgotten about and we ate the cornflakes we had left over from the trip up.
The next day was when the real adventure began. We left early in the morning to head to Gao but about an hour into our trip we pulled over to the side of the road next to four other buses and dozens of people hanging out on the side of the road. We learned from some french tourists and others on our bus that the road up ahead had been washed out and that we had to wait for transport. This was at 7:30 am. We spent the next several hours watching transports arrive (really small pick-up trucks or suv's), only to watch them take away passengers from the other bus companies or luggage and whisk them away on a dirt road into the bush. For the first couple hours it was amusing to be stuck out in the bush without a cellphone signal and without any idea of when we would be getting out of there. But by noon, when bess was really starting to feel sick, when I was beginning to get frustrated with everyone I asked telling me that the transport for our bus really was on its way, even though half of our male passengers had just been whisked away in a pickup truck, and when Jared had taken all the fun pictures he could, this was when I started to worry just a little bit about the water situation and dreaming of a Peace Corps vehicle coming around the bend. Fortunately, not soon after a huge dump truck showed up and after another round of questioning anyone who would entertain the white people's questions, we discovered this was our ticket to another bus waiting on the other side of the washed out road. All the luggage from two buses, including a motorcycle, boxes of food, some mattresses etc. was piled into the dump truck and then, even though we'd initially been told they'd come back or passengers, we watched everyone start climbing on top of it so we joined them. By one pm, after traversing the bush and unloading all the luggage, we were back in a bus on the paved road and on our way to Gao. We were all definitely dehydrated especially Bess, but we got some much needed r&r at the Peace Corps house in Gao and got to see all the gao volunteers bright shining faces! We've definitely learned our lesson about water and also calling Peace Corps before we leave Gossi.
the line...waiting....
We did our banking in Gao the next morning- a three hour long process. The most time consuming part was the laminating of the account card but it was great to see that alot of people were in using the bank and actually keeping their money in an account. Anytime I need to get money its going to be at least a couple hours in line, but I guess it will be great people watching, right?
We started our trip back to Gao at 12 pm and would finally arrive in Bamako the next day at noon. The road was still out on our way back, so we did the dump truck trip again, this time fortunately much quicker because they had one waiting for us. While bess jared and I were seasoned pros, the other Gao voolunteers hadn't experienced it yet.. I think they enjoyed it but personally two dump truck rides is enough for me for the time being. We made it all the way to Sevre without incident but then once again, pulled over to the side of the road without an explanation. This time it was armed bandits ahead on the road, no im not kidding, so we had to wait for enough trucks and buses to come so that we could form a convoy. The Malians on the bus started pulling sheets out of their luggage and mats from below the bus so that they could sleep on the side of the road. We were not as well prepared but instead actually a little scared, but really so tired because by this point it was midnight and we'd already been on the crowded bus for a long time. We finally started out again later that night and arrived in Bamako, gross and tired, but happy to be back with all the other trainees.
Today we went on a eco-tourism fieldtrip and went hiking near by Tubaniso. We saw some beautiful stuff and I'll post some pictures here. I'm really happy that all the stuff I'm learning in technical training is really going to be applicable to my site. Also being at site also made me feel more optimistic about learning Tammasheq. Everyone there is so enthusiastic about helping us and being immersed in it really forces us to push ourselves.
I took some really pretty photos today on our trip...
a little friend that followed us on the trail
Hiking up to the cave!
from inside the cave
Me and AMY!
The waterfall
sorry its unedited and poor grammar! love and miss everyone and looking forward to hearing from you! thanks for the letters, packages, emails, facebook messages!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Tomorrow I leave for my site visit, the first time I'll see my new home for two years. The bus ride is going to be at least 15 hours but I'm excited to really see Mali for the first time. So far we've been coddled......which I guess is certainly a relative term. Whenever we go from the training center to our respective homestay villages, or vice versa, we're taken by Peace Corps transport directly to the site which in this country is pretty cushy. In my homestay village, I never go much farther than a one mile radius from school, to home, to the river or to the cyber cafe. When I'm at Tubaniso, the peace corps training center, we're here for good and can only venture down the rural road a little ways. This trip will be the first time I've taken public transportation on a long trip and the first time I'll actually really get outside Bamako, aside from a technical field trip the natural resource management trainees took to a small village several days ago. No AC, crowded with animals bags, people etc. ill be able to paint a better picture of it after the "experience"
The village/town I'm going to is located North of Bamako, in the desert and the population is half Tammasheq, half Songhrai. Bess and Jared will both be placed in my town and their house is only a couple hundred meters from mine! My job as it stands now is working on organizational development and technical assistance with a union of 86 associations. They have several project ideas concerning biodiversity conservation efforts, agro-business and reforestation and they need help to realize their goals. One of the associations in the Union is a group working to protect the nomadic desert elephants in my region, so hopefully, I'll get to work on that along with another volunteer who will be stationed on the other end of the conservation area. I met my homologue, or my colleague/supervisor who will be supervising me for the next two years and we get along great. He speaks tammashek songhrai french bamabara and fulfide! and he makes me speak tammasheq. He works in the mayor's office so I'll be doing some work out of there but also will have to travel to the surrounding villages. However, because there's so much sand, I won't be able to ride my bike sometimes so I may have to ride a camel to work. cha.
Apart from the camel rides that lie in my future, I have already had several adventures. This past week, Bess and I went to the market in our homestay "village", which is really a suburb in the city of Bamako, and it was, well, dirty. Not to gross anyone out but the flies on the meat, the trash on the ground, the kids with ripped clothes were certainly not pleasant images. They did have lots of fresh looking vegetables and plenty of nuts (Bess walked away with two kilos worth--language miscommunication) and I bought a beautiful fabric to make in to a skirt or tarfu in tammasheq. I also went on a field trip with the other Natural Resources people to a farm and a tree nursery in a vilalge outside of Bamako and was actually really encouraged by what we saw. The farm was amazing--the owner used crop rotation and alternated fields so that he never had to leave one in fallow and he also had great ideas about composting and tree nurseries. We also visited another tree nursery where the farmer is growing jatropha plants which have a really high concentration of oil and can be used as a biofuel to run cars etc. They are just beginning to develop plans to open refineries to harvest the oil from the seed of the plant and one refinery should be opening soon.
With every positive there are lots of negatives. The sanitation problem, especially around Bamako, is really startling. They have basically no sanitation system in Mali, so any trash they have is just dumped in the street or taken from Bamako and dumped outside the city just along the road. On the way to tubaniso, you can see fields fertilized with trash, plastic bottles and candy wrappers littered among corn stalks. Its something thats really shocked all of us and I can't even begin to explain the extent of it. I'll have to post a picture to truly get the point across. Its frustrating because sometimes you're surrounded by so much poverty and degradation that you don't even see the suffering anymore but instead just see it as normal. There's so much that needs to be improved almost everywhere just so that people can live at a basic level of proper health and the environment and economy are suffering because of it. I'm beginning to see more and more how much they all rely on each other.
I have to go pack for site visit but I promise I'll post pictures of my site when I return.
I have a cellphone now. if you want the number email me!
The village/town I'm going to is located North of Bamako, in the desert and the population is half Tammasheq, half Songhrai. Bess and Jared will both be placed in my town and their house is only a couple hundred meters from mine! My job as it stands now is working on organizational development and technical assistance with a union of 86 associations. They have several project ideas concerning biodiversity conservation efforts, agro-business and reforestation and they need help to realize their goals. One of the associations in the Union is a group working to protect the nomadic desert elephants in my region, so hopefully, I'll get to work on that along with another volunteer who will be stationed on the other end of the conservation area. I met my homologue, or my colleague/supervisor who will be supervising me for the next two years and we get along great. He speaks tammashek songhrai french bamabara and fulfide! and he makes me speak tammasheq. He works in the mayor's office so I'll be doing some work out of there but also will have to travel to the surrounding villages. However, because there's so much sand, I won't be able to ride my bike sometimes so I may have to ride a camel to work. cha.
Apart from the camel rides that lie in my future, I have already had several adventures. This past week, Bess and I went to the market in our homestay "village", which is really a suburb in the city of Bamako, and it was, well, dirty. Not to gross anyone out but the flies on the meat, the trash on the ground, the kids with ripped clothes were certainly not pleasant images. They did have lots of fresh looking vegetables and plenty of nuts (Bess walked away with two kilos worth--language miscommunication) and I bought a beautiful fabric to make in to a skirt or tarfu in tammasheq. I also went on a field trip with the other Natural Resources people to a farm and a tree nursery in a vilalge outside of Bamako and was actually really encouraged by what we saw. The farm was amazing--the owner used crop rotation and alternated fields so that he never had to leave one in fallow and he also had great ideas about composting and tree nurseries. We also visited another tree nursery where the farmer is growing jatropha plants which have a really high concentration of oil and can be used as a biofuel to run cars etc. They are just beginning to develop plans to open refineries to harvest the oil from the seed of the plant and one refinery should be opening soon.
With every positive there are lots of negatives. The sanitation problem, especially around Bamako, is really startling. They have basically no sanitation system in Mali, so any trash they have is just dumped in the street or taken from Bamako and dumped outside the city just along the road. On the way to tubaniso, you can see fields fertilized with trash, plastic bottles and candy wrappers littered among corn stalks. Its something thats really shocked all of us and I can't even begin to explain the extent of it. I'll have to post a picture to truly get the point across. Its frustrating because sometimes you're surrounded by so much poverty and degradation that you don't even see the suffering anymore but instead just see it as normal. There's so much that needs to be improved almost everywhere just so that people can live at a basic level of proper health and the environment and economy are suffering because of it. I'm beginning to see more and more how much they all rely on each other.
I have to go pack for site visit but I promise I'll post pictures of my site when I return.
I have a cellphone now. if you want the number email me!
Monday, August 6, 2007
Hey everyone.
Bess and Jared's family is smaller than mine but the dad, Amanou, is one of ten members of the band, Tartit, a famous Toureg group that plays traditional music. Google them, they're really GOOD!!! They are headed to the US in September, NYC and DC and Boston, so go check them out and tell Amanou or Muso that you know "Aisha wallette Mohammed/Ibebe". Susmita's family are of the noble class. HEr dad works at a travel agency and her grandfather was the first Toureg general in the Malian Air Force. They have satellite TV. Which brings me tot he wedding we went to yesterday. It was a tammashek woman from the noble class marrying a man from Guinea. The house of her grandparents where the celebration took place, was very nice, as was the food and music. As i said before there is no ceremony that everyone attends like in the US. - the birde and groom weren't even there.
a side note on tammashek culture--Our Language and Cultural Teachers, who go everywhere with us basically, told us that in Tammashek culture, the bride and groom don't attend because they are "shy" and that they don't want to be present to their father/mothers in law. In tammashek culture, when a woman or a man is visiting their inlaws, they must be fully covered and they don't speak to their inlaws unless spoken to. This is a part of being respectful and just one aspect of the conservative and reserved culture. When a man decides he wants to marry a woman, he has a cousin, uncle or friend tell HIS parents that he wants to marry this girl and then they go to the parents of the woman. Its all very complex and formal, although these barriers are starting to be broken down. Before men and women didn't date or even spend time alone together, but these restrictions are starting to relax in some families and some Tammashek men and women are dating each other and people of other ethnicities.
Our families were all present at the wedding, not only as friends but also as performers. After everyone ate lots of lamb and rice and veggies inside the house (hot stuffy room with 30 plus big tammashek women), our families started playing music and dancing outside in a big tent and the other guests, some of who danced as well, threw money at those playing the instruments. Not only do they get paid to perform but part of the performance is guests coming up and throwing or holding money over them. We were expected to join our families in the dancing and clapping, and at one point we were the center of attention of everyone under the tent when we danced in the middle. Women dance very slowly and reserved with small hand movements while the men do bigger hand movements and sometimes even do that russian jumping dance. We had a really great time although its frustrating not being able to communicate and hold a decent converstaion. Here are some pictures of all the people at the wedding. there had to be at least 200 people under the tent.
The man throwing the money
Under the tent
I guess the strangest part of Homestay is that the conditions we're living in are really nice and most likely are nothing like what we'll be experiencing when we head up North. We pratically live in Bamako, have electricity, TV and an internet cafe and super marche not far away. Its nice because learning the language is stressful but Im looking forward to seeing what "real" Mali, out in villages, is really like. We do have trash in the street, a donkey outside our house and different food but we also get to use a real toilet sometimes and eat salad occasionally. pretty cushy. I hope its not too much of a shock when we get up north, but I guess thats what I had prepared myslef for, its just taking a little bit longer to get there. I go to my site up north in two weeks and I can't wait to see it! Im goign to be wayyyyyy up there but not farther norht than timbuktu. I will probably have to wear robes alot, ill post a picture of me in one soon. i look ridiculous.
anyways love and miss you all! write me emails!
Finally the moment you've been waiting for... PICTURES!!!! Ive been waiting until I have a fast enough speed to upload pictures and now that I'm back at the training center I have a good connection and plenty of time to write. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind and aside from a pretty rough day of stomach and fever, I've been having an amazing time. Receiving the news about Mike's death, with whom I spent a semester in Lyon, was really shocking and I've been trying to comprehend how awful it is. Mike was one of the most genuine, kind, intelligent and caring people I know and all the experiences the whole Lyon group had together and the time we had will always be one of my most favorite times in my life. I think the most frsutrating part is not being able to do anything and to be with others that knew and loved him. I dont know if anyone else is having a similar experience coping but I'd love to talk to anyone who's going through what I'm feeling.
Another hard part of grappling with his loss is that I haven't had a moment to think. Everyday so far has been filled with language and cultural lessons. Learning the language has been going a little better but we're still working with basic phrases and only know a couple verbs. There isn't really such a thing as a regular verb in Tammashek, nor a regular way to make a word plural. My "k" sound has been improving but the hawking spit sound int he back of the throat is still tough. Here are some pictures of our "classroom" and learning the language. Apart from myself there are three other volunteers learning tammashek all of whom have new Tammashek names, Susmita (Sadi), 25 from Missouri who is an Agriculture volunteer and then the married couple, Bess, 24 (Nezzar) water sanitation and Jared, 25 (Ikned) agriculture from Philadephia. 
Our classroom and nalgenes.
Our LCF's (language cultural facilitators) apt.
Our Lcf's are really great, El-Mehdi is in stripes, Abdullah is in red. Both speak french, english, bambara and i think songhrai too. They are so caring and patient with us and also really fun to hang out with. We all laugh at each other and we've taught them so good english phrases, like keeping it on the DL. Abdullah's favorite movie is "the quiet man" an old John wayne film that takes place in Ireland. He enjoys singing along to the songs in it while watching. El-Mehdi helps orgranize the desert festival every year, the big music festival held out int he sahara featuring Toureg and other international artists. They also have a roommate, Iponi, who does all the cooking who has become our good friend too. Basically our class everyday consists of us laughing hysterically every five minutes about pronounciation or a funny miscommunication while we work to learn irregular verbs and the word for camel.
We've also been fortunate enough to have some cultural experiences in the small Tammashek/Toureg community that lives in Bamako. My family is in the "inhaden" class, which means they are craftsmen and artisans. I have a really big family with three older brothers, Oumar, Attaher and Mohammed and three older sisters, Aisha, Fadi and Roqqi, all six of whom have children. I ahve been named, Aisha wallette Ibebe, which means Aisha daughter of Ibebe. Attaher, Mohammed, Aisha and Roqqi all still live at our house and four grandchildren of varous bros and sis live with us too. There names are Tina, 4, Fattimatah, 2, Ali Kader, 3 and Mohammed (?) i think who is about a year old. My mom is named Xedijetu and her husband Muhammed or Ibebe (nickname) has passed away. Here are some pictures of the kids!
Watching TV
Ali Kader is dancing with his eyes closed and little Fatimata, infront, is using the cup as a musical instrument.
Ali kader dancing to our clapping and singing.
Bess and Jared's family is smaller than mine but the dad, Amanou, is one of ten members of the band, Tartit, a famous Toureg group that plays traditional music. Google them, they're really GOOD!!! They are headed to the US in September, NYC and DC and Boston, so go check them out and tell Amanou or Muso that you know "Aisha wallette Mohammed/Ibebe". Susmita's family are of the noble class. HEr dad works at a travel agency and her grandfather was the first Toureg general in the Malian Air Force. They have satellite TV. Which brings me tot he wedding we went to yesterday. It was a tammashek woman from the noble class marrying a man from Guinea. The house of her grandparents where the celebration took place, was very nice, as was the food and music. As i said before there is no ceremony that everyone attends like in the US. - the birde and groom weren't even there.
a side note on tammashek culture--Our Language and Cultural Teachers, who go everywhere with us basically, told us that in Tammashek culture, the bride and groom don't attend because they are "shy" and that they don't want to be present to their father/mothers in law. In tammashek culture, when a woman or a man is visiting their inlaws, they must be fully covered and they don't speak to their inlaws unless spoken to. This is a part of being respectful and just one aspect of the conservative and reserved culture. When a man decides he wants to marry a woman, he has a cousin, uncle or friend tell HIS parents that he wants to marry this girl and then they go to the parents of the woman. Its all very complex and formal, although these barriers are starting to be broken down. Before men and women didn't date or even spend time alone together, but these restrictions are starting to relax in some families and some Tammashek men and women are dating each other and people of other ethnicities.
Our families were all present at the wedding, not only as friends but also as performers. After everyone ate lots of lamb and rice and veggies inside the house (hot stuffy room with 30 plus big tammashek women), our families started playing music and dancing outside in a big tent and the other guests, some of who danced as well, threw money at those playing the instruments. Not only do they get paid to perform but part of the performance is guests coming up and throwing or holding money over them. We were expected to join our families in the dancing and clapping, and at one point we were the center of attention of everyone under the tent when we danced in the middle. Women dance very slowly and reserved with small hand movements while the men do bigger hand movements and sometimes even do that russian jumping dance. We had a really great time although its frustrating not being able to communicate and hold a decent converstaion. Here are some pictures of all the people at the wedding. there had to be at least 200 people under the tent.
Our families performing!
Jared dancing in tradtional garb
The man throwing the moneyUnder the tent
I guess the strangest part of Homestay is that the conditions we're living in are really nice and most likely are nothing like what we'll be experiencing when we head up North. We pratically live in Bamako, have electricity, TV and an internet cafe and super marche not far away. Its nice because learning the language is stressful but Im looking forward to seeing what "real" Mali, out in villages, is really like. We do have trash in the street, a donkey outside our house and different food but we also get to use a real toilet sometimes and eat salad occasionally. pretty cushy. I hope its not too much of a shock when we get up north, but I guess thats what I had prepared myslef for, its just taking a little bit longer to get there. I go to my site up north in two weeks and I can't wait to see it! Im goign to be wayyyyyy up there but not farther norht than timbuktu. I will probably have to wear robes alot, ill post a picture of me in one soon. i look ridiculous.
anyways love and miss you all! write me emails!
Monday, July 30, 2007
quicketst post ever on a french keyboard- so im sorry.
I went to a traditional islamic wedding last night, nothing like american weddings and i will post pictures. all it was was brining bride to new home.
Learning the language is going well. we leearned our first sentence today. Nakk tela 22 nawayen. im 22 years old. its not easy to pronounce. good luck.
love my professors and the other three volunteers with me in kalanbankoro.
Today i played human frogger to get here and that pretty much sums up how crazy fun my life is. post more soon.
I went to a traditional islamic wedding last night, nothing like american weddings and i will post pictures. all it was was brining bride to new home.
Learning the language is going well. we leearned our first sentence today. Nakk tela 22 nawayen. im 22 years old. its not easy to pronounce. good luck.
love my professors and the other three volunteers with me in kalanbankoro.
Today i played human frogger to get here and that pretty much sums up how crazy fun my life is. post more soon.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
I am learning the language of the touregs, the nomadic people of northern mali, sort of a ethnic mix of black african, and arab and apparantly me and three other volunteers are the first americans to learn it. its like arabic except some of the sounds are different and i physically cant make them.. i had six hours of lang today and its overwhelming. my brain is the fried egg from the dont do drugs commercials.
I will most liekly be stationed in the north of mali and my assignment area thus far sounds pretty cool and im excited to do it. ill let you know more about it soon. Although i still cant imagine myself communicating well enough in this lang, it will be worthwhile to learn it.
ive been eating nothing but rice and meat and sleeping at night is hard because its a gazillion degrees here. fun parts tho- The natural resource management stuff im going to learn will be amazing. Ive already planted a tree.
My host family is so sweet and caring, although they wont let me speak french, only tammashek. They are artists who male jewelery and pillow in their tradional custom. our yard is their work room;
i have to go im out of time but ill write more soon.
I will most liekly be stationed in the north of mali and my assignment area thus far sounds pretty cool and im excited to do it. ill let you know more about it soon. Although i still cant imagine myself communicating well enough in this lang, it will be worthwhile to learn it.
ive been eating nothing but rice and meat and sleeping at night is hard because its a gazillion degrees here. fun parts tho- The natural resource management stuff im going to learn will be amazing. Ive already planted a tree.
My host family is so sweet and caring, although they wont let me speak french, only tammashek. They are artists who male jewelery and pillow in their tradional custom. our yard is their work room;
i have to go im out of time but ill write more soon.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
First week
Today marks one week of Peace Corps service for me and so far it hasn't really been service, but more like summer camp. Since we arrived here in Bamako late Friday night, we've been living at the Peace Corps training site outside the city, spending our days listening to lectures on culture, safety and security, health and language lessons. We haven't really left the compound with huts and pavillions and I kind of feel like I'm living in a commune from which I'm not allowed to leave. We've got electricity, running water and internet access, kind of like we're at a really nice campsite in the US and nothing like we're actually in Africa-except for the nyegen-the hole in the ground that serves as the toilet. I also got a traditional African skirt yesterday although I'm nervous about wearing it without it falling down.
Tomorrow we leave for the villages where we will be spending the next nine weeks, with occasional several day visits at the training site for technical training and other stuff. In the villages we'll be learning our new languages, based on where we will be placed in the country. There are a three or four volunteers to a village and a language and culture facilitator, who will be our teacher seven hours a day, seven days a week and when we're not with them, we're with our host family practicing our new language. so it should be pretty intense but I'm excited. The volunteers with me in my village will most likely be placed near me at my final site out in Mali so I'm also excited to see who that will be.
When I know vaguely where I'm going I'll write about it, but at the homestay village for the next nine weeks, I will only have internet every two weeks or so. I'll try to write some letters soon.
I really love it so far although its been fairly easy and straightforward and I'm anxious to get out into actual Africa. Tomorrow will be the true test when I eat dinner with my host family who probably don't speak french and I have to try to communicate with nothing but handsignals.
Anyways, love and miss you all and hope to hear from you soon. sorry its a short post but I have to run.
Tomorrow we leave for the villages where we will be spending the next nine weeks, with occasional several day visits at the training site for technical training and other stuff. In the villages we'll be learning our new languages, based on where we will be placed in the country. There are a three or four volunteers to a village and a language and culture facilitator, who will be our teacher seven hours a day, seven days a week and when we're not with them, we're with our host family practicing our new language. so it should be pretty intense but I'm excited. The volunteers with me in my village will most likely be placed near me at my final site out in Mali so I'm also excited to see who that will be.
When I know vaguely where I'm going I'll write about it, but at the homestay village for the next nine weeks, I will only have internet every two weeks or so. I'll try to write some letters soon.
I really love it so far although its been fairly easy and straightforward and I'm anxious to get out into actual Africa. Tomorrow will be the true test when I eat dinner with my host family who probably don't speak french and I have to try to communicate with nothing but handsignals.
Anyways, love and miss you all and hope to hear from you soon. sorry its a short post but I have to run.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Puppy Chow
Hey y'all. So far everything is going great. I love all the pcvols, staff and all the new stuff we've learned. Tomorrow we depart for Mali from Philadelphia after we finish pre-service training in the morning. So far we've covered safety, security, acceptance and integration, cultural exchange, aspirations and anxiety etc. and have done alot of getting to know each other activities. There's 80 of us just going to Mali, so I still have lots of names to learn. Also got some of my vaccines and took my first malaria pill which I will take weekly from now until the end of my service.
We get to Paris 830 Friday morning, go to sleep at an airport hotel, and then we arrive in Bamako, Mali at 830 Friday night, where they're having a ceremony to greet us. Then later next week, after more intro stuff, we'll meet our host families for the next nine weeks, who live in villages around the training center. There will be several volunterrs in each village so we'll be able to take classes together there. We'll go into the training center two-three times every two weeks during training--that's when I'll have internet/phone hopefully.
hope everyone's doing well. love and miss you.
rock-puppychow=awesome. im sharing with everyone and they all love you.
Sheils and Courts= thanks for the great send-off. I think I'm having a food coma. and sheils is just in a coma.
dear evan- tomorrow, the williamstown water supply will be laced with lsd. do not drink the water. shower freely. cordially, future evan
jacks and arrin, i ate all the chocolate pretzels in the first half day. thank you. maybe those should be an appetizer?
We get to Paris 830 Friday morning, go to sleep at an airport hotel, and then we arrive in Bamako, Mali at 830 Friday night, where they're having a ceremony to greet us. Then later next week, after more intro stuff, we'll meet our host families for the next nine weeks, who live in villages around the training center. There will be several volunterrs in each village so we'll be able to take classes together there. We'll go into the training center two-three times every two weeks during training--that's when I'll have internet/phone hopefully.
hope everyone's doing well. love and miss you.
rock-puppychow=awesome. im sharing with everyone and they all love you.
Sheils and Courts= thanks for the great send-off. I think I'm having a food coma. and sheils is just in a coma.
dear evan- tomorrow, the williamstown water supply will be laced with lsd. do not drink the water. shower freely. cordially, future evan
jacks and arrin, i ate all the chocolate pretzels in the first half day. thank you. maybe those should be an appetizer?
Monday, July 16, 2007
Mali
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
+123.jpg)