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

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.

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!

at the baptism

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!

Hey everyone.

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 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!