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!
+123.jpg)
0 commentaires:
Post a Comment