Site Visit to Dialafara

So Nicole and I went to our site in the Kayes region. It took us a couple days to get there (had to take the long way around, stay overnight, bad roads, etc) but we finally got there. We were there for all of 4 hours, talking to the mayor and dugutigi (chief); trying to work out our housing situation (the house they had provided was unfinished and utterly lacking in privacy). Luckily, we managed to find a much better house with a big yard, privacy, and the contract has been signed!

I am very looking forward to working here. The Tamboura Cliffs run along the road between Kayes and Kenieba and they are absolutely gorgeous. My job is to work with a new hotel that is starting up. I'll be working with ecotourism and gardening and reforestation and fire management and environmental education and its going to be loads of fun. This one car ride has changed my life. It has openned up an interest, a career path, that I never imagined: ecotourism! I'm really excited to get started. I've done enough tourism to know what is (un)appealing to tourists, what is fair and beneficial for the community, and what is environmentally okay. I can forsee myself coming back from the Peace Corps and spending the rest of my life in ecotourism. I can envision going to grad school to study it. I'm so excited to have basically the whole Tamboura Cliffs to myself. I'll be a John Muir and wander all over it, discover its hidden treasures, learn all about the ecosystems, and establish a tourism program that preserves it. I know my hopes are set too high, and I need to make sure to not do this all myself but to let the Malians do it so that it will continue when I leave, but there's so much good I can do!

For those of you wanting to check this area out, you can see the cliffs on Google Maps. Go to Mali, then to the very west, almost in Senegal. There's a road that runs from Kayes to Kenieba (south) and if you look along that road, you'll see the cliffs. They run for at least a hundred miles, and they're pretty tall (unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any information online) and all Lonely Planet has to say is that Kenieba is surrounded by a picturesque escarpment. This in no way encapsulates the beauty.

So since returning from my site, I've been learning what I can about ecotourism. Also, I'll be working a lot with Shea Butter production. Shea Butter comes from this area (West Africa) and can be found in almost all beauty products. More on that later. My language is coming along. Its amazing to see how well I can speak in Bambara after a little over a month of instruction.

Thanks to those who sent us packages. Even the _crappy_ books are blessings! (thanks emidala). For the record, bubble mailers sent normal post arrive the quickest, safest, and cheapest. Thanks to those who sent us mail! Hopefully the return letters will arrive safely.

We 'celebrated' our first wedding anniversary. Hard to believe its been a whole year. I wish we could have done more, but we'll make up for it in a few years when we're out of Africa.

Anyone wanting to come visit us, the best time will be in early 2009, after I've set up a great tourism program. You can join the herds of people flocking to my site. Lots of great birding opportunities too!

Peace Out!

Baby Weighing and Porridge Demonstration

Weighing babies

I finally feel like my time here is useful! This week I conducted a porridge demonstration and a baby weighing in my village. Not only was I able to conduct the session in Bambara, but I weighed 52 babies!!! That's a lot to do, especially since I was really the only one doing it. My friend was feeling really sick, so she just wrote down weights for a while. It was exciting but also it made me very nervous. It's hard to try and tell a mother she isn't feeding her baby properly when not only am I a white person from a completely different perspective, but I'm not a mother myself. Regardless, I feel like the majority of their mothers were genuinely interested in improving their child's nutrition, and maybe some of them will take to heart what advice I gave them.

Growth chart

It's so hard to describe how poor Mali is. It's the 3rd poorest country in the world, and even prior knowledge of that statistic wasn't enough to prepare me for the poverty I witness everyday. My host siblings run around with no clothes on, no shoes, most of them have huge distended bellies, and some of them are so sick I almost can't bear to look at them. Yet despite this, Malians remain such a friendly and warm people, who never miss an opportunity to offer any person their hospitality, even if food is scarce. They all watch out for each other; the children are communal, and even if parents seem to be absent, there is always an adult somewhere, watching out for them. And the children are so independent that they almost don't need watching over. My little 6 year old sister Mamine is constantly "bamu-ing" her two month old cousin. (Bamu-ing means she carries his tied to her back as she fetches water, cooks, and takes care of the animals). At the same time there is so much supervision lacking! I see my siblings chewing on batteries, playing with dead animals for lack of other toys, and urinating and defecating wherever they want. These are behavior changes that I will be working on, but it's SO hard. I can't even express the struggle I face everyday as I see someone in my village doing something that I know will lead to another parasite, another bout of malaria, or another physical deformity.

Preparing the porridge with Emily

I see this daily struggle, and then I look at the other 77 volunteers serving here. It never ceases to amaze me how selfless and good-intentioned their sacrifice is. Regardless of their reason for joining the Peace Corps, the fact that they still remain says something about the goodness of their characters. Only one person has willingly gone home. Another was sent home after she was drunk in public, and two others have been separated for medical reasons (one had mental problems his first day here, and the other broke his ankle a week ago). That's a surprising number of people who have lasted even this long, after 6 long, difficult weeks. To be honest, part of me thought I would be home by now, and there's still a part of me that isn't sure I can handle this for two years. But the majority of my spirit remains dedicated to helping these people live their lives more fully. When we all swear in in two weeks as official volunteers, I know it will be an emotional time, but by no means the end of our struggle here in Mali. For some it will be harder, having to finally be on their own, away from the support we have gained from each other. For some, like myself, I think it will be easier. Our purpose for being here will finally be realized, and for me, having control over how I live my life will be paramount to my experience here. But I know it will still be very, very difficult.

Which is why I am so grateful that I have such kind, thoughtful, amazing friends back home. Your emails, your letters, and your packages make a bad day disappear. I can't tell you how it feels to struggle through a difficult day, trying to make a difference, and then to find that someone back home has sent me a few words of encouragement (or in the case of Laura, a few morsels of nourishment!). The simple act of filling out a postcard and dropping it in the mail makes everything else seem trivial. Thank you all so much, and I hope you will continue to write to us and wish us well. Please know that we think of you all every single day, and your support makes all the difference in our work here.

Return from Site Visit

Andrew and I just returned from seeing our permanent site, Dialafara, which is in the region of Kayes, very close to the Senegalese border. Our village is surrounded by the Tamboura Cliffs, a 100 mile long escarpment of beauty. It's very green, there are waterfalls, and chimps at the top! We haven't seen them yet, though, because the cliffs are really high up. Our village has about 1,900 people, but the community seems a little unsure of our role there. First, they keep comparing us to the previous married couple who lived there, and it's hard for them to understand that we are different people. They wanted us to live in these tiny mud huts, which were in disrepair, and in the middle of someone else's compound, which means no privacy whatsoever. We finally convinced them to move us to this cement house with its own private yard where we can garden. They are making the Peace Corps rent it though, because it's technically private property. They also think we will eat every meal with them, and I had to dispel that idea real quick. I'm not interested in starving to death!

The clinic where I'm working seems okay, but I think most of my work will be going door to door giving health presentations and arranging baby-weighing days. Andrew has a much cooler job. He gets to work with Tamboura Tours and help them develop ecotourism around the cliffs. I'm going to help by doing environmental/wildlife education with the children. His sounds cooler but as my supervisor said, "You'll be saving babies while he plays with the chimps!"

Unfortunately, I don't know that much more about my site because we were only there for four hours. The lack of adequate housing meant we couldn't stay overnight as planned. We had to begin the very long, bumpy journey back to the regional capital to stay at the Peace Corps house that night.

Public Transportation!!! I never believed it would be this bad! We took a 10 hour bus out of Bamako to Kayes and it was horrible. First of all, someone bought our tickets for a 6:30 bus and made the driver "promise" to wait until 7:30, when we showed up. Of course, the driver was gone by the time we got there, so we had to chase the bus about 40 minutes out of Bamako and hop on where it had stopped for a rest break. The bus was completely full by that time, so a lot of us ended up sharing seats with Malians, carrying our huge bags on our laps or in the aisle. Talk about a safety hazard. Then it started raining, and it took the bus 3 hours to go over a 50km stretch of unpaved road! We were lucky the rest of the trip, because we took P.C. vehicles to and from our site but we were almost unlucky. The nearest volunteer to us (only 85km south) had to take the "bus" up from his site to Kayes. We should have been on the same bus, because it stops in our village, but we had already left. Anyway, it left at 9:00am, broke down three times on the road, and the final time was around 9:00pm and since the headlights stopped working the bus stopped permanently and everyone slept on the side of the road. Thank goodness he had his cell phone and he called the PC and they went out and picked him up. Apparently the rainy season is the only time the road is bad, because the rain and the trucks turn the road into a muddy, rutty mess. We just aren't leaving our site for three months every year...

In other news, this Saturday is our one year wedding anniversary. I'm a little sad because we won't be able to celebrate in any way. I wish we had cake. :( If I had a way to cook I might be able to whip something up that has chocolate in it, but that doesn't seem possible yet.

For those who care, I am reading Harry Potter for the second time since the copy my grandmother sent me arrived yesterday! (:)) I read it the first time using a friend's copy, but I practically inhaled it (it took me exactly 8 hours) so I was really excited when my own copy came. I'm almost finished with it (again) so hopefully it will clear up some things. I really liked it, but the "afterward" really irritated me. It was too "tied up." But the rest was good although I totally thought she killed off the wrong people. It was almost unnecessary.

Anyway, I'm back to Famana, my homestay site, for more rice and peanut butter sauce, but this time I am armed with the goodies Laura sent me, so I shouldn't lose any more weight (I've already lost about 12 pounds).

Week #???

Hey Friends!

I've completely lost track of time here since I've been on West African International Time (W.A.I.T) which about sums up everything that happens here in Mali, including transportation, classes, and even shopping. Everything takes probably more than twice as long here than in the glorious U.S.

I have to admit, I had a really bad couple of days about two weeks ago. For three days, I didn't want to leave my room, eat, bathe, or talk to people. I was feeling pretty down about the food (which is still the same malo ni tigedegena or rice and peanut butter sauce) and the feeling that my every movement is scrutinized by kids and adults alike. Everyone always wants to know what I'm doing, where I'm going, and they kind of look at us as a sort of entertainment. They are always trying to get us to sing and dance and they ask us to help with household chores just so they can crack up when we don't do them right. I know in my heart that they don't mean anything by it, and that my family genuinely cares about me and really likes me, but it was a hard adjustment to make. Thankfully, after a couple of days, the coolest thing happened to me: a snake found it's way into my room!

I'm sure to most people (including Nana) that doesn't sound all that great, but it was actually really neat for me. Not only was it something new and exciting, but I got to share my interest in reptiles with my host family which stopped them from killing a harmless animal (it wasn't venomous). Andrew actually picked it up with gloves and put it back outside. I'm attaching a photo of the little guy. Somehow that snapped me out of my funk and I was able to get on with my life. Malians have interesting fews of animals: snakes and frogs are big no-no's here. One night after a big rain Andrew and I went out and caught these huge frogs and everyone was laughing and thought we foreigners were being very silly, but entertaining. Until Andrew tried to get a Malian to hold the frog. To them, frogs are dangerous because they can jump inside you and steal your soul!

Our Language Prof who lives in the village with us is amazing. He does a good job of making sure we are as comfortable as possible, and he's become a great friend to the five of us in our village. The other night before we returned to Tubani So, we had a mini-party, and somehow we all ended up telling ghost stories under his hanger. Once it started raining and thundering, he let us move into his house where we continued to tell stories until about 1:00am. Then he walked everyone home and made sure our windows were locked (we were all terrified at that point!). His name is Moussa and he's pretty neat.

Tomorrow Andrew and I are making the long journey to our permanent site. We are traveling by public transport to the regional capital, Kayes, where we will spend the night. The next day, we will drive down to our banking town where we will learn our way around. Finally, after another night's stay, we will drive to our site where we will spend two days learning about our jobs and our new community.

Our Peace Corps swear-in date is September 20th, so we've only got a month left of Pre-Service Training, of which only two more weeks is spent at homestay. I can tell you, I will miss my little village of 415 people, especially some of my younger siblings, like Mamine, who is only 6 but follows me everywhere. My family really takes care of me. The other night I made "American" tea for my family, and as I got up to give the tea glass to someone, all the little children crowded around me, spilling the boiling tea on my foot. The adults immediately chased the kids away, and came running over to offer advice and give medicine (thankfully my toe didn't fall off!). For the next couple of days they kept asking me if I was okay. They are very concerned that we are safe and healthy and happy.

Our language has gotten much better, and we can actually hold conversations with people. We just had a mid-PST language test, and I and Andrew scored just one level below the level we need to swear-in in September. My evaluator said the only reason I didn't pass then and there was because we just hadn't covered one of the topics required to pass the exam. So we're feeling pretty great about our language, especially since no one else in our village passed that high.

We went into Bamako yesterday and had pizza and cheeseburgers and banana splits! It was amazing. And there was this huge supermarket where we bought snacks and food.

Thanks so much to those of you who have sent us care packages! So far we have only received Laura's package (the cereal bars aren't too squished!), but I know some of you have sent other things. Apparently it's cheaper and quicker to send bubble mailers rather than boxes; sorry about the late info!

Finally, we have cell phones! My number is 002233308572 and Andrew's is 002235584722. You just dial the number exactly like that and you can reach us if you need to. Unfortunately, we don't have cell reception at our site, so we will only be able to make or receive calls once a month when we go in for banking.

Killer crazy turtle at Tubani So

Reflections on Homestay

So Nicole and I have finished our first week and a half living with an actual Malian family. Here are some notable highlights:

• I have been renamed Umaru Kone, and Nicole is Mamine Kone.
• We are learning Bambara, which is spoken by 80% of Malians. It's a pretty easy language to learn, especially compared to those learning Fulfulde and Dogon.
• Our language class is awesome. We have a great teacher and great classmates. We have great fun saying weird things. N'ye kaletigela ye (I am a trouble maker).
• They don't have words (or wonder, it seems) for different stars or constellations. To them, it's just lolo (star) and kalo (moon).
• Living without electricity is easy, because at night we have kerosene lanterns and flashlights (AA and C batteries are readily available).
• Pooping in a hole in the ground looses its appeal real quick
• I think that the food is pretty good. It's just a bit too repetitive (rice for five days straight gets a bit boring).
• You can't beat 9 mangoes for 20 cents.
• Working in the field is fun, but hard. I was using a daba (kind of like a hoe but with a 2 foot long handle) to clear out the weeds between cornstalks. My family definitely understood me better after farming (why is this guy here? he doesn't farm, just goes to this guy's house all day).
• Kids are kids no matter where you go. We had fun making sounds with our tongues. They love Old MacDonald and Go Fish and when I dance.
• It appears that everyone eats a lot. We are never able to finish the food that they give us (Nicole, me, and one of our host dad's sons eat together out of a big bowl using our right hands). Unfortunately, protein is scarce so there are lots of carbohydrates (rice, millet, potatoes, spaghetti, beans).
• Big conversation topics are food and poop.
• Our host family is really nice. I'm very glad to be here and can't wait until I can speak Bambara and have meaningful conversations
• I've done a lot of reflection on how our countries are different. Here, it is okay to beat wives and children, which is bad. But on the flip side, Mali didn't invade Iraq. Malians have a lot of checks to prevent conflict, like joking cousins. The joking cousin idea is a fabulous one. For example, all Traores eat dogs. (They don't really, but these jokes help keep everyone lighthearted). Also, I'm not allowed to fight with a Traore, or a Dembele, or a Dumbia, or a Koulibaly, but if I need someone for conflict resolution, I can use one.
• Polygamy is the norm here, as well as really large families. While this isn't great for the world's population, it does create really fun, caring families. Family life is really important here, so while they have hardly any material possessions, they are rich in familial love.

Homestay Weeks 1-2

Andrew and I are back from the first two weeks of our homestay visit. We'll be at our training site for three days before we head back to our families.

We are living with the Kone (pronounced Cone-ay) family. My name is Mamine, or Maimouna, or Maimou, while Andrew is Umar or Umaru or Zan. The crazy thing is that everyone has the same name, and there are several different nicknames for each name. This makes things very confusing. I am one of four or five Mamines in my family alone! Our Bambara is coming along, but it's complicated by the fact that our village speaks a slightly different dialect and they aren't very informed on what we learn everyday, so it's hard for them to speak in a way that builds on what we learn each day.

Our house in Famana

The living conditions are okay, but it's hard to get used to not having electricity or running water. The most difficult thing for me is the food. Our family feeds us the best they can, which means rice. Every day. Almost every meal. It is gotten to the point where I can't even look at rice without feeling sick to my stomach. Our Language instructor finally spoke with our family and we have been getting different things now, like beans and spaghetti noodles. That helps, but I'm dying for some American food. That said, if anyone would like to send us hot chocolate packets, apple cider packets, parmesan cheese, cookies, candy, or other snacky foods, I will be eternally grateful, as well as full. :) It would be especially great since we got a huge pile of PC mail today, and Andrew and I didn't have a single piece of mail. I didn't realize that I was even looking forward to mail, but out here something as small and insignificant as a postcard makes my day after 13 days of living with people who don't understand a word I say. So in two weeks, when I return here again, I expect emails and actual mail! I'm excited about receiving HP7 which my grandma sent to me. Apparently packages only take about 2 weeks right now to get here.

Okay enough lecturing.

We went to the market the other day and bought 9 huge mangos for $0.25. And that was without trying to really barter. I also had a tailor make me a dress and a headscarf for $1. Andrew says to check out his Livejournal for more news.

Our little sister, Mamine

Okay, I need to go. I will try and email again in the next couple of days when there aren't 80 people waiting to use the computers as well.

Love,

Nicole aka Mamine

Leaving for Homestay

I ni su!

Tomorrow Andrew and I are leaving for our homestay site. We will be living in a village of 415 people about 100km south of the capital. We will be living with a family and learning more Bambara. While we are there, we won't have access to email, so the soonest we can check our email will be when we return to the training site in about two weeks. So please email us news from home in that time! Thanks to those of you who have already sent us emails; it helps us keep our sanity!

We attended a cultural fair last night, where we heard Malian music, watched dancing, and were able to barter for panyas (a type of skirt worn by the women). We both bought some traditional clothes that we will wear to greet our family tomorrow.

Festival at Tubani So

Andrew and I also found out that we will be placed in the Kayes (pronounced Kai) region of Mali for our two year service. That's way in the west, about 2 hours from the border of Senegal. We'll be really far from the capital, so far that we get plane tickets to fly from Kayes into Bamako a couple times a year. The geography is very lush, green, and hot. Apparently our house, which was occupied by a previous PC couple, will be situated near a cliff (in case I get tired of Andrew and need to get rid of him inconspicuously;)). Andrew gets to work with ecotourism. Kayes wants to open a chimpanzee reserve so he may be helping with that. I will be working in a fairly large clinic.

Notice the Kayes region to the west

We're excited about our assignment, but it does seem like we'll be pretty isolated from the other volunteers, whom we've gotten to know very well.

The past couple of days have been an interesting insight into Malian culture. Malians eat with their hands (well, only their right hand), which is a lot more difficult than you'd imagine. Typically the family sits on the floor around a large bowl filled with rice or to (a millet based malt-o-meal like substance) and they scoop a ball up with their fingers, dip it in sauce, and then eat it. Keep in mind that you absolutely cannot use your left hand (it's used for bathroom purposes only) and you aren't supposed to lean over the bowl. So it's been very challenging, but thankfully with Ramadan approaching, we will be eating by ourselves a lot.

So far no illnesses, though my stomach has been feeling a little weird. Apparently once we get to our homestays that's when the real stomach problems begin. We've had lots of vaccinations, and to my credit, I haven't cried yet. But I still have 4 to go!

We had a session about stereotypes that we have of Malians/Africans and stereotypes that they had of us. We haven't had a chance to confirm or deny our stereotypes, but if you'd like to send us yours, please do. Here are the stereotypes of Americans: obese, greedy, powerful, very rich, egalitarian, hardworking, entrepeneurs, feminists, homosexuals (not that we all are, just that they exist in the US), racists, and the most surprising of all: DIRTY! They think we're dirty, it's so hard to understand. Apparently, we are unclean (eat pig, don't wash five times a day to pray, drink alcohol), use toilet paper (supposedly that doesn't work as well as their method), and are underhanded (we fight dirty). So as part of our Peace Corps mission, we must show them what Americans are really like. Fortunately, the Malians get a biased view of Americans because pretty much all of us are liberals.

There are lots of cool insects here. We saw a spider that is bright red, about a half inch long, and velvety. We also have seen tons of millipedes and really pretty birds. Its nice sitting through classes listening to the bird songs. The mosquitoes aren't bad at all. The flies are annoying. It rained yesterday and there were tons of termites all over the place. We don't really know what's going on, but either they're fighting or mating because we see them in twos and it looks like they're biting each others wings off, or they're falling off, not sure. Either way, it was good to finally see why there were termite wings all over the floor.

Cool little red mite

If you have any questions about Mali, let us know! Another of our missions is to bring back Malian culture, to get you guys interested, and maybe even to visit! In a couple months, once we're in the swing of things, we'll send some places where you can donate money to help out Peace Corps projects, if you want.

Here tilenna (Sleep in Peace)