Today is my last day at Tubaniso, I won't be back here until Thursday, August 5th ... sigh. Goodbye internet, goodbye electricity, goodbye delicious food (this is the only place where it is safe to eat salad!) goodbye reliable cell phone service, and goodbye fellow PCTs (except for my 3 village mates). I'm going back into the darkness... haha well not really. While being at Tubaniso I've actually kind of missed my homestay village, which I thought wwas impossible. I miss the little kids and my crappy room, but I think what I miss the most is all of the down time. Here at Tubaniso we're constantly in some training class, there's always something to do. Also the majority of the classes are super boring, just like any normal job training. Every so often we do something fun, like have a panel of PCVs talk to us, but that's pretty rare.
One cool thing that I have been able to do at Tubaniso is watch movies. They have a projector here, so we have been able to watch Up as well as Hot Tub Time Machine. I love Up, and I thought that HTTM was pretty funny but definitely stupid. Also at Tubaniso is this vender dude who sells random things like candy and soda. This has been the only place I've been able to buy Coca Light (aka Diet Coke)! I crave Diet Coke, I'm basically having withdrawls. Everywhere I go I ask them if they have Coca Light, but they never do, it's very sad. Although it was really cool because when we first got to Tubaniso, one of my village mates bought me a can of coca light and sang happy birthday to me. It was an awesome present! I also bought a snickers bar today. It tasted a little weird because I think it was pretty old but it was still a good taste from home.
This Sunday (tomorrow) my older host sister is having her wedding celebration. I get to wear an outfit that they had made for me. I have no idea what is going to happen at the celebration, but I assume a lot of food and dancing. I just found out today that our LCFs (language and culture facilitator, so basically our Malian tutors who live in the homestay village with us) won't be at the wedding. Every Saturday they leave the homestay village to go to their actual homes and families in Bamako (they only live with us during the week). So this means that I'm not gonna have any idea what is going on at the wedding because there will be no one there to translate stuff into English or French. Oh well.
So anyway, lots of reading, I'm reading Pillars of the Earth (I think that's the title?), and lots of playing of Pokemon on my Gameboy Color. Oh I also watch an episode of the Office on my iPod almost everyday. Thank god for technology!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Back from Homestay!
(sorry for any grammatical errors, this was written in wordpad without any spell check)
So I'm gonna start this off by saying that Homestay has been a rollercoaster. There have been all kinds of ups and downs! Sometimes I was super angry and other times I was soooo happy. So anyway let me describe my situation. Right now I'm living in a concession with my host father (who I only see at night and in the morning because he works in the capital) and his 2nd wife (his 1st wife is living in the capital with one of their daughters, I assume for work reasons). My host dad and his 2 wives collectively have 4 daughters. 3 of these daughters are married with kids, and one of them is just 15 and not married yet. Only 2 of the daughters live in the concession right now (the eldest and the youngest), and the other 2 live in the capital. The eldest daughter has 3 kids and she is living with us right now until her wedding day (I know that must sound strange, so let me explain. In Mali, a lot of people have 2 wedding ceremonies, a religious one and a civil celebration. These 2 events can either be the same day, weeks apart, or even years apart. In my host sister's case, her religious ceremony was years ago because her oldest child is 6. Her wedding is going to be this Sunday, so after that she and 2 of her kids will be moving back in with her husband in some other village) Also living with us is one of the other daughter's sons and a friend of my host dad as well as a nephew of my host dad who is only living here for summer vacation. I have my own room with a living room attached, while the rest of the family shares 2 rooms. We have a big courtyard and an outdoor kitchen and two Negens (bathrooms), and that's about it. There is no running water (we have to go to the communal pump for water) and no electricity. The village that I live in is also super small, we only have 2 or 3 teeny vender stands called butigis and a single water pump, and there are only 3 other PCTs (3 other Americans) with me in village. Anyway... I'm just gonna go ahead and describe Homestay to the best of my ability as it has been 2 weeks, and a lot has happened!
I hate to start off with a negative, but the first night was miserable. We were dropped off in village, and all the Bambara I knew was how to greet and how to say goodbye. So that killed about 2 minutes... I was then handed a live chicken and was told that it was a gift, and that we would be eating it for dinner. The rest of the night was spent in silence, and if not silence than it was me saying "N M'a Faamu" which means "I don't understand." I was all alone because each PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) was assigned to their own family and when we were dropped off we said goodbye to eachother for the night (this was at about 4pm), and we weren't gonna be able to see eachother (i.e. speak english) until 8am the next morning. The whole night I was fighting back tears, and I desperately wanted to go home. I just kept telling myself that it was only gonna get better. To top all of that off, that night there was an INSANE storm. Seriously, I thought I was going to die. The little room I stay in is crudely built with these crappy bricks and a tin room that is just attached by hooks with a few heavy stones on top for extra security. I was convinced the roof was gonna blow off and I was gonna go with it. I literally spent the whole 2 hours of the storm praying "pleassssseeee God I don't wanna die. Please keep me safe! pleeaaaassseeee!!!!!"
So that was the first night. Every night/day since then has gotten progressively better. The first week was pretty silent, with everyday me being able to say a little more in Bambara. My host family treats me like a baby, in the sense that they literally do everything for me. They cook all my food, wash my clothes, get my water and talk to me in super simple sentences, also if I ever do something like make a mess, they won't let me clean it up, instead they make my 15 year old sister do it. For example, near the end of the first week my water filter fell off the cardboard box it was sitting on and spilled gallons of water all over my living room. I tried to clean it up as best as I could, but my host mom shooed me out and called my sister in. It took her about 20 minutes to clean it up... oops.
One thing that I've noticed during homestay is that I am constantly doing stupid things, and the bad thing about that is that I can't play it off because I constantly have eyes on me. Another example of this was when I lost the only key to my room. The entire family had this look on their face like "wooooowww, could you be anymore stupid?" (luckily I found the key, but the whole situation was super embarassing). Also in the stupid things category are all of the cultural taboos I keep breaking. There is this one rule that in the morning you can't talk to anyone until you have washed your face, so this means a super awkward walk to the negen past everyone while trying not to aknowledge them. A few times I have had to ask a question and have received weird looks because of it. There is also the no talking in the negen rule. I broke that one when I was in there and a fellow PCT shouted out a question to me and I answered, and my family burst out into laughter. Oh and then there was the time that I tried to pay the lady who braided my hair with my left hand. My host sister yelled out NOOOOOOOO! and I was so confused and then my PCT friend was like "right hand! right hand!" I immediately switched the money to my other hand and said sorry like 4 times.
My days in the homestay village are spent mainly doing intensive language study, which I'm not the biggest fan of. Bambara sounds like nothing I've ever heard before, and the structure isn't anything like Spanish, French or English, so I can't even use what I already know to help me figure things out. The craziest thing about Bambara is that there is no real way to say a quick hi or bye, instead you have to go into this whole elaborate good morning, how are you, how is your family, how is your dad, how is your mom, and so on, and then to say good bye you say that you are leaving and the response is 'tell them that I say hi' and then you say 'they will hear it.' God I miss the word bye, but more than that I miss hi because greetings are soooooooooo long, and you have to say them to EVERYONE. Our language lessons are 4 hours at a time and we have 2 of them a day. Our lessons are held at the village school which is empty now because of summer vacation, and at every single lesson we have had an audience of children (I've posted pictures of this on facebook). I have no idea why they would ever want to sit there for hours just staring at us, but for some reason they do.
So as you all know, my Birthday occured while I was away at homestay. I could easily describe it as my worst birthday yet, however it was only my worst birthday because I was without family and friends and in a place where I don't really understand anything and can't say much. The day wasn't terrible, but it was definitely a typical day in Mali. I started the day off by going to the butigi and buying hair extensions because I planned on getting my hair braided later on in the morning. The walk to the butigi with my host sister was just like every other walk that I've had through my village, filled with children screaming out Sali! Sali! Sali! (my Malian name btw. it's short for Salimatu and it was picked out by my host mom) and Tubaboo!Tubaboo! (this means white person/foreigner/french person). All 4 of us PCTs are basically village celebrities. Everyone knows our names and they always know where we are and what we are doing. Privacy and alone time doesn't exist here. Anyway after I bought the hair, we went back to the concession, and a little while later a friend of the family started working on my braids. They took about nine hours, and after those 9 hours I could no longer feel my butt. Also for my birthday a chicken was killed, and this time it was killed right in front of me. My family made me invite the other PCTs to eat with me, and we were served the whole chicken cut up into pieces in one bowl, head, feet, organs and all. I basically lost my appetite with one look into the bowl. One of my PCT friends took the feet and made them crawl up the side of the bowl while screeching 'help me help me.' So yea... that was how I turned 22.
So I'm gonna start this off by saying that Homestay has been a rollercoaster. There have been all kinds of ups and downs! Sometimes I was super angry and other times I was soooo happy. So anyway let me describe my situation. Right now I'm living in a concession with my host father (who I only see at night and in the morning because he works in the capital) and his 2nd wife (his 1st wife is living in the capital with one of their daughters, I assume for work reasons). My host dad and his 2 wives collectively have 4 daughters. 3 of these daughters are married with kids, and one of them is just 15 and not married yet. Only 2 of the daughters live in the concession right now (the eldest and the youngest), and the other 2 live in the capital. The eldest daughter has 3 kids and she is living with us right now until her wedding day (I know that must sound strange, so let me explain. In Mali, a lot of people have 2 wedding ceremonies, a religious one and a civil celebration. These 2 events can either be the same day, weeks apart, or even years apart. In my host sister's case, her religious ceremony was years ago because her oldest child is 6. Her wedding is going to be this Sunday, so after that she and 2 of her kids will be moving back in with her husband in some other village) Also living with us is one of the other daughter's sons and a friend of my host dad as well as a nephew of my host dad who is only living here for summer vacation. I have my own room with a living room attached, while the rest of the family shares 2 rooms. We have a big courtyard and an outdoor kitchen and two Negens (bathrooms), and that's about it. There is no running water (we have to go to the communal pump for water) and no electricity. The village that I live in is also super small, we only have 2 or 3 teeny vender stands called butigis and a single water pump, and there are only 3 other PCTs (3 other Americans) with me in village. Anyway... I'm just gonna go ahead and describe Homestay to the best of my ability as it has been 2 weeks, and a lot has happened!
I hate to start off with a negative, but the first night was miserable. We were dropped off in village, and all the Bambara I knew was how to greet and how to say goodbye. So that killed about 2 minutes... I was then handed a live chicken and was told that it was a gift, and that we would be eating it for dinner. The rest of the night was spent in silence, and if not silence than it was me saying "N M'a Faamu" which means "I don't understand." I was all alone because each PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) was assigned to their own family and when we were dropped off we said goodbye to eachother for the night (this was at about 4pm), and we weren't gonna be able to see eachother (i.e. speak english) until 8am the next morning. The whole night I was fighting back tears, and I desperately wanted to go home. I just kept telling myself that it was only gonna get better. To top all of that off, that night there was an INSANE storm. Seriously, I thought I was going to die. The little room I stay in is crudely built with these crappy bricks and a tin room that is just attached by hooks with a few heavy stones on top for extra security. I was convinced the roof was gonna blow off and I was gonna go with it. I literally spent the whole 2 hours of the storm praying "pleassssseeee God I don't wanna die. Please keep me safe! pleeaaaassseeee!!!!!"
So that was the first night. Every night/day since then has gotten progressively better. The first week was pretty silent, with everyday me being able to say a little more in Bambara. My host family treats me like a baby, in the sense that they literally do everything for me. They cook all my food, wash my clothes, get my water and talk to me in super simple sentences, also if I ever do something like make a mess, they won't let me clean it up, instead they make my 15 year old sister do it. For example, near the end of the first week my water filter fell off the cardboard box it was sitting on and spilled gallons of water all over my living room. I tried to clean it up as best as I could, but my host mom shooed me out and called my sister in. It took her about 20 minutes to clean it up... oops.
One thing that I've noticed during homestay is that I am constantly doing stupid things, and the bad thing about that is that I can't play it off because I constantly have eyes on me. Another example of this was when I lost the only key to my room. The entire family had this look on their face like "wooooowww, could you be anymore stupid?" (luckily I found the key, but the whole situation was super embarassing). Also in the stupid things category are all of the cultural taboos I keep breaking. There is this one rule that in the morning you can't talk to anyone until you have washed your face, so this means a super awkward walk to the negen past everyone while trying not to aknowledge them. A few times I have had to ask a question and have received weird looks because of it. There is also the no talking in the negen rule. I broke that one when I was in there and a fellow PCT shouted out a question to me and I answered, and my family burst out into laughter. Oh and then there was the time that I tried to pay the lady who braided my hair with my left hand. My host sister yelled out NOOOOOOOO! and I was so confused and then my PCT friend was like "right hand! right hand!" I immediately switched the money to my other hand and said sorry like 4 times.
My days in the homestay village are spent mainly doing intensive language study, which I'm not the biggest fan of. Bambara sounds like nothing I've ever heard before, and the structure isn't anything like Spanish, French or English, so I can't even use what I already know to help me figure things out. The craziest thing about Bambara is that there is no real way to say a quick hi or bye, instead you have to go into this whole elaborate good morning, how are you, how is your family, how is your dad, how is your mom, and so on, and then to say good bye you say that you are leaving and the response is 'tell them that I say hi' and then you say 'they will hear it.' God I miss the word bye, but more than that I miss hi because greetings are soooooooooo long, and you have to say them to EVERYONE. Our language lessons are 4 hours at a time and we have 2 of them a day. Our lessons are held at the village school which is empty now because of summer vacation, and at every single lesson we have had an audience of children (I've posted pictures of this on facebook). I have no idea why they would ever want to sit there for hours just staring at us, but for some reason they do.
So as you all know, my Birthday occured while I was away at homestay. I could easily describe it as my worst birthday yet, however it was only my worst birthday because I was without family and friends and in a place where I don't really understand anything and can't say much. The day wasn't terrible, but it was definitely a typical day in Mali. I started the day off by going to the butigi and buying hair extensions because I planned on getting my hair braided later on in the morning. The walk to the butigi with my host sister was just like every other walk that I've had through my village, filled with children screaming out Sali! Sali! Sali! (my Malian name btw. it's short for Salimatu and it was picked out by my host mom) and Tubaboo!Tubaboo! (this means white person/foreigner/french person). All 4 of us PCTs are basically village celebrities. Everyone knows our names and they always know where we are and what we are doing. Privacy and alone time doesn't exist here. Anyway after I bought the hair, we went back to the concession, and a little while later a friend of the family started working on my braids. They took about nine hours, and after those 9 hours I could no longer feel my butt. Also for my birthday a chicken was killed, and this time it was killed right in front of me. My family made me invite the other PCTs to eat with me, and we were served the whole chicken cut up into pieces in one bowl, head, feet, organs and all. I basically lost my appetite with one look into the bowl. One of my PCT friends took the feet and made them crawl up the side of the bowl while screeching 'help me help me.' So yea... that was how I turned 22.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Off to Homestay
Today is, or at least most likely, will be my last day with internet for the next 2 weeks or so (until July 21st). Today was the day where we found out our Homestay sites. Homestay is where we go live in a village that will kind of be similar to our actual site assignment. Right now we are at Tubaniso which is PC's training site, it kind of looks like a summer camp. So Tubaniso is fake, and Homestay is as close as we can get to the real thing without actually going to our actual site. My Homestay assignment is this little village outside of Bamako, the Capital. During Homestay I will be living with a family by myself. I will get my own room and stuff, but I will have to share the bathroom and eat all my meals with the family. During the day I will go to language classes where I will continue to learn Bambara and I will also continue to go to Cultural classes and then classes specific to the Education sector. In my Homestay village there will only be 3 other PC trainees like myself, and one of them will be learning a Dogon dialect so she won't be in our Bambara classes. This means that I will only have 2 other people in my class which allows for almost one-on-one learning.
I don't reallly know how to put how I feel about going to Homestay in words. I have no idea what to expect so I can't be super excited, but I'm also kind of disappointed that there will only be 4 of us in my Homestay village. Most other homestay villages have 6-8 people. Also the people that I'm with aren't people I've spent very much time with so I don't really know them. Oh well, you can't always get what you want, and I guess I'll get to know them because I will basically be spending the next 2 months with them.
Another kind of disappointing thing is that I won't be near internet on my birthday. We also don't have any form of identification on us (for now) so that means we can't leave our village. For example, if I wanted to go out for my birthday, to say Bamako, I wouldn't be able to because if you don't have ID and you get stopped by the police, there is a very good chance you will spend a few hours in police custody.
Anyway wish me luck! Oh and I actually have a cell phone now, so I can be called, but I'm not sure if you have to dial a country code or something first. I have 2 numbers (Mali has 2 cell providers, Malitel and Orange, so most people here have sim cards for both because you can't always get service for one provider in certain areas so you just have to switch out your sim card to get service with the other provider. This would be like having a phone plan for Verizon and one for AT&T and using the sim cards for both on the same unlocked phone). So my Orange number (the one sim that is most often in my phone) is 7000-7708 and my Malitel number is 6634-6330.
*** just looked up how to call Mali. dial 011 223 then either of the two numbers above. so to call my orange number you would do 011 223 7000 7708
I don't reallly know how to put how I feel about going to Homestay in words. I have no idea what to expect so I can't be super excited, but I'm also kind of disappointed that there will only be 4 of us in my Homestay village. Most other homestay villages have 6-8 people. Also the people that I'm with aren't people I've spent very much time with so I don't really know them. Oh well, you can't always get what you want, and I guess I'll get to know them because I will basically be spending the next 2 months with them.
Another kind of disappointing thing is that I won't be near internet on my birthday. We also don't have any form of identification on us (for now) so that means we can't leave our village. For example, if I wanted to go out for my birthday, to say Bamako, I wouldn't be able to because if you don't have ID and you get stopped by the police, there is a very good chance you will spend a few hours in police custody.
Anyway wish me luck! Oh and I actually have a cell phone now, so I can be called, but I'm not sure if you have to dial a country code or something first. I have 2 numbers (Mali has 2 cell providers, Malitel and Orange, so most people here have sim cards for both because you can't always get service for one provider in certain areas so you just have to switch out your sim card to get service with the other provider. This would be like having a phone plan for Verizon and one for AT&T and using the sim cards for both on the same unlocked phone). So my Orange number (the one sim that is most often in my phone) is 7000-7708 and my Malitel number is 6634-6330.
*** just looked up how to call Mali. dial 011 223 then either of the two numbers above. so to call my orange number you would do 011 223 7000 7708
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
So much learning!
written July 6, 2010
(sorry if there are any grammatical errors, word wont work on my comp anymore so I had to use wordpad which doesn't have spell check)
So yesterday was super cool. We had a Diversity Pannel, I got to eat out of a communal bowl for the first time, I had my first Bambara session, we had a women's session and got go a demo of a Malian tea session.
The Diversity pannel was so cool because they had all different kinds of volunteers speak about their experiences in country. There was a man in his 60s, a married couple, an Indian girl, an African American and a Gay man. It was really interesting hearing all of their different perspectives. The older man talked about how it was hard for him to fit in with his fellow PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) because PCVs tend to be around the age of 25. The married couple spoke on how they were frustrated initially because they were placed at a site without anyone but eachother. The Indian girl said that she didn't experience anything out of the ordinary. The African American talked about how they sometimes confuse her for an African, and the Gay man talked about how he can't come out to Malians. One thing that I found very interesting is that in Bambara there is no real word for homosexual, instead the word they use is translated to mean 'not a man not a woman,' and the same word is used for hermaphrodites.
Eating out of a communal bowl was... interesting. Suprisingly this was the first time that I had ever done that, one would have expected me to be a pro already having a West African Dad and having lived in Nigeria. I definitely made a huge mess! I got rice all over my pants and all over the mat. I think the thing I disliked the most was that the rice was soooo hot and I had to touch it with my hands. It was also kind of difficult trying to decide if it was okay to take more of the meat in the middle, or if that would look too greedy.
My first Bambara lesson was really cool. I basically just learned greetings and how to say goodbye. I also learned how to count to 5 and how to say me/I, you, they, he/she, and we. I really just learned the basics. The language is completely different from anything that I've ever studied before though. This is how you say goodmorning: i ni sogoma. and the response to that for a girl would be n'se i ni sogoma. Next you would ask how are you: i ka kene, and the response to that is toro te. Anyway there's so basic stuff.
The women's session was also really cool and informative. We were basically taught how to deal with sensitive girl issues like periods and clothing. For example you never talk about menstration with males present. Also you should never wash or hang your underwear in public, women do that inside or at night. Women also wear this like belly chain bead thing called Baya beads, and to them theyre basically like a thong. Theyre supposed to be really sexy, and you wear them under your clothes and you're not supposed to let guys see them. They're supposed to be for your husband I guess, but basically women wear them to be sexy even under all of their conservative clothes. We also learned about what Volunteers call the icky finger. This happens when shaking hands; a guy uses his middle finger to rub the palm of your hand, and this is a sexual advance. If this happens to us we're supposed to immediately pull back our hand and give the dude a death glare (if you're not interested that is).
Our Malian tea session was also really cool (I know I'm saying really cool a lot). Tea is a really big thing here, and it's not the same as like British tea. Here a tea session will take hours and there are different cycles. There are usually 3 cycles, the first cycle is really bitter but still good, and then the next two cycles get less bitter and more sweet. They also add mint. I really liked it. The whole purpose of a tea session is to hang out and talk, that's why it takes hours. One of our main trainers was the one who was teaching us how to make it, and we got to hear him tell some really cool stories from his life. He talked about how he met his fiance on the bus, and how in even a really conservative Muslim country he still supported his sister's divorce (divorce here is super taboo). The thing I like the most about what I heard from him during the tea session was that he considers himself to be Muslim, but doesnt fast the whole ramadan, prays when he feels like it, drinks wine every once and a while because he likes it, and doesnt think polygamy is right. I kind of feel like that is how I am as a Christian. I don't go to Church all the time, and I pray when I feel like it, but I don't think this makes me less of a Christian or him less of a Muslim because God accepts us for who we are.
Anyway, on Thursday we leave for our Homestay sight, I'm both nervous and excited! Oh and I got my score for my French interview, I got intermediate-mid. I'm happy with that because I only got up to intermediate in college, and that was 2 years ago so the fact that I've maintained my level with no practice is pretty good.
(sorry if there are any grammatical errors, word wont work on my comp anymore so I had to use wordpad which doesn't have spell check)
So yesterday was super cool. We had a Diversity Pannel, I got to eat out of a communal bowl for the first time, I had my first Bambara session, we had a women's session and got go a demo of a Malian tea session.
The Diversity pannel was so cool because they had all different kinds of volunteers speak about their experiences in country. There was a man in his 60s, a married couple, an Indian girl, an African American and a Gay man. It was really interesting hearing all of their different perspectives. The older man talked about how it was hard for him to fit in with his fellow PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) because PCVs tend to be around the age of 25. The married couple spoke on how they were frustrated initially because they were placed at a site without anyone but eachother. The Indian girl said that she didn't experience anything out of the ordinary. The African American talked about how they sometimes confuse her for an African, and the Gay man talked about how he can't come out to Malians. One thing that I found very interesting is that in Bambara there is no real word for homosexual, instead the word they use is translated to mean 'not a man not a woman,' and the same word is used for hermaphrodites.
Eating out of a communal bowl was... interesting. Suprisingly this was the first time that I had ever done that, one would have expected me to be a pro already having a West African Dad and having lived in Nigeria. I definitely made a huge mess! I got rice all over my pants and all over the mat. I think the thing I disliked the most was that the rice was soooo hot and I had to touch it with my hands. It was also kind of difficult trying to decide if it was okay to take more of the meat in the middle, or if that would look too greedy.
My first Bambara lesson was really cool. I basically just learned greetings and how to say goodbye. I also learned how to count to 5 and how to say me/I, you, they, he/she, and we. I really just learned the basics. The language is completely different from anything that I've ever studied before though. This is how you say goodmorning: i ni sogoma. and the response to that for a girl would be n'se i ni sogoma. Next you would ask how are you: i ka kene, and the response to that is toro te. Anyway there's so basic stuff.
The women's session was also really cool and informative. We were basically taught how to deal with sensitive girl issues like periods and clothing. For example you never talk about menstration with males present. Also you should never wash or hang your underwear in public, women do that inside or at night. Women also wear this like belly chain bead thing called Baya beads, and to them theyre basically like a thong. Theyre supposed to be really sexy, and you wear them under your clothes and you're not supposed to let guys see them. They're supposed to be for your husband I guess, but basically women wear them to be sexy even under all of their conservative clothes. We also learned about what Volunteers call the icky finger. This happens when shaking hands; a guy uses his middle finger to rub the palm of your hand, and this is a sexual advance. If this happens to us we're supposed to immediately pull back our hand and give the dude a death glare (if you're not interested that is).
Our Malian tea session was also really cool (I know I'm saying really cool a lot). Tea is a really big thing here, and it's not the same as like British tea. Here a tea session will take hours and there are different cycles. There are usually 3 cycles, the first cycle is really bitter but still good, and then the next two cycles get less bitter and more sweet. They also add mint. I really liked it. The whole purpose of a tea session is to hang out and talk, that's why it takes hours. One of our main trainers was the one who was teaching us how to make it, and we got to hear him tell some really cool stories from his life. He talked about how he met his fiance on the bus, and how in even a really conservative Muslim country he still supported his sister's divorce (divorce here is super taboo). The thing I like the most about what I heard from him during the tea session was that he considers himself to be Muslim, but doesnt fast the whole ramadan, prays when he feels like it, drinks wine every once and a while because he likes it, and doesnt think polygamy is right. I kind of feel like that is how I am as a Christian. I don't go to Church all the time, and I pray when I feel like it, but I don't think this makes me less of a Christian or him less of a Muslim because God accepts us for who we are.
Anyway, on Thursday we leave for our Homestay sight, I'm both nervous and excited! Oh and I got my score for my French interview, I got intermediate-mid. I'm happy with that because I only got up to intermediate in college, and that was 2 years ago so the fact that I've maintained my level with no practice is pretty good.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Training!
Written July 5, 2010
So today was my first full day of training classes. I am most definitely loving it here! Everything is so interesting! I think so far my favorite thing is anything that we learn in our Malian cultural classes. Today we went over a lot of Dos and Don’ts of Malian culture. Some of my favorites are: 1. It is not necessary to talk during a meal 2. Don’t wait to be invited to go visit someone, you are always welcome 3. Eye contact can be seen as aggressive, so you do not look your elders in the eyes 4. Do not speak while in the bathroom, and if someone is coming you have to make a noise to let them know the bathroom is occupied 5. Females should not smoke in public, if they do they could be mistaken for a prostitute 6. In the morning do not greet someone until after you and they have washed their face 7. It is acceptable for people of the same sex to hold hands, and 8. It is not appropriate for women to whistle.
We also had a very extensive safety and security lesson. We were taught how to avoid crime and how to recognize the signs of a crime possibly happening. We were also taught a personal safety strategies under the pneumonic AVMDED (to remember it we say All Volunteers Must Do it Every Day), and this stands for Awareness, Vigilance, Mitigation, Diffusion, Escape and Defense. Our Safety and Security officer is this really cool dude who was a member of the Malian military and a former UN Peacekeeper in Sierra Leone.
The other classes we had today we one Diarrhea and Bicycles. We learned all of the ways to get Diarrhea (or Mr. D to Peace Corps Volunteers) and all the ways to treat and prevent Diarrhea. It was a very interesting conversation… I think that I am most afraid of getting some amoeba and giardia. As for the bicycles, since all volunteers here in Mali are issued a bike, we were taught basic repair stuff and given a manual for anything more than the basic.
Today was also my French interview as well as my sector interview. My sector interview went well, I think. I met the guy who will basically be my boss, he seems super cool! I was asked if I would like to be in a large or small village (I said small or medium, but definitely not a city) or whether I wanted to have a more formal or informal job (I said either is fine, but if I had to absolutely choose I’d like informal because I think that would be better for integration into the village). As for my French interview, I have no idea how that went. I understood every single question that she asked me, I just didn’t always give the most complicated responses. I only asked how to say something once (“comment dit-on learning”) and then my other big-ish mistake was that I couldn’t think of the word for children (it actually came to me later on in the interview, les enfants, and I used it a couple times) so I said les children. Oh well. Tomorrow I think I will find out how I did, I just hope that I get placed in at least the intermediate level because I just think that anything lower than that would be embarrassing considering I took French from 5th grade through sophomore year of college.
Today I also tried uploading some pictures to this blog, but the internet wouldn’t hold up long enough for me to do it. I will try again tomorrow and hopefully it works this time because I want you all to see what the food looks like and also how crazy the red dirt ground looks.
Tomorrow is our first Bambara lesson, I can’t wait!
So today was my first full day of training classes. I am most definitely loving it here! Everything is so interesting! I think so far my favorite thing is anything that we learn in our Malian cultural classes. Today we went over a lot of Dos and Don’ts of Malian culture. Some of my favorites are: 1. It is not necessary to talk during a meal 2. Don’t wait to be invited to go visit someone, you are always welcome 3. Eye contact can be seen as aggressive, so you do not look your elders in the eyes 4. Do not speak while in the bathroom, and if someone is coming you have to make a noise to let them know the bathroom is occupied 5. Females should not smoke in public, if they do they could be mistaken for a prostitute 6. In the morning do not greet someone until after you and they have washed their face 7. It is acceptable for people of the same sex to hold hands, and 8. It is not appropriate for women to whistle.
We also had a very extensive safety and security lesson. We were taught how to avoid crime and how to recognize the signs of a crime possibly happening. We were also taught a personal safety strategies under the pneumonic AVMDED (to remember it we say All Volunteers Must Do it Every Day), and this stands for Awareness, Vigilance, Mitigation, Diffusion, Escape and Defense. Our Safety and Security officer is this really cool dude who was a member of the Malian military and a former UN Peacekeeper in Sierra Leone.
The other classes we had today we one Diarrhea and Bicycles. We learned all of the ways to get Diarrhea (or Mr. D to Peace Corps Volunteers) and all the ways to treat and prevent Diarrhea. It was a very interesting conversation… I think that I am most afraid of getting some amoeba and giardia. As for the bicycles, since all volunteers here in Mali are issued a bike, we were taught basic repair stuff and given a manual for anything more than the basic.
Today was also my French interview as well as my sector interview. My sector interview went well, I think. I met the guy who will basically be my boss, he seems super cool! I was asked if I would like to be in a large or small village (I said small or medium, but definitely not a city) or whether I wanted to have a more formal or informal job (I said either is fine, but if I had to absolutely choose I’d like informal because I think that would be better for integration into the village). As for my French interview, I have no idea how that went. I understood every single question that she asked me, I just didn’t always give the most complicated responses. I only asked how to say something once (“comment dit-on learning”) and then my other big-ish mistake was that I couldn’t think of the word for children (it actually came to me later on in the interview, les enfants, and I used it a couple times) so I said les children. Oh well. Tomorrow I think I will find out how I did, I just hope that I get placed in at least the intermediate level because I just think that anything lower than that would be embarrassing considering I took French from 5th grade through sophomore year of college.
Today I also tried uploading some pictures to this blog, but the internet wouldn’t hold up long enough for me to do it. I will try again tomorrow and hopefully it works this time because I want you all to see what the food looks like and also how crazy the red dirt ground looks.
Tomorrow is our first Bambara lesson, I can’t wait!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Wassup Mali!!
Written on July 4, 2010
So today is America’s Independence day, and I am in Mali. Seems a little weird, but oh well. To celebrate the holiday we got to go to the American Club (kind of like a country club for Americans living in Mali; we had to show our passports for entry). The American Club has a pool and a tennis court, as well as a volley ball court, and for the 4th they had a big family picnic complete with ice-cream, hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, soda and beer. Unfortunately I left all of my CFA (Malian money) back in my hut and all I had were dollars which they weren’t accepting. This was very unfortunate because all of the American food smelled sooooo good, but I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t get to eat that food seeing as it is only my second day here and that would be like spoiling myself.
So the flight to Mali felt soooo long, but that was mainly because our flight from Paris was delayed by 2 hours. We were supposed to arrive in Bamako (the capital) at 8:10, but we didn’t end up landing until around 10:30. It was so awesome to get off the plane, because it was one of those flights where you had to walk down the stairs and then actually walk outside to the airport. My first thought off the plane was “wow I’m in Africa again.” I expected it to be sweltering when we got off, but it was actually really cool, like in the high 60s. Immediately off the plane we saw several Malian men (who we later found out were some of our trainers) holding up Peace Corps signs, so we went to them and they handed us our customs papers that we had to fill out. After that we went to get our bags which ended up taking way over an hour because the conveyor belt was so slow! Once we got all of our bags (thank God I got all of mine in perfect shape!) we wheeled them up to security where they had to go through another security scanner, and then we brought them out to the vans where there were a bunch of PC volunteers waiting to help us (by the way there are 80 of us Peace Corps trainees). After loading our suitcases onto this massive truck we were driven to our training village called Tubaniso which was like 45 minutes from the airport. This place is kind of like a mock village. They have it set up so we have our classes in these big outdoor pavilions as well as little classroom buildings. There is also a cafeteria like place (this is where we have wireless internet) and then the whole place is surrounded by huts that are kinda like dorm rooms with 3 or 4 beds in each one. The huts have electricity and even a fan (I think we’re getting spoiled)! The only major difference was that we have to use a nyegen. This is kind of like an outhouse except there is no seat to sit on, instead you have to squat over a hole. Also we were told that around most of Mali the nyegen’s don’t have toilet paper, so instead people take in a little tea kettle of water and basically pour the water down their crack and then wipe with their left hand, because of this you never do anything with your left hand. In Mali it is seen as disrespectful to hand people things with your left hand, to shake hands with your left hand, basically anything with your left hand. Just so you all know, I WILL have toilet paper on me at all times, I WILL NOT be wiping with my hand, ever.
This morning was our first training session, and it basically consisted of us getting introduced to the whole training staff as well as a short medical orientation where we got our malaria prophylaxis (I’m taking mefloquin). The training staff are awesome!!! They’re so hilarious, and basically the whole introduction was a joke where they kept messing with each other. The staff is mainly Malians with a few Americans PC Volunteers. The Malians are here to teach us French and Bambara and then all of the cultural stuff, as well as overseeing all of the sectors (Mali has 5 sectors: Education, Health Education, Water and Sanitation, Small Enterprise Development, and Environment/Agriculture). The American volunteer trainers are basically just aids to the Malians. I can’t wait until we really get into training! Tomorrow I have a language interview to see what level of French I am so that they can place me in the proper class. Wish me luck!
So today is America’s Independence day, and I am in Mali. Seems a little weird, but oh well. To celebrate the holiday we got to go to the American Club (kind of like a country club for Americans living in Mali; we had to show our passports for entry). The American Club has a pool and a tennis court, as well as a volley ball court, and for the 4th they had a big family picnic complete with ice-cream, hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, soda and beer. Unfortunately I left all of my CFA (Malian money) back in my hut and all I had were dollars which they weren’t accepting. This was very unfortunate because all of the American food smelled sooooo good, but I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t get to eat that food seeing as it is only my second day here and that would be like spoiling myself.
So the flight to Mali felt soooo long, but that was mainly because our flight from Paris was delayed by 2 hours. We were supposed to arrive in Bamako (the capital) at 8:10, but we didn’t end up landing until around 10:30. It was so awesome to get off the plane, because it was one of those flights where you had to walk down the stairs and then actually walk outside to the airport. My first thought off the plane was “wow I’m in Africa again.” I expected it to be sweltering when we got off, but it was actually really cool, like in the high 60s. Immediately off the plane we saw several Malian men (who we later found out were some of our trainers) holding up Peace Corps signs, so we went to them and they handed us our customs papers that we had to fill out. After that we went to get our bags which ended up taking way over an hour because the conveyor belt was so slow! Once we got all of our bags (thank God I got all of mine in perfect shape!) we wheeled them up to security where they had to go through another security scanner, and then we brought them out to the vans where there were a bunch of PC volunteers waiting to help us (by the way there are 80 of us Peace Corps trainees). After loading our suitcases onto this massive truck we were driven to our training village called Tubaniso which was like 45 minutes from the airport. This place is kind of like a mock village. They have it set up so we have our classes in these big outdoor pavilions as well as little classroom buildings. There is also a cafeteria like place (this is where we have wireless internet) and then the whole place is surrounded by huts that are kinda like dorm rooms with 3 or 4 beds in each one. The huts have electricity and even a fan (I think we’re getting spoiled)! The only major difference was that we have to use a nyegen. This is kind of like an outhouse except there is no seat to sit on, instead you have to squat over a hole. Also we were told that around most of Mali the nyegen’s don’t have toilet paper, so instead people take in a little tea kettle of water and basically pour the water down their crack and then wipe with their left hand, because of this you never do anything with your left hand. In Mali it is seen as disrespectful to hand people things with your left hand, to shake hands with your left hand, basically anything with your left hand. Just so you all know, I WILL have toilet paper on me at all times, I WILL NOT be wiping with my hand, ever.
This morning was our first training session, and it basically consisted of us getting introduced to the whole training staff as well as a short medical orientation where we got our malaria prophylaxis (I’m taking mefloquin). The training staff are awesome!!! They’re so hilarious, and basically the whole introduction was a joke where they kept messing with each other. The staff is mainly Malians with a few Americans PC Volunteers. The Malians are here to teach us French and Bambara and then all of the cultural stuff, as well as overseeing all of the sectors (Mali has 5 sectors: Education, Health Education, Water and Sanitation, Small Enterprise Development, and Environment/Agriculture). The American volunteer trainers are basically just aids to the Malians. I can’t wait until we really get into training! Tomorrow I have a language interview to see what level of French I am so that they can place me in the proper class. Wish me luck!
Staging
Written on July 2, 2010
So yesterday was tough. My flight from Tampa to Philadelphia was at 7:50 am. To make that I had to wake up around 4 am, so by the time I got to the airport I was exhausted. I tried to check my bags at the airport for free by saying that I was a Peace Corps volunteer, but the lady at the US Airways desk said they could only do that for military members, so I found it very annoying that I had to pay $60 to have my 2 bags checked, although Peace Corps will be reimbursing me once I get to Mali.
So Staging was interesting. I got a shuttle from the airport to the Holiday Inn Historic District, and arrived there only like 20 minutes before Staging began. I wasn’t able to check into my room yet because my roommate hadn’t arrived yet and there were no more rooms ready. The first part of Staging was us turning in our forms and then an ice breaker. The ice breaker was kinda dumb, we had to help each other find out facts about the peace corps by moving around the room and getting to know people. No one really followed those instructions, instead we all just stayed where we were sitting and shouted out the answers. After the ice breakers we all introduced ourselves, said where we were from, and said something that we have learned about Mali. My something was that Mali is the third poorest country in the world (my mind blanked and I couldn’t think of anything better). After that we went over a bunch of Peace Corps information, like it’s mission and goals. We also talked about our anxieties and aspirations. Basically it was just like any normal job orientation, boring. Staging, the first day, lasted from 12pm until 7pm, sooooo long! At 7 when we were released I was finally able to check into my room where I met my roommate, Melissa. She seems pretty cool, and she’s also going to be an Education Volunteer ( I can’t remember if I have ever mentioned this, but my job title is basic education and literacy volunteer). After we got settled into our room we got to go explore Philly a bit and go out to dinner. Peace Corps generously gave us $140 as our food and travel expenses, so I had quite a bit to spend. We went to dinner at this nice steak house right on Market Street. I was really exhausted from everything that happened that day so after dinner I just went back to the hotel room while a lot of the other trainees went out to bars to have their last American beers.
The next day (today) of staging began at 7:00 am with us all having to go to a Federal building to get our Yellow Fever shots. The shot wasn’t too bad, but I def felt the needle in me, it was like a sharp pinch. After shots we were basically free to do whatever we wanted until 3pm when our bus for JFK was supposed to leave. After my shot I just walked back with 2 other girls to the hotel and I went back to my room to watch my last few hours of American TV. I watched Saved by the Bell, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and the Brazil vs Netherlands game (I can’t believe the Netherlands won 2-1!). At about noon Melissa and I checked out of our room and then decided to go explore Philly some more. I got to see the Liberty Bell as well as Independence Hall!! We also decided to pamper ourselves by getting manis and pedis, and then after that we got a philly cheesesteak sandwich. Philadelphia is a really cool city; it reminds me a lot of D.C. So anyway I am on the bus now on my way to JFK in New York where our flight to Mali doesn’t leave until 11:30 pm :/
So yesterday was tough. My flight from Tampa to Philadelphia was at 7:50 am. To make that I had to wake up around 4 am, so by the time I got to the airport I was exhausted. I tried to check my bags at the airport for free by saying that I was a Peace Corps volunteer, but the lady at the US Airways desk said they could only do that for military members, so I found it very annoying that I had to pay $60 to have my 2 bags checked, although Peace Corps will be reimbursing me once I get to Mali.
So Staging was interesting. I got a shuttle from the airport to the Holiday Inn Historic District, and arrived there only like 20 minutes before Staging began. I wasn’t able to check into my room yet because my roommate hadn’t arrived yet and there were no more rooms ready. The first part of Staging was us turning in our forms and then an ice breaker. The ice breaker was kinda dumb, we had to help each other find out facts about the peace corps by moving around the room and getting to know people. No one really followed those instructions, instead we all just stayed where we were sitting and shouted out the answers. After the ice breakers we all introduced ourselves, said where we were from, and said something that we have learned about Mali. My something was that Mali is the third poorest country in the world (my mind blanked and I couldn’t think of anything better). After that we went over a bunch of Peace Corps information, like it’s mission and goals. We also talked about our anxieties and aspirations. Basically it was just like any normal job orientation, boring. Staging, the first day, lasted from 12pm until 7pm, sooooo long! At 7 when we were released I was finally able to check into my room where I met my roommate, Melissa. She seems pretty cool, and she’s also going to be an Education Volunteer ( I can’t remember if I have ever mentioned this, but my job title is basic education and literacy volunteer). After we got settled into our room we got to go explore Philly a bit and go out to dinner. Peace Corps generously gave us $140 as our food and travel expenses, so I had quite a bit to spend. We went to dinner at this nice steak house right on Market Street. I was really exhausted from everything that happened that day so after dinner I just went back to the hotel room while a lot of the other trainees went out to bars to have their last American beers.
The next day (today) of staging began at 7:00 am with us all having to go to a Federal building to get our Yellow Fever shots. The shot wasn’t too bad, but I def felt the needle in me, it was like a sharp pinch. After shots we were basically free to do whatever we wanted until 3pm when our bus for JFK was supposed to leave. After my shot I just walked back with 2 other girls to the hotel and I went back to my room to watch my last few hours of American TV. I watched Saved by the Bell, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and the Brazil vs Netherlands game (I can’t believe the Netherlands won 2-1!). At about noon Melissa and I checked out of our room and then decided to go explore Philly some more. I got to see the Liberty Bell as well as Independence Hall!! We also decided to pamper ourselves by getting manis and pedis, and then after that we got a philly cheesesteak sandwich. Philadelphia is a really cool city; it reminds me a lot of D.C. So anyway I am on the bus now on my way to JFK in New York where our flight to Mali doesn’t leave until 11:30 pm :/
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